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Summer musical events and their impact on everyday life in the village Lesná
Hájková, Anna ; Kandert, Josef (advisor) ; Svobodová, Ludmila (referee)
This bachelor thesis is focused on summer musical events (in Czech "parket") and membership of volunteer fire-fighters and their impact on everyday life in village Lesná. The expression "parket" can have more meanings according to the context. Firstly it is designation for summer dance events or concerts, secondly it is designation for the place in the village where these events take place. This paper is based on literature dealing with the influence of local culture and societies on village community which led author to identify several possible functions this events and volunteer fire-fighters membership may have within the structure. The reviewed version of Merton's functional analysis is used to define the functions. These functions are functions of integration and socialisation, functions connected to voluntary work and educational function, function of this events as a place of increased social control, function of revitalization and stabilisation, function of formation, transmission and preservation of traditions, entertainment and compensatory function, function or dysfunction of conflicts, gaining a higher social status and political power in village and economical function. The research part of this paper is based on qualitative research methods as semi- structured interviews, participant...
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State transformation in postcolonial Mozambique
Jelínek, Petr ; Kropáček, Luboš (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Fiala, Vlastimil (referee)
The case of "State Transformation in Postcolonial Mozambique" is set into the context of African postcolonial state research in the introductory part of the thesis. The concepts of africanists Mahmood Mamdani, Patrick Chabal and Jean François Bayart are presented and used as an conceptual framework for the analysis of the postcolonial state in Mozambique. The origin and development of the postcolonial state in Mozambique is analysed in the wider historical context. The pre-colonial political systems in Mozambique are presented, as well as the first contacts between the pre-colonial Mozambique and the Portuguese and the establishment of the Portuguese presence. The description of the formation and consolidation of the colonial state includes the issue of colonial border demarcation, conquest of the territory and establishment of the colonial administration. The Mozambican independence struggle is analysed as well as its impact on the colonial administration. The development of the leading force of the struggle, the FRELIMO party, is analysed including its origin in the union of three nationalist movements, its internal disputes and divisions and its gradual radicalisation. The creation of the postcolonial state in Mozambique is described and the constitution of the People's Republic of Mozambique of 1975,...
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Archaic, Traditional Law and Modern Commercial Law: A Study of Their Comparisons
Ledvinka, Tomáš ; Sokol, Jan (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Brezina, Peter (referee)
The old anthropological question of the comparison between an archaic or traditional commercial law on one hand and a modern commercial law on the other is revisited using a conceptualization of an empirical study of legal comparisons performed within the real decision-making processes at work in the current Czech justice system. Commercial law is represented by a single legal institution - the law of reciprocity (comitas gentium) - which regulates the cooperation between various legal authorities and legal systems potentially entangled in cross-border commercial disputes. The reader is first introduced to the context and evidence-dependency of any legal comparison ranging from the representation of law and feud in Yemen at an asylum trial, to the legal systems regulating exchange contracts in Afghanistan involving cross-border disputes. The idea of comparing legal systems as two autonomous social units is abandoned in favor of the study of the comparative practices of a small population of Czech legal authorities, which furnishes readers with plenty of questions about the social organization of legal cognition. The dissertation refrains from drawing final conclusions using legal comparisons, instead it focuses on the limitations and barriers of marshalling evidence (symbolic representations) of...
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Barbells, safety pins and bananabells: Body piercing in Czech youth culture
Heřmanský, Martin ; Bittnerová, Dana (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Levínská, Markéta (referee)
The aim of my dissertation is to understand body piercing, as a form of body modification, among contemporary high-school youth by understanding its meanings which are ascribed to it by its bearers. My research is based on a premise that youth (sub)culture is a distinct system of meanings, values and norms, which is at the same time in constant interaction with mainstream culture, with which are these meanings, values and norms constantly negotiated. In addition to researching the process and the product of this practice, by understanding body piercing as a "lived experience", I focus on how is body piercing used and generally lived in their everyday lives. Based on a qualitative analysis of mass media representations of body piercing and semi-structured interviews with body piercing bearers from ranks of Prague high-school and vocational school youth I will try to show how these meanings are established in intersection of discourse of youth, discourse of dominant society and agency of body piercing bearers.
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Identity of volhynian Czechs settled in Czech Republic and nonreemigrated volhynian Czechs in Ukraine
Jirka, Luděk ; Kandert, Josef (advisor) ; Uherek, Zdeněk (referee) ; Moravcová, Mirjam (referee)
This work deals with transnational ties of reemigrated Volhynian Czechs and ethnic return migration of descendants of non-reemigrated Volhynian Czechs. Dissertation was founded on fieldwork in West Ukraine and in the Czech Republic. Researches of reemigrated Volhynian Czechs were studied in terms of integration or adaptation into the Czech (Czechoslovak) society, but this work, in first part, critically shows immigration narrative of Czech (Czechoslovak) social sciences; there were also transnational ties to Ukraine to which reemigrated Volhynian Czech refers as a meaningful. Next part of this work deals with ethnic return migration of descendants of non-reemigrated Volhynian Czechs. Descendants of compatriots have with Ukrainian ethnic consciousness, but Czech state allows them short-term and long-term stays in the Czech Republic thanks to ancestors, so that they are attracted with Czech surroundings, express wishes to migrate into the Czech Republic and they even could obtain permanent residency more easily due to Czech ancestors. Czech state facilitates migration flow from West Ukraine to the Czech Republic according to presume "closeness" of descendants of compatriots to Czech nation. Common reference of Czech social sciences and Czech state is nationalism which products social reality....
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Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City
Heřmanová, Marie ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Grill, Jan (referee)
PhD Thesis Summary: Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City Mgr. Marie Heřmanová The thesis aims to develop various results of a long-term fieldwork in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, where rural-urban migration was pervasive since the 1960s. The research concentrated on the second generation of Tzotzil and Tzeltal migrants living at the suburbs of the city. Young indigenous people, whose parents came to the city to seek jobs, are now completely bilingual (they speak their maternal language - mostly Tzotzil as well as spanish they have learned in the school in the city). They mostly work in the same areas as the first generation migrants - as shop-keepers, souvenirs sellers or street-food vendors. They are thus in everyday interaction with both tourist and expats in the city centre. These interactions and meetings are in the context of the thesis seen as a consitutive element to imageries of mobility, modernity and Western lifestyles developed by the the young indigenous people from the suburbs. The concept if "Imaginary West" (Yurchak 2005) is central in the thesis, an unseen and yet ever-present homeland of the tourists and most importantly a place where "better lives" happen. The text explores how the search for...
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Ethics of travel: Ethical aspects of the adventurous journeys of exceptional Czech travelers - explorers among the Indians of South America
Triantafyllakis, Spyridon ; Haškovcová, Helena (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Pinc, Zdeněk (referee)
This thesis is a theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of traveling from an ethical point of view. The analysis focuses mainly on the ethical aspects of individual travels of European travelers with regards to cultural contact with different people and also taking into consideration the European tradition of travel. Based on this analysis, an ethical framework is proposed as a tool of interpretation of selected texts that reflect the travel adventures of exceptional Czech travelers, such as A. V. Frič, J. Hanzelka and M. Zikmund, M. Zelený among the Indians of South America. The above mentioned Czech travelers described their travel experiences in the form of ethnographic travelogues and other texts. The aim of this study was, by analysing certain parts of selected ethnographic texts of these Czech travelers - explores, to reveal their individual ethical reflections of the experienced adventures and to interpret it. I have attempted to describe each studied Czech traveler's specific ethical approach to "otherness" in the extreme conditions of their adventures among the Indians of South America. Keywords: Ethics of travel, traveling - ethical aspects, traveling - intercultural contact, A. V. Frič, J. Hanzelka and M. Zikmund, M. Zelený, travel adventures among Indians.
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The Aromanians in Bulgaria. Revitalization and its Contexts
Zandlová, Markéta ; Uherek, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Šatava, Leoš (referee) ; Kandert, Josef (referee)
This PhD thesis discusses the ethnic revitalization movement of a small minority group of Aromanians in Bulgaria. Based on long-term ethnographic research, it describes and analyzes the processes of mobilization of Bulgarian Aromanians, framed by the actors in terms of ethnicity. The main focus is on their identity politics and revitalization strategies, shaped and negotiated in transnational activist networks and contexts. Epistemologically and methodologically this work adheres to the tradition of ethnography (Atkinson, Coffey, Delamont, Lofland & Lofland 2001); theoretically it works primarily with the concepts of politics of memory, identity and framing (Benford & Snow, 2000; Vermeersch 2006, 2011). Theoretical and methodological background, presented at the beginning of the thesis, is followed by a critical outline of the history and historiography of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe, which represent an important meaning-making context of the revitalization process. The core of the analysis focuses on the key issues identified in the (ethno)mobilization project of the Bulgarian Aromanians: actors and their representations of "the Aromanianness"; revitalization strategies; international networks; intersection of lay and expert knowledge. The conclusion outlines potential answers to the question of...
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Invisible subjects of human rights
Svárovská, Gabriela ; Sokol, Jan (advisor) ; Moree, Dana (referee) ; Kandert, Josef (referee)
The idea of universal applicability of human rights has been a symbol of hope that peace and justice in the world is possible, since the late 1940s. Although it is a fiction, and anthropology can proof this bringing countless evidence, strong general awareness of this idea still inspires many in their strive for freedom and dignity as well as opposition to violence. The aim of this thesis is to bring two controversial examples, illustrating how and why value-driven struggle for promotion of human rights fails. The aim is nevertheless not to compromise this noble idea but to contribute to its more thorough understanding as well as more effective implementation. A chapter on so called female genital circumcision (also known as female genital mutilation) offers critical analyses of the international campaign for eradication of this practice, led by international feminist movement since the late 1970s. The attention is drawn mainly to manipulation of facts and unfair argumentation, thanks to which the so called female genital circumcision was labelled cruel practice of backward societies serving degradation and control of women, making more structured understanding of reality impossible. A chapter dedicated to abortion tries to see political and cultural influences hidden under the surface of debate on...
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