Една колекция килимчета във фонда на Националния етнографски музей.

Author(s): Chavdar Dimitrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

The text attempts to analyze a group of smooth-woven rugs from the collection of the NationalEthnographic Museum. Originating from North-Eastern Bulgaria, probably made by Turkish immigrants, these products are in contrast with the development of carpet making in our country. Dedicated to the smaller carpets, foreign publications and catalogues also mention the environment or place of use. Bulgarian researchers rarely emphasize this question from the topic. After a systematic description of the examples in the National Ethnographic Museum, two hypotheses have been proposed regarding the purpose – a pillow cover or a prayer mat. The analysis takes into account the conceptual, territorial and time frames. The assessment of reference points takes into consideration the aspects of creed, design and manufacture.

ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS IN CONTEMPORARY DYSTOPIA

Author(s): Ileana Botescu-Sireţeanu / Language(s): English Issue: 26/2021

The present paper situates its concerns at the crossroads of literary studies, anthropology and the theory of culture in order to investigate how contemporary dystopian literature employs archaic structures in order to subvert the authority and authenticity of grand narratives such as mythology and religion. In this respect, the present study looks at two particular instances of contemporary Canadian fiction, Margaret Atwood’s iconic dystopia, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Michael Ondaatje’s more discreet The English Patient, as they appear to be complementary in illustrating how the use of culturally consecrated archetypal patterns is directed towards demythologizing and eventually dismantling the Western cultural narrative. Departing from classical anthropological theories, this paper argues that contemporary dystopia incorporates archetypal structures in a subversive, yet totally pertinent challenge of old idols. Thus, the disenchantment of the world and of experience is paradoxically achieved, once more, through storytelling.

THE THEORY OF TONOMYMIC FIELDS. THE CASE OF JIJIA UPPER VALLEY

Author(s): Bogdan Constantin Archip / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 27/2021

Our research will reveal a series of particularities, specific for the theory of tonomymic fields and the correlation between the awareness of speakers’ affiliation to a certain geographical region and their methods to translate this affiliation into toponymic terminology.

TOPONYMS WITH A GEOMORPHOLOGIC DESIGNATION. JIJIA UPPER VALLEY

Author(s): Bogdan Constantin Archip / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 27/2021

Our approach aims the classification of toponyms based on their designation degree within the geomorphology specific for Jijia Upper Valley, Botoșani county.

Свежа Дачева на 70 години

Author(s): Boryana Vladimirova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 46/2023

In memoriam Мирям Моравцова

Author(s): Vladimir Penchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 46/2023

კულტურისა და ხელოვნების ზოგიერთი საკითხი XIX საუკუნის გურიაში (ალეგრობა)

Author(s): IRMA GHONGHADZE / Language(s): Georgian Issue: 1/2021

Guria with all its culture, morals and customs and only its characteristic mosaic is an interesting region for everyone. It is said that the character of the nation is expressed in its nationaldance and song, and Gurian folklore furthermore emphasizes mosaic character of the Gurians. Gurian folklore is distinguished. Gurian “Krimanchuli” is considered to be the peak of Georgian polyphony. Anzor Erkomaishvili compared it to a swallows’ flutter. Gurian “Kanuri” or “Naduri” are also well-known. From the old Gurian dances are known: “Partsakuku”, “Kalmakhoba”, “Leaf dance” and others. “Partsakuku” is a mass dance of war-winning horsemen and is performed with women. It is known the three-storey “Partsakuku” in Guria. Gurians and in particular the intelligentsia of the whole Rioni district to raise the level of education and culture used such means as – sport spectacles, alleys, donations, beauty prize draws. Progressive-minded intelligentsia knew perfectly well how great the role of culture was in educating the society, it is therefore noteworthy that Lanchkhuti has become one of the important hotbeds of theatrical culture. Guria is an interesting place for everyone with all its culture, morals and only its characteristic color. It is said that the character of the nation is seen in its national dance and song, and Gurian folklore further emphasizes the already colorful nature of the Gurians. Gurian folklore is distinguished. Gurian “Krimanchuli” is considered to be the peak of Georgian polyphony. Anzor Erkomaishvili compared it to the flight of swallows. Gurian “Khanuri” or “Naduri” is also known. From the old Gurian dances it is known: “Partsakuku”, “Kalmakhoba”, “Dancing with leaves” etc. “Partsakuku” is a mass dance of war-winning horsemen and is performed with women. They knew the three-storey “Partsakuku” in Guria. “Alegroba” is a holiday spread in Guria centuries ago. “Allegro” is an Italian word and means “fast music”. It is true that the Gurians can not be compared to the Italians in terms of music, but so many Italians visited Guria, suddenly theycopied the spectaclefrom them and one day they organized a Gurian-Italian celebration, which was called “Alegroba” by the guests.

Discussing the ‘grandmother hypothesis

Author(s): Jan Horský / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

The ‘grandmother hypothesis’ is connected with a distant evolutionary event of the emergence of menopause in human females and can be put to the test by (historical) demographic data for European society of the Early Modern Age and the Modern Age. Comparisons of case studies and micro-analytic probes into historical demography and cultural history of the 17th–19th c. allow us to draw certain conclusions: where the ‘grandmother effect’ (i.e. shorter inter-birth intervals in daughters or daughters-in-law alongside with a lower rate of infant and child mortality of grandchildren, in other words, fitter grandchildren) can be proven from a statistical point of view, in most cases, the effect is significantly weaker than the effect of other factors which influence infant and child mortality. Grandmothers participating in the care of their grandchildren may not have been a ‘cultural pattern’ (reflected as such by its actors), in any case, not to the degree to which a ‘cultural pattern’ was reflected in a regionally specific structure of households or the use of midwives’ services. At least in the European populations of the 17th–19th c., we can find other institutions which seem to have had a stronger impact on infant and child mortality than grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren. In this period, the grandmother effect was geographically dispersed and, at least in some cases, linked to particular social groups or segments of society (in the Czech sample, for instance, the effect was linked to lower social classes). If the grandmother effect increasing the fitness of grandchildren is more pronounced with maternal grandmothers (which is yet to be generally proven), we must ask why cultural evolution ‘chose’ the adaptively less favourable option of patrilinear structure of family households. An example of such structure can be found in a consistent patrilocality of marriages and patrilineality of the family structure in classical antiquity, which, in the European environ ment, has survived until recently southeast of the so-called Hajnal Line. Research in demography and cultural history of the 17th–19th c. European society seems to strongly support the following claim, which from the perspective of evolutionary anthropology or evolutionary biology is merely a hypothetical supposition: The ‘grandmother effect’ may have been the cause of the menopause as an evolutionary adaptation. Nonetheless, while this phenomenon has been present in human population since ancient times (prehistory or antiquity), it was merely one of many mutually complementary, alternative, and more or less adaptive (i.e. fitness-increasing) forms of infant and child care.

West vis-à-vis East tradition, question and practice in Chinese historiography

Author(s): Zhang Zuocheng / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

According to XiJinping’s speech at the Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and Social Sciences on May 17th, 2 Chinese historiography has been establishing a disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system with Chinese characteristics since 2016. Disciplinary system construction refers to strengthening the construction of emerging disciplines (e.g., digital history, maritime history etc.) and interdisciplinary disciplines (e.g., environmental history, urban history etc.), as well as strengthening the support of unpopular disciplines with the value of Chinese cultural heritage such as the Oracle research which started with Wang Yirong (1845–1900), Liu E (1857–1909), Luo Zhenyu (1866–1940) and Wang Guowei (1877–1927). Academic system construction includes but is not limited to the construction of Marxist academic research, continuing the development of Marxism in contemporary China and in the 21st century. Discourse system construction means primarily refining the representative concepts and theories which explain Chinese practice and have influence in the international academia. Contemporary Chinese historians know that these three systems are influenced by the West but they should be distinguished from it.

CROSSING THE LIMITS IN THE GREEK TRAGEDY: CLYTEMNESTRA, ANTIGONE, MEDEA

Author(s): Cristina Iridon / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

This paper intends to present how Greek tragedy manages to create a modern perspective of the women, compared with their traditional status in the historical reality of the archaic community. The analysis will focus on three Greek noble characters: Clytemnestra, Antigone and Medea who offer to any reader from any time instead of / beside the image of the devoting wife and of the obedient housekeeper, the image of the adulterous, of the murderer, of the revenger or of the fighter for the members of her family.

ONDŘEJ JAKUBEC, Kde jest, ó smrti, osten tvůj? Renesanční epitafy v kultuře umírání a vzpomínání raného novověku

Author(s): Tomáš Malý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2017

Review of: ONDŘEJ JAKUBEC, Kde jest, ó smrti, osten tvůj? Renesanční epitafy v kultuře umírání a vzpomínání raného novověku, Praha 2015, Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 482 s., ISBN 978-80-7422-509-3.

ABOUT GEORGE CĂTANĂʼS PERSONALITY, A TEACHER FROM BANAT

Author(s): Dorina Chiş-Toia / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

Our article proposes to bring in the pipeline the complex personality of George Cătană (1865-1944): a remarkable teacher of his time, serving the confessional school in Valeadeni, where he lived all his life, remarkable folklorist, author of fairy tales, short stories and shorter short stories about the war. There were numerous articles about his personality and activity published during his lifetime, but his name appeared in various journals in Banat and not only where he signed reports on teachers’ conferences, aspects of the teacher’s life, stories, folklore pages etc.

A CITY MADE OF BOOKS, A WORLD OF MEMORIES

Author(s): Veronica Alina Constanceanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

From Evlia Celebi to Cora Irineu, from Ion Slavici and Milos Crnjanski to contemporary prose, the region of Banat is described as a multiethnic place, where different histories, religions, confessions mingle, and Timisoara is a city where buildings, churches, synagogues rewrite the city's history. Whether we talk about travel notes, memories or fiction, various authors have presented Banat as a place where ethnic groups live together, trying and most of the time succeeding in preserving their own traditions, faith, culture. Over the real cities, through which we walk, the images of cities formed by words overlap. Each of us feels differently the asphalt of a street, the shadow of a tree, the history of a house. In this essay, we will reveal only at piece of this history, because it continues, both the real and the fictionalized histories are still here and are given back to different readers, in the literature written today.

THE TRADITIONAL HOUSES OF BUKOVINA AND THEIR INHABITANTS: A JOURNEY OF REDISCOVERY THROUGH PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Author(s): Cristian Alexandru Boghian / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

Journeying through the villages of Southern Bukovina, throughout the numerous ethnographical areas of the Suceava county, we notice, on the one hand, many traditional houses which seem to have survived the natural passage of time and on the other hand, others which struggle to keep up with the new trends in architecture and comfort. Some villages or areas seem to be live hotbeds of tourist attractions with a rich heritage while others, some multiethnic settlements, have become almost abandoned. Therefore, what is the present general state of the patrimony of traditional buildings in the rural scenery of Bukovina? Is the Land of Beeches still a realm of godliness traditions or is it at risk of becoming a shadow of unintentional kitsch? This paper with photos and text descriptions, which was completed after numerous trips and interviews with the owners of the buildings, between 2018-2020, tries to find an answer to these questions and explain the state of the architectural monuments of Bukovina and what the future has in store for these.

FOLK LITERATURE OF THE HUTSUL MINORITY FROM BUKOVINA

Author(s): Constantin-Andrei Pătrăucean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

In this project, we aim to make a general approach to the folk literature of the hutsuls minority in Bukovina, in order to observe its specificity in the context of the multi-ethnic folklore existence of the population in Bukovina. In this regard, we have brought up hutsuls legends, proverbs and stories that capture the collective mind and symbols that still prove the hutsuls population's inclination towards mythology and archetype. First, we made a brief introduction that considers the presentation of the hutsuls minority from a historical and ethnofolkloric point of view, followed by a review of the importance of the existence of popular literature in Bukovina. From general to private, we analyzed some literary facts from the folk creations of the hutsuls: carols or doines of the dead, the specific song "Hutulca", spells for the sick, love spells, legends with outlaws, proverbs about village life, family relationships, etc. All this proves the existence of an ethnofolkloric space that tries to preserve the folkloric manifestations, even if the ethnofolkloric dynamism that the current society shows seems to offer a pessimistic image on the folklore. Especially at important events over the year or in their life, the hutsuls keep the traditions and customs, in which the story, poetry or song are key symbols without which the celebrations would not have the same meaning. The Hutus, especially the elderly, demonstrate, through the secluded life they lead in the mountains and their simple way of life, a return to archaic values and sacred time that Mircea Eliade frequently mentions in his studies.

CONNOTATIONS OF ALIENATION IN FOLKLORIC MENTALITY

Author(s): Mariana Cocieru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 30/2022

In the present approach, the author refers to the existence of the human being marked by permanent necessary transcendences, imposed or voluntary, which highlight a series of constants defining the condition of exile or emigrant of the traditional man. Whether it is through alienation, soldiering, marriage, death, transhumance, outlawry, etc., alienation or uprooting oscillates emotionally between two social environments: one, which reflects the notion of „home”, specific to a traditional folk habitat, and another – that of „black foreignness”, which includes a series of negative connotations generated by the transformations to which the emigrant subjected. Leaving parents' home or one's own home sometimes impels a perception of a habitat that is disintegrating due to forced emigration. „Home” is no longer the primary model of organizing the world, but a decomposed, ruined space. Analyzing several examples generated by the immaterial folk creation, we will notice that the „foreignness” gradually becomes autochthonous, obtaining a regional character, being associated with the neighborhood, the estate, or the neighboring village. During the research, we will notice that the reasons for alienation, uprooting, and loneliness reflected in popular creation are conclusive arguments that demonstrate realities of the past. Constantly conveyed, they allow the reconstruction of historical, social, psychological, cognitive aspects of a traditional mentality. Relevant in this sense are the folk songs through which the folklore performer expresses his emotional and emotional states related to this condition of alienation, separation from loved ones, and being in strangers. An analytical examination allows us to distinguish a complex repertoire of specific symbolic images, which emanates a different semantic load, depending on the folkloric context.

Język sakralny wobec polskiego języka narodowego. Łacina

Author(s): Joanna Sobczykowa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2023

Joanna Sobczykowa’s article deals with Latin as a sacred language in the Polish cultural area in history and today. Sobczykowa outlines the situation in other areas of culture, Semitic or Slavic. She examines the status and functions of liturgical Latin in history and today, by looking at opinions of speakers, theologians, linguists, and philosophers of religion. She also looks at documents in the form of Latin works by medieval Polish preachers and their concern for the understanding of the Latin liturgy by the people. Finally, she shows and stresses the difference between verbal and spiritual understanding present in meditation and that between the tendencies towards sacralization and desacralization.

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine… Le specificità linguistiche delle giaculatorie e la loro presenza storica nel repertorio delle preghiere italiane

Author(s): Małgorzata Jabłońska / Language(s): Italian Issue: 11/2023

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the formulas of the aspiration prayers from a historical, theological and linguistic perspective, in order to outline a complete picture of these religious texts. The discussed phenomenon, whose origins date back to the first centuries of Christianity, is widely represented in the Italian tradition, both in past centuries and today. The aspiration prayers from the prayer manuals of the 17th–19th centuries, as well as the texts of the prayers printed on sacred images, were subjected to a multidimensional analysis, focused on linguistic, functional and textual specificities. The research made it possible to contextualize the aspiration prayer in the frame of the model prayer text, first of all exposing its rich expressive values. The analysis of the linguistic material has proved a stability of the form of the aspiration prayer over the centuries. All the prayers analyzed have a strictly personal character, which results among other things from the strong expressiveness of the formulas, achieved with the adoption of terms usually associated with amorous confessions.

Epika dziadowska jako religijny tekst kultury ludowej w Polsce na tle słowiańskim

Author(s): Ewa Masłowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2023

In her article, Ewa Masłowska describes wandering or vagabond beggars and their epic poems and songs in the broad context of the Polish and Slavic traditional folk or rural culture. Masłowska emphasizes the Marian cult specific to the Polish beggar sung poetry. Another particular feature of these songs is the domination of moral themes over events. Another distinctive feature is the presence of eschatological themes, particularly matters such as death, redemption, the soul’s fate after death, the end of the world, and the Last Judgement. What is common for the singing beggars in the Slavic lands is church protection (both in the Orthodox and Catholic countries), which determines their role in the rural society as a facilitator of the Christian religion. Important is also the cult of the ancestors, which was the basis of the beggars’ role in agricultural celebrations and rites of passage, as villagers perceived them as mediatory figures.

Semiotaktyka znaczników hieratycznych: wybrane zagadnienia struktury znaku i procesów semiologicznych

Author(s): Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2023

Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak’s aim in this article is to present the epistemological potential of the semiotactic model in analysis of the cultural opposition of sacred/profane. The research area is the socially constructed cultural space, defined as the sacrosphere. The semiotactic model is based on the insights of contemporary phonology (see e.g. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, 2009) and examines the possibilities of combining signs and their postulated primes. In the paradigm defined in this way, I focus on defining some of the semiotic processes to which selected hieratic markers of the sacrosphere are subject (elements of St. Nicholas’ iconography, roadside shrines and the Moses Tablets). In particular I focus on the simplification of the internal structure of the sign I also discuss heuristically isolated components of a hieratic sign, such as directionality with variants, elevatio and locativus.