Číslo 4 (2009)
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Item Kulturní diplomacie: Francouzská zkušenost(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Strnad, Štěpán; Strnad, Štěpán
Item Metternich’s Judgement on Islam: Modern Thinking?(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Šedivý, MiroslavThe goal of the paper is to analyse the attitude of one of the most important personalities of the 19th century, Austrian Chancellor Metternich, towards Islam, and draw attention to the fact that his view was much more modern than the opinions of other leading European diplomats and politicians of the period under research. Metternich surely was much more broadminded than it could be presumed from a conservative statesman and the member of the Catholic Church.Item K problematice zpracování nejstarších muzejních sbírek: Na příkladu sbírky Otokara Feistmantla– zakladatele indické sbírky(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Pospíšilová, DagmarIn processing the oldest museum collections and their origins, we come up against wider issues of acquisition sources and the usability of the documentation that has been preserved. The history of the Náprstek Museum‘s acquisitions stretches back to the times of the museum‘s founder, Vojta Náprstek (1826–1894), who, with his wife Josefa (1838–1907) began to put together the collections of the travellers and collectors in his group of friends. He also initiated their collections to a large degree. The museum‘s existing documentation, both the oldest, kept by Josefa Náprstková herself, and the subsequent documentation, has tried to cover all the museum‘s collections, but in the search for connections between an object and its originator we often come up against a number of obstacles. This contribution examines these difficulties, in connection with the existing documentation and acquisition sources. A typical collection in this respect is that of Otakar Feistmantel (1848–1891), a geologist and paleontologist who spent eight years in India (1875–1883). The collection forms the basis of the Náprstek Museum‘s Indian collection and is being processed under the National Museum‘s ”Figures of Czech Science and Culture“ academic research project.Item Egyptian mawlids in the context of contemporary Sufi spirituality(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Ostřanský, BronislavThis paper deals with phenomenon of the mawlids (celebrations of Sufi saints, awliyā´) in Egypt. Since their beginnings in 13th century, mawlids underwent considerable development from modest reminders of the great Sufi masters to the extensive celebrations which annually attract thousands of believers from all regions of present-day Egypt. The cult of saints belongs to the most controversial features of Sufi thought often criticized by the orthodox scholars, culamā´. Muslim saints are categorized within the Sufi belief according to a hierarchical structure. At the top, there are the Poles or axial saints (qutb, pl. aqtāb). The axial saints are said to be four and two of them Ahmad al-Badawī and Ibrāhīm ad-Dasūqī were buried in Egyptian cities of Tantā and Dusūq and their monumental shrines became centres of the influential local cults. Popular Muslim belief knows a lot of ways how to express devotion and loyalty to a certain walī (Sufi saint). In the past (as today), many Muslims – either regularly or occasionally – performed ziyāra, a visit to the shrine of a holy person. Mawlid reminds the life and miracles of a saint that are made possible through his miracle-making force or blessing (baraka), the source of which is God (Allāh). In general, celebrations of mawlids connect both religious and profane aspects and up to the present day belong to the most significant sources for our study of the contemporary popular Muslim religiosity.Item V hlavní nebo vedlejší roli Egypt(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Navrátilová, HanaMapping and subsequently classifying encounters with ancient Egypt, one is faced with a large task. In the Western world, where a substantial appropriation of Egypt was developing during past two centuries and Egypt was integrated into local cultural memories, one sees an almost uninterrupted track of Egyptianising forms, especially in European art. However, most art representations of this sort have a background of ideas and concepts. Egypt as a backdrop to the stories of the Bible is one such concept. The renewed intensity of presence of classical antiquity in European culture from 14th century onwards did inevitably bring a renewal of Egyptian themes, given the intense presence of Egypt in the Greek and Roman worlds–presence physical, political, as well as religious and imaginary. The development from the 16th to the 21st century has been defined as “five centuries” of Egyptomania. It should, however, not be taken for granted that Europe and later Northern America were the only scenes who staged Egypt in one or more roles, either as meaningful, or monumental, or decorative and lustful or a mix of these. Ancient Egypt has not been lost to the cultural memory of the Islamic world either. In the 19th century, the reinterpretations of ancient Egypt took another turn. They were adopted, much in the way other histories have been adopted, as arguments for or against a cultural identity of modern nations. In addition, Egypt takes part in those alternative worlds which look into the future or a mythical past–it is a frequent presence in science fiction and fantasy, as a source of ideologies, concepts or visualisations.An ancient culture with all its manifestations was made into an actor, or rather a puppet, in many shows, also because the appearance of its typical motifs is easily recognizable visually; it is physically expressive, suggestive and whetting the imagination, while its elements can be used to express emotions and to imitate and emulate ideas and concepts well beyond their original purpose.Item Misogyny and Misogamy in The Taming of the Shrew: A Sketch of Shakespearean Productions(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Mišterová, IvonaThanks to the unquestionable merit of his timeless thoughts and vivid protagonists, William Shakespeare and his oeuvre were observed from various qualitative and quantitative aspects (e.g. DUSINBERRE, Juliet, 1975, STŘÍBRNÝ, Zdeněk, 1955, 2003, MUIR, Kenneth, 2005, etc.). Shakespeare’s plays as well as sonnets were translated into innumerous languages and his plays were presented in myriad versions, from traditional performances to peculiar adaptations (e.g. Nekrosius’s Macbeth featuring farmers, grafted fruit trees, etc). Shakespeare’s plays inspired many stage and film directors. His protagonists represent archetypes of modern drama. Last but not least, selected extracts from Shakespeare’s plays assume a significant position in the literary curriculum. There have been countless remarkable Shakespearean productions in Pilsen since the Municipal Theatre was established in 1902; the recent theatrical Shakespearean interpretations include e.g. The Taming of the Shrew (October 2008) and Romeo and Juliet (April 2009). The essay thus attempts to analyze the specific aspects of The Taming of the Shrew performed on Pilsen stages from the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, similarities and differences between the original play and these peculiar renditions will be emphasized. The essay concludes that each generation perceives the appealing magic of Shakespeare’s language and timelessness of his themes through its own particular prism, allowing for a variety of distinctive (re)interpretations.Item K některým aspektům mobility v čínském starověku(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Maršálek, JakubChinese civilization is often depicted as a typical example of the settled civilization with highly developed concept of centrality associated with stabile capitals concieved as the centre of the world. It is then rather surprising that in Early China we find strong aspects of mobility. It is a well-known fact that during the Shang (cca 16th–11th century B.C.) and the following Zhou (cca 11th–3rd century B.C.) periods capitals of the Chinese states were often shifted from one place to another, sometimes on the great distances. Moreover, in that period, when China was divided among several dozens fief statelets, even the whole states were shifted from one place to another. In my article, I argue that this potential to mobility was inherent in the fundamental character of early Chinese states and that it was associated with their structure and ritual paraphernalia used in the state cults. Early Chinese states were based on kinship relations, and they in fact consisted of the ruling lineages and privileged groups of population living in the capital. Shifts of the states concerned mainly those groups of people. This kinship structure was also reflected in the ritual paraphernalia, essential for the well-being of the states. This does apply to the tablets of ancestors and bronze ritual vessels, which were used in the ancestors worship and treasured in ancestors temples. However, the function of the temples was not limited to one specific locality, but preserved their role in any place they were transferred together with the capital. Similar potential to mobility also existed in the case of the ritual paraphernalia associated with the Altars of the Soil (or of the State)–another focus of the state rituals.Item Rutina genderu nejen v každodenním životě(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Hasmanová Marhánková, JaroslavaItem Jaký byl vliv složení populace rodiček na zdraví novorozenců v ČR mezi roky 1992 a 2004(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Kreidl, Martin; Štípková, MartinaThis paper explores the impact of the changing structure of fertility upon two important indicators of newborn children’s health–average birth weight and the proportion of newborns with low birth weight–in the Czech Republic between 1992 and 2004. We argue that changes in the structure of the population of mothers might have significantly contributed to observed trends in child health. After standardizing population structure we conclude that changes in the age pattern of fertility contributed significantly to improving child health, while improving educational attainment of mothers had only a minor positive effect. We also observe a moderate negative effect of increasing non-marital fertility and no effect of parity. We foresee that the negative structural effects (increasing proportion of older women, increasing out-of-wedlock motherhood) are likely to continue, while the positive effects (diminishing fertility of very young women) are likely to weaken. Hence, we anticipate that both birth outcomes would deteriorate in the coming years.Item Moc, revoluce a kolektivní jednání v dílech Michaela Manna, Charlese Tillyho a Thedy Skocpolové(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Holubec, StanislavMichael Mann, Charles Tilly a Theda Skocpol are the leading personalities of the so called “New historical sociology” in 80ies. The main goal of the article is to present the ideas and thinking of these three in Czech social sciences less known authors and try to outline the comparison of their approaches. Based on analysis of their works and the secondary literature on them, the article shows that all of the authors connect not only the historic-sociological method but as well the modernization perspective, interest for the social change, inspiration by Marx and Weber and the revision of their thinking. On the other hand there are significant differences among them based on their topics (in sense of space and time), interests for a different social processes, macro-, mezo- and micro approach and methods of their research.Item Muslims in the West: Media as an Integration Strategy(Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2009) Břeská, JanaWest European countries face social problems linked to immigration issues. The most exposed community of immigrants comes from the Muslim world, bringing to the West its own religious and social tradition. Such issues, however, are not unilateral. The immigrated Muslim community has to find solution to the same problem, which is usually seen from a different point of view. Media plays an important role in solving integration issues and EU member states have adopted television and radio as an integral part of European integration strategy. National governments nevertheless comply with the EU recommendations only until a certain degree. On the other hand, although on a smaller scale, the immigrated Muslim communities have started to use the same means to strengthen weakened ties between members of the Ummah in hijra and to confirm proper identity in the minority position. While the States use mostly public national media, Muslim communities try to get access at least to the local televisions or radios. Such initiatives aim mostly at successful integration without assimilation into secular Western society. However, many actors impede reaching this goal – also in the same field of media, like transnational Islamic television providers transmitting via satellite from different European cities or private TV program producers reflecting deliberately in their shots outdated Western prejudices toward Islam.
