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Journal of Ethnology 1/2015 focuses on the theme Wedding Ceremony and Its Transformation. In her study, Jana Malecká acquaints the readers with the strategy for choosing Muslim partners and the ways of making acquaintances in the Sunni society, especially in Syria, Jordan and Palestine (Searching for Muslim Bride: from arranged marriages to Internet dating agency). Martin Soukup introduces “bride-wealth”, a wedding tradition at the Nungon ethnic group in Papua New Guinea (“Adam Did Not Pay for Eva either“: Bride-Wealth with Nungons and Its Transformation). Marta Ulrychová deals with the country wedding in the Pilsen region, comparing the Czech and the German ethnic group (Karl Poetzl’s Wedding Description, Recorded in German Communities in the Pilsen Region in the late-19th Century, in Confrontation with Manuscript Records and Czech Collector´s Studies in the Same Region). In their contribution, Juraj Hamar and Lenka Filipová introduce some actual tendencies in Slovak folklorism (Traditional Custom of Čepení in the Context of Contemporary Wedding in Slovakia). František Kašník’s contribution explains the origin of men´s folk-dress trousers in South Moravia (On Alleged Influence of the Croatians Settled in Moravia and in the Valtice-Region on Folk Culture in the Ethnographic Area of Podluží in 19th and 20th Century).
Review Section publishes Marta Šrámková’s reflections on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of birth of Matěj Mikšíček (1815–1892), a personality interested in literary folklore; Marta Toncrová’s contribution remembers one hundred and fifty years from the birth of Františka Kyselková, a folk song collector (1865–1951). Social Chronicle remembers anniversary of ethnologist Alena Kalinová (born 1955) and decease of musicologist Jan Trojan (1926–2015). Other regular columns publish reports from exhibitions, festivals, concerts, and review of new books.
The study speaks about different strategies used for the selection of life partners, and ways how to get to know him/her in Arab Sunni society. A section is devoted to arranged marriages in the case of endogamy and exogamy whereby noticeable is the deciding influence of family members on the marriage. Through marriage not only a man and a woman but mainly two families are bonded, mutual family and ancestry bonds are strengthened and family wealth is extended. The author does not omit even individual dating strategies of girls and boys. She also pays attention to the possibilities to using the service of a paid matchmaker or the potential of Internet marriage agencies and social networks. The witnesses of informants – Sunni Muslims coming from Syria, Jordan and Palestine – constitute the major source of information.
The study presents a theoretical-empiric analysis of the bride-wealth with a focus on the cultures in New Guinea. In his explanation, the author describes usual features of the bride-wealth as well as relating anthropologic concepts and explanations. Special attention is paid to selected types of artefacts used as bride price in the New Guinea societies. The study thoroughly deals with the description and explanation of the bride-wealth (oretno) at the Nungon ethic group living in the Saruwaged Mountains. The author focuses especially on cultural changes that have influenced the bride-wealth in this ethnic group. This concerns mainly the impact of Christianity on the Nungon culture, and on marriage. The Nungons profess Lutheranism or Adventism. The members of both denominations however adapt a non-compatible stance against oretno, as described in detail in the study. The aim of the study is to describe the form and transformations of the bride-wealth in New Guinea on an example of the Nungon culture.
The contribution deals with the country wedding in the so-called wider Pilsen region. The author makes accessible the manuscript Sitten und Gebräuche in Nürschan u. dessen nächster Umgebung (Customs and Habits in Nýřany and its Closest Environs) written by Karl Poetzel, a teacher in Nýřany. Based on comparison with Czech sources, one can state that the wedding ceremony in the Czech and the German communities is similar as to its basic contours, because the communities featured the same nature conditions, and therefore the same way of farming and the same relationship with all the rules for the public and the family life. These survived even though the Nýřany region changed significantly in the second half of the 19th century because of the mining industry development. While it was the language and the folk costume that were the only difference indicator in the mid-19th century, in the second half of that century the ethnic life polarized. In the 1930s, German villages in the Nýřany region were understood as a part of the so-called large Cheb region. These influenced folk ceremonies as well – under the press of ideology, instead of common features there were emphasized outside remarkable differences which in fact were less significant. The ethnic situation in the Pilsen region fundamentally changed upon the after-war expulsion of German inhabitants. While the terms “country wedding from the Pilsen region” and “Pilsen wedding” have been understood as a strong Czech phenomenon since the mid-19th century, the term “wedding ceremony in the Pilsen region” – thanks to the disclosure of German sources - must be understood in a broader context today.
Recently, we can observe an increase in traditional elements at wedding (civil or church) ceremonies and wedding parties, especially in towns and settings with active folklore ensembles in Slovakia. The contribution focuses mainly on the ritual of traditional čepčenie putting a married women´s bonnet on bride´s head in the context of the contemporary wedding in Slovakia. The authors reflect this phenomenon from the point of view of insiders and participants in this contemporary phenomenon. The traditional ritual of čepčenie with members of folklore ensembles is signed by the ensemble folklorization whereby the aesthetic and entertainment function of čepčenie is emphasized. Gradually – alongside the popularity and demand for such stage performances, there are formed organized semi-professional groups of those who offer the ritual of čepčenie as a commercial paid service, mainly through social networks and the Internet. Despite the conversion of the original ceremonial function of čepčenie into the aesthetic and entertainment function, this phenomenon is an important step towards the protection and promotion of intangible cultural heritage.
The contribution deals with the Croatian population settled in South Moravia and Lesser Austria (Valticko region) at the time of Turkish incursions of the 16th century. In Moravia, the Croatians found their home in the villages of Jevišovka (former Frélichov, Frjélištorf), Dobré Pole (former Gutfjeld) and Nový Přerov (former Nova Prerava), in the environs of which only German inhabitants lived. Another group was settled 25 km further to the east, in the villages of Hlohovec, Charvátská Nová Ves and Poštorná, in the immediate neighbourhood of Czech-speaking inhabitants. In connection with national movement, Czech intellectuals critically evaluated the efforts of Austria to Germanize the Slavonic inhabitants living in the Empire, e.g. even the Croatians settled in the Valticko region. It was opened the issue of influence of the settled Croatians on folk culture in South Moravia (the ethnographic area of Podluží), in particular on men´s folk dress. A lot of ethnographers gave their opinion that Czech inhabitants took over some expressions of folk culture from the Croatians. Red trousers typical for men´s folk dress in the ethnographic area of Podluží since the mid-19th century until now are one of such examples. The author summarizes literature as well as written and iconographic sources concerning the above theme, showing that it was uniforms of Hungarian army and nobility that was a real model.
Journal of Ethnology 2014/4 is devoted to World War I as an interdisciplinary theme. In his study, Slovakian historian Ferdinand Vrabel pays attention to the first historical and philosophical analyses of this historic event (The First Czech and Slovakian Analyses of “The Great War” from 1914–1915: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Fedor Ruppeldt). Cultural historians Jiří Hanuš and Petr Husák deal with the theme of how important the reminiscences of a particular war reality are for the society (The Picture of the Great War: the Anniversary as an Occasion to Review the Historical Consciousness?). Austrian researchers Verena Moritz and Julia Walleczek-Fritz open the theme of prisoners of war (Prisoners of War in Austria-Hungary 1914 – 1918). Ethnologist Petr Janeček deals with folkloristic research that reflects the theme of war as well as the structure of oral folklore genres at that time (Prosaic Folkloristics and the World War I Phenomenon). Dialectologist Marie Krčmová writes about crucial social aspects in connection with the development of language (Bohemian, Moravian, and Silesian Dialects in Transformations of Time). Stopping with Photo column remembers mass production of postcards depicting the themes of war, as well as aestheticization of the phenomenon of war (Promotional Graphics in the Employ of War, author Hana Dvořáková). Review Section publishes the contribution The Great War in the Eye of Ethnography (author Hana Dvořáková), the profile Jan Tomeček, a fiddler from Horňácko (author Judita Kučerová) and the essay by writer Josef Holcman aimed at the folklore movement in Moravia – The Beginning of Infinity (not only about this year’s rides of the kings, Strážnice festival, Horňácko festival and feast in Skoronice). Social Chronicle remembers anniversaries of Slovakian ethnologist Kornélia Jakubíková (born 1944), Czech ethnographer Zuzana Malcová (born 1954), historian Jan Rychlík (born 1954), and philologist Rudolf Šrámek (born 1934). Other regular columns publish reports from exhibitions, conferences, festivals, and review of new books.
The author devotes himself to two analyses from the first period of the War – the Czech one by T. G. Masaryk, and the Slovak one written by Fedor Ruppeldt. Both analyses constitute an important historical document about how the contemporaries felt the initial stage of the War; they show many similarities but also differences. The authors partially are in agreement about their views, assessments, and conclusions; however, they partially differ from each other. They analyse the issue of the outbreak of the War, they partially even reflect on the responsibility for the outbreak of the War – to the extent allowed by limited possibilities given by the cautiousness because of the war censorship – and they try to come to conclusions as to its next development. Differences between the Masaryk’s and the Ruppeldt´s view of the War arise both from the differences in their professional specialization, life practice and opportunities to be in contact with politicians and representatives of foreign countries, and from the possibilities to travel; in the case of Ruppeldt also from the absence of his long-time stay abroad.
The anniversary of the outbreak of First World War in 1914 brought a plethora of articles, books, radio and television programmes, professional and popularizing events, profane and religious meetings. It is impossible not to ask a question why this particular anniversary was and still is remembered by such a powerful polyphony; in fact whether a certain historicizing of our consciousness, the causes of which are worth researching, is not a “sign of our time”. After a short introduction into the theoretical frame of the problem, the authors research this issue on the following levels: European discussion and its responses within the Czech environment (novel Náměsíčníci / The Sleepwalkers); new Czech interpretations and the breach of “taboo subjects” (thinking and acts of Tomáš Garrique Masaryk); return of “old Austria” with its institutions into public discussions (Jiří Rak phenomenon); activation of the wide public by means of events, including the religious ones; formation of new collective identities. In the conclusion, the authors express a thesis about the interconnection of historiographic, media and political production as well as about a real shift in the historical memory of the Czech public in view of the Habsburg Empire history.
The following article offers an overview of the central fields of research concerning Prisoners of War (POWs) in the Habsburg Empire during World War One, including living conditions in war camps, propaganda campaigns, forced labour and repatriation. The text also shows the discrepancy between the principles of Austro-Hungarian authorities relating to POW politics and an often harsh reality: All POWs were affected by the supply shortages which began in 1916 or even earlier: Thousands of POWs died from disease, exhaustion and undernourishment. In addition, soon after their capture POWs were confronted with the introduction of a new dimension of captivity: forced labour. The majority of prisoners were used for several work projects in the hinterland, behind the Austro-Hungarian front lines and even in the combat zones. The article also illustrates how the Russian Revolutions in 1917 influenced the fate of POWs in the Habsburg Monarchy.
The contribution deals with the overview of more significant literary-folkloristic studies that paid their attention to the analysis of prosaic folklore phenomena developed and/or spread during World War I both in the battlefields and in the hinterland zones. While some texts of folklore nature drew researchers´ attention nearly immediately (prophecy, folk beliefs), the analyses of some others began several years later (demonogical legends, jokes, folk graffiti) – a part thereof came to a more thorough analysis only at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries (rumours and contemporary legends). Within European folkloristics, World War I proves to be a period that drew researchers´ attention mainly because of an unexpected increase in “irrationality” in both rural and urban environment. At that time, this phenomenon was most often interpreted as “tradition revival” and welcomed as a mean for revitalization and legitimacy of a discipline focused on the documentation of ostensibly disappearing folk culture associated with traditional rural areas. Although this concerned quite isolated partial studies in the most cases, yet as a whole these helped increase the interest of European folkloristics in the texts circulating in the current oral tradition. The texts of that time devoted to the interpretation of World War I paved the way for the later researches into contemporary folklore to a certain extent. This research direction was made more topical again at the end of the 20th century as it served as an inspiration for the contemporary study of the World War I folklore, which was based on the exploration of more types of source materials.
Historical milestones are not projected immediately to the set of language means typical for a particular dialect, because the dialect is a private manner of speech actively acquired in childhood and passed down in a natural way by generations between which the continuity survives. It is necessary not to look for the causes of dialect transformations in the language itself, but in changed condition under which the dialect as means of communication is used. In our territory, such means are influenced mainly by the industrialization, which causes the migration of inhabitants and forms new communication communities in which a common usual language is created. Such a process was running in Bohemia in the entire 19th century, resulting in a quite stabilized general colloquial Czech; in Moravia and Silesia, however, we can notice it much later and the traditional dialect survived until recently. Unfortunately, because of the lack of older relevant authentic language material ,we are not able to show any concrete data about the rate of transformations, and the results of the contemporary development of general manner of speech will be obvious in some tens of years.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2014 is devoted to the theme Space transformations of cultural phenomena. In their study, Daniel Drápala and Martina Pavlicová have a think about the term ethnographic area and its formation (Ethnographic Differentiation: Reflections on Its Historical Development and Sense of Contemporary Existence). Jiří Bláha and Alena Dunajová deal with one type of rafter construction at village buildings (Origin and Spreading of Principal Rafter Roofs in Central Europe). Tereza Zíková and Gabriela Fatková pay attention to the interaction of the human being and the landscape (Local Identity and Landscape’s Memory: important landscape components in the perspective of participants). In Other Studies column, Martin Šimša introduces the application of the geographic information system in the case of folk dress (Map Application: Folk Dress in Moravia) and Jarmila Teturová presents contemporary research of ethnocultural traditions in Moravia (Modern Feast-Day Tradition in the Village of Dobročkovice in the Bučovicko Region). Review Section remembers important personalities from the historiography of the discipline – 100th anniversaries of the birth of ethnographer and ethno-organologist Ludvík Kunz (1914–2005) and folk songs collector Václav Stuchlý (1914–2000) as well as what would have been the 80th birthday of Václav Frolec (1934–1992). Social Chronicle writes about anniversaries of ethnologists Eva Urbachová (* 1924) and Zora Vanovičová (* 1944) and publishes an obituary for Slovakian folklorist Bohuslav Beneš (1927–2014). Other regular columns publish reports from exhibitions, conferences, festivals as well as reviews of new books.
Nowadays, local culture is understood as an important phenomenon of culture in the society, as an identification factor of local inhabitants, as an important part of a place to live in. In many cases, this is connected, directly or indirectly, with traditional folk culture. This also includes the issue of ethnographic differentiation as well as the definition of ethnographic regions, as these were formed especially in the 19th and at the outset of the 20th centuries and have been declared as a legacy of tradition so far. Significant is the issue of the formation of these regions as well as the development of the cultural environment belonging to them, which is the basis for the reflections in the submitted study: to what extent the general contentions about ethnographic differentiation are valid and what the major impulse for the progress thereof is. Two Moravian ethnographic areas (Slovácko and Moravian Záhoří), which today are an integral part of the map with ethnographic areas, have been chosen to allow a particular view of the given issue. Their genesis and development, however, are not identical. They differ in their territorial extent, distinctiveness, inner differentiation as well as in the intensity of regional consciousness. Both probes try to prove that perception of an ethnographic area can often be a professional stereotype and that it is necessary to come back to the theme of ethnographic regions in new contexts and meanings.
Roof frames on village buildings with principal rafters crossed under the roof head to carry the ridged piece are termed scissor truss in Central-European languages. The authors focus on their origin, structural function and constructional arrangement in relation to other types of roof frame constructions most frequently appearing in vernacular architecture, in particular to ridge post roofs, purlin roofs and common rafter roofs. The field and archive research, along with dendrochronological dating, in the Znojemsko and Vranovsko regions was compared with those from the Slovakian part of the Danube Region. The results shows that the geographical spreading of principal rafter roofs does not always mean the spreading of a genetically identical phenomenon. Principal rafter roofs in both surveyed regions have their specific features and their genesis is not identical. In the roofs in the Danube Region the post supports of the ridge piece were gradually improved and replaced by principal rafters providing better weight displacement, whereas the constructions widespread in the region along the Dyje River likely witnessed the reception of a finished type of construction applied firstly to nobility houses and then adapted to the needs of residential and farm buildings in villages.
Using the analysis of semantic domains, the Geographic Information System (GIS) and interpretation, the contribution introduces important places in landscape in a micro-perspective of the inhabitants of selected locations in the Plzeň region. The locations presented in the contribution represent different configurations of population and landscape. The community of Bušovice is typical for its stability in population and the agricultural character of the landscape. The community of Lesná is situated in a border region, where the population fully changed after the World War II and the work in forest has been the main means of earning the living so far; simultaneously, the forest is dominating the local landscape. Within the contribution, there is presented a map of landscape components with the cultural and historical value defined based on the responds of local inhabitants. By means of the GIS, it is possible to simulate which places in the landscape are considered important in the collective memory of the inhabitants, and how the selection of particular landscape components changes in connection with other features of those informants (e.g. gender). The cultural domain of important shared places is also interpreted in the text whereby stress is put on collectively shared ideas of the participants, which are manifested in the space (they create so-called memory places) and become a field to symbolize the local identity.
In 2011, the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice was charged to solve the project titled Traditional Folk Dress in Moravia; Identification, analysis, preservation and continually sustainable condition of collection material from 1850–1950. Within this task, a plethora of expert outputs of identification or analytic nature came into being. Many of them were presented to the professional and amateur public in the form of expert studies or publications. The information about documented garments could only be made available thanks to the GIS (geographic information system) map web Folk Dress in Moravia. The web shall provide the researchers with source information about the folk garments placed in collections of Czech and Moravian museums. Particular types of garments, such as trousers, vests, jackets, coats, shirts, blouses, skirts and women’s waistcoats or bodices etc. will be identified according to united systematics and the acquired information will be placed in a database. It allows to compare the garments and to form a group with identical properties. Based on these properties, particular types and variants thereof are presented on the map. The depicted pictograms of garments allow to move to a database card, in which not only the source information but also drawings and pattern sketches are included.
The study deals with the modern feast-day tradition in the village of Dobročovice in the Bučovicko region, which is situated in the southern part of the ethnographic area of Haná. The study summarizes the accessible resources substantiating the extinction of the original folk culture expressions in this location as early as in the mid-19th century. The principal part of the text includes assessment of the results from the field research into contemporary form of the feast day. The research was made in 2013. The feast-day is the most important folklore event and the main dance opportunity in Dobročkovice. Attention is paid to the transfer of feast-day customs, dances, songs, and folk costumes from the Kyjovsko region, taking into account their function within the feast-day procession and dance entertainment. In this context, the importance of verbuňk, a Slovácko dance that occurs here as well, is described. In verbuňk, dance figures have been changed by which they have digressed from those of the Kyjovsko regional type. The study provides basic starting points for other researches and those interesting in modern traditions in the locations where the original process of passing-down was interrupted in the past and not renewed later.
Journal of Ethnology 2/2014 is devoted to the theme of Heuristics, Criticism, and Interpretation of Ethnographic Resources. Daniela Stavělová publishes a contribution to historical study of dance folk culture (Dance in Diaries, Memories, and Memoirs: a Dilemma of Interpretation). József Liszka focuses on how the verbal art was affected by printed production, in particular by broad-side prints (On the Boundaries of Popular Literature and Folk Verbal Art /on one Hungarian-Slovak-Czech Pilgrimage Legend and its Inter-Genre Context/). Barbora Machová and Eva Šipöczová deal with school chronicles (Reflection of the Relation between Village Teachers and Local Communities on the Background of Events Recorded in School Chronicles in Moravia at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries). Libor Svoboda explains the reports from gendarmerie stations (Memory Books from Gendarmerie Stations – One of Less-Known Historical and Ethnologic Resources). Juraj Hamar brings practical experience with the transcription of audio recordings of plays from a puppet theatre (Transcription and Reconstruction of Audio Recorded Plays by the Folk Puppet Player Bohuslav Anderle).
In Review Section, Petr Spielmann publishes his contribution Works Inspired by Folk Songs and Folk Customs (Ad One-Hundred Years of Vladislav Vaculka’s Birth) and Jan Krist his contribution relating to what would have been the birthday of Adam Pranda (1924–1984), a Slovakian ethnologist. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversary of fine artist and writer Kamila Skopová (born 1944), ethnologists Alena Jeřábková (born 1934) and Olga Kandertová (born 1944), and publishes an obituary for ethnologist Jan Souček (1946–2014). Other regular columns include reviews of new books and news from the branch.
The study introduces resources of folk origin, which has almost not been used by the ethnology so far and which can bring valuable evidences about the lived form of folk dance culture. The development of those resources relates to the period when a kind of well-read persons or amateur writers came from village society, who paid their attention to farmers´ economic matters; they were interested in the expressions of social and cultural life, as well as in patriotic events in the second half of the 19th century. A special attention is paid here to the description of dance parties as a part of the events of that period. The interpretation of these resources requires combining of different methods and approaches; the ethnochoreology is supported here both by the attitude of so-called new cultural history focused on the study of mentalities, and by narrative approach. The source material is understood as life stories that simultaneously express the situations and contexts within which they were produced. The following issues constitute the basic dilemmas of interpretation: whether the structure of what is interpreted (text) or its function (context) should be accentuated, if one should focus on content or form, whether one should proceed on a part or a whole, and if the interpretation should be aimed at an individual or culture.
The author of this essay devotes himself to mutual relations and inter-ethnic processes between written and folk culture. On a particular example of a legend about a pilgrim who brought her heart, ripped out by outlaws, to Mariazell, the author introduces a text transcription within the literature (within inter-ethnic context) as well as from the literature to verbal art. The theme can be found in pilgrimage prints written in Hungarian, Slovak, and Czech. Even German variants are anticipated to have existed/exist but these could not be supported by particular materials so far. The variants known from the literature occur sporadically in Hungarian and Slovak verbal arts, however just their organic life in folklore has been documented; we do not know other variants – these were probably read directly from manuscripts, without melody etc. The process of folklorization has not been finished in this case, the text borrowed from the literature have not become an organic part of Hungarian or Slovak verbal art. Based on our contemporary knowledge we can state that they have remained on a halfway to folklorization.
The submitted study focuses on the social position of village teachers and their relations to village local communities at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. It is based on large source study of school chronicles in five Moravian districts (Vsetín, Zlín, Uherské Hradiště, Znojmo, Žďár nad Sázavou). Based on the analysis of chronicle reports, the authors define the auto-image of a teacher and reconstruct the hetero-image: how a teacher viewed the community and mutual relations. The study analyses situations that used to be a matter of frequent disputes between a teacher on the one side, and church administration, municipality, and local inhabitants on the other (teacher’s salary, school attendance, construction of a new school building, relation to local priest). The teacher who entered the local community as a strange element was on the boundary between the internal and external world (he was a state administration representative) and he had to build-up and defend his position. By means of defined situation, the authors search for deeper factors affecting the relations of the teacher with other engaged parties. The study puts stress on the importance of school chronicles for the study of social culture of the country, as well as on their contribution for ethnology of the village at the end of the19th and the outset of the 20th century.
The study writes about so-called memory books of gendarmerie stations – a resource that so far has been used mainly by those interested in modern military history (in many memory books are vividly described the events from 1937-13-939 and from May 1945), history of security corps and regional history. The opportunity to use the memory books for social history, history of everyday life or history of criminality remains aside. The memory books of gendarmerie stations were one of fruits resulting from an unusual boom of chronography in the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire and then in Czechoslovakia in the early-20th century. Although they existed for less than forty years as official documents, they were written in one of the most dynamic and dramatic stages of Czech modern history limited by the World War I from the one side, and the communist totalitarian regime from the other. All social turns were also reflected in gendarmerie memory books that became one of the important resources of Czech modern history.
Anton Anderle (1944–2008) was a representative of the third generation of the Anderles, a folk puppet-player family from Radvan. Although the activity of folk puppet players was limited first and fully restricted later by the former governmental authorities in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, a part of their repertoire survived in their memory. In 1972, Anton recorded on tape his father, Bohuslav Anderle (1913–1976), who recorded nearly thirty puppet plays from traditional Anderle’s repertoire, while speaking by heart, without puppets and outside the stage. The contribution writes about transcription and reconstruction of these audio recordings, heuristics, autopsies, and other methods the author was working with when transcribing the recordings. The author published the final form of transcribed and reconstructed texts in the monograph Hry ľudových bábkarov Anderlovcov z Radvane Plays by the Anderles, Folk Puppet Players from Radvan (2010), which also contains, inter alia, twenty-eight plays, comments on repertoire and typology of characters as well as transcriptions of songs Bohuslav Anderle used in his plays.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2014 is devoted to visual anthropology. Martin Soukup explains developmental transformations in visual anthropology and its definition (Drawing and Painting in Anthropology), Tomáš Petráň deals with the relation between the profession of an ethnologist and that of a film-maker (Ethnographic Film: an intersection between scientific and artistic viewing of the world). Barbora Půtová focuses on the expressions of visualisation in African Benin (Visual Presentation of the Benin Empire and its King: From British Colonial Rule up to Present), Jaroslava Panáková writes about decorative carpet as a visual symbol of Soviet aesthetics (A Thing, a Photo and Socialism: A Carpet Story).
Transforming Tradition column publishes an article From Caricature to Race Face – a contribution on contemporary visual comic (by Eva Šipöczová) and a essay about the ride of the kings in Skoronice in the last year (by Josef Holcman). The interview with ethnochoreologist Daniela Stavělová reminds of her anniversary (*1954), Social Chronicle reminds of the anniversaries of ethnologist Naďa Valášková (*1944) and Leoš Šatava (*1954) and the decease of Věra Haluzová (1924–2013), an organizer of different folklore activities. Other regular columns submit reports from the branch, especially overviews of conferences, exhibitions, and reviews of new books.
The subject of the study is to analyze the use of native drawings as a gnoseological tool in cultural anthropology taking into account the developmental transformations in visual anthropology. This was established as an independent anthropologic sub-discipline aimed at the study of culture especially by means of film and photograph. Native drawing is still rather undervalued in visual anthropology even though it disposes of considerable potential for the research of culture by visual means. This is documented by results of the research conducted by Mead, Bateson, Fortes, Alland and many others whom the contribution pays a special attention. In his study, the author will proceed not only from the analysis of implemented researches focused on native drawings, but he also will build on his own empiric experience with using the native drawings in the research of the Nungon ethnic group of Papua New Guinea. The aim of the study is to introduce the status of using the native drawings in anthropologic research, possibilities of using, analyzing, and interpreting the collected data and wider connections with visual anthropology.
This study is focused on the area of ethnographic film and video in the process of interdisciplinary interaction between ethnographers and filmmakers. In past creation of image required considerable effort, based on technical mastering of visual techniques and on individual dispositions of the filmmaker. This has changed dramatically by means of industrialization of production as well as distribution of consumer images. The amount of images is constantly growing, they are omnipresent and instant. In the first decade of new millennium, the role of film within the framework of anthropological research is being redefined. New roles of visual anthropology are occurring together with the development of experimental methods in social sciences and with the newly recognized role of Art in the research itself. The requirement of professionalism of audiovisual record, which burdened the ethnographic film with established visual processes and conventions, is disappearing under the influence of massive transmission of personal and private images. Democratization of the creative process and almost unlimited possibilities of distribution lay new questions about the definition of the genre.
The study presents the image of the Benin Empire and its king through photographs and artworks that contribute to the construction of social reality and have the ability to capture cultural changes visually. Visual representations of the Benin Empire presented in this study encompass particularly the period from British colonial dominance to these days. Depicting the Benin king has been a frequent motif used in traditional as well as contemporary art (bronze sculptures, relief plaques or oil paintings). The study also analyses photographs taken by colonizers, court photographs and anthropologists during their research at the palace courtyard. Special attention is paid to the continuity in Benin bronze artefact creation and the development of contemporary Nigerian art – works and artists who continue the traditional depiction of the Benin king enriching it with their specific view of the world. The analysis also focuses on photographs seen as symbolic systems capturing the colonial and post-colonial situation – historic events relating to the British invasion, European colonial dominance, power relations, asymmetry, injustice and everyday life. The study presents photographs not only as mere period documents, artefacts and historic source that serve to the purpose of scientific analysis and interpretation, but also the purpose of inspiring the contemporary artistic work.
The way of our viewing fulfils every political, economic, and social concept with certain audiovisual materials, rules, and canons of imagination as well as with visual style and aesthetics. Socialism offers plentiful examples how the convention of “good manners” penetrated into photographic viewing. One of them is the series of domestic group or individual portrays in front of a “Persian” carpet hanging on the wall. This carpet stands for the all-including identity of Soviet citizen, socialistic wealth, cosy socialistic dwelling, and constitutes a frequent element of domestic Soviet photographs. While the foreground changed according to one leader replacing the other one and alongside the politicians, also the giant agitating mosaics or tapestries intended for exterior or interior changed, the carpet remained unchanged. Even though this convention is suppressed by another one in Moscow or Petersburg, and “sovok” – the culture of socialistic households and everyday life - is understood as a negative one, this convention is still surviving in Siberia. The question is why the people still insist on being photographed in front of the carpet. This study introduces an in-depth analysis of the origin, development, and transformations of this specific visual practice. We will show how the socialistic Alltagswelt and the idea of a right Soviet citizen were interconnected with a peculiar way of (photographic) viewing and how this visionary project failed while the visual one is still living.
The special issue of Journal of Ethnology 5/2013 presents an overview of the professional production of Czech ethnology. In her study (Moving Beyond Borders: Vráz, Frič and Kořenský), Barbora Půtová introduces three hitherto non-acclaimed Czech travellers – E. S. Vráz (1860–1932), A. V. Frič (1882–1944), J. Kořenský (1847–1938) – who crossed the borders between Europeans and the„exotic“ world. Stanislav Brouček submits his knowledge from the long-term research of personal testimonies of Czech expatriates living in South Africa (On Reflection of the Past in Memory. Czechs in the Republic of South Africa). Martina Pavlicová together with Lucie Uhlíková focus on the function of folklore and folk traditions in Czech environment in the period of the totalitarian regime (Folklore Movement and its Function in the Totalitarian Society /on an example of the Czech Republic in the 2nd half of the 20th century). Martin Šimša devotes himself to the origin of a selected type of male trousers in folk dress (Long Woollen Cloth Trousers – Medieval Heritage or Carpathian Attribution of Shepherd Culture?) Petr Janeček acquaints the readers with the anthropological phenomenon of play significantly touching upon the culture of children (Current Studies of Games and Plays in the Czech Republic).
Material column publishes two contributions: Hana Dvořáková submits the knowledge of ethnologist František Pospíšil (1885–1958) from the research of children’s string games (String Games in František Pospíšil´s Photo Documentation) and Eva Románková explains the principles of the protection of traditional folk culture in the Czech Republic and its collaboration with the UNESCO (Czech Traditional Culture and the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity). The Journal publishes also reports about the activities of Czech ethnologic community and introduces the structure of this branch in the Czech Republic.
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.
