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Journal of Ethnography 2/2006 is focused upon musical folklore, especially folk songs. Petr Kalina has paid his attention to Ukrainian collections of folk songs (The first notations of Ukrainian musical folklore). Hana Urbancová compares the night watchmen’s songs in Moravia and Slovakia ("The Night- watchmen’s songs" in Moravia and their relation to the Slovakian repertoire). The contribution of Tomáš Šenkyřík deals with Romani songs (Some notes concerning the motifs of Romani songs). Marta Toncrová presents the research of folk songs by children (Folk songs and the youngest generation). Bernard Garaj publishes the text about the entry of the Slovak musical instrument – a shepherds ́ long pipe called fujara – in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (The past and the present of fujara in the Slovak folk culture).
The Transforming Tradition column brings the source material on folk singers in the region of Chodsko (author Vladimír Baier). The social chronicle remembers anniversaries of some ethnologists: Alexandra Navrátilová (born 1946), Karel Pavlištík (born 1931), Jiří Langer (born 1936), Richard Jeřábek (born 1931) and Josef Jančář (born 1931). Into other sections, the reports of conferences, festivals and reviews of new books have been involved.
The essay surveys the first hundred years of collecting the Ukrainian musical folklore in a critical way. Within the results of the path-breaking collector’s attempts we find a lot of imprecision in the folk-song notations. The most collections of that time followed, however, mainly the practical musical aims and they had not any ethnographical ambitions; for all that, one can discover valuable witness of the contemporary musicality therein. The pre-scientific period of collector’s activities is limited by two milestones: the year 1774 on one hand, when the first notated Ukrainian folk songs were printed, and the year 1868 on the other hand, when the musical and folkloristic activity of Mykola Lysenko started. With his methods of folk-song collecting and arrangement, Lysenko broke new ground for the scientific ethnographic approach to Ukrainian musical folklore.
The Moravian sources relating to night watchmen’s singing from the published and archive funds that originate previously in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, are not very numerous; they enabled, however, to create the basic picture about the Moravian song cycle of a night watchman. The tunes of the songs corresponded both to the informative and protective functions of the guards’ service and to the historical relations to Central European early sacred songs. During reconstruction of this picture, there helped the knowledge gained from a large funds of guards’ songs in Slovakia. Those funds came into being thanks to a questionnaire survey on the initiative of a Czech musicologist D. Orel in the 1930s. The comparison of both repertoire funds confirms the extension of guards’ service along with the songs from the west to the east within Central Europe whereby the cities as centres of larger administrative units became centres of that extension in the past. Whereas those city centres gained recognition for unification of the night watchmen’s repertoire, the traditional rural environment converted that repertoire into many local variations.
The music represents an important element of the Roma identity. In the territory of the Czech Republic, we can see two basic musical expressions: musical folklore of so-called settled Slovak Roma and musical folklore of Vlax Roma. The Romani music is mentioned quiet often, but the text character is described less frequently. The essay brings the attention to the themes, motifs and poetry that are typical for traditional Romany musical production. The following themes have been identified most frequently: 1. poverty, hungry, penury; 2. desolation, loneliness; 3. loss of a family member (most often the mother); 4. mother as dominancy; 5. family, children; 6. love-themes. When studying the texts, we cannot omit a frequency of certain words that we meet in the Romany production. There are especially God (o Del), children, (mire čhave, čhavore), mother (e Daj), furthermore also heart (o jilo), tears (o apsa, apsora) etc. It is interesting that we cannot observe a more conspicuous line between the traditional and present production, as to the texts.
The essay publishes the results of a research on folk-song knowledge at the youngest generation. The research was done by means of questionnaires in Brno, with the pupils of a primary school and the students of the Masaryk's University. Altogether, there were completed 286 questionnaires. Among 140 songs, the informants should tick off those songs that they knew. The songs were chosen in the textbooks for musical teaching. From the questionnaire, high knowledge of carols and children’s songs resulted; the children meet those songs always in their families or in the nursery schools. At the end of the 1940s, the children sang the same songs, as they mentioned in a questionnaire that was a part of a sociological research in the elementary and secondary schools. It concerns e.g. the songs Holka modrooká, Jede, jede poštovský panáček, Pásla ovečky, Travička zelená etc. The group of this age showed little knowledge of the songs from Slovácko (Moravian Slovakia), in contrary to the common repertoire of folk songs by the adults. Here we have summarized the results of the first probe, the research will continue.
Today for the Slovak folk music there is no other instrument with such a big significance as fujara is. As an originally three- -hole flute of shepherds in central parts of Slovakia since the half of the 19th century it has became a symbol of all the Slovak folk musical instruments. In the 20th century fujara has been known, accepted and presented as an important attribute of the Slovak identity and a symbol of the Slovak nation as well. On the other hand fujara has found its reflection in specific processes and changes concerning the morphology, decoration, social status of fujara makers and players as well as its spreading and new ways of its musical usage.
Journal of Ethnography 1/2006 deals with the carnival theme. Using examples of customary tradition from the region of Haná, Martin Šimša analyzes individual features of carnival customs and puts them into historical consequences. (The Ostatky Right in Haná, its Position in the Structure of Carnival Customs, and its Relationship to other Ceremonies of the Customary Cycle). In her article, Blanka Petráková summarizes her field research of many years in the area of Luhačovice Zálesí (The Carnival Walk in Luhačovice Zálesí within the Context of the Transformation of Customary Tradition in South Eastern Moravia). Daniela Stavělová focuses on the carnival walk in the area of Doudlebsko in southern Bohemia and the meaning of dance manifestations in its structure (The Doudleby Carnival Carolling: the Dance as a Text). Ilona Vojancová offers a survey of carnival walks at selected locations of the Hlinecko area (The Carnival Walks and Masks in Hlinecko). Katarína Nádaská presents the material from her research in the region of Slovak Nitra (The Carnival in the Community of Kanianka; The Tradition and the Present). The photo gallery of the journal includes the pictures of carnival masks from Šlapanice near Brno of the 1970s.
Josef Oriško presents his notes from the Slovenian countryside in the Transforming Tradition column. The Social Chronicle column is devoted to anniversaries of ethnomusicologist Marta Toncrová (born 1945), ethnologist Eva Večerková (born 1945), and Slovak folklorist Dagmar Klímová (born 1926); it also carries obituary notes to ethnochoreologist Hannah Laudová (1921 – 2005), and the Verbuňk dancer Kliment Navrátil (1925 – 2006). Conference news, exhibition news, book reviews and information from the field of support and preservation of folk culture are presented at the remaining pages of the journal.
„Shrovetide right“– a set of Carnival customs held in the region of Central Moravia – was awaking the interest of amateur observers and experienced experts in the course of the whole 19th century. The study targets to analyse the structure of the customary complex and to emphasize its basic forming elements. The essential part that includes the election of principal master of ceremony, the obtainment of ceremony insignia and the ritual bringing of girls to that insignia, has been taken out of the complex of Whitsun ceremonies. After having been connected with the hitherto rather seldom activities, the prestige of that festivity has grown significantly and the festivity itself has been newly re-interpreted.
The workers of the Museum of South-East Moravia in Zlín have documented the Carnival rounds in the region of Luhačovické Zálesí at the end of the 1960s, and then since 1991 until now. In the aforementioned region, the traditional structure of mascaras within a group has been maintained sporadically. There are especially the mascaras presenting and parodying various occupations or properties, and the animal mascaras (the mascara of bear occurs regularly, even if it has lost its dominating position). Now, the rounds tend to have a unifying theme that is often affected by actual social and political events or cultural news. We consider the change in understanding the rounds in the course of the 20th century from a relict of traditional ceremoniousness to the social and political satire for a model example of the Carnival customs ́ development in South-East Moravia.
The region of South-Bohemian Doudleby has aroused interest of the ethnographers since the end of the 19th century. The fact that the expression of traditional culture, called “Shrove carolling” by local people, survived continually, became attractive. Within different periods, it was recorded repeatedly. The territory of three adjacent villages – Slaveč, Dobrovská Lhotka and Soběnov – became the object of the latest feedback research (1999 – 2005). The aim of the research was to follow the importance of this local phenomenon within the today’s local society; why is it performed just now, by whom and under which circumstances, and what does contribute to its repeated performance? The structure of that custom has been stated by comparison of all available records of Carnival and based on recognition of constitutive units of the phenomenon. Within the custom’s framework, there was observed the role of the dance expression as a cultural text whose symbolic language assisted to identify some important statements regarding states, identity and integration of the relating socio-cultural environment.
In the surroundings of the town of Hlinsko in East Bohemia in Bohemian-Moravian Uplands, the Carnival rounds have been safeguarded in their almost unchanged form in some villages for long decades. At the end of Shrovetide, the rounds with mascaras take place spontaneously in the villages of Hamry, Studnice and Vortová. The appearance of mascaras, their character and functions have been maintained by tradition in active awareness of all inhabitants in the above villages. The course of the rounds, which take place all day long, is given as well: after having obtained the Mayor’s permit, the mascaras go round the village, from house to house, and they get reward (refreshment and money) of their rich-vintage and fortune wishes. The rounds are closed with a custom when one of the mascaras, called Kobylka (mare) is slaughtered solemnly.
The author of the text spares a thought for existing changes of Carnival rounds in the village of Kanianka. The spontaneously organized Carnival rounds with the mascaras of a Bear, Soldier, Gipsy, Grandpa etc. ceased to exist at the end of the 1970s. After the inhabitants from the undermined part of the neighbour village of Koš came in 1987, the folklore ensemble Košovan has been established. That ensemble presents the Carnival rounds in form of folklore performances in the Community Centre. The scenic folklore performance is closed with the midnight “double-bass burying” and the dancing entertainment.
Journal of Ethnography 4/2005 focuses on examples of intangible cultural heritage. Daniel Luther in his study introduces opening passages of an extensive project on the preservation of traditional culture in the Czech Republic („An Identification of Traditional Culture Phenomena in the Czech Republic“). Marta Ulrychová and Markéta Nová in their article follow the history of an important work from the field of semi-folk drama, the Passion plays in the Šumava mountains („The Passion Plays of Hořice“). Vladimír Baier in his article focuses on specific representatives of older bag-pipe tradition in the region of Chodsko („Folk Music in Chodsko in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century“). The Verbuňk dance is presented as a thematically closed theme in the works of three authors: Jan Miroslav Krist, Karel Pavlištík and Jitka Matuszková („On the Verbuňk: its Present and the Future“).
The Transforming Tradition column deals with a custom called the ride of the kings (Josef Holcman: „The Stealing of the King“). Social Chronicle remembers anniversaries of two ethnologists: Zdeněk Mišurec (born 1925), and Marie Brandstettrová (born 1945). There are two obituaries too, for museologist Josef Beneš (1917-2005), and dance folklorist Zdenka Jelínková (1920-2005). Other regular columns deal with conference news, festivals and concerts, book reviews, and other activities from the field of folk culture preservation.
Journal of Ethnography 3/2005 deals with the theme of folk architecture. In her study, Alena Dunajová focuses on theorethical issues of the protection of folk architecture (On Folk Architecture and Heritage Preservation). Miroslav Válka deals with the phenomenon of wooden bridges (On Wooden Communication Structures: Covered Bridges and Foot-Bridges in the Western Moravia). Markéta Hanzlíková describes in great details a specific house built in the Zlínsko region (No. 83 House in Kašava); Petra Kalábová follows a similar aim: she describes the history of one of the water mills in the region of Horňácko (The Čerešník’s Mill in Nová Lhota). Martin Šimša provides a settlemet analysis of a specific location in the region of Horňácko (The Origin and Settlement Structure of the Community of Nová Lhota).
The photo supplement of the journal remembers the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Wallachian Open-Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The Social Chronicle carries a congratulation to the life anniversary of musician Kliment Navrátil (born 1925), and obiturial notices for ethnologists Miroslava Ludvíková (1923 – 2005) and Zdenek Hanzl (1944 – 2005) and choreographer Zdena Kyselá (1918 – 2004). Other regular columns come with conference, exhibition and festival news, reports from educational visits, and book reviews; the 2004 Awards of the Czech Ethnographic Society are published here as well.
Journal of Ethnography 2/2005 is focused on social groups. In his study, Igor Nosál deals with issues of childhood (“Discourses on Childhood in the Age of Postsocialism”); Ľubica Herzánová is interested in old age and growing old. What are the possible borders of old age? She has looked for the answer from several points of view, and also interviewed some inhabitants of Bratislava and Vienna (“The Trouble is that Old Age is not Interesting until One Gets there; a Foreign Country with Unknown Language”). Andrea Šalingová focuses on women-entrepreneurs in the Slovak countryside (“Tiny, Little, Harmless; Special Family Characteristics of being in Business in a Rural Location”). Jana Poláková and Helena Danielová inform about their gender research of Romany women, a project which is run by the Museum of Romany Culture in Brno (“The Roots; Gender Research of Romany Women”).
The picture supplement carries photo documents on old age and growing old, and questions the possibilities of such visual images. The Transferring Tradition column focuses on the production of birch-rods in the Moravian Wallachia, and follows its reflections in titles and names (writen by Daniel Drápala); it also focuses on the activities of collector and musician Vladimír Baier within folk music tradition in the region of Chodsko (written by Jaroslav Fiala). Social Chronicle notes the birthday of folk singer Václav Harnoš (b. 1930), and carries obituary notices: for folk musician Emil Miškeřík (1916-2004), folklorist and musician Jaroslav Jurášek (1925-2005), and ethnologist Ludvík Kunz (1914-2005). Apart from the regular conference and exhibition reports and book reviews, the discussion column focuses on the new form of Folklorika, the TV review on folk culture.
Journal of Ethnography 1/2005 focuses on issues of folklorism in visual arts, mainly the use of some elements of folk arts as a source of inspiration, and the influence of artistic periods on folk arts. In his study, Juraj Zajonc explores printed anthologies which marked the embroidery in Slovakia (“The Slovak Decoration in Printed Pattern Books” /Some notes on the origin and impact of collections of pattern books from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century/); Alena Křížová deals with the issues of folk decoration as part of school syllabi of drawing and manual work (“Teaching Folk Decoration Drawing”/ As in the Náš směr magazine/). The folk costume as a symbol of national identity is the subject of an article by Anna Pohořálková (“The Czech Society and Folk Costume in the 1880s”). Iva Magulová has explored the history of an institution, which was founded in 1909 in support of the manual work development (“On the Activities of the Regional Institution for the Trade Advancement in the Country of Moravia in Brno”). Additional studies deal with iconographic issues: Daniel Drápala expounds on the institution and changes of regional security guards portáši, who were active in Moravia and Silesia from the mid-17th to the early 19th centuries. (“Iconographic Changes of the Moravian portáš”); Jana Tichá presents her research on the myth of the Slavonic god Radegast (“The Iconography of Slavonic Deity Radegast Located in Radhošt”).
The Transforming Tradition column opens with an article by Romana Habartová called “The Folk Dress and its Present Social Need”. Social Chronicle reminds us of two anniversaries: choreographer Jiřina Mlíkovská was born in 1925, and ethnochoreologist Zdenka Jelínková was born in 1920; the column also carries two obituary notices - for choreographer Jan Čumpelík (1925-2004), and Olga Tesauerová (1933- 2004), artistic leader of the Javorník ensemble. Other regular columns include conference, exhibition, and festival news, as well as book reviews.
Journal of Ethnography 4/2004 addresses the issues of food in traditional folk environment. In her article written in the Slovak language, Rastislava Stoličná provides a general introduction to this cultural phenomenon and its study (Methods and Objectives of Ethnological Research of the Art of Cooking and its Traditions in Slovakia). Marta Toncrová focuses on food from the point of view of a folklorist (Food in Folk Songs). Josef Oriško shares with readers his large experience from the Asian republic of Georgia (The Georgian Table; Some Comments on Culture of the Georgians). Karel Altman looks in detail at the history of inns, pubs, and food (Eaters and Gourmands in Inns). Ilona Vojancová presents the menu of a traditional rural environment (Everyday Food in the Region of Hlinecko).
The picture supplement extends the main theme of the journal and includes photos from the archives of the Institute of Ethnography of the Moravian Regional Museum. Josef Holcman is the author of an article Strážnice 2005: Old Journeys–New Possibilities in Transforming Tradition column. Social Chronicle carries an obituary notice on musicologist Pavel Kurfürst (1940-2004), and culture worker Stanislav Pěnčík (1939-2004). Other regular columns bring conference news, reports from ethnographical feasts and festivals, and book and magazine reviews. In the appendix there is a full text of the international convention on preserving non-material cultural heritage.
Journal of Ethnography 3/2004 focuses on seasonal feasts. Miroslav Válka in his article sums up general information available on this folk custom, and depicts its present state in selected sites of western Moravia. (On the Present State of Seasonal Feasts in Western Moravia). Irena Rogožanová writes about the form of present day feasts in the suburbs of Brno (Seasonal Feasts in Brno-Bystrc: a Tradition Renewed). The Kyjovsko region of southern Moravia was the subject of a field research by Martin Šimša (his article is called The Feasts in Sobůlky), and Eva Abramuszkinová Pavlíková (her article is The Emperor’s Feast in Věteřov and its 20th Century Transformation). The picture supplement, Photographic Stopping, introduces the feast photos by Vlastimil Žíla (1943-1980). Transforming Tradition column opens with personal observations of Josef Holcman on seasonal feasts in Skoronice, and continues with an article by Petr Kaleta devoted to the scholarly work of Slavist Adolf Černý on the Lusatian Sorbs.
Social Chronicle reminds of the life anniversaries of ethnographer Ludvík Kunz (born 1914), and ethnographer Eva Urbachová (born 1923); and it also carries an obituary notice for dancer Zdeněk Šimeček (1945-2003). Other regular colums contain conference news, exhibition and festival news, book reviews, as well as the list of 2003 international acquisitions in the book foundation of the NÚLK (The National Institute of Folk Culture) in Strážnice.
The Journal of Ethnography 2/2004 focuses on local activities in the development of rural environment. Andrea Zobačová has gathered information concerning regional monographs, and she comments on their social importance (Regional Monographs as the Expression of Self Identity Yesterday and Today). Oľga Danglová introduces one of the newly established micro regions in the Slovak district of Topoľčany (A Regional Union and its Place in the Development of the Countryside: An Example from the Topoľčany Region). In her article, Natália Veselská works with the results of the field research of the Slovak countryside (An Importance of the Authority in the Process of the Transformation of a Local Rural Community). Václav Štěpánek focuses on the development of the populated landscape (Landscape and the Reconstruction of the Countryside).
Under the heading of the Transforming Tradition column, you will find articles by Jarmila Pechová (Payments at the Blacksmith' in the Turn of the 20th century), and Kateřina Plochová and Zdeněk Uherek (A Survey of the Visitors of the Horňácké slavnosti Highland Festival). The Social Chronicle focuses on two anniversaries: the ethnologist Zdenko Hanzl (born 1944), and ethnologist Běla Minaříková (born 1944). There are also two obituaries there: the collector and choreographer Věra Šejvlová (1919-2004), and musician and dancer Jiří Pospíšil (1927-2004). Other regular columns inform about exhibitions, festivals, concerts, new books and CDs. In the final pages of the journal you will find the results of the Czech Ethnographic Society questionnaire concerning the 2003 Most Important Event.
The Journal of Ethnography 1/2004 focuses on ethnographic films, or, ethnographic visual recordings. Hana Dvořáková in her article illustrates the beginnings of ethnographic films via the personality of ethnographer František Pospíšil (1885-1958), who established, among others, the photography and film collections in the Moravian Regional Museum in Brno („František Pospíšil and the Beginnings of Ethnographic Films: Some Unknown Facts“). Daniel Luther provides a comprehensive view on the same issue in Slovakia („Ethnography in Slovak Documentary Film. In the Memory of Film Director and Ethnographer Martin Slivka /1929-2002/“). Jana Tichá depicts a relationship between an ethnographic documentary and its creator, film amateur; she focuses on a specific creator of the second half of the 20th century. („A Film Amateur in the Field of Ethnography: František Potočný“). Two authors discuss the theory and practical use of video in ethnography. They are Jiřina Kosíková („An Ethnologist and Camera: Video Recording as one of the Methods and Techniques of a Field Research“), and Miroslav Válka („A Video Documentary of the Present Day Village in the Institute of European Ethnography of Masaryk University in Brno“). Ilona Vojancová put together a survey of the 1980s film documentaries prepared by the workers of an open-air museum in Hlinsko („A Film Documentation in the Collection of Folk Architecture in the Highlands“). Magdalena Petříková in her article brings an annotated list of video documents of the production of another professional institution in the Czech Republic („A Video Encyclopedia of the National Institution of Folk Culture in Strážnice“).
The Transforming Tradition column includes an article by Vladimír J. Horák „Easter Ceremonial Noise in the Czech and German Ethnic Groups in the Regions of Haná and Nízký Jeseník“. Social Chronicle remembers the anniversaries of several personalities: the collector, organizer, and musician Josef Režný (born 1924); painter and graphic designer Josef Kiesewetter (born 1934); ethnologist Naďa Valášková (born 1944); ethnologist Soňa Švecové (born 1929), and ethnologist Alena Jeřábková (born 1934). In the Looking Back column, Václav Štěpánek focuses on the history of various associations within the Slovak folklore movement in Brno („95 Years of the Slovak Circle in Brno“). Other regular columns deal with the news from exhibitions and festivals, as well as book reviews, and other professional information.
