national culture of lithuania under the effect of massive ... · constantly was carried out in the...
TRANSCRIPT
National Culture of Lithuania Under the Effect of Massive
Culture
Dr. Assoc. Prof. Virginija Jurėnienė Department of Philosophy and Culture Studies Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities Lithuania Tel:+370 37 202627 E-mail: [email protected]
The current post-modern society is closely related to the globalization process,
one of the main characteristics of which is the movement of finances, technologies,
knowledge, human resources, ideas, cultural values, etc., despite of national borders.
The consequence of this movement and other characteristics of globalization is the
formation of multicultural societies. Now it is not a surprise to see people of different
cultures living nearby, intercultural marriages, etc. Another feature of this society is
the culture of consumption is the free time of a present individual, and sometime his
main activity. Such a culture stresses hedonism and the styles of a consumer and
consumption. In the present world, the important role is given to the massive
communication forms – the media, commercial, video. These are constitutive parts of
popular culture. It becomes fashionable to watch certain films, visit certain clubs and
shops.
The European Union is characteristic of multiple culture, but at the same time
national cultures are also being nourished. The decisions of the UNESCO and the
Council of Europe encourage the retention of the national identity. Each nation has its
unique national culture that is an invaluable property. An important task of the EU
countries and nations is to co-ordinate the influence of globalization and the
consumption culture upon the national culture without annihilating it.
But cultures are always changing and are related to the symbolic dimension of
life, the meaning and identity are created in them. Cultural differences are clearly
demonstrated through conflicts and may become the reason for them to emerge.
Cultural differences appear both in national, and international countries. These
differences are more distinct in the EU integration processes.
Theme: to analyse the national culture of Lithuania under the effect of massive culture
The article analyses the material of the report of two projects: the international
project „Creative Growth“ („Kūrybinis augimas“) (200-2010), the national project
“SiluetasLT” (2008-209), as well as the quantitative research “Culture and students”
(“Kultūra ir studentai“) (2011).
The object of the research „Culture and Students“ is the students of Vilnius
University studying at Kaunas Faculty of the Humanities. The consumption culture of
students (selectively) and the evaluation of ethnic culture were analysed.
The research was carried out following the interpretational quantitative
methodology of social research. The data were collected by two means – applying the
document analysis and the questionnaire. 56 students were questioned.
The interviewed were warned about the aim of the study. In order to analyse
the consumption of students, first of all the focus was on the popular culture, and after
that – the ethnic culture was analysed. Other questions related to such essential
aspects as the ways of spending free time, forms, obstacles for the wide consumption
of the popular culture and ethnic culture were formulated indirectly.
The empiric base consisted of 56 questionnaire in order to analyse the opinion
of the youth on the consumption of culture. The questionnaire was carried out in
2011, and the report of the research was prepared in 2011. The volumes of the
research were formed applying the targeted selective method.
The application of the research results has restrictions. First of all, no criterion
of representativeness was raised, but the seek was to find out the consumption of
culture of the youth as well as the meaning of the popular and national culture for
them.
In the article, I follow the research as carried out by the Lithuanian Social
Research Institute in 1990-2005, that included various layers of the society, age
groups and education. No such aim was raised in this research.
Besides, the research I carried out was explorative seeking to analyse the type
of culture consumed by students, determine whether students consume the popular
culture and how much they comprehend the ethnic culture.
Despite of aforementioned restrictions, informational sources selected for the
research and the research methods allowed to reveal the trends of the cultural
consumption of students, and the gained results are scientifically valuable.
The non-structured field systemic observation was applied for the second
research „Siluetas LT“. The observation of the project „Siluetas LT“ lasted for one
year (2008-2009). Its observation was simple due to the fact that the project planning
constantly was carried out in the same place, in Lithuania, Kaunas Faculty of the
Humanities of Vilnius University, and it was carried out in 5 ethno-cultural regions of
Lithuania. The project was performed by 6 teams, the aim of which was to analyse the
ethnic culture in ethno-cultural regions, to collect the material and non-material
cultural heritage of those regions and create the data base SiluetasLT.
The third project was the research of cultural industries in Kaunas District that
was carried out in 2009 – 2010, participating in the project „Cultural Growth“
financed by the international INTERREG IVC programme. The industry model of the
Swedish experience was applied in 16 neighbourhoods of Kaunas District seeking to
establish the development of creative industries and art incubators in them. The
material collected in all the three researches is used in the article. The data gained
during the second and third projects allow to discuss in more detail the status of the
ethnic culture in various ethno-cultural regions of Lithuania, and determine how much
the popular culture is rooted in the cultural consumption of the people, how much it
has overwhelmed the national culture and if the national culture is threatened by the
real danger of extinction.
Problem analysis
The problem has not been analysed. Many works under the theme of
consumption were announced by M Laužikaitė, A. Vosyliūtė. The national culture
was analysed by R. Grigas, R. Čepaitienė, A. Juozaitis, V. Daujotytė, N. Vėlius, J.
Vaiškūnas, L. Klimka and others. Often the researchers of the Lithuanian ethnic
culture underline in their works that the government doe not pay enough attention to
the national culture and it faces a real threat to be annihilated. Only A. Juozaitis says
that the status of the national culture is good, as it is being created. (Juozaitis, 2001).
The problems of the fostering of the ethnic culture and their importance are
indicated not only the EU, but also Lithuanian documents as well.
The problem of the concept of the term “culture”
It is extremely difficult to define culture precisely and unambiguously.
The primary meaning of the word “culture” included everything that was
related to the physical and mental creation of a human being. This explanation of
culture has partially retained till nowadays, but it has gained new meanings and has
split into branches – the high (elite), the popular (massive). In the elite life, creativity
is valued most of all, whereas, the popular culture is spread among masses and the
shift towards it is the most remarkable tendency of culture business. But the massive
culture is not smooth: it includes not only the entertainment industry, but also various
layers of creative talent and professionalism. (Liubinienė, 2002)
Defining the concept “culture”, we encounter various opinions, different
descriptions.
Hofstede defines culture as a collective programming in the environment
(Hofstede, 2001) and identified 3 psychological levels: individual, collective and
universal. The individual level focuses the uniqueness of programming into each
individual, even identical twins. He suggests regarding this level as partially inherited.
The universal level is programmed as common for all, and is also partially inherited,
for instance survival instincts. The middle level – the collective one – is the learnt
specific programming for the individuals of the group.
Hofstede mentioned values as the main layer of culture, above which all the
other three levels of culture are aligned and they are easily noticed: rituals (such as
greetings or showing respect), heroes that serve as an example of behaviour, and
symbols (values, rituals, individuals, symbols) words, colours, etc., that have the
meaning). According to him, all these levels ( are influenced by the first one, i.e. the
level of values (Hofstede, 2001). In such a way, the spread of the national culture
contradicting the globalization processes is revealed.
So culture can be understood as a unit of several levels, the main role in which
is given to values, beliefs, attitudes, that are „self-understood“ by that culture, but are
hard to understand for representatives of another culture, and that are expressed
through external things: behaviour, clothes, eating habits, art, etc.
Among all the aforementioned components, according to L. Šalčiuvienė,
values are the most important component of culture. Cultural values form beliefs and
attitudes of people, determine their behaviour. Therefore, as the author says, the
system of values is the basic totality, following which all other decisions are made.
Values unite individuals with other people, products, services and differentiate them
from one another. Not to know the values of an individual means not to understand
their behaviour, accepted standards, used symbols (Šalčiuvienė, 2003).
Hofstede broadens the concept „general programning“, suggesting that culture
should be placed between the nature of a human being that has not been or is not
being programmed, and the personality of an individual. (Hofstede, 1980).
Another concept of culture has been enlarged upon by Edward T. Hall. He
sees the totality of culture as often unconscious. Hall compares culture with the
invisible control mechanism in the mind of individuals. In this case, this mechanism is
noticed only after certain changes of the system occur, for example, temporarily
passing from one culture to another. In Hall‘s opinion, members of the group of one
community internalize cultural components and act in it without violating limits that
depend upon what is „culturally accepted“. Culture has always determined where the
line should be put separating one thing from another. These lines are arbitrary, but
once they are learnt and internalized, they are regarded as real ones. (Hall, 1990).
V. Dumbliauskas and H. Gullestrup indicate that culture is passed from
generation to generation. It reveals its continuity and the fact that own culture often
looks like „self-understandable“, as we take it over from past generations.
Talking about culture, V. Dumbliauskas mentions ways of activity of people,
means, standards, values and ideals helping them to survive (Dumbliauskas, 1999). H.
Gullestrup also talks about values, standards and rules as well as behaviour, but also
he includes any type of their material and non-material expression into the definition
of culture (Gullestrup, 2002). These aspects are generalized naming culture as the
„philosophy of life“, „way of life“. Whereas, V. Kavolis suggests understanding
culture and all their forms at the same time in several analytical layers, as it seems
that it is impossible to include everything that can be distinguished in culture in this
concept, and therefore it is useless to look for the system of culture, as there are
elements contradicting one another existing in the same culture, and also a certain
chaos, improvisations, copying of other cultures. Thus, it is impossible to look at
culture as a whole unit or try to include its concept into a certain framework (Kavolis
1996).
D. Urbonaitė deciphers two parts of culture: existence and value. These parts
express two sides of the activity of a human being. Each person has his own personal
culture. His culture is influenced by a complicated system: humanity – society –
group – individual. This system exists independent upon the person. But as the
individual changes, the value also changes, i.e. things, actions or certain events may
have more significance with respect to certain values. (Urbonaitė, 1999)
Despite of it, there are many discussions of the concept of culture, following
them L. A. Samovar indicated the main characteristics of culture:
Culture is learnt. It is not an inherent thing. Proper mind and behaviour
models are implanted in an individual both consciously and subconsciously since he is
born through communication, observation, imitation. Culture is also learnt through
art, folklore, proverbs, history and many other ways. The aim of such learning is to
prepare for the proper functioning in a certain society.
Culture is transferred from generation to generation. An individual takes it
over from parents, teachers, books and constant observation and respectively passes it
to future generations.
Culture is symbolic. Words, gestures, images are symbols having a
meaning; culture is understood as the whole of these symbols.
Culture is changing. New ideas, discoveries, social movements and etc.
change culture. Often these changes have influence upon external objects – they
modify clothes, food preferences, transport systems. Values, moral beliefs, the
importance of religion or an attitude towards different roles of genders that form the
profound basis of culture often are resistant to changes and are passed from
generation to generation.
Culture is ethnocentric. The strong identity of a group that is formed by
culture may lead to ethnocentrism – the belief that other cultures are lower as
compared to their own one. The concept of ethnocentrism will be more widely
discussed analysing barriers hindering the successful intercultural communication
(Samovar et al. 2006).
So culture marks external factors, the world surrounding an individual – the
wholeness of art, customs, science, religion, law, technology, social standards.
National Culture – the Guarantee of Survival of a Nation
The ethnic culture is the totality of values of culture transferred from
generation to generation by people of a certain region – the historic memory related to
the history of the nation, respect for their own state, retention of traditions, customs,
folklore, music, dances, the ethnic peculiarity of the language – dialects and ethnic
names of places, etc.
The scholar V. Daujotytė states: „Ethnic culture is the culture that has roots,
its is a tree, it is a plant, and not an artificial flower, no substitute may equal to what is
alive and real, it has its roots growing from the ground...“ (Daujotytė, 2000).
N. Vėlius said that „the ethnic culture is like air surrounding us and is in us.
We do not understand it as air that we breath“ (Vėlius, 1987). Ethnic culture has its
own objects – language, folklore, customs, ethnic art that do not coincide with
anything else.
Ethnic culture is strong, active and vivid as long as it takes from other cultures
only what meets its own nature. It adjusts new things and modifies them. As long as
culture is strong, it rejects everything what is alien to it, but when it undergoes
descend, it does not perform the function of rejection and therefore it fades (Juozaitis,
2001).
Reasons of weakening of the national culture of Lithuania:
• the first one – aggressive emergence of the western massive (popular)
culture into the society;
• the second one – Lithuanian national culture is young (it independently
has been developing for 100 years) and small as compared to ancient
western cultures;
• the third one – the increase of the influence of the low-valued culture
of Hollywood in Europe and Lithuania. The latter has a big affect upon
Lithuanian culture, as it destroys the system of values. (Jurėnienė,
2010).
The Lithuanian state puts a lot of efforts to retain ethnic culture and strengthen
it. The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania has passed laws. The preamble of the law
on The basis of the national support of ethnic culture declares: „The Seimas of the
Republic of Lithuania, understanding that the ethnic culture is the essence of the
existence, survival and strength of the nation, the ground of national culture; stating
that various forms of the Lithuanian ethnic culture and especially its living tradition
are threatened by the evident danger of extinction; acknowledging that only following
its ethnic culture the nation may retain its civic maturity of its citizens, take part in the
global civilization as an equal partner and maintain the dignity necessary for the co-
operation and partnership, independence and uniqueness, passes the present law on
the basis of the national support for the ethnic culture“ (LRS, 2006).
The importance of the ethnic culture is underlined by the law on the Basis of
the National Security that determines that the policy of internal affairs should educate
the national self-awareness, the state must assure the protection of the Lithuanian
ethnic culture, the peculiarity of culture and customs, cherish the traditional family,
the education system should nurture the national self-awareness, the respect towards
other nations (LRS, 2006). It also indicates that “the duty of the state is to retain and
cherish the national cultural identity, to assure the protection and continuity of the
Lithuanian language, taking care of the ethnic culture and local traditions, protecting
the cultural heritage.
Most of the documents regulating the life of culture openly declare that they
protect the national heritage.
Ethnic culture is not just a mere heritage. The law on the Basis of the National
Protection of Ethnic Culture defines ethnic culture as the totality of cultural values
that is transferred from generation to generation and is constantly renewed, helping to
retain the national identity and self-awareness and the peculiarity of ethnographic
regions (LRS, 2006). There are no doubts that ethnic culture largely consists of a
living tradition that is expressed in all spheres of life of the nation, is always changing
and adjusting itself to the consciousness and needs of the society in a certain period of
time.
It is also noticed by the researcher of ethnic culture L. Klimka: “it is necessary
to develop this concept also into the spiritual sphere: national customs and traditions”
(Klimka, 2008). He states that there is a lack of understanding in the Lithuanian
society how much the cultural heritage that has been nurtured and created through
hundreds of years is valuable. Lithuanians do not understand what cultural treasures
they possess that distinguish them out of other European nations. The documents of
the EU and UNESCO indicate that every nation must cherish their own national
heritage. Lithuania, when integrating into the EU, must retain its national identity if it
wants to stay unique.
In the “Guidelines of the Culture Policy of Lithuania” as approved by the
Lithuanian Seimas, the ethnic culture is equaled to the amateur art. This erroneous
provision contradicts the UNESCO strategy acknowledging all the main ethno-
cultural masterpieces of Lithuania (glees, song festivals) as the non-material heritage
phenomena of the global level. Their nurturance is not just a sphere of amateur
creators.
The ethno-astronomer J. Vaškūnas, member of the Council of Ethnic Culture
Patronage, raised the following questions in the Lithuanian press many times: who
will make the strategy specialists of the changing Lithuanian culture look at ethnic
culture and its conservators? Who and how will convince that there is no sense to
push the living ethnic cultural traditions to the margins of the Lithuanian national
culture trying to turn it into the outlived phenomenon of museum heritage? The
European future is the intercultural exchanges as well as dialogues, and not the
annihilation of cultures (Vaškūnas, 2011).
The problem lies not only in the inaccurate legal acts as passed by the
Lithuanian Seimas, but also sometimes cultural researchers and conservators place
national culture against the professional one. Besides, there is still the ill-fated
Lithuanian complex of provinciality: many Lithuanians think that if it is our own, it is
worth nothing... It is evident that we do not know how to be proud of the beauty of our
nature (cherish and nurture it) or the archaic expression of cultural forms.
The researcher L. Klimka notices that we have inherited such unique things in
Lithuanian ethnic culture that can decorate European events of any level. Lithuania
surprises of the variety of dialects in a relatively small territory, the maintained old
songs and glees, the unique folk art artifacts, as well as Easter palms of Vilnius,
weathercocks of the Curonian Bay, the masks of Shrovetide of Žemaitija (the Low
Land) and many other things ( Klimka. 2008).
In this way the state puts all the possible efforts to create ethnic culture in
Lithuania. Most often the national culture is cherished and developed al cultural
centres, in the activity of ethnic societies. Their activity is supported by the state both
politically and financially. But it is not enough, it is important to have people creating
and consuming this culture. Sometimes the society itself underestimates its own
national culture, thinking that it is rural culture, not representing anything.
But devaluations or underestimations of national culture are also determined
by external factors: globalization and integration.
Influence of national and consumption culture upon the society of Lithuania
After Lithuania became the country of an open society, the massive culture
with its own values that were unknown to Lithuanians overwhelmed it. Just like in
Western culture, the slogan “to have” is enhanced, the most important thing is work,
money, career, consumption and entertainment. Such values as family,
communication, friendship, love, respect, traditions and similar are placed aside.
These values were very important for the people of our country in the past. Recently,
these values have also been concerned by rich Western countries, while the active part
of our society is still focused on the desire “to have” and consume. This process is
influenced by the economic situation based on the market conditions as well as the
media propagating it.
In Lithuania, there is not yet a purely consuming society formed, it is a society
undergoing transference from the production to consumption. It happens when the
attitude of people towards money undergoes changes, when the social classes with
their own life styles are formed (for instance, “the new Lithuanians”). The relation
between the work and free time changes, the impulsive purchasing emerges, the
“showing-up” consumption appears, the understanding of men and women as
consumers is also changed. In Lithuania, people are looking for their identities, for
their social layer. And it depends upon what is consumed. So consumption in modern
Lithuania becomes the main measure to form the identity of a person, the social
identity as well as the gender identity, i.e. the self-identity is performed through
consumption (Laužikaitė, 2006) .
There is no creativity in consumption, everything is oriented towards the
external. The object of consumption may cover time, area, nature, politics, relations
among people, etc. The culture of consumption covers wide and different needs of
people, the aspects of the identity with a certain activity and attitudes: these are
festive feasts, aesthetics of clothes, apartment conformabilities, ways of holidays,
participation in fairs, phenomena of buying and selling, the differences of motives of
choosing Lithuanian or foreign goods, etc.” (Vosiliūtė, 2003) These phenomena lose
features, and gain prestige. Such a reclassification is conditioned by the information
society only partially, as the most important thing for consumption is the need to be
satisfied in novelties. It exists in culture where there is the competition of statuses.
One of the main features of the consuming society is the constant creation of
needs and consumption emerging after the earlier ones are satisfied. So the world of
good things and its structure become the most important thing in defining the modern
society. The objects consumed and the variety of tastes reveal the subjectivity of
individuals, introduce the culture of the family and the nation. To be a different
person becomes the value that is to be aimed at.
Globalization has also a lot of influence upon the changes in the consumption
of the society. Now, when there is no iron border, the youth are interested in foreign
countries, often in the west, that are hardly related to our culture passed from
generation to generation through hundreds of years. “New traditions” are more valued
than the old ethnic ones, as it is simply not fashionable and not necessary. As R.
Šmaižys puts it: „the influence of western culture, often related to entertainment and
debauch, is immense for our young people as they are not interested in the old ethnic
culture – they lack time for it, especially when the real traditions are regarded as old-
fashioned and unimportant” (Šmaižys, 2008). R. Šmaižys notices that the influence of western culture affects the attitude of
the youth towards the traditions. The old ethnic culture has become meaningless,
unnecessary and even invisible to a modern man (Šmaižys, 2008). Probably, the
underestimation of our old culture is mostly affected by the newly and publicly
declared massive culture, when a man does not have to think – everything is presented
to him here and now. Quite a few intellectuals criticize the media for the promotion of
consumption culture as well as the presentation of negative news to the society,
without aims to promote positive ideas about Lithuania and its culture.
The media and the society itself relatively talk little about the necessity of the
ethnic culture, the benefit not only for the growing children, but also for adults
focused most often on their career. Due to the popular culture prevailing now and the
television priorities that the public needs more entertainment, our old culture is placed
aside very often (Šmaižys, 2008).
The state that is mostly concerned with the development of the national
culture, indicates the main aim of the policy as the seek to retain and nurture the
national culture. But the provisions of the policy of the culture of the state also
mention the encouragement of creative activities, artistic variety, the development of
the information society, the enhancement of the openness of the national culture as
well as the creation of conditions favourable for the society to take part in culture and
consume it. The level of the implementation of these aims as well as the achievements
when carrying out the tasks posed by the state to reach them is witnessed by the data
of the research carried out by the European Commission in 2006 – 2007, but at
present they would reflect the real situation only partially, as due to the financial crisis
the consumption of people in the sector of culture has remarkably diminished.
The report of the research noticed that the Lithuanians were mostly interested
in and mostly used the following types of culture: watching TV and listening to the
radio (90 per cent), reading books (64 per cent), visiting historic objects (51 per cent)
as well as going to concerts (52 per cent) (the data are submitted in percentage of
consumers who visited a certain cultural object at least once a year or used the means
of cultural education). By the data of EUROSTAT, only 20 per cent of Lithuanians
went to the theatre of opera and ballet at least once a year. Although, as compared to
other countries, Lithuania is one of the countries that is most interested in this type of
culture, but still this index is rather low. Also Lithuanians do not pay much attention
to theatres (27 per cent), visiting libraries (32 per cent), museums and galleries (33 per
cent) and even cinema (33 per cent). Taking into account the established averages,
Lithuania is the leader among the European Union countries, in watching TV and
listening to the radio, visiting concerts as well as going to operas and ballets (Lietuvos
gyventojų kultūriniai..., 2003).
The analysis of the research of European values, as carried out in Lithuania
in 1990, 1999 and 2005, shows that this year the importance of free time in
Lithuanian has been growing constantly, and the importance of work that was
increasing in 1990-1999 has remarkably decreased. The need for work is especially
high among people of 30-50 years of age. Whereas the need for free time is
decreasing with the older age. Young people of the working age (20-29) value free
time more than the older ones (even those who finished or are finishing their work
career), but less then teenagers. (Savicka, 2006).
In 2003, the Lithuanian Institute of Social Research carried out the research of
the cultural needs of the inhabitants of Lithuania (1208 constant residents of Lithuania
were interviewed). The report of the research states that festivals and concerts, just
like many other events, were more often visited by people of young age than people
of middle age, but the evaluation of events did not depend upon the age of education –
everybody evaluated them well. And it is understandable. Festivals, fairs, and etc. are
called massive events, and they attract people of different layers of the society.
Theatres and cultural centres were more often visited by people of the
middle age (i.e. 25-39 and 40–59 years of age) than the youth. But cultural centres
were more often visited by the youth. Young people were the most active visitors of
many cultural institutions and events, but they went to the theatre less frequently – it
shows that at that time the popularity of this branch of art was reducing, although
the elder generation still remembered the former habits of going to the theatre
(Cultural needs of Lithuanian…, 2003).
In February, 2011, 56 students were questioned: 44 girls and 12 boys.
After carrying out the research it became clear that students ascribe the following to
cultural institutions: theatre (100 per cent agreed with it), cinema (50 per cent), city
festivals (50 per cent), exhibitions (87 per cent), libraries (63 per cent), museums
and galleries (92 per cent). Most of the respondents agreed partially that the cultural
institutions can be called: seminars and conferences (47 per cent), reading of books,
journals, newspapers (44 per cent), the internet (39 per cent), the radio (44 per cent).
The respondents did not agree that cultural spheres are: leisure sports (49 per cent),
catering institutions (60 per cent), night clubs (52 per cent), parties with friends (78
per cent), television (38 per cent), pick-nicks (60 per cent) as well as going to
leisure and shopping centres (73 per cent). And only a very small part of the
respondents did not have their opinion regarding the classification of exhibitions (2
per cent), seminars and conferences (6 per cent), libraries (2 per cent), night clubs (4
per cent), parties with friends (4 per cent), the internet (2 per cent), television (2 per
cent), the radio (2 per cent), pick-nicks (2%) to culture. In this way the attitude of
the respondents to the culture consumed is broadened, and only 38 per cent of them
regard television programme as culture.
So generalizing we can state that that these data show that students are
inclined to identify the concept of culture with the elite culture that include the fine
arts, painting, sculpture, classical music, theatre, literature of a high level and
philosophy. Most of the respondents did not agree to ascribe to culture the elements
of the massive culture (fashion, festivals, pop music, entertainment movies,
apartment as well as forms of entertainment).
The respondents spend most of the time visiting leisure and entertainment
centres (34 per cent of them visit them frequently and 38 per cent – often), reading
books, journals, newspapers (26 per cent – constantly, 34 per cent often), partying
with friends (24 per cent – constantly, 50 per cent – often), in the internet (86 per
cent – constantly, 16 per cent – often), watching television (68 per cent, 16 per cent
– often), listening to the radio (38 per cent – constantly, 22 per cent – often). Still
many objects are visited by respondents only sometimes or they do not visit them at
all: theatre (62 per cent – sometimes, 28 per cent – never), cinema (62 per cent –
sometimes, 2 per cent – never), city festivals (66 per cent – sometimes, 6 per cent -
never), events organized by various organizations (70 per cent – sometimes, 8 per
cent – never), exhibitions (66 per cent – sometimes, 22 per cent – never), seminars,
conferences (74 per cent – sometimes, 10 per cent – never), libraries (64 per cent –
sometimes, 12 per cent – never), pick-nicks (58 per cent – sometimes, 2 per cent –
never).
The obtained data prove that students devote most of their free time to the
active leisure: entertainment, and the passive free time (the internet (86 per cent –
constantly), television (68 per cent – constantly). As compared to the research of
2003, it is noticed that the television is not consumes the most actively, and the
internet has become a more popular form of the consumed culture. And the
consumption of the elite culture has reduced: going to theatres, exhibition, galleries,
as it is related to finances. Most of the respondents indicate that there is a lack of
means to consume this type of culture.
The research also revealed that the respondents underlined that they lack the
real, and not the massive “pop” cultural events that would have the lasting value
(respondent No 2). The respondents clearly separated the popular culture stating that
“the massive (popular) culture is meant for leisure time, meeting the taste of the
masses, but it has no lasting value or idea, and the national culture reflects the values
of the nation, has the lasting value, and provides not only the physical, but also
spiritual satisfaction” (respondent No. 1). Most of the respondents replied that the
popular culture is the widely spread “new” culture that include various films and
books having no value, and also visiting various entertainment places, trade and
leisure centres, night clubs, etc. (respondent No. 2, 4, 5).
The researchers B. Kuzmickas, R. Čepaitienė and others think that now the
Lithuanian society is standing at the crossroad between the East and the West, having
forgotten its historic heritage formed through many centuries. Although many years
have passed by after Lithuania regained its independence, still there are provisions
that prevailed in the Soviet Union, but also, as Lithuania is an open state, the
influence from the West is also expressed in the mind of Lithuanian people.
According to R. Čepaitienė, it is not possible without the national ideology as well
as creation of mythology, therefore we should remember, create, discover the
Lithuanian symbols, heroes, legends and stories once again ( Čepaitienė, 2005).
Speaking about the national culture the respondents stressed that: “the culture
of national values includes various traditional festivals, customs, traditions,
galleries, exhibitions” (respondent 2, 5).
The carried out research shows that we may disagree with the prevailing
opinion of the society that Lithuania is left without clear guidelines that could indicate
which way to choose. It is just an assumption that needs thorough research, but this
survey of the students shows that the value of national culture is understood by the
youth. Respondent 5 indicated that when young one should take part in the events of
massive (pop) culture, and when older – one should participate in the events of
thenational culture.
All the questioned students said that the national culture is much more
important that the popular one, although they did not reject the existence of the latter.
However, in order to strengthen the maturity of the Lithuanian society, we
should look back to our historic past, the folk culture, where each Lithuanian may find
the acceptable or known features. From Lithuanian folk fairy-tales we can educate
about diligence that was destructed by the collective work as formed by the
occupation. In fairy-tales, when one wants to achieve something, one should get and
carry out certain tasks. Lithuanian fairy-tales and sagas, they also show the mind and
smartness of Lithuanians (meeting mystical creatures, such as devils, fairies often
ended in favour of the human being), so why cannot we “overcome” the complex of
inadequacy that is the sickness of most of the society of Lithuania? When joining the
global minds to the Lithuanian one, we can find common things. In the world, the idea
of the ecological behaviour that is responsible with regards to nature is becoming
more popular, so Lithuanians should be reminded of the special relation of the
Lithuanian man with nature, thus accepting the Western ideas and spreading our own.
Some people stated that Lithuanian is distinguished by uniting not only its own
culture, but enriching it with the culture from the East and the West, as the
geographical location of Lithuania as well as the historic experience determined it to
be like a link between these two world sides. The creation of its own culture as well as
the identity could be a certain synthesis between its own and the accepted culture,
adjusting it to their own needs, thus creating own culture as well as the identity in the
European context.
B. Kuzmickas names the present period of Lithuania as a transition period. He
describes the period of transition as the period since the regaining of independence till
nowadays, seeking to underline the changes that took place during that period
(Kuzmickas, 1989). This transition conditioned not only the economic, social and
other changes, but also the values of individuals were changing.
Regional ethnicity in Lithuania
One of the features of the EU regional policy is the retention of the cultural
identity. According to V. Čaplikas, such a nature of policy and the direction are
determined by the place of regions in the organization management, the historic
development of the continent, the cultural variety and other similar factors (Čaplikas,
2006). So culture in the regional policy is the sphere of priority, as it is closely related
to another sphere of its retention, and the questions of the retention of the cultural
identity are equal to the problems of economy and ecology1.
As it is stated by V. Čaplikas, the regional ethnicity, just like nationality, is the
social consciousness formed during a long historic period and it acts as the most
mobilized means that does not have equivalents (Čaplikas, 2006). According to him,
the roots of the Lithuanian regionalism date back a long time ago, and reach even the
times of tribal life (Čaplikas, 2006). The Lithuanian legal acts validate 5 ethno-cultural
regions of Lithuania: Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Minor Lithuania.
The development of ethno-cultural regions is one of the means of the
Lithuanian state for the smooth development of culture and self-government in all
regions of the country. As V.Venckutė states, the development of regions may be
defined as the development of the aspects of social, economic, environmental, healthy,
technological, cultural and recreational life of the community in a certain territory
(Venckutė, 2004). One of the aspects mentioned by the author is the cultural
development in regions where the place of meeting is often the cultural centres in
small towns and villages. In order to improve the existing situation of the cultural
centres, in 2007, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved of the
Regional Cultural Development Programme for 2008–2012.
The decision of the Government of Lithuania on the Regional cultural
development, the policy of the present regional culture is defined: “<...>the policy of
the activity co-ordination, concentration, partnership, local development promotion of
the state, governors of counties, municipal institutions of cultural enterprises
subordinate to them, the aim of which is the coherent and targeted development of 1 Ši nuostata teisiškai buvo įtvirtinta Mastrichto sutartyje, pasirašytoje 1992 02 07. Sutartimi buvo sutvirtintas regionų išsaugojimas bei įvardintos regionų plėtros sritys.
culture in regions, strengthening of its role in the social and economic life of regions”
(LRV, 2007). The main aim is underlined in it – culture must be distributed and
developed equally in all regions of Lithuania. This aim is being achieved carrying out
the regional cultural development programme that is defined as follows: “The
programme, whose aims, tasks and implementation results assure the implementation
of the national policy of the regional culture, includes the needs of cultural
development of the region (regions), is related to the rendering of cultural services for
the inhabitants of the region” (LRV, 2007).
The most reliable way to protect culture is to create it. Only the creating culture
strengthens naturally the instinct of survival, its vivid powers. Nobody doubts that the
creative nation is vivid and it has the future. It is stressed in the provisions of the
Council of the Protection of Ethnic Culture as accepted by the Seimas (parlament) of
the Republic of Lithuania in 2004 that are one of the most important steps to develop
regional ethnicity. The most important aim of this council coincides with the aim of
the cultural policy of the EU: „to encourage the development of ethnic culture
guaranteeing the protection and strengthening of the national identity and self-
awareness, and the equal participation of Lithuania in the cultural life of world
nations“(LRS, 2004).
I would state that the ethnic culture is alive, as many activities are going on.
There are many people working in the field of culture, and it is best described by
acting cultural centers. They are the most important institution in regions that cherish
the ethnic culture. In Lithuania, cultural centers’ were established during the Soviet
times and acquired the status of the main cultural infrastructural unit, became the most
important places of culture spread in the whole territory of Lithuania, but they have to
fight for their survival till nowadays. The means allotted by municipalities to support
cultural centres are bigger than the means for the maintenance of museums, libraries
and other cultural institutions, but the evident vegetation of cultural centres or even the
phase of degradation due to the lack of means and innovativeness (in the development
of projects, implementation of new creative activities. It was revealed in the
international project Kūrybinis augimas (Creative Growth), in Kaunas region that
includes part of Suvalkija and Aukštaitija ethno-cultural regions. We cannot state that
all cultural centres are supported merely by the state and carry out only the functions
as regulated by legal acts without the creative initiative. Many cultural centres
perform projects, co-operate with foreign partners, are supported by business
institutions.
At present, the tendency of a light decrease and weakening of the activity of
cultural centres in the country is noticed. In 1995, 985 cultural centres supported by
municipalities were active in Lithuania, out of which 819 were based in the
countryside, so in 2006, municipalities supported only 154 cultural centres bearing the
status of a legal entity and 698 of their branches in the countryside (LRV, 2007). This
evoked negative changes in the cultural development of regions of Lithuania and
encouraged the concentration of amateur and professional culture hearths in the big
cities. In such a way smaller towns and villages of Lithuania are left aside, without
self-realization and equal possibilities of the right to professional culture. This
tendency was noticed in the project Creative Growth, when cultural centres that were
established in suburban areas of Kaunas are only vegetating, as the inhabitants
participate in the city’s cultural life. Although there are still cultural centres open in the
suburban cultural centres (Neveronys, Dotnuva, Lapės, Vaišvydava, etc.), but only due
to enthusiasts that still value the national culture more than the popular one.
The activity of cultural centres is one of the ways to assure the decentralization
of culture, supported by the EU and Lithuanian cultural development policy
programmes. The protection of the national culture must be of the special concern for
cultural centres, and it is clearly defined in the law on Cultural centres of Lithuania
determining the following functions of the activity of cultural centres:
To provide conditions for the distribution of ethnic culture,
To promote the old cultural traditions, customs,
To assure the accessibility of ethnic culture,
To organize events promoting ethnic culture, amateur art,
To organize entertainment, educational and other events,
To create the forms of contemporary modern art forms and give sense to
them,
To organize the activity of amateur art collectives, studies, groups;
To take care of the preparation of amateur art collectives and participation in
Song festivals, local, regional, national and international events;
To take care of the employment of children and youth, their artistic
education;
To organize the commemoration of national festivals, memorable days,
calendar festivals,
To provide conditions for the spread of the professional art (LRS, 2004).
Out of activities of cultural centres, the more important role is ascribed to the
ethnic and elite culture than that of the massive culture.
Such activities of cultural centres were confirmed by the international project
Creative Growth in Kaunas region and the national project SiluetasLT. During the
project Creative Growth, the scenic art and the cultural activity in 73 cultural centres
of Kaunas region were analysed (34 – in Kaunas, 23 – in Raseiniai, 6 – in Kaišiadorys
and 10 in Jonava districts). Besides, cultural centres have branches, for instance the
cultural centre of Raseiniai has 25 branches, but we did not analyse them. The
research revealed that folklore ensembles of elderly people (women, men, both) were
established in all cultural centres. Most of them also had children folk dance groups
(80 per cent) (Jurėnienė, 2010).
Also folk dance groups of elderly people were active in most of the centres. The main
activities of all the cultural centres analysed – children folk cappellas, senior dance
groups, folk song groups, brass cappellas, country cappellas, folk song vocal groups.
In about 40 per cent of the centres, there were folk art and handicraft, painting
exhibitions of the people of the community, in 10 per cent of the centres there were
adult sacral music ensembles, children sacral music ensembles.
In more than half of the centres analysed, next to the ethnic culture, the popular
culture is also created: modern dance groups (according to age groups), stage theatre,
sport dance studio, children pop group, modern stage duets.
There are also promoters of the modern culture fields: applied art studio, children
guitar studio, children theatre studio, singing poetry studio, adult theatre, mixed
choirs. The most popular in this group is the mixed choir (abut 90 per cent). The
programme of the latter is very different: from folk songs to professional choral
songs, therefore I can state that they are also creators of the ethnic culture. In this
group, about half of the centres have folk theatres, and it is related to folk traditions
and customs.
The ethnic culture is alive and it seeks to survive, keeping the people it affects.
Culture can survive only when it is created and consumed by people.
In 2008 – 2009, the national project “SiluetasLT” was implemented, with the
help of which the national (material and non-material) culture, objects of historic and
cultural heritage were collected. In the course of the implementation of the project, the
internet site “SiluetasLT“ as well as the internet data base were prepared, where the
cultural material was collected and systematized.
Carrying the project, the status of the present national culture and the affect of
the massive culture upon in ethno-cultural regions was established.
During the project it became clear that the most important task of cultural
centres of villages, regions, towns was the popularity of ethnographic culture. The
ethnic culture has been fostered through centuries, and in the present society one
region is distinguished from the other having its own customs and traditions. It was
revealed in the project. Both in the countryside, and in cities Lithuanians join the
ensembles promoting and creating ethnic culture, and in places where there are no
cultural centres there are active communities that are interested in the old traditions
and customs, revive them and submit to the wide society. Ethnic culture is important
because it strengthens people belonging to that culture. If people are able to recognize
what is their own, what is inborn, what is culturally inherited, they will be strong
spiritually and culturally, and will be more resistant to various popular cultures.
Another field of the activity of cultural centres is propagation and promotion
of modern culture. Events of modern culture attract big masses of countryside and
urban people, and namely it is the reason why open-air pop concerts massively visited
by people, and other events of such type were called “massive cultural events”. Such
events in smaller towns and villages are most often organized by their cultural centres.
The main problem of massive events in towns and villages is the issue of the quality
of cultural or artistic level. The project “SiluetasLT” revealed that the popular culture
has a bigger influence upon young people than the elderly. In cultural centres, there
are pop cultural ensembles: singing and dancing. There is a big lack of cultural
managers. It is good that artistic directors are professionals. This activity of youth
ensembles and the conditions of cultural centres were also established in the project
Creative Growth. The following activities were noticed: sport dance studios, children
pop groups, women stage duets, singing poetry studios, adult theatres, mixed adult
theatres, children theatre studio as well as children guitar studio.
Another field of activity as carried out by the cultural centre is the
protection of cultural heritage. The protection of cultural heritage in Lithuania is
taken care of not only by the national or municipal institutions – cultural centres also
contribute to the protection of heritage, its fostering and revival in different forms – by
organizing various events, looking for funds, or moving to a desolate object of cultural
heritage and renovating it, managing it and taking care of it voluntarily. It brings
benefit to the society, as the declaration of the General Human Rights states, the
cultural life is not possible without a community.
During the project SiluetasLT, it became clear that each town or village that
has the material cultural heritage (a mill, mound, barrow, castle, manor) not only takes
care of it by collecting all the historic material about the object, but also organizing
regional events thus promoting them for the society. Besides, most of the cultural
heritage objects are perfectly managed and prepared for tourists. It is interesting to
note that most of cultural centres, having no knowledge about the industry of cultural
heritage, organize various national festivals, events on mounds, in manors or near
castles, thus making their cultural heritage more popular.
One more field of the activity of the cultural centre is the creation of the qualitative
free time. At cultural institutions people have a possibility to improve their artistic
skills, spend free time in a cultural way as well as realize themselves in the field of
culture. This activity was revealed in the project Creative Growth, when professional
painters, musicians and artistic directors worked at cultural centres. But the cultural
centres analysed in this project were located around the second largest Lithuanian city
– Kaunas. Therefore we can say that professional artists having no work in the city,
willingly work in suburban cultural centres. During Siluetas LT, another tendency was
noticed, i.e. professional artists most often work in cultural centres of the soviet times.
They still have retained various folk dance and song ensembles. In these cultural
centres, people of different generations – from the elderly to children – dance and sing
together. There is no differentiation into children, teenagers, elderly people groups.
All of them play, sing and dance together. I think that namely in these centres the love
towards our own culture, customs and traditions will be transferred. But they face the
problem of musical education, as those cultural houses that have more specialized
ensembles, have also a higher quality of their programmes.
The last field of activity that is engaged by cultural centres is the development
of short-term and long-term cultural and educational projects as well as their
implementation in the community. This activity is meant for the implementation of
ideas that do not have the planned financing from the state budget, but their benefit is
evident. The favourable financing system now from the Lithuanian and the European
Union structural funds allow to submit several project application a year. Only the
project Creative Growth established that in three cultural centres (Babtai,
Raudondvaris, Kaišiadorys), the project activity was carried out very actively and their
managers were experience in the implementation of international projects. Managers
of other centres stated that they were too small or too weak in order to prepare, win
and implement international projects. I think that the problem lies not in to size of the
cultural centre, but in their financing. All the cultural centre as analysed in this project
were financed from the state budget and therefore not every of them took the initiative
to find additional funds that would allow to prepare the possessed cultural heritage for
the consumption (Jurėnienė, 2010).
Therefore, generalizing the activity of cultural centres, we can make a
conclusion that cultural centres and their systems interact with one another and act in
the modern society through activities they implement, uniting the members of the
community for a joint venture, encouraging their self-expression, and thus assuring at
least the minimal distribution of the fostering of culture in the whole country, and not
only in the hearths of culture – the biggest cities of Lithuania.
The researcher Klimka states that when developing the national culture in
Lithuania, the following fields should be strengthened:
First: the encouragement of the activity of communities, strengthening of their
roles and influence, protecting the regional peculiarity.
Second: explanation of the living traditional cultural phenomena and assurance
of their continuity in ethnographic regions.
Third: presentation of ethnic culture to the society. The creation of the image
of Lithuania.
Fourth: revival and fostering of traditional crafts and businesses (Klimka,
2008).
I will not discuss the third and fourth fields in the article, as none of the
projects analysed it.
In this way, in Lithuania, implementing the principle of cultural regionality and
enhancing the development of the national culture, there are legally formed conditions
for its protection that meet the EU policy in respect of the national culture.
The functioning cultural centres perform all the functions ascribed to them.
Only one shortcoming that does not allow to develop their activities more widely is
the lack of means.
Conclusions: There are many definitions of the concept of culture. Culture is learnt through
understanding that is formed by various factors; the place of birth and growth, the
language, surrounding people, the environment, psychological stimuli. There are no
two individuals that would see the world identically as they do not get absolutely
identical stimuli and do not share the same physical sense preceptors. People know
only what they perceived personally and they cannot be sure that somebody else also
understood the same object in the same way.
Ethnic culture is the totality of cultural values passed from generation to
generation by people from a certain region – the historic memory related to the history
of the nation, the respect for their own statehood, traditions, customs, folklore, music,
dance, the ethnic peculiarity of the language – dialects and ethnic names of places,
etc. The national culture must be created, only then it is alive. It is important that it is
consumed by people themselves, so the protection of the state does not suffice. The
state position with regards to it is also important. Only states that are very old in the
historic sense and have old cultures may not take care of the strengthening of their
culture, as it is done by people themselves.
In the course of projects „Siluetas LT“, Creative Growth the real situation of
the national culture in the state and the society becomes clear. The national culture is
consumed and created. Cultural centres contribute to it most of all, as they are
financed from the state. But despite the society’s initiative to foster the national
culture, the attention of the state to it is still too small. All the legal acts in Lithuania
on the strengthening and protection of the national culture meet the provision of the
EU, but sometimes they have the unclear relation between the national culture and the
ethnic culture. Not all the legislators want to acknowledge that culture must be
integrated into the national culture. Another important problem, as stressed in both of
the projects, is the insufficient financing support for culture. In Lithuania there is still
an attitude prevailing that culture has the role of the step-daughter. Up till now,
culture does not receive the same financing as economy, social security, national
defense and other spheres. There is no another sphere that is less financed by the state.
The Lithuanian youth has been largely influenced by the massive culture (pop
culture) that overwhelms the national culture in many cases. During the research
“Students and Culture’ it was noticed that Lithuanian ethnic culture has a real threat
of extinction, as the youth, although understanding the importance of the national
culture, still consume more of the massive culture. The elite culture is less consumed
by the youth due to the lack of means, as it was shown by the research.
Besides, the problem of the cultural identity of the youth is more sharpened by the
globalization of the world. In most cases, the ideas of the cosmopolitan culture are
more acceptable for the youth than those of the national culture. It may be stated that
one of the reasons is the society of consumption where the material things are higher
then the spiritual ones.
Literature:
1. Cultural needs of Lithuanian inhabitants and their cultural behavior. 2003.
Institute of Social Research.
2. Čaplikas, V. 2006. Lietuvos ir Europos Sąjungos regioninė politika. – Kaunas:
Atmintis.
3. Čepaitienė, R. 2005. Laikas ir akmenys: Kultūros ir paveldo sampratos
moderniojoje Lietuvoje, Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla.
4. Gullestrup, H. 2002. The complexity of intercultural communication in cross-
cultural management [interaktyvus], 2010 12 11,
<http://www.immi.se/Intercultural/nr6/gullestrup.pdf>
5. Hall, E.T. 1990. Understanding Cultural Differences. Yarmouth, ME:
Intercultural Press.
6. Hofstede, G. 2001. Culture's Consequences, Second Edition, Comparing
Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organisations Across Nations, Thousand
Oaks: Sage Publications.
7. Hofstede, G., 1994. Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind,
London: McGraw-Hill.
8. Juozaitis, A. 2001. Kultūros įkvėpiai. Vilnius: Mažasis Vyturys.
9. Kuzmickas, B. 1989. Tautos kultūros savimonė. Vilnius: Mintis.
10. Daujotytė ,V. 2000. Kultūros šalys ir nuošalės. Kaunas: Technologija.
11. Dumbliauskas, V. 1999. Sociologija: mokymo priemonė. Vilnius: Vilniaus
pedagoginio universiteto leidykla
12. Grigas, R. 2000. Nūdienos pasaulio kontūrai ir lietuvių bendruomeniškumo
problema./ Bendruomeniškumas ir savivalda. Kaunas, P. 4-14.
13. Kavolis, V. 1996. Kultūros dirbtuvė. Vilnius: Baltos lankos.
14. Klimka, L. 2008. Etninės kultūros raiška šiandien (Expression of Ethnic
Culture Today) / / Kultūros aktualijos, 60.
15. Jurėnienė, V. 2010. Creativity-the Basis for Targeted Regional Development //
Transformations in Business and Economics, Vol. 9, No 3(21), Supplement A,
Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.
16. Laužikaitė, M. 2006. „Lietuvos kultūros politika: analizės eskizai“ // Inter-
studia humanitatis, 3.
17. Liubinienė, V. 2002. Kultūra ir visuomenė. Kaunas: Technologija.
18. LRS (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas). 2000. Lietuvos Respublikos labdaros ir
paramos įstatymo pakeitimo Įstatymas. 2000 m. liepos 11 d. Nr. VIII-1811. –
Valstybės žinios: Nr. 61-1818.
19. LRS (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas). 2003. Žemėlapio „Lietuvos etnografinių
regionų žemėlapis“ sudarymo principai. Komentaras. [interactive], 2010 12 13,
Prieiga:<
http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter/w5_show?p_r=2231&p_d=28967&p_k=1>
20. LRS (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas). 2004. Lietuvos Respublikos Kultūros
centrų įstatymas 2004 m. liepos 15 d. Nr. IX-2395. - Valstybės žinios: Nr.
120-4435.
21. LRS (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas). 2004. Nutarimas dėl Etninės kultūros
tarybos nuostatų patvirtinimo. Nr. IXP-2757(2SP). [interaktyvus], 2011 02 15,
Prieiga:
<http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dokpaieska.showdoc_l?p_id=227146&p_query=
&p_tr2= >
22. LRS (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas). 2008. Lietuvos Respublikos Vietos
savivaldos įstatymo pakeitimo Įstatymas. 2008 m. rugsėjo 15 d. Nr. X-1722. –
Valstybės žinios: Nr. 113-4290.
23. LRV (Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybė). 2006. Nutarimas dėl Kultūros centrų
modernizavimo 2007- 2020 m. programos patvirtinimo. 2006 m. rugpjūčio 4 d.
Nr. 785. – Valstybės žinios: Nr. 88-3470.
24. LRV (Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybė). 2008. Nutarimas dėl Regionų
kultūros plėtros 2008 – 2011 m. programos patvirtinimo. 2007 m. gruodžio 19
d. Nr. 1445. –Valstybės žinios: Nr. 4-134.
25. Mockaitis, A. I., Šalčiuvienė, L. 2003. An analysis of the influence of culture
on need hierarchies in three Baltic countries // Ekonomika. 66.
26. Samovar, L. A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. (eds.) 2006. Intercultural
communication: a reader. Belmont (Calif.): Thomson/Wadsworth.
27. Savicka, A. 2006. Darbas ir laisvalaikis: naujos jų tarpusavio ryšio
sampratos paieškos // Kultūrologija 13. Kultūra globalizacijos sąlygomis.
28. Socialinių tyrimų institutas. 2003. Lietuvos gyventojų kultūriniai poreikiai
bei kultūrinė elgsena. 2007 06 18, <www.sti.lt>
29. Šalčiuvienė, L. 2003. Kultūros vertybių dimensijos // Ekonomika. 66.
30. Šmaižys, R. 2008. The old ethnic culture has become unimportant for a
modern man //http://www.smaizys.lt/zmones/siuolaikiniam-zmogui-senoji-
etnine-kultura-tapo-nereiksminga.
31. Urbonaitė, D. 1999. Informacinės kultūros teorinis pagrindimas.
[interaktyvus], 2010 12 15, <www.ledykla.vu.lt>
32. Vaiškūnas, J. 2010. Ethnic culture – restoration or its methodological
destruction? http://www.sarmatija.lt/index.php/ukis-ir-aplinka/1288-etnine-
kulturapertvarkymas-ar-metodiskas-naikinimas
33. Vaiškūnas, J. 2011. When will both the national and ethnic cultures celebrate
the 16th of February? http://www.delfi.lt/news/ringas/lit/jvaiskunas-kada-
nacionaline-ir-etnine-kulturos-kartu-sves-vasario-16-aja.d?id=42065911
34. Venckutė,V. 2004. Regionų raidos tyrimas. / Seilius A. (sud.), Valdymo
problemos: teorijos ir tendencijos. Klaipėda: Klaipėdos Universiteto leidykla.
35. Vėlius, N. 1987. Chtoniškasis lietuvių mitologijos pasaulis // Mitologijos ir tautos
sąmonės tarpusavio santykį nagrinėjantis veikalas. Vilnius.
36. .Vosiliūtė, A. 2003. Vartojimas kaip socialinė problema. Filosofija //
Sociologija.