Res Humanitariae

The Tėviškė (Homeland) Society for Lithuania’s cultural relations with compatriots abroad was set up in Soviet Lithuania in 1976 on the basis of previous analogous institutions. Through the society, attempts were made to control the cooperation with emigrant compatriots, disseminate the Soviet propaganda, restrict the spread of objective information, and discredit the right-wing emigration organizations that nurtured the idea of restoration of Lithuania’s independence. The aim of this paper is to review the programme of cultural exchanges with emigrants in the USA, implemented in the Soviet times, by highlighting the musical aspect. The research is based on the Cold War paradigm, the work of historians who analysed the topic, the still unexplored documentation of the Tėviškė Society, and the letters addressed to it and currently stored in the Lithuanian Special Archives. The cultural cooperation programme also included the field of tourism, which was especially useful for governmental institutions wishing to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet Lithuania to foreign visitors. It was partly supervised by the Tėviškė Society. However, this is a subject for a new study and will not be analysed in the present paper.

The debate on gastronomic culture and identity, the national heritage, national products and gastronomic nationalism, is one of the most active and popular in the contemporary public discourse. The increased importance of different identities in contemporary networked society drives the popularity of these topics. As a form of the intangible heritage, gastronomic culture is an evolving system that easily links past and present societies. In this way, the gastronomic heritage and the history of gastronomy are easily transferred to contemporary culture, and become the basis for various identities. Given that the intangible heritage operates in society through tangible representations, and that in gastronomic culture one of the most visible representations is dishes, this study analyses the communication of one of them, šaltibarščiai (cold soup), on the social network Facebook. The study aims to determine how the representation of a specific intangible element of the heritage is used to construct the Lithuanian national identity. The research has identified the most important topics of discussion, the discourses involved, and elements of the reality that are important for constructing the national identity and their interrelationships.

The movement of Vikings not for all regions of our continent was concussion of bases of public life. In Grobiņa and on Kaup Scandinavians didn’t manage to take decisive places in these settlements and their activity proceeded under strict control of local power structures. Westbaltic sacral phenomenon became the absence reason in Grobiņa and Kaup of settlements with the lines typical for the trade and craft settlement of an era of Vikings.

The question is – whether Mournful lamentations it’s local o non-local tradition? Purpose of the research: investigate music of the Mournful lamentations songs in Lithuania. The conclusions validate the hypothesis that the Mournful lamentations music in Lithuania is non – local, but brought with Lithuanian colour.

For the last 20 years, the Baltic Sea has been affected by many upheavals, not only geopolitical but also economic. They have forced