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Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include:

* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken

"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful & Proud Gem of the Adriatic
'Culture Smart' Series Review:

First, I am a culture junkie and am a big fan of the 'Culture Smart' series with seven guides thus far in my growing collection. * Germany, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Cuba, Croatia, Brazil and Morocco * This series offers a compact look into the cultures of the world: their customs, attitudes and behaviors, etc. These books provide perhaps as close of understanding to many of them as a reader will have. It also does not hurt that I take in fun/unusual facts like a sponge. I highly recommend this series before traveling to another country or just to further your knowledge of other cultures.
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This volume presents 30 highly illustrated essays charting a cultural survey of Croatia from the 7th to the end of the 12th century. Richly illustrated with colour plates, maps, plans, and diagrams, it provides a major new resource for all those seeking to gain a broad understanding of the medieval world in central Europe and the Adriatic region before the Ottoman invasions.
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Customer Reviews (2)

much interesting detail -- presenting one large untruth
This massive, impressively illustrated tome is the first in a projected series, begun in the late 1990s. The origins of the work -- that is, its commissioning by the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences during the Tudjman years and the immediate aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia -- are crucial to understanding the book's central purpose. That purpose is to demonstrate that there has 'always' (OK, since the early Middle Ages) been a 'Croatian nation'. The reading of the past is designed to provide an undergirding for modern Croatian statehood and nationalism.

The result is a book full of fascinating antiquarian information, yet significantly blighted by a didacticism scarcely less dreary than that of the Academy's immediate Communist predecessors. To be fair, the interpretation of the data presented can be interesting, at the micro-level, at least. But the reader must bear constantly in mind that he/she is being led by the hand to read back modern nationalist categories into a distant past that was, in actual fact, innocent of them.

A Must Read for Historians
An excellent and easy to read book that should be available in all universities and libraries world-wide for scholars and anyone interested in studying the history of Europe's Middle Ages. Croatia as a country andnation has been sadly ignored by most historians, even though it is one ofthe oldest continuously existing countries in Europe. There has been aCroatia since its people appeared in the 7th century and settled in aboutthe same land as today's Croatia. First a Principality, then a kingdom inthe Middle Ages, it kept its identity and a Parliament throughout itshistory, in spite of the take-over, first by Hungary, then Austro-Hungaryand finally by incorporation into Yugoslavia in the last century.TodayCroatia is a sovereign country again and its history should finally beacknowledged. This book serves as an important part of such confirmation. ... Read more

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Culture and Customs of Croatia offers an expert insider's look at a Balkan nation which, for the first time since the 12th century, is free to draw on its own traditions to determine its political, philosophical, and cultural identity.

Culture and Customs of Croatia provides a comprehensive overview of Croatian art and culture with an emphasis on the historical factors contributing to contemporary Croatian life. An in-depth exploration of the country's past lays the groundwork for a discussion of a number of current issues, including progress towards EU membership, the expanding role of the Catholic Church, preservation of the country's World Heritage Sites, the growing popularity of the nation's Adriatic coastline as a beach vacation destination, and the complex, still reverberating legacy of the former Yugoslavia.

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The main aim of this book is to provide a synthesis of all published research on sites of the Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC - 750 BC) in continental Croatia. Using the basic division into settlements, cemeteries and hoards, the author concentrates on the analysis of the material culture following a typological-comparative method, while in the analysis of the finds from hoards a statistical method was used in order to show frequencies and distribution of certain types of items. Although the available data is scarce and includes a small number of sites that have not been excavated sufficiently, the study tries to obtain as complete a picture on the lifestyle of the people of the Urnfield culture in Croatia as possible. The work also looks for an insight into the economic activities that were occurring in the settlements. In the chapter on settlement finds there is a concentrated on the analysis of material culture and residential structures found in the settlements at Mackovac-Cricnjevi (early Urnfield culture) and Kalnik-Igrisce I and II (early and late Urnfield culture). Chapters on metal production and the appearance of hoards are linked to the chapter on settlements, as the assumption is that the production of these items took place within the Urnfield culture settlements. The wide variety of types and forms of bronze items found in hoards of the Urnfield culture in Croatia is indicative of local production of these items, as well as of a link of this region with other areas in Pannonia and the Carpathian Basin, as well as with the whole Middle Danube circle of the Urnfield culture. Thus, a comparison with sites and finds from Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia was necessary. ... Read more

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Chapters: Art of Croatia, Croatian National Costume, Culture of Croatia, Croatian Literature, Croatian Dances, Bosnian Cyrillic, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Illyrian Movement, Badnjak, Croatian Art of the 20th Century, Croatian Brands, Serbo-Croatian Kinship, Renaissance in Croatia, Lastovo Poklad, Yugo-Nostalgia, Vladimir Nazor Award, Moreška, Kunstterrorist, Baška Tablet, Republic of Peščenica, Marin Držić Award, Faraun, Kolo, Gospa Sinjska, Licitar, Matica Hrvatska, Opanak, Egg Decorating in Slavic Culture, Prekmurska Gibanica, Croatian Tamburica, Ministry of Culture, Alka, Croatian Dream, Pisanica, Old Church Slavonic Institute, Public Holidays in Croatia, Zvončari, Linđo, Religious Tattoos Among Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, List of Croatian Mottos, Galešnjak, Croatian Humour, Croatian Wattle, Brethren of the Croatian Dragon, Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute, Iris Croatica, Hrovat, Cultural Society Kerestinec, Croatian Studies, Croatian State Archives, Croatian Heritage Foundation, Croatian Heraldic and Vexillologic Association, Days of the Croatian Language, Paška Čipka. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 220. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Croatian art describes the visual arts in Croatia from medieval times to the present. In Early Middle Ages, Croatia was important centre for art and architecture in south eastern Europe. There were many Croatian artists during the Medieval periods, and the arts flourished during the Renaissance. Later styles in Croatia included Baroque and Rococo. Ancient monuments from Palaeolithic are very poor and it consists out of simple stone and bone objects. Some of the earliest remaining historical features include 100,000 year old bones of a Neanderthal man near Krapina (Krapina-Zagorje County). Ancient habitants of M...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=12248405 ... Read more

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Chapters: Croatia, Dubrovnik, Walls of Dubrovnik, Split, Culture of Croatia, Poreč, Stari Grad, Croatia, Trogir, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Diocletian's Palace, Euphrasian Basilica, Šibenik Cathedral, Trogir Cathedral, Split Cathedral, Stari Grad Plain. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 150. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Croatia -Oton Ivekovi, The arrival of the Croats at the shores of Adriatic.The area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period. Fossils of Neanderthals dating to the middle Paleolithic have been unearthed in the area of Krapina and Vindija. More recent (late Mousterian) Neanderthal remains have been discovered in Mujina peina near the coast. In the early Neolithic period, the Starevo, Vuedol and Hvar cultures were scattered around the region. The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (early Illyrians) and the La Tène culture (Celts). Much later the region was settled by Liburnians and Illyrians, and Greek colonies were established on the islands of Vis (by Dionysius I of Syracuse) and Hvar. In 9 AD the territory of today's Croatia became part of the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian built a massive palace in Split where he retired from politics in AD 305. During the 5th century the last Roman Emperor Julius Nepos ruled his small empire from Diocletian's Palace before he was killed in AD 480. The early history of Croatia ends with the Avar invasion in the first half of the 7th century and the destruction of almost all Roman towns. Roman survivors retreated to strategically better defended points on the coast, islands and mountains. The modern city of Dubrovnik was founded by those survivors. Baka tablet, oldest evidence of the glagolitic script.The Croats arrived in what is today Croatia probably in the early 7th century. They...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5573 ... Read more

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Chapters: Protected Areas of Croatia, World Heritage Sites in Croatia, Dubrovnik, Walls of Dubrovnik, Split, Culture of Croatia, Poreč, Stari Grad, Croatia, Trogir, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Diocletian's Palace, Euphrasian Basilica, Šibenik Cathedral, Trogir Cathedral, Split Cathedral, Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, Stari Grad Plain, State Institute for Nature Protection - Croatia. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 149. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Croatia -Oton Ivekovi, The arrival of the Croats at the shores of Adriatic.The area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period. Fossils of Neanderthals dating to the middle Paleolithic have been unearthed in the area of Krapina and Vindija. More recent (late Mousterian) Neanderthal remains have been discovered in Mujina peina near the coast. In the early Neolithic period, the Starevo, Vuedol and Hvar cultures were scattered around the region. The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (early Illyrians) and the La Tène culture (Celts). Much later the region was settled by Liburnians and Illyrians, and Greek colonies were established on the islands of Vis (by Dionysius I of Syracuse) and Hvar. In 9 AD the territory of today's Croatia became part of the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian built a massive palace in Split where he retired from politics in AD 305. During the 5th century the last Roman Emperor Julius Nepos ruled his small empire from Diocletian's Palace before he was killed in AD 480. The early history of Croatia ends with the Avar invasion in the first half of the 7th century and the destruction of almost all Roman towns. Roman survivors retreated to strategically better defended points on the coast, islands and mountains. The modern city of Dubrovnik was founded by those survi...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5573 ... Read more

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The culture of Croatia has roots in a long history: the Croatian people have been inhabiting the area for fourteen centuries, but there are important remnants of the earlier periods still preserved in the country. Ancient monuments from the Paleolithic era are very poor and consist of simple stone and bone objects. Some of the earliest remaining historical features include 100,000 year old bones of a Neandertal man near Krapina. The most interesting Copper Age or Eneolithic finds are from Vu?edol culture . Out of that culture sprung out Bronze Age Vinkovci culture that is recognizable by bronze fibulas that were replacing objects like needles and buttons. Bronze Age culture of Illyrians, ethnic group with distinct culture and art form started to organize itself in 7th century BC. Numerous monumental sculptures are preserved, as well as walls of citadel Nezakcijnear Pula, one of numerous Istrian cities from Iron Age. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3205 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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Croatian government's "accusation" of Serbia's "colonial war against Croatia," systematic destruction of Croatia & its people, w/extensive details, photos & maps of destruction of (as of August 1992) 590 registered & protected monuments of culture, some in presence of European peace observers & UN forces. ... Read more

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On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Croatia face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts to Croatia? How important is Croatia compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts vary from one country of origin to another in Croatia? On the supply side, Croatia also exports human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. Which countries receive the most exports from Croatia? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers?

This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Croatia. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts for those countries serving Croatia via exports, or supplying from Croatia via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models.

In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Croatia fits into the world market for imported and exported human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Croatia in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that Croatia is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize Croatia compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes. ... Read more

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Chapters: Vučedol Culture. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 79. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Vuedol culture (Croatian: ) was a culture that flourished between 3000 and 2200 BC (the Eneolithic period), centered in eastern Slavonia on the right bank of the Danube river, but possibly spreading throughout the Pannonian plain. Sometimes also called the Vuedol civilization, it was contemporary with the Sumer period in Mesopotamia, the Early Dynastic period in Egypt and the early Troy (I and II). Following the Baden culture, another wave of Indo-European people came to the banks of the Danube. One of the major places they occupied is present-day Vuedol ("Wolf's Valley"), named after Vuedol, a location six kilometers downstream from the center of the town of Vukovar, Croatia. The early stages of the culture tenanted locations not far from mountain ranges, where copper deposits were located, because of their main invention: making tools from arsenical copper in series employing reusable, double, two-part moulds. The center of the culture was Vuedol in modern day Croatia. It is estimated that the site had once been home to about 3000 inhabitants, making it one of the largest and most important centers of its time. The Vuedol culture developed from two older eneolithic cultures: the Baden culture mainly in the pannonian plain and the Kostolac culture in northern Serbia and western Romania, so the primary region of Vuedol development is eastern Croatia and the Sriem region. The archaeological stratigraphy of the Vuedol culture can be divided into four phases: The Vuedol culture is the final eneolithic culture of the region because the following characteristics of the culture mark the end of eneolithic in eastern Europe and middle Europe: The difference to other earlier and contemporar...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1666299 ... Read more

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Tradepaper. Photographic historical ... Read more

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Croatia has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more