The Cultural Messages of Pyramid House in Palembang

Pyramid House in Palembang is one of the works of art that is still very interesting to be researched today. The problem raised in this study aims to analyze the cultural message of the Pyramid House in Palembang. The method used is a qualitative method with a case study research design. The data collection techniques include observation, interviews, and document study. The results showed that in the manufacture of the Pyramid house, the main construction of traditional buildings used wood construction and a stilt system. The foundation used the construction of piles, the walls used boards, the roof used a leaf or shingle roof. The core parts consisted of the roof of the house, the door, the window, the stairs, and the floor of the house. In general, the typical architectural form of the Pyramid House, namely, the roof was shaped like a severed pyramid. Besides, the uniqueness of the house located in its multi-storey shape (kijing) and the walls were made of wood shaped like planks. Then related to the house name Pyramid, it contained two special meanings, namely, Five and Gold. The word five means the number five, while gold means the precious metal of great value. This is also a symbol of the function of the Pyramid house.

MUSE360: Integrated System of Analysis and Museum Planning

MUSE360 intends to offer a powerful open tool for the overall analysis of cultural reality, involving actors and receptors of the cultural message, capable of providing a valid indicator of the state of the museum art, of bringing students—future professionals in the sector—closer together, solving many problems in cultural heritage management, assisting in the timely and satisfactory design and implementation of solutions linked to the cultural needs of a complex and diversified user, as well as bringing out new ideas and possibilities for the sustainability of the cultural heritage.

The Image of BREAD in Lithuanian Dictionaries

The bread in one form or another has been known to people all over the world. Linguistic data and rites show that the Lithuanians have been eating bread since ancient times. Bread is mentioned in the small-form verbal folklore, songs, sagas, fairy tales, beliefs and various rites. In ancient times the bread was personalised and deified. The examples from the dialect dictionaries were also included into the research because every dialectal saying is an example of cultural message, manifestation of tradition nurturance and preservation, a part of cultural heritage, which links the past with the present. The dialectal examples show, what is deep-rooted in the tradition, what is passed down from generation to generation, what lies in the traditional value system and what makes the essence of an ethnic group. Due to these reasons the dialectal texts have a huge public or cultural value as they denote a content that is significant to a certain community. Having completed the analysis of dialectal discourse, it can be stated that various dictionaries construct the following picture of the concept bread: bread is the main meal of people, it is baked from different kinds of cereal flours, it is respected and saved, it has healing powers; the bread baked at home is the most delicious; if there is no bread, a person starves; to have bread all the time one has to work hard because baking bread is labour-intensive work, which has to be performed with knowledge and love, to make bread delicious and fragrant, calamus, cabbage or maple leaves are put under a loaf of bread, it is decorated or marked with sacred signs; an individual equals bread with human activity and appearance; bread is a measure of life, a reference point for evaluating certain actions. The place of bread in the human life is reflected by derivates as well: special things, capacities for mixing, souring, baking, slicing or keeping bread; other meals prepared from bread.

Preventing Post-Conflict Terrorism in Poso through Message of Peace: A Case Study of Peace-Striving Khalifah Group

This study discussed a Peace-Striving Khalifah Group which consisted of several former convicts of terrorism case of Poso conflict. This study used a qualitative approach with case study method. The results revealed that the motivators and the activators of the Peace-Striving Khalifah Group were using a cultural message model at the self-disclosure stage. The cultural approach was used as a whole. While the psychological approach was not recognized as an initial route by motivators. The ideologies of the former terrorist convicts who were members of the Peace-Striving Khalifah Group were filled with issues of Khilafah, Pancasila, Thaghut and Takfir. One of the conveyed messages models of the group was peaceful-style religious da'wah which included inclusive da'wah messages and respect to the diversity of the people. The role of da'wah brought by the group thought a kind and soothing da'wah which is respected the people.

Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Notturno, the book of the Italian war: Political commitment, national regeneration and its ideological roots

This article argues that Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Notturno conveys a conscious political and cultural message which is consequent of his long-lasting political commitment to the nation. This political value of the book has been mainly overlooked. Therefore, the first part of the article shows the locations of the political and war-related content, and how the book can be considered as a war diary. Moreover, the first part of the article relates the Notturno to d’Annunzio’s political project for the nation at the time when the book was composed (1915–1921). The aim of this part is to dispel the enduring critical misinterpretation of the Notturno as an intimate collection of memories and visions and to foreground its national value. The second part of the article addresses the roots of the Notturno’s political message from a literary point of view by relating it to the national commitment underlying d’Annunzio’s works since the 1880s. This commitment is based on the revalorization in the author’s literary works of the Italian national past, in particular of the 16th century, where d’Annunzio continues and renews the national storytelling of the Risorgimento.

Myślenie krytyczne w ujęciu psychopedagogicznym — w kierunku poznawczej samodzielności i odpowiedzialności jednostki

Critical thinking in terms of psycho‐pedagogy: towards individual cognitive independence and responsibility: The paper is devoted to the methods of recognition and development of critical thinking. In the initial part synthetically are presented the views of researchers connected with an education perspective (the definition and features of critical thinking). Within this aspect crucial appears the question: why are we afraid of criticism? What are the reasons why we do not apply it in contact with the cultural message, with the opinions and actions of people? For relatively seldom is it used as a support in discussion, in making decisions and choices. In an attempt to answer such formulated problems presented is an outline of the author’s classification for inhibitors that prevent or hinder the application of critical thinking. Here the main claim is that in the modern world of news excess and the chaos of values, critical thinking as a manifestation of cognitive self‐reliance and responsibility should become the competence characterizing each individual. Hence, the author formulates some recommendations concerning pedagogical practice. They are implied from the author’s concept of constructive criticism, the adopted the principles and methods supporting critical thinking.

“The Bravo Boys” Band versus Mozart: the Issue of Cultural Message in Contemporary German Language Textbooks

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had to give way to The Bravo Boys music band. This is what the authors of the textbook entitled Ping Pong 1 and Ping Pong neu 2 have decided to do in the current edition of their book. So, they decided to replace its contents concerning the Composer himself and other representatives of classical music with the report from the concert of the BB. The article attempts to determine who, what characters from the real world populate in contemporary German textbooks, what cultural content it has and whether or not it conforms with the core curriculum standards of the Polish education system. To this end, selected German language textbooks have been analyzed along with the practice material offered by them. The authors of examined textbooks have almost completely abandoned depicting representatives of high culture, of German culture. They have been replaced with representatives of mass culture: mainly models, actors, athletes as well as politicians. Their common feature is the fact that they are universally known: the majority are celebrities while some of them are scandalists. The fact that these persons can be easily recognized seems to increase the students’ learning involvement, but it cannot constitute the only criterion of such selection. The article stresses the responsibility of textbook authors for the quality of cultural message addressed to children and teenagers.

These Honored Dead: Sacrifice Narratives in the American Rifleman

This paper presents a case study of how a fringe idea moves into the cultural mainstream. In its cultural and political project to defend the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association (NRA) embraced New War culture, a counter-cultural response to the trauma of the war in Vietnam, which extended warrior honor to armed men defending their families from an increasingly hostile world and a suspect government that might try to disarm them. Using textual analysis of the American Rifleman, we explore how the NRA co-opted narratives of soldiers' sacrifice for the nation to promote a New War cultural message. We find that magazine contributors retooled the traditional narrative to feature non-military protagonists, to differentiate the nation from the government, and to spotlight freedom as a sacrificial cause. With their strong civil religious overtones, the NRA's sacrifice narratives served as value-laden signposts that elevated the Second Amendment to a sacred God-given freedom, extended the consecration from sacrifice to encompass their mainstream audience of gun owners, and identified political and cultural enemies. These classic American narratives of soldiers’ sacrifice for the nation were thus co-opted to deliver a simultaneously patriotic and anti-government counter-cultural message that would resonate with mainstream American culture.

Translanguaging Practices in Indonesian Pop Songs

This paper focuses on the practice of translanguaging in Indonesian pop songs and highlights the possible reasons behind the practice. In this study, translanguaging is viewed from the context of the Indonesian singers’ linguistic repertoire, which allows varieties in the production (Canagarajah, 2013) of the songs. Three pop songs, composed by the singers themselves, are used for samples. The result indicates that translanguaging, performed using Indonesian and English, is utilized by the artists as a strategy to exercise their agency, either as Indonesian artists or as members of the global society. Translanguaging in the pop songs is not merely seen as a commercial activity, but it is also a deliberate practice which will attract the attention of the audience. The reasons behind the translanguaging practice indicate three things, namely (1) as a means to convey a cultural message, (2) as a means for meaning-making, and (3) as a means of gaining fame.

At the Queen’s Hall with E.M. Forster and Jean Laplanche

In E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End, we are introduced to the way in which the characters in the story listen to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In this article, I draw on the work of the French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche to suggest that music constitutes an enigmatic cultural message that returns us to the ‘scene of primal seduction’; a myth of human origins that takes the encounter with an enigmatic other as constitutive of human subjectivity. Reading Howards End through the lens of Laplanche, I discuss how Forster’s characters respond to Beethoven’s message and conclude with a brief discussion about issues of inheritance and alterity.