Marriage and ethnic culture

Author(s): Corina Pantelimon Bistriceanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2023

Culture is the most important characteristic of humanity, and it is reflected especially by thespiritual creation of a community. Within a community, there are certain focal points or generators ofculture, which are defined by the fact that they form a certain type of spiritual sociality. Among these,the family is very important. As an act of founding and strengthening the family, marriage carries andgenerates family culture and, consequently, ethnic culture as well. In Romanian culture, marriagemeant a very well-defined passage ritual that leads to the transfiguration of the spouses, especially thewife, to the consecration of the family union, and to the offspring’s legitimation. At the same time, marriage is a mythical scenario, with Christian and pre-Christian religious implications being visibleboth in communal rituals and in popular, artistic, or spiritual creations. The changes made in thedefinition of culture, morality, and marriage, unsupported by ethnic tradition, destroy this connection.Marriage defined only from a social or legal point of view, the diversification of types of cohabitationthat imitate or replace conjugal family, risk differentiating themselves from or even opposing theculturally accepted formulas and, thereby, changing the purpose of the marital relationship fromfounding and strengthening the family to one of opportunity, favourable to certain social groups.

SHEPHERDS IN COVASNA DURING COLLECTIVIZATION

Author(s): Teacă Florentina / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Transhumant pastoralism, the most complex type of traditional pastoralism, was practiced in a series of centres, spread over a relatively narrow area, starting from Brețcu and Covasna and extending along the Transylvanian Subcarpathians through Săcele, the Bran region, the Olt region and the area of Marginimea Sibiului, up to the Hațeg region. In many studies dedicated to transhumant shepherding, the shepherds from Covasna and Brețcu, nicknamed Bârsanii from the Secuime, are mentioned as some of the leaders in their community. However, after hundreds of years of transhumant shepherding, the shepherds of Covasna had to adapt to the period of communism, a sad memory in the history of Romania. The collectivization process put an end to the old transhumance, but favoured “transhumance by train”, with the sheep of the C.A.P.s. From the memories of the shepherds interviewed, it appears that this period also had advantages: it was the first time that they were employed “with papers”, with a work card, with seniority recorded, with a salary, a secure income. In addition to the state-owned sheep, they were allowed to keep their own animals, whose products were then in great demand. What’s more, their reputation as good professionals had spread across the country, so they were sought out by the C.A.P.s in other counties, where they stayed for years, sometimes bringing their families with them. All informants are from Covasna, Voinești.

Polno selektivni abortusi u Crnoj Gori – pravno-antropološka analiza

Author(s): Jovana M. Banović,Branko Banović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

In the old Montenegrin masculine patriarchal culture, having children was one of the primary motivations for marriage. Women in labour faced significant community pressure to give birth to a male child, as evidenced by various ethnographic records and confirmed by contemporary anthropological research. Montenegro exhibits one of the most unbalanced ratios of newborn male to female babies among countries. This necessitates an analysis that integrates legal and anthropological perspectives on son preference. The article explores the socio-historical circumstances and modern expressions of the cult of the male child, followed by an examination of the legal implications of selective abortions. The legal dimension of abortion encompasses a broad normative framework, with the fundamental question concerning the boundary of legal protection in this area, i.e., the limit of state intervention in the personal sphere of individuals and citizens. The legal analysis will also include a reflection on the impact of criminal legal protection on this debate, particularly through the lens of the criminal offense of unlawful termination of pregnancy as stipulated in Article 150 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro. Considering the scope of rights to life, family, and reproduction, and recognizing that pregnancy termination motivated by sex selection is generally prohibited, yet this practice is widespread, the assumption is that the formal legal means to address this issue are limited. As this is a societal phenomenon involving sensitive legal, personal, cultural, religious, political, social, and moral issues, the paper discusses approaches for combating this practice.

Seoska samouprava u periodu 1944-1955 u antropološkoj perspektivi: primer sela Dobri Do

Author(s): Saša Nedeljković,Biljana Anđelković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

Rural self-government is an insufficiently researched topic in domestic and foreign anthropological literature. What is more, the extent to which archives of local self-government bodies can be useful as sources for anthropological research has not been sufficiently studied. For this reason, an attempt was made to provide a contribution to a better understanding of these scientific issues on the example of the village of Dobri Do in the vicinity of Pirot, and on the basis of material in the Historical Archive of Pirot that refers to the work of the Local People's Committee in this village. The period after the Second World War was chosen, due to the state of the materials in the archival collections and the fact that the period was marked by numerous processes that highlighted scientific problems more clearly. It started from the assumption that the local self-government, as a mediator between the rural community and state authorities, was primarily directed towards protecting the interests of the rural community itself.The analysis showed that MNO archives can be very useful sources, and that they can be combined with classical anthropological research methods (participant observation, interview, biographical method). Nevertheless, a critical attitude must be taken towards this archival material, because it is incomplete, insufficiently conscientiously collected and organized. Based on the available material, it is possible to see many questions that have not been raised so far about the relationship between the local community and state institutions. Further research will show to what extent it is possible to improve the use of this material within ethnological and anthropological research.

Animale și păsări în reprezentările din ex-libris-uri în armorialele nobiliare

Author(s): Clara Fulea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 45/2024

The study “Animals and Birds in Ex-Libris Representations in Noble Armorial Ensigns” explores the use of animal and bird symbols in the heraldry of ex-libris. These distinctive marks were used by nobles to signify ownership of books and other personal belongings. Animal symbols are not limited to heraldic ex-libris but are also found in allegorical images on ex-libris, reflecting the psychological and moral traits of the owners. The text highlights how these symbolic elements, such as the lion, the eagle, or the raven, represented virtues like courage, loyalty, and strength. Additionally, it discusses how the coats of arms were adapted to express both one’s social status and the services rendered to the Crown. The study presents notable examples of royal and noble ex-libris, such as those of Queen Victoria, Tsar Nicholas II, and the Bethlen family, analyzing the meanings of the animals and birds used in these contexts.

COVID-19 and Ripples in Time

Author(s): Luba Pirgova-Morgan / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

COVID-19 represents a new era, a time of crisis, and a time of transitions. One of the biggest impacts of the pandemic globally on both individuals and groups has been the transformation of our perception of time. How we perceive time and how time permeates through every aspect of our lived realities during COVID-19, inevitably has brought great changes to research methodologies and approaches used as part of the entirety of the research process: from funding applications, research design, and implementations to collaborations, dissemination, and impact activities beyond project conclusion. The research presented shares key findings and insights from the PRAXIS Project: COVID-19 Strand. A project that examined in depth, via surveys and interviews, Arts and Humanities (A&H) research during COVID-19, with a focus on the pandemic impacts on research practices experienced by academics from the cohort of more than 300 projects funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund. The impact of COVID-19 on research methodologies, scientific challenges as well as new found opportunities and innovations will be presented through the prism of time. Time will be discussed in terms of the speed of time, content of time, importance of time, lost time, found time, and changes in time, and what all those iterations of time can tell us about the transformation of the research process during the pandemic, but also beyond. The discussion presented aims to show the lessons learned, challenge some of the existing scales of values, design desirables, and varied outputs, while also considering the changes to research as a whole and how to look forward during these unprecedented times.

Global Pandemic and Local Communities

Author(s): Albena Nakova-Manolova,Elya Tzaneva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new and unprecedented situation in the world at large and the smaller national, regional, and local communities. This text focuses on the last-mentioned, offering an analysis of data from interviews and focus-group discussions conducted in two Bulgarian localities that were among the first to be quarantined and to react after the pandemic was declared: the towns of Bansko and Karnobat in Bulgaria. Accordingly, for the two mentioned settlements, the contexts of reaction at the community level are examined and compared with those at the levels of the family, kinfolk/neighbourhood, and rural/urban community. This perspective allows tracing how the pandemic has disrupted the normality of existence and created a cognitive imbalance in people’s perceptions, in response to which corresponding concepts and explanations of the disease and the pandemic are built to help people cope with the stress of the unknown. Processes occurring in individual cognitive structures, as well as attitudes towards institutions and collective human communities, are explored, and ways of finding a rational explanation and possible solution to the pandemic problem are studied.

COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention Efforts and Economic Recovery Path of Sub-Saharan Africa

Author(s): Thanh Nga Kieu / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

Like other regions in the world, Africa has also suffered a significant impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains, isolated societies, and closed countries, creating unprecedented challenges. Using the qualitative research method, this study will describe, explain and discuss to clarify the research question: What is Africa’s fighting against COVID-19 with focus on Sub-Saharan region? What are the impacts of COVID-19 on the region and its prospects for recovery? The results show that, unlike previous outbreaks, during the COVID-19 pandemic Africa played an important role in gathering scientific knowledge that helped shape the global response. Hundreds of scientists have been working continuously to sequence strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Even in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, African States reacted quickly and coordinatedly, so that the negative health impacts were minimised, beyond all previous forecasts. These experiences will certainly benefit the world – as demonstrated by South African scientists who were the first to discover the Omicron variant in November 2021. However, these efforts can be phased out due to the lack of vaccines, outdated health systems, and the effects of the pandemic on the economy. It can be the most severe barrier in Africa’s recovery path. so that the negative health impacts were minimised

The First Quarantined Settlements in Bulgaria

Author(s): Yelis Erolova,Ilina Nacheva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

Can we call the COVID-19 pandemic a ‘crisis’? The first cases of coronavirus infections were announced in Bulgaria in the spring of 2020. Here, as in many other countries, various measures were introduced to prevent the spread of the disease. At the same time, the public received contradictory messages from politicians and medical experts, which led to confusion and uneven levels of risk awareness in Bulgarian society. Our paper is focused on the country’s first quarantined settlements: the town of Bansko (a mountain winter resort) and the village of Panicherevo, Gurkovo region. We aim to explore the perceptions, reactions and coping strategies of the local communities with regard to the pandemic and in particular to the lockdown. The specificities of the two models of interpretation and management of the situation are outlined and compared with the definition of ‘crisis’. Examples of effective coping mechanisms related to the two cases are described. The methodology includes qualitative research methods – field study with interviews, focus group discussions and observation of the behaviour of local communities (conducted in 2021 under conditions of an ongoing national state of emergency), and analysis of official documents and media publications.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Death Rite of Kosovo Albanians

Author(s): Vlorë Fetaj-Berisha,Angelina Hamza-Hasanaj / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

Death as part of the human life cycle has been in focus since the existence of mankind. The rite of death takes an important place in Albanian culture. Many rituals are performed during the rite of death, based on various magical beliefs and acts. This rite has changed as a consequence of different social, cultural and historical factors. Another factor that has certainly influenced the practice of rituals in the rite of death is the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, families have been obliged to abide by all the rules set by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kosovo. In this paper, we will deal with several cases of death during the COVID-19 pandemic. In short, we will address (explore) the actions and experiences of family members after the loss of their loved ones. By analysing these cases, we will try to find out how the rules established during the pandemic have affected the practice of rituals, both religious and traditional. How burials took place? By whom? What are the ways family members have used to say their last goodbyes to their loved ones?

Liczba ludności żydowskiej w wykazie statystycznym województwa lubelskiego z 1819 r.

Author(s): Paweł Sygowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2011

Dane statystyczne dotyczące ludności żydowskiej w Polsce są istotnym elementem badania ich historii na tym terenie. Lata 1800-1825 to czas zanikania kahałów (m.in. Kalinowszczyzna, Nowy Kazimierz, Zbyczyn, Włostowo) na terenie województwa lubelskiego w wyniku ruchów demograficznych i zmiany przepisów administracyjnych. W tym samym czasie powstawały nowe gminy (m.in. w Puławach, Wąwolicy, Kamionce, Michowie). Nieopublikowany dotąd materiał z 1819 r., będący własnością Archiwum Państwowego w Lublinie, jest istotnym uzupełnieniem aktualnej wiedzy o dynamice demograficznej społeczności żydowskiej ówczesnej Lubelszczyzny.

Cutume maritale la diferite subgrupuri de rromi. Unitate în diversitate

Author(s): Delia GRIGORE / Language(s): English,Romanian,Romany Issue: 38/2024

The fruit of the author’s ethnographic research, carried out between 1997 and 2001, in order to obtain the doctorate in ethnography-ethnology, the present work is a part, still unpublished and revised, of the doctoral thesis “Rromanipen – Family as an Identity value. Customs from the Family Cycle in the Roma Traditional Culture”. Beyond the common cultural model and the similar customary stem, different Roma subgroups have specific approaches to marriage rituals, depending on their own priorities of the symbolizing language. The research presents and interprets various cultural practices from the customary area of marriage in Roma communities from different geographical areas of Romania, the studied subgroups being Coppersmiths, Bear-Tamers, Hungarian Roma, Tinsmiths, Roma from Tismana, Horses-Sellers, Turkish Roma and more.The research demonstrates the cultural unity of the Roma ethnic identity, its foundations beingcommon to all subgroups. Overcoming the differences in ritual practice found at different Romasubgroups, some of which disappeared or being on the verge of extinction, the essential elementsrelated to the purity of the bride at marriage and the absolute need for harmony, balance and durability of marriage are preserved at the level of all Roma communities, so that the basic values related to family and marriage remain intact.

Možnosti merania vitality lokálnych spoločenstiev pomocou obydlí

Author(s): Jaroslav Hanko / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2024

This article approaches the concept of the “vitality of local com-munities” and the possibilities of its measurement. It describes the efforts of researchers to define vitality at the level of regions, cities, or even neighborhoods. With the advent of new technologies, we are experiencing an increase in possibilities and tools to visualize vitality in the form of maps or interactive databases. We are witness to numerous projects that explore the vitality of communities in the USA and Canada, but this approach has penetrated the rest of the world only to a lesser extent and in a significantly altered form. The article notes a selected parameter – the dwellings that people build,adapt, or abandon. Dwellings are a well-researched feature from various anthropological perspectives even historically. Thanks to this, it is possibleto quantify the level of vitality of cities through houses. We have much datafrom field research in a specific location in South-Central Slovakia. With the help of said data, it will be possible to create a locally adapted tool formeasuring the vitality of the local community. It can be used as an indicator of the quality of life in terms of local policy-making, urban planning, or development forecasting. Therefore, it can be an important tool in the study of depopulating regions.

ETHNOLOGICAL WORKING TOOLS-THE LETTER

Author(s): Maria-Aura Lățea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

In folklore, a number of working tools are used, which are of significant value to folklore research, having multiple roles. Through this article, we want to make a classification of the most important work tools. Among them are the letters. Used as a working tool, the letter is a valuable indicator of the social and historical context in which important cultural figures worked. Their study allows researchers to better understand the social dynamics, beliefs, and values that define cultural identity.

ROBERT ELSIE, ALBANSKA PLEMENA: POVIJEST, DRUŠTVO I KULTURA

Author(s): Amir Džinić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 19/2024

Review of: Robert Elsie, Albanska plemena: povijest, društvo i kultura. Društvo albanskih nakladnika – DEA, Sisak, 2022.

Sacrul și profanul în modernitatea occidentală. Ocultism, vrăjitorie și mode culturale

Author(s): Dragoș Dragoman / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 4/2024

The survival of traditional religious and cultural elements, even in the most degraded forms, tells the story of their capacity to adapt to modern cultural contexts. Moreover, it unravels the ongoing quest for a sense of being in our modern world. On the one hand, the symbolic forms that populated the universe of the tradition still survive, although their form of manifestation are today hardly recognizable. This is the outcome of an enormous process of acculturation, jointly put in place by the Roman Catholic Church and the modern bureaucratic state. Breaking down both religious superstition and the opposition to political centralization managed to offer a new image of the world, that of the absolute sovereign in Heaven and on earth. The joint collapse of the religious faith and of the supreme monarch left the room for a desecrated, hostile and absurd universe, with no sense for living. That is why new tendencies gained ground especially among young Westerners. The current interest for the occult, magic, witchcraft, astrology, Zen, and other cultural fashions is a sign for their need for a new authentic sense of being.

Demografski razvoj i kulturno-lingvistički identitet Bunjevaca u Srbiji

Author(s): Nada M. Raduški / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 27/2024

The paper presents the demographic dynamics of the Bunjevci in Serbia from 1991 to 2022, an ethnolinguistic research on their language as one of the most important components of national identity, cultural development, specific customs and traditions of this ethnic minority. The history of the Bunjevci people is characterised by the two-century effort of the Hungarian, Croatian, occasionally Serbian and, in the 20th century, Yugoslav national ideologies, to appropriate and modify the Bunjevci ethnic identity in the region of Bačka, but also by the persistent commitment of the members of this minority to preserve and develop their linguistic identity. Disagreements among ethnologists and linguists regarding the question of whether it is a minority language or a separate speech within the Croatian or Serbian languages became especially topical after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, with additional polemics about the standardisation of their ‘ikavica’ and its introduction into the official use in the city of Subotica. And, finally, a special characteristic of the Bunjevci identity are their culture, although never fully developed and exposed, and very specific and recognisable traditional customs, although insufficiently preserved in their original form. When, in 1991, in the Republic of Serbia the Bunjevci first got the opportunity to declare themselves in the population census and be registered as a separate ethnic community and when the National Council of the Bunjevci Ethnic Minority in was established in 2003, as well as other institutions and organisations in the field of culture, politics, and information (and especially with the standardisation of ‘ikavica’ and the introduction of the their language into public use, primarily in education), the Bunjevci finally awaited better socio-political conditions. For preserving their identity. Those members of the Bunjevci who consider themselves an autochthonous people in Bačka, after a century and a half of assimilation and efforts of other peoples to ethnically assimilate them, have accepted Serbia as their country in which they have the opportunity to revitalise and further develop their linguistic and cultural uniqueness and potential.

Hana Younis, Žene u sudskim spisima 1878–1914. Odbjegle, preljubnice, rentijerke, zemljovlasnice

Author(s): Alen Nuhanović / Language(s): Bosnian,English Issue: 52/2023

Review of: Hana Younis, Žene u sudskim spisima 1878–1914. Odbjegle, preljubnice, rentijerke, zemljovlasnice (Women in court records 1878–1914. Runaways, adulteresses, rentiers, landowners). Sarajevo: University of Sarajevo – Institute for History, 2023, 338 pgs.

Стефана Йорова. Самодивата в българския фолклор

Author(s): Vihra Baeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 49/2024

Elementy starożytnych koncepcji filozoficznych tianming i tianxia w przywództwie politycznym komunistycznych Chin

Author(s): Adam Pawełczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 36/37/2023

Political and philosophical concepts of tianming and tianxia from around the 11th century B.C. were the most important elements of legitimizing political power in China. Tianming (‘the mandate of heaven’) assumed that the imperial authority had the permission of heaven to exercise power, while tianxia (‘everything under heaven’) meant the area over which this authority was to extend. Despite regime changes – from the empire, through democracy and dictatorships, to modern socialism – this traditional concepts are still an important value for Chinese society. Therefore, the aim of the article is to examine how the current communist authorities of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) use this concepts to exercise political leadership and legitimize it. Based on a historical analysis and a study of individual cases of the actions of the contemporary Chinese authorities, the author wants to prove that both concepts are still an important aspect of exercising power in China.