The “Kalevala” is one of the most beautiful and archaic epos in world literature. It is composed from ancient Finnish poems by Elias Lönnrot, son of a poor village tailor, who started his career as a medical doctor, but who became a Professor of the Finnish language. The “Kalevala” is supposed to be a central source of identity for a nation that has been awaking to a consciousness of itself and also Finland’s most important contribution to world literature. Archaeological and linguistic data point out that in the prehistory period the Finno-Ugric tribes had near relations with the Balts. Their contacts, even coexistence, continued for a long time. In the process of cultural assimilation the more advanced culture of the Balts dominated, and the evidence of this can be seen in the Balt loanwords for social, administrative and agricultural innovations. A lot of names of incipient village, agrarian life in Finish appear to derive from ancient Balt loan. From the Balts the Finns borrowed even the most important terms of relationship, such like family, sister, daughter, cousin, daughter-in-law. That is why in the folklore of the Balts and the Finns we can find some parallels and affinities. In comparison Finnish national epos with Lithuanian folk songs there is seen that obvious affinities have the rune of the great oak, the rune of Aina, the episode about the birth of beer. Some parallels with Lithuanian folk songs and ballads also can be seen in the rune of Kulervo. Genetic... [to full text]

Many indigenous languages have suffered irreparable damage or even extinction due to the violence of colonization and the violences that continue to be perpetrated by its successor institutions of neo-liberalism and global “development” projects. This thesis focuses on the attempts of two groups of indigenous people, the Imazighen (or Berbers) of Algeria and Morocco and the Runa (or Quechua) of Peru and Bolivia, to break these cycles of repression and revitalize their languages. A close comparison of these two groups’ struggles reveals the difficulty of transcending this assimilationist, imperialist framework, but it also highlights several successes that bode well for future efforts. Through their attempts to introduce indigenous languages into the classroom, and into the public sphere more broadly, these peoples have articulated alternate cosmologies which challenge the biases and assumptions that form the basis of western education. These cosmologies imply a direct challenge to western-occidental notions of modernity and to the institution of the modern nation-state.

This dissertation is dealing with the town of Telč and its way of living in the first half of the 20th century. The research is focused on the thorough analysis of local authorities from the social and occupational point of view, territorial origin and location of residence its various fellows. The main purpose of this is to idicate the changes which coincided with the influence of nationwide political, social and economic changes. The illustration of six Telč´s families with various professions charts their share which affected the social, cultural and public life of the town. The aim is to get an integral view of this period, therefore the grammar school staff have been included, because of their participatory role in local authorities and social life as well. Municipal and school celebrations have been included to illustrate the cultural backround of provincial town in the first half of the 20th century.