Danube as a symbol of Europe. Perception of the river from varied geographical perspectives

The Danube is promoted as a pan-European river, what can be justified for instance by the vast range of its drainage basin, covering 19 countries on both sides of the historical border diving Eastern and Western Europe. Differentiation of imaginations of Danube course from the perspective of 7 European cities, based on research covering 1577 respondents, conducted between 2005–2007 and 2016–2018 has been presented in the paper. Maps presenting the generalized imagination of river course have been generated for each city. It has been proved that in spite of substantial political, economical and symbolical importance of this river for big part of Europe, the course of Danube remains unknown for inhabitants of its Western part, in parallel to more correct recognition of the river by students from Eastern Europe. It has been shown that the perception does not change despite the progressing integration processes.

Reflections on East and West: anthropology, decolonization, and teaching

I examine here the role of anthropology in decolonizing narratives of personal identity, taking my own story as an example. I reflect on different aspects of decolonization between east and west: that of racialized identities in different national contexts; of disciplinary contrasts between European and American anthropology; and between that of eastern and western Europe. Drawing on Ingold’s notion of commoning, I discuss decolonizing practices through teaching anthropologically, using narrative as a method.

Interkultureller Dialog und deutsche Landeskunde in Temeswar

Here the German language acts as a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe playing an important role. It is exactly on the Banat with its multicultural tradition that many hopes are pinned. The introduction of the subject German Cultural Studies within the framework of the Communication Sciences at the “Polytechnic” University Timișoara is only a stepping stone, but in the given context this is however a sign that betokens our will to participate in the task of building the linguistic and cultural bridge. The present paper elaborates on starting points towards a cultural history of the Banat.

Ru-Birds.RU, bird observations from Russia and neighbouring regions: an occurrence dataset

The dataset covers bird observation occurrences in Russia and neighbouring regions (ex-USSR countries and some other countries of Eastern and Western Europe) from 2001–2021. It is based on the internet platform “Online bird observation diaries” (ru-birds.ru), which allows professional ornithologists and amateur bird lovers to exchange their results and to jointly build a common collection of data. The taxonomic backbone of the occurrence dataset follows the standardised GBIF checklist dataset to ensure correct cross-linking of the names. Currently, the database contains 541,900 records of occurrences of 713 bird species, which makes it the largest dataset on birds of Russia and neighbouring regions published in GBIF. The occurrence dataset contributes to filling gaps in the bird distribution in Russia and Eastern Europe. It can be used for a deeper look at their populations, phenology and migrations over this area. The availability of special tools for verification of the entered information makes the database a valuable tool for analysing occurrences of non-native species, studying vagrancy, immigration, invasions and range dynamics. The dataset is regularly updated. Over the 11 months of 2021, it has increased by 98,165 occurrences.

The Reichsschulen and the Napolas’ Germanizing Mission in Eastern and Western Europe

Heinrich Himmler, August Heißmeyer, and the NPEA Inspectorate were eager to create a transnational empire of Napolas and ‘Reichsschulen’ in all of the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. These schools both mirrored and contributed to broader National Socialist occupation and Germanization policies throughout Eastern and Western Europe. They were intended to create a cadre of ‘Germanic’ or ‘Germanizable’ leaders, loyal above all to the SS. The chapter begins by exploring the genesis of the Reichsschulen in the occupied Netherlands—Valkenburg and Heythuysen—which were adopted as a ‘Germanic’ prestige project by the Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyß-Inquart. The chapter then turns eastwards to consider the role of the Napolas which were established in the conquered Czech and Polish lands, focusing on NPEA Sudetenland in Ploschkowitz (Ploskowice), NPEA Wartheland in Reisen (Rydzyna), and NPEA Loben (Lubliniec). All in all, the Napola selection process in the occupied Eastern territories can be seen as the peak of all the ‘racial sieving’ processes which the Nazi state forced ‘ethnic Germans’ (Volksdeutsche), Czechs, and Poles to undergo, inextricably bound up with the Third Reich’s wider race, resettlement, and extermination policies. The ultimate aim of all of these schools was to mingle Reich German and ‘ethnic German’ or ‘Germanic’ pupils, educating the two groups alongside each other, in order to create a unified cohort of leaders for the future Nazi empire, and to reclaim valuable ‘Germanic blood’ for the Reich.

Exegesis and Politics Between East and West: Nachman Krochmal, Moses Mendelssohn, and Modern Jewish Thought

Recent scholarship on modern Jewish thought has sought to overcome the field’s Germanocentrism by recovering diverse visions of Jewish life across eastern and western Europe. While studies typically emphasize either striking differences or surprising affinities between these settings, I use the neglected eastern European philosopher Nachman Krochmal to highlight a strategy of creative appropriation and redirection—an eastern European strategy of breaking with German-Jewish philosophy precisely by deploying that tradition’s own resources. One of modern Jewish philosophy’s early episodes, I argue, is a politically charged engagement with biblical exegesis involving Krochmal and the German-Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn. Implicitly drawing on yet revising the treatment of biblical interpretation in Mendelssohn’s Hebrew writings, Krochmal seeks to retrieve what he sees as a vital element of Jewish politics: possessing neither a shared land nor military strength, he insists, Jews have long sustained their diasporic collective through hermeneutical endeavors such as rabbinic midrash, and they should continue to do so by launching a transnational project of historically sensitive exegesis. The resulting image of a transnational Jewish collective whose fate is separate from that of non-Jewish polities breaks with Mendelssohn’s political vision, pointing to an east-west dynamic of creative repurposing—an instance of an eastern European thinker drawing on a German-Jewish predecessor to develop a sharply contrasting philosophical vision.

African Swine Fever in Wild Boar (Poland 2020): Passive and Active Surveillance Analysis and Further Perspectives

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal hemorrhagic disease of wild boar and domestic pigs which has been present in Poland since 2014. By 2020, the ASF virus (ASFV) spread across Central, Eastern and Western Europe (including Germany), and Asian countries (including China, Vietnam, and South Korea). The national ASF eradication and prevention program includes continuous passive (wild boar found dead and road-killed wild boar) and active (hunted wild boar) surveillance. The main goal of this study was to analyze the dynamic of the spread of ASF in the wild boar population across the territory of Poland in 2020. In that year in Poland, in total 6191 ASF-positive wild boar were declared. Most of them were confirmed in a group of animals found dead. The conducted statistical analysis indicates that the highest chance of obtaining an ASF-positive result in wild boar was during the winter months, from January to March, and in December 2020. Despite the biosecurity measures implemented by holdings of domestic pigs, the disease also occurred in 109 pig farms. The role of ASF surveillance in the wild boar population is crucial to apply more effective and tailored measures of disease control and eradication. The most essential measures to maintain sustainable production of domestic pigs in Poland include effective management of the wild boar population, along with strict implementation of biosecurity measures by domestic pig producers.

Not for Sale, but for Own Need”: Trade of the Volhynian Gentry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Second Half of the 16th — First Half of the 17th Century

The article analyzes socioeconomic processes in the early modern Europe, in particular trade in its separate regions. It considers the classical economic model focused on the industry and agriculture, which Eastern and Western Europe followed in their multifaceted development. It studies legislation, namely the Second Lithuanian Statute and the Sejm Constitutions for assessing the involvement of gentry representatives in commerce. It indicates that the activity of the Volhynian gentry in the internal trade of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was due to both external changes in the market, primarily the demand for products from Eastern Europe, and the tendency observed on the continent when running a household became a business that made incomes grow. It analyzes general criticism in the intellectual circles of the trade activity of the gentry as such, which could lead to a certain deterioration of traditions. Man-knight and man-merchant intersections in the society of that time were acceptable if a nobleman traded goods from his own estates and could prove it with an oath.The article also investigates key areas of trade of the Volhynian gentry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the basis of documentary material of court books of the 16th–17th-century Volhynia and previously published sources of economic nature. It studies main range of goods sold and bought by the representatives of the elite, observes the participation of the Volhynian gentry in trade operations with the core centers of the Polish-Lithuanian economy, and their involvement in local fairs and tradings. It shows the role of intermediaries, first of all representatives of the Jewish community and peasants from the gentry fоlwarks, in the trade enterprise of the gentry.

Words that Burn: On the Manners and Implications of Oath-Taking Practices in Ethiopian Amhara Customary Law, Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries

Between the spoken word, ritual action, and legal processes, the studies of oath-taking practices have developed a broad literature. This article provides an additional layer of materials and analysis on speech acts and ritual procedures involved in the manners of taking an oath in the Christian societies of Ethiopia, as recorded from the midnineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Some samples of Amharic discourse specific to the manners of oath-taking in the customary legal system of Christian Ethiopia are presented here through extracts from unpublished field notes recorded in the 1840s by the French traveller Arnauld d’Abbadie. This source is then compared to other ethnographic observations of oath-taking statements and rituals in the context of Ethiopian Christian societies. The implications of swearing an oath in Ethiopian customary law lead to the critical re-examination of the history of Ethiopian law in a comparative outlook, particularly with the canonical laws of Eastern and Western Europe.