The Journal of Ethnography 2/2003 focuses on issues of dance anthropology. The introductory essay is written by Daniela Stavělová (How They Dance in Bohemia Today. Some Questions of Dance Anthropology). Klára Davidová deals with the dance scene, which is a phenomenon of urban dance parties of the last decade. It has developed into a certain subculture with its own fashion, digitally made music, magazines, mass-media programmes and shows, and the style of experience including the drug use, etc. (A Ritual Party of the Postmodernist Period). The next two studies focus on specific dance manifestations which were made popular with the help of various workshops especially in bigger Czech cities over the few past years. Zdeňka Lammelová offers an insight into the belly dance (The Czech Orient. The Belly Dance: A Way How to be a Woman). Veronika Švábová deals with the African dance (In the Sign of Drums. The African Dance in Africa and in the Czech Lands).
The Photo column presents masks from a dance game performed around a dead body. The pictures were taken by Amálie Kožmínová (1876-1951), teacher and writer in Carpathian Ruthenia in 1922. The Transforming Tradition column includes an article The Tinker's Trade Metamorphosis by Daniel Drápala: it deals with the present and history of the tinker's trade. Social Chronicle introduces the life anniversaries of Emanuel Kuksa (born 1923), composer; Dušan Holý (1933), ethnomusicologist; Jiří Tesauer (1933), folk song collector and hammer cimbalom player; and Míla Brtník (1928), the artistic leader of the Vysočan folklore ensemble from Jihlava.
The obituary commemorates the life and work of photographer Jan Beran (1913-2003). Other regular columns bring news from competitions, exhibitions, and conferences; there are book and CD reviews as well. In the supplement, an extract from the official document called Culture Politics in the Czech Republic is published. The issue is completed with the list of books and magazines which the Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice gained through an international exchange system.
