1923 Nüfus Mübadelesine Mizah Penceresinden Bakmak: Zümrüdüanka

Author(s): Nuray Firindioğlu Yılmaz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2017

The Greek- Turkish 1923 population exchange has played an important role in Turkish history both politically and socially. Since about 2 million Greeks and Turks were ousted from their homelands, this issue has quickly become problematic due to some main concerns and conflicts over its form and instruments, the definition and the scale of the refugees, and the legal status of their left property. These problems led the refugees to experience a number of tragic incidents from the start of the implementation of the exchange almost until it is completed. This study reviews the Greek- Turkish population exchange that has been engraved in collective memory in every respect by analyzing the texts and caricatures in the comic book, Zümrüdüanka, that reflect its idiosyncratic sense of humor.

Скандинавският Север и Европа – взаимодействие през вековете (VIII – XXI век)

Author(s): Vera Gancheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

The Scandinavian North is first presented as an important and wide space in Europe, comprising five independent countries and self-governing territories belonging to Denmark and Finland. The lecture makes extensive use of the concept of Norden, which has already gained wide popularity, including in Bulgaria, as a way of designating this part of the European continent not just in a geographic sense but, equally, as a signifier denoting the historical and civilizational links between Nordic nations. It emphasizes the complex Nordic identity, which European identity amplifies and lends a specific character to. The reasons for this tremendous interest are explored in detail – weaving them to an extent into a mythological narrative – with the Norden depicted as a corner in the periphery of Europe that has always been actively involved in the historical events that have gone into shaping present-day Europe. A somewhat obscure yet interesting fact is that in 1730 a Nordic scientist, the Carolean Philip Johan von Strahlenberg, suggested the Ural mountain range as the border separating Europe and Asia – a proposition that continues to stand firmly today. However, the lecture explores other important contributions of the Norden to the development of Europe, such as the application of concepts, such as democracy, consensus and egalitarianism in daily, social and political practices, which goes back to the turbulent Viking era (850 – 1060) that brought dynamic changes to most parts of the European continent, broadened the communication paths linking its various parts and engendered an intrinsic and valuable culture resting on a firm foundation of a multitude of European achievements and emulation models. The reasons why Nordic countries consistently come on top in some of the most renowned global rankings for quality of life, innovation, education, healthcare, low levels of corruption, and even happiness are explored. The strongly pronounced attitude of tolerance and aptitude for cooperation, seeking national consensus on the essential issues of social development in all countries in the area, the high value of their reputation and authority in the global arena – jointly and individually – resulting from the consistently pursued policy and ideology of the so-called ‘Middle Way’, of building and nurturing a welfare State, which has proven its capacity to drive economic and cultural progress without remaining static over time but continuing to develop and adapt to contemporary needs and demands, are strongly emphasized.

Чуждоезиковото обучение в България през 30-те години на XX в. – между каноничното и модернистичното

Author(s): Vesela Belcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

Interest in learning foreign languages in Bulgaria in the 1930s is a direct consequence of the cultural and educational progress and the advancement of modern language teaching across Europe. Publications on the principles and methods of foreign language teaching from that period highlight moot points and contradictions in different approaches to foreign language teaching in the European as well as the Bulgarian educational context. Such papers outline the historical development of FLT in Bulgaria and make up an essential part of our educational heritage since they reflect major trends in the nation’s cultural development in the early 20th century.

Престъпление или просвещение? За творчеството на маркиз Дьо Сад

Author(s): Lubomir Krastev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

This article is an attempt to explore and offer new interpretations of the personality and works of the notorious Marquis de Sade. A topical matter, de Sade’s literature is important today, as it was back in the past. His impact has shaped the ideas of several famous philosophers, writers, and public figures. The question on debate here is to what extent this impact has been analyzed correctly from the historical perspective.

Аналитична философия на образованието – история, методи и перспективи

Author(s): Nikoleta Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

This article is concerned with a short review of the development and the perspectives of the analytic philosophy of education. The first part of the text describes the historical development of the movement and some of the basic topics involved in the major works of the supporters of the analytical approach. The second part examines the reasons for using conceptual analysis in the field of education, and the latter – the need to apply conceptual analysis in conducting research on education in Bulgaria.

Тракия и образът на тракиеца в народоведските съчинения на Антон Страшимиров

Author(s): Milena Kirova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

Anton Strashimirov is one of the first Bulgarian authors who wrote in the field of national psychology as early as the beginning of the 20th century. He published “A Book on Bulgarians” in 1918, and five years later, it reappeared in an expanded new edition as “Our People”. This book set the beginning of a popular discourse known as national psychology, which in Bulgaria subsisted until the late 20th century. The main body of Strashimirov's work dealt with the five principal groups of Bulgarians characterised by their different geographical location and dialects: Shops, Moesian people, Thracian people, Rhodopeans, and Macedonian people. This paper deals with the image of Thracian people (typical features of their life, psychological characteristics, and patterns of behaviour) the way Strashimirov depicted them. Anton Strashimirov's ethno-psychological research possesses beyond doubt great literary merits, but his generalisations are also interesting for exemplifying and proving the popular stereotypes which early 20th century Bulgarian writers resorted to when conceiving and constructing the national consciousness.

Motivul Avestiței în demonologia populară românească

Author(s): Petru Adrian Danciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2018

Our research follows the demonic perspective on Avestiția′s activity and life. Considered today as a demonic character, she is highlighted by an activity defined almost exclusively against the killing of a pregnant woman or a baby, through appearances that cause fright (the disease called samcă) and the disfigurement of the "touched" by the demon. Because her history is unknown, the recent popular tradition has made one, Avestiția being the sister of Saint Sisoe, a murderer of children, and hence the generation of his witchcraft activity, which is why she is punished by her brother and by Archangel Michael. Newer theories claim a Semite origin (Lamashtu and Lilith), but we come with another, a totemic one, generated by the demon's descriptions. Thus, by systematizing the researched elements, we affirm that, starting from a totem (of the bear), dethroned by the masculine cults of Dacia, deity turns into a demon and encounters the demonological semite elements, prior to Christianity in our country. Subsequent intervention of Christianity "corrects" the history of the character, turning her into a legend, when Sisoe and Archangel Michael appear. This final formula is known by Romanian ethnologists. Christian syncretism almost immediately generates the incantations of samcă and the "Book of Avestiția," a charm that reveals the name and the real history of the demon, which aroused the attention of Christian syncretism when attempting to kill baby Jesus, defrauded by Michael. Sacred folk literature describes her as an extremely dangerous being, Satan's right wing.

The Indo-European Voice of Barbarians

Author(s): Lucian Vasile Bâgiu,Paraschiva Bâgiu / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 1/2018

In our essay we shall focus on the analyses (cum grano salis) of a limited number of words from the introductory pages of the novel Barbarians (such as gorgan, grui, crap, fală, sfadă, etc.). Here, more than elsewhere the author makes use of a good amount of rather strange words in his stylistic attempt to conceive the realm of the Dacians. We shall make an analysis of the etymology of these rather uncommon words as designated in Vinereanu's Etymological Dictionary of Romanian Language (2008) (unlike the traditional Romanian dictionaries, a different vision). From the (probable) linguistic discrepancies and stylistic preferences, findings will be drawn and novelties will be suggested, concerned with Romanian language and culture.

Защо и как Христо Гандев написа книгата си за Васил Левски?

Author(s): Lyubomila Solenkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2017

We rarely find a document to show us the motivation with which a researcher sits to write a book. In the personal archive of Hristo Gandev, kept in the Central State Archives, a notebook is preserved, in which the Bulgarian historian wrote a short note on why and how he should write his study about the great Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski. Here, this text is published for the first time and is delivered without abbreviations and in its authentic style, spelling and language.

Митрополитският храм „Св. Неделя“ в София 1820–1821 г.

Author(s): Nadya Manolova-Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2017

The article examines the history of the 1820–1821 rebuilding of the Orthodox church of St. Sunday, the seat of the Metropolitan in Sofia. The author uses information from the church chronicle as well as from a preserved document of the expenses made in connection with the construction. The analysis of the cost account shows that the construction took place in two stages: from the beginning of August until the end of September 1820 and from mid-November to the spring of 1821. A church was built, which for the most part was wooden. The documents allow the author to track not only the construction but also to highlight the conditions under which it was carried out, as well as to reveal the peculiarities of the very society which undertook the construction. The text of the construction bill is applied at the end of the article.

Христо M. Йонков – по случай 90-годишнината му (Био-библиографски чертици)

Author(s): Nikolay Zhechev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2017

Scholar's Jubilee

Pomník generála Gablenze v Trutnově jako místo paměti lokálního významu

Author(s): Tomáš Korbel / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2018

In this article, changes in the meanings attributed to and local relations with General Gablenz's memorial – a local monument and reminder of the 1866 Prussian-Austrian War – are observed over the period from its construction to the present. First, the role of the memorial in memory studies is presented (Nora’s concept of places of memory) in terms of its semiotic-content structures and three basic functions of festivities that establish its social significance. Second, the use of historical consciousness or local cultural memory is considered as a methodical concept for the study of this monument, which fulfilled a social role not at the national level, but only in the regional context within the collective memory of the local community. Third, the concept of local culture memory is applied and described from the point of view of various actors (subjects of memory places) of commemorative practices (military associations, city leaders, etc.) during the ceremonial inauguration of the monument in 1868, during the solemn deposition of General Gablenz’s relicts in the monument in 1905, and during the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the deposition of those relicts in 2005. It is obvious that the significance of this monument as a place of memory has been shaped by the local community, but at the same time it itself became an important source of identity for this society because of its ability to preserve his living memory.

Regionální identita jako základna konstrukce společné identity českých (československých) Němců ve vlastivědné produkci jizerskohorského regionu

Author(s): Jana Mezerová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2018

The aim of this paper is to explore the transformation in the relationship of the German minority to the Frýdlant, Liberec and Jablonec regions in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, based on research into Heimatkunde (local culture and heritage studies). The paper picks out the way in which Heimatkunde was gradually appropriated by the nationalists, until it eventually became part of the “völkisch” trend. It was used to construct a shared identity amongst Sudetenlanders, as a political tool in the push for the minority’s autonomy. Regional identity developed into a platform from which the stereotyped elements that formed acceptable, effective points of identity for the entire German-speaking minority were drawn and gradually moulded, becoming the foundations for a common identity. Other modernisation processes also played a major role alongside nationalism: in particular industrialisation, urbanisation and the development of a civil society and self-government. From among the many areas that make up Heimatkunde which can be used to illustrate this process, I have chosen to focus in this paper on the relationship to the landscape. When one examines the physical aspects of the landscape, a clear progression can be observed in publications on Heimatkunde in which emphasis shifts from topographical descriptions to the use of local potential (industrial and also tourist potential). Against this backdrop, a stereotype emerged for the German minority of a hardy people who were able to prosper in harsh upland conditions through hard work and enterprise. The administrative aspect of Heimatkunde focused on the relationship between the periphery and the centre and on self-government, and was often linked with the issue of settlement. This led to increasing emphasis on the stereotype of the Sudetenlanders as bearers of culture and on the issue of the right of national ownership.

От съставителя. Етнографският архив – между терен и интерпретации

Author(s): Anni Kirilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2017

Албум 3618 – семейна история на половин столетие

Author(s): Elka Mincheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2017

In the centre of this study is an album kept in the archive of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – BAS. Its inventory number is 3618. The album contains eighty family photographs. The aim of the research is to reconstruct a family history by studying the memory of a Bulgarian kin in the period between 1870 and the 1930s. The fashion tendencies in clothing which stand out,the hair-styles and the studio accessories used for the photographs give information about the type of communication between relatives and friends. By summarizing the results of the analysis, the article attempts to define the social status of the individuals photographed. The aspiration of the author is by means of the photographs to look for and mark the changes which occurred in the family in the concrete period. The topic is examined in two aspects: technical – the technology of making studio and reportage photographs in this period (the paper, the photographic processes etc.); and ethnological – as a family history in certain space, time, family relations etc. Because of the limited size of the article, the emphasis is laid on the ethnographic aspect of the topic.

Evliyā Celebi’s Seyāḥatnāme as a Source for South Slavic Linguistics

Author(s): Slobodan Ilić / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2017

In autumn and winter 1660, accompanying his patron Melek Aḥmed Pasha in an expedition against the Venetian fortifications in northern Dalmatia, the Ottoman traveller Evliyā Celebi (d. 1684) toured Serbia, Bosnia and Dalmatian rocky hinterland, leaving a meticulous description of towns, fortresses, public buildings, and peoples of the region, including samples from the local languages. Assumed as being of no interest for general Turkish reader, these linguistic specimens have been for the most part left out in abbreviated printed editions, and consequently, in contemporary translations in western languages, including Serbian and Croatian. Using an Ottoman manuscript generally accepted as the archetype, if not even the autograph of the related fifth part of the work (Topkapı Sarayı, Bağdat Koşku 307), the author introduces Evliyā’s Seyāḥatnāme (Book of Travel) as a work of linguistic, next to undisputed historical and literary significance.

Antimus, Bishop of Vratsa and Lovech and Metropolitan of Belgrade

Author(s): Nedeljko V. Radosavljević / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2017

This paper presents the biography of Antimus, bishop of Vratsa and later bishop of Lovech, who became the Metropolitan of Belgrade in 1827. After the establishment of the Principality of Serbia in 1831 he moved to the Kingdom of Greece. This article explains his background, and describes advancing through church structures of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Attention is also focused on his appointment to be metropolitan of Belgrade, his arrival in Belgrade and working in the new environment. The strengthen Serbian national government and more open practice of the Orthodox faith created specific circumstances for his spiritual mission that are highlighted. His relationship with Prince Miloš Obrenović, which was much better than in the case of his predecessor, is also pointed out. The data on the last months he spent in the Principality of Serbia are presented. Terms and time of his departure to the Kingdom of Greece, where he spent the rest of his life, are also known.

Power and Society in Pleven on the Verge of Two Epochs: the Fate of the Mihaloğlu Family and its Pious Foundations (vakf) during the Transitional Period from Imperial to National Governance

Author(s): Maria Kiprovska / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2017

The end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the subsequent decisions taken at the Berlin Congress of 1878 set the beginning of the state-building process of modern Bulgaria. The newly established nation-state quite naturally and purposefully sought an immediate emancipation from its political past and radical breaking with the inherited Ottoman institutions. This particular goal found direct reverberation in the consequent “de-Ottomanization” of Bulgaria during the process of homogenization of the Bulgarian nation. The Ottoman pious foundations (vakf) and their vast possessions, whose incomes provided for the maintenance and the functioning of the religious and other buildings, regarded by some as a direct implementation of the Ottoman imperial past, fall at the center of the state-building policies of the new Bulgarian state. The article examines one such particular charitable foundation, namely the vast vakf of the Mihaloğlu family in the region of Pleven, during the years after the establishment of the independent Bulgarian state and argues that it could be considered as an emblematic case elucidating aspects of the state-building ideology in the Bulgarian national politics in general and the uneasy process of decisive rupture with the imperial heritage that the new nation-state had to walk through in particular.

Читалища, селищни общности и фолклорна култура през Възраждането

Author(s): Stela Nenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

The author studies the first years after the introduction of the chitalishte institution when these cultural centres appeared and established themselves in the dynamic sociocultural context of the local communities – first in some of the well-developed Bulgarian towns and later in many of the Bulgarian villages. Chitalishte is a cultural and educational institution and is thus studied in the context of the modernization, educational and nation building ideas pertinent in the 1860s and 1870s. At that time the institution developed its specific features (its local nature, complex functions, autonomous social form of governance). The article presents the decisive moments certifying for the institutional activity of the chitalishta with an accent on these issues which show close relations to the folk culture, which was as a need and as a type of communication dominant in the local culture.

Накити, съдържащи раковини Monetaria (Cypraea) от фонда на Регионален исторически музей – Кърджали

Author(s): Lidiya Kirilova,Sonya Kostadinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

The subject of this study are two adornments from the fund of the Regional Museum of History – Kardzhali: the first one being from the ninth century and the second one being from the end of the nineteenth century. They include shells of the genus Monetaria sea snails (babki, cowrie) which are typical inhabitants of the Indo-Pacific tropical waters. The purpose of the study is to establish the species to which the shells belong and the symbolism with which they are loaded as parts of these ornaments. The cultural phenomenon of cowrie originates from the epipalleolite in the Middle East. Gradually spreading from there throughout Asia, Africa and Oceania, and through the Mediterranean, it reaches all parts of Europe, including Bulgaria, and the Eastern Rhodopes in particular.