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Fundamental for the knowledge of Bulgarian folk culture are the works of the famous scholar and public figure Dimitar Marinov. From 1875 he began extensive collecting activities of folklore and ethnographic materials in Northwestern Bulgaria (Vidin, Lom): he recorded folk beliefs, rites, rituals, typical practices of Bulgarian common law. At the end of the 19th century Marinov promulgated the collected materials in a series of five books Living Oldness, a kind of encyclopaedia of the thinking, sensuality and cultural communication code of the Bulgarians over the centuries. For the purposes of this paper, the emphasis will be placed on one of the books, People's Faith, because Dimitar Marinov presents Bulgarian folk cosmogony through the dichotomy between the visible and the invisible world. In People's Faith the visible world, according to Dimitar Marinov's interpretation, can be presented as distant and close. The distant visible world includes celestial bodies and aerial phenomena, while the near visible world includes earth, water and fire, as well as flora and fauna, material culture and the human concept. In turn, the invisible world includes the understandings of its order (God, angels, devil, etc.), diseases are included here, but also supernatural beings. The continuity between the visible and the invisible world, the notions of dynamics and development typify the nature of mythological images, with an emphasis on their material being. Of interest is the metamorphic state of circumstances and supernatural characters pointed out by Dimitar Marinov - many of the beings from the invisible world have their existence in the visible world. A striking example are the samadivas and samovils, witches and vampirites, dragons and dragonesses.
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This study focuses on a comparison of two sets of in-depth, face-to-face interviews among Romanians living in Poland about their perceptions of the country and society, and their migrant experiences. The interviews were conducted five years apart, using the same guide, but carried out by Polish interviewers in the first case, and by a Romanian interviewer in the second. Comparative analysis of the material gained in this process reveals that, despite similar content in interviewee responses, the standing of the interviewer was by no means neutral. Crucial for the volume, type, and nature of the collected data – as well as for its interpretation – is the interviewer’s identity. In this regard, the study draws on Michael’s Herzfeld’s concept of ‘cultural intimacy’ to explain the mutual reproduction of different levels of identity and to develop a framework for analyzing the interaction between the social scientists and their interlocutors.
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This study focuses on a unique collection of personal economic records and additional documents from the 20th century, belonging to a Catholic priest from Satu Mare County, Romania. The material is exceptional, as it represents a rare collection of written documents from the Hungarian-speaking region of the 20th century, authored by a Catholic priest. These records provide an in-depth look into the life of a priest, who, despite his clerical duties, maintained a strong connection to farming, a legacy from his farmer-herdsman parents of Swabian descent. The economic records, which span from 1949 to the 1960s, offer insights into the priest's personal and economic life. They include narratives about managing a parish, engaging in farming activities, and handling personal financial transactions. These documents not only reflect his efforts to balance religious responsibilities with agricultural interests but also illuminate the socio-economic conditions of the time. The study explores the priest's economic decisions, the value he placed on different assets, and his understanding of wealth in a changing society. It also examines the broader context of peasant embourgeoisement in 20th-century Romania, highlighting how a priest and his family navigated the transition from a traditional peasant lifestyle to a more bourgeois existence. This transition is evidenced by their adoption of modern goods and technologies, changes in family dynamics, and shifts in career strategies, reflecting the complex interplay between personal, economic, and social factors during a period of significant societal change. Overall, the paper offers a micro-historical perspective on the life of this 20th-century priest, providing valuable insights into his unique experiences and the broader socio-economic transformations of the era.
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Interview with Kuba Szpilka, by Paweł Smoleński.
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The article discusses the image of Diego Maradona, described in Argentina as pibe, a street urchin, a person acting on the borderline of generally accepted order. This holy sinner, football genius, and, at the same time, man of many vices became the most prominent player in the history of the Naples football club. In the capital of Campania, known for its mafia and, simultaneously, deep religiosity Maradona was venerated as a saint precisely due to his inner contradictions. Addicted to cocaine and involved in countless moral scandals he was forgiven due to his goals and dribbling on the football field and became the hero of Naples because he reflected all the ups and downs of the town.
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An extensive record of a conversation dedicated to the tragically deceased Dr Maria Reimann (1982–2023) and the research regions she traversed in her academic and writing practices (anthropology of childhood, disability studies, autoethnography). The conversation took place on 25 September 2023 at Pracownia Duży Pokój in Warsaw.
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In the wake of the death of prominent French anthropologist Marc Augé, a participant in his seminars presents his profile and scientific achievements. This unconventional researcher and writer, affiliated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, practiced independent anthropology to understand an era he considered unprecedented, characterized by an excess of space, the acceleration of time and the disappearance of otherness caused by globalization. The thematic scope of his work is very broad: power, witchcraft, rituals, the excesses of modernity, identity, oblivion, etc., as well as gardens, tourism, the bicycle or the Paris metro. In addition to scientific works related to field research and theoretical studies, Augé practiced essayism, which, starting from observational data, led to philosophical considerations. He believed that any ethnology leads to anthropology, which is inherently philosophical.
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The “anthropological mistake” is of critical importance to the thought of Karol Wojtyla. It is a concept which establishes a process by which philosophical-anthropological perspectives can be critiqued and identified as presenting an erroneous view of the nature of man. Using this philosophical mindset, and following Wojtyla’s works and areas of concern, this article critiques certain philosophical positions and ideologies for presenting an incorrect view of the nature and identity of man. Particular attention is given to reductive concepts of man in knowledge concerning man, reductive concepts of community in politics and social life, and reductive concepts of the goal of human life in morality and ethics. Critiques made follow the critiques of Wojtyla, or employ the thought of Wojtyla in critiquing certain ideologies contemporary to this article itself. This work follows and continues the endeavors of an article previously published in this journal entitled The Forms of the Anthropological Mistake According to Major Works of Karol Wojtyła.
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U maloj disciplini kao što je etnologija u Hrvatskoj rijetki su oni koji cijeli život posvete jednom uskom stručnom području, pri čemu su sasvim u skladu sa svjetskim trendovima, ali i neumorno javno progovaraju i zalažu se za područje kojim se bave. Jedna od njih svakako je bila etnologinja-konzervatorica Beata Gotthardi-Pavlovsky. Rođena je 1926. godine u selu Grana, kraj Novog Marofa, u Hrvatskom zagorju. Gimnaziju je završila u Zagrebu, a na Filozofskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu završila je studij etnologije i povijesti. Već tijekom studija bila je pjevačica i plesačica Folklorne sekcije OKUD-a Joža Vlahović, a 1949. godine je prešla u tada tek osnovani profesionalni folklorni ansambl LADO. Etnologija je bila njezin životni poziv i strast, a ljubav prema folkloru i Vlahoviću ponosno je isticala tijekom cijelog života.
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The text presents a draft of the research of public urban spaces in Mostar and Sarajevo, concerning the way they were used and re-shaped in the period after the end of the war in 1995. This topic has been approached on the basis of scientific and professional literature having in mind the current situation in these cities. The above material can be used by future researchers as the basis for further reflection and inspiration for topics related to symbols and the use of public spaces in cities.
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In the interwar period of time, a team of four to six biological anthropologists headed by Francisc Rainer attended the monographical researches in the framework of Dimitrie Gusti’s Sociological School. After war, while sociology was abolished by the communist political regime, anthropology survived under the leadership of the physician Ștefan Milcu, an ex-member of Rainer’s team. As Director of the Anthropological Research Centre, Milcu took over the idea of monographical research ‒ this time from a bioanthropological perspective. However, he invited to researches a few social scientists to cover some aspects of demography, family studies, ethnography etc. Among them, especially Traian Herseni and Vasile Caramelea (under the protection identity of “demographer”, “or statistician”) produced outstanding contributions to the monographs of the villages Clopotiva, Bătrîna, Nucșoara & Cîmpu lui Neag ‒ all of them in the district of Hațeg, an ancient county of great importance for understanding the genesis of the Romanian people. A collateral super-effect of this activity was the foundation ‒ în 1964, at Vasile Caramelea’s initiative ‒ of the Section of cultural anthropology in the organization of the Anthropological Research Centre. This inauguration is interpreted again as “an adequate illustration of Thomas Kuhn’s theory about the changing of paradigm în science” (Geană, 2014b).
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Extrait de l’ouvrage : Balázs Balogh and Ágnes Fülemile (2023). Történeti idő és jelenlét Kalotaszegen. Fejezetek egy emblematikus néprajzi táj jelképpé válásának történeti, társadalmi folyamatairól. [Présence du Kalotaszeg et temps historique. L’évolution socio-historique d’une province élevée au rang de symbole ethnographique], (Életmód és Tradíció 18.). Budapest: BTK Néprajztudományi Intézet, (« A Malonyay vállalkozás », p. 197–215. Trad. Henri de Montety).
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The article is a contribution to the scientific biography of Professor Ewa Nowina-Sroczyńska, a Polish ethnographer and cultural anthropologist associated with the University of Łódź. It presents her teaching, scientific and organizational activities against the background of the relationship between science and art.
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