Stacie Friend’s theory of fiction departs from those approaches that seek to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for a work to count as fiction. She argues that this goal cannot really be achieved; instead, she appeals to the notion of genre to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction. This notion is significantly more flexible, since it invites us to identify standard—but not necessary—and counter-standard features of works of fiction in light of our classificatory practices. More specifically, Friend argues that the genre of fiction has the genre of nonfiction—and only that genre—as its contrast class. I will refer to the particular way in which Friend elaborates this claim as the contrast view. I have, nevertheless, the impression that this view unnecessarily narrows down the array of perspectives and attitudes from which we can approach works of fiction. I will thus develop a line of reasoning to the effect that the contrast view should rather be construed as picking out a particular way of relating to works of fiction that lies at the end of a continuum defined by different degrees of reflectivity and estrangement. This implies that the contrast view is false as a general claim about how we experience works of fiction, even though this view may appropriately depict a specific way of approaching such works.
In societies described as “cold” by Claude Lévi-Strauss, the historical dimension is coded into myths, traditions and rituals. Lévi-Strauss says that ritual is an “instrument for the destruction of time”. The key to the author’s idea of the opposition of synchronicity and diachronicity is found in his work The Savage Mind, in which he talks about a never-ending struggle between these two which initiates totemic thinking. In current sociology, Levi-Strauss’ concept of reversible time is utilised by Anthony Giddens, who adapts it in his structuration theory. However the concept of synchronous (structuralist) reversible time is simultaneously the subject of a critique from the perspectives of cultural anthropology (Alfred Gell) and sociology (Barbara Adam). At the article’s conclusion, the argument is made that when Lévi-Strauss talks about cold societies, which tend to banish history from the consciousness, it doesn’t mean that he is trying to over rule the laws of logic or physics (as he is accused by Gell) but at tempting to see the world through the eyes of a specific type of society and to understand time from the perspective of a “native”. and Jiří Šubrt.
This treatise presents the interpretative research on newly created sources which emerged from oral-historical interviews with protagonists from an association of military re-enactment of diverse conflicts from the 18th through 20th centuries, which are active primarily in the Czech Republic, but also in Central Europe,
and also with a relating group of narrators who serve in the Czech Army´s Active Reserve. The vast majority of research on military
re-enactment focusses on the research into three interconnected
problems of authenticity, historical authority, and reflexivity self-consciousness). However, this text focusses newly on the problem of loyalty. Interviews are aimed at the experience of this specific group of narrators with their military service, performed at the time of normalization and transformation after 1989, especially
in relation to the issue of ambivalent loyalty to the political regime
for which they took an oath during their military service. This experience is analysed in relation to non-contradictory and strong
loyalty, felt to the experienced and performed values, which were perceived as being key values for historical military cultures of a specific re-enactment period or conflict, by which the participants express their loyalty through similar rituals of a military oath. The key research question is how this loyalty, experienced in relation
to historical military culture (at one sub-group of narrators even interconnected with their membership in the Active Reserve), relates, in a conflicting way, to the loyalty which was required to the former Czechoslovak People´s Army, or to later forces of democratic Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic, during compulsory military service performed by the narrators.
Příspěvek se věnuje nálezům odkrytým na Vraném vrchu u Spolí, okr. Český Krumlov. V nadmořské výšce 635 m u paty skalního výběžku na svahu spadajícím příkře k Vltavě byla v hl. 20 cm nalezena skupina šesti bronzových náramků z pozdní doby halštatské. Při následném sondážním výzkumu ověřujícím místo nálezu se ve stejné hloubce našlo deset zlomků dislokovaných lidských kostí z dospělého jedince, v těsné blízkosti náramků ležel skleněný kroužek hnědožluté barvy o průměru 34 mm. Celková situace svědčí pravděpodobně o „obětním“ charakteru lokality. Určení rostlinných makrozbytků umožnilo částečně rekonstruovat přírodní prostředí zkoumaného místa. Analýza artefaktů i celé nálezové situace, evidence dalších nálezů v širším okolí depotu náramků, svědectví výjevů na soudobém situlovém umění i paralely z prostoru střední a jižní Evropy umožňují položit si řadu otázek o podobách různých náboženských rituálů starší doby železné. Výjimečný skleněný artefakt ze Spolí prozrazuje nadregionální kontakty, práce se v širších souvislostech zabývá též problematikou rekonstrukce dálkových koridorů. and The article addresses finds uncovered on the hill known as Vraný vrch near Spolí in the Český Krumlov district. A group of six bronze bracelets from the Final Hallstatt period were found at an elevation of 635 m a.s.l. and 20 cm below the ground at the base of a rocky promontory on a hillside dropping steeply to the Vltava River. During the subsequent trench excavation to verify the location of the find, ten fragments of dislocated human bones from an adult individual were found at the same depth, and a brown-yellow glass ring with a diameter of 34 mm was also lying nearby. The finds are probably evidence of the ‘sacrificial’character of the site. The identification of plant macro-remains allowed a partial reconstruction of the natural environment of the studied location. An analysis of the artefacts and the entire find situation, evidence of additional finds in the broader area of the bracelet hoard, the testimony of images on contemporary situla art and parallels from Central and Southern Europe raise numerous questions on the form of various religious rituals of the Early Iron Age. The remarkable glass artefact from Spolí indicates superregional contacts, and the paper in broader contexts also deals with the issue of reconstructing long-distance corridors.
Among facilities which were built by the Roman army in the wider space of the Burgstall hill in Mušov there is a well situated to the edge of the high terrace next to the former gravel pit on the Mušov-Neurissen site. The discovery of deer antler fragments near the bottom of the shaft was considered a random intrusion, it should have been an object accidentally dragged to the gravel. Discoveries of deer bones and antlers in other places of the barbarian territories and also in the Roman provinces allow us to change the primary conclusions. Some selected examples can be proof that parts of deer carcasses were often used in nonprophane manipulations within ritual acts in the Roman era. The Mušov example enables closer observation of the circumstances around antler handling. They took place after the Romans suddenly interrupted works on deepening the well and decided to leave the site.
The study summarizes the work of Maurice Bloch, especially his theory of ritual and religion. Focusing on Bloch’s concepts of rebounding violence, ideology and knowledge, it is argued that the cognitive dualism does not correspond to the fact of the entirety of the human mind, a unique constellation of specific biological, natural environmental, historical, social and cultural circumstances as well as personal and experiential conditions. When dealing with some analogies of Bloch’s thought, the assumptions of Marx, Freud and Rousseau are recalled. The recognition of the eurocentric polarization also demands a mention of the Latin naturalis and supernaturalis dichotomy as well as the Greek sophistic duality of fysei and nomó. On the other hand, Bloch’s precise critique of functionalist and Marxist approaches allows moving towards deeper psychosocial processes within ritual.
Článek představuje soubor předmětů nalezený při úpatí nápadného kamenného útvaru poblíž Stebna, okr. Louny, a interpretovaný jako rituální depot ze stupně LT B1/B2. Z tohoto období nejsou v okolí místa nálezu známy žádné další lokality. Soubor obsahuje vedle keramické misky a souboru laténského ženského kruhového šperku i jedinečnou importovanou bronzovou mísu středoitalského původu. Rozbor depotu a provedená makrozbytková a palynologická analýza umožňují klást si otázky o vztahu střední Evropy a Středomoří, o lidské přítomnosti v regionu a o rituálních aktivitách v době laténské. and The article presents an assemblage of artefacts discovered at the foot of a rock near Stebno (Louny distr.) and interpreted as a ritual hoard from stage LT B1/B2 from which there are no other traces of human presence in the region. The assemblage included a pottery bowl, La Tène women’s ring ornament set and a unique bronze basin of central Italian origin. An analysis of the hoard, including macro-remains and palynological analyses, raises questions on the relationship between central Europe and the Mediterranean, the human presence in the region during the La Tène period and on ritual activities in the La Tène period.
The article presents an ethnographic description of a cycle of marriage rituals as observed by the author in the Minangkabau village of Sulit Air, located in West Sumatra, Indonesia and provides an interpretation of what they tell us about the networks of matrilineal kinship that crisscross the community spanning from the village to the cities where its inhabitants migrate in search of economic betterment, especially some female techniques of maintenance of these networks.
Příspěvek po osteologické a archeozoologické stránce popisuje a analyzuje nález skeletu tura domácího (Bos taurus) z pozdně laténského objektu v Nových Dvorech (okr. Kutná Hora). Tur ve věku 2,5–3 roky byl s největší pravděpodobností do jámy uložen vcelku, tj. v artikulovaném stavu. Součástí osteologického nálezového inventáře jsou i ojedinělé fragmenty kostí prasete a ovce/kozy a artefakt z parohu jelena (Cervus elaphus). and Animal skeleton from a La Tène feature at Nové Dvory, Central Bohemia. The article describes and analyzes the osteological and archaeozoological aspects of a cattle (Bos taurus) skeleton found in a Late La-Tène feature at Nové Dvory (distr. Kutná Hora). The animal of the age of 2,5–3 years was most probably deposited in the pit as a whole, i.e. in articulated condition. Isolated pig and sheep/goat bone fragments and an artefact made out of deer (Cervus elaphus) antler form part of the osteological find inventory.