The double issue of the periodical "Národopisná revue" 1-2/1994 comprises four studies and various pieces of information, reports, and reviews.
The Institute of European ethnology of the Masaryk University in Brno has been making use of all sorts of complementary educational forms over the last decades. The recent years have brought another enrichment thanks to regular seminars under the title "Profile of an ethnologic region". Four of the papers presented at this year's seminar on Horácko are reprinted in this issue of Národopisná revue.
Richard Jeřábek, professor of the Masaryk University in Brno, investigates the person of Josef František Svoboda who, being an amateur ethnologist, collected such amounts of both archival and field material, as to deserve being called the discoverer of the ethnologic region of Horácko.
Folk ceramics of Horácko has been the topic of Dr. Miroslav Válka. He arrives to the conclusion that the local tradition, along with various cultural trends and influences,
gave rise to quite diversified production in Horácko, and namely related to technology as well as decoration. Characterizing the main productional circles (those of Hlinsko, Jihlava and Kunštát), he devotes his interest also to folk faience.
Dr. Hana Dvořáková from the ethnographic department of the Moravian Regional Museum of Brno examines the folk toys of Horácko in the light of contemporary production of the neighbouring countries. In the introduction of her study she focuses upon the difference between Czech scientists and their German and Austrian colleagues in understanding one basic concept of ethnology, namely the essence of the adjective "folk". She devotes particular interest to toys produced by wood turning. Having described a number of manufacturing centres and their products and compared their production with that of our neighbour countries, she arrives to the opinion the Horácko toys have not deviated from the international context of their times.
Musical theoretician professor Jan Trojan returns to the musical aspects of the Horácko folk song in his study "Song of the Czech-Moravian borderland". According to his statement the folk song of this region belongs among the least researched ones, and only a tiny fraction of the collected material has been published. He examines both printed and manuscript collections. His primary attention is devoted to the musical aspects of folk songs, to the relations between folk music and the work of contemporary composers, as well as to the setups of farmer music bands.
The picture appendix brings a selection of photographs taken by Karel Cudlín during his wanderings through Sub-Carpathian Ukraine. The author of the photographs tries to depict people having firm bonds with the country they live in.
The double issue of "Národopisná revue" 1-2/94 closes with minor contributions, congratulations, reviews of folklore festivals, information related to symposia and seminars, reviews of published works. There is also the list of books and periodicals acquired through the international exchange of publications by the Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice 1993.
