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Feminine and masculine in Bulgarian music folklore find expression in specifically feminine and masculine performance, feminine and masculine vocal training, feminine and masculine participation in the ritual and custom musical tradition, feminine and masculine repertoire. Series of historical, religious, moral and ethical changes in the Bulgarian folk society seem to be stimulating the development and changes in this musical opposition. The dialect parameters of the opposition masculine-feminine are also interpreted in the inquiry. Modern aspects of relations and mutual infiltration of the masculine repertoire and masculine performance style and the feminine practices and vice versa have been outlined.
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The study by R. Katsarova Horos and Dances from the Region of Gotse Delchev is a regional research of the folk dance riches of one district in South-Western Bulgaria. She shares her observations, analysis and summaries concerning the preserved old folk dances, studied during the period from 1946 to 1958. The study contains historical information about the population of the region — local people and immigrants from the former southern outlying districts of Bulgaria as well as of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. The author extensively characterizes the horos and dances in style and performance, in structure, rhythm, tempo, form and expression. She presents the elder clothing and the typical vocal and instrumental accompaniment. The article traces also the state of horos and dances connected to some ancient customs, preserved up to this day, such as Lazaruvane, St. George's Day, Enjovden (Midsummer Day), weddings etc.
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The brothers Vladimir and Mitko Mitev from Vladaya Village are a duet, performing authentic twovoice songs from the Shopluk region. This circumstance throws new light upon the research of many specialists in folklore who have found up to this moment that in the Shopluk region the two-voice song is performed only by women. On the other hand, the Mitev Brothers are firm in their position that this type of singing has always existed and is the result of preserved family traditions. Mitko Mitev sings first voice and according to the local terms is called "okach", meaning "the one who calls". Vladimir Mitev is second voice and he is the so called "vlachach", or "helper". The repertoire of the Mitev Brothers is extremely rich and includes different Shops' customs, labor songs, table songs, horo songs and others. They add sometimes their own created songs, which have the style and the typical sounding of the Shops' song. It is characteristic that the Mitev Brothers sing with the same love and devotion for one person as for a. big audience, which makes the contact with them unique — as they themselves are.
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The article discusses the relation between music players and the dancers of the ring chain dance ("horo") in traditional culture through the eyes and experience of the folk musicians. The information collected in field interviews about the music playing for the "horo" outlines diverse means of communication, defined by the social normative requirements for the specific communicative situation on the part of the community as well as according to the fine mechanisms of "happening" of the communicative act during shared participation in the horo as a creative proceeding event. The article elaborates the social necessity to have a music player at the horo, the principles of mutual exchange of skills and values for the benefit both of the individual position of the music player of the horo and the dancers, who lay their conditions as a cultural commission. A next stage of extending the relationship is the correlation between the language of music and movement in the process of immediate communication in the horo. Comprising and structuring the instrumental horo music challenges the players and gives them freedom to sophisticate the language of the dance. On the other hand, the morphology of the horo melody depends on the mood of the dancers. The mutual commitment seems to be a result of accumulation of united dancing-and-musical energy. Within the minds of the participants in the dance event the instrumental music and the rhythmicand- movement activity are inseparable. The musician and the horo-dancers are two parties with equal participation in a wholesome process. The relation between them manifests in two types of behavior at different levels — in social perspective and as "musical" proceeding of the music-and-dancing act.
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The heritage of traditional dance has been object to diverse ways of teaching and practicing dancing skills. The article traces the traditional forms of dance training, which play a decisive role in mastering, transmission and developing of dance culture. Dance training in folk culture passes through different stages so that every one can take part in the horo during holidays — imitating the grown-up and almost daily dancing. Specific situations to teach and perfect dancing skills can be outlined: from the typically childish plays of the girls and boys to the transition to the youngsters' neighborhood horo and dancing out of village. Examples are given from the village Gorni Bogrov in the Sofia region, connected with the traditional training in dancing activities, valid to a great degree for the Bulgarian village from the beginning of the 20th century.
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The article elaborates some of the folk concepts about "life" of man after physical death and their parallels with the Chuvash people, Balkartsi and Bulgarians on the Balkans. This is a part of a research work on the ancient Bulgarian religious beliefs (along the traces from the Bulgarian state formations in North Caucasus and the Volga River), which cannot be unlocked without attending to folklore material. The present text is based on material both published by observers and collected by me, mainly among the Chuvash people, whom science accepts to be a substratum population from Volga Bulgaria, having preserved to a maximum degree their kinship with the language and the traditional culture of Bulgarians. It is known that within the intensively active zones of ethno-cultural contact (such as the Volga River, the Balkans, North Caucasus etc.) multiple components within the sphere of the folk tradition are manifested in similar contents and in similar ways. Today many of them "show" new context and conceptual level. The common worldview, on which many customs and rituals are founded, including the rites of transition and their symbolism, is a result of a century-old, synchronistic process of formation and functioning of the so called Indo-European ethno-cultural model. Many of its components are not a matter of specific origin and national belonging, but a specific way of manifestation of ritual behavior and concepts as a synthesis of cultures. The mainstay for their understanding is the conservative and ancient character of many inherited folk evidence as well as the social and political destiny of the population. The connection between burial and memorial rituals of the Chuvash people and the Bulgarians is found in concepts, actions and ritual practices, in material and space parameters and their semantics, in the typical anthropomorphic view of the permanent memorials and the recurrent forms of temporary memorials etc. The manifestation of those parallels at different levels in rituals and faith points to unity of ritual thinking and system and to the religious type, which keeps them in the memory of generations (under the form of continuity of ideas, ritual behaviors etc.)
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The text presents some aspects of the "life" of Bulgarian ethno music in the Austrian capital — places and situations in which it "happens" and musicians who in one or another way take part in this musical life. The interest in ethno-jazz music in Bulgaria during the recent years is emphasized, but this interest presumes other interpretations, when this music has been "exported" beyond the borders of the country. There it sounds and is perceived in a slightly different way. Different are the emphases especially in signifying it as ethno-music played by musicians of different nationality. The Bulgarian ethno-jazz in Vienna has its brilliant musical manifestation. Being part of a Balkan 'wave", it magnificently incorporates in the polyphonic sound mosaic of the Austrian capital. But with its life as an outlined phenomenon with local color within the globalizing musical dimensions, this music is a "device" to construe the national identity of the Bulgarian musicians who play it.
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The article refers to interesting and not discussed problems — the lack of functional attachment of the Rhodopa songs as well as ornaments as a specific code in rituals. Referring to the first problem — there may be found a different cause for the dissociation of functionality in the song cycles from the Rhodopa Mountain in comparison to the same process observed in other folk regions. The reason for dropping out of the function is dissociation of the folk system, caused by change in the social existence of Bulgarians. This dropping out of the function has occurred much earlier in the Rhodopa Mountain in comparison to other regions because of the adoption of Islam among the population. This changed the social existence both of the Bulgarian Mohammedans and the Bulgarian Christians. The article refers also to another interesting phenomenon — marking of rituals with a specific musical code — ornaments. It becomes clear from the analysis that the ritual songs have specific structure, characterized with the limited immanent development of the music components, including ornaments. The reason to apply means of expression in such "ascetic" manner is due I think to the strong syncretism, which on the one hand unites the elements in a syncretic whole, but on the other hand hinders the specific development of each element — music, dance and word.
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The paper presents the composer T. Popov in the light of the personal meeting with him and the author's acquaintance with him. The creative work of T Popov in song adaptations is analyzed in different aspects — types of songs, which the composer remakes, his creative style in adaptation of the song material, melodic and harmonic devices etc. Special attention has been paid to the remakes by T. Popov of Bulgarian folk songs from different regions, where the ambition to keep the regional melodic and rhythmic specifics of the song is clearly outlined. A brief summery has been made to the creative work of T Popov in the field of solo song (mainly accompanied by a piano). The text emphasizes the significance of the creative work of a composer who should not be forgotten.
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Men’s lifestyle magazines are quite a new subgenre of popular magazines aimed at young, single, well-off and pleasure-oriented male readers. Editors of those magazines aspire to ‘reveal’ a sizable gap between their journals and up-market women’s magazines. However, the attributed differences are superficial or even illusory. Being assured that editors possess the secret of hegemonic masculinity, the reader believes that they want to share it with him. Nevertheless, at the deeper level of this media category there are latent processes of male reader feminization. The readers of those magazines are not only asked to succumb to insatiable material consumption but also get encouraged to focus on their body beautification. Moreover, men’s lifestyle magazines articulate keen resistance to feminist movement as well as a negative attitude toward gays and lesbians. The readers are asked to believe that the social world is still under the control of men as it used to be in the past. A reader who lacks self-confidence and a sense of security may want to be deceived in that way even at the price of becoming feminized.
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Review Essay: Svetla Koleva: Sociologiata kato proekt. Nauchna identichnost i socialni izpitania v Balgaria 1945-1989 godina. Sofia: Pensoft Publishing House 2005.
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The article presents a case study of a call center in the context of Erving Goffman’s theory. The call center is a stage where actors-consultants play their roles. Their prescribed roles constitute a script to be duly observed. Role performance is constantly supervised and meticulously monitored with the aid of invisible mechanisms. Almost every sphere of performance is controlled, including qualitative and quantitative efficiency, working time, interruptions and the usage of technical equipment (e.g. computers) in order to eliminate discordance with the prescribed role. Does strict control of the occupant roles transform a call center into a total institution? Although the identity of consultants is regulated by the employer, the work is not obligatory. Goffman’s theoretical categories are adequate for the analysis of a call center, but the reference to a total institution in the exact sense of this term would not be correct.
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The article deals with the issue of structural and cohesion funding by the European Union in Poland. Although all funds earmarked for the first programming period 2004-2006 were allocated, the process posed certain problems. Therefore, in our paper we point to the weaknesses of the system and some of the hindrances to efficient fund allocation: faulty institutional and legal framework, bureaucracy, corruption and personnel deficits. We base our findings on a research incorporating 150 in-depth interviews carried out in four regions of Poland. Referring to Niklas Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic systems, we present a sketch of an unevenly differentiated political system, in which administration and politics prevail over the underprivileged public, incapable of counteracting trends of politicization and bureaucratization. By showing the evolution and reproduction of the system, we relate to its deficits and their impact on the future use of the EU funds inflow. The article deals with the issue of structural and cohesion funding by the European Union in Poland. Although all funds earmarked for the first programming period 2004-2006 were allocated, the process posed certain problems. Therefore, in our paper we point to the weaknesses of the system and some of the hindrances to efficient fund allocation: faulty institutional and legal framework, bureaucracy, corruption and personnel deficits. We base our findings on a research incorporating 150 in-depth interviews carried out in four regions of Poland. Referring to Niklas Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic systems, we present a sketch of an unevenly differentiated political system, in which administration and politics prevail over the underprivileged public, incapable of counteracting trends of politicization and bureaucratization. By showing the evolution and reproduction of the system, we relate to its deficits and their impact on the future use of the EU funds inflow.
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The key-word based dictionary (A-K) introduces Estoanian wedding customs and participants. With the custom, the distribution area of the name and custom have been given with the accuracy of one parish.
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A political anecdote is first all, a popular and not a scientific concept. It is a forbidden story told only to those you trusted, who thought like the speaker did. This phenomenon characterises primarily a society of repression where people have no opportunities to express their dissatisfaction in a legal way. Political subject is just as often found in conundrums as in anecdotes. For some subjects, it even seems that the conundrum expresses attitudes and opinions more colourfully and precisely than the anecdote. An old-fashioned anecdote, the longer style of delivery of which has been forgotten over time, may sometimes take on the form of a conundrum. The so-called introduction falls away and the colourful punch line of the anecdote is used in the new conundrum. Political background may occur in anecdotes about persons, ethinics or animals. Political anecdotes and conundrums can be divided into three groups: 1. Anecdotes and conundrums about statesmen. Typical subjects are a visit, competition or outdoing each other; 2. Anecdotes which poke fun at the socialist or communist system, but in which specific statesmen are not mentioned; 3. Anecdotes about life conditions, in which situations created by the crumbling system are described. Most of the information used in this article originates from the collections of the Estonian Folklore Archive, especially from the collection of materials handed in during the children's competition of school traditions in 1992. In the first part of the series of articles, an overview of political anecdotes at the time of the Estonian Republic (1920-1939).
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The basis of wider distribution of choral singing among the country people was established at school and in the church. At the beginning of the 1930s, the development of polyphonic choral singing started. The example of choral singing as a form of social activity was taken over from the Baltic Germans among whom a movement of choral societies cultivating polyphonic men- or mixed choruses was widespead on direct influence of German culture. In Germany it was one expression of the national need of Germans to become one nation. In Estonia, in Põlva already in 1855 and 1857 several choruses performed together on what was called a "song-holiday", but the first song-holiday of a county that had a wider response was organised by the local priest Martin Köber in 1863 in Anseküla, where 500 singers participated. In North-Estonia, the first song festival was held two years later in Jõhvi, and in June 1869 the first Estonian nationwide song festival was held in Tartu after two years of pursuing a permission from the authorities. It has been even claimed that Estonians sung themselves into a nation. Since then, song festivals have regularly been taking place. The song festival is a folk festival, being at the same time both a ritual and a spectacle. The song festival creates a situation where cultural identity and national unity can be demonstrated. The mechanism of this festival is social mobilisation, people come to the festival with their families and friends, more important than the choral experience is communicating with those from close and afar, the need to experience reblendation into the society in a wider sense, the sense of unity with the nation, its history and cultural heritage. Artistic organised performances taking place during the festival that are aimed at the audience demonstrate cultural devotions of the particular community, carrying at the same time three main purposes: the social function to organise the community; the psychological function to express personal and collective emotions; and thirdly, the function to expose, strengthen and create the particular culture (Turner-McArthur 1990, 86).
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