CONTENTS - NUMBER 2, DECEMBER 2000

A r t i c l e s

H. JAMES BIRX: Human Evolution ...101
RASTISLAVA STOLIČNÁ: Theoretico-methodological Problems of Contemporary Ethnology ...114
OĽGA ÁROCHOVÁ, ALENA POTAŠOVÁ: Behavioural Neurotoxicology-Current Interdisciplinary Study ...121
VIKTOR KRUPA: The Problem of national and Cultural Identity in Polynesia ...129
JARMILA DROZDÍKOVÁ: As They See Us Arab Reaction to Orientalism ...133
VLADIMÍR BAKOŠ: Igor Hrušovský in Polemics with Dogmatic Marxism ...143
LADISLAV DEÁK: Minority Rights and Their Implementation in Trianon Hungary ...156
VIERA PAWLIKOVÁ-VILHANOVÁ: Archival Sources Concerning Count Morice Benyowsky's Activities on the Island of Madagascar and Elsewhere ...163
EVA KREKOVIČOVÁ: Politics about Folklore-Folklore in Politics ...171

R e v i e w  A r t i c l e s

Marián GÁLIK: A Comment on Three Recent Books on the Bible in Modern and Contemporary China...183

B o o k  R e v i e w s

Ján RYCHLÍK: Češi a Slováci ve 20 století Českoslovesnké vztahy 1914-1945 By Ladislav Suško...194

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HUMAN EVOLUTION

H. James Birx
Anthropology, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, New York 14208-1098, USA

Since the writings of Charles Darwin, paleoanthropologists have taken seriously the fact of evolution and its ramifications for uderstanding and appreciating the origin and history of our own species. Fossil evidence from major sites in Africa and Asia substantiates the organic evolution of our bipedal ancestors during the last 4.2 million years. The earliest hominids emerged from fossil apelike forms. Subsequent hominid evolution was a long and complex process of ongoing speciations and extinctions from the diversified australopithecines of Africa, through Homo habilis and Homo erectus, to Homo sapiens of today. Present interpretations of human evolution vary among paleoanthropologists, but ongoing research promises to result in both the discovery of more empirical evidence and, consequently, a clearer model for the evolution of our fossil ancestors.
pp. 101–113

THEORETICO-METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY ETHNOLOGY

Rastislava Stoličná
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The author tries to outline the possibilities of the crystallization of current ethnology in Slovakia. The basic models of the anthropology of culture in the world are presented. The process of crystallization may be diverse and inspired by several sources. One cannot say as yet what will be the future orientation of Slovak ethnology. It is the opinion of the author that ethnology has to be reinforced creatively by anthropological approach, particularly in the research and interpretation of the current socio-cultural reality.
pp. 114–120

BEHAVIOURAL NEUROTOXICOLOGY – CURRENT INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY

Oľga Árochová, Alena Potašová
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The relationship of man and his environment is no longer only the subject of biological or medical disciplines; it has become the subject of research interest of many other disciplines, of which psychology plays an important role. It concerns, above all, a more recent research area – the so-called behavioural neurotoxicology, which studies the effects of small doses of neurotoxic substances present in the environment on psychological functions and behaviour of man. With this aim psychology faces a demanding task: to carry out research using sufficiently sensitive methods, which would indicate possible subtle changes caused by the disruption of the homeostasis of the CNS by neurotoxic substances.
pp. 121–128

THE PROBLEM OF NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN POLYNESIA

Viktor Krupa
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

Two conceptions of ethnicity are briefly dealt with in this paper – one based upon free choice and another reminiscent of classical racism. The former is common in Central Europe and in pre-Contact Polynesia while the latter is more typical of the Anglo-Saxon countries. In Polynesia, ethnic identity seems to rely more often upon cultural traditions than upon language.
pp. 129–132

AS THEY SEE US - ARAB REACTION TO ORIENTALISM

Jarmila Drozdíková
Záhrebská 6, 811 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

The development of Arab attitude to Western Oriental scholarship has to be seen against the background of the changing political relations between the Arabs and the West on one side and within the Arab societies on the other. The critique of Orientalism is a widely discussed theme among the Arab intellectual diaspora as well.
pp. 133–142 

IGOR HRUŠOVSKÝ IN POLEMICS WITH DOGMATIC MARXISM

Vladimír Bakoš
Philosophical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

In the polemics of philosopher I. Hrušovský against the representatives of dogmatic Marxism in the 1970s, two ontological models of reality met head-on: substantialist-materialistic and nonsubstantialist-structural ones. Hrušovský resolutely rejected the notion of substance and matter as a sort of foundation, that is the orthodox, materialistic monism and substantialist elementarism. In his dialectical-structural conception of reality he understood ”substantial level” as the totality of differentiations and contradictory dynamic of the object, as a complex net of mutual structural relationships, influences, and tensions. During the seventies he fully recognized that there is no object or subject ”in itself”; he also came to understand the principal participation of epistemological subject. On this discoveries was based his explanation of philosophical categories such as objective reality, materiality, subject, object and especially being and his so-called ”naked being”. The concept of ontic, ”naked being” was introduced for expressing the principal differentiation between being and objective reality as well as his concept as such from traditional, orthodox understanding of ontology in Marxism-Leninism.
pp. 143–155

MINORITY RIGHTS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION IN TRIANON HUNGARY

Ladislav Deák
Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

In articles 54-60 of the Trianon Peace Treaty, Hungary committed itself to protect national minorities. The effect of the commitments was only formal. Some minority laws adopted in the twenties were of general character and decided by Government orders, without sanctions and without parliamentary control. Such measures were not adopted on the basis of the necessity to change the state policy with respect to minorities or on the basis of the democratization of society, but they ensued from the new international situation after the war, from the international obligations of Hungary and they were engendered by the minority position of part of the Magyar ethnic group in the neighbouring countries. They did not improve the position of nationalities within the country at all. Quite the opposite, their situation deteriorated in inter-war Hungary. After the breakdown of the old Kingdom of Hungary, the Magyar society was against the other nationalities and supported their rapid assimilation with the majority nation.
pp. 156–162

ARCHIVAL SOURCES CONCERNING COUNT MORICE BENYOWSKY’S ACTIVITIES ON THE ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR AND ELSEWHERE

Viera Pawliková-Vilhanová
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

Count Morice Benyowsky was and still remains a figure of controversy. He travelled in four continents and the related documents are found in different archives scattered all over the world. To draw a genuine picture of Benyowsky and to reassess his career and accomplishments on the island of Madagascar in the light of modern scholarship, research should be extended to cover all sources available.
pp. 163–170

POLITICS ABOUT FOLKLORE – FOLKLORE IN POLITICS (SLOVAKIA AS AN EXAMPLE)

Eva Krekovičová
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The contribution concentrates on the term ”folklore” or ”popular character” and semantic equivalents of these words in the language (slang) of politicians, journalists and political commentators as well as some representatives of the intelligentsia. It starts mainly from expressions published in the mass media or other media after the changes in 1989-1998. The term is used in negative or even pejorative sense and reflects the inner polarization of Slovak society in the political sense (”Europeandom” versus traditionalism, or civic principles versus nationalism). It consists of the following semantic layers: political (synonym of totalitarianism, or communism); national-identificational; aesthetico-artistic; philosophical; survival of the stereotype of the peasant as contrasting with the higher educated layers, that is, a critique of the improper behaviour of some politicians. ”Folklore” becomes a linguistic stereotype. Its individual layers merge and are mutually substitutable. Medialization of the word ”folklore” in pejorative sense became one of the indicators of political changes from totalitarianism to democracy.
pp. 171–182

A COMMENT ON THREE RECENT BOOKS ON THE BIBLE IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Marián Gálik
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64, Bratislava, Slovakia

The aim of this review article is to introduce to interested readers the recent books and studies concerned with the translations of the Bible into Chinese, and the biblical impact on Chinese literature and intellectual history in premodern, modern and contemporary China.
pp. 183–193

BOOK REVIEWS

Rychlík, J.: Češi a Slováci ve 20. století. Československé vztahy 1914-1945 (The Czechs and Slovaks in the Twentieth Century. Czechoslovak Relations 1914-1945). Bratislava, AEP & Ústav T.G. Masaryka Praha 1997. 360 pp.
pp. 194–210

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