Journal of Ethnology 3/2017 deals with the theme “National Schools in Ethnology and Socio-Cultural Anthropology”. Vilmos Voight pays attention to the oldest period of Hungarian interest in the nation and folk culture, and to basic works which constituted Hungarian ethnography (Hungarian Ethnography – a Description of Hungarian Nation?). Giuseppe Maiello outlines the research situation in Italy in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries (The Political Unity of Italy and the Building of the National Demo-Ethno-Anthropology). Jiří Woitsch observes important milestones in the ethnological research in Sweden (From Folklivsforskning to European Ethnology and Anthropology, and Back: Swedish Ethnology in the 19th through 21st Centuries). Indrek Jääts and Marlen Metslaid describe the history of Estonian ethnology (Ethnologies, Ideologies and Powers: the Estonian Case). Martin Soukup submits an outline of the development in social anthropology in Great Britain (British Social Anthropology: the Origin, Development, and Key Concepts).
In the Methodology of Science column Oto Polouček publishes his contribution The Ways across Disciplines for the Further Use of Narrative Sources. An Example of Oral History and Ethnology. Social Chronicle remembers the birth anniversaries of the anthropologist Václav Soukup (born 1957) and the ethnologist Věra Kovářů (born 1932). The obituaries for the dancer and choreographer Miloš Vršecký (1950–2017), and Luděk Štěpán (1932–2017), a researcher in the field of vernacular architecture, follow. Other regular columns inform about conferences and festivals and submit reviews and reports concerning the discipline.
Hungarian Ethnography – the Description of the Hungarian Nation?
The contribution offers an overview of basis terms and a brief history of Hungarian ethnography including the history of Hungarian society (and nation) from the Middle Ages to the present. The author deals more thoroughly with more important authors and works that can be considered to be ethnographic. The most significant ones include Miklós Oláh (1537), Mátyás Bél (1735–1742), a statistics describing the theory of state, János Csaplovics (1822, 1829), Herder´s prophecy about the extinction of the Magyars (1791), collections and regional descriptions in the “reform period”, Ferenc Kölcsey and his “national traditions“ (1826), János Erdélyi who further developed the same theme (1847), new beginnings after the revolution (1848–1849), Pál Hunfalvy (1876), foundation of the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography (1872), general and industrial exhibitions, the book Österreichische Monarchie in Wort und Bild (1886–1902), publication of comparative journals, the National Millennium Exhibition in 1896, foundation of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society (1889), Lajos Katon´s suggestion for terminology (1889: ethnologia – ethnographia – folklore), the period before World War I and the end of the “golden age” after World War I.
The Political Unity of Italy, and Building of the National Demo-Ethno-Anthropology
The study describes the building of anthropology and the disciplines connected to it during the first years of the Italian state. The schools of thinking inspired by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and those of Darwinian inspiration are compared, and the text explains how Italian scientists discovered modern ethnography and folklore studies. The study focuses on several prominent personalities of what is now defined in Italy as demo-ethno-anthropology, such as Paolo Mantegazza, Giustiniano Nicolucci, Giuseppe Pitré, Cesare Lombroso and Angelo de Gubernatis. Less memorable figures are also mentioned in detail as well as their contribution to Italian and European ethnology. The study analyses strengths and weaknesses of Italian ethnology, as well as their development during the 19th century. Emphasis is placed on the perception of the substantial cultural distance between northern and southern Italy.These lands, after their annexation to the Italian Kingdom, became a field of research for ethnographers and anthropologists, and a place to experience the new racist theories that were at that time formed within the positivist science, too.
From Folklivsforskning to European Ethnology and Anthropology, and Back: Swedish Ethnology in the 19th through 21st Centuries
The chronologically approached essay outlines the development of Swedish ethnology from its amateur beginnings through establishing the museum and university scientific discipline in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Great attention is paid to the essential modernization of the discipline by Sigurd Erixon, which had all-European impact through the theoretical-methodological formation of the comparative all-European ethnology´s concept, as well as to the subsequent processes of sociologization and anthropologization of the discipline in the 1970s and 1980s, and the shift in the Swedish ethnologists´ focus from the study of the past to current social problems. The contemporary situation in Swedish ethnology, the example of which the so-called Lund School is, is described as a convergence of cultural-historical and anthropological approaches and the discipline is considered to be one of the most progressive in the all-European context. The essay mentions several profiling personalities of Swedish ethnology from the 19th century to date as well as key works, and it describes the past and the contemporary institutional basis of the discipline.
Ethnologies, Ideologies and Powers: The Estonian Case
This article examines the inception and history of Estonian ethnography as it progressed various political regimes. The central axis is the connection between the discipline and the Estonian nationalism. The autors examine two periods at greater length, the interwar era and the Soviet period. The main research issue for Estonian ethnography up to the 1990s was the material part of peasant culture, while folkloristics dealt with the intangible side. In the interwar Republic of Estonia, ethnography was one branch of Estonian studies and helped strengthen the national identity and unity. During the Soviet period, Estonian ethnography was formally a part of Soviet ethnography and subject to Marxist-Leninist theory. However, in practice it did remain connected to Estonian nationalism and supported Estonian identity, especially since late 1950s. Estonian ethnography remained quite conservative in terms of research material and methods. A major change took place early in the 1990s as Estonia regained independence. Estonian ethnography became a part of European ethnology and name of the discipline changed accordingly.
British Social Anthropology: origin, development and key conceptions
The study deals with exploration of the origin and development of the British social anthropology. The author has defined its four principal features, which he considers to be, as follows: primarily deductive orientation, focus on the research into non-European societies, emphasis on applied anthropology and absence of standardized textbooks in the branch. The study aims at major schools and paradigms; simultaneously, the author deals with the analysis of key conceptions in the discipline, which include function and social structure in the British social anthropology. He also illustrates three dominating attitudes, which emerged in the discipline, by selected male and female representatives of the British anthropology. In particular, these include the diachronous (evolutionism, diffusionism), the synchronous (functionalism, structural functionalism) and the processual (Manchester School) attitude. He also demonstrates the narrow connection between the fieldwork concept and the dominating paradigm. In the conclusion of the study, the recent trends in the British social anthropology and its current situation are addressed.
