publisher:
Studies and Materials on the Subject of “Agriculture Transformation”
Farming as a Counterculture. Family Farms in Central Bosnia (Andrej Mentel)
Post-War Life and Collectivisation of the Moravian Countryside through the Eyes of Actors – Small Farmers (Miroslav Válka)
The Impact of Mining on the Adaptation Process of the German Minority around Nitrianske Pravno with an Emphasis on Agriculture (Marián Žabenský)
Quo Vadis? Czech and Moravian Agriculture between 2000 and 2020 (Pavel Novák)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Andrej Mentel
The study analyses the position of family farms in Central Bosnia as one of the strategies of adaptation to the economic and social decline associated with the transformation of heavy industry. The basic argument is that, in addition to the pragmatic motivation to provide a livelihood for their families, contemporary farmers are also engaged in a purposeful pursuit of an alternative to a society that these actors perceive as corrupt and fundamentally unreformable. Against the generalised distrust of the population towards institutions, they advocate the strengthening of personalised networks of trust. Food produced by family farms has, in addition to its immediate utility, an important symbolic value as ‘authentic’ or ‘real’. This value is linked to the values associated with environmental protection, but it differs from the discourse of ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ food. The restoration of family farms in Central Bosnia can be seen as a counterculture that aims to provide an alternative to the negatively perceived dominant trends in society by strengthening local communities. ‘Authentic food’ becomes the unifying materialised symbol of this counterculture.
Miroslav Válka
In the second half of the 20th century, the Czech countryside experienced two discontinuities in its development. The first one related to the collectivisation after 1948, while the other one led to the liquidation of unified agricultural cooperatives and the formation of owners’ agricultural cooperatives and agricultural enterprises of various sizes. The collectivisation of the village fundamentally changed village life, first in the economic and productive sphere, but it also interfered with the social structure of the village and the cultural sphere. It followed a well-established pattern: intensive agitation, coercion, intimidation, liquidation of large farms, but also confiscation of modern agricultural equipment (e.g. tractors). It did not only affect medium-sized peasants, and farmers, but also small farmers, the ‘progressive’ ones among whom were often at the origin of the local unified agricultural cooperative. The study uses the example of a family from the village of Závist (District of Blansko) to document the economic background of a small farmer, his everyday life and the circumstances that influenced his joining the unified agricultural cooperative.
Marián Žabenský
The study deals with the issue of the impact of mining on the process of adaptation of the German cultural minority with an emphasis on agriculture. A multi-temporal analysis of sections of cultural and landscape layers was used to monitor these processes, which compares the state of the cultural landscape with an emphasis on selected land-use classes. Emphasis is placed on the non-urban area of Nitrianske Pravno, which was colonized by German-speaking inhabitants in the 14th century. The conclusions are aimed at defining specific factors influencing the adaptation of the agricultural landscape. These include, in particular, the shape of the land as a remnant of emphyteutic colonisation, the exploitation of the non-urban area for mining, the unsuccessful development of agriculture, the development of livestock production and crafts, and the stagnation and extinction of viticulture. Other conclusions are focused on changes in the social-organizational structure of the township and on the assessment of the adaptation process. For more relevant assessment of the issue in question, the analysis of land-use classes was also used. Its results confirm some of the conclusions presented in this paper.
Pavel Novák
The study, made using statistical and historical methods, provides hard statistical data for ethnological research. The presented work proves that, despite the reduction in the sown area and livestock quantity, the agriculture of the Czech Republic is food secure due to the increase in hectare yields and productivity. New specializations of agricultural business have developed, especially landscape maintenance, production of crops for non-agricultural use, agro-tourism and organic farming. In the course of the monitored period, privatisation of state farms and restitution of property of persons affected by the communist regime were completed. Church restitution is still ongoing. The share of agriculture in the gross domestic product and employment is still declining, and agriculture is only very slowly reducing the gap with industry in labour productivity. Farmers have difficulties in selling their products in hypermarkets owned by foreign companies, and imports exceed exports in foreign trade. It is no longer worth running business in agriculture, despite the high level of subsidies, and due to low wages it is nor profitable even for employees to work in agriculture. The Czech Republic is average in European comparison. From a long-term perspective, the subsidy-based agricultural policy of the European Union and the Czech Republic is unsustainable.
Studies on the Subject of “Cultural Heritage”
From Folklore to Living Heritage: On the Development of UNESCO’s Contribution to the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Rieks Smeets)
Languages and Dialects as Part of Regional Identity and Cultural Heritage (on the Example of the Czech Republic) (Marta Šimečková)
On Research and Access to Cultural Heritage in Slovakia on the Example of the Process of Writing an Ethnochoreological Monograph (Katarína Babčáková)
Off-Topic Studies
The Economic Impact of the First Two Years of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Czech Culture (Jaroslav Novák)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Rieks Smeets
The adoption in 2003 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was the major milestone in UNESCO’s action concerning intangible or living heritage (initially called folklore) that started more than fifty years ago. That Convention replaced the not entirely successful 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore, the first UNESCO legal instrument in this domain. This study presents aspects of a large number of dedicated expert and statutory meetings that contributed to these texts and in UNESCO programmes such as the Living Human Treasure programme and the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It tries to give an insight in the changing objectives and discourse with which experts, states and UNESCO contributed to this long history. That evolution is illustrated by the constant change in name and definition given to the subject matter itself (from “folklore” to “living heritage”) and by the changing objectives of all this action. Special attention is given to the preparation of the 2003 Convention, to its implementation after its entry into force in 2006, and to the new objectives that its Governing Organs, guided by UNESCO, have been trying to provide it with. Where appropriate, reference is made to contributions from Czech experts and the Czech Republic.
Marta Šimečková
The aim of the paper is to determine whether languages and their territorial dialects are intangible cultural heritage or not. Excerpts from the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage have been argued, as well as specific entries on the UNESCO lists, in which languages and dialects appear as intangible cultural heritage independently or as part of more complex items. The definition of intangible cultural heritage, as formulated in the aforementioned Convention, has been found to entirely correspond to the nature of dialects – these are considered by the general public as part of cultural heritage, passed down from generation to generation, reshaped by various threatening factors, and they provide people with a sense of identity and continuity. Several options for the preservation of dialects in terms of their documentation and presentation by dialectologists and laypersons were presented. At the same time, attention was drawn to potential consequences of active protection through legislation channels, especially to the undesirable conservation of a certain state without taking into account natural language development and to the need for canonization leading to the creation of an artificial language hyper-standard.
Katarína Babčáková
The paper presents an example of methodological approach to ethnochoreological research and exploitation of material in a monographic publication in the field of applied ethnochoreology. The methodological approach was based on ethnochoreological and ethnomusicological archival, rescue and return qualitative field research on dance-singing expressions that are functionally connected with the calendar cycle and that disappeared in Slovakia during the 20th century. The research results were subjected to a contextual analysis inspired by the methodological approach of dance and symbolic anthropology. In order to potentially apply scientific knowledge to the practice of formal and non-formal education, it also presents a proposal for a methodological procedure by implementing the knowledge of constructive dance pedagogy. The introduction reflects the broader context of the state of ethnochoreological research and education in folk dance in Slovakia.
Jaroslav Novák
The article deals with negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related countermeasures on the Czech culture. It proceeds from statistical data treated by the National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS) and the Czech Statistical Office. It compares 2020-2021 economic achievements of culture with the period before the pandemic. It demonstrates that the biggest losses caused by the drop in attendance to cultural activities were suffered by performing arts and cultural heritage. The immediate cause consisted in the restriction on the movement of people, which had a negative impact particularly on tourism. In view of the fact that domestic and inbound tourism affect the attendance of cultural events roughly equally, the article also pays attention to the relationship between culture and tourism. Culture is not a homogeneous entity. Along with activities aimed at the audience in a given place and time, it also includes market-oriented industries (press, media), and for this reason the impact of the pandemic on culture is not unambiguous. In contrast to the financial and economic crisis of 2011-2013, when market-oriented cultural disciplines were affected more than performing arts and cultural heritage, the opposite is the case during the pandemic. In the Czech Republic, the decline in total financial resources entering culture was accompanied by a decrease in household spending and, conversely, an increase in public spending on culture. In the case of both sources of finance, however, the portion of spending on culture in total expenditure decreased. Analysis of available data shows that the economic impact on cultural heritage and performing arts in the first two years of the pandemic is more than CZK 10 billion.
Studies on the Subject of “Taboo in the Past and at Present”
The Motifs of Taboos and Their Functions in Czech Traditional Prosaic Folklore (Adéla Adámková)
The Holocaust/Shoah as a Tabooed Component in Czech Society’s Memory after World War II? (Blanka Soukupová)
“Don’t Tell Anyone”: Family Secrets, Sense of Uncertainty, and Navigating “Otherness” Among the Jewish Minority in Slovakia (Katarína Očková)
Breastfeeding in Public as a Social Taboo (Example from Slovakia) (Silvia Letavajová)
Off-Topic Studies
There Will Be Dancing, Even Though There Is No Holiday! Explicit and Implicit Messages
in Czech Socialist Cinematography (Petr Lozoviuk)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Adéla Adámková
The article analyses motifs of taboos contained in traditional folk tales and legends recorded in the Czech lands, and focusses on functions that these motifs exercise in relation to the social reality of that time and the narrative itself. Folklore studies include many theories related to the approach to taboo. Some of them perceive prosaic folklore as a space in which it is possible to break taboos and express anxieties that cannot be talked about in everyday life. According to others, folklore taboos correspond to those in force in society and cannot be broken with impunity. Thus, taboos in folklore material, like those in socio-cultural reality, reflect society's relationship to tabooed phenomena, and some of them change over time, in dependence on the social and cultural development. Traditional narratives illustrate the function of tabooed elements as these were established by institutionalized religion (e.g. sinful behaviour) and folk belief (e.g. motifs associated with demonic beings); in some cases they are also supported by the legal system (e.g. murder). They affect everyday life, but they are also linked to the liminal states of an individual (most often with puerperal women and children). The taboo, or at least the punishment for breaking it, often retains its supernatural character, which implies the frequent association of taboo motifs with demonic beings.
Blanka Soukupová
The text analyses the thematization of a key phenomenon of 20th century history and the axis of post-war Jewish identity - the Holocaust/Shoah in the Czech lands with overlaps to Central Europe. In contrast to propositions of the well-known political scientist Pavel Barša (the Holocaust became the cornerstone of Jewish identity only at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, when the State of Israel argued for it within its policy in regards to the occupied Arab territories and the moral category of innocent victim became crucial for Western mind-set), it tries to prove that the Holocaust, for which the Hebrew term Shoah is used in this case, became the pillar of Jewish identity already after the end of World War II. It was also at that time that the growing communist propaganda, which completely dominated the public space after the February coup (1948), began to use it for its own interests. In parallel, the treatise denies that the thematization of the Shoah/Holocaust was dominated by Jews as victims; in the post-war decades both minority Jewish and majority Czech representations worked with two categories: victims of racism and fighters against fascism, even though the communist representation (including the Jewish communists) from the beginning marginalized the Jewish resistance on the Western fronts and also the theme of the uniqueness of the Holocaust phenomenon.
Katarína Očková
Many young Slovak Jews, belonging to the third post-war generation, learned about their Jewishness only later in their lives, when outer triggers – whether a classmate’s comment or a history lesson about the Holocaust – raised questions to which they received unexpected answers at home. This study focuses on family secrets and their productivity, and on social taboos on information about Jewish descent, in the context of perceived insecurity across three generations of Slovak Jews. Exploring how young people discovered their Jewishness and how it was presented to them by their closest kin – who had previously kept it secret from them – along with the warning not to tell anyone about it, this study shows the formative power of this information for a sense of self, as well as for their relations to others. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Jewish community in Bratislava, the author shows how contemporary young Jews – the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors – navigate their uncovered family secret, and how they negotiate the disruption in the continuity of their life stories and the intergenerational transmission of uncertainty and mistrust, which encourages the use of strategies of careful concealment of “otherness”, affecting their everyday life and relationships.
Silvia Letavajová
The treatise deals with breastfeeding as a significant socio-cultural phenomenon. It studies public breastfeeding and ambivalent attitudes toward it in the contemporary Slovak society. It is based on theoretical background of the study of cultural taboos, gender, intimacy, sexuality and physicality, and use of public space. It focusses on the public pressure and the interpretation of the phenomenon of “good mother”. It traces back the historical aspects of breastfeeding and its forms and significance in traditional culture, as well as changes in the contemporary Slovak society. In particular, it pays attention to media, political and institutional influences on breastfeeding practices, and it analyses public activism in this realm. The focus of the work is on the Central European socio-cultural space. The study presents findings from research carried out using the method of content analysis of posts on Internet discussion forums. It subjects the texts of these posts to a qualitative analysis, whereby it focusses on the contents of the statements as well as the ways of expressing oneself on the topic.
Petr Lozoviuk
The article presents a semiotic-ethnological analysis of two Czechoslovak feature films (“Zítra se bude tančit všude”, 1952; “V pátek není svátek”, 1979) which were made and also are set in the period of so-called real socialism. At a more general level, the article attempts to answer the question of the extent to which the film production of the socialist era can be seen as a specific source for the study of the everyday culture of that time. In thecontext presented, socialism is interpreted not only as an ideological-economic system, but as a culturally formative era. That is, as a particular way of life, which manifested itself in specific cultural expressions of the people who were forced to live in this order. The study further systematically focuses on the analysis of both films in terms of the functionality of implicit and explicit messages which are encoded in the researched outputs of socialist cinematography.
Small Technical Heritage Objects in the Cultural Landscape: Research Possibilities and Conservation Challenges (Přemysl Mácha – Radek Bryol – Lenka Tlapáková – Radim Červenka – Vojtěch Bajer)
The Image of Staged Folk Culture: From the Presentation of Traditions to a Staged Genre (Martina Pavlicová)
Ethnological Research into Socialism in Post-Socialist (Czecho)Slovakia (Zuzana Beňušková)
Paths and Possibilities for Experiments in the Field of Traditional Technologies (in the Czech Republic) (Václav Michalička)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Small technical heritage structures in the cultural landscape present special challenges for their research and conservation. They are usually located on private land, many have disappeared entirely or have been refitted for a different purpose, and archival records are sparse or not available at all. The article describes experiences with the research and conservation of these structures in the Rožnov area in eastern Czechia. It outlines available methods, critically reflects on their application, and suggests ways for overcoming limitations associated with research of these structures. The article argues for the creation of a robust interdisciplinary research team including historians, anthropologists, GIS specialists, archaeologists, foresters, and geologists, to name a few. Also, it calls for the critical and complex use of archival materials, ethnographic interviews, and GIS in mutual interconnection. The conservation of small technical heritage objects is contingent on what we can find out about them through research as well as on their character, location, state of preservation, and on attitudes towards them held by owners, local inhabitants, and municipal authorities. A strong role can be played by private enthusiasts, local NGOs, and public officials as partners in the repair, renovation, and promotion of these structures. Open-air museums can contribute with expert supervision and methodical leadership to prevent amateur renovations from ruining the structures’ heritage value.
The study deals with the presentation of folk culture expressions on stage and tries to answer the questions that arise in this context. They relate both to the genesis of the presentation of folk traditions and to the subsequent developments that formed demonstrations of folk culture into a staged genre with artistic ambitions. Based on examples of selected expressions of folk culture in the Czech environment − especially expressions of folklore, which, alongside customary traditions, were always the backbone of staged presentations − the study shows how the demonstration of folk culture expressions was approached, how the performances were accepted by audiences, and which functions (ideological, artistic, and entertainment) were attributed to them. Another important question is what image of folk culture was created on the stage and how this image could have influenced the “living” terrain of the countryside and the very tendencies to protect the values of folk culture, which began to pick up strength in Czech society at the end of the nineteenth century.
The text presents an analytical overview of the results of ethnological research on the era of socialism conducted in Slovakia after 1989. It mainly describes the projects within which this research was carried out and the applied methodological approaches. It classifies the research results by thematic area and includes references to relevant academic publications. The text also mentions the academic discourse that resulted in several studies and themes. For the sake of comprehensiveness, basic projects, considerable museum activities, and audio-visual outcomes are mentioned, which provide knowledge about everyday life in socialism.
This study deals with experiments in the field of traditional production technologies. It focusses on experiments that can be used for ethnological interpretations. Attention is paid to both scientific experiments and results achieved by amateur experimenters. The theoretical introduction, defining the historical continuity and basic principles of empirical knowledge of traditional technologies based on experiments, is followed by a review text focussed on the form of contemporary experiments and reconstructions of historical technologies and techniques. An important part of the study presents examples of successful and significant experiments carried out in the Czech Republic. The experimental reconstruction of the technology used for the production of ash filtrates, which disappeared in the second half of the nineteenth century, is mentioned as an illustrative example. In the conclusion, the author points out the benefits and pitfalls associated with experiments in the field of traditional technologies.
Studies and Materials on the Subject of “Tradition as an Object of Economic (Non)Interest”
Cultural Heritage as a Commodity? An Example of City Festivities and Festivals (Alexandra Bitušíková)
Souvenirs along the Royal Route in Prague as an Object of Establishing and Negotiating Authenticity (Barbora Půtová)
How Much Is the Czech Dance? Authenticity for Sale (Daniela Stavělová – Laura Kolačkovská)
Socio-Economic Aspects of Changes in Czech Fishing Traditions in Regional Contexts (Vojtěch Kouba)
Money Loves Silence: The Transformation of the Idea of Money in the Ukrainian Megalopolis in a Post-Socialism Era (Tetiana Tkhorzhevska – Yulia Bohuslavska)
Traces of Musical Life in Advertisements of Humoristické Listy (with focus on the 1880s) (Milan Balódy)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Alexandra Bitušíková
The submitted treatise provides an overview of current state of the concept of ethnographic collection in Czech museology, and it points to a certain mutual imbalance between the two spheres. Especially in The treatise deals with the commodification of culture heritage (on the example of city festivities and festivals). Based on numerous, mostly foreign, publications it submits an overview of research approaches to the research on eventization – especially the growing number of city festivities and festivals, which turn into events attracting large numbers of visitors and supporting the commercial character of the events. The treatise points out the tendencies of municipalities and other co-organizers that, wittingly or unwittingly, transform cultural heritage into an economic commodity – a product, which can have an impact on the transformation of values and the forms of different expressions of cultural heritage. The treatise also reflects on the academic debate about the relationships between authenticity and commodification of cultural heritage, which has long been a challenge for (not only) ethnology and social anthropology. The conclusion includes a case study about the Radvaň Fair in Banská Bystrica, held since 1655 and inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovakia in 2011. The fair has experienced several changes – from a marketplace with a predominantly economic function to a city festival that pays tribute to traditional handicrafts and folklore. In the context of the theme of this cultural heritage commodification, the research intends to observe the strategies and goals of the municipality – the leading organizer of the fair – in organizing the event.
Barbora Půtová
The study focusses on the Royal Route in Prague, the major tourist enclave in the Czech Republic. The objective of the study was to create a typology of souvenirs and to ascertain the degree of authenticity, including the presentation of the potential and future of souvenirs along the Royal Route. The study first presents urban tourism and tourist enclaves framing the researched subject. Next, it describes the field research methodology used to define the consequences of the Royal Route transformation into a tourist enclave, to determine the souvenir typology, and to establish the staged authenticity. Mixed field research along the Royal Route focussed on identifying the structure of shop tenants and the assortment of goods and services offered. The assortment of goods they offer consists typically of mass-produced souvenirs and souvenirs that in most cases lack any link to Czech culture and traditions. The conclusion of the study is based on the synthesis of the methodologic part that raises a requirement for definition and conceptualization of an authentic souvenir. At the same time, the study takes into account any possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that see the crisis as an opportunity to construct and negotiate an authentic souvenir along the Royal Route.
Daniela Stavělová – Laura Kolačkovská
The contribution revisits the question of tourism’s role in the commodification of folk dance and open the discourse of value, in which an intrinsic and sacred cultural sphere of value is presumed to circulate independent of an unstable and profane economic sphere of value. It deals with the dance productions of Czech folklore show for tourists visiting Prague. This phenomenon has its origins in 1970’ when few people – dancers and musicians from folk ensembles – started to be invited to dance for tourists in prestigious hotels. After 1989 “velvet revolution” the business with folklore became a part of tourism where the dance has its specific role. An increasing number of special pubs offering Czech meal, folk costume, song, and dance show during an evening, provoked several questions as to how folk dance can become a profitable commodity, what trade rules apply here and what the demand-supply ratio is. We were interested to who are the dancers and musicians paid for one evening to show the Czech folk dance culture and what is their social status? The following questions streamed to explore which elements of the traditional culture are picked up from the folk culture to represent the “real Czechness” and how the interaction with foreigners (tourists) is going on: e. g. the negotiation about the repertoire, their participation to dance, etc. The research was based on the observation of the strategies of several pubs in Prague and deep interviews with actors which enabled to see the inner side of the process.
Vojtěch Kouba
The article focuses on the current changes in the traditions of the Czech aquaculture and the possibilities of using fishing traditions in regional development.It is based on field research in smaller fishing areas of Bohemia (surroundings of Blatná, Chlumec nad Cidlinou, and Přelouč). While in Blatná and its surroundings the tradition of autumn public fish harvest is still alive, and even, as a complement to it, the community-oriented June Fishing Festival was established, fishermen in eastern Bohemia consider public harvests to be dangerous (busy roads run on the dams of the ponds) and loss-making. While the economic importance of the Czech aquaculture is declining, its non-productive functions are becoming increasingly important, both for the landscape and water retention in it, as well as for the regional identity and development of tourism associated with the growing popularity of recreational fishing. While present-day Czech fish producers focus primarily on maximizing their production, a differentiation of approaches to the industry can be expected in the future, including the emergence of new products using elements of fishing traditions in their marketing. We can therefore divide fishing traditions into the following categories: production, environment, leisure, and regional aspects.
Tetiana Tkhorzhevska – Yulia Bohuslavska
The study addresses the question of the place of the money in the modern big city citizen’s life and, by proxy, his ideas of money. We don’t emphasize the destructive kind of influence of the global capitalism on post-Soviet society but also don’t exclude the possibility of such reading. We state that modern urban citizens use quite archaic magical practices. We state that money for the big chunk of Odesa’s citizens are not rationally nominal equivalent of the effort but are the “wonderful gift” of the higher entities. We state that ideas about the supernatural power of money didn’t cease to exist in the socialism era and had been spread out in the post-socialist era. Using different methods, we examine the ideas of money of the people of various ages and conclude that the number of irrational views about money increases with the decrease of age. We talk about the visible formation of the new religion where the place of higher entity is occupied by exchange equivalent.
Milan Balódy
The study uses advertising sections of the widely read and successful weekly Humoristické listy [Humorous Papers] as a source of the history of music. Through an analysis of advertisement departments, it maps the city inhabitants´ opportunities in the late nineteenth century to fill their leisure time with musical activities. The advertisements create a space where the offer encounters the inquiry.
They thus become a witness to contemporary tastes, preferences, and mentalities. The research shows that alongside traditional musical instruments, which required at least a rudimentary interpretation skills to master the play, instruments operating by mechanical means (automatophones) or those designed without much artistic ambition for profane social entertainment (e.g. bigotphones) were gaining in popularity. The space in which contact with music took place was also expanding. Various refreshment venues allured people with regular concerts. The submitted text is a contribution to the history of popular music in the Czech lands, and it partly reflects the public taste of the time.
Studies on the Subject of “Ethnographic Collection as a Source”
Ethnographic Collection in the Concept of Contemporary Czech Museology (Lenka Drápalová)
Major Trends in the Conception of Ethnographic Museum Materials in the Works of Czech Ethnologists and Museologists before 1989 (Otakar Kirsch)
Traditional Handcraft Techniques as Part of Documentation Accompanying the Museum Ethnographic Collection (Václav Michalička)
Recovered Territories in Source Materials of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas: Selected Examples of Socio-Cultural Change in Post-Migration Areas (Anna Drożdż)
The Conception and Form of Folk Song Collections from Bohemia from the Period of Preparations for the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition 1895 (Zdeněk Vejvoda – Věra Thorová)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Lenka Drápalová
The submitted treatise provides an overview of current state of the concept of ethnographic collection in Czech museology, and it points to a certain mutual imbalance between the two spheres. Especially in The treatise deals with the commodification of culture heritage (on the example of city festivities and festivals). Based on numerous, mostly foreign, publications it submits an overview of research approaches to the research on eventization – especially the growing number of city festivities and festivals, which turn into events attracting large numbers of visitors and supporting the commercial character of the events. The treatise points out the tendencies of municipalities and other co-organizers that, wittingly or unwittingly, transform cultural heritage into an economic commodity – a product, which can have an impact on the transformation of values and the forms of different expressions of cultural heritage. The treatise also reflects on the academic debate about the relationships between authenticity and commodification of cultural heritage, which has long been a challenge for (not only) ethnology and social anthropology. The conclusion includes a case study about the Radvaň Fair in Banská Bystrica, held since 1655 and inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovakia in 2011. The fair has experienced several changes – from a marketplace with a predominantly economic function to a city festival that pays tribute to traditional handicrafts and folklore. In the context of the theme of this cultural heritage commodification, the research intends to observe the strategies and goals of the municipality – the leading organizer of the fair – in organizing the event.
Otakar Kirsch
The study focusses on the Royal Route in Prague, the major tourist enclave in the Czech Republic. The objective of the study was to create a typology of souvenirs and to ascertain the degree of authenticity, including the presentation of the potential and future of souvenirs along the Royal Route. The study first presents urban tourism and tourist enclaves framing the researched subject. Next, it describes the field research methodology used to define the consequences of the Royal Route transformation into a tourist enclave, to determine the souvenir typology, and to establish the staged authenticity. Mixed field research along the Royal Route focussed on identifying the structure of shop tenants and the assortment of goods and services offered. The assortment of goods they offer consists typically of mass-produced souvenirs and souvenirs that in most cases lack any link to Czech culture and traditions. The conclusion of the study is based on the synthesis of the methodologic part that raises a requirement for definition and conceptualization of an authentic souvenir. At the same time, the study takes into account any possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that see the crisis as an opportunity to construct and negotiate an authentic souvenir along the Royal Route.
Václav Michalička
The contribution revisits the question of tourism’s role in the commodification of folk dance and open the discourse of value, in which an intrinsic and sacred cultural sphere of value is presumed to circulate independent of an unstable and profane economic sphere of value. It deals with the dance productions of Czech folklore show for tourists visiting Prague. This phenomenon has its origins in 1970’ when few people – dancers and musicians from folk ensembles – started to be invited to dance for tourists in prestigious hotels. After 1989 “velvet revolution” the business with folklore became a part of tourism where the dance has its specific role. An increasing number of special pubs offering Czech meal, folk costume, song, and dance show during an evening, provoked several questions as to how folk dance can become a profitable commodity, what trade rules apply here and what the demand-supply ratio is. We were interested to who are the dancers and musicians paid for one evening to show the Czech folk dance culture and what is their social status? The following questions streamed to explore which elements of the traditional culture are picked up from the folk culture to represent the “real Czechness” and how the interaction with foreigners (tourists) is going on: e. g. the negotiation about the repertoire, their participation to dance, etc. The research was based on the observation of the strategies of several pubs in Prague and deep interviews with actors which enabled to see the inner side of the process.
Anna Drożdż
The article focuses on the current changes in the traditions of the Czech aquaculture and the possibilities of using fishing traditions in regional development.It is based on field research in smaller fishing areas of Bohemia (surroundings of Blatná, Chlumec nad Cidlinou, and Přelouč). While in Blatná and its surroundings the tradition of autumn public fish harvest is still alive, and even, as a complement to it, the community-oriented June Fishing Festival was established, fishermen in eastern Bohemia consider public harvests to be dangerous (busy roads run on the dams of the ponds) and loss-making. While the economic importance of the Czech aquaculture is declining, its non-productive functions are becoming increasingly important, both for the landscape and water retention in it, as well as for the regional identity and development of tourism associated with the growing popularity of recreational fishing. While present-day Czech fish producers focus primarily on maximizing their production, a differentiation of approaches to the industry can be expected in the future, including the emergence of new products using elements of fishing traditions in their marketing. We can therefore divide fishing traditions into the following categories: production, environment, leisure, and regional aspects.
Zdeněk Vejvoda – Věra Thorová
The study addresses the question of the place of the money in the modern big city citizen’s life and, by proxy, his ideas of money. We don’t emphasize the destructive kind of influence of the global capitalism on post-Soviet society but also don’t exclude the possibility of such reading. We state that modern urban citizens use quite archaic magical practices. We state that money for the big chunk of Odesa’s citizens are not rationally nominal equivalent of the effort but are the “wonderful gift” of the higher entities. We state that ideas about the supernatural power of money didn’t cease to exist in the socialism era and had been spread out in the post-socialist era. Using different methods, we examine the ideas of money of the people of various ages and conclude that the number of irrational views about money increases with the decrease of age. We talk about the visible formation of the new religion where the place of higher entity is occupied by exchange equivalent.
Studies on the Subject of “National School in Ethnology and Socio-Cultural Anthropology”
North American Folkloristics between Folkloristics and European Ethnology (Petr Janeček)
An Outline of the Development of the Mexican Anthropology from the Early 19th Century until 1948 (Oldřich Kašpar)
Field Research in Folklore Studies in Serbia: A Historical Overview and Development Perspectives (Sonja Petrović)
Thirty Years of Independent Ukrainian Ethnomusicology (1990–2020) (Iryna Dovhaljuk – Lina Dobrjanska)
Rieger, or Grimm? Romantic and Pragmatic Approaches to the Ethnological Research into Laws (Tomáš Ledvinka)
For all content click the button CONTENTS.
Petr Janeček
The overview study focuses on a brief outline of the history and disciplinary identity of North American folklore studies (folkloristics, folklore) with an emphasis on the field of verbal culture. Major research themes, research schools, and personalities are presented, as well as history of institutionalization of the field at the U.S. universities after World War II. After a brief introduction to the origins, when North American folklore studies did not differ significantly from British and Continental scholarship, its development during interwar period and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, when its emancipation took place, mainly because of unique American emphasis on study of folklore performance, is described. Critical overview text thus presents basic contours of this specific academic field, practiced mainly in the U.S.A and Canada, which in many aspects represents a unique scientific discipline with close ties to international folklore studies, European ethnology, and anthropological fields in general.
Oldřich Kašpar
This overview study seeks to capture basic features of the development of the Mexican anthropology from its "formative" beginnings at the very outset of the 19th century until the founding of the National Indigenist Institute in 1948. Emphasis is placed on the historical roots of the latter scientific discipline, the contribution of foreign scholars to the development of the discipline in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, and the variable evolution of a constant in the Mexican ethnographic and anthropological research, namely the pervasive question of indigenism. The description and analysis of the activities of the basic museum and academic institutions, as well as of the first professional periodicals have not been left out either. The work also analyses the impact that various turning points in the Mexican history of the defined period had on the development of the discipline (the Second Mexican Empire in the 19th century, the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, the last two decades of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries, the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, the later period of 'cardenism', etc.). The author has based his text on the study of archival documents, contemporary Mexican ethnographic and museum literature, and contemporary scholarly works, especially those written by Mexican and American anthropologists.
Sonja Petrović
The paper offers an overview of the most relevant events in the history of collecting of the Serbian oral tradition, starting with the medieval mentions and records, through the recording of folk songs in the modern times in various regions inhabited by the Serbs, up to the systematic fieldwork collection conducted by Vuk Karadžić and the contemporary field research in folklore studies. The author indicates specific motivations of collectors in different periods, and the position and role of folklore in creating the image about the national past and in forming the national identity of the Serbs. Special attention was paid to the advances of fieldwork methodology which moved from the principles and recommendations of early ethnographers who designed field questionnaires, and later it grew and embraced contemporary interdisciplinary influences on the understanding of the field and the role of researchers. Contemporary forms and trends in the development of field research in folklore studies in Serbia are singled out and their significance for the development of Serbian folkloristics in the whole is emphasized.
Iryna Dovhaljuk – Lina Dobrjanska
The article presents an overview of Ukrainian ethnomusicology in 1990–2020. This period is characterized by the comprehensive development of science mostly due to the obtaining of Ukrainian Independence. The study focuses on the main issues in many ethnomusicological directions. First of all, the attention is focused on the activity of the leading modern Ukrainian ethnomusicological scientific and scientific-pedagogical institutions as well as smaller regional centers. The most important directions of activities of these centers such as documentation of musical folklore (ethnographic and archival), ethnomusical pedagogy, conferences, publications etc. are also analyzed. In addition, scientific achievements in such important areas as theoretical and methodological, areal and typological, historical, ethnoorganological, ethnochoreological, source studies, etc. are considered. As a result, the article comprehensively presents the state of Ukrainian ethnomusicology today and outlines prospects for the future.
Tomáš Ledvinka
The article undertakes a genealogy of conceptual definitions of the ‘lore of law’ as a subject of study before the formation of both European legal ethnology and the anthropology of law, mainly within the Historical School of Law in the first half of the nineteenth century. By tracing the way in which the subject ‘lore of law’ has been categorised, the article follows the evolution of its definitions from 18th-century antiquarian legal research, Herder´s view on the law´s orality in original biblical sources, to Jacob Grimm´s understanding of ancient legal customs as part of folk poetry. Grimm´s romantic approach is used to illuminate the distinction of other contemporary approaches, especially the fundamentally opposite pragmatic study of contemporary constitution which has been developed by Joseph Anthon Rieger and Joseph Mader. The ‘lore of law’ seem to have acquired a newfound importance in the period after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (1806). Particularly its conceptual definitions such as “customary law” and “folk law” are explored as being moulded by new nationalist and universalist patterns of scholarly thought. To conclude, the article foregrounds the expansion of legal horizons traced in this pre-evolution of the ethnological study of law.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2021 deals with the theme “Forced Migration”. Tomáš Dvořák submits a view of the demographic issue in the context of the national and migration policy after the end of the main wave of the forced displacement of German residents (Marriage as a Life Strategy in the Cogs of Post-War Migrations, on Example of the Jáchymov Area in the Years 1949-1950). Sandra Kreisslová and Jana Nosková pay attention to the post-war forced migration of German-speaking inhabitants and the reflection thereof in magazines published by those displaced (Media Representation of Post-War Forced Migration of Germans from Czech Lands in Journals of this group, on Example of Magazines Aussiger Bote and Brünner Heimatbote). David Kovařík focusses on displacement of selected groups of inhabitants in the years 1904-1954 from areas which were used by the army as military training areas in the Czech lands (Military Training Areas as Scenes for Forced Migrations in the Czech Lands, and Their Commemoration). Josef Šuba applies the method of oral history to explain the situation of a particular South-Moravian location which disappeared as a consequence of the construction of a water reservoir (The Extinction of Mušov from the Perspective of the Former Inhabitants).
In the article “On the Decease of Film Director Karel Vachek”, Review Section commemorates the trace of this personage in the historiography of ethnology (author Martina Pavlicová). Social Chronicle publishes congratulations to the jubilees of the ethnologist Mirjam Moravcová (born 1931), the ethnologist Peter Salner (born 1951), and the musicologist Jarmila Procházková(born 1961); it also publishes two obituaries: for Ondrej Demo (1927–2020), a musical folklorist, and radio editor and dramaturge, and for Eva Kiliánová (1930–2020), an editor of folk prose. Further regular columns include reports on exhibitions and scholarly projects, and reviews of new books.
The study deals with marriages, concluded mainly by German residents in the Jáchymov district in the years 1949-1950. Marriages between different groups of inhabitants demonstrate the manifold migration background of residents in the monitored region, and they are also analysed as a possible way to resolve life situations, associated with the migrations. The monitored region and the theme of marriages is first presented based on basic demographic indicators. The issues of marriages and marriage rate are then analysed in the context of the post-war national and migration policy, including the circumstances under which the major source set for the study developed. Subsequently, the study exemplifies, based on the files studied, various migration and life situations experienced by members of different population groups, categorized based on ethnicity, migration origin, and several further criteria. The study shows that some aspects of the social reality, researched on a micro-scale, significantly breach the image of a total breakup and isolation of national communities in the borderlands. The reality did even not correspond to the ideologically postulated imperative of borderlands purge. The closing note assesses the observed marriages from the perspective of diverse types of common life strategies of the German minority in Czechoslovakia after the end of the main wave of forced displacement, and from the perspective of the research into family memory.
The study deals with the post-war forced migration of German-speaking inhabitants from Czechoslovakia, and its reception in magazines which the forcibly-displaced Germans began to issue in “West Germany” (Federal Republic of Germany) in the late 1940s. The authors analyse two patriotic magazines (Heimatzeitschrift) from the beginning of their publishing until the end of the twentieth century. The patriotic magazines are understood as media of collective memory of the social group of those forcibly displaced. Based on the study of empiric material, the representations of the forced displacement can be analytically divided into three groups. The “expulsion” is represented as: 1) loss of home; 2) new start, and 3) historical grievance. The authors show that the forced displacement in connection with the loss of the (old) home country is a basic theme for the above-mentioned magazines. In the magazines, the representations thereof are closely associated with the memory politics of patriotic organizations with their exactly defined interpretation of history, claiming the right for the motherland, and enforcement of the victimization discourse.
The study deals with the displacement of selected groups of inhabitants from areas that were occupied by the army and used for training and other needs of it as military training areas in Bohemia and Moravia in the twentieth century. These displacement operations affected about seventy thousand inhabitants between 1904 and 1954. In addition to the description of particular displacement operations, the study also deals with the fates of inhabitants, affected like this, as well as of depopulated and desolate villages and settlements, which mostly were demolished and razed to the ground in the subsequent years. The displacement of inhabitants from military training areas is an example of forced migration in which each period and each political system applied different procedures in relation to residents in the affected areas. While the displacement of affected inhabitants at the time of the Nazi occupation entered into the national memory as an example of the persecution of Czech citizens and it was publicly commemorated in the subsequent years, further displacement operations after the year 1945 were, by contrast, tabooed and those affected were not allowed to commemorate these events publicly. This different experience became evident in the creation of collective, or cultural memory, and it also influenced diverse forms and ways of commemorating the forced migrations from military training areas.
In the second half of the 20th century, several dozens of villages ceased to exist as a consequence of water systems built on Bohemian and Moravian rivers. One of them was Mušov in South Moravia, a village which disappeared beneath the water of Nové Mlýny Dams. The preserved sources show vain attempts of local inhabitants to rescue Mušov, which were followed by a process of gradual becoming reconciled to the loss of their homes and by individual struggles to ensure as good conditions for forced displacement as possible. However, four decades have elapsed since Mušov was flooded, and the former residents look to the past in a conciliatory fashion. Although in the 1960s they supported an idea to build a new village and refused to accept the extinction of Mušov, they realize with the passage of time that their then effort was vain from the very beginning. Currently they see the displacement as an opportunity to acquire higher-quality housing for their families, which they might not have reached in the original village. Their lost home is, at least partially, substituted by ties to the community of former Mušov residents, which has survived and which actively keeps passing on memories of Mušov.
Journal of Ethnology 4/2020 deals with the theme “Folklorism of the 21st Century”. Teresa Smolińska focusses on cultural traditions of the German minority living in Upper Silesia in Poland (Modern Cultural Traditions of the Germans in Silesia: towards folklorism). Andrej Mentel deals with the cultural memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its strengthening based on newly composed folk music (Folklorism and Culture of Memory in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina). Jiří Čevela presents the research into cimbalom music bands in the Uherské Hradiště area (Contemporary Tendencies of Cimbalom Music Bands in the Uherské Hradiště Area) and Jarmila Teturová submits the research into the current condition of the verbuňk dance in the ethnographic area of Podluží (The Influence of the Contest for the Best Dancer of Slovácko Verbuňk on the Existence and Form of the Verbuňk Dance in the Ethnographic Area of Podluží). Bronislav Stupňánek and Martina Ireinová write about current expressions of dialects in the ethnographic area of Haná (The Second Life of Dialects: Central Middle-Moravian Dialects Used in Public Speaking, and the “Hanakian Revival”).
The Transforming Tradition column pays attention to the Slovácko verbuňk dance as an expression of folklorism (written by Anna Jagošová). Review Section commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the folklorist Antonín Satke (written by Jana Pospíšilová). Social Chronicle remembers the jubilees of the ethnologist Jan Krist (born 1950), the cultural anthropologist Zdeněk Salzmann (born 1925), and the cultural professional and choreographer Eva Rejšková (born 1930); it publishes an obituary for the Slovak folklorist and ethnologist Ján Michálek (1932-2020). Further regular columns include reports on conferences and disciplinary projects, and reviews of new books.
The authoress focuses her research on the spontaneous development of specific cultural events among the Germans in Upper Silesia, which testifies to the increase in their sense of value of their own culture and to changes in their manifestation of national awareness and identity. They try to reconstruct many forms of German cultural heritage in this region that serve already different functions in the contemporary culture and, therefore, they are typical of folklorism, i.e. popular culture. The revival of ‘German folk tradition’ after the political transformation in Poland in 1989 is stimulated not only by artistic folk groups but also by individuals who copy selected parts of traditional middle-class culture in Germany, e.g. Martinfest, Oktoberfest, Weihnachtsmarkt, Rosenmontag, and popularise their trivialised forms in which ludic and integrative functions prevail. The Easter Bunny (Osterhase) deserves a special mention in post-war Upper Silesia. Searching for gifts brought by the Easter Bunny, so popular among the indigenous inhabitants of this region, may be regarded as a regional ‘lesson’ to be learnt but it lacks, however, the place for remembrance of old spring rites and magic rituals associated with them. Having only a superficial nature and serving a ludic function, the reconstruction meets all the criteria of folklorism, which shows that consumerist culture exerts an overwhelming influence. Amongst the parties fashionable recently that are organised by young women in several towns in Opole Silesia, where German minorities tend to predominate, the authoress points to Rosenmontag, i.e. a costume ‘ball’ aspiring – despite little similarity – to traditional carnival parades in German cities (Köln, Mainz, Düsseldorf). Both examples selected from the German heritage (Rosenmontag) and presented against other forms of German tradition preserved in Silesia accurately represent the folklorisation of the tradition.
Diverse aspects of folklorism in the countries of former Yugoslavia are a subject-matter of long-term ethnologic and folkloristic research. One of the important themes touches the relation between newly composed folk music (NCFM) and aggressive nationalistic propaganda, as well as further aspects of this genre. The NCFM is a genre of commercial music that developed in the former Yugoslavia from the 1960s and that refers to folk sources in its texts and musical construction. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was sevdalinka, a specific genre of urban music folklore, that have become one of NCFM sources. Sevdalinka has become one of the elements of the “orientalising” hetero-stereotypes of Bosniaks and Bosnian Muslim culture as the one that “essentially differs” from the cultures of other nations living in the former Yugoslavia. It has been insufficiently researched to date how the Bosniak collective memory is currently constructed through the NCFM. On an example of particular commemorative events, the study shows how a certain image of Bosniak history is created and supported by using the NCFM.
The study deals with the reflection of contemporary tendencies of cimbalom music bands in the Uherské Hradiště area. It informs about artistic approaches, forms of presentation, as well as about the character of activities of thirty-seven cimbalom music bands, which work in the Uherské Hradiště area (ethnographic area of Slovácko). This region, the ethnographic boundaries of which are defined at the beginning of the text, is considered to be promising for the above-mentioned reflection mainly due to the long-term tradition and the number of cimbalom music bands. Against the background of the cultural and historical development in the Uherské Hradiště area, it is possible to observe different tendencies in music bands´ approach to the folk song, and in their societal engagement, which are two perspectives, crucial for the typologization. Within these perspectives, the author defines six tendencies which mingle and supplement each other in musical attitude and productions of particular cimbalom music bands. From the perspective of the approach to the folk song, three general tendencies are elaborated – reconstruction, stylization, and fusion of genres. The societal engagement includes cooperation with groups which are active in folklorism, concerts, and spontaneous music-making, whereby these tendencies show different intensity of commercialization.
The study submits results of the first stage of research on the influence of the Contest for the Best Dancer of Slovácko verbuňk on the existence and form of the verbuňk dance with focus on the current situation in the ethnographic area of Podluží. The Contest has been organized at the International Folklore Festival Strážnice every year since 1986, and since 2005 is has been part of safeguarding measures for verbuňk as an element inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The authoress presents results of field search conducted among three groups of respondents in Podluží, meaning contemporaries (former dancers regardless their participation in the Contest), local authorities directly connected with the Contest (successful participants in the Contest), and young active dancers who dance verbuňk at the Contest and also at usual dance occasions. Respondents´ opinions prove the influence of the Contest on the popularization and promotion of verbuňk in the field, and they draw attention to the issue of interventions in the natural development of regional style. The mentioned findings will be used to compare results from further stages of the research, which are conducted in other sub-regions of the ethnographic area of Slovácko.
Since the turn of the 21st century, a considerably increasing interest in local dialects in Czech regions with traditionally strong regional identity can be observed. This interest seems to be a response to the current rapid decline of dialects and deep disparity between languages spoken by the oldest and the youngest generations. The reaction thereon includes active efforts to maintain or even renew the dialects. However, it is private spoken communication that is the most natural field for dialects and therefore the effort for public coverage and the appeal to wide regional audience inevitably leads to the fact that the dialects get into the context and functions which are not typical for them or which are completely new (dialect textbooks and courses, websites and news portals in dialects, dialect texts of songs from modern musical genres etc.). Although this phenomenon shares common features in almost the entire territory of our traditional territorial dialects, the most frequent occurrence of it can be observed in the area where central Middle-Moravian dialects are spoken. In accordance with the explicitly expressed intention of those who spread the dialects in this region, the authors of the study call the above-mentioned phenomenon “the Hanakian Revival”.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2020 focusses on the contemporary countryside. Přemysl Mácha deals with multi-cultural coexistence in the Těšín area, mainly from linguistic perspective (Bilingual Signs in the Těšín Area, or the Těšín Countryside as an Experiment with Plurality). Juraj Janto pays attention to the study of Slovak rural localities near large cities in the second half of the 20th century (Rural Localities in the Hinterland of Large Cities in Slovakia: from the research on suburban municipalities near Bratislava). Katarína Koštialová deals with the importance of the folklore festival in the Slovak village of Hrušov in relation to the particular locality and its inhabitants (The Hont Parade Festival – a Positive Example of the Marginalised Village of Hrušov). Margita Jágerová analyses cultural and social activities in selected villages in Slovakia (Inspirational Sources of Cultural and Social Events and Celebrations in Current Rural Environment / on the example of the villages of Vlachovo, Soblahov, Malé Dvorníky, and Liptovská Teplička). The text by Martin Novotný about rural architecture and the role of untrained artisans (Untrained Artisans /called autodidacts/ as Bearers of Traditional Techniques (with regard to building tradition in the lowland-house area in Moravia and Slovakia) has been included out of the theme.
The Transforming Tradition column publishes a text by Marta Ulrychová about the history of the Postřekov Folk Ensemble, one of the oldest Czech folk ensembles. In Review Section, Martina Pavlicová commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Moravian ethnochoreologist Zdenka Jelínková (1920– 2005), and Oldřich Kašpar remembers 125 years since the birth of the Ibero-Americanist and linguist Čestmír Loukotka (1895–1966). Interview Section is dedicated to the life anniversary of Věra Kapeller, a Czech ethnologist living and working in Austria (born 1950). Social Chronicle remembers the jubilees of the folklorists Milan Leščák (born 1940) and Marta Šrámková (born 1935), and it publishes an obituary for the ethnologist Renata Zemanová (1927–2020). Further regular columns include reports on conferences and festivals, and reviews of specialized literature.
The article focuses on conflicts in the Těšín countryside which have arisen in the last fifteen years in reaction to the introduction of bilingual, Czech-Polish signs. The topic is analyzed in the context of the politics of toponymy and debates about integration models in multi-cultural societies. The text offers a brief summary of selected research findings based on the analysis of linguistic landscape, media discourse, and opinion of local inhabitants, municipal representatives and members of Polish organizations obtained through interviews and questionnaires. The research showed that bilingual signs played an important role in Czech-Polish relations in the Těšín region. Although the media supported the introduction of bilingual signs, most people declaring Czech nationality opposed them even after more than a decade of their presence. Most commonly, opponents emphasized the need for the Polish minority to assimilate into the Czech majority society. Attempts of Polish minority to introduce bilingual signs have failed in many municipalities while in others they have succeeded only partially. Only a handful of municipalities introduced bilingual signs beyond their legal requirements, opening thus doors to a genuine multicultural community.
The so-called hinterlands of cities constitute one of the important categories of rural localities; these are municipalities that are connected with a nearby city through employment and other activities of their inhabitants. Many of them are part of the suburbanization process with growing residential housing and growing population tied to the urban settlement. The process of (modern) suburbanization in Slovakia appeared in the second half of the 1990s, most markedly near Bratislava and in the vicinity of other larger cities. This category of municipalities is growing in size and number and it is thus becoming an increasingly important phenomenon of rural (or rural-urban) settlement. Qualitative (ethnographic) research on these villages in Slovakia is still in its infancy. In our research on two localities near Bratislava we focused on finding out the level and form of relations between local old inhabitants and new settlers. We also noticed the motivation of new residents to move to the village. We obtained data from the declared statements of informants in an ethnographic interview. Their analysis showed that contacts between the two groups occur randomly and sporadically, and their form is formal and courtesy. The most frequent factors for moving into the village were the price of the house, the desire to live in a “green” and peaceful rural environment, and the feeling of privacy and freedom.
The study, which is result of the ethnological research conducted periodically since 2017, identifies factors which entered the process of the successful establishment of the Hont Parade Festival in Hrušov (Slovakia). At the same time, it demonstrates to what extent the festival has influenced the village and its citizens. In addition, the study outlines potential threats related to the locality and festival. Hrušov (the 2013 winner of the Village of the Year award) lies in a marginalised locality, which on one hand devalues the local community; on the other hand it motivates the local community towards social cohesion and cooperation. It appears that it is local citizens, community, exceptional leaders and generational coexistence, as well as intergenerational transmission of cultural values that constitute essential factors of the resilience against unfavourable determinants. All the above-mentioned aspects can be considered to be main determinants in establishing and sustaining the festival of national importance. The festival presents a particular form of local community representation, it is a marketing tool, and it is involved in creating the image and brand of the village and region. Simultaneously, it is an important factor of the change which leads to the openness to the benefit of the village and its inhabitants. The festival brings some negative points, the main ones being the strain on the village environment and the decreasing number of inhabitants.
The study provides a comparative analysis of current forms of the all-year-round cultural and social festivities on the example of four selected villages. It tries to define the basic sources of inspiration for these events, the factors influencing this sphere, and it also seeks identical and different elements in this area and the possibility of using the “societal capital” (human, social and cultural) of each municipality in these activities. The basic source of inspiration for most socio-cultural events includes the local folk culture with the traditional annual cycle being the main part of it; in several cases, the annual cycle is tied to church holidays. In recent decades, events dedicated to children, or more precisely families with children, mothers and pensioners have become a kind of "cultural and social constants" not only in the rural but also in the urban environment. The research confirmed the residents' lack of interest in celebrating the state and political events. Especially in suburban areas, the import of new globalized phenomena is more evident, whereby the more isolated villages have better conditions to develop their local traditional culture. The article presents several findings regarding the “societal” capital, especially the unequal use of human and cultural capital in the monitored villages, and it also emphasizes the importance of residents’ activism and support to this area by local governments, and the creation of the best possible conditions for cultural background and infrastructure.
The essay explains the background for rural buildings in the territory of former Czechoslovakia (Moravia, Slovakia). This concerns mainly the period beginning with the second half of the 19th century until the 1980s. The theme is infrequent in ethnology, which is also confirmed by the amount of relevant literature. The text takes into account the production of building elements and the portion of self-help (the participation of family members and neighbours in civil works). The text also outlines the word náturista autodidact, an untrained rural builder and the transformation of its meaning over time. In the case of traditional techniques tied mostly to work with unburnt clay, the essay also mentions the background for their decline, limited performance, and short-lived rebirth in the early second half of the 20th century. The knowledge relating to the maintenance of old earth buildings survived in the researched area until the late 1970s, and it suddenly ceased to exist with the death of the last bearers of this tradition. The essay also pays attention to an interesting phenomenon, meaning the self-help home production of breeze blocks. This phenomenon was typical for rural architecture in Czechoslovakia beginning with the 1960s.
