Recent progress in discovering the role of carotenoids and metabolites in prostatic physiology and pathology - a review - part II : carotenoids in the human studies

Among the vast variety of plant-derived phytochemicals, the group of carotenoids has continuously been investigated in order to optimize their potential application in the area of dietary intervention related to chronic diseases. One organ that has been especially targeted in many of these studies and clinical trials is the human prostate. Without doubt, carotenoids (and their endogenous derivatives—retinoids and apo-carotenoids) are involved in a plethora of intra- and intercellular signaling, cell growth, and differentiation of prostate tissue. Due to the accumulation of new data on the role of different carotenoids, such as lycopene (LYC) and β-carotene (BC), in prostatic physiology and pathology, the present review aimed to cover the past ten years of research in this regard. Data from experimental studies are presented in the first part of the review, while epidemiological studies are disclosed in this second part. The objective of this compilation was to emphasize the present state of knowledge about the most potent molecular targets of carotenoids, as well as to propose promising carotenoid agents for the prevention and possible treatment of prostatic diseases

In the Search of a Paradigm of the Anthropology of Religion

In our anthropological considerations today we refer to the conclusions given by C. Geertz. They may seem to have only a historical character. The paper sought to show symptoms which prove that Geertz's thought has not so much been revitalized as its success has never been on the wane. Similarly as in the case of British anthropology, which is in principal pursued in the functional-structural spirit, bringing to mind the „immortal” figure of Malinowski, so Geertz's works were read in the United States in the 1960s. At the moment, they are also read in Indonesia, in such countries as, for instance, China, Germany, Russia, Holland, or Portugal

The Problem of Sacrum in African Studies

In the context of post-modernist anthropology with its conception of the "elusiveness of sense" in a given sign we demonstrate, on the comparative material (Sudan, Ghana), the value of SACRUM as a meaningful and "inherent structure of cultural reality." We refer to the works of E. E. Evans-Pritchard (E-P) Nuer Religion, G. Lienhardt's Divinity and Experience (both anthropologists are the disciples of B. Malinowski) and many studies of H. Zimoń. The latter is an Africanist working at the Catholic University of Lublin; we also mention C. Geertz, an American anthropologist. The latter is not connected with Africanist studies, but by introducing Mircea Eliade's model of sacrum into the province of anthropology, has become a significant figure, in the level of anthropological research on religion. The works of British functional anthropologists, the exception here is E-P's Nuer Religion, fail to notice other works than E. Durkheim's conception of art. Durkheim associated the categories of sacrum with society and everything that was social was sacred, and therefore unquestioned. Some anthropologists had doubts as to the effectiveness of Durkheim's reductionist model of sacrum and functional-utilitarian conception of religious actions understood as a magic behavior. E-P noticed those difficulties and the image KWOTH with the Nuer, he brought to mind, is a phenomenological attempt to analyze religious phenomena. Sacrum, according to Eliade, is beyond time, but on the other hand it always, in a mysterious way, comprises time and space. H. Zimoń takes up this point, including Eliade's model of sacrum in the analyses on the religious rituals among the people of, among other things, Konkomba in Ghana. He proved that this value in African cultures has a transcultural meaning

Why Do We Need Anthropology? On the Mutual Penetration of Discourses on Culture/Spiritual Culture

Świat współczesny to świat wielokulturowy i chyba już zdążyliśmy do tego przywyknąć – przynajmniej większość z nas. Stąd codziennie, na przykład w pracy, staramy się pokonywać dzielące nas różnice, szukając porozumienia z kimś, o kim tak naprawdę niewiele wiemy. Choć rozumiemy go, to jednak nie jesteśmy w stanie „wczuć” się w jego świat. Antropologia kulturowa/interpretacyjna, której naturalnym kontekstem jest „globalna wioska”, pomaga nam oswoić „Innego”. Odwołując się do wybranych koryfeuszy antropologii starałem się krok po kroku budować nić porozumienia z „kimś”, kto nie przynależy do mojego świata i nigdy tak nie będzie. W propozycji tej nie zasypuję różnic, i właśnie mimo tych różnic, szukam porozumienia z „kimś”, za którym stoi inna, niepowtarzalna tradycja. Porozumienie jest możliwe, gdyż wszyscy jesteśmy ludźmi, ale „skrojeni” na miarę własnej kultury. Antropologia interpretacyjna to osobliwa propozycja spotykająca się najczęściej z filozofią kultury i z literaturą.The modern world is a multicultural world and we have probably got used to it—at least most of us have. Hence, every day, for example at work, we try to overcome the differences that divide us, seeking to communicate with someone about whom we really know very little. Although we understand the person, we are unable to „empathise” with his or her world. Cultural/interpretive anthropology, whose natural context is the „global village”, helps us to domesticate the „Other”. Referring to selected coryphaeuses of anthropology, I tried to build step by step the thread of understanding with „someone” who does not belong to my world and never will. In this proposal, I do not sugar-coat the differences, and it is precisely in spite of these differences that I seek agreement with the „someone” behind whom stands a different, unique tradition. Agreement is possible because we are all human, but ‘tailored’ to our own culture. Interpretive anthropology is a peculiar proposal that meets most often with philosophy of culture and with literature

The Borders of Symbolic Culture. An Anthropological Perspective

within symbolic cultures - which, when crossed, chaos and feeling of senselessness, and instability sneak into man’s experience? The paradigm of post-modernist culture concentrates mainly on the concept of sense. To create or „unveil” it is an essential element of cultural process. Among many meanings of sense the basic one is that which refers to being-value as the source of sense. Questioning this concept of sense - in the case of post-modernist destruction - does not mean „death” of the problem of sense. Nor does it mean in the ethnology of religion, respectively, „death” of the problem of Sacrum. Geertz brought to our minds the image of culture in the form of manuscript. It is full of blanks and undertones, yet there is some minimum of coherence. Among many cultural symbols Geertz lists those which point to an idea of order, broadly speaking, a contradiction to chaos. This idea is an antidote to an existential and basic fear, a fear that stems from disharmony between that which is and that which should be. Mention in the title has been made of borders. They are borders of, sometimes different, paradigms of symbolic culture. It seems that they are included in the consensus (Geertz) as to the basic values like life, good, and bad. In the religious language they mean recognition for the category of Sacrum as a transcultural value