Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO
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Veus del passat [‘Voices from the past’]
Authors: Joan Miralles i Monserrat, in collaboration with Mar Umbert
This book issues from an endless source of far conversations recorded in audio, the Joan Miralles Oral History Arxive. In the fieldwork, the author interrogates, suggests, comments on, or pretends to be the one who pulls the hook, dropping a word, a nickname, a saying, the name of a farmhouse, an anecdote that stirs or awakens the memory of the interlocutor. He stops his ear and listens as a real privilege to the testimony, records it -with the desire to make it lasting- and finally disseminates it to readers through written transcription, contextualization and documented exegesis on footnote. It also offers the opportunity to hear the voices of the interviewer and the interviewees. The reader will enjoy reading this material, in which voices of the past resonate, of people who left a recorded testimony of their passage through life in a certain place and time. It is as if they themselves, through the author, open the doors of their home to the reader to chat for a while.
Keywords: Interviews : Majorcans – Oral History – Interviews : Montuïri (Balearic Islands) – Social Life and Tradition – S. XX – Montuïri (Balearic Islands) – Biography
Date of publication: 2020
ISBN: 978-84-9965-535-2
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 6
Enclavaments lingüístics i comunitats locals : el català a Sardenya, al Carxe i entre els gitanos catalans [‘Linguistic enclaves and local communities: Catalan in Sardinia, in El Carxe and among Catalan gypsies‘] / Edited by Joan A. Argenter
The term linguistic enclave (Sprachinseln ‘language island’ in German) evokes language isolation, a strictly limited area where a community with language ‘x’ is surrounded by a linguistic community ‘y’. In fact, the island is as important as its surroundings, the historic inhabitants are as important as their neighbours, newcomers or visitors, isolation is as important as permeability. Many enclave communities are under severe cultural pressure and traditional languages are suffering from processes of erosion and replacement. They are also examples of the historic maintenance of a heritage language in adverse conditions. The city of Alghero in Sardenia, the region of El Carxe in Murcia and the communities of Catalan gypsies established in Northern Catalonia and Occitania are the subjects of the studies collected in this volume.
Keywords: Catalan – Alguer / Catalan – Carxe (Murcia) / Gypsies – France – Languages
Date of publication: 2014
ISBN: 978-84-9965-211-5
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 5
Llengües, cultures, identitats a la Mediterrània [‘Languages, cultures, identities in the Mediterranean‘] / Edited by Joan A. Argenter
This book compiles a collection of works written from the plenaries presented at the workshop ‘Identitat, Europa, Mediterrània’ (Identity, Europe and the Mediterranian), especially those in the thematic session ‘Llengües, Cultura i Identitat a la Mediterrània’ (Languages, Culture and Identity in the Mediterranean). The texts put forward the authors’ personal points of view on problems related to the Mediterranean area, its history and transformations, problems, identities, cultures, languages and linguistic communities.
Keywords: Collective identity – Mediterranean, Region – Conferences / Mediterranean Culture – Conferences
Date of publication: 2011
ISBN: 978-84-9965-092-0
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 4
La Gestió interestatal de les llengües transfrontereres [‘The interstate management of transnational languages‘] / Edited by Joan A. Argenter
The studies collected in this volume deal with the so-called transnational languages. Although languages and peoples came first, followed by nations, one cannot ignore the fact that borders have contributed to the creation and the structure of languages. The book suggests the existence of models of coordinated language management under these circumstances, especially in the fields of language policy and planning, whether related to corpus planning, the promotion of language use or the recognition and enforcement of the linguistic and cultural rights of speakers.
Keywords: Language policy / Linguistic communities / Transnational languages
Date of publication: 2011
ISBN: 978-84-9965-073-9
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 3
Torcebraç entre dues cultures: de l’ecosistema de les llengües: de discursos i de percepcions [‘Arm wrestling between two cultures: the ecosystem language: discourses and perceptions‘]/ Preface by Salvador Cardús
Author: Calafat Vila, Rosa
In this book the author states that Catalan, like other languages, has three enemies: the current law of a state that denies its spheres of use; the opacity of a discourse from a Catalan point of view, which prevents a social conformity able to give the category of unique value to Catalan culture, and the free circulation of the discourse of fear, based on the fact that the use of the Catalan language or the exercise of a particular point of view expressed in Catalan triggers social conflict or is subject to market restrictions. The publication is surprising because it is able to embody, in the sense of giving flesh and bones form to the most sophisticated sociolinguistic theories in everyday language. The strength of analysis comes from the fact that Rosa Calafat pays attention to things that are taken for granted, implied or apparent; that is, things that go unnoticed, since they are so commonplace that they become almost invisible to the conscious mind. Unlike sleight of hand, the book unveils the deception hidden behind the trick.
Keywords: Catalan – social aspects / Catalan – political aspects / Languages in contact – Catalan-speaking areas
Date of publication: 2010
ISBN: 978-84-92583-96-6
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 2
El Sistema mèdic d’una societat africana : els evuzok del Camerun [‘The Medical system in an African society: The Evuzok in Cameroon’]
Author: Mallart i Guimerà, Lluís
This book is a model of sociocultural analysis of the notion that people from a particular part of the world – neither closer nor more central than ours – have about themselves and about their relationship with nature, their conception of the human body and disease, medical knowledge and practices that make the world more intelligible and life easier. Therefore, it is the study of cultural knowledge and praxis, but due to the quantity and richness of the source materials collected, transcribed, translated and annotated, it is also a key contribution to the research on ancient knowledge about the virtues of the natural resources of the environment in which the Evuzok live, about a knowledge gained and passed on from to generation to generation, and about its coding in a language created, transmitted and also kept alive by generations of generations.
Keywords: Evuzok (African people) – Medicine / Traditional Medicine – Cameroon
Languages: Catalan – Ewondo
Data of publication: 2008
ISBN: 978-84-92583-18-8 (o.c.) ; 978-84-92583-19-5 (1st v.) ; 978-84-92583-20-1 (2nd v.)
Collection: Biblioteca Càtedra UNESCO ; 1
