Spare Time of Social Groups

Autorica daje jezgrovit pregled podataka o korištenju slobodnog vremena društvenih grupa. Osnovni cilj ovoga rada je: utvrditi da li postoje i kolike su razlike u provođenju slobodnog vremena između pripadnika različitih socijalnih grupa u SR Hrvatskoj. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da postoje više-manje značajne razlike u provođenju slobodnog vremena društvenih grupa. Kod nekih grupa, kao što su seljaci, teško je govoriti o postojanju slobodnog vremena. Osnovni moment koji, razlikuje društvene grupe je stupanj participacije u temama i produktima kulture, a nešto manje (sub)kulturno određenje.The author presents a brief overview of survey data about spare time of different groups. The basic purpose of the article is to establish if there are differences in use of spare time and of what size they are. Results show that significant differences in the use of spare time do exist. For some groups (p.e. peasants) it is hardly possible to speak about spare time. The basic fact that differentiates social groups is the level of participation in topics and products of culture and to a lesser extent sub-cultural determination

The System of Values and the Process of Acculturation in Japan

Vrijednosti utemeljene u japanskoj kulturi predstavljaju osnovu za normiranje horizontalnih i vertikalnih odnosa kod svih društvenih grupa, od porodice do grupa povezanih radnim procesom. Analizom triju glavnih normativnih koncepata tradicionalnog Japana (on, giri i ninjo) pokušava se shvatiti oblike ponašanja i dništvenih odnosa kako tradicionalnog tako i suvremenog Japana. S druge strane, kratkom komparativno-historijskom analizom pokušava se pokazati kako je izvršena akulturacija, odnosno reinterpretacija prvenstveno kineskih i zapadnih utjecaja u funkciji racionalizacije autohtonog sistema vrijednosti, kao i tehnološkog razvoja zemlje.Values established in Japanese culture represent a basis for the standardization of horizontal and vertical relations among all social groups, from families to groups brought together by the working process. By analysing the three main normative concepts of traditional Japan (on, giri and ninjo) an effort is made to understand the forms of behaviour and social relations pertaining to traditional as well as modem Japan. On the other hand, by means of a short comparative-historical analysis, the author tries to demonstrate how acculturation has been performed, i.e. how the primarily Chinese and western influences have been reinterpreted in order to rationalize the autochtonous system of values and also the country’s technological development

Folk culture and the people: Some problems of modern conceptualization and research

The basic question this article poses is: what do the concepts of people, folk culture and folklore mean today, and can they be operationalized for the purpose of modern research work? A short analysis of the disciplines that mostly treated these subjects (ethnology, folkloristics) shows that they were not defined from the social aspect and that as time passed the basic concept (people) was reduced to only one social stratum — the peasants. This can to a certain extent be explained by the historic genesis of the disciplines themselves (ethnology and folkloristics), which started to develop in the nineteenth century whith the appearance of new national cultures. However, the main reason for this reduction is a static approach to the phenomena. Neglecting the diachronic moment necessarily narrows down the grasp of relations and processes so the fact that the cultures of some groups (strata) interfered with each other was often overlooked. Since a people is not a culturally homogeneous community but is formed by different social groups that can be very heterogeneous, research should be directed in that direction. Therefore, the author considers that the concept of subculture would be of great heuristic value when analysing the concepts of people and folk culture and would help to describe differences both among separate subcultures, and among the separate units of the same subculture. In that way the concept of people, earlier used in ethnological and folkloristic research, should be replaced by the concept of the (small) group of immediate contact based on local communities and limited by the framework of personal social relations. This shift from people to (small) group gives a new impulse to ethnological and folkloristic research because it makes urban environments the subject of modern ethnological, anthropological and folkloristic research, as well

Some Observations Concerning Cultural Ecology

U radu se razmatraju osnovna obilježja kulturne ekologije, kao i neki metodološki problemi koji se javljaju u okviru ovog pristupa. Pokušavaju se naznačiti teškoće koje se javljaju pri upotrebi osnovnih pojmova kao što su okolina i adaptacija u kontekstu objašnjenja. Ono što se zapravo pokušalo pokazati je nemogućnost preciziranja bilo kojeg od operativnih koncepata (adaptacija, okolina, sistem) koji su involvirani u kulturno-ekološki pristup. Adaptacija je proces koji se odnosi na kulturne sisteme i njihove okoline. Između kulture i okoline postoji reciprocitet odnošenja. Međutim, s tehnološkim napretkom dinamički faktor u ravnoteži kultura-okolina, sve više postaje kultura a ne okolina per se. Na taj način, ako sama okolina pretežno postane produkt kulture, pokušaji da se kultura objasni pomoću okoline postaju tautologijski.The article deals with the main features of cultural ecology as well as with some methodological issues arising within the framework of this approach. The author is trying to point out the difficulties appearing in connection with the usage of the principle concepts such as environment and adaptation in the explanatory sense. She wishes to demonstrate the impossibility to specify any one of the operational concepts (adaptation, environment, system) involved in the cultural-ecological approach. Adaptation is the process referring to cultural systems and their environments. Culture and environment partake in a reciprocal relationship. However, along with the technological development, the dynamic factor in the equipoise culture-environment has been all the time becoming more culture and less environment per se. Therefore, if the environment itself becomes predominantly the product of culture, the attempts to define culture in terms of environment may prove tautological