Res Humanitariae

The article deals with the “theater” of entertainment world as issue of mediated society. Modern Western society can be called a mediated society for a strong impact of new, global media. Under these conditions, society, culture and everyday life is increasingly interpreted using a model of theatre and theatrical metaphors. Theatre is becoming one of the key concepts of the modern Western social categories, such as the use of concepts as simulation or society of the spectacle. Regarding to the wide spread of the new – digital media, especially the Internet, in recent decades of Western society, has increased the consumption of popular culture, one might say, began the era of the entertainment world. This study – one of the first attempts to analyze the philosophical Lithuania entertainment world phenomenon: the genesis, structure, impact on society. This article analyzes the phenomenon of entertainment world: its genesis, structure, impact on society. The objective: to explore the causes and trends of mass spread of the phenomenon of entertainment world in contemporary Western culture as an integral part of a technological breakthrough result of new media. The analysis of the phenomenon of entertainment world aims to: 1) explore genesis, causes and objectives of the world of entertainment as a cultural phenomenon and to reflect critically its forms of thinking and lifestyle; 2) reveal the structure of the entertainment world in twenty-first century society of the spectacle; 3) analyze the influence of the media impact to the entertainment world.

The purpose of the article is to determine the typological characteristics of decoration of the delmonas of Lithuania Minor and of the national costume pockets of neighbouring nations. This article discusses Klaipėda region delmonas, the pockets of Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian costume, and the attachable pockets of noble class’s attire of various nations preserved in museums. The decorations of the pockets were studied to support or refute the influence of the fashion of nobility and of international relations on folk costume decor formation and change. The research allowed to identify the decorating techniques, pattern variation and matching features of the pockets.

The present article presents analysis of the dances Heiduka and Szala rutele of the inhabitants of the Lithuania Minor described by Matas Pretorijus in the 17th century. The article discusses the parallels between the dances hereinabove with the later variants of these dances described in the territory of the Lithuania Minor – in Klaipėda region and a certain part of Königsberg area (current Kaliningrad Oblast) – and in Samogitia in the 17–20th centuries. The interrelationship and change of the purpose, forms and figures of dances are analyzed.

In terms of date of recording the earlier and most interesting Lithuanian musical folklore material, the 64 songs of Prussian Lithuanians collected in the 19th century and preserved in the L. Rėza archival legacy, have more or less never been considered in terms of influences from a multicultural environment. The aim of this article is to discover and reveal the Lithuanian and/or German/European relationship in the songs. Analysis of the songs showed the archaity of the melodies in the L. Rėza legacy, traditionally associated with the spiritual culture of the ancient Prussian or Lithuanian tribes, is highly suspect and a matter open to debate. Many of the rare individual songs turned out to have “foreign melodies”, i.e., local variations arose based upon direct or indirect influence by German or common European melodies.

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.

This article presents burial rites of State of Lithuania in the 13th and 14th centuries, reveals its features and searches for the interaction between the burial rites and the development of the society. Burial rites are analyzed in a broad context of processes: the spreading of the cremation, the reformation of the religion, the unification of the material culture, the disappearance of regional differences and the establishment of the Lithuanian nation. Furthermore, the data of anthropology and genetics is examined. In the article, the burial rites of the 13th and 14th centuries are seen as an integral part of the evolution of State of Lithuania.

The article is intended to introduce the topicality of one subdialect (namely, Northern Samogitians of Kretinga) referring to and defining its sociocultural identity, i.e. the usage of subdialect, and various factors, which have the most important role – sufficiently developed infrastructure, predominating ideology and the positive attitudes based on value system of users of the dialect.

This article gives an insight into the vocabulary of one of the sub-dialects of the Central dialect of the Latvian language – namely, the sub-dialect spoken in Bārta, a place in South-Western Kurzeme. The focus of the article is on those lexical units of the Bārta sub-dialect that are included in one of the most important works of Latvian linguistics – the Latvian Language Dictionary (1923–1932) and it’s Appendix (1934–1946), compiled and published by Kārlis Mīlenbahs, Jānis Endzelīns and Edīte Hauzenberga. The material analyzed here is taken from the electronic version of the Latvian Language Dictionary (www.tezaurs.lv/mev). The vocabulary of the Bārta sub-dialect is represented there by approximately 660 words, among which there are 330 nouns, 253 verbs, 38 adjectives, 30 adverbs, 7 particles, 2 interjections, 2 conjunctions, and 1 preposition.

The article proceeds with the issues of the origin and evolution of the Lithuanian prayers and analyzes the beginning of the Sign of the cross and the Crossing formula. The linguistic analysis of the prayers was conducted by Zigmas Zinkevičius in the scientific study of language Lithuanian prayers in 2000; however, the features of the Sign of the cross or the Crossing formula and their relation to the Gospel were not highlighted, the wider context and the question whether the authors, translators and publishers have written the prayers in translations or original or semi-original writings, such as the cathechisms, theological treatises, postillas (educational writings) or the collection of prayers and prayer-books, also hymnals, were not taken into account. It is essential whether the text of the prayers is written in the translation of the Bible text, found in the citation from the Bible or freely recreated paraphrasing or remaking extracts or prayers from the Bible. The text of the Gospel in which Jesus Christ tells his disciples the christening formula (Mt 28, 19–20) is not the Crossing formula yet. It is necessary to perform the textual analysis and compare the respective passage with the originals.The object of research consists of the translations published in Prussia and GDL in the 16–17th centuries with the sources and original and semi-original texts.The aim of the article is to determine the origin of the variation of the beginning phrase of the Sign of the cross (Crossing formula). The tasks: 1) compare the beginning of the Crossing formula or the Sign of the cross with the originals, 2) examine the effect of various languages (Latin, German and Polish to begin with), 3) determine the origin of the insert God in the Lithuanian Crossing formula, 4) systemize and describe the results of comparative analysis.

The article deals withan old handwritten text found in the book Logica parva, finalised in 1440 in Canea, a city of Crete (presently, Chania). After the overview of the versions of reading and translation proposed by Stephan Kessler and Stephen Mossman, and Ilja Lemeškin, all the words in the text, their spelling, and their interrelations are analysed and compared with the respective materials of all Baltic languages; the possibilities of different interpretation of the words and word combinations in the enigmatic text are looked for.