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Journal of Ethnology 4/2009 is devoted to literary folkloristics, text and transdisciplinarity. In her essay, Marta Šrámková deals with transdisciplinarity as a methodological conception (Transdisciplinarity and Commemorative narration). Petr Janeček pays attention to development of literary folkloristics within the context of other scientific disciplines (The texts and contexts. Some comments on the position of literary folkloristics between European ethnology and cultural anthropology). Slovakian ethnologist Tatiana Bužeková aims her essay at cognitive anthropology applied in study of folklore material, especially at the genre of superstitious narrations (Rarášok and zmok as cultural representations or why do the survivals survive?). Polish folklorist Dorota Simonides searches the parallel between medieval sources and contemporary oral literature (Medieval exemplum and contemporary folklore).
Transferring Tradition column publishes the article by Eva Večerková on contemporary customary traditions (St. Nicholas carolling in the region of Znojmo). Section Interviews is devoted to Slovakian ethnologist Eva Krekovičová (*1949). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologist Alena Prudká (*1949) and musician Zdeněk Bláha (*1929) and publishes the obituary note of ethnologist Zdeněk Mišurec (1925–2009). Other regular columns include the contributions to discussions, reports from conferences, festivals and professional activities, as well as reviews of new books and reports on the activity of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice.
On an example of a kind of folklore - commemorative narration, the essay is understood as a reflection on the relation of folkloristics to the methodology of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and especially to the new methodological stream – transdisciplinarity. It substantiates the folklore to reflect the social, cultural, historic, ethnographic and other “non-folklore” phenomena in which it is performed and actualized, meeting its functions. Therefore, the relation of folkloristics to other disciplines is (and has to be) opened and its methodology is (and has to be) interdisciplinary. The main and crucial criteria for folklore analysis and interpretation cannot be substituted, however, by the methods of “non-folklore” disciplines. The methodology of transdisciplinarity supposes such an abstracted folklore phenomenon (factum, sign), becoming a part of the problematics ruling over the interdisciplinary approach and representing its common “keystone”, to be applied across the branches. There are applied both the elements of anthropology, culturology, sociology, elements of communication etc. New professional literature is used and annotated in the analysis. The common observations are demonstrated in different versions of commemorative narration. The traditions and experience of Czech folkloristics are emphasized as well.
The study reflects on the actual position of literary folkloristics (not only) within the domestic academic discourse. Although - at the very beginning of ethnologic research – the studies of folklore texts were in the foreground and a more remarkable interest in artefacts of material or folk culture as a whole occurred much more later, at present the study of folklore reaches a certain marginal position, being even part of rhetoric proclaimed by proponents of different schools in cultural and social anthropology. The essay reflects on the causes of the above contemporary phenomenon, considering the inherent characteristics of folkloristics, and – simultaneously – outlining the impulses to the next development thereof. The main sense and importance of literary folkloristics, a discipline being in an apparently “schizophrenic” position on the boundary between humanities and social sciences, is regarded not as taking-over of the period conjunctural themes, theories or methodologies from other branches, but as emphasizing of collection and analysis of the texts widespread by word of mouth, which should especially be in the foreground of folkloristic researches.
The paper focuses on the theoretical perspective of cognitive anthropology applied in study of folklore. The author aims to demonstrate that the terms “folk beliefs” and “superstitions” used in folkloristics relate to the definition of folklore as a “survival” peculiar to the earlier anthropological theory of cultural evolution. Cognitive anthropology offers a different approach to study of cultural phenomena. From the cognitive point of view, the so-called superstitions are representations incorporating anti-intuitive concepts. Some of them could have their origin in old pagan beliefs, but this is not the main factor influencing their transmission: the distribution of anti-intuitive concepts is determined by how the human mind works. Narrations containing those concepts are related to a concrete social context and do not necessary refer to the religious feelings or religious faith. On the example of rarášok and zmok – supernatural beings from Slovak folk tales – the author demonstrates that the hypothetical religious origin of folklore images does not explain their present “survival”. Distribution of rarášok and zmok’s representations could be explained in terms of Pascal Boyer’s theory. Rarášok and zmok appear in tales with interpretation of misfortune in terms of supernatural forces. Long-term reproduction of corresponding narrative schemata could be explained by further cognitive theories dealing with certain aspects of human cognition related to concrete social situations.
The study deals with both the view of the importance of exempla, and the rarely applied methodological procedure, i.e. the interpretation of contemporary front-page stories telling as a parallel to medieval exempla telling. The incorporation of exempla and folklore tales within the context of culture, level of education and “everyday life”, which features with a rapid rate and new ways in disseminating the information – opposite to the Middle Ages – is of great importance. The co-existences of different social classes, traditions and cultures play an important role. Exempla are understood as a certain type of bridges built between folklore and literature by the activities of medieval preachers. Both the ethic function of exempla and their role in creation of cultural and historical consciousness are pointed-out. Many exempla converted into other folklore kinds during their development. When interpreting the exempla and contemporary front-page stories, the attention is to be turned to the “narrative situation” and the recipient. The variability of a story is caused by the actualization of place, time and circumstances in which the story is set. A folklorist is to observe this procedure.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2009 is aimed at food-related issues. Elizabeth Fendl and Jana Nosková dealt with the description of Czech cuisine within the German environment (“Bohemian cuisine is used in the Czech Lands again”. Pictures of Czech cuisine in German-written cookery books and tourism materials after 1989), Rastislava Stoličná pointed out the diet of minorities in Slovakia (Traditional culinary culture of ethnic minorities in Slovakia), Ivan Hlavatý paid attention to the Greeks in the Czech environment (Cuisine and food of the Greek minority in the Czech Republic as a factor of ethnic identity) while Marta Toncrová paid her attention to the Ukrainian minority (Remarks on eating habits of the Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic - on an example of Brno and its surroundings). Anna Drożdż investigated the food of the population in the Vistula delta at the Eastern-Pomeranian coast in Poland (Changes in eating habits in the territory of Greater Żuławy in the 20th century).
Transferring Tradition column publishes the article Recipes Liebigs Fleischextrakt (Magdalena Rychlíková) on a collection of promotional recipes from the years 1890-1904 from the collections of the Náprstek Museum in Prague, the contribution What one used to eat in the village of Velehrad or Folk food one hundred years ago (Petr Horehleď) and the essay Josef Maceček, a woodcarver making birds in the Beskydy Mountains - the self-fulfilment of an amateur author (Václav Michalička). Section Review remembers the unreached 75th birthday of ethnologist Václav Frolec (1934-1992). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Eva Urbachová (born 1924) and Lenka Nováková (born 1949) and it includes the obituary notes of musicians Vladimír Meloun (1926-2009) and Jaromír Bažant (1926-2009). Other regular columns publish the reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals and concerts as well as reviews of new books and reports from the branch.
The essay describes the picture of Czech national cuisine and its features, namely based on an analysis of forewords in cookery books, guidebooks and websites, which document how the picture of Czech cuisine has been formed mainly after 1989. The picture of Czech cuisine has been analyzed solely in German-written materials, i.e. there has been analyzed the way of creating this picture abroad and for foreign audience. The essay shows how the picture of Czech cuisine has been created by emphasizing the influence of countryside, climate and tradition, originality and anchoring in the kitchens of lower and middle classes and negative affect of socialistic era. It partially deals with the choice of national specialities and the reports on eating habits of the Czechs, which complete the picture of Czech cuisine. The analysis of creating the picture of Czech cuisine is also more extensively involved into the issues of utilizing this picture in tourism, as well as into the discussions on globalizations and regionalism. The Czech example is compared with the examples from the German speaking regions. The structure of Czech national cuisine is discussed also in relation to identity creating – in connection with the thesis that the pictures mediated by mass media can become a source of identity creating. They can serve as identity mediators. The matter of the essay is not to observe the processes of identity creating at the readers, users of aforementioned sources.
Food and ways of eating belong to the most significant identification codes of human communities. The culinary culture ranks among the structures of the so-called long durance and the eating models belong to the most stabile values of human communities. They are an integral part of the cultural equipment of every person; in their rudimentary form, they survive for long time and often under changed conditions. The ethnological researches substantiate the population of different ethnic minorities in Slovakia was able to safeguard their cultural identity until today. In addition to the main ethnic features, such as language and ethnic awareness, their traditional culture is one of the most distinctive identification symbols. This relates also to the range of traditional eating habits by which they demonstrate their distinctiveness and dissimilarity to the Slovak majority and other ethnic groups. The contribution presents the traditional culinary culture of three ethnic minorities living in Slovakia: the Hungarians, Romani and Ruthenians – Ukrainians who belong to the largest minorities and who show distinctive ethno-identification symbols in their traditional culinary culture even today.
The essay deals with fifty years of the Greek minority presence in the Czech Republic from the point of view of food and its generation changes as a factor of ethnic identity. The author describes the Greek cuisine historically, from the arrival of the Greek community until now, and its representation and changes in family cuisine and annual and family ceremonies. He also follows the role and importance of Greek gastronomy as an element of living traditions and ethnic self-reflexion. As to the ethnic identification, the essay offers an overview of Greek everyday and festive menus. It records the difficulties that the Greek community had in the past when looking for some victuals and that resulted in animal husbandry and vegetable growing. With the aforementioned factors, the author tries to demonstrate the rate of Greek culinary representation in the cuisine of this minority and the Greek food as a factor of identification and expression of the ethnic affiliation within the tangible culture.
The research probe was done at the Ukrainians living in Brno and its surroundings during the last two decades, observing their way of eating. The traditional Ukrainian dishes are prepared on workdays and on holidays. Paska, pastry consecrated in the church along with other foods, is connected with Easter. All those asked still, maintain this ceremony, the choice of foods for the above purpose is, however, quite free today. At Christmas, the tradition of seven, nine or twelve fast courses survives in a different extent. There is made e.g. kutja (a dish made of grain cereals, honey and poppy) and in addition to this, some families eat fried carp with potato salad. The Ukrainians do not refuse Czech dishes fully, their menu, however, consists mainly of Ukrainian dishes, such as bortsch, turnovers made of noodle dough, stuffed cabbage, different salads, fish and meat shashlicks. Some raw materials are still imported from Ukraine, e.g. salo (slabs of raw salt-cured lard), buckwheat, rock salt, caviar, honey, vodka, sauerkraut, chocolate or even bread. The youngest generation uses the offer of catering facilities and fast foods.
The essay deals with the issues of a battle against hunger, especially against the fear of starvation, as well as with the fact how the people learned to live in a foreign territory, which role the food played during adaptation to the new life situations and how the eating habits determined the regional identity. The field research was done in the region of Greater Żuławy (Poland) based on a questionnaire devoted to the issues concerning culinary traditions and habits linked to food and dining. The received material showed the importance of food in the course of settling into the foreign surroundings, distinguishing two stages: 1. the importance of food at the not-standard time, i.e. in the first years after the arrival at the new place; 2. the importance of food at the standard time, i.e. in the years of stabilization (approximately since the 1950s until 2008). It has been proven that the culinary traditions and eating habits cannot by analyzed separately, out of the unit (thus out of the other items of the culture). The changes in social structure, or the confrontation with new behaviour models and with other traditions are reflected in eating standards. They become mostly evident as a change and a decline. These processes are particularly obvious when confronting different cultures and in extraordinary situations – e.g. in war.
As to its theme, Journal of Ethnology 2/2009 is aimed at the social culture, mainly at the contemporary rituals, customs and habits. Dorota Simonides directed her essay to theoretic reflections on the essence and sense of customs in human’s life, when comparing traditional and contemporary culture (A custom in human’s life in the past and today). Daniel Drápala deals with the documentation of boys´ and girls´ spring rounds in the inter-territory between the ethnographical areas of Wallachia and Hanna (On social and economic functions of children’s spring rounds in Záhoří). Lenka Polaková and Marta Ulrychová investigate the contemporary form of a ritual based on the miner´s tradition, whose roots are documented as early as in the 18th century in the mentioned social and professional environment (Jumping over the leather apron. A contribution to the contemporary situation in miners´ rituals). Gabriela Kiliánová informs about knowledge on funeral rituals, based on the long-term feedback research in the territory of Western Slovakia (To pass away in peace. Two examples of contemporary funeral ceremonies in Western Slovakia). Marta Ulrychová elucidates Shrovetide speeches and significant tradition bearers in the village of Postřekov (A figure of a judge at Shrovetide in the village of Postřekov).
Transferring Tradition column publishes the contributions by Eva Večerková (Decorated Eggs made by Josef Vavroš from Studénka) and Petra Košlíková (Everyday’s Magic. An example of touching the cherub “vošahlík” beside the church of St. Bartholomew in Pilsen). Interview column introduces Račko Popov, the Bulgarian ethnologist. Social Chronicle includes the obituary notes of musicologist Rudolf Pečman (1931–2008), violinist Bohumil Smejkal (1935–2009) and choreographer Luboš Ogoun (1924–2009). Other regular columns deal with archive photos, exhibitions, festivals and shows, reviews of new books and reports from the branch. Discussioncolumn raises the theme on ethic in ethnology, which is to continue in the next issues of the Journal.
The term „custom“ is not always used explicitly in science. It has three meanings, at least. The first one is a way of behaviour, the second one specifies habits and rites aimed at aesthetical needs of the society, while the third one is connected with unwritten customary law. In life, however, we do not meet those meanings separately but they penetrate each other. We always must take into consideration the time and social conditionality of the analyzed phenomena. A (family, work, local) community is the bearer of customs. The contemporary communities often differ from those traditional ones. A present human does not submit to the press of the environment in which he/she lives. The cause can be seen in the world view change and in the modification of ethos. The cease of traditional customs, which were based on the system of values accepted by the majority, results, however, in the lability of moral standards and the relativization of ethic behaviour.
The region of Záhoří spreads out between the ethnographical areas of Walachia and Hanna. The specific social and economic development in the course of the last two centuries enabled many events of the annual cycle of rituals to survive here. The spring rounds of girls and boys rank among the most significant ones. On Passion Sunday, the round with the Reaper falls (the villages of Býškovice, Libosváry, and Žákovice); the uninterrupted performance of rounds with a tree on Palm Sunday (Libosváry) is documented. The so-called “rattling” is a typical spring round of groups of boys, taking place from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday (the rounds take place in almost every village of the region). In spite of the different genesis, we can identify many common features at the above ritual rounds. They play an important role in passing the social habits and experience among the children’s group members of different age. The leader who crowns his share in activities of school-age children with this function is a leading element for boys and girls. Because of the social changes in the course of the last two centuries, the content and form of the rounds have been modified and shifted; many ritual elements have slipped away – on the contrary, the social and entertainment function is dominating. The economic aspect – a share in given presents (money, sweets) – is an important motivation for children to participate in the rounds.
At Universities of Mining, plenty of rituals occurred, which accompanied the life of their students. The “jumping over the leather apron” was one of them – a rite of passage after whose passing a novice was admitted to the miners´ profession. In our territory, this tradition had been maintained during the existence of Academy of Mining in the town of Příbram, i.e. until 1939 when this university was dissolved. The “jumping” was restored as late as in 1946, i.e. one year after the higher education of mining had been moved to the town of Ostrava. As a part of matriculation, it has fulfilled its function until now here. The mentioned contribution portrays one of the contemporary forms of the rite in the region of Karviná which is one of the regions where the mines are still in operation. The participants come from the ranks of their employees. The rite is held once a year in the course of miners´ meetings called “šachťáky – coal mine meetings”. With this name, also the entire event is called. The rite functions only as one of the kinds of entertainment, its primary function has yielded in favour of the entertainment and relaxation functions. The authors emphasise the need to study the miners´ rites including the “jumping” that is performed also in other places of the Czech Republic today.
The contribution submits the detailed empiric data on funeral ceremonies for an old and a young woman in one village in Western Slovakia in 2003 and 2004. During her field research, the author had the opportunity to monitor the burial as a ritual activity in the public space. In her contribution, she thoroughly describes the activities and behaviour of persons involved in the ceremony, as they followed with the time, and as she could observe them at the church, in the cemetery or in the street. She mentions her comments on the performance and behaviour of the persons involved in the ceremony, which she has obtained from the respondents of the research. Within the description, she pays her attention also to the ritual objects. She deals especially with flower decoration and flower presents at the burial. She discusses the selected examples in dependence on the social relations within the local community. She observes the changes of the ceremony during the time, comparing the selected examples with other similar burials in the locality in the course of three decades.
As in many other villages in the ethnographical area of Chodsko, Shrovetide in Postřekov has a long-year-tradition. The restoration of its present form, however, goes back to the 1960s. The figure of a judge, which is probably connected with the figure of a bishop portrayed in the picture by Jaroslav Špillar from the 1890s, can be recognized as one of the adopted elements. The conviction of the figure of so-called Masopust (Shrovetide) is one of the top points on Shrovetide Tuesday. It is preceded by the judge’s speech that is to assess the important events of the calendar year in a satiric way. In the course of twenty-seven years, Stanislav Vogeltanz, the local native, was holding this role in Postřekov. The author’s text is based on the typed set of his texts from 1976–2002 that served as the basis for Vogeltanz´s performances in front of the entire village community. She analyses its content and structure, drawing the attention to constant and variable elements. A part of the text is devoted to Ladislav Foist, Vogeltanz´s follower. By him, the author takes into account the changes included into the speeches by this teacher from Poběžovice, and she tries to determine to what extent his performance is influenced by the relationship to his ancestor and by the collective’s censorship.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2009 deals with the theme “the others and we”, especially from the ethic point of view. Michalea Ferencová concentrated on the relations between Slovaks and Hungarians in Nové Zámky in Slovakia; her two case studies describe the situation concerning the local monuments that are not only an element of rivalry between the Slovak majority and the Hungarian minority; they can become, however, an instrument of interethnic relations in the town (Memorials within the Slovak-Hungarian Relations: Ethnic Struggles and Their Regulation in South Slovakia). Irena Jenčová deals with the life conditions of Czechs and Slovaks in London, as well as with the mutual relations between migrants from these countries (The institutions and the relations of Slovaks and Czechs in London). Ivan Hlavatý presents the research on the Greek minority in Northern Moravia, emphasizing the position of Othodox priests (Orthodox priests in Greek emigration in Northern Moravia) and Jarmila Pechová submits the historical knowledge on life of children at the German settlement in the Vyškovsko region (Children’s Life in the Villages of a Former Language Island in the Vyškovsko Region).
Stopping with Photos section (Hana Dvořáková) presents a photography from the American stay of ethnographer František Pospíšil in 1930, in which he is captured, apart from other personalities, with the chieftain of Osage Tribe from Oklahoma. Transferring Tradition column publishes the contributions by Ctibor Nečas (The History of Romany Theatre in the Strážnicko Region), Tereza Vrbová (Flamenco and its road from Andalusia to (not only) Moravia) and Helena Beránková (Those old people and we. Habitation of older generations in Moravian village at the beginning of the third millennium). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversary of ethnologist Jan Pargač (born 1949) and publishes the obituary notice of folklorist Antonín Satke (1920-2008), with his bibliography enclosed. Other regular columns include the reports of conferences, exhibitions, festivals and concerts and the reviews of new book editions.
The paper focuses on the issue of interethnic relations within a nation-state in connection with the issue of public commemoration. On the example of two case studies concerning the memorial-building activities in the town of Nové Zámky in South Slovakia, the author demonstrates how the local authorities use memorials for the present political purposes: 1. as means of the ethnic struggles between the core nation of Slovaks and the Hungarian minority, 2. as tool for the regulation of interethnic relations. The first case study describes the efforts of the representatives of Slovaks to restore the monument to the Czechoslovak legionaries from the interwar period, and the counter-efforts of the representatives of Hungarians to hinder the restoration. At the same time, the case documents the struggle of the mentioned ethnic groups for their status within the state as well as the efforts of the Mayor to forestall the ethnic confrontations. The other case study describes the unveiling ceremony of the statues to commemorate Anton Bernolák, a catholic priest and the author of the first version of Slovak literary language, and György Széchényi, a former archbishop of Esztergom, in the city centre. Here the author points out the endeavour of the municipal representatives to foster the interethnic tolerance and ethnic balance in the town.
The theories of transnational migration offer such a form of experience and identities, which is not anchored in the assumed unity of place, culture and identity, touched with ideology. In this sense, the identities of migrants are usually formed in the discourse of nationality; their nationality relations revolve around the loyalty to the nation-state and the imaginary nation-community. The essay points out in which way the institutions and the type of accommodation influence the creation of “Czechoslovak community” consciousness. The author concentrates on the influence of concrete institutions (accommodation and work agencies, job agencies, websites) because of which the ethnic schemes “I am Slovak”, I am Czech” are mobilized only seldom within the concrete environment. For entering into friendly and partner relations, the factors resulting from practical life in a metropolis are more important than the nationality.
The issues of the Greek minority in the Czech Republic, its arrival and development, is a matter of the always increasing number of professional texts whereby the most of them present the results of historical research work. Just a small part thereof is ethologically oriented. The contribution concerning the Greek priests in emigration has lifted the veil, metaphorically speaking, on the theme that is rather historical; its protagonists, however, had an essential influence on the life and traditions of the Greek community at the end of the 1940s, in the course of the entire 1950s and occasionally in the early 1960s. The essay analyses the structure of Greek emigration between 1948 and 1949 from the point of view of religiosity, and the role of a low number of Greek priests in the life of refugees. Because of their predominantly unofficial clerical activities within the community, only few written sources have survived. Therefore, the most data are based on the memories and materials of surviving contemporaries and family members. Nevertheless, those data give a quite plastic picture of how not only the faith, Orthodox traditions and through them also the fatherland’s folk traditions were living at the first generation of refugees thanks to the work of Greek priests; they also show how the connected folk and Orthodox traditions are again brought to life at the contemporary Greek minority. The theme has been less investigated and the research is still running but one can presume – despite the decreasing number of survivors and the poor archive sources – the next extension of knowledge on the history and life of the Greek minority in the Czech Republic.
The paper deals with the life of children in eight former German villages in the Vyškovsko Region, since the end of the 19th century until the forced transfer in 1946. The children grew up within the environment that put great stress on traditions, catholic religion and definition and safeguarding of their German identity against the Czech surroundings, which was demonstrated by wearing the local folk costumes and surviving of the ancient dialect and many habits. The upbringing in families, at school or in clubs was aimed at the support of German national feeling. The contacts with the Czech children were minimal in the so-called upper language island; the Czech families became assimilated, or they were not integrated into the village collective. The Czech minority schools founded in the German villages after 1918, especially the lower secondary school in Kučerov (1926), incurred displeasure and became a source of quarrels. The more frequent contacts between the Czech and the German children can be seen in the ethnically mixed and bilingual environment of the so-called lower language island.
