Studia Anthropologica, I: Defining Region: Socio-cultural Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Part 1

LTŠis Klaipėdos universiteto (KU) Baltijos regiono istorijos ir archeologijos institute (BRIAI) leidžiamo periodinio mokslo leidinio „Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis“ XII numeris – novatoriškas. Instituto mokslinės tarybos nutarimu greta įvairių istorinės tematikos numerių čia pradedamos formuoti ir specializuotos atskirų mokslų šakų mokslinių straipsnių serijos. Šiuo tikslu iš esmės papildyta redakcijos kolegijos sudėtis, šiek tiek pakeista ir straipsnių forma. Jūsų dėmesiui pateikiame pirmąjį sociokultūrinės antropologijos serijos (Studia Anthropologica I) numerį. Jame publikuojama pirmoji dalis mokslinių straipsnių, inspiruotų 2005 m. gegužės 19–22 d. KU BRIAI (bendradarbiaujant su VDU Socialinės antropologijos centru) surengtos tarptautinės mokslinės konferencijos „Baltijos regionas sociokultūrinės antropologijos bei tarpdalykinių studijų perspektyvoje“ (‘Defining Region: Baltic Area Studies from Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Perspectives’) pranešimų bei ten vykusių aktyvių diskusijų. Orientuojantis į tarptautinę leidinio skaitytojų auditoriją, visi straipsniai bei kita medžiaga skelbiama anglų kalba su lietuviškomis santraukomis [p. 7].

ENOnly five years have elapsed since the first annual journal of anthropological scholarship Lithuanian Ethnology: Studies in Social Anthropology and Ethnology appeared for the first time in Lithuania. Today, we are pleased to add a new series and to offer you Studia Anthropologica, which is established as a new series of the Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis (AHUK), published by the Institute of Baltic Sea Region History and Archaeology (IBSRHA) at the University of Klaipėda. Studia Anthropologica, as a new series of the AHUK, seeks to provide its readers with current and important research in the fields of social and cultural anthropology and European Ethnology done in the Baltic Region and beyond. We are hoping to engage readers in social sciences and humanities, anthropology, ethnology, sociology and history students, and colleagues from a wide circle of disciplines. In this series, we are looking for interdisciplinary connections, seeking, in particular, to cross the border between Lithuanian and European Ethnology and Social and Cultural Anthropology. We want to integrate studies that are clearly cognate in their methodology and aim. We believe that it is time to benefit from world-wide integrative processes in knowledge. The first two volumes of the Studia Anthropologica contain problems discussed at the international conference ‘Defining Region: Baltic Area Studies from Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ held at the University of Klaipėda, on May 19-22, 2005 and organized by IBSRHA in collaboration with the Center of Social Anthropology of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. The conference was conceived as an opportunity to map out the anthropological dimensions of contemporary research on the Baltic Region and to discuss Baltic Area Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective.The conceptualization of borderland regions, focused primarily on the study of Baltic Region, emphasized methodological and practical challenges to interdisciplinary research and raised general questions about identity formation vis-a-vis processes of European integration. Defining Region also included assessments of local ethnographic, folkloristic, historical research traditions suggesting inter-disciplinary perspectives and proposing a new role for anthropology/ethnology in a New Europe [p. 5].

• Tourism and the making of cultural heritage: the case of Nida (Curonian Spit)
• [Lithuanian ethnology: studies in social anthropology and ethnology]
• Seeing region from inside: the case of participation at the international project Public understanding of genetics
• The Tradition of Klaipėda region Lutheran psalm singing in interdisciplinary and anthropological perspectives