The article examines the subject, tasks and ways of forming knowledge of a new humanities science – culturology. In terms of axiological interpretation of the essence of culture, the author proposes his neoaxiologic methodology, as the leading way of investigating complex spheres and types of culture. It emphasizes the need for the sovereignty of cultural studies, as a science that synthesizes a variety of knowledge about culture. The highest task of it, as postulated in the work, is the formation of man as a subject of culture.

The article considers the Buddhist pilgrimage as the most important part of the religious life of adherents of this world religion. The questions of the origin and development of this phenomenon are analyzed. Numerous examples show the diversity of pilgrimage in Buddhism. It is noted that the activities and heritage of pilgrims are an important material for studying the culture of this spiritual civilization. The most visited religious objects are allocated: sacred cities, special sacred temples, burial places, places of cremation of the departed Teachers. For hundreds of millions of Buddhist believers, a reverent attitude to the object of worship serves the accumulation of grace, and this or that righteous person is an intercessor who helps a person to break the cycle of rebirth. The purpose of the study is to reveal the peculiarities of Buddhist pilgrimage, to show the influence of historical, geographical, cultural factors on their formation. This work can be useful for solving pressing problems of interaction with representatives of the world of a deeply spiritual Buddhist civilization.

The scientific article presents sociological indicators that allow, first, to reveal the laws of the genesis, existence and influence of a social event on sociodynamics and the direction of social development, and secondly, to demark the social event among other phenomena of social reality. Three interrelated groups of its objective and subjective sociological indicators are distinguished on the basis of the sociological definition of the social event: genesis and determination; Social being; Social consequences. Sociological indicators of genesis and determination reflect the sources of a social event: the prerequisites, factors and reasons that cause the emergence of a social event. Sociological indicators of social life record the manifestation of the essential properties of a social event, as well as the existence in the social reality of the main structural components of a social event. Sociological indicators of the consequences of the influence of a social event on social development record changes in the leading structures and processes of society: in social institutions, in social relations, in the way of life and worldview of social actors. These indicators, in their unity and interrelationship, constitute an integral set of social markers that allow, at an empirical level, to carry out a sociological measurement of the influence of a social event on the socio-dynamics of society and the emergence of a qualitatively new social reality.

The article deals with the specificity of the research activity of women – scientists, determined by the gender role of women in the framework of the methodological approach – structural functionalism. Proceeding from the necessity of combining conjugal, maternal and professional roles, strategies for the professionalization of a woman-scientist are represented. The influence of marriage and motherhood on the research activity of women is analyzed based on the results of a sociological research conducted in 2017 among women-scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Based on the analysis of the sociological research data, it is concluded that the importance of the family and the scientific career for women-researchers depends on age, academic degree and position. For women-researchers, both traditional family values and values of professional self-realization and economic independence are highly valued. Generally satisfied with family status and combining personal life and professional activity, almost one in five women has trouble in combining research and family life. “Double burden” as a factor that reduces the effectiveness of women’s scientific activity, together with the high importance of the profession and family for a woman is a premise for the “role conflict of a working woman”. Gender stereotypes, which often reflect the real situation in the everyday practices of women, influence the scientific activity of women-researchers.

The condition and development of the Jewish libraries on the territory of Belarus before the World War I is researched. The author emphasizes that the Jews were one of the biggest ethnic groups in the region; therefore, they influenced cultural and educational processes on the Belarusian territories, including the development of librarianship. Special attention is paid to the quantity of the Jewish population on the Belarusian territories before the World War I (1897– 1914). It is also stressed that the Jews used the oral and written language at a sufficient level: this is an important condition for the development of nation-based libraries. The author analyses the state of the Jewish libraries in Vilno, Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev provinces. The positive points are as follows: a good number of readers, free access to books outside the libraries as a stimulating measure to increase some interest among visitors, and periodicals reading rooms in some Jewish libraries in Belarus. Some obstacles on the way to the active development of the already existing and newly appearing Jewish libraries are revealed. They are as follows: weak state financial support, untimely book fund renewal, narrow target groups (mostly children and teenagers), non-qualified staff, low level of record management and local authorities’ bans for the registration of new libraries. 

Article contains analysis of the ambulance service`s development in Soviet Belarus during the interbellum period. Major factors that caused the emergency medical care origins and evolution were highlighted. Author divided the studied period in three stages: “epidemic”, “institutional” and “technogenic” that influenced the ambulance service development. Author underlined a huge role of sanitary transport modernization that became the most important factor of emergency medical care development during the studied period.

The work purpose is to present history of anthropological study of physical development of the Belarusian children, teenagers and youth. This story originates at the end of the 19th century, at that time the anthropological science endured the period of the formation. In 1920 one of national objectives was health protection of younger generation; systematic study of physical development of the children’s population of BSSR began to be carried out. In the same time uniform methodical approaches were developed, mathematical data processing was introduced. Standards of physical development of the Belarusian children were for the first time created. In 1950 mass researches of health and physical status of children and teenagers in our republic were conducted by forces of doctors and hygienists. Results of their work allowed to establish dynamics and to reveal the main regularities of formation of a children’s organism. New age and sex standards of physical development of school children were created. Since 1970, the staff of department of anthropology of Institute of history NAN of Belarus conducts systematic complex researches of physical development of children, teenagers and youth. Researches include studying of intra group distinctions taking into account growth rates and definition like somatic development. Researches include studying of intra group distinctions taking into account growth rates and definition like somatic development. Thanks to this work in our republic the results illustrating the most important epoch-making regularities of physical development of newborns, preschool children, pupils of schools including acceleration process were received. In historical aspect the most important direction of anthropological researchers at the present stage is monitoring of physical development of the children’s population of Republic of Belarus. Reduction of massiveness of a skeleton was observed in consequence of which a thinner constitution of modern children at the age of 7–17 years is noticed.

The article studies Belarusian pluralia tantum nouns in the dynamic aspect. The introduction proves that the ways used to explore dynamic changes in this class are relevant. The vocabulary changes of Belarusian pluralia tantum nouns are structured according to the following parameters: archaization, neologization, lexicalization. The study looks into the stylistic stratification of the units under analysis as well, since it has a great impact on the way a word functions in the language. The study is based on lexicographic materials. The conclusion deduces that Belarusian pluralia tantum nouns are a stable and perspective lexical and grammatical class, evolve systemically in accordance with the development patterns of Belarusian vocabulary and grammar, but the degree of stability and dynamism varies in different thematic groups.

National-language policy in the 1920s and early 1930s had a major impact on the ratio of the socio-communicative system components of the BSSR in the period under review. The article reveals the functional distribution of idioms, determines the legal status and public functions of the Polish language as one of the components of the social and communicative system. The use of the method of sociolinguistic interpretation of written sources made it possible to define that the functional distribution of the official languages of the BSSR (Belarusian, Jewish, Russian and Polish) mainly reflects the numerical proportions of the population of the BSSR by nationality. The actual status of the languages corresponded to their legal status which allowed the languages of the main nationalities, including the Polish language, to function in the most important spheres of communication.

The article is devoted to the study of the variation of the Belarusian calendar-ritual songs on the example of the ancient and widespread spring song “Vol bushyе – viasnu chuye”. Dozens of tunes and lyrics of songs recorded in various places of Belarus at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 21st century were analyzed. In modern folklore, variation is understood as a specific feature of folklore which manifests itself in the existence of works of folk art in variants. The method of comparing options has become one of the main ones in the process of revealing the features and patterns of the existence of song folklore in variants. As a result of the research, the facts of the existence of a variant set of Belarusian folk songs “Vol bushyе – viasnu chuye”, differences of local styles and traditions, revealed a number of reasons that influence the occurrence of song variants (place, time, form of being, age and individual abilities of performer and other). The rich material made it possible to draw some conclusions about the structural and semantic laws of the existence of variations of songs, the nature of metrorhythmic, melodic types, modes, plot variants. Variation, as one of the primary features of folk art in the cycle of Belarusian ritual songs and directly in the spring songs has its own characteristics. The peculiarity of rhythmics and melodies give the songs plasticity, drama, perfectly convey the emotional states that artistically combine with the plot-shaped system of spring song-calls.

In the article there is an attempt to enter emotion in the structure of work, namely to look at its action at the level of plot and composition. It becomes firmly established that an emotion is just the way to create a plot. The poetic work consists of emotional events, each of which has its own dominant emotion. Motion of these emotions forms composition of a plot. A thesis is grounded that emotional events, incorporated by a general emotion, express certain emotive topics that predetermine as a whole the development of a plot. Emotions are a part of poetic text, emotions determine its emotionality and serve as material for revealing of the emotions in a plot. It is noted that Maksim Tank gives preference to his anecdotal works where a little story is present and where elements of plot – emotive topics – are linked by a cause-and-effect relationship. But Yauheniya Yanishchyts avoids a strict efficiency of verse structure, she prefers to leave emotions and feelings free.

Traditional method of international law is consensual one. Regional integration needs special methodology. The article reveals peculiarities of different methods of regional integration (intergovernmental, Community method, method of open coordination). The examples of application of integration methods in practice of different regional organizations are given. The EU law-making process is characterized with regards to choice of the method of legal regulation. The integration process demands wider application of community methods of legal regulation. However, some mechanisms for balancing the interests of diverse actors of integration are necessary, including through interaction and codependence of the latter in supranational methodology of regional integration.

Taking into consideration modern conditions of world economic development the evaluation of effectiveness of clusters, including the services sector, becomes very important. In this paper the technique of full assessment of the medical cluster can be found, including the rationale underlying the seven indicators that characterize economic processes in the cluster. All indicators are combined into blocks: the block assessments of the scale of the cluster, allowing to evaluate the performance of the cluster, is not in isolation but in conjunction with those processes that occur in the health system of the country; unit innovative activities of the cluster; the evaluation unit export capacity. The proposed integrated assessment of indicators gives the opportunity to bring all indicators to a common complex, calculated as the sum of the weighted coefficients of different directions of activity of the medical cluster; indicators of methodology are useful for assessing the effects of cluster activities for the state, businesses and consumers. The application of such methods in practice will allow to monitor the cluster operation, to review economic processes in dynamics and interrelation; to prevent negative trends that may occur in exports of services in the cluster and to take in due time meaningful steps to eliminate it; take into account the forecasts of development of medical clusters in medium and long term; the technique can be the basis for calculating the economic efficiency of the clusters created in the services sector in the Republic of Belarus and abroad.