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Journal of Ethnology 4/2008 deals with folklorism and utilization of folk traditions in the social and political context. Martina Pavlicová and Lucie Uhlíková in their study pay attention especially to the Czech folklore movement in the period of real socialism (Folklorism in historical context of the years 1945-1989 (following the example of the folklore movement in the Czech Republic). Klára Davidová deals with a specific ensemble, studying it as an alternative social community of that time (Chorea Bohemica - a folk dance ensemble as a site of inner emigration). Oľga Danglová focuses on the Slovak environment and reflection of folk traditions in politics (Folk Traditions and Politics). Juraj Hamar analyzes the development of stage folklore in Slovakia in the last twenty years (Folklore in the shadow of scenic folklorism. Marginalia to the Slovak folklore movement after the year 1988-2008). Jan Blahůšek assesses the work of a significant personality in the field of utilization and development of music traditions (The personality of Jaromír Nečas from the point of view of musical folkloristics).
Stopping with Photos section remembers the personality of Josef Šíma who dealt with folk culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (by Helena Beránková). Transferring Tradition column publishes the contribution by Eva Večerková Czech Republic Christmas Tree. Notes on Modern Tradition, then the reflections on the dance “verbuňk” called Intangible Cultural Heritage by Barbora Čumpelíková and the contribution Contemplation on the 100th anniversary of Slovácký krůžek in Brno by Václav Štěpánek. Section Review remembers Emanuel Kuksa (1932-2003), a composer, musical manager and teacher who was closely connected with folklorism. Section Interview introduces ethnologist Bohuslav Šalanda on his anniversary. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Jiří Pajer (born 1948) and Vlasta Ondrušová (born 1948). Other regular columns publish the reviews of new book editions, the reports of folklore festivals, conferences and activities of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice.
Folklorism as the phenomenon and the movement was defined and studied for many times in the ethnological literature, for example with the respect to its role it played in the cultural and historical development of the society and in the process of national, regional and local identification; or with the respect to its role in upbringing the youngest generation. The submitted contribution refers to folklorism in a concrete sector of the folklore movement, asking the question how it functions as a part of the contemporary culture and which role it can play in the life of an individual. It was more difficult to find an answer in past periods. Since it came into being, this range of culture was connected and evaluated in connections with the political context of that time. A specific framework was created especially between 1945 and 1989. The impact of social processes of that time in other cultural spheres has been reflected for many times (e.g. literature, film, religious life). However, the sphere of the folklore movement is always awaiting an objective assessment. There should be investigated not only the impact of the society on this movement, but also the personal statements of the persons involved, which completes the study of life in the period of real socialism.
The study deals with the Chorea Bohemica ensemble from the dance-anthropologic point of view. The aim is to describe the ensemble in its social and cultural aspects and to explore the relation between the importance the Chorea Bohemica members placed on their participating in the group and the political situation in communist Czechoslovakia of that time. The presumption is that the ensemble served as a site for ‘inner emigration’ (a kind of getaway from an oppressive reality of the communist regime). The investigation could show that Chorea Bohemica provided a space for inner emigration. Moreover, it transcended the private character of the usual ‘inner emigration-like’ activities to the public realm and allowed free and creative self-expression, which at some points took on a meaning of an active resistance to the communist regime. The investigation of the factors that constituted the socio-cultural environment of the ensemble was therefore crucial for understanding both the Chorea Bohemica output and the importance it had for its members.
The contribution points out the changeable relationship between cultural heritage and politics in the historical retrospective. It draws the attention to the fact how the aestheticity of folk traditions became a part of the Slovak nation institutionalization in the cultural and political sense in the 19th century nation-creating thoughts; how some folk traditions became a source for creation of the national culture and a mean for political propaganda and manipulation between the Wars and in the period of Slovak military state; how the socialistic state policy supported the folk traditions, appreciating them as an expression of working class. The above was one of the reasons why folklore lost its credit at a part of Slovak meaning-creating society in the post- socialistic period. On the other hand, even present Slovak politicians like to draw on folklore heritage, trying to use it for putting-through their political projects.
After the World War II, folklore lost its functions that proceeded on the original environment and original opportunities. Its so-called “secondary existence” in the form of stage folklorism is always more actual. At the end of the 1940s, there were founded two important folklore ensembles that dealt with stage arrangements and interpretation of folklore on professional level – Lúčnica (1948) and Slovenský ľudový umelecký kolektív (SĽUK – Slovak Traditional Dance Theatre, 1949). For decades, both bodies were influencing the establishment and activities of amateur folklore ensembles all over Slovakia. In 1988, the Slovak folklore movement was a well-functioning organism with the hinterland at many institutions and with the carefully formulated methodology for care, protection, up-bringing and education in the field of stage folklorism. The social changes at the end of 1989 brought a lot of negative experience in the Slovak folklore movement. In addition to the difficulties with financial support for ensembles and festivals, there appeared especially the stereotypes focused on folklore discrediting. Such stereotypes found their breeding ground mainly in mass media. The folklore works, in which we can see the propensity for poor taste and kitsch, constitute another problem. In the end, it is also the institutional failure of the methodological centre for stage folklorism in Slovakia.
The essay deals with the role of an individual in the development of folklorism in the Czech Republic, namely with Jaromír Nečas, a significant personality of the post-war cultural life in Moravia. As the music editor at the Czechoslovak Radio (Czech Radio today), since 1952 he had taken part in documentation and modern passing-on of music folklore and folklore expressions, their presentation and popularization. Significant was his cooperation with the Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments where he worked as cimbalom-player, arranger and Artistic Council member. Nečas´s activity, however, fell outside the scope of the Radio – he lectured on ethnomusicology and folk music culture at important music schools in Brno, taught playing the cimbalom, cooperated with plenty of folk music bands as their consultant; he was initiator, music manager or co-publisher of music media with records of folk music. Jaromír Nečas´s knowledge of folklore material and its exponents and his always-functioning intuition of a music editor, who tries to involve the audience in the imaginary middle of musical events, made him an important co-operator of folklore festivals. The essay is considered the folkloristic assessment of the life’s direction and contribution of this personality.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2008 deals with the activities of the Centre for Folk Art Manufacture (ÚLUV) that was a bearer of the heritage of handicraft traditions, their safeguarding and transformation to new contemporary shapes and functions, between the 1920s and 1995. In her contribution, Lenka Žižková deals with the history of this institution (The glorious beginnings and the inglorious ends of Krásná jizba and the Centre for Folk Art Manufacture), while Alena Křížová comments on the content of its art activity (Art inventions and ambitions of the Centre for Folk Art Manufacture). Daniel Drápala focuses on the personality of Vladimír Bouček in relation to the Centre for Folk Art Manufacture (Folk culture in the context of Vladimír Bouček´s professional activities), Josef Jančář describes the role of the institution in safeguarding the extincting handicraft techniques, problematics of their extinct as well as following struggles to continue the activitity in this field (Documentation of the Centre for Folk Art Production and its continuation).
Transferring Tradition column is devoted to one of Easter customs (so-called rattling) in the region of Uherské Hradiště (by Petr Číhal), Section Review remembers the important anniversary of Czech researcher and traveller Alois Musil (1868-1944). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of ethnologists Hana Dvořáková (born 1948) and Josef Kandert (born 1943) and publishes the obituary notice of ethnologist Josef Vařeka (1927-2008). Other regular columns deal with the reports of conferences and folklore festivals and the reviews of new book editions.
The contribution deals with the history of two designers ́ institutions related to folk culture. The first of them, the so-called Beautiful Chamber (Krásná jizba) was founded by the Association of Czechoslovak Work (Svaz československého díla) in 1927. From 1936 until its liquidation, it worked in the House of Industrial Arts (Dům uměleckého průmyslu) in Národní Street. The best Czech architects, graphic artists and designers of that time worked for Krásná jizba. Since 1929, Ladislav Sutnar, fine artist, architect and theorist, was its consultant. In 1945, the care of folk art production was supported by law, the public corporation – the Centre for Folk and Art Production – was established and Krásná jizba moved under its administration. After the nationalization in 1948, the Centre became the only institution that tried to rescue the crafts and producers by means of model workshops. In 1956, its sphere of activity was narrowed down to the protection and development of the so-called folk art production. Thanks to the cooperation between ethnographers, designers manufacture and sale, it was possible to maintain the high level of all folk and handicraft products and to develop the designer’s output. After the political changes in 1989, some workshops were returned to their original owners, or privatized. Two privatization projects submitted to rescue Krásná jizba, the designers ́ studio and the surviving model workshops were rejected and both the Centre for Folk Art Production and the Krásná jizba were privatized in the form of their liquidation.
The Centre of Folk Art Manufacture was established in 1945 to support the traditional folk producers. In the first years of its existence, it struggled to maintain the original assortment of the individual workshops. In 1954, the Ministry of Culture commenced to act as its promoter. In 1957, a new Act here was issued and the conception of manufacture changed in favour of the quality-designed objects made of natural materials and by old techniques, which were just inspired by the folk art expression. Vladimír Bouček, the founder of the aforementioned institution, declared the so-called unbleached style to be its production programme. This style should become a common standard for the exquisite taste. In the designs of the products took part ethnographers, artists and technologists, who developed the typical style of domestic artefacts, beverage sets, fashion clothing, decorative objects and souvenirs offered in the shops called Krásná jizba (The Beautiful Chamber). This style became very popular in the towns, especially in the intellectual circles because it offered an alternative to the industrial production in the socialistic Czechoslovakia of that time, which brought insufficient invention and poor workmanship.
The essay is devoted to Vladimír Bouček, one of the most essential personalities in the first years of the Centre of Folk Art Manufacture’s existence. Although Bouček was not an ethnographer (he studied architecture in the University of Technology in Brno), he took a significant part – especially between the mid-1940s and the early 1970s – in forming the Centre of Folk Art Manufacture as an organization interconnecting research and documentation, development and manufacture. He became actively involved in the field documentation of tangible culture in the Czechoslovakian territory. He used the gained knowledge for material and theoretic essays published in professional journals, and as documents for the designs of products resulting from the principles of traditional handicraft. Within the monitored phenomena, he paid the particular attention to three basic elements – material, technique and ornament. When developing the handicrafts, the put the greatest stress on keeping the technique. All the professional activities of V. Bouček were determined, however, by his motivation for the folk culture study – to use the gained knowledge to create and develop a system of an efficient support of the handicraft that shall serve – among others – to satisfy the contemporary needs of the modern society.
The defunct journals Tvar (Shape), Věci a lidé (Things and People) and especially the important review Umění a řemesla (Art and Crafts) discuss the development of the Centre of Folk Art Manufacture and its role in safeguarding the declining techniques that produced the objects as accessories for modern living. The knowledge on natural materials and on technological principles of processing those materials for the need of contemporary environment led the producers, the ethnographers and the artists to a unique kind of cooperation. In 1992, this institution was liquidated. The National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice submitted a thorough project to take over and use the documentation of the aforementioned institution, but by the decision of the Ministry of Culture, those documentation funds have been passed to the National Museum in Prague and to the Open-Air Museum of Moravian Wallachia in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The National Institute of Folk Culture has commenced to compile its own documentation of folk manufacture in the Czech Republic; it also takes part in supporting the contemporary manufacture and prepares the documents for awarding the work of folk producers. Since 2000, the producers are awarded by the Ministry of Culture with the title the Bearer of Folk Craft Tradition.
Journal of Ethnology 2/2008 deals with the theme of folk dress. Martin Šimša submits a historical excursion to the development of an important part of men´s clothing - trousers (Canvas trousers - nohavice - legacy of the Middle Ages or a contribution of the Carpathian shepherd’s culture?). In her contribution, Petra Mertová gives an overview of fabrics used to make traditional clothing in the 19th and 20th centuries (Notes on fabrics in the Czech Lands (taking into account the territory of Western and Eastern Slavs). Marta Ulrychová focuses on the contemporary form of the women´s folk costume in a particular location of the Domažlicko ethnographical area (Women’s Carnival Costumes in Postřekov, the Region of Chodsko). Lenka Drápalová pays her attention to stockings - an integral part of the women´s folk costume in the region of Moravian Walachia (Cast-off stockings as a part of women´s traditional dress in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm). Helena Beránková brings the information about the structure of clothing of a contemporary traditional dress wearer from a particular location in Moravian Slovakia (Traditional dress at the present /with an example of one of the last wearers in Uherský Ostroh/).
Stopping with Photos section is devoted to the slides by Franz Stödtner (1870-1944) from the environment of a German textile factory (author Helena Beránková). Transferring Tradition column publishes the results of a fi ve-years survey among school children under the title Is Folklore a Kind of Art? A testimony of children - not only of those from folklore ensembles (author Alena Schauerová). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the ethnologists Leopold Pospíšil (born 1923), Viera Gašparíková (born 1928) and Dušan Holý (born 1933). In other regular columns, the reports of conferences and other professional branch activities and festivals and the reviews of new book editions are published.
The research of the folk dress ranked among frequent themes of the domestic ethnology for many years. Studies from that range, however, dealt more with the research of women’s dress parts and relating issues, while the men’s dress was more on the fringe of interest. The author tries to cover this gap partially with a study aimed at a characteristic men’s dress part – the canvas trousers – nohavice – that belonged to the typical features of traditional men’s dress in the Eastern and South-Eastern Moravia in the past. The contemporary ethnology sees their origin in high Middle Ages as the foregoing development resulted in the rise of complete closed trousers. Although the scientists suppose the traditional canvas trousers – nohavice – to originate in the aforementioned trousers, no study has tried to research and analyse this connection in greater detail up to now. The confrontation of cuts of me- dieval and modern canvas trousers – nohavice – with subsequent taking account of their territorial dissemination serve as a basis of this contribution.
The contribution deals with traditional weaver’s trade in Central and Eastern Europe. This branch had a rich tradition here and its possibilities were influenced by used textile materials – flax, hemp and wool. Cotton and silk were processed rarely -more from the mid-19th century. Another fact, which affected the appearance of weaver’s products, was the expansion of the horizontal loom with frame (frame loom with shafts) which was used as early as since the 11th century in Europe. Canvas, hemp, wool fulled fabrics and semi-wool non-fulled fabrics ranked among the basic traditional products. Within traditional weaver’s trade in Central, Eastern and a part of Northern Europe, wool striped and checked fabrics had great importance. They were peculiar to country weavers and their patterns were typical for relating regions. They were most often used for women’s skirts; their colours were rather dark, with predominant red, brown, blue and black colours. Within traditional weaver’s trade in Bohemia and Moravia, the patterning by an additional weft (float length), which has different names in folk culture, has been kept partially. The aforementioned technique formed the characteristic patterns on fabric and was applied mainly for women’s dress on blouse-sleeves and aprons, on decorated parts of women’s underclothes as well as on soft furnishings within the entire Slavic environment.
The text pays attention to three contemporary variant of festive costumes worn by the women during the Carnival period in Postřekov in the so-called Upper Chodsko Region. The author’s interest in women’s dress is determined by the fact that the men – except for the young men until 18 and the preschool-aged boys – make a point of non-wearing the folk costumes in this location. The recorded variants confirm the lifetime of women’s costumes that fulfil mainly the locally representative and aesthetical functions. For the time being, nothing seems to suggest that its popularity should be on the wane. On the contrary, one can notice opposite trends becoming evident by plenty of exemplars newly made not only upon the wish of local inhabitants but also of those who visit the village as guests and who like to take part in the Carnival balls. The study describes on which occasion a certain variant are worn; it mentions also an overview of colour combinations in accordance with the canon that the women try to keep strictly. Determining the functions, the author found inspiration in the publication by Petr Bogatyrev from 1937 on the analysis of folk costumes at the opposite end of the Czech Republic (Moravian Slovakia). This publication applying the functional and structural analysis goes beyond the scope of foregoing and later works that preferred the predominantly diachronic point of view and the detailed description of costume types and variants.
The written, iconographic and tangible sources, not always maintained in sufficient quantity, document the existence of many parts of the traditional folk dress in Moravian Wallachia. Those parts, however, ceased to be used as early as during the second half of the 19th century. The cast-off stockings made of traditional materials – sheep wool or cloth – and worn both for everyday occasion and for formal wear ranked among the aforementioned parts. Although they were ugly as to the aesthetic standpoint of contemporary observers, the wearers considered them an integral part of their dress not only because of their good properties – warmness and light water-resistance. Nowadays, the amateur and professional public can see the stockings to a limited extent at the museum exhibitions. In 2007, the Museum of Moravian Wallachia in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm solved the grant project called Extinct World of Traditional Techniques whose partial task was to collect the documentation on appearance and dissemination of cast-off stockings in the region of Rožnov and to verify the technique by an attempt with making this garment part.
South-Eastern Moravia is a region where we can find some expressions of traditional folk culture even at the beginning of the third millennium, although that region is perfectly accessible as to communication and information and it accepts the globalization trends in many respects. The traditional dress is an example. The author noticed five last women (born in the 1920s) in the chosen location (Uherský Ostroh) who usually wear the everyday, festive and ceremonial variants of the traditional dress. The contribution pays its attention to the relation of one of those wearers of the specified traditional dress to her own dress. In quantitative and qualitative respects, her individual wardrobe evaluates and follows the phenomena that influence and enable the tradition lifetime. The contribution is tangential with the comparison of how the festive and ceremonial variants of the traditional dress function within the contemporary cultural life of the location (on secular and church holidays and at folklore ensemble performances). It draws the attention to the problems that have not been reflected in an expert way yet and that deals with the creation of folk costume stylizations in the locations where the traditional dress is a living and developing part of the local tradition.
Journal of Ethnography 1/2008 outlines the migration and the ethnic issues. Alexandra Bitušíková chose the theme of transnational migration (Transnational Migration: Research Possibilities within the Central-European Space). Pavel Havránek (Czechs in Caucasus, a Brief History of the Settled Area) and Miloš Luković (Bohumil Bouček ́s Medical Mission in Montenegro between 1875 and 1876 from the Ethnological and Cultural and Historical Point of View) chose the transnational migration as their theme. Zdeněk Uherek and Tereza Pojarová presented a part of the voluminous research concerning the contemporary Romany question (Positions and Opinions of Romany Society Representatives on Selected Issues concering the Community Conflicts).
The text Change of Tradition (author Alena Dunajová) deals with the every-day life of Romanian Slovaks in former Transylvania). Section Review remembers the personality of ethnologist Karel Fojtík (1918–1999). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the Slovak folklorist Soňa Burlasová (born 1927), ethnologist Alena Plessingerová (born 1928) and that of Miloslav Brtník (born 1928) – musician, folklore collector and an important organizer of folklore movement in the region of Horácko. In other regular columns, the reports of conferences, exhibitions and other professional branch activities and the reviews of new book editions are published.
The paper deals with the anthropological study of transnationalism that is a new phenomenon in the post-socialist countries in Central Europe, and a new perspective research topic. It brings a brief overview of the most used definitions of transnationalism. It focuses on the processes of transnational migration and the place of transnational migrants in the global world. With an example of the transnational migrants from Slovakia working in Brussels, it demonstrates what makes a migrant transnational and different from a „traditional“migrant. The study mentions two flows of transnational migrants from Central Europe – the transnational professionals and the workers in non-qualified jobs. It also emphasises the importance of studying the increasing transnational migration to Central Europe (mainly from Eastern Europe) and its consequences for the changing structure and diversity of the population.
The emigration of Czech ethnic group to the area of north-eastern Caucasus in Russia ranked among one of three main colonizing streams heading east from Bohemia and Moravia in the course of the 1860s. Bedřich Heyduk, who acted as the main agronomist in the Black-Sea Governorate, played the leading role. The colonists founded some villages, especially in the close vicinity to the seaport town of Novorossiysk. Even after 140 years full of tsarist country’s russificating policy, wars, Bolsheviks ́ government and everything related to the above, the Russian Czechs have maintained their national awareness and do no forget the roots of their ancestors. The Czech Republic is giving the assistance as well – it supports the compatriots living abroad in many aspects, shall it concern financial subsidies or ensuring the lessons of Czech language.
Bohumil Bouček (1850–1926) is known especially as founder of the spa in Poděbrady. As the young physician, he spent six months in medical mission in Šavnik in Montenegro, where the Austrian-Hungarian Government posted him during the so-called Herzegovina Uprising 1875–1876. In his letters, published at that time, as well as in the book “Among wounded Montenegrians, years 1875–6” he depicted the course and some details of the anti-Turkish uprising, not excepting the contacts with other Czechs and foreigners working in the region. He described the treatment of the wounded rebels and local people and he recorded the every-day life in families (way of livehood, food preparation, hygienic habits, various customs and festivities, folklore tradition, position of popes in the society etc.). His records represent both the “little” history of the uprising and the source for etnologists, physicians and scientists from other scientific branches.
The contribution proceeds on the analysis of responses by Roma leading employees of 30 institutions dealing with social work, consultancy, cultural activity and political activities. The data have been obtained within the solution of the international project called Peace-Com, focused on the community conflicts in Europe. The text concentrates on determination of the term “community conflict” and shows, which Roma leading personalities look for the beginnings and causes of those conflicts in the Czech countries. The research has shown a quite significant co-operation of organisations cooperating with Roma with state administration and local self-governments, non-governmental and non-profit-making organizations and international organizations as well as a big heterogeneity in looking for causes and beginnings of community conflicts and a small interconnection of Roma organization among each other. The research has also confirmed that the Roma penetrate the political sphere to a quite low extent, they have, however, their allies there. The Roma elites concentrate rather on social works ad cultural activities. The research concerned just the organizations and only the leading Roma representatives were interviewed. It does not represent the opinions and attitudes in Roma communities generally.
Journal of Ethnography 4/2007 outlines the issue of the function and process of communication which have been hitherto infrequent within various ranges of ethnological researches. Alena Křížová deals with the functions of decoration and jewel (Jewel as a Hallmark). Petr Janeček pays his attention to folklore narration and its function in the modern society (Communicating role of folk literature in modern society: urban phantoms of the World War II), Marta Šrámková specifies the contemporary trends of folklore researches from that standpoint (New research field of folkloristics – media communication). In her essay, Martina Vyziblová deals with the communication in relation to ethnic minorities (Work with Romany children or more than just remedial classes) and Eva Večerková gets down to that issue based on traditional material (Christmas Eve “Driving the Sheep to Bethlehem” in South-Western Moravia).
The essay Pilgrimage to St. Antonius (Impressions of a contemporary pilgrim) by Blanka Petráková specifies the changes of tradition. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the ethnographer Věra Kovářů (born 1932), the literary folklorist Bohuslav Beneš (born 1927) and the enthnographic worker Marie Pachtová (born 1932); it publishes also the obituary notices for Zdeněk Lukáš (1928 – 2007), composer, and Jana Rychtová (1946 – 2007), a personality of folklore movement. In other regular columns, the reports of exhibitions, festivals, concerts, professional branch activity and the reviews of new book editions are published.
The title of the contribution Jewel as a Hallmark glosses the thesis by Peter Bogatyrev called Folk Costume as a Hallmark because it utilizes the identical method of functional structuralism, which is applied on various forms of human body’s decoration and on various appearances of a jewel. This is what expresses the fact that – in common with the clothing – the decoration and jewel present a mean of non-verbal communication. Similarly, the individual functions of decoration and jewels are determined: 1. practical, 2. magic, 3. family and 4. social one, 5. function of distinguishing the ethnical groups, professional and amateur associations and 6. erotic and aesthetic functions that run through the previous categories simultaneously.
The author analyzes the dissemination and social function of rumours about so-called urban phantoms – fictive demoniac beings that were typical for folk literature during the World War II. The rumours about spirits, such as Czech Pérák (Spring Man) and Žiletkář, Slovak Fosforák, American Mad Gasser of Mattoon and Black Flash and Italian Pippo spread at the end of the war and were closely connected with the social tensions of that time. Those war phantoms have their basic features, like expressive realistic anthropomorphic and technological nature and weak continuation of traditional folklore expression. After the non-standard war situation had terminated, the most rumours ceased to exist very quickly; some of them have survived in popular culture and media until now.
The communication in folkloristics is understood as handing over of experience that forms a part of social standards, cultural consciousness and folk tradition. Media communication cannot substitute the way of handing over the folklore matters and it does not work with the categories narrative act, life of folklore, narrator and listener, narrative opportunity. Communicating by means of media is not a narrative act; it does not create any tradition and handed-down repertoire. Media communication and folkloristics are two separate systems; their common feature is “handing over of communicating”. Media communication is a feature of technologized society. It determines the rise of non-traditional forms, genres and matters, which are spread by media, within young generation. In the conclusion, the contribution brings some examples of Christmas greetings, freely referring to folk forms. The task of folkloristics is to study the relation to the media communication theories.
The text is focused on the education as one of the ways, how to improve the living conditions of the Romany minority significantly. The objective of the text is to point out the necessity of the active participation of the Czech majority in the improvement of Roma’s education and to draw the attention to some specific matters that have to be taken into account with this work. The author proceeds from her practical experience with remedial classes for the Romany children, which are held in the Museum of Romany Culture in Brno for the third year. She makes the readers familiar with the advantages of individual approach applied at the remedial classes; she draws attention to the necessity to enter into open communication among three parties: the family, the school and the tutor giving remedial classes, which is crucial for the remedial classes to be successful. She is taken aback by the problems of language disadvantaging the Romany children, by the entering into relations with a Romany family and the necessity of timely help, which should function as a precaution of the Romany children’s failure at school.
The author deals with the Christmas habit called “sheep of Bethlehem, driving the sheep to Bethlehem”. She completes the literature reports with the archive and terrain researches. She records the life of the habit, which has survived until now in some places, on the map. She meets with the highest frequency in the region whose centre is the town of Jemnice. The ceremony procession with the local shepherd and children playing sheep happened at Christmas Eve. The shepherd cracked a whip and played the ox horn, the children imitated the sheep with voices and ringing the cowbells. Later on, some new elements were adjoined to the procession of the “shepherd” and his “sheep”, mainly the Christmas tree and the musicians playing famous Christmas carols.
Journal of Ethnography 3/2007 pays its attention to Professor Richard Jeřábek (1931 – 2006), an important personality of Czech and European ethnology and the long-year member of Journal of Ethnography ́s editorial board, who died just one year ago suddenly. A lot of his colleagues and students declare their support to his scientific legacy. Some of them have contributed to this issue with their essays and articles that originate from the research themes by Prof. Jeřábek: from historiography and branch theory through ethnographic zoning, ethnicity problems, graphic folk culture up to ethnographic photo and movie.
Karel Altman in his essay reminded of the importance of writers Alois and Vilém Mrštík for ethnographic study of the Moravian country at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (Source of knowledge on the life and works of Brothers Mrštík), while Blanka Petráková mentioned the importance and fate of Professor Antonín Václavík (1891 – 1959), founder of the University study of ethnology in Brno (Antonín Václavík and Pozlovice). Helena Beránková dealt with the position of a village photographer (The Local Community and a Photographer – a Photographer and the Local Community / Photographic studio of Antonín Koukal in Uherský Ostroh 1921 – 1956/) and Miroslav Válka wrote about ethnographical zoning (Moravské Horácko, Hřebečsko and Malá Haná – ethnographic regions at the ethical and cultural boundary line). Alena Dunajová (Folk architecture, or folk structural engineering? A contribution the terminological discussion) and Marta Pastierková (Community environment of the village of Blatnica) submitted their expressions on folk architecture. Daniel Drápala (Under the names of Valach and portas – terminological discussion) dealt with the phenomenon of military service in South-Eastern Moravia in the 17th and 18th centuries and Martin Šimša contributed to the theme of Carnival rounds with masks (Carnival Round of „hřebenáři“– new aspects of the relevant interpretation). Alena Kalinová gave an explanation on the history of earthenware research at The Moravian Museum (Comments on Research of the Anabaptist Earthenware at The Moravian Museum before 1945), Eva Večerková introduced the portray of Růžena Šilarová (1913 – 2003), decorated Easter eggs painter from Brandýs nad Labem (Decorated Easter Eggs by Růžena Šilarová) and Hana Dvořáková dealt with the insist author František Diviš (1923 – 2004) from Únanov near Znojmo („Divišov“– the weekday spirit).
In the regular columns, the jubilees of ethnologists Stanislav Brouček (*1947) and Josef Vařeka (*1927) and that of Jan Pavlík (*1937), a personality of folklore movement in the Moravian Slovakia, are mentioned; furthermore, the reports of exhibitions and festivals and the reviews of new book editions are published.
Brothers Alois and Vilém Mrštík are two noticeable literature personalities who made their indelible mark in the development of ethnography and folkloristic, inter alia. Their exceptionality consists just in connection of two activity levels, which turned out well on the highest artistic and professional level. With the exclusivity of their literary adaptation of the environment, they could know during their lives, they dominate all other writes who presented the life in the Moravian country. Both of them were excellent experts in folk culture and life of Moravian folk at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially because of their work at Diváky near Hustopeče where their most important works, including the chronicle Rok na vsi (A Year in the Village) came into being. To evaluate the literary production and the fames of the Mrštíks requires widely conceived endeavour, beginning from the study not only of the corresponding historical resources, but also of the most significant secondary literature. Our contribution calls attention to both.
Antonín Václavík, the important Moravian ethnographer and founder of the ethnographical department at Brno University, came from the village of Pozlovice, where he was born on 17 July 1891. Childhood and youth spent at Pozlovice near Luhačovice influenced his life way significantly. Along with brother František, they opened the Luhačovice Museum in July 1918. They exhibited their ethnographical collections there, initiating the foundation of the Museum Society in Luhačovice. The research of Václavík ́s native region and the activity of the Museum Society came to a head in issuing the monograph Luhačovické Zálesí in 1930. Václavík made many personal sacrifices to issue the monograph yet he was meeting misunderstanding for plenty of following years. He did not come to hate his native region and he returned often here.
Antonín Koukal (1895 – 1972), trained portrait photographer, was operating his studio from the 1920s to the 1950s in Uherský Ostroh. The activity of his photographic studio has some more-generally valid features. In addition to the photographs of the crucial life moments of the inhabitants in the nearest environs (birth, school attendance, recruitment, wedding, death) he dealt with taking the portraits. The contribution is paying its attention to the relations people have to their photos.
The essay deals with the ethnographic division of Western Moravia and adjacent Eastern-Bohemian area. In the Middle Ages, this hilly region was inhabited by local Czech population and German settlers who formed two language islands here: one around the city of Jihlava and the other one between the cities of Moravská Třebová, Svitavy and Lanškroun north of here. In the 18th century’s literature, the region is uniformly called Horácko according to the countryside character, but in the 19th century, the name differentiates based on the language (ethnic) principle. The region settled by German inhabitants in the environs of the cities Moravská Třebová and Svitavy broke away as a specific ethnographic area with the name Schönhengst (Hřebečsko). Ethnographer and museum worker Josef František Svoboda (1874 – 1946) rendered outstanding service to more detailed demarcation of Moravian Horácko based on dialect and phenomena of traditional folk culture. Ethnologist Richard Jeřábek (1931 – 2006) worked up the ethnographic zoning in details.
The contribution deals with the terms used by ethnology, other branches and amateur public for different meanings. Richard Jeřábek drew attention to that issue as early as in 1974, as he differed the meaning of the terms folk structural engineering and folk architecture whereby the aesthetical criterion became the principal differentiating feature. The author of this contribution holds both terms for synonyms. Within folk architecture or folk structural engineering she considers the determination whether it concerns the professional or non-professional expressions for the determining dichotomy. The survived planning documentation after the mid-19th century substantiates the residential and farm buildings – analogous to the towns- to be designed and later on even built by trained practitioners mostly. In the conclusion of the contribution, other problematic used terms are remembered: village architecture (or structural engineering), rural architecture or vernacular architecture.
The contribution is an extract from the PhD thesis that the author wrote under the leadership of Prof. Richard Jeřábek. It is focused on an objective thus critical picture of the community environment at a representatively chosen community in the Slovakian country. Summarizing, the author states that in the course of 20th century not always the real needs of the village society were respected when the community buildings and small solitaires were designed. Sometimes, the final placing of community buildings into the existing community environment of the village was considered in a fully slovenly fashion. It was necessary to think about the complete design of the historical core earlier than in the mid-1980s when many things could not be softened even by planting the full-grown green on the places with the most disturbing visual contacts.
For nearly two centuries, an armed detachment of “portas” was a part of Moravian history. It was established in 1638 and originally, it was only one of the forms of using the population of Eastern Moravia for military service. At the beginning of its existence, the detachment was called “faithful Wallachians”. This name reflects the period simplified understanding of the word “Valach – Wallachian” as a male inhabitant of mountain regions in Eastern Moravia, who distinguishes himself by certain presumptions for military service. In this understanding, the term “Valach” differs from the former practise according to which this term was used for a farmer breeding sheep and goats on mountain pastures; at that time, it does not refer to the specific ethnographic region in the northeast of Moravia – Moravian Wallachia – yet. Since the end of the 17th century, the term “faithful Wallachians” was substituted by a new term “portas”. The origin of this word can be found in Hungary (frontier guards originally, seigniorial armed men figuratively) from which is has been spread to Silesia and Moravia.
The Carnival round of „hřebenáři“ and the relating ceremonies have been reflected by professional literature for many times. J. Tomeš dealt with both the older literature sources and the contemporary terrain researches; he subjected both of them to systematic analysis, classification and involvement into the corresponding custom context. R. Jeřábek paid his attention mainly to the European occurrence of the Carnival bear’s masque one of whose versions – as he supposes – just “hřebenář” is. The submitted essay divides the entire apparently unified complex into two different components. The first one is a round of the Carnival bear, regionally called “hřebenář”, connected with prosperity dance. The other one is an almost unknown habit “na hřebeň” whose principle is the married women’s ritual cleaning-up in the form of verbal reproving by masked men taking part in the ritual, whose cleaning-up in watercourse follows. The faith’s importance of both habits comes to the fore especially in the context of religious research that classify both of them as rituals preparing the time renewal on the eve of the new agricultural cycle’s commencement.
The Moravian Museum, owner of an important collection of the Anabaptist faiences, joined the research of the Anabaptists in Moravia as early as before the World War II. At that time, František Pospíšil, head of the ethnographical department, co-operated with Heřman Landsfeld, ceramist, collector, expert on the earthenware production history and pioneer in archaeological research. In the book of records (from the years between 1933 and 1851), we can reveal that the research of the Anabaptists and their earthenware production was an important activity of the ethnographical department, especially between 1942 and 1945 when the Museum participated directly in excavations. A lot of museum documents point to the intention to present the research results at an exhibition. Nevertheless, the most mentioned finds have not been maintained in the collections and it is even not possible to map the research works exactly.
The author deals with the decorated Easter eggs by Růžena Šilarová (1913 – 2003) from the town of Brandýs nad Labem. She submits the biographical information and analyzes the decoration technique (carving) and ornamental art. Růžena Šilharová ́s works are based on the family tradition as well as on the decoration of embroideries and laces on Central-Bohemian folk costumes. Růžena Šilarová found a free inspiration in them, forming her typical style of decoration. She belonged to the authors who were dealing with the egg decorations for a great part of their lives and found pleasure and use of creative invention and abilities here. Moreover, they were looking for their own approaches.
The author pays her attention to the colourful installation of storybook world that František Diviš (1923 – 2004) created at the village of Únanov near Znojmo. It is an expression we meet only seldom in our country whereby that is the opinion that such expression is a closed chapter in interpretation by our folk, what prevails. Diviš was a self-taught person, he did not take part in any fine art training and he started with his own works only after he had retired. He made his sculptures of wood, textile, plastic. He finished them with colour, emphasizing the details. His world, called Divišov, must be evaluated as a dynamic unit that cannot be presented in parts. After the author’s death, the installation was reduced.
Journal of Ethnography 2/2007 pays its attention to handicrafts. In his essay, Josef Jančář summarizes the interest in folk handicrafts in the European context from the 19th century up to the present (Development of Handicraft Care). Oľga Danglová elucidates the development of the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava (Between traditions and modern design. Activities of the Slovak Centre for Folk Art Production). Jarmila Pechová devotes herself to the particular kinds of handicrafts in Central Moravia in the second half of the 20th century (On the past and present of handicrafts and homemade manufactures in Central Moravia). Pipe manufacture, its history and local traditions are the theme of Luboš Kafka ́s essay (Tradition and Present of Pipe Manufacture in Proseč near Skuteč). Václav Michalička elucidates the manual technique for whetstone manufacture (The Sucháček Family – four generations of handmade-whetstones manufacturers in the region of Walachia).
„Fotografická zastavení“ (Stopping with Photos) section and Transferring Tradition column bring the contributions by Daniel Drápala (Basket-Making Classes and Workshop in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm) and by Věra Kovářů (Wind Mill in Starý Poddvorov). Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the ethnologist Zdena Vachová (born 1922) and musician Vladimír Baier (born 1932); it publishes also the obituary notice for the architect and photographer Jaroslav Vajdiš (1920 – 2006). In other regular columns, the reports of conferences, festivals, concerts and reviews of new book editions have been published.
Since the 19th century, the development of scientific researches and their practical application formed a qualitatively higher stage of civilization in which the traditional artisanship ceased to exist. The states tried to avoid that process by their legislative measures, as it was in Austro-Hungary, where the trade law was issued in 1859 or the cooperative system law in 1873. Various training courses were organized and producers ́ and sale cooperatives came into being to build the handicrafts up into going process. After the World War II, an international organization with the name European Federation of Folk Art was established in Europe. In Czechoslovakia, the Centre for Folk Art Production was founded, which was dissolved after one year of its existence. Nowadays, the Czech Republic has joined the UNESCO appeal to support the declining handicrafts by awarding the best artisans the title Folk Craft Tradition Practitioner.
The essay submits an overview of the present activities of the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava. The main scope of work of this institution is to register the co-operation with the manufacturers, to look for new talents and to support their manufacture under professional supervision, to renew and extend the assortment of products by means of artists ́ designs and to organize the purchase of products within the sales network of this institution. The bigger stress is put on educational activity. Besides training courses and lectures for the manufacturers, the scope of education is open even for the wider public by means of the Court of Crafts (a 1999 founded centre for information and education). The range of promotion activities by editorial works and exhibition activities is more intensive as well. The institution issues its own journal Remeslo/Umenie/Dizajn (Craft/Art/Design) and four times a year, it organizes exhibitions at its own gallery opened in 2004. Major attention is paid to collection funds care, archives completion, photo-documentation and video-documentation and – as the newest activity – virtual gallery creation.
While in the lowland part of Central Moravia mainly the handicrafts important for agriculture were carried on up to the 20th century, the range of handicrafts and homemade manufactures was much more varied in the higher situated regions. The expiring of traditional manufactures since the 1940s or their recapture by the Centre for Folk Art Production can be followed based on safeguarded sources processed for official and statistical needs. The present manufacture continues the family and regional traditions (basket-making in the region of Morkovicko, products made of straw in the region of Konicko); partially, it is developing in other directions connected with personal concerns, possibilities and abilities of their bearers.
The village of Proseč near Skuteč at Czech-Moravian Highlands was one of the most famous Bohemian centres of pipe manufacture for wide range of purchasers since the first half of the 19th century. The pipes cut and turned of domestic, simply available timber sorts (alder) as well as those made of imported briar since the beginning of the 20th century were made here. The peak of the local pipe manufacture falls within the period of the first Czechoslovak republic when hundreds of local people carried on pipe manufacture, belt making and additional home production. After the World War II, the workshops, private plants and factories were dissolved. The manufacture was concentrated into one big cooperative with machinery mass production. With exceptions (pipe-manufacturer J. Klinský), the traditional handmade manufacture of minor cutters and pipe manufacturers terminated. Nowadays, the works by F. Loučka and V. Jehlička present its modified repercussions.
The manufacture of whetstones belongs to simple archaic techniques. The manufacture was typical especially for the villages around the town of Vsetín in the past. Since the 1920s, the men of the Sucháček family have managed the techniques of manual whetstone manufacture. Because of the transformation of society and its needs within the second half of the 20th century, the Sucháčeks have become the only practitioners of that technique in the region that dominated the whetstone manufacture before. The technique applied by them did not undergo any significant changes; however, the social and economical conditions changed. The originally homemade manufacture has changed into educational-entertaining gainful employment with cultural legacy of the past.
Journal of Ethnography 1/2007 pays its attention especially to the drama in folk tradition. Jaroslav Blecha introduces puppetry as a part of folk theatre culture („Theatrum cum pimperlis“ and inheritance of the famous marionetteer ́s Kopecký family at the collection of The Moravian Museum in Brno); Juraj Hamar analyses the typology of characters of puppet theatre (On personal characters identity and vocal expression at folk puppet theatre). Petra Richterová devotes herself to the phenomenon of amateur theatricals in the first half of the 20th century (Village amateur theatricals near Kardašova Řečice and its position in traditional folk culture). Marta Ulrychová has aimed her essay at renewed Passion Plays in Hořice in Šumava (Passion Plays in Hořice – an example of renewed tradition). Martin Šimša in his contribution writes about Whitsun King’s Ride whose unpublished description was at the inheritance of collector and researcher František Bartoš („Age-old Habit on Kings“ – Whitsun ride-about in Mysločovice and its context). The text by Katarína Popelková and Juraj Zajonc concerning the elaboration of so-called Wollman’s Archives touches the wider Slovakian tradition. Wollman’s Archives is a voluminous collection of text which originated between 1928 – 1947 based on terrain collections done by the students of the Faculty of Arts in Bratislava under leadership of Prof. Frank Wollman.
The section Fotografické zastavení (Stopping with Photos) introduces the pictures of harvest thanksgiving in Petrov, District of Hodonín (Harvest Thanksgiving 1928 – Among folk habits, theatre stage and political manifestation), Transferring Tradition column brings the contribution by Eva Večerková Feast in Černovice, near Kunštát – celebration, habit, theatre, play. The Society Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of two Czech ethnomusicologists – Jiří Traxler (born 1946) and Lubomír Tyllner (born 1946). It brings also the memories of Jan Miroslav Krist (1932 – 2007), the personality of folk dance and folklore movement. In other regular sections, the reports of conferences and professional events, festivals, concerts and reviews of new book and CD editions have been published.
The touring marionette theatre of so-called folk puppeteers represents a unique chapter in the history of Czech theatre. It was the first and almost only Czech theatre form that the Czech countryside could learn about. At the collection of the Department of the history of theatre, there are deposited documents on the work of one of the most popular Czech marionetteer ́s dynasties, the Kopecký family. The collection includes more-generation inventory of the theatres of Karel and Václav who lived in Brno. Václav, who was younger than Karel, maintained – illegally - the tradition of touring marionetteering even in the 1970s. By inheritance, the marionettes of various origins, made by a lot of wood-carvers have been handed down. Along with photos, papers and other original documents, they represent a unique inheritance for the historiography of the Czech marionette theatre.
The personal identity of traditional characters at folk puppet theatre is a complex of three mutually connected layers: the semantic, the optical and the auditory ones. The author pays his attention mostly to the auditory layer, which – in addition to the acoustic objectification of text – also represents emotional, social, psychological and language features of a character. They actualize themselves on the paralinguistic level. Thus, they take a significant part in the total poetics and aesthetics of folk puppet theatre. The text is a part of the research on folk puppeteers vocal expression, which the author has been implementing since 2004, namely in co-operation with Milan Rusek from the Institute of Informatics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The basic material consists mainly of the recordings of traditional plays by puppeteer Bohuslav Anderle (1913 – 1976). Those recordings were taped by his son Anton (1944), the last traditional puppeteer in Slovakia, in 1971. As an illustration in conclusion, the author mentions a brief characteristics of personal identity for traditional characters taking part in the performance Don Juan in the repertoire of B. Anderle.
Amateur theatricals as a phenomenon of Czech countryside has been mentioned since the 19th century where it was created parallel to traditional theatre whose elements have been safeguarded especially in annual and family habits for the longest time. The essay is aimed at amateur theatricals in some selected villages (Doňov, Újezd and Záhoří) nearby Kardašova Řečice in South Bohemia, especially in the period between two world wars. Based on archive documents and manuscripts, the essay features activity of the clubs being engaged in theatre, it reconstructs the period theatre repertoire, the methods of studying the theatre plays and their presentation, the drama performances, the personalities of actors, directors and other participants, the influences of professional theatre. In conclusion, the essay compares the tokens of amateur theatricals with folk theatricals.
The entry freely linking to the essay printed at NR in 2005, deals with the Passion Plays renewed tradition in Šumava within the after-war period, i.e. from 1945 until now. The author pays a special attention to the after-1989 restoration of almost forgotten inheritance. The restoration of Passion Plays, being played not in German but in Czech language now, is resulting from the co-operation of a group established around the first after-revolutionary Mayor of Hořice, Miroslav Čunát. Among the members of that group were Jindřich Pecka, historian from České Budějovice, Jaroslav Krček, composer, and Antonín Bašta, movie director from České Budějovice. First night of the new Czech version accompanied with recorded music by Musica Bohemica, took place on 29 June 1993. The entry remembers the attendance of cultural life’s important personalities, the theme elaboration in form of documentaries and the permanent exhibition in the local school building.
The essay is focused on a voluminous manuscript by the popular scripturist F. Zelinka from the village Louky u Zlína. The material represents new possibilities in researching the countryside culture of the second half of the 19th century because it not only descri- bes some annual habits but also depicts every-day life at the local pasturage and records some local legends. The chapter Age- -old Habit on Kings makes known with some circumstances and the course of Whitsun King’s ride in Mysločovice at the periphery of the Haná region. The description is concentrated on the outside form, it passes over the details, and the endeavor to give a true picture of functions within a social milieu of the community is fully strange to it. The importance of realized details rises mainly within the context of other reports on Whitsun King’s rides within the Moravian milieu, which the author gives in the text.
The entry matter is the fund of text documents that has been kept under the name Wollman’s Archives at the Instute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The corpus of texts originated between 1928 and 1947 as a result of terrain collection in the territory of Slovakia. The collections were done by students of the Slavic Seminar of the Faculty of Arts of the former Slovak University (later Komenský University) in Bratislava and by some students of the Faculty of Arts in Brno. The first part of the entry summarizes the knowledge concerning the origin and hitherto processing, but also understanding and presentation of the fund. The second part contains first experience and results resulting from the archives elaboration as well as from the electronic form of Wollman’s Archives between 2005 and 2006. With the above procedures, the general methodical process of analysis and processing the written documents into the form of electronic database has been verified. The Wollman’s Archives itself has been processed with the aim to extend its availability and utilization – not only within the study of folklore, but also within the material, spiritual and social culture, the history of traditional culture study or the language and history.
The Ethnographic Revue 4/2006 pays its attention to toys and playing. Zdeňka Poláková (About Toys, Games and Playing) gives her opinion on that theme within more general context. Alena Křížová (From a Toy to a Souvenir) deals with a toy as an artistic artefact. Two essays have their roots in the ethnographic region of Valašsko: Michal Roček (The Tradition of the Smudgy Toys ́ Manufacture) prepared an article concerning the phenomenon of the smudgy toys, Václav Michalička (The Children’s Whip – a Toy and an Implement of Work) wrote the text about children’s whips. Jana Poláková (How Do the Romany Children Play? – Notes from a terrain research at Rudňany) pays her attention to Romany children.
The section “The Transformation of Traditions” brings an article “Christmas as an Invented Tradition or Ambivalent Ritual?” by Eva Jirková and Marta Ulrychová. The social chronicle remembers the anniversaries of the musicologist Jan Trojan (born 1926), the ethnologist Miloslava Hošková (born 1946) and the choreologist Eva Kröschlová (born 1926). The obituary articles are devoted to the musician Otakar Pokorný (1926-2006) and the ethnologist Richard Jeřábek (1931- 2006). Into other regular sections, the reports of conferences, exhibitions, festivals and ethnographic activities and reviews of new editions have been involved.
The history of playing reaches back to the primeval times – the oldest maintained toys of the provable origin come from the primeval civilizations. Since the Classical times, the attention was paid to the meaning of playing and the possibilities of its didactic mission. Those tendencies were developed by medieval and modern philosophers and pedagogues. The 18th century brought an important positive change in views of the importance of toys and their affection with upbringing and education, which is reflected in the production of many new types. In the 19th and especially in the 20th century, these questions were observed within a lot of scientific branches systematically – both its positive and negative trends and affects.
The tradition of home fabrication of the so-called folk toy is quite short in the Czech Republic. Their beginnings go back to the 1830s. The toy designs resulting from the folk models became subjects at professional schools and even a subject of interest of the artists, who tried to create a so-called artistic toy, which should become a part of child’s esthetical upbringing. That artistic toy, however, did often not comply with the demands made on a children’s toy. Its criterion was mainly the artistic quality, so it moved to the roll of a gift or souvenir subject. Small workshops or home artisans who were affected retroactively realized the artistic designs – they took part in lessons and presented their products at exhibitions. Therefore, it is difficult or even impossible to earmark the category of a “folk toy” from the category of a “craft” or “artistic” toy.
The so-called smudgy toys were made only in some villages in Moravia. Valašská Bystřice was the most importance centre of this manufacture, which was supported by the considerably wooded location with suitable wood. The typical way of manufacture was a feature of the “smudgy” toy. The manufacturers smoked the toys in a furnace. The wood surface turned brown to black. This basic act was done for aesthetic reasons. After that, different patterns were cut in the wood surface by tools. In this way, the natural color was laid bare and the decorative contrast came out. Nowadays, the knowledge of this technology wastes away and only a few persons know the manufacture sequence.
In the past, children’s whip was an indispensable toy to the most country boys. The whip fulfilled also the function of a work implement used for keeping poultry and cattle out at grass. The boys ́ play with a whip meant especially development of skill needful for farming. Besides the whips made by the children themselves, also manufactured whips used to be sell. The village of Metylovice (District of Frýdek-Místek) took an essential position in the manufacture of whips. Many people dealt with leather manufacture. Here were made children’s whips with a leather strap decorated with a tassel, and with a wooden handle, which used to have a coloured décor with impressive patterns. The manufacture of children’s whips in Metylovice ceased to exist in the 1950s.
The essay results the terrain research in the village of Rudňany, which was done by the workers of the Museum of Roma Culture. It was found out that the Romany children have fewer opportunities for they games, than the children of majority society have. It is caused mainly by the social conditions of their families and division of housework among individual family members. The children up to the age of about 9 years play together; later, the groups according to sex develop. The Romany children like playing at being “mothers and fathers” and they love motion games. For most amusements, they utilize modest means of their environment, which forces them to involve their imagination more extensively, than the Romany children from town agglomerations do.
The Ethnographic Revue 3/2006 touches clubs, club life and grouping of inhabitants in town and in the country. Yvona Činčová brings nearer the research of that phenomenon in Zlín (Club Life in Zlín in the course of the Bata company expansion). Two contributions by Václav Michalička (The Participation of a Metylovice Strapmaker's Section in the Professional and Village Life) and Karel Altman (The Picture of National Development in Brno within the Activity of Typographers' Clubs) deal with concrete life of strapmakers and typographers. Marta Ulrychová describes the life of the city society in Pilsen (The Promenade of Pilsen). The grouping of folklore fans in Bratislava is the theme by Barbora Skraková (“Folklorists” in Bratislava – a view of the life of an interest group).
The Transforming Tradition column deals with wickerwork as a handicraft (Jarmila Pechová). The social chronicle remembers anniversaries the pedagogue Alena Schauerová (born 1936) and ethnographer Ludmila Tarcalová (born 1946) and publishes the obituary articles devoted to Helena Johnová (1926-2006) and Jindřich Hovorka (1937 – 2006). Into other regular sections, the reports of conferences, festivals and reviews of new books have been involved.
The study deals with the club life in the town of Zlín thoroughly, especially with its greatest development in the 1920s and 1930s within the context of the development of the local Bata Company. Tomáš Baťa, its founder, and later his brother Jan Antonín Baťa granted the foundation and activity of a lot of clubs, especially those with sports orientation. Their assistance to the associations that ensured the health care of the town’s inhabitants was no less important. Unique was the Baťa Supporting Found that financed the hospital operation as well as the social and cultural needs of the employees. The Bata Company covered not only the social and economical but also the cultural and civil development of the town of Zlín.
In the past, the village of Metylovice was connected with leather industry inherently. In the second half of the 19th century, the hitherto mainly rural village turned into the artisan and rural one gradually. The reason was the manufacture of quality whips that were distributed into whole Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, a strapmakers ́ section was formed here. It fell within the mixed guild in Frýdlant until 1932 and then within the professional Guild of Saddlers and Strapmakers in Místek. The section as an economical and social unit influenced the village events significantly. The strapmakers became an organized group with an exceptional position and they were allowed to develop other club activities. They took an essential part in the social transformation of their village.
The fate of Czech typographers ́ grouping in Brno is a typical example of a process, during which the originally Utraquist association was divided in the second half of the 19th century. Those clubs were founded together by Czech and German members at a time when the national differences between those two groups did not come into prominence. Therefore, both languages, Czech and German, were spoken there. The consequences of gradual increase in national tends on the German side, as well as spreading of national awareness among the Czech inhabitants came to light even in the life of Brno printers. The Utraquist association division resulted in two clubs – the Czech and the German ones – with similar polarization and activities. The Veleslavín Czech Typographic Education Organization was involved among the principal national clubs in Brno, which developed rich social and entertainment activities.
The text about the promenade in Pilsen is based on the study of archives, period press responses, memoirs, imaginative literature and quantitative investigation by means of which the author tried to reconstruct the interwar appearance of the promenade in Pilsen. In Pilsen, the promenade development was similar to other Czech towns. The specificity of Pilsen was caused by the terrain (people promenaded in the square, along new roads and especially in the orchards of the Town Centre) and by the way of life in which mostly the middle classes took part over the period of Austria-Hungary. After the World War I, the secondary-school youth entered the promenade and later on, it gained its prevalence over the middle classes there. The promenade functioned as a “marriage bureau” of young people, controlled by the public, and a place where the young people got familiar with good manners and taste. The Nazi terror following the assassination of the Reichsprotektor Heydrich and the changes within the hierarchy of shared values after the World War II contributed to the extinction of the promenade.
The contribution deals with a city social group formed pursuant to the group awareness, which has been based on the natural and fostered relation to and interest in traditional culture. The group consists of both the active and former members of folklore ensembles as well as of other fans of folk culture, who take an active part in the social life of those first mentioned. The matter of interest and the rate of understanding regarding the traditional art within the Bratislava environment are especially connected with the rich activity and production of ensembles that use different stages of the traditional art’s conventionalization. Recently, we can follow the opinion and creative orientation of authors, interprets and consumers to tend to understanding and high evaluation of “authentic” expressions (or expressions which are conventionalized minimally). In a large extent, a quiete new phenomenon of personal self-realization – the so-called Dancing-House – has merit in it.
