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The paper focuses the inter-war period from the perspective of longue durée processes study. For the analysis, the author uses ethnographic data concerning architecture and housing in three Slovak rural settlements. The paper aims to discuss the periodicity of the 20th century history, based on the important political events. Ethnographic data from the inter-war Slovak countryside emphasizes ambiguity of this period. The key argument is the statement, that dynamism of the processes in the microsocial structures, concerning everyday culture of the ordinary people, has different character and different impact than the processes on the macrosocial level.
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This study aims to analyse the construction and dissemination of ideas about the ethnic composition of Hungary in scholarly discourse of the first half of the “long” 19th century. I have concentrated primarily on the texts that originated in the discipline of statistics (in German Statistik, Staatskunde). It was established in the last third of the 18th century in German universities, where it soon spread to the Austrian and Hungarian academic environments. Then I observed how different ethnic groups were represented in statistics and homeland studies, and which concepts were used in their categorisation. Specifically, I examined, in what context and with what significance were the concepts of nation, nationality, folk, used, or, more precisely, their German forms of Nation, Volk, Völkerschaft, and other words and phrases derived from them. In the period studied, the statistics of Hungary or the Austrian state, as well as most of the homeland studies analysed, were published mostly in German, which at that period took over the role of Latin as the language of science also in Hungary. The period’s ethnonyms were recorded by different variants. For example, in the texts subjected to analysis, Serbs were referred to using the ethnonyms Serben, Ráczen, Illyrier, Slovaks were referred to as Slowaken, Schlawacken, Sclawaken as well as using ethnonyms related to all Slavic tribes such as Slawi, Slaven, Slawen. Hungarians were denoted in statistics and homeland studies as Ungarn, Ungern, wahre Ungarn, eigentliche Ungarn, Magyaren, eigentliche Magyaren, Madscharen, Madjaren and so on. Therefore, the variant names as captured by the period’s sources are provided in the present study in parentheses, following the current ethnonyms.
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In 19th-century southern Russia, extraordinarily rich early Scythian tombs (6th-7th c. B.C.) were discovered containing large golden deer. In one burial mound in the village of Kostromskaya, a figure of a deer supposedly lay on an iron shield. Researchers therefore drew the conclusion that the deer were shield ornaments, a view that was generally accepted up until only recently. Not long ago, however, Alekseev (1996), having analyzed the history and documentation of the earlier digs, made it clear that neither the deer, nor a golden panther that had also been found there were shield ornaments. He concluded that they are far more likely to have been decorations for the gorytos (bow and arrow case). It must be noted here, however, that the possibility that the Scythian golden deer were also gorytos ornaments was mentioned as early as 1934 in a book by Nándor Fettich, a noted Hungarian archeologist and goldsmith.
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It was likely in early 1926 that Ernő P. Ábrahám's A csudaszarvas (That Wondrous Deer), an overview of Hungarian history for young readers, was published in Budapest. It starts with early Hungarian history (more precisely Hunnic-Hungarian history) and takes us all the way up to the situation after World War I. It is illustrated with Romantic tableaux that depict spectacular scenes witnessed by a young prince named Árva (a name which means "orphan"), who is whisked from one part to the next by his magic steed Tüzes (meaning "fiery"). The mythical csodaszarvas, or wonder deer, appears in several scenes, but it is signified in the book with the more folksy form csudaszarvas (roughly, "that wondrous deer"). The book is very richly decorated, with embellishments, initials and full-page illustrations that portray key scenes from Hungarian history. These were produced in the studio of a contemporary graphic artist, the multi-faceted and renowned Álmos Jaschik. And one of the age's most prominent Hungarian politicians, Albert Apponyi, wrote the foreword to the book. On carefully surveying this foreword as well as the body of the work and the illustrations, one discovers that the book serves a legitimist goal and that it was created for a "boy who lives far away," who received the first, hand-painted copy. This boy was actually the son of the last Habsburg king of Hungary, Charles IV, who had by then died; the heir presumptive to the throne was Prince Otto. The article discusses the multi-layered and informative writing and iconography of the book as well as the author and the designer of the illustrations. A detailed study of both text and images brings out the several phases that went into planning and making the volume. Incidentally, the csudaszarvas variant in the title is well established in Hungarian literature and art. Interestingly, however, it is unknown among latter-day readers. It is revealing that the wonder deer not only shows the way to a new homeland, but also plays a role in the story of the founding of the church at Vác and brings the hero of the book all the way to the modern age. A discussion of the many-sided text and of points about content and iconography is useful insofar as it reveals well-known stereotypes about both early and later Hungarian history.
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Ecclestiastical wedding and baptism have been researched as the cultural phenomena with the change in their meanings. The adoption of the ecclestiastical meaning, the change, the reducement and the completely abandonment of the religious meanings could be observed on the individual, interpretative level. I have singled out the meaning of the (spiritual and physical) purification and of the healing considering the ritual of baptism, beside the expected meaning of the formal iniciation to the Orthodox religion. The baptism and the ecclestiastical wedding present in a great deal a confirmation of a national identity, as well the ritual conformism. Wedding "witnessed by God" is considered as the guarantee of the successfulness and of the longevity of the marriage. The wedding ce remony religious contents are fullfilled with the esthetic meanings of stressing an essential moment in life. One can reach the basic charateristics of the reli giousness by "reading" religious rituals in the perspective of the individual mea nings. The contemporary religiousness is characterized by a certain eclecticism.
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This paper presents the attempt of answering the question if there is a change of the initiants’ status and what is the nature of such change, based on the fieldwork done in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Bečej. The broader sociocultural frame is orientated by Serbian urban Orthodox population, and the narrow one by the distinction between the "active" worshipers and the "declarative" ones, as well by the age groups of adults and infants.
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This paper is an attempt to generalize the huge ethnographic and linguistic material required for the reconstruction of the women’s bird symbolism in the family rituals. Bird symbolism of husband was presented in the evolutive process from the birth to the full sexual maturity in the first part, while bird symbolism of wife was constructed in synchronic perspective, embracing the group of all women in reproductive age. Using of the bird symbols characterizes the highest reproductive processes in human society, so they are becoming comparable both to the process of cosmogenesis and to the process of reproduction in bird species. The paper accents the symbolic representation of menstruacy, concepcion, pregnancy and birth through the images of the hen, of the magpie, of the partridge, of the crow and of the other birds. The role of the woman-bird symbol at the moment of death has also been investigated. That is the way the image of woman, incarnated in bird, is the most clear at two important moments framing the human life – in the act of birth and in the act of death.
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The paper deals with the women transition into the third age of life and with the role of the menopause in that process. The scope is on the ways the women face the aging in this culture, on the shifting of the others’ relations toward them, and on defining the new role for a women to be tаken after the period of fertility is once over. The cultural attitudes towards the menopause are of an extremely negative kind, although the menopause is primarly deifined in the terms of hormonal activity, as the definitive extinguishing of the ovaries function. ''Klimakteruša'' (woman in climax) is an ordinary term for the ill-balanced person who can't control the own behaviour; the fifty-year old woman suddenly becomes nonat tractive and useless “old witch”, just like there are no phases and nuances in between the maturity and the aging. Losing the functions of an erotic object and of the fertility looks to the most of the women like entering terrae incognita in the culture obsessed by youth and by the youthfully values. The paper is based on the answers the author collected from about thirty female friends and coevals from Belgrade and from a village near city of Šabac, concerning their experiences on this radical life turnover.
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The paper discusses family and social realisation of women in Bulgarian smalltown from the end of 19th century til the middle of 20th century. Matrimonial model in such town after 1878 has been stressed: marriaging age, family structure and household structure, inheritance, gender relations.
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The paper deals with the broadly discussed topic in Bulgarian socialist society public in the 20th century’s last decade: the splendour wedding, the money and the gift squandering, the demonstration of the material wealth and of the social status. Various forms of the gift exchange are analysed, considering their traditional prototypes and the former tendencies of constructing the rituals. Filedwork ethnographic data suggest "inner" points of view on these phenomena. The attempt of investigating the motives beyond them is made through analysing "the interpretations from the first hand".
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Contemporary Gorans wedding is discussed in the light of the attending and of the preserving of a several century old tradition in rural communities of župa (ancient district) Gora in the Šara Mountain, based on personal fieldwork notes. It is well-known that Gorans have been inhabiting in the cities as "pečalbars" (season labourers) for more than 150 years and that they have been returning to Gora every year for St. George's day and for the weddings.
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This exposure is directed to the necessity of research of et hnic/national relations and understanding of important processes and cultures both in the past and present. There have been many migrations, which were continuous, and many contacts have been made by the Serbian people during history. The significance of forming ethnical and national identity of the Serbs and their cul ture is also pointed out.
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Kamil Exner in the chapter From xenophobia to discrimination presents the current situation of middle-class young Ukrainian migrants living in Krakow. The author points out and problematises the tensions on the boundary of both ethnical groups—Poles and Ukrainians—looking for the sources of potential conflicts and their repercussions. The international relations between Poland and Ukraine, particularly in the last five years, have not been created any obstacles for intense and decades lasting migration from the East to the West. They were (and still are) caused by a number of reasons—political, economic, or personal. The text presents the results of Exner’s several months’ research. The fieldwork, engaging young Ukrainian speaking people arrived into Krakow not earlier than in 2012, has denuded all the difficulties, complexity of their relations with Poles, and stereotypes basing on historical background and stigmas (sensu Ervin Goffman). The author tries to re-define the concept ‘discrimination’ for the needs of social sciences, which leads to the risky conclusion that all the acts of micro-aggression, hate-speech, or symbolic power against one’s interlocutors are not fulfilling all criteria of a the said phenomenon. Exner therefore proposes to introduce the term of ‘discriminational behaviours’ to differentiate miscellaneous situations and tensions occurring within the multifaceted and ambivalent relations between Ukrainians and Poles as well as in the context of the Revolution of Dignity and revival of the Volhynia debate.
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Although countries tend to differ when it comes to the implementation of multiculturalism, the shared element is that of giving access to media to various ethnic groups. Media systems functioning throughout the world do not meet the needs and expectations of the whole society and all of the cultural minorities; rather, they represent interests, opinions, and events belonging to either a dominating group or an elite influencing the media. Still, there are countries whose media politics strives for including the interest of the minorities (including the ethnic ones), which makes community media a significant – or the third – sector of their systems. The following reflections focus on the ethnic community radio in Australia broadcast by and for the members of minorities that, therefore, becomes a means of the transcultural communication. The purpose of this paper, in turn, is to analyse the systemic solutions and to describe the third radio sector in general terms with regard to the ethnic community radio in Australia understood as a form of social communication. In order to achieve that, a variety of factors are taken into consideration, including the acts regulating the media market, the official records containing statistical data and reports of inspection and regulatory bodies, as well as the websites of the radio stations. These have been analysed with regard to their histories, their presenters and programmes, languages in which programmes have been broadcast and their respective content. The ethnic community radio in Australia and its procedures, described in this paper, provide us with an example of effective systemic solutions, which – even if implemented partially – might serve as a basis for further regulations concerning radio stations in Poland.
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This article offers concrete account of an Orthodox Christmas celebration in a particular household on the Luštica Peninsula, Bay of Kotor. This Christmas celebration is treated as an ethnographic event comprising of a set of dynamic, successive and more or less variable activities of which the temporal and spatial framework, contents, actors and uses of artifacts are repeatedly created and recognized by each household in the local community. The thick description of the Christmas event comprises activities which occur during two principal days, Christmas itself and the day before, known in Serbian language as Božić and Badnji dan. In fact, a detailed schedule is given of all the preparatory, ritual and merrymaking activities that took place in the household of Petar Stojković at Christmas time in 1997. The schedule was reconstructed according to notes and video-material made during author’s stay with the Stojkovićs. The Stojković household comprises three generations, namely: the old host and his wife, their son and daughter in law, and three grandchildren. The family consider themselves Luštica natives, originating a few centuries back from Herzegovina. Their elders were mainly engaged in agriculture (producing olives, wine, wheat), but at all times, there was at least one family member working aboard a ship, or as an emigrant in South or North America. Even though the son is the only household member officially employed (in the Municipality of Hercegnovi), until 1990 all members contributed to the family earnings by promoting small-scale tourism. Even though the celebration of traditional religious festivities was not encouraged in the 1945-1980 period, this family as most of the other Luštica families, did not give up the celebration of Slava (house saint’s day), Prislužba (village saint’s day), Christmas nor Easter. Christmas ritual in the Stojković house, both in its constant features and in its variable components, is typical for the Luštica Peninsula. This account follows all the activities according to their time, place and actors. Badnji dan was characterized by numerous activities concerning the preparation of ritual food, such as Badnjačica (or Česnica, the Christmas bread), and the decoration of the Badnjaks (Yule logs) and the house (upper terrace, entrances, windows, icons, floor) with greenery. The main events of the day were at Badnje veče (Christmas Eve), with “Badnjak Christening” (Badnjak burning) on the open hearth, and communal sharing of Christmas Eve dinner. The rest of the evening was spent in the mutual visits by the village middle-aged men. They were welcomed in the old kitchens by the hearth, where they joined in the merrymaking, drinking and singing of Christmas songs. At midnight they gathered in one house to celebrate the “arrival of Christmas” and to break the fast by sharing of homemade sausages roasted upon the remains of Badnjaks. Božić started with the reception of Polaznik, the first guest that entered the house on Christmas, and continued with the attendance of the liturgy at St. Nicholas, the principal parochial church in Luštica. Christmas lunch is the most anticipated part of Christmas festivity. It is the first elaborate meal after a week long fast. This time, it included a local specialty served only at Christmas, called kuvana špaleta, which is cold semi-smoked ham, previously cooked on open fire. Midway through Christmas lunch, just like during Christmas Eve dinner, the incense was burned over the food, in front of the house icons, and throughout the rest of the house. By evening, Badnjačica was consumed, and the only material remnant of Christmas Eve was one part of the son’s Badnjak, called Pridavak. This peace of “holy wood” was to be added to fire at each of the three successive Badnjak burning occasions in this house, i.e., in the evenings preceding Orthodox New Year (January 13), Epiphany (January 19th), and St. Sava Day (January 27).
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