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Scavengers are people who recover recyclables from waste and use it for self consumption and/or trade. Though this group of society exists in many societies, the research in this area is scarce. There few research made in western world, more in developing countries. In Lithuania this area is quite uninvestigated. The paper present this paper the results of ethnographic research conducted in year 2006-2008 in Lithuanian dumps. The nature of this paper is descriptive. We introduce general characteristics of scavengers' work and their earnings in various countries as well as in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the analysis of women's loneliness problems; the author reveals how the single women construct their personality and social life. The life history approach is used; this method is realised in sociology as the recognition of competence of the subject. It coincides with the changing situation in this science where the existence of a plurality of perspectives and local, contextual studies versus grand narratives, disorder, flux and openness are respected. Narratives give meanings, connect a series of otherwise isolated events. Loneliness is a condition of human life, an experience of being human which enables the individual to sustain, extend, and deepen his humanity. But in the opinion of people sometimes it has the negative evaluation. Throughout history, accounts of loneliness appear in the writings of poets, novelists, and philosophers. Referring to theories of D. Thoreau, R. S. Weiss, P. Slater, H. S. Sullivan, the author reveals in the paper the features of different types of women loneliness. The analysis of old age women life histories in a little town show that they are well adapted to life as independent, separate persons: have modest houses, obtain pensions, have (if it is essential) social support. Living alone, separately is the value for them; they like it. Some of them are very religious. The second group of the research is the economically and culturally active women intellectuals, the elite of society. The process of the development of such women is connected with deep individualization. It means the creating of responsibility and self-reflexivity in women intellectual consciousness and the impression that everything can be formed. The positive aspect of this development is a formal liberation of women personality, the negative - the pressures and demands. The author shows the relation between women development and their becoming lonely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the sources of the Lithuanian sociology in the Russian Empire in the first decade of the 20th century. It surveys the history of the emergence of sociology discipline in St. Petersburg's Roman Catholic Spiritual Academy, where a number of Lithuanian studied, and the focus is on the academic activities and social thought of J. Matulaitis in 1907-1909. J. Matulaitis is known as the renovator or the founder of monasteries and as Bishop of Vilnius. In 1987, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. This study aims to analyze, on the basis of the chronicle of Academy, articles on social issues in the magazine "Draugija" in 1909, memories of students and letters of G. Matulaitis, his contribution to the science of sociology. The author of the article claims that the department of Sociology at the Academy of St. Petersburg was the first in the Russian Empire. It was founded by the initiative of Lithuanian students and professors, and its establishment in 1907 predated the department of sociology of the Private Institute of Psycho neurology dated to 1911 (first mentioned in historical researches of Russian scientists). The first professor of Sociology in the Academy was a Lithuanian, i. e. J. Matulaitis. His lectures on sociology made a significant impact on the development of social sciences in Lithuania. The professors of the Academy J. Matulaitis, P. Bucys, Maironis, and others organized the Lithuanian social courses to the public in Kaunas in 1909, and such sociologists as S. Sulte, K. Saulys, K. Paltarokas, who delivered lectures, became well-known specialists in this sphere. In spite of J. Matulaitis' obvious contribution to the evolution of Lithuanian sociology, he was not a sociologist. His insights and interdisciplinary knowledge helped him to create a new science, the so-called Christian Social Teaching. The thought and the attitudes of J. Matulaitis got ahead of the Pope's thought even a few decades and are relevant to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]