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Indians as the Imminent Threat: The Portayal of indians in Captivity Narratives
Brožová, Tereza ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
in English This particular MA thesis concentrates on the portrayal of Indians in captivity narratives of the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the essential source material being Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, first published in 1682. The thesis explores the relationship between Native Americans and settlers who saw Indians as a threat to their own existence and also as a threat to the western expansion. It also focuses on the confrontation of savagery and civilization from the point of view of common presuppositions and prejudices about the Native Americans that are very often depicted in several captivity narratives. Moreover, the thesis provides necessary definition of the genre of the captivity narrative with regard to the reaction of the reading public in the period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From the first arrivals of settlers and explorers the American continent symbolized a land of vast opportunities. Nevertheless, the continent not being fully explored was shrouded in a veil of mystery. Explorers and adventurers were fascinated by the extensive natural resources they found in the New World. Moreover, the New World was often called New Canaan or the Garden of Eden as it symbolized for the newcomers a possibility to start a new...
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Commented translation of Mirror Worlds (In: Basalla, George. Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials. Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. ISBN: 9780198038351)
Šveřepová, Andrea ; Jettmarová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Šťastná, Zuzana (referee)
The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to translate Chapter 10 - Mirror Worlds - from George Basalla's book Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials. This thesis includes the translation and the source text, as well as a commentary on the translation. The commentary theoretically reflects the translation process and is divided into four parts. The first part contains an analysis of the source text and potential translation problems. The second part describes the selected translation method and also comments on the differences between the source and the target communication situation. The third part comprises typology and solution to the translation problems. The fourth part describes the shifts that have been made in the course of the translation process. Key words intelligence, life, extraterrestrial, alien, universe, culture, technology, civilization, SETI, anthropomorphism, translation, source text, text analysis, translation method, shift
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Comparison of Spengler's and Kroeber's Visions of Culture.
Hájek, Daniel ; Vrhel, František (advisor) ; Korecká, Zuzana (referee)
The thesis compares the concepts of culture of German historian Oswald Spengler and American anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Both authors shared interest in comparative study of civilizations and similar approaches to it, based on an assumption, that culture is a distinct level of reality, nonreductible to its parts, but on the contrary controlling them. This conception is sometimes refered to as superorganic. Each of the scholars compared here hit upon the idea by other ways, hence it carries some different implications for them. The concepts and related methods are analyzed in this work with focus on revealing their assumptions. The explicit comparison is made in the end of the work. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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The idealized portrayal of Indians in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of Mohicans and René Francois de Chateaubriand's Les Natchez
Brožová, Tereza ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is the depiction of the portrayal of Indians in two pieces of art, James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and René François de Chateaubriand's Les Natchez. Both authors depict the character of the Indian on the background of the emerging American states. The exotic setting, which fascinated a great number of artists, served as a device for the critique of the European society and civilization. The wilderness of the American continent was shrouded in mystery and thus stimulated the imagination of writers. Cooper and Chateaubriand were influenced by the reading of early reports of adventurers and ethnographers. These records were mingled with their own experience, traditions, myths, and the common presuppositions. Therefore, in both pieces of art, Indian characters bear idealized character features. Cooper and Chateaubriand both deal with the issue of mixing of races, gender and racial roles, and tension between civilization and savagery. Due to the problem of the blood- purity which would be destroyed by the interracial marriage, the main heroes of The Last of the Mohicans are sentenced to die. Chateaubriand, on the other hand, burdens his characters with Christian features and their lives are spent in brooding over the uneasiness of life and destiny. The thesis also...
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Languedoc-Roussillon
Grófová, Martina ; Kalfiřtová, Eva (advisor) ; Machleidtová, Silva (referee)
The thesis discourses on the French region Languedoc-Roussillon situated in south of the country. The first part is focused on the region itself and defines its characteristics. Afterwards, other specifications of the local tourist trade and most attractive places are described. The very main part of the thesis is based on cultural anthropology, aiming at disclosing those distinctions, which make Languedoc-Roussillon so special.
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Samuel Huntington and multiculturalists approache to immigration
Kný, Daniel ; Říchová, Blanka (advisor) ; Kotábová, Věra (referee)
Author of the thesis attempts to describe and compare the theoretical backgrounds of Samuel Huntington and Charles Taylor (as a representative of multiculturalism) affecting their fundamentally different views on the problem of immigration in the west democratic societies. On the basis of the theoretical concept of identity and dichotomies of universalism - particularism or liberalism - communitarianism the premises of the authors are interpreted and the differences are explained in their approaches to the role of immigration in the west democracies. The sceptical look of Samuel Huntington at the process of immigration and from it resulting culturally plural character of society is tried to be interpreted by the author of this bachelor thesis as a result of the Hunington's negative notion of identity and his shift to particularism. Relatively more positive approach of Charles Taylor to the process of immigration and its results is then explained by his tendency to the positive notion of identity and to the universalistic ideal of authenticity. This thesis is purely placed at the theoretical level and it expends both to area of political philosophy and international relations. The conclusion of this thesis is then the formulation of relevant hypothesis, which can be in the future operationalized and...
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The Development of Orientalism and its Form in the Contemporary World
Přibáňová, Tereza ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Horák, Vít (referee)
The bachelor thesis deals with problems of orientalism, which is considered primarily in Edward Said's definition as a power discourse in which knowledge about the Orient is created. Even today, Westerners have to rely solely on mediated information about Orient, which can be quite misleading. The thesis first defines different meanings of orientalism and the categories of West and East. The thesis presents development of orientalism in its pre- modern and modern or academic form, including criticism of Said's concept. Critique of orientalism is currently included in postcolonial criticism, therefore there is a chapter on postcolonial criticism as well, which includes part about relationship of sociology to this issue. In conclusion is discussed occidentalism, which is often seen as the opposite of orientalism, but it isn't entirely accurate. Also is analyzed the contemporary form of orientalism, which is associated mainly with attitude of the Western world (mainly U.S.) to the Islamic countries.
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Samuel P. Huntington and his contribution to the historical sociology
Mrázek, Jaroslav ; Černý, Karel (advisor) ; Maslowski, Nicolas (referee)
This graduation thesis is trying to examine the work of the American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington and refers to his contribution to the historical sociology. This work presents the most important theses, sets them into the context, possibly compares them with ideas or works of another social scientists. The first part of the work deals with this author as a person, with his professional life and makes clear a selection of the studies, which forms a skeleton of this thesis. The work is trying to describe concepts, which are in some relation with social change. First of all it means modernization, democratization, civil-military relations, civilizations analysis, multiculturalism, crisis of democracy and crisis of american identity. The work follows the chronology, in which author's books were being out. This is a reason, why the themes are presented in order, in which Huntington was focusing on them. The chronological aspect falls back, when the themes are mentioned by author in another books. The end of the work points out the contribution of Samuel Huntington to the historical sociology and in general adverts to importance of his work. Keywords: civil-military relations, modernization, democratization, civilization, identity, political order, multiculturalism, uni-multipolar system, islam
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Conceptualizing Eastern Europe: Past and Present
Mačkinis, Vilius ; Vykoukal, Jiří (advisor) ; Kolenovská, Daniela (referee) ; Gordy, Eric (referee)
The ideas presented in the dissertation are based on the premise that the concept of Eastern Europe is a construction, which received its meaning(s) trough events and shifts, which also shaped the idea of Europe. To analyze these influences several labels and aspects of history, which constructed the concept of Eastern Europe can be recognized. The author argues that there can be five important aspects, forming the concept and providing meanings, discerned and considered: (1) geography associated with the Eastern border of the European continent and its flexibility; (2) cultural trends, mainly provided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which present the eastern part as wild, barbaric and uncivilized; (3) political formations, which by military and political means conquered or lost the region, alienating it with the West or making it a 'buffer zone'; (4) Economic aspects of backwardness and the constant try to catch-up with the West; and (5) the discourse about the region itself, historiography depicting the formations and ascribing labels to discourse. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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History of Botanic Gardens in Relation to the Influence of Population Planning on the Environment
Šuglová, Darina
The process of developing botanical gardens and buildings is done in liaison with the state of knowledge in the fields of natural sciences. Since the beginning of the history of civilized society people protected themselves against natural influences by the formation of appropriate conditions in artificial environment of buildings. With the development of civilization, the ratio of natural and man-made environment is changing and protection of nature from human influence is getting increasing importance. In this context, there is an increasingly important role in scientific knowledge of nature. The content of the paper is the mapping degree of fytosfera interventions in different historical stages, the developing of botanical gardens.
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