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MUSEUMS // A European Parable About the Carnival. The Carnival – A King of Europe Exhibition at the Ethnographic Institute and Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (March 19 – April 29, 2009)
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Starting with Map 1424 of Yagberg and Jude’s Italian-Swiss Atlas (AIS), the first part of the article analyzes the sum total of the Italian names of the scarecrow, whereby the emblematic influence has been pointed out, which the carnival world outlook seemed to have exerted on their specific linguistic definition. Starting from the fragile, but fully perceptible connection between the personage, depicted by the scarecrow, with the ancient farming cults for the field, the second part of the article discusses some major aspects of the agricultural cults of the communities of Antiquity: those of the Arwal Brethren and of the Salic people – and their respective songs: carmen arvale and Carmen saliare, to which they could assumingly be ascribed, through the still fragile but strong “thread of the name”, by the way amply borne out by some specific aspects of the ritual, two major ceremonial epigones of the Middle Ages, respectively carnevale and carnasciale. The conclusive note deals with some of the most outstanding prerequisites justifying this assumption.
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Since the 1930ies Erika Groth-Schmachtenberger (1906-1992) lived in the bavarian capital Munich and worked as a professional photographer. She was mainly interested in country life, traditional costumes, customs and rituals; she sold her photographies to popular magazines. The article focuses on the pictures, taken between 1936 and 1979 on the occasion of Fastnacht (carnival) in the little Bavarian town Mittenwald. In its first part the article examines Groth-Schmachtenbergers artistic style and makes clear, how her thematical focus narrowed more and more during many years. The second part of the article deals with the reception of Groth-Schmachtenbergers pictures in popular ethnographic literature in Bavaria. The analysis shows how the popular image of Fastnacht in Mittenwald was created by only few motivs.
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The subject of the article has been the evolution of stage performances and musical production as a mechanism of showing Jewish identity in Bulgaria in the wake of 1989. The text points out how the working out and presentation of cultural products through stage performance and amateur artistic activities turn into a way of shaping new models of Jewish identity in the wake of 1989 (construed as an element of a newly established “fabricated” tradition in the view of Eric Hobsbawm, in a period when classical folklore is losing its positions in everyday culture). The article focuses on the shows of several Jewish vocal and dancing formations, choir ensembles and soloists, who through their repertories enforce new folklore models as part of the creation of the new collective image of Bulgarian Jewry during the past 15-20 years. Two major components have been taken into consideration exerting the strongest impact on the artistic models: on the one hand, the historical relationship of the Bulgarian Jews with the Sephardic cultural tradition and, on the other, the Israeli culture penetrating along most diverse formal and informal channels. The paper raises the question about the relationship between the presentation of this culture and its consumption; between its creation and recreation in response to the changing post-modern society. Commentaries have also been offered as to how this situation contributes to the formation of the collective Jewish identity, giving precedence to the ethnic.
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The rituals involving masked personages in Bulgarian folk traditions are some of the most spectacular and attractive ones, being at the same time the most enigmatic for science. For more than a century they have not disappeared from the pages of the scholarly press, provoking discussions between archaeologists (and more specifically, Thracian scholars), ethnologists and folklorists on the problems of their ethno-genesis, meaning and functions. The discussions have produced certain results, but have not succeeded to answer the key question: why masked rituals are performed and what had been the mythical prerequisites, which had originally brought about their emergence. The author gives her answer.
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As a result of Ganka Mihailova’s new studies on masquerades and of Ivan Marazov’s on the Kabyrian cults a comparative analysis has become possible between the two systems of rituals. Based on this analysis has been the hypothesis about the typological similarity and elements of succession between the set of rituals of the Kukeri masked dancers and the ancient Kabyrian tradition of myths and rituals. The comparative analysis of the ritual personages, of the costumes and attributes, ritual actions, ritual meals, ritual bans and character of the Kukeri/Kalogeri rituals in Greece and Bulgaria evinces considerable lack of correspondence with the ancient Dionysian festivities. Some characteristic elements of the Kukeri masked dancers’ set of rituals like, for instance, the black personages (moreover dirty, lame, crooked and very much advanced in years), forging, carrying a distaff, ploughing and sewing, seriously challenge the thesis of the origin of the Kukeri masked dancers’ festivities from the Dionysian holidays, because they had been banned or unknown to the worshippers of Dionysus.
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BOOK REVIEWS AND COMMENTS // Fremdes Europa?: Selbstbilder und Europa – Vorstellungen in Bulgarien (1850–1945)/ hrsg. Von Petar Petrov, Katerina Gehl, Klaus Roth – Berlin; Münster: Lit Verlag, 2007
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The author considers the question of the location of the population on the territory of Sofia in the period of capitalism. His basic conclusion is that, in contrast to the period of feudalism, the principles of zoning the population in separate city sections changed under the new historical conditions. The social and class appurtenance of the individual acquired the principal importance, regardless of his national or religious status. The mechanism by means of which zoning was implemented on this basis was the laws of capitalism and above all that of the ground rent. The author establishes that three basic social and class categories occupied districts or sectors specific for them on the territory of the city, locating themselves for their own part in the form of concentric bands around the city centre. The social and class aspect of the individual districts or city sectors was dynamic and most of them changed their social characterization as the city developed. The process of forming microstructures within the framework of the individual zones is traced on the basis of social and class zoning. They unite the individual categories of the population in accordance with their professional affiliation, place of origin, the time and reasons for their settling in the city. In conclusion, the author notes the significance of the social and class zoning as an objective prerequisite for the appearance and development of specifics in the way of life and culture of the population of Sofia in the period of capitalism
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Interesting and little known ethnographic material, collected in Bulgaria between the First and the Second World Wars and preserved in Czech archives is treated in this article. The author emphasizes that this material forms a most valuable source for the study of the history of the Bulgarian science of ethnography. The material treated in this article is presented with a comparatively detailed characterization as regards the source as well as the contents. It enriches and widens the knowledge of the problems of Bulgarian ethnography collected so far, and which was the subject of research by ethnographers who worked in Prague in the period indicated.
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This article studies the question of the traditional garments worn by the women in the town of Bansko. The author considers the individual elements of the women's costumes in detail, and also the fabrics of which they were made. On the basis of on the spot observations and source material the link between folk garments in a concrete social and economic setting is studied. On the basis of the principle thus formulated the author outlines two basic types of garments: those of the National Revival period and of capitalism. The concluding pages indicate changes in the present-day garments worn by women. The author emphasizes that certain elements of traditional garments are preserved in the present, elements which, even under the new conditions, preserve their functional and aesthetic value.
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