Journal of Ethnology 3/2014 is devoted to the theme Space transformations of cultural phenomena. In their study, Daniel Drápala and Martina Pavlicová have a think about the term ethnographic area and its formation (Ethnographic Differentiation: Reflections on Its Historical Development and Sense of Contemporary Existence). Jiří Bláha and Alena Dunajová deal with one type of rafter construction at village buildings (Origin and Spreading of Principal Rafter Roofs in Central Europe). Tereza Zíková and Gabriela Fatková pay attention to the interaction of the human being and the landscape (Local Identity and Landscape’s Memory: important landscape components in the perspective of participants). In Other Studies column, Martin Šimša introduces the application of the geographic information system in the case of folk dress (Map Application: Folk Dress in Moravia) and Jarmila Teturová presents contemporary research of ethnocultural traditions in Moravia (Modern Feast-Day Tradition in the Village of Dobročkovice in the Bučovicko Region). Review Section remembers important personalities from the historiography of the discipline – 100th anniversaries of the birth of ethnographer and ethno-organologist Ludvík Kunz (1914–2005) and folk songs collector Václav Stuchlý (1914–2000) as well as what would have been the 80th birthday of Václav Frolec (1934–1992). Social Chronicle writes about anniversaries of ethnologists Eva Urbachová (* 1924) and Zora Vanovičová (* 1944) and publishes an obituary for Slovakian folklorist Bohuslav Beneš (1927–2014). Other regular columns publish reports from exhibitions, conferences, festivals as well as reviews of new books.
Ethnographic differentiation: reflections on its historical development and sense of contemporary existence
Nowadays, local culture is understood as an important phenomenon of culture in the society, as an identification factor of local inhabitants, as an important part of a place to live in. In many cases, this is connected, directly or indirectly, with traditional folk culture. This also includes the issue of ethnographic differentiation as well as the definition of ethnographic regions, as these were formed especially in the 19th and at the outset of the 20th centuries and have been declared as a legacy of tradition so far. Significant is the issue of the formation of these regions as well as the development of the cultural environment belonging to them, which is the basis for the reflections in the submitted study: to what extent the general contentions about ethnographic differentiation are valid and what the major impulse for the progress thereof is. Two Moravian ethnographic areas (Slovácko and Moravian Záhoří), which today are an integral part of the map with ethnographic areas, have been chosen to allow a particular view of the given issue. Their genesis and development, however, are not identical. They differ in their territorial extent, distinctiveness, inner differentiation as well as in the intensity of regional consciousness. Both probes try to prove that perception of an ethnographic area can often be a professional stereotype and that it is necessary to come back to the theme of ethnographic regions in new contexts and meanings.
Origins and the Spreading of Principal Rafter Roofs in Central Europe
Roof frames on village buildings with principal rafters crossed under the roof head to carry the ridged piece are termed scissor truss in Central-European languages. The authors focus on their origin, structural function and constructional arrangement in relation to other types of roof frame constructions most frequently appearing in vernacular architecture, in particular to ridge post roofs, purlin roofs and common rafter roofs. The field and archive research, along with dendrochronological dating, in the Znojemsko and Vranovsko regions was compared with those from the Slovakian part of the Danube Region. The results shows that the geographical spreading of principal rafter roofs does not always mean the spreading of a genetically identical phenomenon. Principal rafter roofs in both surveyed regions have their specific features and their genesis is not identical. In the roofs in the Danube Region the post supports of the ridge piece were gradually improved and replaced by principal rafters providing better weight displacement, whereas the constructions widespread in the region along the Dyje River likely witnessed the reception of a finished type of construction applied firstly to nobility houses and then adapted to the needs of residential and farm buildings in villages.
Local Identity and Landscape’s Memory: Important Landscape Components in the Perspective of Participants
Using the analysis of semantic domains, the Geographic Information System (GIS) and interpretation, the contribution introduces important places in landscape in a micro-perspective of the inhabitants of selected locations in the Plzeň region. The locations presented in the contribution represent different configurations of population and landscape. The community of Bušovice is typical for its stability in population and the agricultural character of the landscape. The community of Lesná is situated in a border region, where the population fully changed after the World War II and the work in forest has been the main means of earning the living so far; simultaneously, the forest is dominating the local landscape. Within the contribution, there is presented a map of landscape components with the cultural and historical value defined based on the responds of local inhabitants. By means of the GIS, it is possible to simulate which places in the landscape are considered important in the collective memory of the inhabitants, and how the selection of particular landscape components changes in connection with other features of those informants (e.g. gender). The cultural domain of important shared places is also interpreted in the text whereby stress is put on collectively shared ideas of the participants, which are manifested in the space (they create so-called memory places) and become a field to symbolize the local identity.
Map Application Folk Dress in Moravia and Ethno-Cartographic Presentation of Coat Dress
In 2011, the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice was charged to solve the project titled Traditional Folk Dress in Moravia; Identification, analysis, preservation and continually sustainable condition of collection material from 1850–1950. Within this task, a plethora of expert outputs of identification or analytic nature came into being. Many of them were presented to the professional and amateur public in the form of expert studies or publications. The information about documented garments could only be made available thanks to the GIS (geographic information system) map web Folk Dress in Moravia. The web shall provide the researchers with source information about the folk garments placed in collections of Czech and Moravian museums. Particular types of garments, such as trousers, vests, jackets, coats, shirts, blouses, skirts and women’s waistcoats or bodices etc. will be identified according to united systematics and the acquired information will be placed in a database. It allows to compare the garments and to form a group with identical properties. Based on these properties, particular types and variants thereof are presented on the map. The depicted pictograms of garments allow to move to a database card, in which not only the source information but also drawings and pattern sketches are included.
Modern feast-day tradition in the village of Dobročkovice in the Bučovicko region
The study deals with the modern feast-day tradition in the village of Dobročovice in the Bučovicko region, which is situated in the southern part of the ethnographic area of Haná. The study summarizes the accessible resources substantiating the extinction of the original folk culture expressions in this location as early as in the mid-19th century. The principal part of the text includes assessment of the results from the field research into contemporary form of the feast day. The research was made in 2013. The feast-day is the most important folklore event and the main dance opportunity in Dobročkovice. Attention is paid to the transfer of feast-day customs, dances, songs, and folk costumes from the Kyjovsko region, taking into account their function within the feast-day procession and dance entertainment. In this context, the importance of verbuňk, a Slovácko dance that occurs here as well, is described. In verbuňk, dance figures have been changed by which they have digressed from those of the Kyjovsko regional type. The study provides basic starting points for other researches and those interesting in modern traditions in the locations where the original process of passing-down was interrupted in the past and not renewed later.
