National Repository of Grey Literature 58 records found  1 - 10nextend  jump to record: Search took 0.00 seconds. 
The Theory of Self-Domestication in German Anthropology and Biology till 1945.
Stella, Marco ; Komárek, Stanislav (advisor) ; Sklenička, Petr (referee)
Concerned with the theory of self-domestication, claiming that humans have morphological, anatomical, physiological, behavioural or psychological traits typical for domestic animals, this master's thesis attempts to describe how anthropological and biological stories speaks to people and how people are shaped by them. Has given rise to eugenics and racial hygiene, the idea implicit to this theory that the practice of animals domestication and cultivation can be applied to humans, is still relevant when speaking of genetic engineering.
The Construction of "Dangerous dogs" in Blesk and Lidové noviny in the years 2001 and 2011
Stýblová, Hana ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Vandrovcová, Tereza (referee)
At the end of the 20th century the issue of so called "dangerous" dog breeds has become increasingly discussed in some European countries. These dogs are considered so threatening that some countries have decided to regulate or restrict their breeding by law. This thesis looks at the articles in Blesk tabloid and Lidové noviny daily newspaper in the years 2001 and 2011 and explores how the dangerous aspect of these breeds was constructed there. Through discourse analysis it investigates the image of "dangerous dogs" presented in these newspapers and what these representations imply. The results of the analysis confirm that all the selected materials explicitly construct the image of dangerous dogs and at the same time implicitly suggest the existence of their "positive" counterparts which helps drawing the line between "good" and "bad" dogs, and hence also between "good" and "bad" owners of the dogs. In all cases, it is apparent that the issue thematised on the level of dog breeds in fact charaterises the relation of man to the animal as well as the society. The representation of the dog witnesses far more about a man than the dog itself. Keywords: dangerous dog, representation, media, human-animal relationship, discourse analysis
Anthropomorphization in Communication with Nonhuman Entities
Uhlíř, Vilém ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
In this thesis I pursue a critical summary of the so-called "talking animals" projects, wherein the researchers tried to train their animal subjects to perform "linguistic" feats. Considering both the fundamental dissilimarity of the projects and the uniformity of their results, I am lead to conclude that the shortcoming was that of the students - the animals, and not that of the teachers. Failure of the animal projects points mainly to the fact, that a core feature of language is missing in the pseudolinguistic feats of the animals that which is missing is the hierarchical recursive syntax. I conclude that no animal has had likely adopted the open, unbounded, hierarchically recursive system that allows us, quite literally, to express anything. Linguistic data that I considered indicates that language is most likely an inborn neural specialization of H. spaiens. All the available facts considered manage to show that the pseudolinguistic feats of the "talking" animals are most likely caused by a great plasticity of general cognition. General cognition has the capacity to virtually simulate (although imperfectly) certain aspects of human neural linguistic specialization. Neural linguistic specialization in H. sapiens is an evolutionary discontinuity, whereas the general cognition plasticity is...
Looking at and through the Beast: Construction of 'Animal' within the Prague Zoo
Polakovičová, Dana ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Haywood, Mark (referee)
The thesis is based on the presumption that zoological gardens are cultural institutions which reflect social and cultural interpretations of what is called 'nature' and animals. By analyzing data gained through participant observation it focuses on the meanings and forms which are ascribed to animals living in the Prague Zoo via the gaze of visitors. Furthermore, by analysis of visual and textual sources provided by the zoo, I examine how the 'zoo animal' is constructed by the zoo itself. I argue that this zoo animal constitutes a specific form of the animal, different from both the domesticated and the wild one. The zoo and its visitors create a chimeric 'beast' which encompasses different and even contradictory trends and conceptions of thinking about the zoo animal.
Hrdlička Museum of Man during years 1929-1939 as an example of a popularization of scientific knowledge.
Toman, Petr ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Šimůnek, Michal (referee)
This work is part of a broader effort to revitalize the Hrdlička Museum of Man and to research it from a historical perspective. Starting from the view that the popularization of science by museums in general is problematic and a viable topic for the social sciences, the work attempts to focus on the way the exhibition at the Hrdlička Museum of Man was constructed by its creators. This topic is analyzed from three main perspectives: 1st the scientific standpoints and personal worldviews of the creators, 2nd relations between the museum and the public, and 3rd relations between the museum and the nation state; also, the influence of the building process itself is taken into account. The intention of the work is to look at the origin of the Hrdlička Museum of Man within its cultural, social and political context rather than focus purely on a historical description. It is an attempt to bring to light all the "unscientific" phenomena that shaped the exhibition's scientific, objective and authoritative message to the public. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
Of ants and men. Myrmecological inspirations of anthropology in the work of V. J. A. Novák (1919-1997)
Hampl, Petr ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Hermann, Tomáš (referee)
The work presents life and work of Vladimir Jan Amos Novak, it shows his main thoughts unified by the principle of sociogenesis and points at its inspiration in older traditions of german and russian biology. It also concerns his anthropology as related to the principle of sociogenesis and shows some peculiar Novak's contributions, mainly his opinions on progessive neotenization of man and evolutionary tedency for association. It grasps the principle of sociogenesis as a biological and also a political concept and therefore shows its very political consequences presented mainly on his social thoughts. The work also deals with the relations between eastern and western science on Novák's efforts to unify all sciences under one universal evolutionary framework regardless its geographical belonging. Throughout the work is Novak shown in the context of man-animal relations and the principle of sociogenesis as arising from myrmecological studies. There are therefore presented anthropological works of three important myrmecologists A. Forel, W.M. Wheeler and E.O. Wilson as inspired in the study of ants.

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