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Conversation between Dr. Anatoli Kanev and Prof. Ilia Todev about the role of historians and more specifically the history of Batak.
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Conversation between Dr. Anatoli Kanev and Prof. Ilia Todev about the role of historians and more specifically the history of Batak.
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The author of the article “Romanian gard – An Old Germanic Loan and Its Linguistic-Historical Implications” aims to clarify the etymology of a much discussed Romanian term. About the origin of Rmn. gard (‘enclosure, fence, garden, wickerwork barrier for fishing’) three main etymological explanations have been proposed in course of time: (1) earliest of all, Diez considered that Gothic gards (‘house, household, family, courtyard’) could account for both Romanian gard and Albanian gardh (‘hedge, palisade, dam’); later it was only Scriban and Gamillscheg who were definitely in favour of an Old Germanic origin for Rmn. gard; (2) most other scholars followed Miklosich’s authoritative (but hardly credible) opinion according to which the Romanian word under discussion simply derived from Old Slavic gradъ (‘fortified settlement’); (3) and in more recent times, specialists like Russu and Brâncuş considered Rmn. gard to be a substratal (Thraco-Dacian) term closely related to Alb. gardh. The present author brings new arguments in favour of the Old Germanic etymology (which was credibly sustained in Gamillscheg’s Romania Germanica). One of the main arguments taken into account below is that O.Slav. gradъ itself is best explained as a very early borrowing from Germanic, that idea being archaeologically supported by the numerous traces of Old Germanic (even pre-Gothic) “enclosures” that have been found in now Slavic territories north of the Carpathians. In regard to phonetics, in Slavic (a satem language, like Thracian, for that matter), a word that etymologically corresponds to Phrygian -gordum (in Manegordum) and to Latin hortus ‘garden’ should have an initial z; and, in fact, Russian does contain such a native word: zorod ‘enclosure for haystacks’, a remote relative of Russ. gorod ‘city’ (the latter being an East-Slavic version of the Germanic loan gradъ). This author considers that, even before East-Scandinavian Vikings came to control East-Slavic territories that they designated as Gardar (on the Dniepr), earlier Slavs had come into touch with Old Germanic “enclosures” (as power-centres, and nuclei of cities to-be), of the kind designated by Goth. gards. Such a term also became known, independently, to pre-Roman ancestors of the Romanians (and to proto-Albanians) in Central-Southeast European regions controlled by one or another kind of Old Germanics (as Herrenvolk). That kind of early contact, which certainly preceded the Slavic expansion of the 6th–7th centuries, can account for the fact that Romanians have preserved the term gard with archaic-rural meanings, and (in form) without the specific Slavic metathesis, gar > gra (a feature that is manifest, for instance, in the Romanian term grădină ‘garden’, an obvious Slavic loan). So, Rmn. gard appears to come from pre-Roman substratal idioms (as several important scholars have assumed), but in those idioms such a term was an Old Germanic loan, a fact that is indicated by both its initial consonant g, and its vowel a (as regular Germanic development from an Indo-European o – cf. Lat. hortus). From the language of earliest Slavs (Sklavenoi) who moved south, Romanians subsequently inherited ogradă, grădină, and grădişte (themselves based on Old Germanic loans), but not also gradъ.
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The main topic of the article is the transformation of the local food into cultural heritage. Examining specific examples, it reveals the actions of big and small agribusiness players who “re-discover their connection with tradition”, play the role of guardians of the local heritage, and engage themselves in private negotiation and public presentation of the food, by means of which to educate the public with regard to the “rediscovering” and cultural valuation of the local products. The specific ethnographic description includes information from two regions – the Municipality of Smolyan in the Central Rhodope Mountains and the Municipality of Ugarchin on the foothills to the North of Stara Planina mountain. The regions are presented in comparative perspective but also as a common ground of local food valuation. The“traditional” dairy products are at the core of the valorization in the first region, and the “local” truffles – of the second. In addition to the study of the relationships, which these products generate on the ground, the article examines two specific festivals (the yoghurt Festival in the village of Momchilovtsi and the Truffle Fest in the town of Ugarchin) that present the scene of the heritage and the relations between the various social actors symbolically and literally
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The article focuses on two forms of appropriation of the urban space by new forms of festivity organized around food consumption. Although the new forms intervene with public space and use its ideology, these practices rather question the general access to it. Usually, they are organized as private events but following the logic of new capitalism, they insist on a higher, often non-commercial, purpose that adds value to the experience. This may be the demonstrative struggle against wastefulness or aestheticization of food consumption in the public space as a form of creating experiences. The new media play a key role in the experiencing and producing of these events: from their disclosure and access to the organization of their visual identity.
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In the early 20th century, the Bulgarian anthropogeographer Krum Dronchilov, Ph.D. conducted field research in the 23 villages located near the road between Dragoman and Tran. His publication “Burel. Anthropogeographic Studies” is at the root of a second research which I conducted in 2017 – 2018 – “Burel a Century Later: Changes in the Region (a Comparison with an Anthropogeographic Research of 1923)”. The second research as well as this article mark the main changes registered in the region and my observations regarding the positions of researcher and respondents in the 21st century. In order to present the second research in a modern, efficient and intriguing way, the use of audio and visual methods in collecting and presenting the material should be considered a necessary element. The expectations related to the audio-visual established in the 21st century lead to changes in the structures and conceptualization of the scientific texts. In unison with this thesis, the selection of Burel’s photographs in the article is not a mere supplement but a foundation upon which I build my comments.
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The text presents the results from a research of professional periodicals dedicated to radio and radio journalism during the socialism period in Bulgaria. The research has following aims: to track the topics discussed by the professional community; to search the correlation between ideological and professional content; to ascertain to what extent the foreign experience penetrates into the radio related periodicals.
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The text interprets Khand Tatar and Todorka ballad by commenting the historical terms used from the one hand, and, from the other hand by doing a transformational analysis of the attributes and functions of the mediator in the plot. The situations connected with the Tartars as historical population are analyzed as potential sources of folk personages and motifs. Resultantly, the folklore situation is seen in the light of a possible reflection of the mythological understandings while at the same time the basic psycho-social functions of the ballad are outlined. Thus the reading combines historical and mythological aspects and compares the particular “Bulgarian” case with the universal models and structures of thinking.
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This paper focuses on the specificity of interactions in a group of mourning created within a community of amateurs in a sociodigital network. it allows to observe that on the creation of a post-mortem digital identity of thedeceased constituting at the discretion of tributes is articulated with emphasis ofmemories, thoughts and affects also participating to the presentation of themselves and the bereaved. The comparison of the main results of analysis of this group with those of 4 other groups without community link, highlights that, in spite of the fame of the deceased, the collective dimension of the identity is more at stake than the individual dimension when the mourning is made within a community. *** Cet article s’intéresse à la spécificité des interactions ayant lieu dans le cadre d’un groupe de deuil créé au sein d’une communauté d’amateurs sur un réseausocionumérique. Il permet d’observer que la création d’une identité numérique postmortemdu défunt se constituant au gré des hommages s’articule avec la mise enavant de souvenirs, pensées et affects participant également de la présentation quefont d’eux-mêmes les endeuillés. La comparaison des principaux résultats d’analysede ce groupe avec ceux de 4 autres groupes sans lien communautaire fait ressortirque, en dépit de la notoriété du défunt, la dimension collective de l’identité est davantage en jeu que la dimension individuelle lorsque le deuil s’effectue au sein d’une communauté.
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While most studies of transnational processes are focused on the remittances inthe context of socio-economic development or on the transnational citizenship and the political mobilization across the borders, this article aims to explore the role of emotions in the migration experience and more specifically – their place in the negotiation of transnational family-kin life. The author proceeds from the assumption that the emotional dynamics are an important part of the analysis of the transnational kin relations. According to this approach, the focus of the study is not only on those who leave but also on those who remain in the villages of origin. Feelings of loss, sadness, longing, pain, guilt, but also expressions of happiness, excitement,gratitude, love, hopefulness etc., are experienced in both ends of the migration chain.Emotional encounters are related to family expectations and moral obligations, to mutual responsibilities and care giving within the dispersed families.These issues are addressed on the basis of ethnographic data personally collected by the author among representatives of the Kosovar Gorani – a community renowned in the Balkans for the decades-long intensive labour mobility which often involves two or even three generations within a family-kin group. The data presented show that transnational family-kin members may find ways to connect time and space so as to ensure (virtual and physical) co-experiences and to keep their emotional relationships viable and active. The tools and strategies used by people are various and include memories, imaginations, gifts and remittances, long-distance communication and mutual visits.
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The article aims to present the cultivation of fibrous hemp plants and the extraction of hemp fibers in the 1950s by studying the case of the village of Mezdreya, northwestern Bulgaria. The author describes in detail the process of hemp growing –sowing and plant care, harvesting and seed storage, preparation of the stem immersion equipment, drying, washing and processing of hemp stems and fibres. The emphasis is placed on the social relations arising in the cultivation and processing of hemp. The research has been set in the framework of regional and national studies and in the economic and political context of the period between the late 19th century and the end of the 1950s. Thus, it was possible to track the processes over a period of almost a century.
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The text explores the existing information about the last song Vasil Levski was sing before being hanged in terms of the truth or mystifica¬tions that contains or “produces” the memory in opposition or dialogizing with the historical fact about the death of the Apostle. The main question is – where, in the context of the various interpretations, is “situated” the folk knowledge that before the hanging Vasil Levski was sing a song in the Turkish language – in the field of the experience, preserved in memory and accepted as authentic, on the verbal history through subjective narrative or in the sphere of the manipulable memory?
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The text presents the changes in the images of the Red Army from oral stories in Bulgaria. The relation between memory and history creates tension in the images reaching us today because they are related to what is absent in the present time and although they use the same resources coming from the past, their functioning is different. Individual memories, collective memories and historical discourse interact and define each other thus constructing, reconstructing and sometimes “inventing” different versions of the past. Nowadays we see the construction of events and the shaping of mass media messages aiming at focusing the empathy people of different generations with the memory of the past on the heroic aspect only – the victory over Hitlerism. “The Immortal Regiment” initiative is a form of ritual resurrection of significant deceased – through it not only the heroes are rationalized as (“eternally”) living, but at the same time the conditionally “neutral” Soviet soldiers are turned into significant ones even for the people in Bul¬garia, therefore indisputably opposing to the image of the “Red Army soldiers”, which are not only insignificant – anonymous and without image, but are also burdened with negative connotations in memory. That way, by constructing images from the past (as it is not clear whether the people in the photographs were real participants in the war, real heroes), considering also the absence of personification of the heroes and the idea of achieving large numbers of people at which the procession with the photographs aims, the topic of the Soviet Army acquires new meanings. The event has an effect on the already existing image shaped by the memories, and gradually changes it. That is the reason why the oral stories about the time the Red Army was in Bulgaria are more important for us, as much as the memory (of the local community) is seen as a matrix of history containing concepts affecting the present related to the past (Ricoeur 2006). Oral stories have the expressiveness of the narrative of witnesses, the power of the first-person story; such stories, when shared with the next generations, happen to be the most important part of the history, knowledge of the recent past that may fade in people’s memories but is preserved as a document of the period.
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This article is for priest Stoitsa from village of Relyovo, near Samokov town, member of a cabal, established in 1730 in the Gornolozenski monastery “Saint Spas,” head of which was the notable Bulgarian bishop Simeon Popovich. Priest Stoitsa prepared the people of the eparchy for uprising. He is captured in the monastery near village of Nedelishte. He is hanged on 21.08.1737 in Sofia together with/collectively with Bishop Simeon Samokovski and many others.
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Пограничният район Мала Преспа на югозападния бряг на Го¬лямото Преспанско езеро се характеризира с изолацията си от останалата част на Албания. Тази изолация се простира далеч извън географските измерения – отразява се в социализацията на населе¬нието и в контактите с останалите сънародници. Фокусът на статията е върху българомакедонското малцинство, обитаващо девет села на албанския бряг на Голямото Преспанско езеро. Основна тема е почитаният празник на Света Марина (30 юли) и ролята му като съ¬битие, обединяващо българомакедонското малцинство от деветте села, както и от по-далечни дестинации. В допълнение, се представя и мястото на провеждане – манастирът „Света Марина“ край село Туминец. Свидетелствата, доказващи колко забележимо и значител¬но място заема той в народната вяра, се откриват в легенди, сънища и истории за него. Статията се базира основно на теренни етнографски материали, събрани в или в близост до селата Туминец и Зрноско през юли и октомври 2017 г. Ключови изводи относно положението на населението там са: – местните се чувстват обединени в малцинствената си роля и смятат традицията да се празнува Света Марина за един от начините да изразят своята принадлежност;– вярата в светицата остава силна, като същевременно в практи¬ките личи съвременният подход да се обедини религиозното честване с добавяне на множество елементи, типични за селски събор.
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Five international expedition of the project “Cave research of the Holy Mountain Athos – Greece” took place in 2016 and 2017. This phase of the project was organized by the Bulgarian Caving Society (BCS). The explorations were focused in the surroundings of Bulgarian Orthodox Monastery „St. Georgi Zograph“. 46 natural and artificial caves with total length were explored and surveyed. 32 of them were artificial. From a functional point of view, artificial caves are divided into 4 categories: Water collection galleries Kariz, Ganats; Drainage channels; Fountains with tanks attached to them behind water; Tanks. The work analyses the construction of the underground structures. Description of the most important of them is given.
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The text describes the history of a family from Samokov named Kotsevi from the XVIII century to the present day. It`s based on a unpublished archive, containing: memories written by Asen Kotsev, a family tree (incomplete) and four pictures. During his work, the author has found more data, which is mentioned in the text. It all begins with the figure of captain Nikola Altsek. There was migration from Albania to the village of Popovyane and then to the town of Samokov. In addition to the history of the family, the text also describes the connections of the family with other families, the occasions of individual members of the family and their houses and private property. Kotsevi were repressed by the Communist regime in Bulgaria (1944–1989). Some, like Kostadin Kotsev were killed. Sotir Kotsev got all his property confiscated by the communist state. Some of these researches are part of a book written by the author, which was published in November 2018.The text describes the history of a family from Samokov named Kotsevi from the XVIII century to the present day. It`s based on a unpublished archive, containing: memories written by Asen Kotsev, a family tree (incomplete) and four pictures. During his work, the author has found more data, which is mentioned in the text. It all begins with the figure of captain Nikola Altsek. There was migration from Albania to the village of Popovyane and then to the town of Samokov. In addition to the history of the family, the text also describes the connections of the family with other families, the occasions of individual members of the family and their houses and private property. Kotsevi were repressed by the Communist regime in Bulgaria (1944–1989). Some, like Kostadin Kotsev were killed. Sotir Kotsev got all his property confiscated by the communist state. Some of these researches are part of a book written by the author, which was published in November 2018.
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