Научный архив: статьи

This article examines the transformation of ancestor worship in the context of socio-political and religious conditions and identifies the characteristics of worship in contemporary Japanese society and the changes in the form of practices and functions of this worship occurring today. Ancestor worship is not a phenomenon unique to traditional societies: in the 21 st century Japan, ancestor worship rituals are practiced by a large part of the population. After World War II, Japanese veneration practices underwent significant changes. The post-war modernization and urbanization of Japanese society played a major role in these changes, leading to the breakdown of the traditional family system. The concept of ancestor itself changes: the concept of ancestor tends to expand and begins to extend bilaterally (to both the husband and wife lines). There has been a transition from the “obligatory” concept of an ancestor, which includes all deceased ancestors in the direct line of succession regardless of personal preferences, to an “optional” one, which limits the concept of “ancestor” to close relatives whose memories are dear to the descendant. With the change in the concept of the ancestor, the functions of ancestor veneration also undergo a transformation: the former functions of veneration rituals contributed to the stability of the ie system, while the new ones consist in relieving psychological tensions between the living and the dead and bringing comfort to particular people. There has been a “privatization” of ancestor veneration, i. e., a growing dominance of personal functions in veneration. Diversification of family types, especially pronounced in the first decades of the 21st century, is also reflected in the rites of ancestor veneration: alternatives to traditional funerals and new forms of burial and storage of remains are appearing. The article concludes that, despite changes in the functions and forms of ancestor worship, the place given to the dead in their lives by the living remains invariably important. And the individualization of veneration practices and the undying belief of a large part of the Japanese population in the power of ancestor spirits indicate that the ancestor cult in contemporary Japan is apparently at the next stage of its unfolding, but by no means of extinction

The hermit poet Kamo-no Chō mei compiled a collection of tales about the awakening of the heart (Hosshinshū, c. 1216), continuing and updating the tradition of setsuwa collections of didactic tales. The peculiarities of the collection can be explained on the basis of the changes in the life of the Japanese Buddhist community that took place at the turn of the 12 th and 13 th centuries. The main characters of the tales are hermits, “escapees from the world,” and different aspects of their lives are discussed in the thematic sections of the collection. In addition to the tales, the book contains discussions of difficult questions of Buddhist preaching: how to treat death and love, one’s own body, the poetic word, and what a person can rely on if he or she wants to try to follow the Buddha’s path in the “evil age”. In addition to the Lotus Sutra, which gave the book its title and one of its narrative forms, the sources of the Hosshinshū include the sutras about the Pure Land and Genshin’s Ōjō y ō shū, as well as several other sutras and treatises that were common property of various schools in Japan. Chō mei includes both good and bad examples from the life of the Japanese Buddhist community in his book, with only occasional reference to India and China, and confines himself mainly to events recent and contemporary

Рассмотрены особенности электрофизических свойств n(p)-Hg1-xCdxTe (x = 0,21–0,23) с диэлектриками Al2O3 или SiO2/Si3N4. Пленки HgCdTe были выращены методом молекулярнолучевой эпитаксии на подложках из GaAs(013) и Si (013). Обсуждены возможности определения основных параметров МДП-структур на основе n(p)-Hg1-xCdxTe (x = 0,21–0,23) с варизонным слоем и без варизонного слоя из адмиттанса структур, измеренного в широком диапазоне температур и частот.

This article discusses the function of the murder motif in M. C. Hansen’s prose. It shows that this motif is strongly related to the author’s quest for novel ways to represent reality, his ambition to portray the private lives of everyday Norwegians, and his goal to illustrate the moral development — or, on the contrary, the degeneration — of his characters. A crucial plot-forming device, the motif of murder is frequently combined with the motif of insanity as retaliation for the committed crime. It is possible to see how a critical view of modernity gradually replaces the distinct religious pathos of Hansen’s early prose (Den gale Christian (The Mad Christian), Keadan, eller Klosterruinen (Keadan, or the Abbey Ruins), Novellen (The Short Story), Den myrdede brudgom (The Murdered Groom)), inevitably leading to the emergence of a new kind of hero. The nature of this hero is determined by the surroundings and environment, the narrative becomes more psychologizing, and the interest in daily life takes the place of the theme of the moral revival (Jutulskoppen (The Troll Mountain) and Mordet på Maskinbygger Roolfsen (The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen)). Hansen’s writings from this time period are distinguished by a tragic perspective. The notion of a moral revival of man loses its appeal to the author. He feels that profit and vanity have replaced love, and that true feelings are doomed to vanish. The themes of mistrust between close people, the corruption of the ruling class, the oppressed position of the people, and the inability to escape from social oppression take on a new significance. We discover that Hansen’s interest in the everyday and private lives of regular people is linked to his search for artistic research tools, whereas the motifs of murder and crime investigation aid the writer in creating a vivid and accurate picture of contemporary Norwegian society while also making his narratives more entertaining

The article introduces Alexander Kuchin and his “Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary”, which was published in 1907 by the publishing house “Pomor” (Finnmarken) in Vardø (Norway) and was very popular at that time. Its author, Alexander Stepanovich Kuchin, a man with a unique destiny, is known to compatriots as the only Russian who participated in the discovery of the South Pole in the Roald Amundsen’s expedition, and also as the first of our countrymen who, after the discovery of Antarctica in 1820 by the expedition of Faddey F. Bellingshausen and Michael P. Lazarev, landed on the coast of the Southern continent. A talented young man who died in the expedition of Vladimir A. Rusanov at the age of only 25, made a great contribution to science, research and navigation. Born in the village of Kushereka in the Onega district of the Arkhangelsk province, Alexander received a good education for that time. He graduated from a two-grade parochial school in Kushereka, brilliantly studied at the Onega City School, attended classes at the Tromsø school for a year and was the only one in the course graduated from the Arkhangelsk Merchant and Maritime School with a gold medal. He read H. Ibsen, K. Hamsun, J. Falkberget and other writers in the original. Alexander was also lucky to work at the biological station in Bergen under the direction of Bjørn Hjelland-Hansen, one of the founders of oceanography as a science; here he also met Fridtjof Nansen, one of the national Norwegian heroes, which played a significant role in A. Kuchin’s life. The “Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary” was published in 2,000 copies and was very popular that time. The dictionary contains around 4,000 words on 48 pages. There are no proper names in it, but at the end of the dictionary basic information about the phonetics and grammar of the Norwegian language is disposed. It is focused on Russian users and arouses undoubted interest among linguists, since it appeared in 1907, two years after the termination of the union with Sweden. It is valuable that Alexander Kuchin, not being a linguist, fixed the language used by common people such as fishermen and trawlermen in the North of Norway (particularly in Finnmark and Troms). Such a democratic version of the language is also of special scientific interest. In general, the dictionary was caused by necessity, appeared at a proper time, was well compiled and completely fulfilled the functions assigned to it

В статье используются поэтические подсказки Поля Верлена и Александра Блока о возникновении и претворении в жизнь поэзии, человеческого и всеобщего самоосуществления. Развивается предложенная Терренсом Диконом логика универсальной эволюции. Автор прибегает к кумулятивному семиотическому разрешению Степанова: Язык-1, Язык-2, Язык-3. Вслед за Флойдом Мерреллом и Ежи Пельцем автор предлагает трансформировать трехуровневую модель формализованной семиотики дискретных знаков в непрерывно разворачивающиеся многообразия семиозиса непрерывного смыслообразования. Возможности подобного поворота предоставляют текущие усилия по изучению оязыковления и переязыковления.

Автор рассматривает феномен AI NPC (неигровой персонаж с искусственным интеллектом) в социально-философском аспекте, как потенциальную модель для построения цифрового двойника общества. Общество в статье рассматривается в реалиях посткоммуникации. Цифровизация, порождающая новую цифровую реальность, строится на замкнутом цикле коммуникации, согласно представлениям о постнеклассической рациональности или о «наблюдении второго порядка» по Никласу Луману. Общество трансформируется за счет цикла коммуникации — от исследования пользователей через метаданные до формирования моделей идеальных цифровых объектов, благодаря внедрению искусственного интеллекта нового поколения. Философская проблема состоит в том, что цифровыми моделями становятся сложные холистические объекты: человек и общество, что одновременно затрагивает проблему целостного идеального объекта. Возникает риск нового экзистенциального кризиса, когда при столкновении сознания и цифровой реальности происходит феномен отзеркаливания, потери возможности для субъекта различать степень ценности цифрового двойника и реального субъекта в межличностной коммуникации. Неигровой персонаж с искусственным интеллектом также рассматривается автором, как продукт стремительного развития рынка видеоигр. Массовая культура всегда была катализатором различных исследований, например, потребительского поведения и исследования общественных процессов. Видеоигры благодаря усиленной системе сбора метаданных становятся более совершенным миром массовой культуры, способным быстро подстраиваться под любое поведение человека, предоставляя вариативный виртуальный опыт. Как пример отдельно рассматривается кейс компании Replica Studios Inc., представившей виртуальный мир неигровых персонажей с искусственным интеллектом с применением технологии распознавания голоса и интерпретации речи. Данная симуляция совершила прорыв в индустрии видеоигр в части опыта взаимодействия с неигровыми персонажами. Автор отмечает положительные аспекты данного феномена. Неигровые персонажи с искусственным интеллектом способны демонстрировать на практике реализацию модели мира, как симуляции, и в перспективе могут быть повсеместно использованы в общественных исследованиях: социологических, маркетинговых.

Times of crises underscores the importance of guarding against deteriorations in the quality of loan portfolio through effective credit risk management. The purpose of the study is to examine the credit risk resilience of Namibia’s banking sector and forecast the quality of its loan portfolio. Methodologically, the study is hinged on the theories related to information asymmetry, moral hazard, and adverse selection. The methods include a VAR and an ARIMA out of sample dynamic forecasting model. The study employs secondary time-series data for the period 1996Q1–2021Q4 from various sources including the Bank of Namibia, the Namibia Statistics Agency, the World Bank and some others. The stress-testing results analysed via the VAR’s impulse responses show that Namibia’s banking sector is highly susceptible to various shocks with the early warnings emanating primarily from the non-performing loan itself, followed by the monetary, institutional, bank-specific, and interest rate indicators. The forecast for 2023Q4–2025Q4 obtained from the ARIMA model reveals that the riskiness of its loan portfolio is predicted to persist beyond the benchmark of 4 % set by the Bank of Namibia. The findings highlight important policy interventions, including the need to strengthen the mechanisms for monitoring the share of non-performing loans, re-evaluate existing policies, continue to ensure a sound macroeconomic and financial environment, and require banks to maintain a minimum capital adequacy ratio.

Позднемеловые и палеоценовые представители Aphrocallistes известны в Восточно-Европейской провинции по единичным элементам скелета. Фрагментарная сохранность фоссилий способствовала разноречивой характеристике рода и формированию представлений о многообразии этих губок. Колониальные Aphrocallistes рассматриваются как типичные представители маастрихтской спонгиофауны запада Европейской области.

Приведено иллюстрированное описание нового вида комаров-лимониид Austrolimnophila (Archilimnophila) barkalovi sp. n. с полуострова Таймыр по имаго обоих полов. Новый вид отличается от всех видов подрода Austrolimnophila (Archilimnophila) Alexander, 1934 относительно короткими крыльями, а также строением гипопигия самца, особенно формой тергита 9 и гонапофизов.

This article deals with the application of automated system-cognitive analysis and Eidos system in plant protection. The basic principles and methods of system-cognitive analysis are discussed, as well as the possibilities and prospects of using the Eidos system to identify the regularity of phytophagy progress in beetles of the genus Harpalus: H. affinis and H. distinguendus depending on temperature and humidity

The article presents some methodological considerations on the possibilities and limitations of the qualitative approach (repeated case studies in the specific Russian region) for the sociological assessment of human capital. In the first part of the article, the author considers the Russian tradition of rural studies as combining two analytical ‘optics’ - sociological/ethnographic observations of local realities based on various combinations of qualitative techniques and a strong anthropological/ peasant-studies emphasis with large-scale social surveys aimed at macro-descriptions of agrarian reforms, rural social/human capital and agro-industrial complex under the persistent trends of social-spatial differentiation. In the second part, the author mentions the key possibilities and limitations of case studies for assessing the state and prospects of rural human capital in the most depressed rural region of Russia, focusing on the role of entrepreneurs in formal and informal support of the local rural economy and communities in cooperation with municipal and regional authorities. In the final part, the author emphasizes typologies as the analytical result of rural case studies (especially the repeated ones) and provides examples - ‘types’ of the local agricultural producer relationships with the rural settlement’s authorities and community (as the basis for preserving rural human capital) and ‘types’ of the rural entrepreneurs’ biographical trajectories (as the basis for the generational continuity of this differentiated rural stratum).