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Veljo Tormis (85), Pille Kippar (80), Ingrid Rüütel (80), Vilmos Voigt (75), Enn Ernits (70), Tarmo Kulmar (65), Anu Korb (65), Irina Sedakova (60), Terry Gunnell (60), Piret Õunapuu (60), Guldžahon Jussufi (60), Tiiu Jaago (55), Marju Kõivupuu (55), Anneli Baran (45), Katre Õim (45), Helen Kõmmus (40)
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Heikki Silvet March 10, 1942 – December 11, 2015 The editorial board commemorates the former colleagues.
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Anna-Leena Siikala January 1, 1943 – February 28, 2016 The editorial board commemorates the former colleagues.
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This research was done as a part of the project Orient and Occident in Georgian Folktales: Oral and Literary Traditions [FR 217488], supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation Georgia. During the Eighteenth Century, a romantic philosophical phenomenon about the “orient” kindled major interest in literary works such as The Thousand Nights and a Night, which Jean Antoin Galland translated into French in 1704 and the following years. The enthusiasm with which Galland’s translation has received among the general European public signaled the adoption of this Eastern narrative anthology in the West. Western translators and editors of “The Thousand and One Night” added new texts to their European editions, for example, “Aladdin and the Wonder Lamp”, “Ali-Baba and the forty thieves”, “The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou”, “The Voyages of Sindbad” etc. They are not original stories of “The Thousand and One Night” but they are included in further collected fairy-tale-books by European editors. What is Arabian folktale? Are “Arabian nights” and “Arabian folktales” synonyms? What form of interaction is between Arabian folktales and Arabian literature?According to Hasan El-Shamy, The narrating of folktales survived almost exclusively outside the main stream of the literature. In Arab-Islamic cultures, three categories of narrative traditions may be designated: 1) formal religious– historical stories; 2) semi-literary narratives of folk extraction re-worked by literate editors and redactors, and 3) folk-oral tales, which remained unrecorded. The contents of each of these repertoires constitute a cognitive sub-system; the narrator of each is typically cast in a specialized role which specifies a set of behavioral expectations with a corresponding status. The fairy tales belong to the women repertoire. However, a dynamic relationship of exchange exists among these repertoires; some folk legends have been “institutionalized” into formal religious literature; while a few literary stories may have been adopted by oral tale tellers. In this respect, each narrative category constitutes a repertoire of latent traditions for the others, awaiting adoption. Yet, each remains distinct, independent and autonomous in its own right. Muslim theologians specified that narrating must be confined to “truthful” accounts of events and that a qissah (story) must be used for didactic-religious or ethical purposes. Typically, adult male narrators prefer to tell the religious, philosophical, or otherwise serious qissah, and refrain from narrating the haddûtah (fantasy tales, novella, and formula tales). Muslim bibliographers call khurâfât predominantly entertaining narrative works such as the Persian hazâr ‘afsâneh (a thousand myths), and the Arabic Alf laylah wa Laylah (A Thousand Nights and a Night). These and similar anthologies contained narratives typi cally labeled khurâfât, a term which denotes the fantastic and unbelievable, and, in this respect, is akin to the Greek term mythos after Christianity had been embraced. Curiously enough, some tales which are highly recurrent in various parts of the Arab world are absent from the native editions of “The Thousand and One Night”. These include wonder tales as ATU 327B The Children and the Ogre ATU 403 The Black and the White Bride. Ugly bride substituted for beautiful bride ATU 408 The Three Oranges. The quest for the Orange Princess. The false bride ATU 432 The Prince as Bird ATU 450 Little Brother and Little Sister. They flee from home; brother transformed into deer, sister nearly murdered by jealous rivals ATU 480 The Spinning Women by the Spring. The Kind and Unkind Girls. Ogress rewards the kind stepsister and punishes the unkind 511A The Little Red Ox. Cow helps orphans (brother and sister). More similarities between “The Thousand and One Night” and folktales we see in the subcategory of realistic tales. According to the “Index of AT Tale-Types in Major European Translations of the Arabian Nights” by Ulrich Marzolph, the most coincidences of Arabian Nights with folktale-types are in the area of realistic tales (novella) and anecdotes. The visible example of a literary plot in oral traditions is a story about the noblest act, included in “The Thousand and One Night”. This story forms part of the narrative cycle en framed by “The Forty Viziers”. It is told by the ruler’s wife to urge him to take action. The sultan of Egypt, feels that his end is drawing near. The sultan tells his sons that he has deposited a box with jewels that they should divide among themselves. When he has died, the youngest son steals the box. His brothers soon find it, but it is empty. They consult the qadi, and he tells them a story. A young woman who is deeply in love with her cousin is married to someone else. On the wedding night, the young woman confesses her love to her husband and is generously allowed to visit her beloved. On the way she is spared by a thief who follows the example of her husband’s generosity; the lover is also impressed and sends her back to her husband. After finishing the story, the qadi asks them which of the three men was the most generous. While the two eldest sons choose the lover, the youngest son chooses the thief and thereby discloses his guilt.This tale with both its characteristic frame story and the en framed narrative corresponds to the international tale type ATU 976: Which was the noblest act? On their wedding night, a man allows his bride to visit her former lover, in order to keep a promise, she had made previously or, according to some oral variants, to cancel the engagement. On her way she meets a robber. When she tells him her story, he leaves her unmolested. When her lover hears about her bridegroom’s and robber’s magnanimity, he takes her back to her bridegroom without touching her. In some variants the tale occurs in conjunction with a frame tale that deals with the discovery of a thief. Three (four) sons inherit jewelry from their father. The money is stolen by one of the brothers. The robbed owners call a wise man (judge, king, Solomon), who is to discover the thief. The wise man (or his daughter) then starts to tell the story. The thief betrays himself unconsciously when he answers the question, “Who acted in the noblest way?” He argues that the robber in the story was the most noble one or he answers other questions in a revealing manner. According to the folklorists’ researches and “Arabian Nights Encyclopedia”, this tale-type originates from India. Its oldest version, dating from the third century C.E., is included in the Buddhist “Tripitaka”. Other early versions are contained in the Indian collection “Vetalapancavimsatika” (The Ocean of Streams of Stories), as well as in the various redaction of the “Tuti-name”. In European tradition, the tale was popularized by Boccaccio’s “Decameron”. Its version in Chauser’s Franklin’s Tale probably derives from French models. The tale about a contest in generosity is included in French editions of Oriental tales“Le cabinet des fées, ou collection choisie des contes des fées, et autres contes merveilleux” (1786). The tale is called as Histoire du Sultan Aqschid. The same story is included in the English book “Tales of the East, comprising the most popular romances of Oriental origin and the best imitations by European authors” by Henry Weber (1812). In this edition is prefixed an introductory dissertation, containing an account of each work and of its author or translator. “The History of Sultan Aqschid” is a part of cycle of “Turkish tales”.In further French editions, the tale about a contest in generosity is a part of the narrative cycle “Charming Tales of Careless Youth”. In the Joseph Charles Mardrus’s version of the late nineteenth century, there is a tale of Habib and Habiba, two cousins in Bagdad. The two grow up together and are in love, but then Habiba is married to another man. When she cries on her wedding night, her Husband allows her to take her cousin as her lover. Subsequently she is reunited with Habib. This Tale does not feature in the standard Arabic manuscripts of the Arabian Nights. According to Chauvin, Mardrus has appropriated the tale from an unknown source. The tale’s basic structure corresponds to the en framed narrative in the international tale-type ATU 976: Which Was the Noblest Act? In German versions of Oriental tales, this tale-type is included in the narrative cycle of “the Forty Viziers”, which denotes a frame story that corresponds to the story of “Craft and Malice of Woman”, although it contains different tales. The Story of the “Forty Viziers” is found only in the Stuttgart/Pforzheim edition of Gustav Weil’s German translation, included as part of the “Thousand and One Night”. In a footnote, the translator declares that in the Arabic text this story cannot be found in this place, but that he included it for the sake of “completeness” on the basis of other sources. Next to literary versions, the tale-type ATU 976 is spread in folklore of Europe, Asia and South America too. There exist Scottish, Irish, Slovenian, Russian, Turkish, Jewish, Armenian, Kazakh, Turkmen, Tadzhik, Iranian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Chilean, Argentine versions. This folktale-type is spread in Georgian folklore too. The plot of the contest in generosity became very attractive theme in literary novels and cinematography of the twelfth century. A short story by Tawfq al-Hakim, Egyptian Writer, and a film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the Indian film director, are based on the teletype ATU 976. Oral traditions and literary traditions belong to parallel categories of traditions.Each of the two types of narrative traditions belongs to a separate cognitive system. Oriental-Occidental plot parallels show an intensive internalization of folktale types. They also give information about the relationship between literary and oral traditions.
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The author analyzes the Chronicle as an exceptionally important source for the study of the germs of ethnological thought among Croats. Although created in the remote 13th century, the Chronicle reveals some of its author’s preoccupations which have parallels in contemporary ethnology. Among other things, Toma Archdeacon was interested in the elthnogenesis of Croats. He attempted to solve the riddle with the help of Various written sources, oral traditions and partly by own speculations. His methods reveal a serious and honest approach to solving problems. An interesting part of the Chronicle contains an exhaustive description of the Tatars, being the oldest account on a foreign people in Croatian historical literary sources.
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The paper has on one hand summarizing character, on the other hand it embodies a kind of vision on scientific research in ethnology. Since it is not possible to cover the whole range of problems at once, the author has decided for these preferences. She will develop her reflections on examples mostly based on the scientific performance of the Institute of Ethnology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, as this is one of the main research working places in the ethnology field in Slovakia. Nevertheless, she presumes that many of the issues under discussion will have a nation-wide applicability. Under the term 'ethnology' the author understands any research of human beings and groups of people (in the broadest sense of the word: from a community to modern society), peoples cultural and societal activities, their institutions, contemporary research and historical research. In this term she also includes folklore studies, which have an important place in the Institute. In a broader sense she considers them to be sub-discipline of ethnology. The first part is devoted to the research outline; herein the author is concentrating on the era of the last decade The aftermath of 1989 was characterized by dynamism, opening of the old-new issues and searching for new ones Time setting is not going to be strict, as the themes under discussion, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches and research results were not solely connected with the last decade of the 20th century. The research outline is not chronological, it is ordered in relation to the issues. The questions the author is asking in this pan sound as follows: What was the scope of themes and issues, which themes were preferred and which became marginal? Did the theoretical and methodological discussion develop in the aftermath of 1989? Which were the main theoretical approaches in the core of the researchers interest? The second part, which is devoted to trends methodological research in Slovakia, is based on following premise: nowadays ethnologists very often declare their detachment from historically oriented science, which concentrates on (its own) construction of folk, traditional culture. The scope of interest moves towards the question of anthropological research of culture and society. Nevertheless, what does it mean anthropological research of culture and society? To what extent can be this trend considered a vision of ethnological research in Slovakia? Which are the premises to start of? Which theoretical and methodological approaches serve inspirational for the research in Slovakia?
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As a result diversity of values, their multivalent aspect and insufficient permanent and stable value hierarchy, contemporary culture at the beginning of the third millennium is characterized by various attitudes, lifestyles, different practiced ideologies, etc. It is the outcome of the lost confidence in monolithic ideologies and the institutions, which are representing them. Reaction to distant monolithic and mono-centrist aspect is tendency of polycentrism. It means diffusion and disintegration in praxis. In human consciousness this results into a status called chaos, disorder, confusion, provoking not only relativism but even nihilism. On one hand human being nowadays is traumatized by fundamentalism, on the other hand there is a fear from overwhelming variety of axiological propositions. Theoreticians of culture characterize it as change-over from modern to post-modem era. The problem is whether it is a continual transition or drastic cultural leap. It is also important if it is possible to keep in touch with tradition, traditional values but also with those, which are connected with resentment, that is in accord with national identity. Herewith I understand traditional folk culture, folklore. Everyday values characterize everyday aspirations of people, influencing their actions in praxis and giving their life sense. They are connected with everyday situations. These are e.g. values considered when deciding about the goal of tile (e.g. wealth, fame), values giving sense to life (e.g. love, family happiness) and also values determining quality of contacts between people (e.g. goodwill, trust). Certain values in the life of an individual are always dominant, other are mitigated, but that does not mean It is a stable situation. The structure of value hierarchy has a dynamic character. In the concrete research, which started in 1998 I was studying inter alia opinions on disproportion, in other words, traditional values in opposition to currently preferred values. The traditional values in the Slovak society were for a long time considered family, familiarity - i.e. strong family lights, also in broader family, love towards children and taking care of them, hospitality, cordiality, peacefulness, work, modesty, health, religiousness, important role of a woman-mother, generosity, respect to moral authorities, traditionalism, traditional folk culture, sensibility, seeking national emancipation and morality, etc. Preliminary outcomes of the research show that there is a tendency of strong disillusion in today’s society, as those most highly cherished values are nowadays loosing their credit as well as dominant position. On the basis of the above mentioned values (as well as the illustration comments), which from my point of view could he regarded as traditional, I assume that tradition in the current cultural-historical situation is being depreciated. Meaning of tradition is gaining a negative aspect and it is evaluated as an idle actor in the social life and culture, and it is becoming a metaphor for a hindrance to progress. This is one side of the problem. On the other hand, there are followers of tradition, who are calling for its survival and continuity, and for whom it is antidote against current new and post-modem tendencies. The world, which human beings build for them in this way, is very often inimical and unsuitable. Human beings do not control values, on the contrary, values control people, stimulate their actions, and also their thinking, which in the end creates a “vicious circle”. The change of ideology triggered off mechanism of transformation, which was restructuralising culture and thus intensely attacking usual value signs. Change of culture is a change of behavioral learned patterns, that leads to tendency of polycentricity.
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Slovakia belongs to countries possessing an ethnographic atlas where ethno-cultural phenomena are systematized into a construction based on territorial and chronological principle. The Ethnographic Atlas of Slovakia (EAS) was based on the first-hand research of the rural environment in the years 1971-1975. A wide range of questions concerning traditional folk culture is included in the questionnaire. There were 170 topics studied in 250 localities (from total 3 155) event) spread in the whole Slovak territory. The EAS is thus one of the possible constructed pictures of traditional Slovak culture. In general it can be said that the EAS managed to grasp the so-called cultural change. This is so thanks to the fact that the researches in the 70s covered the development and changes of the life style and culture in the rural communities from the end of the 19th century till the half of the 20th century using the cartographic interpretation. This basic attribute of culture is manifested in the generative phase - it depicts the birth and development of the local cultures as well as Slovak Folk culture as a whole. The other attribute is expressed in the transformation phase - where formal and functional changes and extinction of particular ethno-cultural phenomena could be seen. There are two basic types of cultural change in the socio-cultural system of the traditional culture: endogenous inner and exogenous-external. The endogenous change is a result of the transformation of cultural elements and their configuration in the system. The form of this change is innovation as a new way of reaching particular goals by the means of invention. Exogenous change is processes that ensue from the interaction of various socio-cultural systems. A typical example of this kind of a change is acculturation and one of its basic forms is apart from migration of people also the cultural diffusion - a process of spreading, dispersion and transmission of the cultural elements and their configurations from one community to another. Whereby it is rarely one-way process usually it is a result of a mutual interaction of various socio-cultural systems. The research material of the EAS enabled first of all the analysis from the continuity and discontinuity perspective so called historical, cultural and collective memory of the studied rural communities. One of the most important contributions of the EAS is the explanation of the connection between culture and natural environment. The results of the EAS provide with links between culture and organisation of human thinking. In this context culture is perceived as a system of knowledge, classification and communication. There are many maps in the EAS comprising folk terms denominating particular ethno-cultural phenomena. As a result of constructing these maps, which represent the basic cultural zones of the Slovak territory in the ethno-cultural system as a whole, a single final map of the EAS came into being: ‘Regions of the Folk Culture After the EAS'. In the last few years a research of the traditional rural culture has taken place and the cartographic method is used even in the environment of the Slovak minorities in Europe (Hungary, Romania, Poland, Croatia, Yugoslavia. Ukraine).
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The labor management position of occupation groups, the formation of occupation categories in agriculture has changed essentially in the second half of the 20th century as compared to the development in the first half of the 20th century. From among the population employed in agriculture ethnographic and ethnological researches focusing on the first half of 20th century, monitored primarily the group of farms. The current project of the research is interesting in agricultural workers which played also important role in the development of the rural culture. There were divided into several groups. According popular census, there existed in the group of labor force in agriculture in 1930 55% autonomous farmers, 17% deputists ( 90 900 permanent workers ) and 28% ( more the 140 000) workers who have no permanent contract (day-laborers, harvestmen). The other category seasonal workers were separately monitored. Spread of the non permanent workers reflected the social structure of rural population, which conditioned the endurance of wide market of tree labor force having race opportunities to find employment in industry an looking for wage labor opportunities in agriculture and other traditional non farming employments. The figures are being associated with a large share of large landed estates, which due to outdated technical equipment and mechanization, require massive numbers of hired labor force. Combination other or non-farmers occupations and incomes from own-land cultivation was universal phenomenon in Slovakia in the first half of 20th century. In the first half 20th century, the most significant territory where agricultural workers could find employment was in the south-western Slovakia Hired workforce in agriculture in the former districts of south-western and southern Slovakia made up to 50-75% of the total labor force. The employment indicator is presented in connection to the data on the highest concentration of large landed estates of over 50 hectares. Research is concentrated on the professional development of the individuals, influence on the family life, coexistence of different agricultural labor occupations and other occupations in the family, local and regional differentiation.
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Die Dimensionen dieser Erwägungen sind:Eine Diversifikation der Themen und des Zutritts zur urbanen Forschung, die aus rückwirkender Ansicht der historisch relativ kurzen Zeitspanne der Entwicklung der urbanen Orientierung sichtbar ist.Der individuelle Zugang der mit den Problemen Befassten, charakterisiert von der ununterbrochenen Suche nach neuen Themenkreisen, begleitet zugleich übcrraschcad lange den einheitlichen beschreibenden Zutritt zur Interpretation der gesammelten Fakten.Die Frage wird zudem durch die Verschiedenartigkeit der Reflexwinkel kompliziert Die Autoren seihst waren lange unterschiedlicher Meinung darüber, ob unsere Forschung urbane Ethnologie, also eine selbständige, relativ neue Unterdisziplin der Ethnologie oder Ethnologie in der Stadt ist.
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