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The second part of the article gives an overview of the private family collection of Mari garments (Novotoryalski district of the Mari El Republic, records were made in 2013). The description of the garments is supplied with illustrations. Moreover, in the second part of the article there is a dictionary of the Mari terms for garments (clothes), based on author’s field materials. Language examples and etymological data are given in the dictionary.
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Letters, which are the basis of the article, are a part of Jan Karlowicz’s (a 19th century ethnographer, lexicographer) heritage kept in the historical archive in Vilnius. They are evidence of correspondence between Jan Karłowicz and Stefania Ulanowska, the author of Łotysze Inflant Polskich, a w szczególności z gminy wielońskiej powiatu rzeżyckiego since October 1889 until January 1890 during Ulanowska’s stay in the village of Wielony, now Viļāni (Latvia). The correspondence is a source of rich material including information about Ulanowska that has not been published so far as well as data of Latgale’s and its inhabitants’ past. Moreover, it is a unique evidence of scientific peregrinations. These letters have their contribution in ethnographic research on the former territory of Poland as they show circumstances and methods of exploration used in the 19th century. At the same time they can be an interesting gloss for research over Latgalian dialects as far as names of material culture are concerned.
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This article is the first publication of materials about Pakhta-Aral prison camp No. 29 for prisoners of war. The fate of prisoners of war (both Western and Eastern) remains largely unclear. One reason is because the camps for prisoners of war were subordinated to an extremely closed and classified structure – the GUPVI. To some extent, Pakhta-Aral was an untypical prison camp in the Soviet prison camp system. While most prison camps were established to support industry or resource extraction with labour, then a far smaller number of prison camps were connected to agriculture. The Pakhta-Aral camp was opened as a workforce supply for the cotton growing collective farms of Kazakhstan. Interestingly, archival data show that the need to supply the camp with food and clothes added some liberal aspects to camp life. Some researchers argue that prison camps were a model for the so-called ‘non-Gulag’ society, but the Pakhta-Aral camp shows that at least some civic practices were adopted where they helped to improve the functioning of the camp.
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This article discusses issues concerning press text taboo during the national days of mourning after Józef Piłsudski’s death. The source of the material are texts printed in the daily press dated 13.05–19.05.1935. The article discusses both taboo on the formal plane (euphemisms of death and its various aspects), and taboo on a semantic plane (taboo subjects), as well as relationship between taboo and censorship (individual and institutional/public). Its aim is to collect and to analyse euphemisms connected with mourning in the press discourse in the 1930s, especially euphemisms of lexemes: corpse and death. The article discusses also the rhetorical function of taboo subjects defined in connection with Marshal Piłsudski’s death.
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The research is a part of an educational project supported by Phare Lien Program of the European Union. The autobiographical essays written by secondary school pupils from two West Rhodope villages inhabited by Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks) have been analysed in the article. The life prospects of the pupils from Ribnovo village evolve along three basic trajectories: (1) family: becoming a respectable parent (getting married, bringing up two children, building a comfortable house); (2) religion (being modest and hard working, compassionate to poor people, loyal to the native place, kin and community); (3) profession (being a good student, getting higher education and a good profession). The analysis reveals the tensions between different sources of influence: the mosque; the school, the local tradition, and the media (TV, video, newspapers). The essays of Ribnovo pupils are compared to the similar essays of Christian pupils living in the town of Gotse Delchev.
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The article comments the results of an investigation carried out in the village of Zagrazhden, which is situated high up in the middle parts of the Rhodope Mountain. The basic method of field work used is non-structured interview. Local people identify themselves religiously and ethnically as Bulgarian Muslims. However they do not consider themselves different from the majority population in the country. The process of ethnic and religious determination of the Bulgarian Muslims for over a century has been shaped by extremely dramatic events which had a strong impact on the construction of their collective identity. As a result, middle-aged and young people in the village do not conceive themselves as followers of Islam. There is a difference between the individual religious self-determination and the group religious identification. This statement is supported by the way basic components of ethnic and religious identity are interpreted, such as language, names, religion, rituals and festivities, clothing and so on.
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Destroyed during the war, historic mosque finally welcomes worshippers as dignitaries hope for greater religious tolerance.
More...Навлизането на хелоуинския маскарад в празничната система на българите
The text analyses the spread and the popularization of the Halloween holiday in Bulgaria. The invasion of foreign models and patterns, their quick adaptation to the contemporary urban environment is at the core of the discussions about the celebration of the foreign holiday, as well as in the discussions about the traditional, “ours” and “theirs”, urban and village, eastern and western, moral and satanic, etc. Is Halloween a holiday on Bulgarian grounds, how and to what extent the traditional holidays of the other nations can be emulated by the Bulgarians, does the Bulgarian mentality also experiences the foreign holidays as sacral, does it internalize their meaning and symbols or does it simply understand them as rejoicing – these are part of the questions discussed in the text. The analysis of the comments in the Internet forums, blogs, events, articles and sites, as well as the interviews with schoolchildren offer different points of view to these problems, connected with the contemporary individual approaches to the traditional – both native and foreign, as well as to the creation of festive events or experiences, disseminated as marketing products.
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The world’s biggest Roma cultural festival opens in the Czech capital.
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The article is focused on three important aspects of intangible cultural heritage: the designation of intangible cultural heritage and the meanings imparted to it; the spheres of cultural activity within its scope, and the safeguarding measures which are implemented by the state. On the basis of the definitions and statements from UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, I offer an overview of the situation in Bulgaria: the growing usage of the new concept and the different contents attributed to it; the substantial discrepancies between the essence of intangible cultural heritage and the popular notions about it; some of the state’s cultural policies regarding the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage; and the increased media focus on these issues. In the analysis of the current situation, I draw on my comprehension and experience as a researcher and as an expert involved in the implementation of some of the state cultural policies in this sphere.
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This article offers the concept of folklore nostalgia, derived from Michael Herzfeld’s definition of structural nostalgia as an aspect of the broader notion of cultural intimacy. The concept is discussed in regards to the areas of fieldwork within Bulgarian ethnology and folkloristics. The aim of creating this juxtaposition is not to formulate theoretical propositions, but rather to discuss the extent to which and directions in which the use of this concept would be applicable for the methodology of anthropologically oriented disciplines. The place of the internet is of particular importance here as a ‘new’ field and, at the same time, a ‘new’ source for anthropological research. Studying the specific type of communication on the internet—the characteristics of which resemble the folk(lore) interaction—it is highly interesting to explore this private sphere where interpretations of the official discourse, as presented by the media, take place.
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This paper is dedicated to the legend of seven maidens connected to Yedi Kızlar Türbesi (the Tomb of the Seven Maidens) in Manisa, the Republic of Turkey. Two versions of the legend are discerned: one (pseudo)historical and one ritual-mythical. The author shows that the former version is not actually based on historical facts. The second version is compared to legends which were recorded among the Turks of the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria. In this way, the paper outlines similarities in how the Seven Maidens are depicted in both regions. A comparison with a legend from Ossetia confirms the hypothesis that the Seven Maidens were originally a personification of the Pleiades star cluster. Owing to its peripheral position in relation to central religious issues, this cult was preserved during the Christian (Byzantine) and Muslim (Ottoman) periods, thus providing an opportunity for a manifestation of religiosity among women.
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This article is dedicated to the New Age pilgrimages in Bulgaria in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It presents various types of pilgrim destinations: natural landmarks and cultural sites with a primarily religious character. Some specific aspects of the New Age pilgrimages in Bulgaria are outlined, such as the interest in ‘Thracian’ and ‘Proto-Bulgarian’ sites and beliefs, the influence of Dаnovism, and the inclusion of Orthodox religious centres in New Age sacred geography. The New Age pilgrimages are seen as a manifestation of postmodern religiosity, in which the leading idea is to acquire a personal experience of the respective sites of energy/power in the search for spiritual transformation.
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The paper is an attempt to study the production of cultural identity in the hospitality industry, based on materials from a specific archive: the online self-presentation of the restaurants offering national cuisine. The questions driving the investigation are: is there an established new standard, new consensus among the caterers what is the national cuisine and culinary heritage. And if the answer is affirmative, how does it relate to past standards and how are they communicated to the consuming audience. The analysis of the advertised meals or the units (of R. Barthes) and the menus or the syntactic systems (ibidem) makes possible to offer a few observations: 'the past', 'the authentic', 'the Bulgarian' quality is modelled on the pre-World War II Bulgarian peasant home. We witness an ongoing and dynamic process of constructing and naming the structures of the national cuisine and this process is, essentially, a bricolage, which leaves ample space for individual contributions. In contrast to popular nationalistic rhetorics, the national cuisine incorporates freely Turkish names and products, identified and accepted as "Bulgarian". The vocabulary of the national style is open, flexible, inventive and benignly contradictory (a restaurant offers "chorbadzhi saladlet with balsamic dressing") as with any living language.
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Die Philosophie der Technik, die den Ursprung, das Wesen und das historische Geschick der Technik als der Schaffenskunst im Allgemeinen sowie im Verhaltnis zur Natur und zur Welt betrachtet (tehne, technica), verbindet der bekannte französische Denker Mikel Dufrenne mit seiner Philosophie des Menschen (Pour l'homme), d.h. mit der philosophischen Anthropologie, sodass er sich dabei die Fragen nach dem Sinn, nach den Aussichten sowie nach der Zukunft der Menschenwelt, insbesondere der technisierten Gesellschaft stellt. lm Gegensatz zu den suspekten und pessimistischen Auffassungen von Technik, die meinen, dass die Technik geistige Dürftigkeit bringe, den Menschen unterdriicke und ihn von der Naturumgebung entfremde, betont Dufrenne ihre schöpferische und humane Möglichkeit, die in der ursprünglichen Bedeutung von tehne und poiesis gegenwii.rtig ist. In dieser urspriinglichen Bedeutung von tehne und poiesis wird der Mensch als Subjekt und Autor der Technik beachtet. Die Technik erfordet nicht unbedingt, laut Dufrenne, die Technokratie, sondern sie kann als Ausdruck der schopferischen Menschennatur, nach dem Vorbild der Kunst und der Philosophie, dem Menschen in seinem Gang zur Selbstverwirklichung behilflich sein, d.h., sie kann und soll keineswegs einen Selbstzweck darstellen, der den Menschen gefangen nimmt und in dessen Dienste der Mensch steht, sondern vielmehr eine Möglichkeit und Befreiungsart des Menschen sowie eine Humanisierungsweise seiner Welt.
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The article treats the particular interweaving of continuity and discontinuity in tradition as a major paradox in Balkan cultures throughout centuries. Thus a paradigm in the cultural system is revealed as manifested in binary oppositions such as openness versus closeness, the East versus the West, the native as opposed to the foreign and the regional to the European, respectively. Certain clarification upon the age of Modernity and Europium of Balkan art creativity will be beneficial for the outlining of the unique essence of the cultural setting and the experience of Balkan men as a realization in a global world. As a key to the understanding of art and literature Europium is relevant to the disclosure of an aesthetic, spiritual and intellectual wealth and to the particular identity of the peoples on the peninsula. The article treats the particular interweaving of continuity and discontinuity in tradition as a major paradox in Balkan cultures throughout centuries. Thus a paradigm in the cultural system is revealed as manifested in binary oppositions such as openness versus closeness, the East versus the West, the native as opposed to the foreign and the regional to the European, respectively. Certain clarification upon the age of Modernity and Europium of Balkan art creativity will be beneficial for the outlining of the unique essence of the cultural setting and the experience of Balkan men as a realization in a global world. As a key to the understanding of art and literature, Europium is relevant to the disclosure of an aesthetic, spiritual and intellectual wealth and to the particular identity of the peoples on the peninsula.
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