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History of Lithuanian Culture DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES

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History of Lithuanian Culture DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Rūstis Kamuntavičius History of Lithuanian Culture DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES Kaunas, 2013 Reviewed by Prof. Dr. Zigmantas Kiaupa Approved by the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities at Vytau- tas Magnus University on 30 November 2012 (Protocol No. 3–2) Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University on 28 December 2012 (Protocol No. 8–6) Translated and edited by UAB “Lingvobalt” Publication of the didactical guidelines is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Renewal and Internationalization of Bachelor Degree Programmes in History, Ethnology, Philosophy and Political Science” (project No.: VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-048) © Rūstis Kamuntavičius, 2013 ISBN 978-9955-21-350-5 © Vytautas Magnus University, 2013 Table of contents Introduction . 5 1. First lecture . 7 2. Food and Drinks in the Middle and New Ages . 10 3. Economy and Culture under the Rule of the Jagiellonian Dynasty . 14 4. Money and Society in Lithuania inthe 16–17th Centuries . 18 5. Art, Science, and Society in Lithuania in the 17th century 22 6. Religions and Confessions in the 16-18th centuries . 26 7. Economy and Culture in the 18th Century . 30 8. Noble’s Democracy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . 34 9. Jews in Lithuanian History . 38 10. Lithuanian Culture in 19th century. National Identity and Russification . 42 11. Interwar Culture of Lithuania . 45 12. Changes in the Second Half of the 20th Century. Sovietisation . 49 Introduction This course is dedicated to discussions on Lithuanian cultural his- tory in the broadest sense of this term. The most relevant topics related to these problems, such as civil culture, tolerance, everyday material life and other, are analysed. Most recent historiography in English is used for the analysis of the topics. It is important to highlight that the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is closely related to the history of Belarus and Poland in particular. Due to this reason, the course contains so much historiography related to Poland, especially when analysing the issues where information about Lithuania is lacking or when common Polish and Lithuanian issues of the past are looked into. For instance, the history of medieval food and drinks in Lithuania is discussed based on the book dedicated to Poland. Since it speaks much of the habits of the elite in this country, which is closely linked with Lithuania (the ruler used to be the same from the end of the 14th century), it may be assumed that the reality of Lithuania was not very remote from that of Poland. Moreover, the material for lectures contains supplementary literature which allows deepening knowledge, looking for similarities and differences. Another exam- ple is the study by Jerzy Lukowski on the political culture of Poland and Lithuania in the 18th century. Again, Poland is in the focus of the book; however, the author is unable to ignore Lithuania being the other party of the union. It provides certain advantages because 5 History of Lithuanian Culture Lithuania is seen from a slightly different perspective, which is less typical of Lithuanian historiography. The same observations are applicable to two other books on the common history of Poland and Lithuania – Citizenship and Identity in a Multinational Com- monwealth and The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386–1795 (D. Stone). All the books for reading are new, published over the last ten years. Only a few are an exception, for instance, Money, Prices and Power in Poland, 16–17th Centuries by A. Mączak and The Baltic States by R. Misiūnas and R. Taagaperos. Both of them were pub- lished in 1995. They are classical books in terms of their themes, written by the most famous researchers; therefore, they cannot be ignored in a course like this. The first lecture of the course is introductory. The teacher is the only one who speaks. The rest of the lectures are both lectures and seminars. Students come to each of them having read a specified chapter from the books in the reference list and have a discussion with the teacher on the specific topic of the lecture-seminar. The most important material required for preparation is scanned and available online. Students are encouraged to look for additional material individually in libraries and online. 1. First lecture The subject of cultural history in the same way as history in general is a human being. Cultural history may be understood both in a very narrow and in a very wide sense. On the one hand, culture is only exhibitions of pieces of art, theatre performances, symphonic orchestras, etc. Yet, a wider definition of culture includes every- thing that was created by the hands and brain of a human. This is daily routine, economic activities, outlook, national identity, social activities, etc. There are a number of intermediate definitions of culture which encompass merely some areas of human activity, for instance, only material or only spiritual aspects. No consensus has been reached which out of many definitions of culture is the most correct. In this course, culture is perceived in its broadest sense. Since this perspective considerably expands the range of topics, and the course is limited by time and poor choice of literature in Eng- lish, several most important topics related to the broad definition of culture will be analysed. The first and the most broadly analysed topic in the course is material and economic life. What Lithuanian drank, ate, produced, how they traded and what was the development of these areas from the Middle Ages to the changes brought by the Soviet Era in the second half of the 20th century. Another topic is the political cul- ture of Lithuania. The history of the country is particularly poorly known from this perspective because the development of a civil 7 History of Lithuanian Culture society is reflected by it. These topics are relevant to democratic societies, and Lithuania has been among them only for the last 20 years. Consequently, the topic was not paid appropriate research- ers’ attention. In the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, es- pecially in the 15–16th centuries, Lithuanian nobility were factual rulers of the state and this determined the formation of a specific political culture. There was nothing similar in Europe; therefore, this Polish–Lithuanian phenomenon was outstanding in the global context. One more unique tradition was developed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – tolerance. Coexistence of Lithuanian, Polish, Belarusian, Jewish, and other nations became a phenomenon with merely a few analogues in the entire European continent. The last – fourth – topic analysed in the course is related to shifts in mentality. They are value judgements, understanding of space and other phe- nomena related to people’s perception of the world. In fact, these problems are analysed in each lecture of the course and are related to the issues of political culture and tolerance. Having selected these topics, Lithuanian history may be divided into several more or less logical periods which in principle corre- spond to the established tradition. The first one includes the period from the establishment of the state at the turn of the 12–13th centuries to the rule of Vytautas and Jogaila at the turn of the 14–15th centu- ries. These two centuries are related to the period of paganism. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a multinational, tolerant state with a specific material culture and economic system started forming at the time. The second period (15–18th centuries) is the time of po- litical and cultural affinity with Poland. Besides, this is the period when Lithuania moves from Paganism to Christianity and is subject to the most intense protestant and in particular catholic influences which leave essential footprints in its culture. At the same time, a specific state governance model based on the noble’s democracy is under formation. The third period is the times of Tsarist Russia, when occupied Lithuania undergoes the key social and economic 8 First lecture transformations. Namely at that time, serfdom was abolished, rap- id Russification was taking place, new towns were constructed and the old ones were expanded like never before, the infrastructure of transport and communications was developed. The last period covers the years from the First World War to present times. This ep- och encompasses two periods of Lithuanian independence lasting for two decades each and half a century of Soviet occupation. The changes undergone by Lithuania over this period transformed radi- cally its cultural horizons. From an agricultural country Lithuania became an urban one, from a multinational country it turned into a homogenous one with Lithuanian-speaking population. Lithu- anian culture has never experienced so many essential changes within such a short period of time as it did in the 20th century. Having surveyed the topics, it is important to note that only the historical period of the Lithuanian state, i. e. from around the 13th century to present days, is analysed in the course. It was decided to do so because fundamental changes occur in the nature of histori- ography (archaeological research prevails) and topics (it is impossi- ble to analyse the problems pertaining either to tolerance or to civil society) when examining earlier periods. Furthermore, literature in the English language is hardly available to examine the prehistoric times. 2. Food and Drinks in the Middle and New Ages Food and drinks are among the major topics of material culture. Not only destinies of individuals but also of entire countries and re- gions depended on them. Those who managed to accumulate larger stocks of food were able to survive famine or political turmoil more successfully.
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