Цар Самуил и Беласишката битка в пограничния регион Петрич (България) – Струмица (Македония)
King Samuel and the Battle of Belasitsa in the Border Region of Petrich (Bulgaria) – Strumica (Macedonia)

Cultural Memory and Cultural Policies

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the results of an ethnological fieldwork conducted bythe authors in the summer of 2014 in the border region of Petrich, Bulgaria,and Strumica, Macedonia, within the framework of events on the occasion of1000 years of the death of King Samuel. Based on the theoretical treatment ofcultural memory as constant and continuous process of social construction,the study aims to show the two-way relation between cultural memory andcultural policies or in this particular case how the cultural memory of KingSamuel and the Battle of Belasitsa is influenced by the cultural policies pur-sued during the years and vice versa. According to the main hypothesis of theauthors, today, among the population of the studied border region, the culturalmemory of Samuel and the Battle of Belasitsa exists undoubtedly but not asa knowledge handed down from generation to generation for 1000 years. It is(re)constructed as a result of the influence of various factors and institutionsand the pursuing of policies on different levels – national and local. Althoughopposed to one another, these processes run in a similar manner on both sidesof the Bulgarian-Macedonian border.Key words: 1000 years of the death of King Samuel, cultural memory,Petrich, Bulgaria, and Strumica, Macedonia.

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