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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.
Journal of Ethnology 2011/2 is focused on changes in the country in the late-20th century. Daniel Drápala pays his attention to the region of Moravian Záhoří (Cultural constants and innovation in life of the villages in the region of Moravian Záhoří within the period of country socialization), Slovakian ethnologist Oľga Danglová concentrates in a more common way on rural location as a symbolic space and on its identity (Country settlement as a space of identity. Selection of case studies in four Slovakian villages). Ingrid Pauknerová writes about the problematics of collectivization in the Czech countryside at the time of communist dictatorship (Phenomenon of agricultural cooperative movement and deformation of its idea in the course of collectivization on an example of the Southern-Bohemian village of Hrejkovice), Václav Michalička presents the research of changes in handmade leather production in the village of Metylovice (Leather belt phenomenon in Metylovice in the late-20th century).
Stopping with Photos with the title „Ethnological Documentation of the Revolutionary Changes in the Country” (by Helena Beránková) submits questionable output of photographer Vilém Hank (1910-1994) and completes herewith the theme of the entire current number, similar to Transferring Traditions column which includes the contribution Traditional Dance Opportunities in the Ethnogprahoc Area of Zemplín and Their Changes in the Late-20th Century (by Dana Kľučárová). Rewiev section includes The Remembrance of Horymír Sušil (1928-2010) in which its author Antonín Bařinka brings nearer the significant personality of folklore movement in Moravia. Interviews section presents ethnologist Josef Jančář, director emeritus of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice. Regular section Personalia remembers the anniversary of the aforementioned ethnologist Josef Jančář (born 1931) and ethnologist Mirjam Moravcová (born 1931), ethnologist Lydia Petráňová (born 1941) and ethnologist Gabriela Kiliánová (born 1951); it presents also the contribution on not-reached jubilee of ethnologist Richard Jeřábek (1931-2006) and the obituary for musician and singer Luboš Holý (1930-2011). Other columns include contributions to discussion (theme: ethics in ethnology), reviews and reports.
The social processes caused by political development in Czechoslovakia after the World War II brought plenty of new initiatives in lives of individuals and smaller and bigger social groups. On the example of the Záhoří region, the author tries to point out the pervasion of elements based on the ethno-cultural tradition of the region with cultural innovations. The analysis of functions, content and form in selected phenomena as well as the monitoring of their lifetime in the course of the second half of the 20th century bring interesting knowledge in the role the selected phenomena played in local community. The traditional events based on annual cycle of habits and customs can include the Shrovetide obchůzka (going round the village) (so-called bear leading) that was maintained in its living form for the entire 20th century. The ceremonial parade of královničky (whitsuntide ritual “The Little Queens”) or the so-called Záhoří right have changed to the occasional or scenic forms. On the contrary, the so-called pre-Christmas parties enriched by the ideologically misapplied figure of Děda Mráz in the 1950s and 1960s, or the lampion parades organized on the occasion of liberation celebrations or the Great October Socialist Revolution ranked among innovations.
The contribution is based on field material collected in four Slovakian villages. It analyses the ways in which the inhabitants identify themselves with their own location as a specific space of their social being. Taking into account the wide spectrum of collective “human” identities anchored in different local spaces, it is aimed at those in whose content profile predominate the signs connected with the socioeconomic nature of a village. It focuses on phenomena that accentuated - in the positive and negative sense - the affiliation to a location based on employment and existence models of its inhabitants. The contribution states that the importance of a “community” and the endeavour for quality in social relations, which are based on trust and territorial vicinity, do not peter out in the country even in the situation of “modern life”. Moreover, the local events have maintained some of its uniting features despite the fact that they are strongly influenced and constructed by dynamic, opposing, and changing external forces disturbing the relations to local culture and countryside.
Agricultural cooperative movement was a phenomenon which belonged to the Czech countryside since the end of the 19th century and whose tradition was purposefully abused in the period of collectivization. The idea of cooperative movement took hold also in the Southern-Bohemian village of Hrejkovice where it more times got its concrete form in the course of the first half of the 20th century. On the contrary, the struggle of the authorities to establish a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) came up against stiff opposition after 1948. As documented by chronicle entries from the 1950s and confirmed by eyewitnesses´ testimonies, the most farmers insisted on traditional private farming and they did not consider changing their statements. Even the JZD foundation after seven long years full of convincing, which resulted in stiff economic pressure and a lot of sanctions against defiant farmers, did not ensure sufficient number of new members for the new cooperative. In all probability, however, it caused four local families to have been deported - three farmer’s and one miller’s families whose lands and buildings were then used by the cooperative for its activities. The problem with scarcity of members was solved by the next pressure wave in 1957 after which only some individuals ran their private farms in Hrejkovice. The JZD foundation did not change just the traditional way of agricultural production but also the lives of all village’s inhabitants; the surrounding countryside was changed significantly as well.
Metylovice used to be a village in which the leather handicraft prevailed since the 17th century, changing the location’s nature at all. The sudden and in fact unexpected decline of leather belt production and group of belt producers meant a great change in the appearance and structure of the village. Metylovice lost its regional exclusiveness and it blended with the nature of surrounding villages to a certain extent. Based on the extinct phenomenon of local leather belt production the process of the village community self-identification began gradually. It resulted in a strong relation to the past reality within a complicated process of forgetting and remembering in the course of the past fifty to sixty years. The specific extinct phenomenon of leather handicraft with whip production gained new qualities in the constructive process of collective memory strengthening. In the above case, the transformed ideal of leather-belts producing Metylovice plays a significant role in the development of strong local identification of the inhabitants with their village and its history.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2011 is devoted to musical instruments connected with folk music tradition. Jan Blahůšek pays his attention to iconographic proves within the wider musical and folkloristic context (Drawings and Paintings as an Iconographic Source for Folk Music Research in the Czech Lands), Jiří Höhn in his contribution outlines the terminological reflections (The Term „Folk Musical Instrument“ and the Function of Musical Instruments in the Field of Ethnocultural Traditions). Petr Ch. Kalina focuses on unique string chordophone (Big Fiddle in Folk Instrumentarium of Lusathian Sorbs) while young American ethno-musicologist Jesse A. Johnston writes about occurrence of cimbalom by Czech immigrants living in American Texas (“Unmelted”: Cimbalom and Assimilation of Czech Minority in Texas). Miroslava Sandtnerová publishes her view of changed use and functions of some musical instruments in small brass bands in Slovakia (On Contemporary Situation in Using the Instrumentarium of Small Brass Bands in Slovakia).
Transferring Tradition column includes the results of field research by Barbora Jarošová (The Past And Presence of Traditional Brass Instruments Production in Moravian Wallachia) and by Alena Schauerová and Magdalena Maňáková (Generation Changes in Children´s Game). Review Section remembers the anniversary of Josef Blau (1872-1960), who studied folk traditions and culture history of the Northern Bohemian Forest (author Marta Ulrychová), and.that of ethnochoreologist Zdenka Jelínková (1920-2005) and her relation to the ethnographic area of Malá Haná (author Věra Kovářů). Social Chronicle publishes the contributions devoted to anniversaries of Czech ethnologist Karel Pavlištík (born 1931), Slovakian ethnologists Peter Salner (born 1951) and Mikuláš Mušinka (born 1936), and the obituary for Slovakian ethnologist Ladislav Mlynka (1954-2010). Other regular columns include the information on conferences, festivals and reviews of new subject books.
Pictorial documentary sources on the traditional folk music have been collected in the territory of our country since the 19th century. This has been going on until today, especially thanks to the protection provided by academic, museum and other scientific or cultural institutions; therefore, a researcher can use the unique iconographic potential to study concrete problems. Yet nobody has paid attention to the iconographic sources with music and folklore themes in summary. In addition, the research done by the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice proves that it is extraordinary difficult to collect large source bases. The submitted study points out the most important iconographic sources of the Czech music folkloristics in a selective way, giving the scope for next treatment of the theme, which has to include mainly the rigorous and careful collection of iconographic material and its registration followed by its analysis and interpretation.
The essay pays attention to the issue of understanding the term “folk music instrument” within the context of Czech musicological and ethnomusicological literature and its relation to social changes in the territory of the Czech Republic in the 20th century. As a certain way out of non-uniformity of definitions, the author offers using a periphrastic term “musical instruments of folk culture”, or “musical instruments of ethnocultural traditions”. The term “folk”, whose meaning underwent wide changes in European context during the last two centuries, is excluded because it is also very difficult to relate it to the social situation in the secod half on the 20th century. Musical instruments used within the corresponding space, become the content of musical and instrumental culture relating to the changed society and maintained ethnocultural traditions (original, transformed and modern ones). The functional point of view becomes the main factor.
The study provides an ethnoorganological picture of big fiddle used by Lusathian Sorbs (Wends): a unique string chordophone from the folk music instrumentarium of the smallest Slavic nation. As to its construction, the instrument is a threestring bowed chordophone, belonging to the family of medieval fiddles. It is about 640 mm long, with a flat back board and a highly arched top board. The strings were tuned in d1–a1–e2. The big fiddle of Lusathian Sorbs was used exclusively in the Catholic region of the western Upper Lusatia, its oldest form dates back only to the 19th century The big fiddle repertoire was recorded mainly in the late 18th century Kral's Fiddle Songbook, and in the collections of Ludvik Kuba and Adolf Cerny from the 19th century. The study also comments on the folk revival of the instrument and highlights the role of musician Jurij Mencl: after his initiative, first copies of big fiddle were made and first revival ensembles were established, which further developed the big fiddle playing. In the early 19th century, the big fiddle had impact on the construction of another folk string instrument, called skřipky in Czech dialect, which was played predominantly in German speaking areas around the town of Jihlava (in the present day Czech Republic). There, the pioneering instrument maker was a German carpenter Johann Bernesch, who came to the region from the Upper Lusatia in the early 19th century.
Ethnomusicologists have often viewed music as a marker of cultural identity. Music may also have a more active role, however, in the hands of musicians, listeners, and dancers, to recreate, redefine, and fashion elements of new identities. This article explores this tension by introducing the cimbalom, an instrument familiar to many (at least in central Europe) in an unfamiliar setting. The article presents historical and archival research about the survival of the cimbalom and its use among Czech immigrants to Texas in the United States. Commonly described in Texas as a “dulcimer”, the instrument’s use in Texas is widely remarked upon in Texas museums and heritage documents, but it is not widely known outside the small Czech heritage communities Texas. A particular focus is placed on the heritage of the “Baca Band”, a longstanding family musical group that built and maintained the cimbalom in the town of Fayetteville, Texas. The article focuses on two main aspects of the instrument’s significance to Czech immigrants in Texas: the tension between the maintenance of cultural traditions and the creation of new ones, and the role of the instrument in the resurgence of ethnic awareness in the United States of the late twentieth century. In addition, the article contributes to research on old-time ethnic music, the history of recording of ethnic music in the United States, and the use of archival sources to investigate music in community life.
Despite the missing thorough attention paid to the establishment of brass bands in tradition of folk instruments in Slovakia, there is no question about their significant participation in forming this tradition. The ensemble appearance of brass instruments has undergone some changes during the last thirty years. Those changes concern both the tendencies to professionalize the brass bands, and the new procedures in arrangement and composer’s work for this genre. Apart from the predominant limitations in expressions, the harmonic and metric and rhythmical structure of brass bands have to be equal with, we are now witnesses of mixing the genres in their interpretation. It is not only the moment of dance and entertainment functions of small brass bands that comes to the fore; the demands made on the players are increasing because of the concert repertoire composed for solo instruments and the interpretation of popular dance music and film melodies. As said by many brass music fans - the contemporary advantage of this genre consists in its ability to play almost everything.
Journal of Ethnology 4/2010 focuses on the dance in the gender and political context. Daniela Stavělová defines the dance antropological study in connection with some selected social aspects (Some Issues of Ethnochoreological Study: Dance, Gender, and Politics). Anca Giurchescu devotes herself to the Rumanian Pentecost ritual called căluş, its contemporary form and role it played during the period of the Communist regime (Survival of a Ritual in Contemporary Social Contexts: Căluş - between Ritual and National Symbol). Kateřina Černíčková portrays the ethnographic area of Horňácko and its sedlácká dance (The Sedlácká-Dance from the Ethnographic Area of Horňácko in Political Rhythm. A Musical and Dance Tradition in Light of Social and Political Activities from the late-19th Century until 1945). In her contribution, Tereza Nováková follows the paralell of gender relations in the society and dance (Argentine Tango: a Gender Image of the Society), Kristýna Slezáková analyses on an example of capoeiro motion activity its transformations in relation to changing political regimes in Brazil (Capoeira as a Politically Functioning Phenomenon).
Transferring Tradition column presents the theme of women´s dance expressions at the men´s dance verbuňk (by Jarmila Vrtalová) and the contribution on Baroque Christmas plays (by Ludmila Sochorová). Materials column brings the study devoted to the digital conversion of photo-documents and the ethic issues on the example of photo archive collection at the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice (by Michal Škopík). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologist Marta Šrámková (born 1935), cultural anthropologist Zdeněk Salzmann (born 1925) and ethnologist Milan Leščák (born 1940), and publishes two obituaries: for singer and musician Jiří Kapic (1931-2010) and ethnologist Jaroslav Štika (1931-2010). Other regular columns include the information on conferences, exhibitions, festivals, reviews of new books, and actual professional activities.
The contribution presents a theoretical definition of the dance anthropological study aimed at the issue of gender and social and political aspects. The above is based on post-structuralist tendencies and especially on possible semiotic analysis. The comprehension of dance expression as a symbol (which can be understood only if being a part of so-called performance) and the reference to its multi-dimensionality have become a significant point of the study. Dance as a visual expression significantly contributes to the study of gender relations, especially because of the gender performativity whose essence is created by repeated and ritualized acts and gender body stylizations. There is pointed out the fact that dance disposes of unique power thanks to which it can support and change the existing social and political structure simultaneously. In this sense, there is developed the possibility to use the dance as a symbol of national identity whereby the deliberate manipulation with this symbol is an essential element. The manipulation then becomes an efficient weapon in reaching the political goals. Important remains the fact that the dance as a clearly visible (and audible) hallmark improved by the entertainment experience is - in this case - a suitable mean of expression, which can be understandable for the widest social groups within the given culture.
Ritual căluş is a still living ritual practice at Pentecost (Whitsuntide) in the southern regions of Romania. Considered at a synchronic level, it reveals a great variety of structures and meanings that represent different stages of transformation. This article is based primarily on the long-time fieldwork experience and information resulting from the dialogues with tradition bearers, the direct observation and the analysis and interpretation of visual and written documents. The intention is to present the ritual căluş in its contemporary existence and try to disclose the reasons of its survival. Subsequently the intention is to comment the role given to căluş as a national symbol and the manipulation therewith for legitimating the political power under the Communist dictatorship. Finally, the future existence of the ritual căluş will be questioned in the light of the UNESCO program for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage. In an introductory section, however, căluş will be situated in a large European cultural context and described in more general terms in order to illuminate the complex structure of the ritual and the intricate relationship established among and between the component elements.
The study describes concrete social and political activities that influenced the conditions for existence and the processes of passing down the musical and dance folklore, namely the dance called sedlácká (farmer’s dance) from the Moravian region of Horňácko. The historical probe carried out within the chosen regional and time limits, focuses on the documentation of social and political circumstances under which the expressions of traditional folk culture were applied. During the monitored period of time, the issues concerning the process of the Czech national movement and political emancipation as well as the issues related to the creation and confirmation of the feeling of Czech and Slovak mutuality come to the fore. Attention is paid to different political meetings, manifestations, festivals; the mass gymnastics displays whose main aim was to demonstrate the support and strength of the national movement could not be omitted. It was essential, however, to specify the role a concrete musical and dance expression closely connected with the local tradition played and to find out how its performance at social and political events was reflected in its following viability.
The contribution features the parallel between the development in gender relations and in dance. The objective is to verify the hypothesis that the reflections of social changes in cultural phenomena become evident - in case of Argentine tango - through the transformation of traditional roles, interfering with the hitherto firm parallel: body - sex - gender - gender’s dance role - gender’s performance. In the preamble, the author introduces the phenomenon of Argentine tango and the social and anthropological background of her research, which allows analyzing the human body and its motion as a text in context. In the first part of the essay, she introduces the reader to the history, development, structure, and etiquette of Argentine tango. Essential for the essay is its closing part, an analysis of the tango gender structure and its transformations in time, analyzing the structure, performance, interference, and deconstruction of gender stereotypes and archetypes in tango. The author points out an apparent hierarchy of those concepts and their postmodern characteristics.
Capoeira is a Brazilian cultural phenomenon. It is a motion activity at the boundary of fight, dance and play accompanied by specific music and songs, whose outstanding feature is a unique leading musical instrument. Today, capoeira serves as a legacy of slavery because it originates in mingling of the dragged Africans´ cultures with the new environment suppressing every human liberty. The essay deals with the development of capoeira within the political relations of the country. It follows how capoeira reflects the changes of political regimes in Brazil, pointing out that the phenomenon - because of its character - entered into the political events directly, having become a bearer of certain ideas. The author comes to a conclusion that the political significance of the observed phenomenon has changed lately and capoeira is becoming rather an instrument of social mechanisms. The issue if the phenomenon is influencing the political events even today or if it can be a part of political programs remains opened, leaving room for next research.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2010 pays attention to the theme A human and a play. The contribution by Petr Janeček (Game Over? Actual Themes of Czech Ethnological Research of a Children's Game) presents the general introduction to problems and the overview of basic essays and issues relating to this phenomenon. Dana Bittnerová focuses on the comparison between the children's games collection by collector Štěpán Bačkova from the mid-19th century, the first published children's games collection in the Czech Lands, and the complex of games played by Prague children between 1992 and 2004 (Trends in Development of Children's Dramatic Games). Jana Poláková's essay is dedicated to minority Roma milieu (Games and Toys of Roma Children), psychologists Miroslav Klusák and Miloš Kučera deal with classicifation as a theoretical issue (Some Remarks on Children's Games). Jana Moravcová adumbrates the phenomenon of RPG (role-playing games) and LARP (live-action role-playing games) among young people of today, using an example of one of such games (The Battle of Five Armies. So-called dřevárny and relative free-time activities of present-day young people in the Czech Republic).
Stopping with Photos with the title The World of Disappearing Games - games with textile fibres presents so-called games with strings (Hana Dvořáková). Transferring Traditions column publishes the contributions Transformations in Games of Strážnice Children in the Past 25 Years (Petr Horehleď) and An Attempt to Return the Regional Folklore to School Praxis (Alena Schauerová). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversary of ethnologist Barbora Čumpelíková (born 1930) and publishes the obituaries for musician and musicologist Vladimír Baier (1932-2010) and singer and choreographer Věra Rozsypalová-Bláhová (1941-2010). Other regular columns include the information on conferences, exhibitions and actual professional activities.
Ethnology plays an essential role in the research of games and play in academical discourse. Ethnology was one of the first scientific fields which began to deal with ludic activities - first, of course, mainly with collection and classification of children's formalized games. Ethnology can contribute to the academical study of games and play in a significant way even today when also other humanities and social sciences, such as psychology and pedagogy, deal with the theme. Ethnological research of games should be aimed especially at collection, description, classification and interpretation of the local cultural variants of gaming behavior. Among the most actual themes of Czech ethnological research of games are compilation of a catalogue and synthetic interpretation of historical children's games, collection, classification and analysis of contemporary children's games and - last, but not least - the collection, classification and analysis of contemporary syncretical games including the research of their relation to the entertainment and gaming industry and the popular and mass culture.
The essay dedicated to children's dramatic games queries the similarity between the content of dramatic intrigue and its presentation in the past and in the present. Considering the trends in repertoire development, the essay draws upon Štěpán Bačkora's collections to describe the status in the mid-19th century; to analyze the contemporary children's games the essay takes advantage of the research among pupils in the elementary schools in Prague. Based on comparison of both game levels as regards content (1. thematic field within which the player accepts his/her new gaming identity; 2. structural motifs taking share in the construction of a dramatic intrigue story), the essay comes to several findings: as to the thematic point of view, the games referring to agricultural culture and the Christian faith have disappeared; the games concerning the choice of partner are passing through transformation; on the contrary, the theme of social bullying has been strengthened. The aforementioned trends are determined by economic development, transformation of social relations within local societies, and, of course, by mass media. As to the structural motifs, they tend to reductions both in their quantity used for construction of a concrete dramatic intrigue, and in their form. In-line-putting of structural motifs as well as their form influence the contemporary dramatic games. Games with simple and anticipatable construction as well as easy-to-remember verbal and motion parts manageable for a great number of players “playing not well together” have gone through. Such trends are determined by limitation of opportunities suitable to realize a game, by instability of players' groups, their age homogeneity and related absence of relevant “experts”, especially teenagers.
The contribution deals with the research of children's folklore among Romani people. The author proceeds from her own experience, terrain research, written retrospective sources and literature. She was collecting the source materials for the study between 2005 and 2010, in different types of residential areas. Each of them presents specific features in gaming expressions, in knowledge and variability of games as well as in relationship to toys. Children in Roma settlements use toys collectively. Their games have simple rules, they do not last very long and depend on the actual situation, weather, and the possibility to use the surrounding space and the material offered. The nature in their closest neighborhood provides them with wide variability and possibilities. In Roma settlements, one can note modern varieties of traditional children's games even today. Children coming from non-segregated environment of a small town are better interrelated with their toys; they understand “playing” in the sense coming near to its usual interpretation. Children from urban agglomeration are lacking mostly in the space itself. Their nearer contact with every-day reality and majority inhabitants in the neighborhood are reflected in diversity of games (cards, čára), used toys (toys for sandpit) and e.g. even in using the children's counting-our rhymes implied from Czech cultural environment.
The classification, the essay deals with, is based on the collection of games played by present-day school-age children in the 1st through 9th class (totally 1600 cases in 81 classes from the 1st to 9th year). The procedures inspired by Mr. and Mrs. Opie from Oxford were used to create the collections (the collection was created with the assistance of students working in the field). First, it was the revised system of so-called basic motifs (1. chasing games, 2. catching games, 3. seeking games, 4. hunting games, 5. racing games, 6. dueling games, 7. exerting games, 7*. schooling games, 8. daring games, 8* shocking games, 9. guessing games, 10. acting games, 11. pretending games, 12. shooting games, 13. gender games); the system was used for classification “from bellow” - the idea of so-called basic games (1. to touch, 2. in touching the body, 3. object-throwing - with touching the body, 4. throwing the object - on the track, 5. run- with touching the body, 6. run- on the track, 7. motion structure - joggling and rhythmic exercise 8. object structure, 9. guessing, 10. fictive identities and stories). In both types of classification the authors stumbled on the possibility to consider both mutually combining levels in the future - the level of body subjects activity and the level of roles in a game. The first level includes the poetics of drives (oral, anal, scopic etc. in a variety of their transformations), while the other one covers cultural and moral relations (“Oedipus” relations or those deduced from the Oedipus ones) handling with the drives, such as competition, “bullying”, “democratic” distributions.
The contribution deals with the theme of live-action role-playing games in the Czech Republic at present. The general part includes explanation of used terms LARP and dřevárna, brief history of these games in the world and in the Czech Republic, description of particular types of dřevárna including a brief overview of the most favorite actions of this type; it mentions the players community, its structure and relation to other similar free-time activities. The second part of the contribution is dedicated to one of the biggest fantasy dřevárna-type games in the Czech Republic - The Battle of Five Armies. The author depicts origin of this action in 2000 and its development until today, game rules to make weapons and costumes, rules for system of duels, game objects used, preparations for the game on the part of the players and arrangers and the course of the game itself taking account of the year 2010. The text is completed with the game world map and some photos of costumed players.
Journal of Ethnology 2/2010 pays attention mainly to returns and rehabilitation of traditional construction materials and building techniques in the life-style of today. Václav Michalička contemplates about the meaning of revitalization, its final appearances, and their functions (Some aspects of revitalization in traditional techniques in folk architecture). In these connections, Alena Dunajová and Ivana Žabičková reveal the issue of clay (Revitalization of clay houses at the turn of the millennium), Marie Baďuříková deals with wood as basic construction material, especially in country regions (Timbered buildings: tradition and today). Martin Šimša submits the contribution aimed at statistics and writing about use of fireplaces, wood stoves and masonry stoves in the contemporary system of heating (Local heating – new returns of old themes).
Stopping with Photos submits the photos by K. O. Hrubý (1916–1998) documenting the production of unburnt clay bricks in South East Moravia. Transferring Traditions column publishes the contributions Roots of folklorism and its present importance (Josef Jančář) and Transformations of folk songs (Marta Toncrová). The interview is held with ethnologist Jan Krist (*1950). Social Chronicle mentions other two anniversaries: choreographer Jiřina Mlíkovská (*1925) and musicologist Bruno Nettl (*1930). The obituary note remembers the personality of writer Helena Lisická (1930–2009). Other regular columns include the information on conferences, exhibitions and publisher’s and other professional activities.
The traditional building techniques include plenty of information and affirmations that can be purposefully applied in the process of creating and improving the cultural memory of the society. Revitalization of traditional techniques in folk architecture means in this case the “revival of historical manufacture procedures”. In practice, they are done for different reasons and needs. However, the struggle to protect the knowledge from being fully forgotten is the primary one. Nevertheless, only the finding of renewed social legitimacy for traditional techniques and the active social use mean the real revitalization. The functionality of the revived techniques is the necessary condition for legitimate revitalization. It is especially the museum memory institutions and the institutions of monument preservation that can try to revitalize the historical phenomena successfully. Those institutions have namely the opportunity to research the original and authentic element, to read necessary information in them, to analyze the information scientifically and to verify and apply them. Especially the open-air museums with their nature comply with the conditions of experimental centers that offer the unique chance to revitalize the traditional techniques in folk architecture in the most real and historically identical appearance.
The authors deal with the phenomenon of returning clay as material used for construction of new houses and repairs of traditional clay buildings. The first chapter includes the historic excursus that is followed by characterization of using the clay-building construction techniques within the country environment in Central and South Moravia. In these regions, clay prevailed in construction of farmsteads since the 18th century whereby it developed especially in the 19th century. Recently, clay has been used again for reconstructions of landmarks as documented by concrete cases. The second part of the essay sums up the situation abroad where especially France belongs to the top European countries in the field of the unburnt-clay buildings research. Close to Lyon is situated an experimental settlement built from unburnt clay, and special university programs (CRATerre Centre, GAIA and TERRA 2000 projects) deal with the research of clay-building construction techniques. Other European countries paying high attention to clay in building industry are Germany with university research and a central organization (Dachverband Lehm) and Austria where they do essential experiments in the field of ecological architecture. Furthermore, the essay analyses the most often defects in existing clay buildings (mainly humidity and its causes), the reconstructions of those buildings and the ways of using the clay material in new constructions.
Timber is the primary and basic building material used for construction of dwellings in the Czech Republic. It was used in the form of round timber, balks, boards, and roofing. Timber buildings have been maintained mainly as a part of country settlement. Nowadays, farmsteads as well as single timber houses are used mostly for recreation. The timber buildings were influenced by their long-term development and regional customs. The site of the houses as well as their ground plan always depended on financial possibilities of the owners and on changing rules. In the present, the residential houses cannot be built in the same way. When comparing individual structures, used materials and their processing, we can gain the knowledge of principal differences between the timbered buildings from the past and the contemporary ones. We must proceed to the monuments, their repairs, or reconstructions in a different way. Those buildings should be repaired in the way of a scientific reconstruction with respect to their use. Architectural expression, mass, detail and material processing of new timbered houses should correspond to the neighbouring housing and environment.
Modern techniques have brought a lot of new opportunities for heating the households in the last two decades. Some of them, for example fireplaces, are fully new and have no tradition in our regions. In the contrary, the masonry stove continues the well-tried but forgotten technical solution. Regarding the recent trends emphasizing the energy saving and the utilization of renewable resources, the heaters burning biomass, such as wood, sawdust pellets, or sawdust briquettes enjoy great popularity. As resulting from the ENERGO 2004 statistic analysis, use of the above fuels is more or less a matter of peripheral importance as compared with other kinds of energy. In the town, it moves about 2,5% while it exceeds 10 % in the country. The individual types of heaters used in the households show certain conservatism. In Moravia, the most wood is burned in central-heating boilers or kitchen stoves while in Bohemia, fireplaces and local heaters occur in larger extent. This corresponds to the data drawn in towns where the proportion of fireplaces as compared to other types of heaters, exceed 25% in some regions. The next development will show whether it means the long-term trend or just the passing tendency.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2010 is aimed at the issue of Czech minorities living abroad; it submits also some knowledge from the researches among the Slovaks in Hungary. Michal Pavlásek (Czech minority in the South Banat village of Veliko Srediště. Its beginnings and ethic processes) dealt with forming of Czech settlement in the region of present Serbian Banat. Stanislav Brouček (History and memories of the own past /with respect to testimonies of Czech immigrants to the Republic of South-Africa/) investigated the role of group and individual memory at Czech Diaspora. Petr Janeček (Literary folklore of Texas Czechs. On narrative repertoire of Czech emigration groups in the first half of the 20th century) paid attention to oral tradition at Czech minority in Texas. Markéta Janková and Tomáš Čech (Czechs abroad - trans-generational transfer of Czech folk culture among the members of fellow-countrymen associations) dealt with the activities of fellow-countrymen associations, while Eva Krekovičová (There are anthems and anthems. Anthems in the processes of transformation at the turn of the Millennium) investigated the self-identification of Slovak minority in Hungary.
Stopping with Photos submits the photos of events in the families of Czech immigrants to the USA, the Transferring Trandition column publishes the contribution by Magdalena Rychlíková about Ludvík Feigl (1861-1942), a significant Czech entrepreneur, collector and organizer of cultural life, who was working in Lvov in Eastern Halič for fifty years, and the commemoration of the work of writer Marie Damborská (1895-1990) written by literary scholar František Všetička. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of Slovakian ethnologist Daniel Luther (born 1950) and Hungarian ethnologist of Slovakian origin Anna Divičanová (born 1940). It publishes also the obituary notes of Hungarian ethnologist Soňa Kovačevičová (1921-2009) and Czech ethno-musicologist Ivo Stolařík (1923-2010). Other regular columns pay attention to conferences, exhibitions, festivals reviews of new books and reports from the branch.
Veliko Srediště is a settlement situated in Serbian Banat, in Voivodina, near the town of Vršac. This contribution tries to find an answer to the issues relating to ethnogenesis of the Czech speaking inhabitants, who have been neglected by ethnologists, anthropologists, or historians researching the Czech speaking communities abroad. The contribution is based on the new hitherto not used resources provided by the archive of the Synodic Council in Prague as well as by the Regional History Archive in the village of Bela Crkva. The author discovered other important resources in the location concerned where he did large field research work. Taking into consideration those resources, one can refute the theses on ethnogenesis of Czechs in Veliko Srediště. Such theses assert Protestants from Svatá Helena, a Czech village in Rumania founded after 1820, to have been the first Czech colonists. In his contribution, the author interprets transmigration of the Czech speaking inhabitants as the process of migration consisting of three compact colonization waves reaching their peak with the large “Moravian” colonization wave in the 1850s. He records the historical development of Protestants since the end of the World War I, trying to explain the assimilation of Czech Roman Catholics within a larger group of German Roman Catholics.
Memory can be compared to the function of a balance wheel creating continuity in different areas of the society. History and memory are two different categories. History can enter memory; on the contrary, memory entry into history is an inadmissible matter for some historians; for other experts, the memories are adequate history resources. Subjective level of manipulation is what continues to be memory base. On the contrary, history is – to the maximum extent possible – an objectified view of the past. Memory records the past through individual experiences whereby several levels can be seen in the process of remembering. Especially: memory includes both a stage of a storage device and a stage of subjective interpretation depending on plenty of individualized factors including the current mood of the narrator. Both levels (storage device and interpretation), however, are subject to the author’s license whereby the purpose of this communication is dominating. On the other side, the purpose cannot be related only to an individual’s profit. The contribution summarizes some knowledge of the author gained at the collection of life stories among the members of Czech ethnic groups abroad with concrete examples from the Republic of South-Africa.
Literary folklore, traditional, orally-transmitted level of expressive culture, is generally considered to be a important part of culture of all ethnic groups, including European immigration to the U.S.A. Presented paper examines folkloric level of everyday culture of Texas Czechs in the first half of the 20th century. Since immigration of first Czech families to Texas to the end of the Second World War, Texas Czechs represented vital ethnic oral culture with many specific folkloric characteristics. Although majority of oral narratives of Texas Czechs in this period were directly transferred from the Old Country, some of them were influenced by immigrant and pioneer experience, different social and cultural conditions in Texas, and contacts with other Texan ethnic communities. Only the most vital European traditions, which could be adapted to the new lifestyle, survived acculturation to specific American geographical, social and cultural setting. Presented first part of the paper, using mainly yet unpublished 1942 thesis “Czech Folklore in Texas” by Olga Pazdral from Central Texas, tries to point out some general outlines of Texas Czech literary folklore of this period, focusing mainly on folk legends. Planned second and third part will outline other traditional narratives (folktales, short folklore genres like jokes and proverbs, children folklore and personal experience narratives). Folklore of Texas Czechs of the period can be characterized not only by its continuity with Old World traditions, but also by its incorporation of typically American folklore narratives, stemming from unique immigration experience.
The essay deals with features characteristic for the emigration of Czech expatriates abroad, in several migration waves. It records the role of fellow-countrymen associations, the trans-generational transfer of Czech traditions, and the safeguarding of Czech culture among the members of fellow countrymen associations and their descendants round the world. The authors submit descriptive results from a questionnaire research running in the years 2007 and 2008 (stress was put especially on the forms of trans-generational transfer and the influence of original cultured on the respondents' self-conception). The above research confirmed high influence of original cultural roots on the self-conception of Czech expatriates and their descendants, who took part in the research. Simultaneously, it drew attention to natural assimilation resulting in gradual abandonment of practicing the Czech traditional customs and the elements of Czech folk culture. Along with the “decline” of daily practicing, the trans-generational transfer in families, substituted by fellow-countrymen associations, gradually loses its influence on handing-over of the traditional components. The fellow-countrymen associations provide “education” and information for those interested (it is more a form of interest group); on the other hand, the expatriates could find here an alternative place to practice the Czech traditions, as mentioned above. Because ethnic identity is an important part of personal identity of an individual, the clubs - next to the family - are important not only for the entire communities but also for the individuals. Support provided by the Czech government to the clubs is therefore a significant contribution to their work.
In her essay, the author deals with different levels of self-identification at members of Slovak language islands in Hungary, based on an example of more ethnically symptomatic anthems. On the one hand, it is the anthem of the Slovaks in Hungary, which became an official anthem of this minority in 1999. The Slovaks in Hungary accepted the melody of a carol generally spread in Slovakia to be their anthem. The text of this song comes from 1991 and it was written by V. Gruska, a Slovak involved in folklorism in Slovakia. It is the song Daj Boh šťastia tejto zemi publicized in the media also in Slovakia, but mainly as a Christmas carol. Based on the aforementioned example the author points out the different historical memory of the Slovaks in Hungary and of the Hungarians in Slovakia on one side, and that of the Slovaks living in Slovakia on the other side. While the Hungarians in Slovakia take the official Hungarian anthem for their own, the Slovaks in Hungary felt a need to have different anthem song, than the state anthem of the Slovak Republic. Within this environment, regional (“Pilíšská anthem”) and local anthems (“Čabianska anthem” from 1932) exist and return. The second part of the essay mentions a parody of the official Slovakia state anthem (Anthem of Unjustly Baldheaded) spread by the Internet as an anthem of an officially registered interest association.
Journal of Ethnology 4/2009 is devoted to literary folkloristics, text and transdisciplinarity. In her essay, Marta Šrámková deals with transdisciplinarity as a methodological conception (Transdisciplinarity and Commemorative narration). Petr Janeček pays attention to development of literary folkloristics within the context of other scientific disciplines (The texts and contexts. Some comments on the position of literary folkloristics between European ethnology and cultural anthropology). Slovakian ethnologist Tatiana Bužeková aims her essay at cognitive anthropology applied in study of folklore material, especially at the genre of superstitious narrations (Rarášok and zmok as cultural representations or why do the survivals survive?). Polish folklorist Dorota Simonides searches the parallel between medieval sources and contemporary oral literature (Medieval exemplum and contemporary folklore).
Transferring Tradition column publishes the article by Eva Večerková on contemporary customary traditions (St. Nicholas carolling in the region of Znojmo). Section Interviews is devoted to Slovakian ethnologist Eva Krekovičová (*1949). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologist Alena Prudká (*1949) and musician Zdeněk Bláha (*1929) and publishes the obituary note of ethnologist Zdeněk Mišurec (1925–2009). Other regular columns include the contributions to discussions, reports from conferences, festivals and professional activities, as well as reviews of new books and reports on the activity of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice.
On an example of a kind of folklore - commemorative narration, the essay is understood as a reflection on the relation of folkloristics to the methodology of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and especially to the new methodological stream – transdisciplinarity. It substantiates the folklore to reflect the social, cultural, historic, ethnographic and other “non-folklore” phenomena in which it is performed and actualized, meeting its functions. Therefore, the relation of folkloristics to other disciplines is (and has to be) opened and its methodology is (and has to be) interdisciplinary. The main and crucial criteria for folklore analysis and interpretation cannot be substituted, however, by the methods of “non-folklore” disciplines. The methodology of transdisciplinarity supposes such an abstracted folklore phenomenon (factum, sign), becoming a part of the problematics ruling over the interdisciplinary approach and representing its common “keystone”, to be applied across the branches. There are applied both the elements of anthropology, culturology, sociology, elements of communication etc. New professional literature is used and annotated in the analysis. The common observations are demonstrated in different versions of commemorative narration. The traditions and experience of Czech folkloristics are emphasized as well.
The study reflects on the actual position of literary folkloristics (not only) within the domestic academic discourse. Although - at the very beginning of ethnologic research – the studies of folklore texts were in the foreground and a more remarkable interest in artefacts of material or folk culture as a whole occurred much more later, at present the study of folklore reaches a certain marginal position, being even part of rhetoric proclaimed by proponents of different schools in cultural and social anthropology. The essay reflects on the causes of the above contemporary phenomenon, considering the inherent characteristics of folkloristics, and – simultaneously – outlining the impulses to the next development thereof. The main sense and importance of literary folkloristics, a discipline being in an apparently “schizophrenic” position on the boundary between humanities and social sciences, is regarded not as taking-over of the period conjunctural themes, theories or methodologies from other branches, but as emphasizing of collection and analysis of the texts widespread by word of mouth, which should especially be in the foreground of folkloristic researches.
The paper focuses on the theoretical perspective of cognitive anthropology applied in study of folklore. The author aims to demonstrate that the terms “folk beliefs” and “superstitions” used in folkloristics relate to the definition of folklore as a “survival” peculiar to the earlier anthropological theory of cultural evolution. Cognitive anthropology offers a different approach to study of cultural phenomena. From the cognitive point of view, the so-called superstitions are representations incorporating anti-intuitive concepts. Some of them could have their origin in old pagan beliefs, but this is not the main factor influencing their transmission: the distribution of anti-intuitive concepts is determined by how the human mind works. Narrations containing those concepts are related to a concrete social context and do not necessary refer to the religious feelings or religious faith. On the example of rarášok and zmok – supernatural beings from Slovak folk tales – the author demonstrates that the hypothetical religious origin of folklore images does not explain their present “survival”. Distribution of rarášok and zmok’s representations could be explained in terms of Pascal Boyer’s theory. Rarášok and zmok appear in tales with interpretation of misfortune in terms of supernatural forces. Long-term reproduction of corresponding narrative schemata could be explained by further cognitive theories dealing with certain aspects of human cognition related to concrete social situations.
The study deals with both the view of the importance of exempla, and the rarely applied methodological procedure, i.e. the interpretation of contemporary front-page stories telling as a parallel to medieval exempla telling. The incorporation of exempla and folklore tales within the context of culture, level of education and “everyday life”, which features with a rapid rate and new ways in disseminating the information – opposite to the Middle Ages – is of great importance. The co-existences of different social classes, traditions and cultures play an important role. Exempla are understood as a certain type of bridges built between folklore and literature by the activities of medieval preachers. Both the ethic function of exempla and their role in creation of cultural and historical consciousness are pointed-out. Many exempla converted into other folklore kinds during their development. When interpreting the exempla and contemporary front-page stories, the attention is to be turned to the “narrative situation” and the recipient. The variability of a story is caused by the actualization of place, time and circumstances in which the story is set. A folklorist is to observe this procedure.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2009 is aimed at food-related issues. Elizabeth Fendl and Jana Nosková dealt with the description of Czech cuisine within the German environment (“Bohemian cuisine is used in the Czech Lands again”. Pictures of Czech cuisine in German-written cookery books and tourism materials after 1989), Rastislava Stoličná pointed out the diet of minorities in Slovakia (Traditional culinary culture of ethnic minorities in Slovakia), Ivan Hlavatý paid attention to the Greeks in the Czech environment (Cuisine and food of the Greek minority in the Czech Republic as a factor of ethnic identity) while Marta Toncrová paid her attention to the Ukrainian minority (Remarks on eating habits of the Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic - on an example of Brno and its surroundings). Anna Drożdż investigated the food of the population in the Vistula delta at the Eastern-Pomeranian coast in Poland (Changes in eating habits in the territory of Greater Żuławy in the 20th century).
Transferring Tradition column publishes the article Recipes Liebigs Fleischextrakt (Magdalena Rychlíková) on a collection of promotional recipes from the years 1890-1904 from the collections of the Náprstek Museum in Prague, the contribution What one used to eat in the village of Velehrad or Folk food one hundred years ago (Petr Horehleď) and the essay Josef Maceček, a woodcarver making birds in the Beskydy Mountains - the self-fulfilment of an amateur author (Václav Michalička). Section Review remembers the unreached 75th birthday of ethnologist Václav Frolec (1934-1992). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Eva Urbachová (born 1924) and Lenka Nováková (born 1949) and it includes the obituary notes of musicians Vladimír Meloun (1926-2009) and Jaromír Bažant (1926-2009). Other regular columns publish the reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals and concerts as well as reviews of new books and reports from the branch.
The essay describes the picture of Czech national cuisine and its features, namely based on an analysis of forewords in cookery books, guidebooks and websites, which document how the picture of Czech cuisine has been formed mainly after 1989. The picture of Czech cuisine has been analyzed solely in German-written materials, i.e. there has been analyzed the way of creating this picture abroad and for foreign audience. The essay shows how the picture of Czech cuisine has been created by emphasizing the influence of countryside, climate and tradition, originality and anchoring in the kitchens of lower and middle classes and negative affect of socialistic era. It partially deals with the choice of national specialities and the reports on eating habits of the Czechs, which complete the picture of Czech cuisine. The analysis of creating the picture of Czech cuisine is also more extensively involved into the issues of utilizing this picture in tourism, as well as into the discussions on globalizations and regionalism. The Czech example is compared with the examples from the German speaking regions. The structure of Czech national cuisine is discussed also in relation to identity creating – in connection with the thesis that the pictures mediated by mass media can become a source of identity creating. They can serve as identity mediators. The matter of the essay is not to observe the processes of identity creating at the readers, users of aforementioned sources.
Food and ways of eating belong to the most significant identification codes of human communities. The culinary culture ranks among the structures of the so-called long durance and the eating models belong to the most stabile values of human communities. They are an integral part of the cultural equipment of every person; in their rudimentary form, they survive for long time and often under changed conditions. The ethnological researches substantiate the population of different ethnic minorities in Slovakia was able to safeguard their cultural identity until today. In addition to the main ethnic features, such as language and ethnic awareness, their traditional culture is one of the most distinctive identification symbols. This relates also to the range of traditional eating habits by which they demonstrate their distinctiveness and dissimilarity to the Slovak majority and other ethnic groups. The contribution presents the traditional culinary culture of three ethnic minorities living in Slovakia: the Hungarians, Romani and Ruthenians – Ukrainians who belong to the largest minorities and who show distinctive ethno-identification symbols in their traditional culinary culture even today.
The essay deals with fifty years of the Greek minority presence in the Czech Republic from the point of view of food and its generation changes as a factor of ethnic identity. The author describes the Greek cuisine historically, from the arrival of the Greek community until now, and its representation and changes in family cuisine and annual and family ceremonies. He also follows the role and importance of Greek gastronomy as an element of living traditions and ethnic self-reflexion. As to the ethnic identification, the essay offers an overview of Greek everyday and festive menus. It records the difficulties that the Greek community had in the past when looking for some victuals and that resulted in animal husbandry and vegetable growing. With the aforementioned factors, the author tries to demonstrate the rate of Greek culinary representation in the cuisine of this minority and the Greek food as a factor of identification and expression of the ethnic affiliation within the tangible culture.
The research probe was done at the Ukrainians living in Brno and its surroundings during the last two decades, observing their way of eating. The traditional Ukrainian dishes are prepared on workdays and on holidays. Paska, pastry consecrated in the church along with other foods, is connected with Easter. All those asked still, maintain this ceremony, the choice of foods for the above purpose is, however, quite free today. At Christmas, the tradition of seven, nine or twelve fast courses survives in a different extent. There is made e.g. kutja (a dish made of grain cereals, honey and poppy) and in addition to this, some families eat fried carp with potato salad. The Ukrainians do not refuse Czech dishes fully, their menu, however, consists mainly of Ukrainian dishes, such as bortsch, turnovers made of noodle dough, stuffed cabbage, different salads, fish and meat shashlicks. Some raw materials are still imported from Ukraine, e.g. salo (slabs of raw salt-cured lard), buckwheat, rock salt, caviar, honey, vodka, sauerkraut, chocolate or even bread. The youngest generation uses the offer of catering facilities and fast foods.
The essay deals with the issues of a battle against hunger, especially against the fear of starvation, as well as with the fact how the people learned to live in a foreign territory, which role the food played during adaptation to the new life situations and how the eating habits determined the regional identity. The field research was done in the region of Greater Żuławy (Poland) based on a questionnaire devoted to the issues concerning culinary traditions and habits linked to food and dining. The received material showed the importance of food in the course of settling into the foreign surroundings, distinguishing two stages: 1. the importance of food at the not-standard time, i.e. in the first years after the arrival at the new place; 2. the importance of food at the standard time, i.e. in the years of stabilization (approximately since the 1950s until 2008). It has been proven that the culinary traditions and eating habits cannot by analyzed separately, out of the unit (thus out of the other items of the culture). The changes in social structure, or the confrontation with new behaviour models and with other traditions are reflected in eating standards. They become mostly evident as a change and a decline. These processes are particularly obvious when confronting different cultures and in extraordinary situations – e.g. in war.
