The Popular Culture of the Romanians of Timok Valley– Attempt of Periodization of the Ethnologic Researches Cover Image

Cultura populară a românilor din Timoc– încercare de periodizare a cercetărilor etnologice
The Popular Culture of the Romanians of Timok Valley– Attempt of Periodization of the Ethnologic Researches

Author(s): Annemarie Sorescu Marinković
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Editura Tracus Arte
Keywords: Romanians of Timok Valley; ethnologic researches; Vlachs

Summary/Abstract: This paper consists of two parts. In the first one, the author presents a short history of the Romanian community living in eastern Serbia and western Bulgaria, along the border with Romania, on both sides of the river Timok, known under the generic name of Vlachs. She writes about the intensely debated origin of this community, about its dimension and spoken vernaculars (different dialects of the Romanian language). In the second part, the author tries to sketch a synchronic and diachronic periodization of the researches regarding the Vlach popular culture. Thus, she follows three synchronic lines – the researches conducted in Romania, in Serbia and those of the international scientific community, and identifies a few diachronic stages: 1) a pioneer’s period, sporadically in the 19th and more emphasized in the beginning of the 20th century; 2) the concretization of the “Vlach theme” in Romania; 3) the period until the Second World War in Romania; 4) the period after the Second World War in Serbia; and 5) the last period, after the Romanian revolution of 1989 and recently in Serbia. The conclusion is that, even if this region has been visited by many researchers in the last two centuries, it is still waiting to be fully discovered.

  • Issue Year: II/2006
  • Issue No: 1 (02)
  • Page Range: 73-92
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Romanian