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Journal of Ethnography 4/2007 outlines the issue of the function and process of communication which have been hitherto infrequent within various ranges of ethnological researches. Alena Křížová deals with the functions of decoration and jewel (Jewel as a Hallmark). Petr Janeček pays his attention to folklore narration and its function in the modern society (Communicating role of folk literature in modern society: urban phantoms of the World War II), Marta Šrámková specifies the contemporary trends of folklore researches from that standpoint (New research field of folkloristics – media communication). In her essay, Martina Vyziblová deals with the communication in relation to ethnic minorities (Work with Romany children or more than just remedial classes) and Eva Večerková gets down to that issue based on traditional material (Christmas Eve “Driving the Sheep to Bethlehem” in South-Western Moravia).
The essay Pilgrimage to St. Antonius (Impressions of a contemporary pilgrim) by Blanka Petráková specifies the changes of tradition. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the ethnographer Věra Kovářů (born 1932), the literary folklorist Bohuslav Beneš (born 1927) and the enthnographic worker Marie Pachtová (born 1932); it publishes also the obituary notices for Zdeněk Lukáš (1928 – 2007), composer, and Jana Rychtová (1946 – 2007), a personality of folklore movement. In other regular columns, the reports of exhibitions, festivals, concerts, professional branch activity and the reviews of new book editions are published.
The title of the contribution Jewel as a Hallmark glosses the thesis by Peter Bogatyrev called Folk Costume as a Hallmark because it utilizes the identical method of functional structuralism, which is applied on various forms of human body’s decoration and on various appearances of a jewel. This is what expresses the fact that – in common with the clothing – the decoration and jewel present a mean of non-verbal communication. Similarly, the individual functions of decoration and jewels are determined: 1. practical, 2. magic, 3. family and 4. social one, 5. function of distinguishing the ethnical groups, professional and amateur associations and 6. erotic and aesthetic functions that run through the previous categories simultaneously.
The author analyzes the dissemination and social function of rumours about so-called urban phantoms – fictive demoniac beings that were typical for folk literature during the World War II. The rumours about spirits, such as Czech Pérák (Spring Man) and Žiletkář, Slovak Fosforák, American Mad Gasser of Mattoon and Black Flash and Italian Pippo spread at the end of the war and were closely connected with the social tensions of that time. Those war phantoms have their basic features, like expressive realistic anthropomorphic and technological nature and weak continuation of traditional folklore expression. After the non-standard war situation had terminated, the most rumours ceased to exist very quickly; some of them have survived in popular culture and media until now.
The communication in folkloristics is understood as handing over of experience that forms a part of social standards, cultural consciousness and folk tradition. Media communication cannot substitute the way of handing over the folklore matters and it does not work with the categories narrative act, life of folklore, narrator and listener, narrative opportunity. Communicating by means of media is not a narrative act; it does not create any tradition and handed-down repertoire. Media communication and folkloristics are two separate systems; their common feature is “handing over of communicating”. Media communication is a feature of technologized society. It determines the rise of non-traditional forms, genres and matters, which are spread by media, within young generation. In the conclusion, the contribution brings some examples of Christmas greetings, freely referring to folk forms. The task of folkloristics is to study the relation to the media communication theories.
The text is focused on the education as one of the ways, how to improve the living conditions of the Romany minority significantly. The objective of the text is to point out the necessity of the active participation of the Czech majority in the improvement of Roma’s education and to draw the attention to some specific matters that have to be taken into account with this work. The author proceeds from her practical experience with remedial classes for the Romany children, which are held in the Museum of Romany Culture in Brno for the third year. She makes the readers familiar with the advantages of individual approach applied at the remedial classes; she draws attention to the necessity to enter into open communication among three parties: the family, the school and the tutor giving remedial classes, which is crucial for the remedial classes to be successful. She is taken aback by the problems of language disadvantaging the Romany children, by the entering into relations with a Romany family and the necessity of timely help, which should function as a precaution of the Romany children’s failure at school.
The author deals with the Christmas habit called “sheep of Bethlehem, driving the sheep to Bethlehem”. She completes the literature reports with the archive and terrain researches. She records the life of the habit, which has survived until now in some places, on the map. She meets with the highest frequency in the region whose centre is the town of Jemnice. The ceremony procession with the local shepherd and children playing sheep happened at Christmas Eve. The shepherd cracked a whip and played the ox horn, the children imitated the sheep with voices and ringing the cowbells. Later on, some new elements were adjoined to the procession of the “shepherd” and his “sheep”, mainly the Christmas tree and the musicians playing famous Christmas carols.
Journal of Ethnography 3/2007 pays its attention to Professor Richard Jeřábek (1931 – 2006), an important personality of Czech and European ethnology and the long-year member of Journal of Ethnography ́s editorial board, who died just one year ago suddenly. A lot of his colleagues and students declare their support to his scientific legacy. Some of them have contributed to this issue with their essays and articles that originate from the research themes by Prof. Jeřábek: from historiography and branch theory through ethnographic zoning, ethnicity problems, graphic folk culture up to ethnographic photo and movie.
Karel Altman in his essay reminded of the importance of writers Alois and Vilém Mrštík for ethnographic study of the Moravian country at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (Source of knowledge on the life and works of Brothers Mrštík), while Blanka Petráková mentioned the importance and fate of Professor Antonín Václavík (1891 – 1959), founder of the University study of ethnology in Brno (Antonín Václavík and Pozlovice). Helena Beránková dealt with the position of a village photographer (The Local Community and a Photographer – a Photographer and the Local Community / Photographic studio of Antonín Koukal in Uherský Ostroh 1921 – 1956/) and Miroslav Válka wrote about ethnographical zoning (Moravské Horácko, Hřebečsko and Malá Haná – ethnographic regions at the ethical and cultural boundary line). Alena Dunajová (Folk architecture, or folk structural engineering? A contribution the terminological discussion) and Marta Pastierková (Community environment of the village of Blatnica) submitted their expressions on folk architecture. Daniel Drápala (Under the names of Valach and portas – terminological discussion) dealt with the phenomenon of military service in South-Eastern Moravia in the 17th and 18th centuries and Martin Šimša contributed to the theme of Carnival rounds with masks (Carnival Round of „hřebenáři“– new aspects of the relevant interpretation). Alena Kalinová gave an explanation on the history of earthenware research at The Moravian Museum (Comments on Research of the Anabaptist Earthenware at The Moravian Museum before 1945), Eva Večerková introduced the portray of Růžena Šilarová (1913 – 2003), decorated Easter eggs painter from Brandýs nad Labem (Decorated Easter Eggs by Růžena Šilarová) and Hana Dvořáková dealt with the insist author František Diviš (1923 – 2004) from Únanov near Znojmo („Divišov“– the weekday spirit).
In the regular columns, the jubilees of ethnologists Stanislav Brouček (*1947) and Josef Vařeka (*1927) and that of Jan Pavlík (*1937), a personality of folklore movement in the Moravian Slovakia, are mentioned; furthermore, the reports of exhibitions and festivals and the reviews of new book editions are published.
Brothers Alois and Vilém Mrštík are two noticeable literature personalities who made their indelible mark in the development of ethnography and folkloristic, inter alia. Their exceptionality consists just in connection of two activity levels, which turned out well on the highest artistic and professional level. With the exclusivity of their literary adaptation of the environment, they could know during their lives, they dominate all other writes who presented the life in the Moravian country. Both of them were excellent experts in folk culture and life of Moravian folk at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially because of their work at Diváky near Hustopeče where their most important works, including the chronicle Rok na vsi (A Year in the Village) came into being. To evaluate the literary production and the fames of the Mrštíks requires widely conceived endeavour, beginning from the study not only of the corresponding historical resources, but also of the most significant secondary literature. Our contribution calls attention to both.
Antonín Václavík, the important Moravian ethnographer and founder of the ethnographical department at Brno University, came from the village of Pozlovice, where he was born on 17 July 1891. Childhood and youth spent at Pozlovice near Luhačovice influenced his life way significantly. Along with brother František, they opened the Luhačovice Museum in July 1918. They exhibited their ethnographical collections there, initiating the foundation of the Museum Society in Luhačovice. The research of Václavík ́s native region and the activity of the Museum Society came to a head in issuing the monograph Luhačovické Zálesí in 1930. Václavík made many personal sacrifices to issue the monograph yet he was meeting misunderstanding for plenty of following years. He did not come to hate his native region and he returned often here.
Antonín Koukal (1895 – 1972), trained portrait photographer, was operating his studio from the 1920s to the 1950s in Uherský Ostroh. The activity of his photographic studio has some more-generally valid features. In addition to the photographs of the crucial life moments of the inhabitants in the nearest environs (birth, school attendance, recruitment, wedding, death) he dealt with taking the portraits. The contribution is paying its attention to the relations people have to their photos.
The essay deals with the ethnographic division of Western Moravia and adjacent Eastern-Bohemian area. In the Middle Ages, this hilly region was inhabited by local Czech population and German settlers who formed two language islands here: one around the city of Jihlava and the other one between the cities of Moravská Třebová, Svitavy and Lanškroun north of here. In the 18th century’s literature, the region is uniformly called Horácko according to the countryside character, but in the 19th century, the name differentiates based on the language (ethnic) principle. The region settled by German inhabitants in the environs of the cities Moravská Třebová and Svitavy broke away as a specific ethnographic area with the name Schönhengst (Hřebečsko). Ethnographer and museum worker Josef František Svoboda (1874 – 1946) rendered outstanding service to more detailed demarcation of Moravian Horácko based on dialect and phenomena of traditional folk culture. Ethnologist Richard Jeřábek (1931 – 2006) worked up the ethnographic zoning in details.
The contribution deals with the terms used by ethnology, other branches and amateur public for different meanings. Richard Jeřábek drew attention to that issue as early as in 1974, as he differed the meaning of the terms folk structural engineering and folk architecture whereby the aesthetical criterion became the principal differentiating feature. The author of this contribution holds both terms for synonyms. Within folk architecture or folk structural engineering she considers the determination whether it concerns the professional or non-professional expressions for the determining dichotomy. The survived planning documentation after the mid-19th century substantiates the residential and farm buildings – analogous to the towns- to be designed and later on even built by trained practitioners mostly. In the conclusion of the contribution, other problematic used terms are remembered: village architecture (or structural engineering), rural architecture or vernacular architecture.
The contribution is an extract from the PhD thesis that the author wrote under the leadership of Prof. Richard Jeřábek. It is focused on an objective thus critical picture of the community environment at a representatively chosen community in the Slovakian country. Summarizing, the author states that in the course of 20th century not always the real needs of the village society were respected when the community buildings and small solitaires were designed. Sometimes, the final placing of community buildings into the existing community environment of the village was considered in a fully slovenly fashion. It was necessary to think about the complete design of the historical core earlier than in the mid-1980s when many things could not be softened even by planting the full-grown green on the places with the most disturbing visual contacts.
For nearly two centuries, an armed detachment of “portas” was a part of Moravian history. It was established in 1638 and originally, it was only one of the forms of using the population of Eastern Moravia for military service. At the beginning of its existence, the detachment was called “faithful Wallachians”. This name reflects the period simplified understanding of the word “Valach – Wallachian” as a male inhabitant of mountain regions in Eastern Moravia, who distinguishes himself by certain presumptions for military service. In this understanding, the term “Valach” differs from the former practise according to which this term was used for a farmer breeding sheep and goats on mountain pastures; at that time, it does not refer to the specific ethnographic region in the northeast of Moravia – Moravian Wallachia – yet. Since the end of the 17th century, the term “faithful Wallachians” was substituted by a new term “portas”. The origin of this word can be found in Hungary (frontier guards originally, seigniorial armed men figuratively) from which is has been spread to Silesia and Moravia.
The Carnival round of „hřebenáři“ and the relating ceremonies have been reflected by professional literature for many times. J. Tomeš dealt with both the older literature sources and the contemporary terrain researches; he subjected both of them to systematic analysis, classification and involvement into the corresponding custom context. R. Jeřábek paid his attention mainly to the European occurrence of the Carnival bear’s masque one of whose versions – as he supposes – just “hřebenář” is. The submitted essay divides the entire apparently unified complex into two different components. The first one is a round of the Carnival bear, regionally called “hřebenář”, connected with prosperity dance. The other one is an almost unknown habit “na hřebeň” whose principle is the married women’s ritual cleaning-up in the form of verbal reproving by masked men taking part in the ritual, whose cleaning-up in watercourse follows. The faith’s importance of both habits comes to the fore especially in the context of religious research that classify both of them as rituals preparing the time renewal on the eve of the new agricultural cycle’s commencement.
The Moravian Museum, owner of an important collection of the Anabaptist faiences, joined the research of the Anabaptists in Moravia as early as before the World War II. At that time, František Pospíšil, head of the ethnographical department, co-operated with Heřman Landsfeld, ceramist, collector, expert on the earthenware production history and pioneer in archaeological research. In the book of records (from the years between 1933 and 1851), we can reveal that the research of the Anabaptists and their earthenware production was an important activity of the ethnographical department, especially between 1942 and 1945 when the Museum participated directly in excavations. A lot of museum documents point to the intention to present the research results at an exhibition. Nevertheless, the most mentioned finds have not been maintained in the collections and it is even not possible to map the research works exactly.
The author deals with the decorated Easter eggs by Růžena Šilarová (1913 – 2003) from the town of Brandýs nad Labem. She submits the biographical information and analyzes the decoration technique (carving) and ornamental art. Růžena Šilharová ́s works are based on the family tradition as well as on the decoration of embroideries and laces on Central-Bohemian folk costumes. Růžena Šilarová found a free inspiration in them, forming her typical style of decoration. She belonged to the authors who were dealing with the egg decorations for a great part of their lives and found pleasure and use of creative invention and abilities here. Moreover, they were looking for their own approaches.
The author pays her attention to the colourful installation of storybook world that František Diviš (1923 – 2004) created at the village of Únanov near Znojmo. It is an expression we meet only seldom in our country whereby that is the opinion that such expression is a closed chapter in interpretation by our folk, what prevails. Diviš was a self-taught person, he did not take part in any fine art training and he started with his own works only after he had retired. He made his sculptures of wood, textile, plastic. He finished them with colour, emphasizing the details. His world, called Divišov, must be evaluated as a dynamic unit that cannot be presented in parts. After the author’s death, the installation was reduced.
Journal of Ethnography 2/2007 pays its attention to handicrafts. In his essay, Josef Jančář summarizes the interest in folk handicrafts in the European context from the 19th century up to the present (Development of Handicraft Care). Oľga Danglová elucidates the development of the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava (Between traditions and modern design. Activities of the Slovak Centre for Folk Art Production). Jarmila Pechová devotes herself to the particular kinds of handicrafts in Central Moravia in the second half of the 20th century (On the past and present of handicrafts and homemade manufactures in Central Moravia). Pipe manufacture, its history and local traditions are the theme of Luboš Kafka ́s essay (Tradition and Present of Pipe Manufacture in Proseč near Skuteč). Václav Michalička elucidates the manual technique for whetstone manufacture (The Sucháček Family – four generations of handmade-whetstones manufacturers in the region of Walachia).
„Fotografická zastavení“ (Stopping with Photos) section and Transferring Tradition column bring the contributions by Daniel Drápala (Basket-Making Classes and Workshop in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm) and by Věra Kovářů (Wind Mill in Starý Poddvorov). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the ethnologist Zdena Vachová (born 1922) and musician Vladimír Baier (born 1932); it publishes also the obituary notice for the architect and photographer Jaroslav Vajdiš (1920 – 2006). In other regular columns, the reports of conferences, festivals, concerts and reviews of new book editions have been published.
Since the 19th century, the development of scientific researches and their practical application formed a qualitatively higher stage of civilization in which the traditional artisanship ceased to exist. The states tried to avoid that process by their legislative measures, as it was in Austro-Hungary, where the trade law was issued in 1859 or the cooperative system law in 1873. Various training courses were organized and producers ́ and sale cooperatives came into being to build the handicrafts up into going process. After the World War II, an international organization with the name European Federation of Folk Art was established in Europe. In Czechoslovakia, the Centre for Folk Art Production was founded, which was dissolved after one year of its existence. Nowadays, the Czech Republic has joined the UNESCO appeal to support the declining handicrafts by awarding the best artisans the title Folk Craft Tradition Practitioner.
The essay submits an overview of the present activities of the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava. The main scope of work of this institution is to register the co-operation with the manufacturers, to look for new talents and to support their manufacture under professional supervision, to renew and extend the assortment of products by means of artists ́ designs and to organize the purchase of products within the sales network of this institution. The bigger stress is put on educational activity. Besides training courses and lectures for the manufacturers, the scope of education is open even for the wider public by means of the Court of Crafts (a 1999 founded centre for information and education). The range of promotion activities by editorial works and exhibition activities is more intensive as well. The institution issues its own journal Remeslo/Umenie/Dizajn (Craft/Art/Design) and four times a year, it organizes exhibitions at its own gallery opened in 2004. Major attention is paid to collection funds care, archives completion, photo-documentation and video-documentation and – as the newest activity – virtual gallery creation.
While in the lowland part of Central Moravia mainly the handicrafts important for agriculture were carried on up to the 20th century, the range of handicrafts and homemade manufactures was much more varied in the higher situated regions. The expiring of traditional manufactures since the 1940s or their recapture by the Centre for Folk Art Production can be followed based on safeguarded sources processed for official and statistical needs. The present manufacture continues the family and regional traditions (basket-making in the region of Morkovicko, products made of straw in the region of Konicko); partially, it is developing in other directions connected with personal concerns, possibilities and abilities of their bearers.
The village of Proseč near Skuteč at Czech-Moravian Highlands was one of the most famous Bohemian centres of pipe manufacture for wide range of purchasers since the first half of the 19th century. The pipes cut and turned of domestic, simply available timber sorts (alder) as well as those made of imported briar since the beginning of the 20th century were made here. The peak of the local pipe manufacture falls within the period of the first Czechoslovak republic when hundreds of local people carried on pipe manufacture, belt making and additional home production. After the World War II, the workshops, private plants and factories were dissolved. The manufacture was concentrated into one big cooperative with machinery mass production. With exceptions (pipe-manufacturer J. Klinský), the traditional handmade manufacture of minor cutters and pipe manufacturers terminated. Nowadays, the works by F. Loučka and V. Jehlička present its modified repercussions.
The manufacture of whetstones belongs to simple archaic techniques. The manufacture was typical especially for the villages around the town of Vsetín in the past. Since the 1920s, the men of the Sucháček family have managed the techniques of manual whetstone manufacture. Because of the transformation of society and its needs within the second half of the 20th century, the Sucháčeks have become the only practitioners of that technique in the region that dominated the whetstone manufacture before. The technique applied by them did not undergo any significant changes; however, the social and economical conditions changed. The originally homemade manufacture has changed into educational-entertaining gainful employment with cultural legacy of the past.
Journal of Ethnography 1/2007 pays its attention especially to the drama in folk tradition. Jaroslav Blecha introduces puppetry as a part of folk theatre culture („Theatrum cum pimperlis“ and inheritance of the famous marionetteer ́s Kopecký family at the collection of The Moravian Museum in Brno); Juraj Hamar analyses the typology of characters of puppet theatre (On personal characters identity and vocal expression at folk puppet theatre). Petra Richterová devotes herself to the phenomenon of amateur theatricals in the first half of the 20th century (Village amateur theatricals near Kardašova Řečice and its position in traditional folk culture). Marta Ulrychová has aimed her essay at renewed Passion Plays in Hořice in Šumava (Passion Plays in Hořice – an example of renewed tradition). Martin Šimša in his contribution writes about Whitsun King’s Ride whose unpublished description was at the inheritance of collector and researcher František Bartoš („Age-old Habit on Kings“ – Whitsun ride-about in Mysločovice and its context). The text by Katarína Popelková and Juraj Zajonc concerning the elaboration of so-called Wollman’s Archives touches the wider Slovakian tradition. Wollman’s Archives is a voluminous collection of text which originated between 1928 – 1947 based on terrain collections done by the students of the Faculty of Arts in Bratislava under leadership of Prof. Frank Wollman.
The section Fotografické zastavení (Stopping with Photos) introduces the pictures of harvest thanksgiving in Petrov, District of Hodonín (Harvest Thanksgiving 1928 – Among folk habits, theatre stage and political manifestation), Transferring Tradition column brings the contribution by Eva Večerková Feast in Černovice, near Kunštát – celebration, habit, theatre, play. The Society Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of two Czech ethnomusicologists – Jiří Traxler (born 1946) and Lubomír Tyllner (born 1946). It brings also the memories of Jan Miroslav Krist (1932 – 2007), the personality of folk dance and folklore movement. In other regular sections, the reports of conferences and professional events, festivals, concerts and reviews of new book and CD editions have been published.
The touring marionette theatre of so-called folk puppeteers represents a unique chapter in the history of Czech theatre. It was the first and almost only Czech theatre form that the Czech countryside could learn about. At the collection of the Department of the history of theatre, there are deposited documents on the work of one of the most popular Czech marionetteer ́s dynasties, the Kopecký family. The collection includes more-generation inventory of the theatres of Karel and Václav who lived in Brno. Václav, who was younger than Karel, maintained – illegally - the tradition of touring marionetteering even in the 1970s. By inheritance, the marionettes of various origins, made by a lot of wood-carvers have been handed down. Along with photos, papers and other original documents, they represent a unique inheritance for the historiography of the Czech marionette theatre.
The personal identity of traditional characters at folk puppet theatre is a complex of three mutually connected layers: the semantic, the optical and the auditory ones. The author pays his attention mostly to the auditory layer, which – in addition to the acoustic objectification of text – also represents emotional, social, psychological and language features of a character. They actualize themselves on the paralinguistic level. Thus, they take a significant part in the total poetics and aesthetics of folk puppet theatre. The text is a part of the research on folk puppeteers vocal expression, which the author has been implementing since 2004, namely in co-operation with Milan Rusek from the Institute of Informatics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The basic material consists mainly of the recordings of traditional plays by puppeteer Bohuslav Anderle (1913 – 1976). Those recordings were taped by his son Anton (1944), the last traditional puppeteer in Slovakia, in 1971. As an illustration in conclusion, the author mentions a brief characteristics of personal identity for traditional characters taking part in the performance Don Juan in the repertoire of B. Anderle.
Amateur theatricals as a phenomenon of Czech countryside has been mentioned since the 19th century where it was created parallel to traditional theatre whose elements have been safeguarded especially in annual and family habits for the longest time. The essay is aimed at amateur theatricals in some selected villages (Doňov, Újezd and Záhoří) nearby Kardašova Řečice in South Bohemia, especially in the period between two world wars. Based on archive documents and manuscripts, the essay features activity of the clubs being engaged in theatre, it reconstructs the period theatre repertoire, the methods of studying the theatre plays and their presentation, the drama performances, the personalities of actors, directors and other participants, the influences of professional theatre. In conclusion, the essay compares the tokens of amateur theatricals with folk theatricals.
The entry freely linking to the essay printed at NR in 2005, deals with the Passion Plays renewed tradition in Šumava within the after-war period, i.e. from 1945 until now. The author pays a special attention to the after-1989 restoration of almost forgotten inheritance. The restoration of Passion Plays, being played not in German but in Czech language now, is resulting from the co-operation of a group established around the first after-revolutionary Mayor of Hořice, Miroslav Čunát. Among the members of that group were Jindřich Pecka, historian from České Budějovice, Jaroslav Krček, composer, and Antonín Bašta, movie director from České Budějovice. First night of the new Czech version accompanied with recorded music by Musica Bohemica, took place on 29 June 1993. The entry remembers the attendance of cultural life’s important personalities, the theme elaboration in form of documentaries and the permanent exhibition in the local school building.
The essay is focused on a voluminous manuscript by the popular scripturist F. Zelinka from the village Louky u Zlína. The material represents new possibilities in researching the countryside culture of the second half of the 19th century because it not only descri- bes some annual habits but also depicts every-day life at the local pasturage and records some local legends. The chapter Age- -old Habit on Kings makes known with some circumstances and the course of Whitsun King’s ride in Mysločovice at the periphery of the Haná region. The description is concentrated on the outside form, it passes over the details, and the endeavor to give a true picture of functions within a social milieu of the community is fully strange to it. The importance of realized details rises mainly within the context of other reports on Whitsun King’s rides within the Moravian milieu, which the author gives in the text.
The entry matter is the fund of text documents that has been kept under the name Wollman’s Archives at the Instute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The corpus of texts originated between 1928 and 1947 as a result of terrain collection in the territory of Slovakia. The collections were done by students of the Slavic Seminar of the Faculty of Arts of the former Slovak University (later Komenský University) in Bratislava and by some students of the Faculty of Arts in Brno. The first part of the entry summarizes the knowledge concerning the origin and hitherto processing, but also understanding and presentation of the fund. The second part contains first experience and results resulting from the archives elaboration as well as from the electronic form of Wollman’s Archives between 2005 and 2006. With the above procedures, the general methodical process of analysis and processing the written documents into the form of electronic database has been verified. The Wollman’s Archives itself has been processed with the aim to extend its availability and utilization – not only within the study of folklore, but also within the material, spiritual and social culture, the history of traditional culture study or the language and history.
