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Journal of Ethnology 4/2013 is devoted to expatriates. Zdeněk Uherek sketches the theme from the point of view of migration and he deals with the factors determining the formation of expatriates’ communities in Europe (Expatriates and Contemporary Migration Processes). Stanislav Brouček pays attention to Czech and Slovak immigrants who settled down in Australian island Tasmania (“Czechoslovakism” at the End of the World: Expatriates in Tasmania). Veronika Beranská focuses on the system of traditional medicine in the culture of Ukrainian and Kazakhstanian Czechs (Expatriates’ Folk Treatment and Ritualized Practises with Czechs from Ukraine and Kazakhstan Transferred to the Czech Republic). Barbora Kučerová reminds an enclave of Czech immigration in Central Poland (Contemporary Situation at Evangelic Reformed Church in Zelów on Example of Mixed Marriages) and Dagmar Petišková writes about Ukrainian immigrants in the USA and Canada (Ukrainian Diaspora in North America – its culture and publications related to ethnography).
Transferring traditions column publishes a contribution by Lucie Šilerová and Frank Trnka Czech, Moravian and Slovakian Traditions of Expatriates in Minneapolis (St. Paul, MN, USA). Review section remembers Jaroslav Mackerle and his ethnographic publication about the ethnographic area of Malá Haná (author Lukáš F. Peluněk). The Interview column is devoted to the musician Jiří Pavlica (born 1953). Social Chronicle mentions the anniversaries of ethnologists Jitka Matuszková (born 1953) and Jiřina Veselská (born 1943). Other regular columns offer reports from conferences and exhibitions, reviews of new books and other information from the branch, including a proposal of the Ethical Codex of the Czech Ethnographic Society.
The text is an introduction to the Journal of Ethnology’s monothematic issue about expatriates. Its goal is to classify the theme into a wider context, to show that the relation to expatriates differs in different countries and to demonstrate that in many countries the emigration and the relations to expatriates constitute a significant component of the history and a part of processes of national identification. The text also deals with factors that strengthen the relation between the source and the destination country in the process of migration. It shows that the theme of expatriates does not include only the theme of migration but also that of return migrations. From this point of view, the topicality of the theme of expatriates in Europe and the Czech Republic has rather increased than decreased recently. The examples of particular communities of expatriates come mainly from Europe. The author focused on the examples with Czech expatriates; partially he speaks about German, Polish, Irish and Armenian communities. In the conclusion, he mentions the contemporary trend of double residence and transnational lifestyle.
Based on written materials, interviews and exiting literature, the study reveals the process of “experienced Czechoslovakism” with Czech and Slovak immigrants in Tasmania, who have immigrated since the 1950s until now. The study proceeds on two factors that influence their adaptation. The first one was the experience of a specific transfer, actually a repeated flight (especially with those who emigrated after 1948). The other factor consisted in the changing migration policy in Australia. The time and the problem relates to basic parameters of their new existence, which they understand as a space for self-expression. The experienced Czechoslovakism was implemented in the sense of the citizenship that was taken away of them, but to which they claimed their allegiance. This is a slight paradox, i.e. what they in fact did not have (the Czechoslovak citizenship) became their mutual bonds. When returning to their original homeland (after 1989), however, they found out that especially the quality of interpersonal relations both in the Czech Lands and in Slovakia did not correspond to the standards they got used to, and they perceived and practised in Tasmanian environment. This fact led the most of them to a more conscious identification with their new home in Tasmania and upset their intention to re-emigrate back to Bohemia, Moravia or Slovakia.
The study writes about folk treatment and related practices as they have survived in the memory of Czech expatriates transferred from the regions of the former Soviet Union, namely from Ukraine and Kasakhstan, to the Czech Republic. A special attention is paid to ritualized practices and folk magic associated with the word, such as healing procedures, exorcism, and incantation. The means and approaches of folk medicine are viewed from the angle of ethno-medicine and medical anthropology. The presented knowledge are based on a field research among the expatriates transferred to the Czech Republic between 1991-1993, mainly from the regions of Zhitomir and Kiev in Ukraine, and between 1994-2001 from Kasakhstan. The field research was implemented between 2009-2012 in the whole Czech Republic. The mentions about folk treatment and related practices were recorded in nine locations. Fifty persons altogether were asked about folk treatment. As confirmed by the field research, the transferred expatriates used ritualized practices and applied exorcism in folk treatment. They have kept in their memories some practices and healing means recipes until today, twenty years after their transfer to the Czech Republic.
The contribution based on a field research pays its attention to changes in understanding the ethnicity and religious affiliation with the people of Czech origin in Polish Zelów. The original concept connecting these two elements of identity survives only with the people born before the second re-emigration in 1945. Younger members of the evangelic reformed church with Czech ancestors consider themselves to be Poles of Czech origin. The cohesiveness has got looser since the 1960s when the people began to enter into mixed marriages. This fact shifted the language to the preferred use of Polish as their mother tongue. It was the newly founded Society of Czechs in Poland and its Czech Club presenting the Czech traditions in Zelów that has pointed out the Czech origin of individuals recently. However, the religious affiliation still remains the most important element in the life of Poles of Czech origin. The conversion as well as mixed marriages, which predominate nowadays, can be understood as elements regenerating the evangelic reformed church and ensuring its continuity.
Mass emigration of Ukrainians to the United States and Canada ran in four main streams - first for the social and economic reasons, then for the political ones. For the entire period of its existence, the local Ukraine community, which identifies profoundly with its roots, has tried to maintain their national traditions. Particular attention is paid to the third and most important wave of Ukrainian emigration to North America, because it involved the community of Ukrainian politicians, artists, and scientists who found their home in Czechoslovakia in the inter-war period. The contribution introduces the most valuable collections of Ukrainian museums in the USA and Canada and essential social and scientific institutions as well as ethnographic studies of Ukrainian Diaspora.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2013 focuses on the theme of the use of clay in traditional culture. From different points of view, the aforementioned theme draws the attention of the studies written by Barbora Půtová (Ideqqi: Ceramics Made by Kabyle Women), Jana Poláková (The Use and Processing of Clay by Romani People Living in the Territory of Former Czechoslovakia), Miroslav Válka (Historical Circumstances of the Extinction of Archaic Architectural Expressions in Pomoravsko-Panonský Type of Traditional Houses) and Martin Novotný (On Some Archaic Building Technologies in Clay Constructions in the Ethnographic Area of Haná). In the section of Other Studies, Eva Šipöczová introduces the political anecdote as a genre of verbal folklore (About a Hare and a Bear: on Thematic Delimitation of the Political Anecdote). Stopping with Photo column (author Helena Beránková), which remembers the phenomenon of the so-called Anabaptist Faiences, relates to the main theme as well. The Social Chronicle involves anniversary articles devoted to ethnologists Josef Kandert (born 1943), Mnislav Zelený (born 1943), Pavel Bureš (born 1953) and Vanda Jiřikovská (born 1933) and publishes obituaries for dance folklorists Petr Novák (1936-2013) and Barbora Čumpelíková (1930-2013). The other sections bring reports from branch conferences, exhibitions and festivals as well as reviews of new books.
This study deals with Kabyle pottery representing traditional Berber craftsmanship and artwork that has been developing for centuries in the territory of modern-day Algeria. The study focuses on Kabyle pottery, perceived as a specific set of artefacts, and on its manufacturers − Kabyle women. The manufacture of Kabyle pottery is artisan handwork, tabooed in many ways; it has been passed on from mother to daughter. Women have learnt know-how and practical skills concerning pottery manufacture through oral tradition and everyday experience. Kabyle pottery shows a specific feminine style, uncovering thus the Kabyle women’s mentality and their secret knowledge hidden in traditional society. The study describes and analyses phases of Kabyle pottery manufacture, its typology and motifs, which are presented as an independent semiotic system. The origin of Kabyle pottery still remains in a shroud of mystery. On the one hand, Kabyle pottery exhibits traits of autochthonous culture; on the other hand, it has also absorbed some foreign cultural influences. At present, Kabyle tribes strengthen their cultural identity and return to their cultural roots through the production of traditional Kabyle pottery. Moreover, motifs of Kabyle pottery inspire contemporary artists. This study further aims to describe, analyse and interpret Kabyle pottery as a unique demonstration of Berber culture which is an inseparable part of the Kabyle women’s world.
The aim of the study is to summarize as much available information as possible that concern the former and today’s processing and use of clay by Romanies living in the territory of former Czechoslovakia; it focuses mainly on the sub-ethnic group of Slovakian Romanies. The approach of Romanies to clay can be divided into two levels - it is considered ritually unclean, but on the other hand, it gives people their energy. Romanies used clay as building material in a similar way the majority population did. Some groups of Romanies in Slovakia dealt with production and deliveries of unburnt bricks dried in the sun or field kilns. We have just sporadic information about the Romani manufacturers of pottery. Current economic situation forces the Romanies, who live in segregated Slovakian settlements, to use their knowledge about the work with clay, which provides us with new opportunities for field researches.
In the European space, unburnt clay used as a building material is connected also with traditional Pannonian house in the Central Danube region. With its north-western outskirts, this cultural area reached the territory of the historical Czech Lands - the region of Central and South-East Moravia - and gave rise to Pomoravsko-Panonský /the Morava River Basin and Pannonian Plain/ type of traditional houses). Unburnt clay represents here the basic building material probably as late as since the 18th century, especially thanks to the fire-fighting and civil legislation, inter alia, which restricted the use of timber. In the 20th century, clay was replaced by industrially produced building materials to which contributed both the technical development and the civil legislation which limited and, in the end, fully restricted (1914) the use of unburnt clay. The process of extinction was not proportioned and related to the social and economical situation of village inhabitants in individual regions of Moravia. In the second half of the 20th century, the houses made of clay became old not only physically - a house made of adobe bricks with soil floors in its residential rooms, in the entrance hall for the longest time, became a symbol of obsolete and outdated culture of living. Unburnt clay has experienced certain satisfaction in the Czech Republic since the late-20th century as an environment-friendly alternative that is in opposition to conventional building industry.
The ethnographic area of Haná, situated in Central Moravia, is a region in which clay constructions prevailed in the past. The dug-in constructions utilizing the compactness of the local loess subsoil can be considered the oldest building solution. The loess subsoil allowed to build constructions without additional supporting structures. Excavation of underground corridors, pits or rooms used as caches for food storage (lochy) became a typical phenomenon in the region. Only exceptionally were later the dug pits used for dwelling. A unique proof of monolithic clay masonry in Haná could be discovered in a chamber part of a former farmstead in Dobrčice, district of Přerov, in 2011. The analysis showed that the building was probably made in the so-called cobbing technique, which had not been described in the region until that time.
The contribution is devoted to the delimitation of the political anecdote and the joke. In the introduction, it publishes an overview of the Slovakian and Czech literature, and a brief overview of the world literature. Based on the concept of Umberto Eco´s over-interpretation shows that the content as a basic identification symbol constitutes often an insufficient criterion. Therefore, the limits of the political anecdote are searched in other properties of the Slovakian prosaic folklore and anecdote as an independent genre. The author defines the above based on the political and social conditionality of the period, in which the anecdote was and is living, as well as based on its bearer, performance, function and other features. She highlights the problematic or unclear limits for the definition of the monitored phenomenon in respect to the period and its character. As an example, she uses materials from the period of the real socialism in Czechoslovakia as well as those from the present age, which have been collected in the field research to a dissertation thesis. She sets the anecdotes beside each other, pointing to their common and different properties, their place in the society and their different or same perception.
Journal of Ethnology 2/2013 is devoted to the 1150 Methodius in Moravia. Jan Rychlík and Magdaléna Rychlíková in their introductory essay write about basic historical facts that accompany this event, as well as about relations of other Slavic nations to these personalities (The Cult of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and its Nationalisation in Modern Times). Marta Šrámková and Rudolf Šrámek focused on the investigated theme from the point of view of folkloristics and linguistics (Following the Cyril-and-Methodius Tradition in Prosaic Folklore and in some Moravia and Silesia’s Proper Names), Karel Altman drew attention to 1863 celebrations of the 1000-anniversary of Cyril and Methodius’s arrival in Moravia (The 1000-Anniversary of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Czech-German Relations in Brno). Bulgarian ethnologist Katja Michajlova paid her attention to contexts in the development of the Cyril-and-Methodius feast day in Bulgaria (The Celebration of the Feast Day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Bulgarian Lands - History, Traditions, Politics, Present-Day Situation / (based on examples from Plovdiv). Aleš Filip, Jana Osolsobě, and Jan Osolsobě elaborated the theme of graphic expressions relating to Saints Cyril and Methodius (Cult of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Fine Arts /a key to their iconography/). Alena Křížová prepared a pictorial supplement Cyril and Methodius in Holy Pictures.
Section Review published A Memory of Alžběta Čihařová - Odehnalová, a Puppet Player and Collector of Folk Tales (by Leoš Vašek). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversary of ethnologist Jana Hrabětová (born 1943), ethnomusicologist Dušan Holý (born 1934) and ethnologist František Vrhel (born 1934), and publishes an obituary for choreographer Jiřina Mlíkovská (1925-2013) and ethno-choreologist Cyril Zálešák (1920-2013). Other regular columns include actual news from the branch and reviews of new books.
The essay explains how the religious cult of Sts. Cyril and Methodius was changing during centuries. Both saints were - after the Great Schism in 1054 A. D. - considered saints mainly in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, while in the Catholic Church they were formally confirmed as saints only in 1880. Gradually, the cult obtained also national character. In the 19th century, Sts. Cyril and Methodius were considered mainly the Slavic saints because they brought Christianity to the Slavs, and according to the traditions, they were partly of the Slav blood. In addition, the particular Slavonic nations started considering them as national saints. Both brothers thus served as the factor forming the national identity of various Slavonic nations in the Balkans and Central Europe. The cult also led to disputes among the particular nations about the “nationality” of both brothers and mainly about the nationality of the Slavic people who they preached to. Because the place of birth of both holy brothers was in Macedonia, the Greeks, Bulgarians, and - in the second half of the 20th century - also the newly formed Macedonians began to claim Sts. Cyril and Methodius to become symbols of their national history and cultural heritage.
The essay’s aim is to trace the basic features as regards content, which characterize the Cyril-and- Methodius tradition in prosaic folklore, and which in form of a short message - regest - form a part of cultural and historical awareness. In folklore narrations in Moravia and Silesia, the Cyril-and-Methodius cycle keeps it stable position. The corresponding interest in this cycle is growing in dependence on the development in social and cultural conditions - e.g. in the second half of the 19th century in connection with strengthening the national identity (which found expression in the St. Wenceslas cycle in Bohemia) or with forming the historical awareness of so-called Moravian identity. It emphasizes the Christianizing and cultural importance. The present revitalization of the cult bears witness thereof. The cult is spread especially in the regions from the South of Moravian through Eastern Moravian to Silesia (so-called wider Opava Region) and adjacent regions of the ethnographic area of Haná (to the region of Litovel). In Western Moravia, only a reference to apostles’ journey to Bohemia occurs. The essay is concluded with an analysis of names occurring in etymological legends, as well as with notes concerning folk etymology.
The celebrations of the millennium, the 1000-anniversary of the arrival of Cyril and Methodius in Moravia, held in 1863, became one of the highlights of the so-called Cyril-and-Methodius movement. The celebrations were mainly connected with Velehrad as a cult place of pilgrimage, and Brno, the capital of Moravia. It was the life in this town, which determined in many respects social, cultural as well as political and national relations in the entire country, that was marked by the celebrations largely. The celebrations took place on 25 and 26 August and their manifold programme ran not only in the centre of the town, but also in Lužánky and Pisárky, traditional summer resorts. Altogether 61 singer’s clubs with 940 singers appeared on stages. The celebrations became the biggest event of that time in Brno, their cultural and artistic importance, however, was surpassed by their social and political - patriotic importance in many respects. Since this event, the relations between the Czechs and Germans in Brno as well as in Moravia began to change, because the impression of the celebrations brought significant consequences on Germans´ side. The period of conflict-free coexistence, defined by its mutual tolerance in everyday life as well as common participation in different forms of social life, was substituted by strict separation of the Czech and the German institutions and the corresponding division in social activities. The Cyril-and-Methodius celebrations, however, resulted also in internal differentiation inside the Czech national movement in Moravia because the disputes between the religious and the profane streams became deeper.
The article presents the tradition of celebrating the Day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria and traces its development from a predominantly religious feast into a national holiday. The author points out that the first celebrations of the Feast Day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in 1850s through 1870s were connected with the struggles of Bulgarians against the Greek Patriarchy in Tsarigrad (Istanbul) under whose authority the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was at the time. These celebrations were expressions of the aspiration for independent autonomous church and religious service in Bulgarian language, and thus also for Bulgarian education. The article traces the history of celebrating the feast day of the holy brothers in the famous class school (later - a high school) “Sts. Cyril and Methodius” in Plovdiv. The author points out that before the Liberation Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878, the day of the two Slavic apostles and holy brothers, which was celebrated in Plovdiv and in other towns of the Ottoman Empire, was perceived as a symbol of Bulgarians’ struggle for church independence and the celebrations were loaded with revolutionary pathos. After the national liberation, the Day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius continued to be loaded with explicit ideological meanings and became a symbol of the cultural and political unification of Bulgarians from the liberated Bulgarian lands, as well as for those that remained outside the state territory. Attention is paid to the special emphasis on the involvement of the celebration of this day within the educational process during World War II. The article discusses also the changed meanings of this festive day during the socialist period - in the direction mainly towards the educational activities of the two brothers. The reconstruction of the previous rituals on this feast day nowadays is also traced in the text.
The essay pays attention to the iconography of Sts. Cyril and Methodius within the western Christian culture. There are more thoroughly analyzed the depictions of both brothers in the Middle Ages, both in Roma (Basilica of San Clemente) and in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. The depictions from the Modern Era are limited just to the Czech Lands, whereby they do not more concern the chronological succession, but the description of significant sings in the iconography of both saints, which are documented by particular examples. We have observed both the narrative cycles and the so-called iconic depictions where seven types of depictions of Sts. Cyril and Methodius are defined. The depictions are usually combined with each other: 1) brothers, 2) citizens of Thessalonica 3) monk and bishop 4) Apostles of the Slavs, 5) our fathers, 6) heathendom conquerors, 7) patron saints of the Moravian nation.
Journal of Ethnology 2013/1 presents the theme The Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov - methods of the contemporary research. The research was implemented by the members of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology ICTM and its Sub-Study Group on Field Research Theory and Methods, who did the field research of the Ride of the Kings, a traditional custom surviving in some locations in Moravia. Vlčnov is one such. The research specification was motivated also by the inscription of the aforementioned Ride of the Kings on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity UNESCO in 2011. The research focused especially on the contemporary form of the Ride. It was understood as an experiment that may help reveal new connections, the principle of transmission, and the existence of the phenomenon within different social context. The authors delivered the following essays: The Ride of the Kings from the Point of View of Contemporary Research (Daniela Stavělová), The Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov Seen from Outside (Lise Andersen - Heino Wessel Hansen), The Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov - the course and major themes of the event (Petra Dotlačilová, Petra Slavíková, Kateřina Syslová, Daniela Zilvarová), What Did Vlčnov Live for? Media reports about the Ride of the Kings held in Vlčnov in 2012 (Dorota Gremlicová - Daniela Zilvarová), Ritual and Festival Interplay (on an example of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov) (Anca Giurchescu), The Ride of the Kings inscribed on the UNESCO List and a Matter of Sense of Ownership, Control and Decision-Making: Whose tradition, whose heritage? (László Fölfeldi).
Transforming Tradition column includes a contribution titled Street Verbuňk (by Jiří Plocek). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Ludmila Sochorová (born 1927) and Alena Plessingerová (born 1928), and publishes an obituary for musician, collector and ethnoorganologist Josef Režný (1924-2012). Other regular columns include information about exhibitions, folklore festivals, and reviews of new books.
The theoretic study mentions a series of articles that became an output of the international field research, which was initiated by the ICTM Study Group of Ethnochoreology. This study group focuses on the theme of field research within a more specialized ICTM Sub-Study Group of Field Research Theory and Method. The research was aimed at the traditional custom of the Ride of the Kings in Moravian Slovakia, which has been chosen with special reference to the context offered by its inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This issue is projected to the perception of the customs by the surroundings, it is reflected in the way of its future sharing by the local community and it offers the field to research its viability and process of changes within the contemporary society. It is a pilot research that was drafted as an experiment because of the specific, collective, supranational and inter-generational approach and the application of some non-standard procedures consisting in combination of monitoring and interviewing techniques. It was one concrete year of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov (2012) that was monitored. The data, which the quantitative research concentrated within the restricted time and space, should especially help formulate next procedures, hypothesis and issues aimed at the research of the importance of the mentioned traditional Pentecost custom within the today’s society.
This article is based on field notes made during the international fieldwork organised by the ICTM Sub-Study Group on Field Research Theory and Methods in Vlčnov in 2012. It is written from the position of an outsider. We took into the consideration when you make field research in a society, where you do not talk the language, you have to choose your mission in accordance with your lingual constraints leaving you with the possibility of observing the non-lingual communication between the different “actors” and to analyse the different roles, which were played by these actors. Even for us as foreigners (Danish) it was easy to observe, that during the weekend of the Ride of the Kings, there were more than one feast going on in Vlčnov. Before our eyes, a traditional spring rite was played out side by side with more-commercial elements and a mini folklore festival. We made some photo documentation of the different kinds of amusement going on in the village, but concentrated mainly on the Ride of the Kings itself. The essence of the custom - young men’s riding on decorated horses through the village at springtime - is something well known in many European cultures - the Danish too. Thus, the Ride of the Kings should be compared with a Danish custom rooted in pre-Christian fertility rituals which have two forms - the Shrovetide-ride and the “riding summer in town” at Whitsun - and which seem to have more elements of social control: not receiving the riders was the biggest shame.
The contribution pays attention to the course of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov in relation to its actors, who are mainly the eighteen-year old local boys, so-called legrúti, and the young king and his family. The authors lean especially on the field research that they implemented in Vlčnov during four days between 24th and 27th May 2012, i.e. on the day before the festival and in its entire course. In addition to their on-the-spot observation, it was the interviews with the Ride’s participants, their relatives and other inhabitants of the village that constituted the source of information. The Internet and social networks provided other information. The Ride of the Kings in 2012 was the first one after the custom had been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. During the research, high stress was put on understanding of internal mechanisms in the community of young boys and their families which the Ride is related the most to. It was monitored to which extent the custom is just a spectacle for the visitors and to which extent it is important for its bearers even though a three-day folklore festival has been based on this tradition.
The study writes about a quantitative content analysis of published texts which appeared shortly before, during and after the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov in May 2012. They were published in regional and national printed media as well as in Internet news programme of Czech Television and Czech Radio. The basic question of the authors was how the inscription of the Ride of the Kings in South-East Moravia on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity has influenced the way of informing about the event. Furthermore, the authors monitored the themes of commercialization, the actors of the event and their place in it and the assessment of the cultural importance of the custom. Separately, they analyzed the picture materials. The analysis pointed to certain discrepancies between the Ride’s aspects accentuated in written commentaries and the choice of photo documents, as well as in understanding of the importance of individual actors and their behaviour in the course of the Ride.
The article is an attempt to analyze the relationship between a ritual event - Ride of the Kings - and the festival organized around it. Ride of the Kings is considered a ritual though its messages and symbols are not fully understood by the community. While the King’s Ride ritual provides a valuable reason for the existence of the festival, the festival - in turn - contributes to the promotion and transformation of the ritual event. There are discussed three modalities of transforming the ritual in theatrical performance: 1. A metaphorical interpretation of the „riders‘ procession“ by the children, on stage; 2. The transformation in spectacle of the most important ritual moment: the dressing of the King in woman‘s clothes. 3. The creation of a concluding fragment performed on stage and presented as an integral part of the traditional procession. The coexistence and interaction between the cultural traditions of the Ride of the Kings ritual, and the arbitrarily added festival have ambivalent consequences. On one hand, the King’s Ride tradition functions to support and legitimate the existence of the touristic festival. On the other hand, because of growing number of outsiders asking for more spectacle, the Ride of the Kings ritual may become progressively a cultural commodity and an integral part of the festival by moving from its traditional physical and social locations on stage or by being transformed into a standardized theatrical performance.
The paper is a kind of personal account on the field research of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov (May, 2012). Based on this field notes, the author suggests an approach to the event based on the methodologies of political anthropology focusing on the concepts of ownership, control, decision-making. He proposes that this kind of approach may reveal the motivations and dynamism of the changes made by the participants of the event. The traditional descriptive perspective seems to be not enough for discovering the motivation of the changes year by year. It might be more useful for the researchers to perceive (and to be perceived) the Ride of the Kings in the ’power field´ of different decision-makers related to the event, not only locally, but on regional, national and international levels as well. It may help us answer some questions, for instance: Who decides about the person of the King and other ’actors’, about the route and stations of the procession (the Ride), about the participants of the festival and the fair. Who decided about the change of the original date and time of the ritual, about the age of the King, about turning the former intimate elements of the ritual into public „performances”, e.g. preparation of the Ride of the Kings at the house of his family? Who decided about the nomination of the Ride of the Kings to the UNESCO’s List, in order to make it more visible as an identity symbol? What motivated the decision makers for their decision? The author presumes that the discovery of the sense and consciousness of different kinds of ownership may reveal the system of control and the intentions for taking responsibilities.
Journal of Ethnology 4/2012 with its thematic studies pays attention to the issues relating to the aesthetics of folklore. Juraj Hamar in its contribution (Folklore from the Point of View of Aesthetic Categories) summarizes the issue of aesthetic categories and folklore. Marta Ulrychová focuses on the analysis of demonological legends in the Bohemian Forest in selected works by German authors in the 1920s. (Demonological Legends from the Northern Part of Královský hvozd (Royal Forest) / Waldhwozd ). Miroslava Záhumenská explains the collection of folk literature in Slovakia in the late-19th century (Folk Song Manuscript Collection Assembled by Ján Klempa Jacovský in Relation to Literary and Aesthetic Criteria of the Last Third of the 19th Century). In Other Studies Section, Eva Románková presents a new project of the National Institute of Folk Culture (Ethnological Terminology and Methodology of Compiling a Bilingual Dictionary of Ethnology) and Jarmila Teturová submits the knowledge obtained in a field research aimed at the development of folk tradition (Male Dance “Verbuňk” in the Village of Žatčany in the Region of Brněnsko within the Contemporary Cultural and Social Context).
Transferring Tradition column publishes a feuilleton by Josef Holcman, who contemplates the contemporary social recession on the ground of this year’s selected folklore festivals and local ethno-cultural traditions; and an article by Alena Schauerová, which is devoted to a glance into the history of the children’s folklore festival in Strážnice. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of writer Josef Holcman (born 1952), Luděk Štěpán (born 1932), an expert for the protection of folk architecture, and Eva Davidová (born 1932), a specialist for Roma studies. Moreover, the Journal includes regular reports from the branch, conferences, exhibitions, and reviews of new books.
In the last decades, a lot of scientific disciplines have dealt rather with the folklore poetics than the folklore aesthetics. Such ideas were represented especially by literary scientists, ethnologists, linguists, and philosophers from the environment of the Prague Linguistics Circle, the Russian formalists and the Tartu School. In folklore, the presence of antique aesthetic tradition has been evident until today. The aesthetics of folklore is based on the archetype essence of folk art, which is symptomatic especially for literary folklore. For example, the space, the characters, the stories etc. dispose of predestined trajectories that are forming the entire theme and action and the topics and metaphoric of the story, the place, the characters, and their behaviour. This is similar to the aesthetic categories in folklore. Within folk environment, the aesthetic function plays an important role when the facts are adopted through cognition and feelings of beauty. Nowadays, folklore is losing the natural conditions of its existence, which directly endangers the syncretism nature of folk art.
The author devotes herself to the legends from Královský hvozd, an area situated in the northernmost part of the Bohemian Forest. In the 1920s, the legends were published by Gustav Jungbauer and Hans Watzlik - the German-writing authors from Bohemia. In her geographic definition of the area, the author is referring to the Josef Blau publication titled Geschichte der künnischen Freibauern im Böhmerwalde from 1934. Her typology of legends is based on the catalogue of demonological legends, which is a part of the thesis defended by Jan Luffer at Department of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts of Charles University, in 2011. The principal part of the study is divided into six groups defined by Luffer. The author tries to compare the collected materials with the particular types that are signed with a title and a three-digit code in the catalogue. She applies the same way when analyzing Stilzel der Kobold des Böhmerwaldes by Watzlik. She is reaching a view that the most types, defined by Luffer, are represented in the legends from Královský hvozd. The legends from this part of the Bohemian Forest relate to rural culture. They express the value system of descendants from the then Bavarian settlers. Plentifully represented are the motifs related to deep forests (poaching, casting of magic balls, and meeting with a danger creature, storms, and natural disasters) and provincial border between Bohemia and Bavaria.
The study pays attention to the manuscript collection assembled by Ján Klempa Jacovský, which came into being in the last third of the 19th century. It consists of two volumes, the first of which contains 95 song texts and the other one contains up to 127 song texts. A part of Jancovský´s records was published in 1880 in the book titled Písně slovenské (The Slovakian Songs), edited by Andrej Halaša. The manuscript collection as a whole is an important proof for the contemporary work of those who collect and record the texts of Slovakian folk songs. It also documents the repertoire from the area around the town of Trnava, to which not much attention has been paid so far. In his manuscript, Ján Klempa Jacovský refers to an older collection compiled by Ján Kollár. As resulting from his comments, Jacovský knew the Kollár´s work very well, resp. he worked with it and compared the recorded song texts. Although Ján Klempa Jacovský recorded the texts of folk songs without their melodies, his collection’s historic value is inestimable for us today. Even if the text of a folk song, i.e. a fragment of the song’s original, is recorded, such a record bears witness about the simultaneous relation to folk songs and their aesthetical and artistic value.
The development of different scientific fields has brought about the formation of specialized vocabularies or terminologies whose aim is to standardise the designations of things, activities and processes in the individual branches. Today, many researchers study literature in foreign languages or publish their work abroad; almost every academic journal contains summaries in English. Ethnology is a very specific field, as it covers all areas of human life and its terminology is highly culture dependent. When translating ethnological texts into English, we encounter many problems. The expressions for elements of traditional material, spiritual and social culture in different countries vary in the same way as their cultural and social background does. No specialized Czech-English dictionary of ethnology has been published so far. The National Institute of Folk Culture is planning to publish such handbook in the form of an online database which will include a wide range of linguistic, semantic and encyclopaedic data. An examination of the identified needs and available resources followed with a presentation of the working methods as well as the methodology formulation including the dictionary structure, selection of headwords and analysis of problematic issues in translation, are summarised in this study and should lay the groundwork of the dictionary project.
The study has developed in connection with this year’s field research project of the National Institute of Folk Culture, which focused on the extension of Slovak verbuňk outside the original region of its occurrence. The study describes different localities, in which verbuňk occurs, putting stress on the area south of Brno. The attention is paid to the village of Žatčany and to the description of verbuňk occurrence in this locality within the context of its cultural and social development. The study explains the importance of folklore movement for the safeguarding, renewal and development of folk culture. Verbuňk is observed as a cultural phenomenon with respect to the contemporary dance culture, dance opportunities, changes in dance order and reconstruction of folk costumes from the mid-20th century until today.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2012 has chosen as its major theme the Marian cult in the light of ethnological researches. Věra Frolcová concentrates herself on one of ethnomusicological aspects of this theme (A Legend on Peregrination of the Virgin Mary, Miraculous Recovery of a Child and Repentant Smith in Ceremonial Singing in the 19th-21st Centuries as a Phenomena of Central-European Cultural Commons). Monika Kropej writes about the Marian issues within a wider interpretation of folk culture in Slovenia (The Virgin Mary in Slovenian Folk Tradition). The material contribution by Eva Krekovičová submits the theme of Marian songs of Slovaks in Hungary (On Spiritual Songs in Oral Repertoire of Slovakian Minority in Hungary (Preliminary Results of Researches at the Turn of the Millennium). Out the main theme, a contribution by Jiří Höhn has been included, who pays attention to a folk producer of musical instruments from Moravské Kopanice (Štěpán Šopík´s Musical Insruments in the Collections at the National Institute of Folk Culture).
In Stopping with Photo column, Helena Beránková publishes her contribution A Pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary of Žarošice in the Photos by Jaroslav Pulicar. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Jana Pospíšilová (born 1952) and Jiřina Kosíková (born 1952) and publishes obituaries for choreographer Libuše Hynková (1923-2012), musician and radio editor Jan Rokyta (1938-2012) and sociologist Miloslav Petrusek (1936-2012). Other regular columns include reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals, reviews of new books, and news from the branch.
The legendic song on the Virgin Mary and a smith develops within the context of looking for an accommodation and Jesus birth in Bethlehem. It has been documented as an oral tradition since 1843 and it constitutes a Central-European song type that can be found in Bohemian, Silesian, Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, and Ukrainian variations. The study submits the first results of the comparison of songs from hand-written and printed sources, from the text and melody point of views. A song is not connected with a place of pilgrimage. Its lifetime is supported by the tradition (Nativity Scenes, Christmas and Easter carolling, religious services venerating the Virgin Mary) and the printed media (school reading book, printed broadside ballads). The legend as a carol presents a genre of the Western-Slavic folklore called “the Marian carol”. The song has several melodies. The enclosed musical notation shows the common Bohemian-Moravian-Silesian-Polish-Slovenian song type, which has been the tradition bearer from 1845 until today. The author documents also the relations between the spiritual song and the secular dance melody. The legend as a song type covers a certain part of the Christian West, touching the Greek-Catholic region in Ukraine. Although it includes some fragments of the late-medieval passion (the Virgin Mary and the smith) and apocrypha from Jesus´ childhood (the healed hand), the Czech wording of the song can be documented at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Central-European theme “the Virgin Mary and a smith” has a thought parallel in the theme “the Virgin Mary and a ferryman” developed by the Slovenian and Croatian songs. Both types include the motif of the sinner’s conversion through the miraculous rescue of the Child, mediated by the Virgin Mary. It is one of the pictures portraying the task of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help in folk songs.
The study focuses on various forms of worship and veneration of the Virgin Mary as preserved in Slovenian folklore. Folk tradition and customs suggest that personifications of the days Friday, Saturday and Sunday - St. Parasceve/Sv. Petka, Santa Sabida/Sv. Sobota and Santa Domenica/Sv. Nedelja have found a place in Christianity and have churches dedicated to them or appear in church paintings. In folk tradition, the veneration of „Saint Sunday“ or the „Sunday Church“ is strongly connected with the veneration of the Virgin Mary and in some cases it even merges with it. In Christian iconography, depictions often present the Virgin Mary with a unicorn, the Madonna of Mercy with a mantle, the Virgin Mary in an enclosed garden or „hortus conclusus“ and mystical engagement of Virgin Mary. Numerous holidays are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the entire month of May is dedicated to her with May Devotions. The veneration of the Virgin Mary has been especially strong in the Catholic world, and is perhaps particularly so in Slovenia. This is attested by numerous churches, chapels, and statues, as well as legends, songs, apparitions, and miracles connected with the Virgin Mary. The majority of Slovenian pilgrimage churches are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, including the best-known Slovenian pilgrimage church in Brezje. All of this contributed to the fact, that the veneration of Madonna still reflects in rich spiritual life, folk customs, holidays, folk narrative and song tradition of Slovenian people.
The essay is a probe into the material acquired within a wider research of songs related to folk religiosity in the regions with Catholic inhabitants. The research is implemented in a bilingual environment with the members of Slovakian language islands in Hungary (1991-2011) and with the Slovaks living in Slovakia. The author draws upon the materials acquired during her own field research of song repertoire in Slovakian language with the members of Slovakian diaspora in Hungary that features its hybrid character. The spiritual songs were recorded as orally interpreted by their direct bearers and local contemporaries, or in the form of written texts used for the song interpretation. The contribution follows the following aspects: a) difficulties concerning the connection of the orally interpreted spiritual songs with the pilgrim songs; b) the portion of Marian songs within the acquired fund; c) frequented themes of spiritual songs and their contextual relations.
The essay is devoted to the production of folk violinmaker and musician Štěpán Šopík from the ethnographic area of Moravian Kopanice. Through the analysis of his products safeguarded in the collection at the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice, the author thereof tries to characterize the Šopík´s works setting them against another folk violinmaker, Martin Kuča from Strážnice. The workmanship of the string instruments made by Š. Šopík substantiates his focus especially on the functionality of an instrument while its aesthetical feature is put in the shade. Four of the Šopík´s safeguarded musical instruments are in the collections at the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice (three violins and a baset/violoncello); some other instruments are in the possession of the Jan Amos Komenský´s Museum in Uherský Brod.
Journal of Ethnology 2/2012 has chosen the research of folk clothing as its major theme. Petra Mertová pays attention to the types of textile materials (An Overview of Types of Wool Fabrics on Men’s Folk Garments in Moravia between 1850 and 1950), Klára Binderová writes about blueprint and its applications (Changes in the Production of Jochs´ Blueprint Workshop in Strážnice between 1906 and 1993), Lenka Drápalová presents the men’s waistcoats as a part of folk costumes around Rožnov pod Radhoštěm (Men’s Garment Called Brunclek in the Region around Rožnov - Identification of a Specific Garment Variant), Daniel Dědovský explains the symbol of Czech national dress from 1848 (Čamara in European Culture (an ethno-linguistic study). In Other Studies section, Martin Novotný pays attention to the building material dominating in the ethnographic area of Hana (Clay as a Building Material (an example from the ethnographic area of Hana in Central Moravia).
In Stopping with Photo column, Alena Křížová publishes postcards with folk costume motifs from the 1920s. Barbora Machová conducts an interview with Bulgarian ethnologist Zoranč Malinov.
Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of music editor Jaromír Nečas (born 1922), ethnologist and musicologist Marta Ulrychová (born 1952) and ethnologists Helena Bočková (born 1952) and Helena Mevaldová (born 1952), and publishes obituary for folklorist Dagmar Klímová (1926-2012). Other regular columns include reports from conferences and exhibitions, reviews of new books, and actual news from the branch.
Traditional clothing worn by the inhabitants in Moravian villages has been the matter of ethnologists´ interest for more than one hundred years. In expert literature, one can find descriptions of techniques related to spinning, weaving, knitting, fulling, and other textile techniques. The ways of extracting and processing the natural raw materials used for making the traditional textile materials, i.e. those made from flax, hemp, cotton, silk and wool yarns, have been documented. It was not only ethnologists but also historians and regional researchers, who - in their essays and monographs - paid attention to the historical background of textile production and its legal and social framework. Available are quite many reports on textile production as well as descriptions of garments worn by the village inhabitants in Moravia. Therefore, it should not be difficult to summarize the fabrics used for making the folk clothes in Moravia within the period from the late-19th century until the end of the first half of the 20th century. The submitted text constitutes an overview just - for the time being - of wool fabrics documented in the literature in connection with the men’s folk garments from Moravia between 1850 and 1950. The listing is accompanied by the characteristics of fabrics; it has been compiled by means of the encyclopaedic handbooks and ethnographic texts of the time as well as the modern ones. The listing shall be completed by photo documentation presenting the concrete fabrics along with the constructive and technological analysis thereof. Such documentation could help the researchers identify the textile fabrics, especially in case of museum exhibits.
The essay speaks about the almost ninety-years-long history of the blueprint workshop in a small Moravian town Strážnice, which is run by family Joch. It submits brief information about blue-print tradition in the region as well as about the conditions for workshop´s work; it deals also with peculiarities of the blue-print production at this dying workshop between 1906 and 1951, comparing them with the production in the following period (1954-1993). Within the aforementioned two periods, Jochs´ blueprint workshop was going through significant changes. In its original form, the workshop produced blueprint only for a narrow group of inhabitants living in rural area around the town of Strážnice. They used the blueprinted fabrics as a usual consumption material for their garments. The blueprint motifs were adapted to this way of use as well. With the change of political regime, the workshop became in 1954 a part of a centralized organization taking care for the so-called folk artistic manufacture. Under the head of this organization, the blueprint fabrics were modified in products maintaining their traditional basis but replying to modern requirements in the branch of textile production. The products were intended for all those appreciating especially the cultural value of a new piece of work.
Through geographical, historical, economical, social, and cultural influences, the traditional dress in Rožnov and its environs developed in a typical form of clothing, which differed from other types of Wallachian folk costume. Its appearance has been documented by written, picture and tangible sources since the late-18th century, as well as by expert literature. Nevertheless, a variant of men’s brunclek with different solution of the back part escaped the attention of the respondents and researchers. The author of this study identifies the above type of brunclek as a brunclek of Rožnov type with the double Princess cut of the back part. Based on comparing works in museum depositaries, the study offers the sight of making and using this different form of brunclek including the cut modification.
The garment known in Bohemia as “čamara” has been documented since the High Middle Ages in the European culture of clothing; its roots date back to Oriental civilizations. In European languages and their dialects, there are lots of terminologically relative modifications relating to the garment in question. This garment found its way into the culture of clothing of several continents gradually; it was worn by members of all social classes - as a part of folk costumes, feudal lords´ clothes, dress and jerkins of church dignitaries within both the Catholic and Protestant environment; in many places, it has survived in different forms until today. Although in particular cultures and periods čamara differs in the cut and applications, it has always kept its function as an overcoat. The material shows notable identities as well. Mostly the garment is made from the fabric of animal origin - silk, wool, hair, or fur. The name “čamara” might be derived from the name of sheep or goat fur, which occurs in the languages in Near East, Northern Africa, and South Europe. Polish word czamary from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries shows the influence of especially Hungarian and Oriental environment. These czamary were a significant source for the Czech designers of national formal dress. The continuity of this garment can be traced back to the Renaissance fashion in Italy and Spain.
The essay speaks about some aspects of mining and preparation of building materials used for constructions of earth buildings in Central Moravia, in the ethnographic area of Hana. Based on the sources of narrative nature and the literature, we have depicted the already extinct tradition within the above region. We pay attention to the way in which the raw material was extracted and processed in connection with the intended kind of bricklaying. In Hana, they used mainly the pre-shaped building units - clay lumps and unburnt bricks. The specific role of brickmakers and builders of earth buildings as well as their position within the village community are taken into consideration as well. The attention was paid also to the maintenance of these buildings, which was based on several acts repeated regularly in certain periodical intervals.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2012 is devoted to wanderlust, travelling and cultural contacts. Barbora Půtová focuses her study on fortunes and works of three important Czech travellers - E. S. Vráz, A. V. Frič and J. Kořenský (Czech Travellers and Ethnographers on the Boundary of Civilizations: Vráz, Frič and Kořenský). Jana Jiroušková pays attention to the personality of M. B. Lány (1876-1941), who spent his life as an Evangelic missionary in East Africa and included his observations and knowledge into the correspondence and collection he sent to Bohemia. (A Proud Warrior, a Lazy Maidservant and a Superstitious Native. One of the European Views of Non-European Culture). Stanislav Brouček presents the fortunes of Helena Šťastná-Bübelová (born 1920), who created her relationship to Africa between 1946 and 1947 as a traveller, and between 1948 and 1964 as an expatriate (Africa as a Traveller’s Experience and a Place to Live for a European: (Story of Helena Šťastná-Bübelová).
Kateřina Štěpánová writes about the travellers´ relationship to the creation of exotic collections within the Czech environment. (The Influence of Czech Travellers on Exotic Art Collections / since the Beginnings of Czech Collections until the World War II).
In Stopping with Photos column, Hana Dvořáková presents a selection from photo albums compiled by Jindřich Vávra, Knight Fernsee (1831-1887), a ship doctor, botanist and donator of the Moravian Museum. Transferring Tradition column includes a Tereza Indráková contribution about the contemporary Israeli dance (Dancing Israel), an Eva Šipöczová article about the actual political anecdote in Slovakia (The Government Fell! The Government Fell! Who Will Form a New One?) and an Eva Večerková contribution about a producer of traditional Easter eggs (Easter Eggs Made by Anna Rusová). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of Slovakian ethnologist Oľga Danglová (born 1941) and Czech ethnologist Miloš Tomandl (born 1952), and publishes obituaries for ethnologist Olga Skalníková (1922-2012), Slovakian folklorist and worker in public education Kliment Ondrejka (1929-2011) and composer Blahoslav Smišovský (1931-2011). Other regular columns include reports from conferences, reviews of new books, and actual professional activities.
This study is a theoretic analysis of lives and works of three Czech travellers - Enrique Stanko Vráz, Alberto Vojtěch Frič and Josef Kořenský. These pioneers of the nascent social and cultural anthropology found themselves on the boundary of different civilizations and were among the first white men who set their foot on the exotic world of "the others". With their travels, vividly described in their literal work, they not only did an extraordinary job when gathering authentic ethnographic material in the form of literature, photographs and exotic artefacts in Czech cultural context, but they also deconstructed the doctrine of Eurocentrism. The study focuses mainly on their literal heritage and their desire to describe, understand and interpret a different cultural reality. Works of these travellers represent original effort to integrate collecting, observing and research intentions. The study presents their travel books as a specific gnoseologic tool enabling to analyse their field findings ranging from the description to the comparison and interpretation of the exoticism and unknown socio-cultural reality. The study also points out the fact that the travellers transformed the different in their books into a cultural construction created within the author's personality and his own civilization. Through the strange and different, the travellers thus gave rise to an authentic and complex picture of a different and unknown world including, however, also the author's own description and interpretation of different forms of cultural reality. This study also aspires to prove that the works of these travellers represent their different personal approaches to perception of cultural boundaries and to their studies of different ethnicities and nations.
The article focuses on the historical reconstruction of a vision of “exotic” reality. The example chosen is that of former missionary, Martin Bohdan Lány (1876-1941), a man whose determination is documented by the surroundings and the time he lived in. M. B. Lány was a long-term co-worker of the Náprstek Museum to which he sent several hundred objects from 1903 to 1911 from East Africa in the area around Mount Kilimanjaro. His choice of objects influenced the perception of East African culture in Bohemia and contributed to the creation of several stereotypes associated with the local population: a proud warrior or a patient, less intelligent governess. The study is based on an evaluation of the primary sources stored in the archives of the National Museum - Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures.
The study is based on the thesis that travelling has become a part of the process of globalization. On the one hand, it covers the unbridled tourism while on the other hand one can see wanderlust as a state of soul. The text pays attention to the second line, observing the fortunes of Helena Šťastná-Bübelová, an important Czech traveller, who was travelling through Central Africa between 1946 and 1947. After February 1948, she became an expatriate; before settling in the south of France at Cap Ferat near Nice (1965), she worked in Kenya, got married, and lived with her second husband in Madagascar for many years (1953-1964). The study is based on the personal experience of the traveller in various civilizations. In addition to the materials obtained from Helena Šťastná-Bübelová, (written materials: correspondence, notes, and her African diary published in book form), the study also includes the observations of her friends, for example traveller Miroslav Zikmund.
The study introduces the Czech travellers who helped form the exotic art collections in the Czech Republic significantly and supported the relationship between Czech culture and non-European nations in this way. The author pays attention to the terminology and the first collections of exotic art within the Czech Republic. She points out not only the importance of exotic art but also the interesting stories of artefacts appearing in our collections. The next part of the study presents Czech travellers whose contribution to the theme was the most essential ((Vojtěch Náprstek, Emil Holub, Enrike Stanko Vráz, Alberto Vojtěch Frič, Josef Kořenský, Joe Hloucha, Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund, Miloslav Stingl etc.); the development, present condition and listing of institutions exhibiting the exotic collections cannot be missing. The author puts stress on ethnological, anthropological, and artistic aspects of the theme that - even if not preferred by the present society - had a fundamental influence on forming the attitude of Czech culture to the distant civilizations. The travellers play one of the most important roles within this theme.
Journal of Ethnology 4/2011 is devoted to the theme Christmas and the present. In her study, Alena Křížová submits a clearly arranged development of the phenomenon Christmas tree and its decoration (Two centuries with “Christ’s Tree”). Marta Ulrychová and Šárka Ladýřová pay attention to the contemporary customary tradition relating to St. Lucy’s Day (Rounds on St. Lucy’s Day in the Bohemian Forest region); Ludmila Tarcalová presents the origin and development of so-called living Nativity Scenes in Moravia (Living Nativity Scene - a new phenomenon of the present). Other Studies and Materials column publishes the personal memories of Christmas in German families that were forcibly expelled from the Czech territory after the World War II (author Ulrike Zischka), the field material of the research on the Slovácko dance verbuňk spread outside the region of Slovácko (Moravian Slovakia) (author Jarmila Vrtalová) and the contribution of the use of clay in folk architecture (author Martin Novotný).
Transferring Tradition column presents the story of Nativity scene maker Siegfried Zabel, a German compulsorily transferred from Šluknov (author Eva Habel). Other regular columns pay attention to the reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals and shows, the reviews of new books and other branch activities.
The contribution speaks about the visual and aesthetical form of the Christmas tree from its beginnings until the early modern ages – from the 19th century until now in the Czech environment. It pays attention to the Christmas tree function within the burgher society, where it played a social and representative role and to its importance for the army, where it became a symbol and reminder of family. The species selection was conditioned upon the geographical and climatic conditions – besides traditional coniferous trees (fir, spruce, pine) even other evergreen trees (box tree, holly) occurred. Until the mid-19th century, the trees were decorated with various kinds of foods, delicacies and fruits (biscuits, gingerbread, dates, figs, apples) and small toys, too. Since the mid-19th century, the production of glass, cardboard and metal sheet Christmas ornaments began to develop in the Saxon towns. Fifty years later in came to the Czech Lands as well. Chocolate figures, available in Christmas selection boxes soon, were a new phenomenon of the same time. Christmas lighting created an important part of the tree decoration – first were used oil lamps, wax, grease or paraffin candles; since the 1930s, electric lights were sold. Even if the ornaments underwent fashion changes within the entire 20th century, the Christmas tree decoration is understood as a very traditional matter, which is not subject of actual trends, as results from a three-generation survey by questionnaire done with 183 respondents from the families of students of Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, and from the families of teachers of Agronomical Faculty, Mendel University in Brno.
The essay speaks about the rounds on 12 December – on the eve of St. Lucy’s Day. It is based on the field research running in three villages (Svatá Máří, Zdíkovec and Zálesí), which are located in the southern part of the Bohemian Forest region, District of Prachatice, between 2007 and 2011. Simultaneously, it summarizes the reports about the rounds from the 1980s, i.e. from the period when the participating women did not present this tradition intentionally. We also took into account the information published at the beginning of the 20th century in journal “Český lid“. Based on comparing the forms of rounds recorded in different time levels, the authors came to the hypothesis about a possible influence of Jesuit priest Vojtěch Chanovský (1581-1643) who was sent out to do missionary work in his native region and to improve the morals in spin evenings, inter alia. The presence of a Black Lucy who says the prayers and acts as a leading person, dominating over other White Lucys, and the accompanying song with a text of educational and moralistic character and a tune, which follows the song funds of the mentioned region, seem to be the typical features of the rounds in the entire area of the Bohemian Forests.
The depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in Bible has become an actual Christmas event for many villages and towns since the mid-1990s. In Moravia, one can find more forms among them especially the so-called Living Nativity Scene with performing parishioners representing the Holy Family stands out. The actors and the audience take part in the Christmas secret: the village is becoming Bethlehem temporarily and the people go together to the crib. For the authors, it is an occasion to create a play with songs and scenes. The origin and development of contemporary living nativity scenes was researched in the region of Moravian Slovakia – in the areas round Uherské radiště, Uherský Brod, and Strážnice, where the living nativity scenes in the open air have been performed since 1994. Questionnaires, video-records, and Internet reports have been completed with new forms of living nativity scenes in selected locations in Moravia: living nativity scenes in closed rooms, Christmas carolling at cribs, in churches, at Christmas trees and stage performances with Christmas habits. The study submits proofs of contemporary living character of Christmas plays in specific forms of the local culture.
It was a chat between the author and her Moravian friend about their childhood that gave rise to writing these Christmas impressions from “two Christmas worlds”. The parents of both ladies might have equipped their children for life with the same customs, habits, things, fashion, and style of life. In the first case, they continued being lived in Moravia; in the other case they were moved from the region of Cheb in western Bohemia to Bavaria. The behaviour of both ladies was nearly identical or similar in many day-to-day small and big behaviour models, in the “styles of surviving” after the war. The author discovered she could share more things with her Moravian friend than with those in Bavaria. It was the parents who reminded both ladies of Christmas before 1945; things, letters and photos continue in acting as reminders thereof. The author’s Christmas world began in Bohemia. Christmas influences the in-war-born children and the refugees´ or expatriates´ children in a special way. Their experiences, memories and tales listened to at Christmas and in the course of it will be kept in their minds for all their lives. They always carry two Christmas worlds with them. The one represents that narrated and the parents´ memories, the other one means own experiences in after-war Germany. Christmas “there at home in Bohemia” and Christmas in “their new homeland in Bavaria” – childhood days in the late 1940s and the 1950s modified the life style and the tradition brought from Bohemia into an interesting mixture this contribution wishes to talk about.
The study is focused on the presentation of results from the first stage of a field research aimed at the expansion of the men’s dance "Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk” in the village of Moravské Knínice in the Brno Region. It pays attention to the cultural and social development in the mentioned area from the mid-19th century until the presence. This development provided the conditions to take over some cultural features (folk costumes, folk songs and dances, dialect) that originally occurred solely in the territory of the ethnographic area of Moravian Slovakia (Slovácko). The verbuňk dance can be seen for almost twenty years in the village of Moravské Knínice, whereby its form has been undergoing changes whose course and value the author records. She describes also the changes in Feast tradition, dance sequence, and musical accompaniment at Feast dance parties from the early 20th century until now. The contribution mentions the role of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice as a guarantor of research, documentary, educational, popularizing, and promoting activities related to Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk as a cultural phenomenon. The mentioned research results are a starting point for the next suggested field research works and audio-visual documentation of the occurrence and expansion of Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk in the Brno Region, which will be implemented in the coming years.
The study speaks about clay buildings in the areas along the Morava River and in the central Danube basin. It explains some archaeological finds, searching for their ethnological analogies. The building techniques using clay are analyzed in a more thorough way while their genetic context is observed. The hitherto oldest discovered technique in clay wall construction in the researched region presents a wheel structure of an Eneolithic building with weave walls roughcast with a thick layer of pugging stuff on both sides. According to some authors, this concerns the original constructional solution from which the basic building techniques for unburned clay used in load-bearing masonry developed. The first one is the technique of so-called ramming whose origin might be in the wheel construction provided with two parallel “fences”. In accordance with this contention, we suppose the basis of the aforementioned way may consists in a clay mixture rammed into free space between a double-wall made from stones or palisade. Another construction is represented by building in layers that replaced the weave parts with clay material put on in layers, which - similarly to weave - had no supporting function. Moreover, the study describes constructions made from different types of so-called “války”. The last mentioned type of constructions describes the masonry with unburnt bricks, which are put dry on clay mortar – in contrast to the aforementioned building techniques working with wet material that dries in the masonry. The use of wet clay seems to be limiting - in the sense of technical possibilities. On the contrary, building use of bricks, i.e. exactly shaped construction materials, offers a higher number of options for the final use in a construction.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2011 is devoted to Czechoslovak legionnaires who fought in World War I. as volunteer corps of Czechs and Slovaks abroad. In his study, Ferdinand Vrábel explains the main data on this phenomenon (The Czechoslovak Legion Story), the contribution by Jan Rychlík (Legions and Legionnaires in Czech and Slovak Tradition and Historiography) includes the research work into this issue. In his essay, Dalibor Vácha sketches the theme from the standpoint of interdisciplinary positions, paying attention to concrete life stories of Czechoslovak legionnaires (In the Far East. A Probe into Everyday Life of Czechoslovak Legionnaires in Russia). Authors Jan Kincl, Svatopluk Valníček and Ferdinand Vrábel write about legionnaires´ fortunes based on personal diaries and correspondence (Legionnaires´ Memories, Memo Books and Diaries). The material part of the issue is completed by contribution Folk violin-maker Martin Kuča from Strážnice (1888-1967) by Jiří Höhn.
Stopping with Photos (author Martin Šimša) focuses on the legionnaire theme as well. In Interview section, two ethnologists - Miroslav Válka (born 1951) and Miloš Melzer (born 1941), celebrating their anniversaries in this year, interview each other. Other regular columns include reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals, and reviews of new books.
The essay provides a brief summarizing overview on the development and history of the Czechoslovak volunteer armed forces in the years of World War I., an introduction to the issue of the development and functioning of armed units that - fighting together with the Entente powers (Russia, France, Great Britain, and Italy) - contributed to the creation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. The author depicts the development of an idea to create resistant movement of Czechs and Slovaks, which led to the establishment of political centre of the Czech (later Czechoslovak) National Council with the seat in Paris and under the leadership of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, and Milan Rastislav Štefánik. He also devotes himself to the period beginning with creation of the first units fighting with the Entente powers until the time when the Czechoslovak Brigade fighting in the battle of Zborov (2 July 1917), the individual divisions in Russia, France, Italy and even the Czechoslovak Corps in revolutionary Russia were set up. The essay commemorates also the anabasis of Russian legions on their way from Ukraine through Siberia to Vladivostok and their return back home in 1920. The conclusion of the essay informs about the next fates of legionnaires at home, about the legionnaire organizations, the significance of legionnaire traditions for new Czechoslovak army, the participation of legionnaires in the second resistant movement (1938-1945), the communist persecution of legionnaires and the renewal and work of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires Community after 1989. It puts stress on the need to recall the history of legions in order to bring up young people to patriotism and to strengthen the national identity.
The history of the fight of Czechoslovak legionnaires in World War I for independent Czechoslovakia became a part of the new state “foundation story“ in Czechoslovakia. A legionnaire became a symbol of conscious Czechoslovak citizen who never hesitate to die in the struggle for Czechoslovak independence. For German and Hungarian minorities, however, the new legionnaire tradition was unacceptable. In inter-war Czechoslovakia there were severe discussions about the role of legions in the Russian Civil War. The legions took part in the Civil War on the side of the forces of “White Army”. Especially problematic was their indirect support of the white dictatorship of Admiral Alexander Kolčak in Siberia. The political left criticized legionnaires for their support of Kolčak while the political right - on the other hand - criticized them for the fact that they concluded an armistice with Bolsheviks at the end of the war. During the occupation by Nazi Germany (1939-1945) and during the period of Communist regime (1948-1989) the legionnaire tradition was considered politically dangerous for the existing system and suppressed. After 1989 some attempts to restore the tradition occurred. The question is, however, whether the tradition can survive even if the Czechoslovak state does not exists any more.
The essay focuses on Czechoslovak volunteer corps in Russia in the days after the end of World War I. The main aim of the text is to demonstrate the soldiers’ perception of the Russian Far East regions. The introductory part discusses the existing sources and topics connected with the topic of everyday life in the war. The main part of the text outlines several factors connected with the soldiers’ stay in the Russian Far East regions: the architecture, languages, and everyday life of local townsfolk or peasants (clothes, boarding, hygiene, festivities etc.) or the soldiers´ relationship with local women (including Japanese prostitutes in Vladivostok). It was businesspersons, rickshaws, acrobats and prostitutes, whom the Czechoslovak legionnaires used to meet, so those occupations are understood in the diaries and memories as to be typical for the corresponding region. Czechoslovaks also met a lot of Japanese soldiers whose regiments garrisoned in the Vladivostok and the Baikal regions. Some of the records show a great soldiers’ interest in foreign destinations, cultures, and customs. However, it is not to be omitted that there was a war raging all around the Czechoslovak distinctive soldiers-tourists for the entire time of their exploring the Far East.
The authors of the contribution focused on diaries and recollections of the Austrian-Hungarian troops members, captured at different fronts in World War I (in Serbia, Russia, and Italy), who later joined the Czechoslovak volunteer armed forces - the Czechoslovak legions. On an example of recorded memories of French legionnaire A. Šíma, Italian legionnaire V. Valníček and Russian legionnaire A. Šikura, the authors explain the circumstances at the time when World War I broke out, the moods and opinions of inhabitants, the mobilisation and leaving for the front, the baptism of fire at the fronts, the trials and horrors of war. Their diaries demonstrate clearly, how they as private soldiers and the civil inhabitants experienced the apocalyptic moments brought by the worldwide conflict to the proximity of the fronts and the rear, their everyday life and the importance of the memories of their relatives at home and of the rare correspondence with them. As immediate witnesses of significant political and military events from 1914-1918, when the future fate of Czechs and Slovaks and their common state - the Czechoslovak Republic - was decided, they provide a conclusive picture of those difficult times. Their records from war years, which were completed and even printed later, helped to keep the essential and even less essential experiences from that period in individual mind of their relatives and in collective mind of the nation. Frequently, they give also the historians, military historians, ethnologists and other experts very detailed and from other sources unknown information.
The essay, which speaks about folk violin-makers, tries to create a certain model for the approach to that specific part of Czech music culture. Such a model is based on the thorough organological analysis of maintained instruments made by one of the producers. Martin Kuča from Strážnice, a farmer and wine-grower, who made his music instruments just for laughs, has been chosen as an example. Three of the safeguarded instruments made by him are a part of collections at the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice (violin, viola and baset/violoncello); the other instruments are owned by his family. Purity in workmanship of his string instruments and their carefully worked construction bear witness to quite high level of folk violin making in Moravia and hopefully refute deep-routed theses on imperfection of musical instruments made by folk producers. The instruments themselves as well as the condition of aids (moulds) and tools used by violin maker Martin Kuča show, inter alia, the carefully worked-out technological procedures.
