Publisher: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН

Bulgarian Folklore

Български фолклор

Frequency: 4 issues / Country: Bulgaria

Bulgarski folklor [Bulgarian Folklore] was found in 1975 and is recently published in Bulgarian in 4 issues per year. Translation of the content in English and extensive summaries of the basic articles in English are provided as well. In addition, one can find in the different numbers of the journal contact information about the authors who are not affiliates of the Institute and references to the Internet site of the Institute where the details of the rest are published. The editorial board of the journal includes prominent Bulgarian scholars in various spheres of anthropological knowledge (anthropology of music and dance, anthropology of verbal traditions, anthropology of folk arts and visual forms, etc.), as well as an international advisory board of distinguished scholars. Chief Editor: Stanoy Stanoev. Editor: Regina Miteva. An important feature in the current editorial strategy is the orientation towards thematic issues on contemporary interdisciplinary problems, such as: “Politics and Folklore”, “The Biographical Approach”, “The Language of the Body”, “Media and Folklore”, “Discourses of Diversity”, “The Capital and Its Inhabitants”, “Anthropology of Folklore”, “Town and Heritages”, “Woman in Folklore”, “Ethnolinguistics and Folklore”, “Generic Memory and Folklore Culture”, “Communities and Images”; “The Danube Riversides – Cultures, Traditions, Identities”; “South-Eastern Europe: Cultural Transformations and Perspectives”. The scholarly publications in these issues are dedicated to key topics in the field of humanitarian and social sciences. Especially important are also the articles in the “Alma mater” section, aimed at discussing lecturing and tutoring in the field of folklore studies, anthropology, ethnology and art history. The journal is well-known for its applied section where exemplary field investigations and materials are regularly published. Recently several journal numbers dedicated to topical studies, representative of various national research traditions or of joint investigations in various fields have appeared: “L’ethnologie en France”, “Bulgaria – Italia. Spazio culturale europeo”, “Identity and Identities” (in cooperation with the Romanian Academy of Sciences), “Folkloristics in Russia”, “South-Eastern Europe: Cultural Transformations and Perspectives” (in cooperation with the Romanian Academy of Sciences). Besides, in these special numbers, as well as in some other issues, many foreign authors from Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Finland, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, USA, Libya, Vietnam, etc. have published. The journal is included in the following international reference books: L’ethnologie dans les revues en Europe; Garae/Hesiode, Carcassonne; Ethnologia Europaea, London. It is refereed in the following editions: Anthropological Index Online (Great Britain); Demos (Germany); International Folklore Bibliography (Germany); Internationale Volkskundlische Bibliographie (Germany); Slavistická folkloristika (Slovakia). Through the section for international book exchange at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the journal is circulated in all the big research centers, with which the Academy is in contact – in Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium, Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, Croatia and many others), as well as in other continents (for example in Australia, USA, Japan, China).

ETHNOLOGIA BULGARICA. Yearbook of Bulgarian Ethnology and Folklore

ETHNOLOGIA BULGARICA. Yearbook of Bulgarian Ethnology and Folklore

Frequency: irregular and other / Country: Bulgaria

Bulgarian Ethnology

Българска етнология

Frequency: 4 issues / Country: Bulgaria

Bulgarian Ethnology is a journal published by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. For almost four decades, it is a leading journal in the country in the field of ethnology, anthropology and museology. "Bulgarian Ethnology" serves to unite all ethnologists from research institutes and universities, museums and other research and cultural centers ", providing a platform for writers and readers, researchers and promoters of culture and social life, for both Bulgarians in the country and in the diaspora and other ethnic and religious groups living in the Bulgarian territory.

Our focus is put on the discussions, various approaches and methods and contemporary views on the content, scope and development of ethnological and anthropological studies. We welcome publications of researches with contribution character in theoretical terms, and specific researches in ethnology, sprung from the pen of both already established and young scholars at the beginning of their career.

Our ambition is to continue the good practice of thematic issues on important scholar topics prepared by prominent researchers from Bulgaria and abroad. We invite all colleagues to continue our cooperation with their experiences, ideas and research, with their reviews and materials to remain our journal significant and prestigious for Bulgarian science, public and cultural life in the country.

Communities and Celebrations

Общности и празници

Author(s): Petko Hristov,Assia Popova / Language(s): Bulgarian

Keywords: family-kinship; communal celebrations; annual rituals; služba,; Slava;

The results from our research of the communal type of celebrations are the foundation of the prepared book. These results allow us to formulate several theses, adding to the already known by the scientific literature picture of the family-kinship and all-village annual ritual process, performed at different levels and with different intensity by all South Slavs on the Balkans. The attempts some of the versions of the family and the communal celebrations to be regarded as ethnical markers or confessional (Catholic/Orthodox) differences prove to be groundless. The regional and the local versions of these celebrations on the Balkans are not a result of the ethnical differences, in our opinion. The ritual process in the village, which contributes to the periodic reconfirming of the idea for cohesion of communities and groups, takes various forms, according to the specifics of the village social structure. The variations in the rituals are a result of the different matrices of ritual process, which each of the Churches – Catholic and Orthodox (of Constantinople, of Ohrid, of Peč, of Tărnovo) – has tried to impose in the historically changeable borders of its diocese in the “contacting” zones.

Problems of Contemporary Ethnology

ПРОБЛЕМИ НА СЪВРЕМЕННАТА ЕТНОЛОГИЯ

Author(s): / Language(s): Bulgarian

Instead of a short abstract, please refer to the PDF-files of the introduction to the book, its table of content and the sample-PDF which, each of them, you can download for free from here. We hope you'll get through this files a more comprehensive impression about the book than would be provided by just a few lines of an abstract / summary.

Larp culture: Between and Beyond. Synopsis

Ларп културата: между и отвъд

Author(s): Angelina Ilieva / Language(s): Bulgarian

Keywords: larp culture; games; subculture; identity;

This text is a monographic study of live action role-playing games (commonly called larp games): a type of games played live, in physical space, and through the immediate, active interaction between players. The study explores two directions, elaborated in its two parts, each with its own specific focus, goals, and scope. The first part focuses on games in culture; the second, on games as culture. The first part presents the various types of role-playing games, their functions in cultures, and the cultural traditions inherited by them. The second part contains a detailed analysis of a local gaming culture—the Bulgarian one—through its constituting aspects of form (the game), processes (playing), and actors (players). The first part places role-playing games within the scope of anthropology and examines them through the comparative perspective typical of cultural anthropology. We deduce and substantiate six functions of larp games from a theoretical and philosophical standpoint. The ritual function breaks the quotidian rhythm of life, changes the commonplace structures and relationships, engenders a markedly “other” (albeit temporary) reality, which imposes uncommon types of behavior. The narrative function is an aspect of players’ subjective perceptions, of their direct involvement in the story, simultaneously creating it and experiencing it in an unmediated manner. The escapist function is portrayed, not only as a possible “escape from reality, ” but also as a romanticist criticism of modern reality. The educational function considers the uses of games for the practical acquisition and accumulation of knowledge and skills, but also for exploring ideologies, suggesting or provoking particular values, and shaping worldviews. The therapeutic function focuses on the notion of ‘catharsis, ’ as a healthy psychological and emotional release for both individual players and the group/community as a whole. The expressive function defines playing as a method for individual and collective expression, a medium with the potential to make art forms. We explore the evolution and varieties of the genre larp game as it has been interpreted and enacted on various regional playing scenes: in North America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia. We examine the principles of avant-garde Nordic larp as a specific design ideology insistent on authentic experience, artistic storytelling, and topicality in the games it constructs. We describe the major traits of the Eastern European larp scenes, with an emphasis on the unique Russian larp culture. The second part defines Bulgarian larp culture through five groups off actors: 1) genesis and main trends; 2) basic structures and interactions established on a meta-gaming level; 3) values and norms shared by the players; 4) actual or latent conflicts and crises; 5) impact of other forms of games or other larp cultures. At first, we analyze the game as a jointly generated reality, consisting of various layers and levels: the material environment of objects and the language describing it; the individual perception and performance of a role; social structures and interactions. Next, we examine playing as a communication process: playing with meaning, the cultural “languages” of interaction, and the participants’ subjective interpretations of game events, expressed through stories. Finally, we present the social structuring of the Bulgarian larp scene as a community of clans and analyze the unique social world of larp players. The conclusion highlights certain significant sociocultural trends in the contemporary world, reflected in the culture of role-playing games: modern people’s propensity for ‘playing’ with reality, creating and inhabiting alternative worlds; the ever growing need to engage with the world actively and experience it fully, the increasing importance of direct personal experience; the specific attitude towards artistic content and art as a whole, the everyday need for artistic expression.