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The focus of the research is St. Petka Rock Church located in the town of Tran, near the Bulgarian-Serbian border. This religious site is related to the strong and vigorous local cult of a saint who is well-known in the Balkans, St. Paraskevi-Petka. The cult is supported by an interesting local legend according to which St. Petka lived in that same small cave within which the church is situated today. Because of this,St. Petka is considered the patron saint of Tran and its inhabitants. The religious site and the specific cult of St. Petka in the past, as well as today, play an important role in structuring the religious life of the local community and constructing its identity.Proceeding from the historical presupposition and formation of St. Petka’s cult in the region, this article aims to examine some of the characteristics of the development and function of St. Petka Rock Church as a site of worship, as well as to study the changes which have occurred in the last two decades when the religious site was recognized as a site of cultural heritage and a resource for the development of local tourist products in the context of local sustainable development.
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‘Greater Somalia’ refers to the union of the five regions inhabited by Somali people under the same state. For decades, and especially since colonization, this idea has tried to unify the different Somali peoples in the Horn of Africa: Italian Somalia, British Somalia, the small enclave of Djibouti, the Ogaden and Haud (under Ethiopian rule) and the Northeast border of Kenya. The pansomalist objective has never been fulfilled despite Mogadishu's repeated attempts to integrate all these territories. The last attempt was the so-called war of the Ogaden (1977-1978) driven by the dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, who was defeated. Despite the disaster, the dream of Greater Somalia has remained active for several years. However, the fall of Siad Barre in 1991 and the disintegration of the state of Somalia erased at one stroke the pansomalist aspirations. Finally, the purpose of this article is to analyze the unifying aspirations of Somalia from the Ogaden War to its total disintegration and the strategies promoted by this government until its fall in 1991. The Research methods includes the analysis of historic resources, such as the Constitutions of Somalia and different previous articles and books related to this topic.
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In 1878, besides being the capital of Rumelia, Plovdiv was also the largest and most industrially and culturally developed city in the Bulgarian lands. Over the next two decades, until the end of the 19th century, in this really big Bulgarian city many different things happened, but two remarkable events have significant and crucial importance for its future development – The Unification of Bulgaria in 1885 and the agricultural and industrial exhibition in Plovdiv in 1892. The Unification changed its status from a metropolitan to a provincial city and the exhibition – a demonstration of modernization efforts – presented, albeit in a minimized way, the model of the new urban space and its development perspective. What did Plovdiv look like on the eve of the 20th century – like a European or like an Oriental city? The answer to this question is the aim of this study, based on a multitude of different historical sources.
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The paper aims to show how a current place can be an embodiment of multiple collective perceptions of cultural reality. Karlukovo is a small village in northern Bulgaria and it is very good example for that hypothesis. On the one hand, it is a popular touristic place for its natural gifts – there is a cave nearby, which is a natural phenomenon for its two holes in the form of eyes on the roof of the cave. On the other hand, “Karlukovo” is a stereotype both for “madhause” and for gypsies. The reason for that is the local mental hospital, which is famous around Bulgarians and is known, that it hosts the most difficult psychological cases. Next to it, for several years the Bulgarian media spread information about crimes, where many houses have been robbed. As half of the local population is migrated gypsies, many people thought that gypsies are the offenders (even that this may not be the reality). On third place, the village is a site for the native’s collective memory, which saves myths, family stories, songs, collaborations, festivals, etc. The locals do not support the narrative of the mental house. For them the hospital is outside the village, it is part of the governmental health infrastructure, and it is just a coincidence that its location is close to the village. This makes them struggling with the common stereotype of the mad house. Yet, for the last 2 years Prohodna cave gains popularity and tourism is growing. The common perception of Karlukovo is changing and getting more and more pleasant. All of this shows how a single site can adopt multiple, inconstant and changeable narratives.
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This paper focuses on the projections of synergetic school pedagogy on a meta-methodological and cultural perspective. The grounds and arguments for its application are the need for restructuring global society and multicultural identity of young people and children. The principles of methodological transformation of authentic cultural models, which are nationally and regionally defined, are proposed, but with the possibilities for youngsters to integrate their cultural understanding and diversity, and, together with that, to develop social competence. A particular methodological tool is presented – Christmas Luck Ancestral Calendar.
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This article aims to present Ivan Todorov Puliev (Goran)’s personality and especially his mercantile activities. The problem of his relations with Evlogi Georgiev and his brother Nicholas T. Puliev is also concerned. The analyzed sources concerning the activities of Ivan T. Puliev give me reason to conclude that he is а contradictory and interesting person that left visible trace in the history of the Bulgarian National Revival.
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The article presents Industry Museum in Gabrovo as an example for innovations in contemporary museum space and museum conceptions. The historical perspective in town development is presented through the focus of industry. The author searches for wider conclusions about society development during different periods in the XX century. A new way for forming historical point of view was presented. The author stays on the conception that the contemporary museum must be cultural institution which creates cultural tendencies and cultural policies.
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The article examines the processes of the development of the Bulgarian communities in North America. The main focus is on the history and the current state of the Bulgarian organizations, schools, media contributing to the preservation of the Bulgarian culture and traditions overseas.
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An Overview of the History of the Ottoman Empire from the End of the 16th and the First Half of the 17th Century
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At the beginning of the 11th century, in the aftermath of the long rule of the Macedonian dynasty (867 – 1056), the Byzantine Empire was going through a political, cultural and economic upsurge. After winning victories over Bulgarians, Arabs, Georgians and Armenians the Empire extended its borders by consolidating many of its former territories. At that time city life in the Byzantine Empire was making headway at a scale unknown since late Antiquity. A century later some Norman adventurers, on pilgrimage to Monte Sant’ Angelo – Gargano, lent their swords in 1017 to the Lombard cities of Apulia against the Byzantines. From 1016 to 1030 the Normans were pure mercenaries, serving either Byzantine or Lombard. In the second half of 11th century their leaders joined in the organized attempt to wrest Apulia from the Byzantines, who had lost most of that province by 1040. Bari was captured by the Normans in April 1071, and Byzantine authority was finally terminated in Italy, five centuries after the conquest of Justinian I.
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The paper presents a review of the rocker subculture in Bulgaria, describing and interpreting its elements from the perspective of subcultural studies. The research is focused on the development of a local subculture in the context of a small town(Asenovgrad), where an influential community of rockers has been formed since the mid-1990s. Starting with the premise that the youth subculture is both a supranational and local phenomenon, the local subcultural identity of rockers is reviewed and analyzed in reference to their narratives, practices, club membership rules and ethics. The museum of the rockers in Asenovgrad “The people with bikes“ (2011 – 2017)is considered as a special case of the public representation of the subculture through artefacts and settings symbolic of the ideas behind the rockers’ world brotherhood.
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This study aims to trace in detail the development of demographic and religious processes in the settlements along the river Vacha during the last quarter of the 15th century – 16th century using data from Ottoman registers.
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For many centuries, the Volga Bulgarians maintained close economic, cultural and religious ties with Muslim countries and especially with the peoples of Central Asia. Traditionally, relations between them were good and clashes were rare. But after the Battle of the Kalka River (1223), Mongolians turned against Volga Bulgaria. The first attack was repulsed, but after a long fight, Volga Bulgaria was conquered in 1236 by the Mongols and ceased to exist as an independent state.
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The article reveals main facts of the historical development of the Museum of Bulgarian book publishing (second half of 19th and early 20th century) founded in the city of Plovdiv by the end of 1960s. The permanent exhibition was inaugurated at 22nd of May 1975 in the house of the founder of our national typography – Hristo Gruev Danov (1828 – 1911). The key events, related to emergence and evolution of publishing business were shown in six exhibition halls, via artifacts, documents, pictures, etc. The old Revival house, in which the Museum was arranged, deserves a special attention. It combines the vision of a typical medieval tower and the artistry of а Renaissance edifice. Nowadays, the Museum of typography is a pleasing cultural topos located just to the entrance of the Old town and very close to the Orthodox cathedral. It attracts a lot of visitors, mainly Bulgarians, who are inspired by intellectual dignity of Revival period and by the personal magnetism of the popular originator of our national typography – Hristo Gruev Danov.
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“The Gypsies are our own, domestic problem” is a phrase attributed to the long-term former head of the old communist Bulgarian government, Todor Zhivkov. The government policy towards the Gypsy minority in communist Bulgaria is one of inclusion to the Bulgarian way of life, and its implementation is carefully tailored to the specificities of Bulgaria as a country. It is a little known fact that towards the end of the 40s, the Bulgarian Gypsies suddenly turn from a ‘domestic problem’ to something much larger and thus become part of the great confrontation between the two world political camps divided by the Iron Curtain. This takes place during the migration of the ethnic Turks which starts in 1948, and during which, applications for emigration are filed by both Bulgarian Turks and Muslim Bulgarian Gypsies. This latter ethnic minority becomes the cause for serious conflict between ‘communist Bulgaria’ and ‘capitalist Turkey’. This paper aims at following the events from the end of the 1940s to the end of the 1980s, as well as at analysing the consequences of the confrontation between the two neighbouring Balkan countries.
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Tobacco City is a case which has attracted significant public attention; at the same time, it is also an example, which combines various discourses. In order to identify what distinguishes this case of industrial heritage from others, this article examines three examples, which in their geographical and historical aspects are appropriate for comparative research regarding the issues at hand. They are commensurable in reference to their size and the significance of their location for cultural and industrial traditions, as well as in the relative date of their establishment and their geographical and economic representativeness. The research questions that the study attempts to answer are analytical as well as completely practical, reflecting real management and political decisions. From an anthropological point of view, there are two problems; first, the correlation among various aspects of the project such as the site’s pore functionalization; the goal of reviving the space; attracting investments and the public; and updating the site’s use and access; and, secondly, the narrative, which the very space presupposes as heritage and the extent to which it should be preserved.
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This article is part of ethnological research on the role and function of the public baths in the urban space. Fieldwork was done in 2017 in the Gorna Banya quarter of Sofia. In this publication, the public baths are seen as one of the markers that construct local identity. At the beginning of the 20th century, the old Ottoman baths in the centre of Gorna Banya are destroyed and new ones are built, which are preserved to the present day. The baths are part of the everyday life of the local people, who use their resources for drinking, cooking, washing, but also for trade and medicinal purposes. Furthermore, the inhabitants continue to observe some traditional family and calendar customs around the public baths. Although the baths are closed, the square in front of them continues to playa central role in public life. This is evident, on the one hand, from the annual celebrations, and on the other hand, from the gatherings in front of the public baths summoned via Facebook. The public baths continue to be a central place around which life in the quarter is organized. The local authorities are looking for different ways to fund the restoration of the old building.
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