Volume III, Issue 2, 2009
Abstract
After the Second World War there were living in rough numbers
250,0002,000,000 children in several European countries whose father was a
German soldier. In most cases the children were illegitimate. This paper focuses
on Finnish-German couples with a child in the city of Oulu, one of the major
German bases in Finland during the war. In Finland, Germanys ally, the attitudes
against women keeping company with foreign soldiers were similar to those in occupied
countries. It was dubious to be a mother for a child fathered by a foreign
soldier, and as a single mother they had several practical and economic problems
to be solved out, too. The question is how the women coped with the situation
after the war, when they with their German fathered children were concrete remembrances
of the earlier Finnish-German co-operation, the era Finland chose
not to remember. The hypothesis was that the more often mothers chose to give
the child away, the more socially stressed their position was. Five year after the
war the most Finnish-German children in Oulu lived with their unwed mothers.
Keywords
World War 19391945, home front, children, soldiers, women, fraternize,
Germany, Finland.
During the 20th Century
Abstract
The Kurdish problem is one of the most fascinating research topics for
a number of social sciences: history, sociology, political science, international
relations. In many ways, it reflects the general problematic of the turbulent and
unstable Middle East, certainly a zone of unfinished businesses. In the age of
globalization such problems are usually transnational and global in character.
Migration and demographical patterns of such a stateless nation as the Kurds
cannot be approached on a local or even regional basis. The existence of a
powerful Kurdish diaspora in Europe and elsewhere internationalizes the
Kurdish problem. Therefore, it is of outmost importance to clarify such issues as
the Kurdish demography and migration in the 20th Century, even though that
means just scratching the surface of a much more complicated problematic.
This paper approaches in descriptive and non-exhaustive manner the
Kurdish problem during the 20th Century from a historical-sociological point of
view, emphasizing its main demographical and migration patterns as reflected in
the topical literature and in demographical statistics. Its focus is on several
historical events that have influenced and determined, to a certain degree, these
patterns. Unfortunately, a clear limit of this paper is related to the following fact: it
is highly difficult to measure the Kurdish demography and migration due to the
scarcity and unreliability of data.
Keywords
Kurds, Kurdistan, Anfal campaign, Gulf War, Mustafa Barzani, KDP,Kurdish diaspora.
Abstract
Education represents a very important component in the complex
existential equation of a nation, which reveals in the end the vitality and the
existent development possibilities, as well as the materialization of some potential
interrelations at continental and national levels. At the level of Romania, the values
recorded in the last years, regarding the educational indicators, present a situation
generalized for the entire national space, that indicates a consistent decrease in the
number of pupils (in all educational cycles) and a precarious qualitative state as
regards school infrastructure and teaching staff. The mentioned phenomenon is
worse especially in the Romanian rural space, where threats, from this point of
view, are extremely serious. This is also the situation of the Mărginimea Sibiului
Region and the present study is intended to be a recent, complete radiography of
the main educational indicators for the above-mentioned region.
Keywords
Education, pre-school education, primary education cycle, lower
secondary education cycle, upper secondary education cycle, school
infrastructures.
Abstract
Travelling journals are an important historical source as they contain
vivid depictions of the visited communities at some moment of the past.
Moreover, their value is often increased by the fact that the foreign travellers
pertain to a different culture and thus make noteworthy observations of some
aspects that would otherwise be neglected by the locals.
This is the case of the Nordic travellers observations regarding the
demographic realities of the Romanian area in the 17th -19th centuries. Swedish,
Danish, Norwegian and Finnish voyagers notes are thus a valuable means of
completing our present knowledge regarding some demography related aspects.
It is important to mention that the travellers were subjected to different
kinds of influences, like those linked to some common sense errors, to the
Romantic tendency to exaggerate perils and to convey picturesque descriptions or
to an imbalanced proportion between subjectivity and objectivity. Nevertheless,
this article demonstrates that the Nordic voyagers were able to give accurate
depictions of the Romanian principalities population, of their ethnic, confessional
and professional structure and of their institutions, in spite of the linguistic or
cultural barriers.
Keywords
Nordic travellers, demographic notes, Romanian population, 17th -19th
Centuries.
Abstract
Birth will be approached from both regional analysis and family
perspectives. In the latter case, a complex survey reconstructing family in two
sample villages in the survey will show specific aspects of birth. The aims and
objectives of our analysis are to establish besides birth rate the possible
connections between collective mentality and the act of birth and conception,
birth degree, mothers age, number of children in a family, etc. On the other hand,
birth will be explained and highlighted by making reference to documents and
statistics on births in the region in parallel.
Keywords
Birth, family, marriage, collective mentality, child death, traditional
village, Bihor, Satu Mare.
Abstract
This article describes the problems of the eightieth decade of the 19th
Century in the former county of Alba de Jos. Epidemics, crisis of the means of
subsistence and natural calamities consistently influenced the demographic regime
determining, among other things, a significant increase in the number of the
deceases.
The year of 1873 constituted the apex in the mortality dynamic as the area
was decimated by epidemics, that of cholera being the most aggressive plague.
After a short respite, the mortality level increased again between 1877 and 1878 as
the result of the population experiencing floods, scarcity, poverty and other
difficulties.
The general drama, sufferings and sorrows of the population from the
former county of Alba de Jos were also reflected on the lives of the families. The
collected files indicate that nearly every family has lost at least one of his members
in the eightieth decade.
Keywords
Mortality, natural calamities, cholera, the county of Alba de Jos.
Abstract
In the second half of the 19th Century we were taking part in the
process of emphasising the danger represented by excessive alcohol consumption
and the causes that triggered this phenomenon in the Romanian society, even
though a series of signals had been identified since previous times. The public
opinion was the one that rang the alarm bell on the problem represented by
alcoholism in a modernizing society. The part of the media became essential in the
attempt to create an anti-alcoholic public view, through numerous news regarding
the consumption of beverages and the proportions of alcoholism as a social
phenomenon. In this fight against the excessive use of alcohol there was a
gathering of the modern states factors of power: the state authorities, the clergy
and the press. By the end of the 19th Century, the new tendency of the public
society was to promote healthier alcohols, such as wine, to the detriment of
stronger drinks, obtained through distillation. Analyzing the Transylvanian press
one can see some stereotypes related to the topic of alcohol: de methods of
obtaining alcohol, its components, the fatal effects of alcohol abuse on the human
body.
Keywords
Romanian society, the public opinion, alcoholism, stronger drinks,
social phenomenon, anti-alcoholism measures.
Abstract
After the fall of the communist regime in Romania and of the ideology
that affected in different degrees research and history teaching, historians have
lately become more and more interested in focussing more on local and regional
history than on the national one; this is mainly to rediscover the past of certain
neglected regions and persons and to adequately value the local historical heritage,
as suggested by some approaches of the international specialised literature. As far
as the curriculum is concerned, the Ministry of Education and Research has
started to encourage, even under the legislative framework, the elaboration of
materials and manuals that value the local historical evolutions of an area or the
past of the minorities in Romania. The present paper focuses on Transylvania, as
it is the region of Romania with the biggest number of ethnic and confessional
minorities and, probably, with the biggest need of intercultural education;
however, the elaborated models can also be applied outside the Carpathians,
taking into account the peculiarity of the historical evolution.
Keywords
Romania, Transylvania s population, intercultural education, tolerance and respect.
Abstract
After the fall of the communist regime in Romania and of the ideology
that affected in different degrees research and history teaching, historians have
lately become more and more interested in focussing more on local and regional
history than on the national one; this is mainly to rediscover the past of certain
neglected regions and persons and to adequately value the local historical heritage,
as suggested by some approaches of the international specialised literature. As far
as the curriculum is concerned, the Ministry of Education and Research has
started to encourage, even under the legislative framework, the elaboration of
materials and manuals that value the local historical evolutions of an area or the
past of the minorities in Romania. The present paper focuses on Transylvania, as
it is the region of Romania with the biggest number of ethnic and confessional
minorities and, probably, with the biggest need of intercultural education;
however, the elaborated models can also be applied outside the Carpathians,
taking into account the peculiarity of the historical evolution.
Keywords
Romania, Transylvania s population, intercultural education, tolerance and respect.