Číslo 4, roč. 108 (2021)

Language is a key element in the perception, formation, and reproduction of landscapes and group boundaries. It is effective in at least three dimensions, namely, the inner/cognitive, the outward/appropriative, and the collective/identitarian. The inner dimension refers to the fact that our perception of landscape and our spatial cognition are determined, to a large extent, by the linguistic terms and grammatical structures specific to our language. The outward dimension refers to the capacity of language to project linguistically- and culturally-determined understandings into the physical world and create and appropriate places and landscapes by the act of naming. Finally, the collective dimension points to the importance of the linguistic delimitation of landscapes and their association with group identities. The article summarizes crucial recent findings in all three of the aforementioned dimensions and suggests possibilities for further research.

The Argentinian garden city of Lomas del Palomar was formerly, socially and spatially, a very specific neighbourhood in Argentina. It was designed by the German architect Zeyen and was built on a human scale with a self-contained community. Recently, it has been undergoing a material and inner transformation. Elements such as high fences, security cameras and multi-storey buildings that do not respect the original character of the place have had an impact on the residents’ attachment to the place of their home. Employing Setha Low’s theoretical approach of spatialized culture (2017), the aim of this paper is to show how the residents of Ciudad Jardín Lomas del Palomar are attached to the place of their home and neighbourhood and how this attachment is reconceptualized through the current socio-spatial changes of the place. Based on ethnographic research, this paper seeks to explore how these changes affect the spatialized culture of a place through the residents’ everyday perception.

Based on an ethnographic study of ‘Western’ forms of contemporary shamanism in North East Scotland, the article discusses the significant role that eremitism plays in folk healing systems, particularly in shamanism. The tendency to live an isolated life is not only a key feature of traditional shamanic healing practices, but it can also be found in contemporary manifestations of them. Two such cases are discussed in this article. Terry Mace and Norman Duncan are two contemporary shamanic healers who live and offer services in the wider region of North East Scotland. For different individual reasons, they have self-consciously decided to isolate themselves geographically, living simply and self-abundantly, and leading an eremitic way of life away from materialism and socialising. The article thus focuses on examining the role of eremitism in the life of these two healers in an attempt to highlight the significance of the phenomenon in contemporary shamanisms.

Carpathian shepherding, i.e., seasonal mountain cattle farming is an inseparable part of life in the highland of eastern Moravia and Silesia, regardless of the debate as to its origins and extent. It is possible to observe not only the blending of what were essentially mountain practices with the domestic peasant tradition, but also the use of this method of farming across social groups. In one lithograph by the well-known Moravian painter and graphic artist František Kalivoda (1824–1859), in the sheep pasture above Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, there is an unusually large structure, which is presumed to be a sheepshed. This has not yet been reflected in the ethnography of these lands. The research, which was based primarily on archival, ethnological and archaeological research, complements the well-known but very fragmentary facts about mountain farming under manorial management and reconstructs the architectural form of the building and its functions.