Historical Dictionary of Albania
Historical Dictionary of Albania

Author: Robert Elsie

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2010-03-19

Total Pages: 663

ISBN-13: 081087380X

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Albania is not well known by outsiders; it was deliberately closed to the outside world during the communist era. Now it has thankfully become free again, its borders are open and it can be visited, and it is increasingly integrating with the rest of Europe and beyond. Unfortunately, Albania has had its share of problems in the post-communist era; it's a land of destitution and despair, thanks in part to the Albanian mafia, which has turned the country into one of blood-feuds, kalashnikovs, and eternal crises. Yet, Albania is, in essence, a European nation like any other and will soon, it is to be hoped, advance and take its proper place in Europe and the world. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Albania relates the history of this little-known country through a detailed chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, appendixes, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, and events; institutions and organizations; and political, economic, social, cultural, and religious facets.

Roots of Ancient Greek Civilization
Roots of Ancient Greek Civilization

Author: Harald Haarmann

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-09-17

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0786478276

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Contrary to a prevalent belief of the Western world, that democracy, agriculture, theater and the arts were the attainments of Classical Greek civilization, these were actually a Bronze Age fusion of earlier European concepts and Hellenic ingenuity. This work considers both the multicultural wellspring from which these ideas flowed and their ready assimilation by the Greeks, who embraced these hallmarks of civilization, and refined them to the level of sophistication that defines classical antiquity.

The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture
The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture

Author: Janet Sturman

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 5212

ISBN-13: 1506353371

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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture presents key concepts in the study of music in its cultural context and provides an introduction to the discipline of ethnomusicology, its methods, concerns, and its contributions to knowledge and understanding of the world′s musical cultures, styles, and practices. The diverse voices of contributors to this encyclopedia confirm ethnomusicology′s fundamental ethos of inclusion and respect for diversity. Combined, the multiplicity of topics and approaches are presented in an easy-to-search A-Z format and offer a fresh perspective on the field and the subject of music in culture. Key features include: Approximately 730 signed articles, authored by prominent scholars, are arranged A-to-Z and published in a choice of print or electronic editions Pedagogical elements include Further Readings and Cross References to conclude each article and a Reader’s Guide in the front matter organizing entries by broad topical or thematic areas Back matter includes an annotated Resource Guide to further research (journals, books, and associations), an appendix listing notable archives, libraries, and museums, and a detailed Index The Index, Reader’s Guide themes, and Cross References combine for thorough search-and-browse capabilities in the electronic edition

Five Albanian Villages
Five Albanian Villages

Author: Antonio Laurìa

Publisher: Firenze University Press

Published: 2020-12-27

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 8855181742

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This book is the result of a research project designed and carried out at the Department of Architecture, University of Florence. This research was based on the transfer of knowledge from members of the Albanian Diaspora in Italy (university students, young architects and researchers) to their home country. This unique process blazed a trail in the Albania-related studies by creating a methodology, which could be replicated not only in Albanian rural contexts, but also elsewhere. The book constitutes a structured tool for generating sustainable and socially inclusive territorial development processes in five lesser-known Albanian cultural sites. Their tangible and intangible cultural heritage was seen as a driving factor for triggering development processes aimed at improving the inhabitants’ quality of life and strengthening local identity and social networks. Through concrete proposals and strategies, the book offers scenarios and solutions capable of enhancing the potential of each village and, at the same time, counteracting the effects of land abandonment that so often characterise them.

Audiovisual Media and Identity Issues in Southeastern Europe
Audiovisual Media and Identity Issues in Southeastern Europe

Author: Eckehard Pistrick

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2011-05-25

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1443831417

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The edited volume Audiovisual Media and Identity Issues in Southeastern Europe is an attempt to meet the challenges of text-based scholarship, to break medial one-dimensionality dictated by textuality and to shift the focus to the aural and visual dimensions of identity in a part of Europe heavily marked by the dynamics of political, cultural and social change, particularly during the last decades. The objective of this endeavour is to examine identity in Southeastern Europe by means of its communication media, specifically that of the photographic image and the sound recording. How are identities communicated? How are they performed and made physically perceptible? Brought to a point, the primary issue is one of how people perceive themselves and their environment on the basis of communication media, seen through a lens of different disciplines (social anthropology, ethnomusicology, media studies, sociology and history) and methodologies from the point of view of scholars from Southeastern Europe and their Western European colleagues. The book pursues a distinct comparative and historical perspective, examining the media representations from socialist and pre-socialist periods in relation to the role media play in the postsocialist discourse. Another focus is laid on local media representations and their impact on local self-images. This distinct historical and local approach allows new insights into how identities are constructed, performed and negotiated in the light of media, resulting in different forms of interpreting, re-appropriating and re-evaluting the past and traditions. This opens up questions on the role of media in relation to cultural policies and their potential to preserve or to transform local cultural heritage. The book is also an important contribution to the field of postsocialist studies in anthropology. It sheds a distinct cultural view on postsocialist transformation processes. Through a wide range of examples and first-hand results of basic field research from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Albania and Slovenia this volume provides an opportunity for a comparative reconsideration of similar phenomena across national borders. It may serve also as a methodological reference work for scholars who are interested in the different ways of how to develop and practice “media reflexivity” in their own field research.

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

Author: Ruth M. Stone

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-25

Total Pages: 3969

ISBN-13: 135154411X

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The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music is a ten-volume reference work, organized geographically by continent to represent the musics of the world in nine volumes. The tenth volume houses reference tools and descriptive information about the encyclopedia’s structure, criteria for inclusion and other information specific to the field of ethnomusicology. An award-winning reference, its contributions are from top researchers around the world who were active in fieldwork and from key institutions with programs in ethnomusicology. GEWM has become a familiar acronym, and it remains highly revered for its scholarship, uncontested in being the sole encompassing reference work with a broad survey of world music. More than 9,000 pages, with musical illustrations, photographs and drawings, it is accompanied by 300+ audio examples.

Edi Hila
Edi Hila

Author: Éric de Chassey

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9788364177538

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"Hila was born in Shkodra in 1944, and lives and works in Tirana. During his studies in the 1960s he experimented timidly with deformation. In 1972 he painted "Planting of Trees", a pleasant picture rendered slightly unreal through the use of color, which because of its departure from the approved socialist realist doctrine, soon became a pretext for ordering him to work in a poultry processing plant, where his main task was hauling sacks. In the evenings he secretly created a series of drawings documenting the life of the workers (the "Poultry" series, 1975-76), harrowing in their raw realism. In the 1990s, seeking a path back to painting, Hila carefully observed life evolving after the fall of Enver Hoxha's regime and tried to depict the realities of the Albanian transformation. In Hila's view the Eastern European experience is stripped of accident or adventure typical of many presentations of this time, giving it instead the weight of distilled general truths, as if he were its final chronicler. An influential teacher, Edi Hila was formerly professor at the Tirana Academy of Fine Arts where he taught the well-regarded contemporary artists Anri Sala and Adrian Paci, as well the artist, writer, politician, and current Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama."--Site Web du musée