Rysowanie słów. Praktyki pisania wśród Indian E’ñepá (Amazonia wenezuelska)

Author(s): Tarzycjusz Buliński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2015

Buliński’s anthropological interpretation of literacy practices among the E’ñepá in Venezuelan Amazonia consists of four parts. First, he describes the ethnography of literacy practices among this regional ethnic group; second, he summarizes scholarly approaches dealing with writing among the indigenous people of Amazonia; third, he discusses autochtonous terminology used to describe writing, and fourth, he presents the image of writing as a practice that serves to communicate with other kinds of being.

Antyliterackie, a więc literacke. O Nikiformach Edwarda Redlińskiego

Author(s): Marta Bukowiecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2015

This article examines Edward Redliński’s prose volume Nikiforms, a literary work that consists of authentic non-literary texts written by citizens of the People’s Republic of Poland. Redliński described his experiment as a collection of literary ready-mades. Published in 1982, the book was misunderstood by critics of the time, who tried to judge it through traditional criteria of literariness. Redliński’s Nikiforms, however, call for a different interpretative approach – one that discerns literariness not within each single text but in the encounter of different texts, between them, in the idea behind their composition. The non-literary forms included in the collection perform a metaliterary function because collectively they pose questions about boundaries, roles, the form and building material of literariness. Redliński’s book is part of a distinct contemporary trend in Polish literature to highlight non-literary phenomena.

Книги 2013 г.

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2013

Selected bibliography in the field of Bulgarian Studies published in the current year

Периодика 2012–2013 г.

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 26/2013

Content of the main Bulgarian scientific journals for the current year in linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography, archeology and art studies.

Научни форуми

Author(s): Nikola Kazanski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 26/2013

Русия срещу антихриста: страховете на православната общественост и позицията на Църквата

Author(s): Victor Shnirelman / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

History shows that in times of deep social crises there is a considerable growth of eschatological sentiments. At the end of the twentieth century Russia encounters revolutionary political, economic and cultural changes, some of them being related to a religious renaissance. The discrediting and collapse of the former communist ideology created a vacuum which was quickly filled with a variety of ideas, including the revival of some pre-revolutionary myths. The return of religion leads not only to increase of the number of believers but also to the emergence of Orthodox monarchist organizations in which faith is combined with the dream of restoration of the kingship. Prophecies based on images from “Apocalypse” are quite popular in these circles. The article analyzes the content of the prophecies, the characteristics of their publication and dissemination, the nature of the activists dealing with these matters as well as the religious political movements and their impact on the believers. The author discusses the question about the different meaning of these prophecies, about the radical right-wing movements, and the ezoterists and konspirologists who have their own interpretations and use them differently. In addition, the question about the relationship between religion and politics in the modern era is also raised.

Локализиране на балканската прародина на българите туканци от Бесарабия и Таврия според писмени и фолклорни източници

Author(s): Alexander I. Ganchev,Vladimir Milchev,Alexander A. Prigarin / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

The problem of the origin of tukantsi, the first Bulgarian settlers in Budjak remains already for a long time a controversial question. The article, which is the result of a complex research of the authors, demonstrates that the inhabitants of the valleys between Stara planina and Sredna Gora called Karadza Dag (Sarnena Sredna Gora) are the earliest Bulgarian immigrants in Southern Bessarabia in modern times. The article is based on different sources: acts and statistics from the archival collections of modern Ukraine and Moldova and materials from field studies accomplished by the authors in the period between 2012 and 2014, in Budjak and Sredna gora (photo documents, oral and written narratives). The updated statistical documents, together with the narratives, the folklore, graphic and other types of sources not only allow to confirm the hypothesis of the South Bulgarian origin of the tukantsi from the region of Karadza Dag, but also reflect the direct continuity, the direct genetic link between Budjak and the Balkans during the nineteenth century.

От българи към европейци: бележки върху интеркултурализма, локализма и идентичността

Author(s): Alberto Alonso-Ponga García,María Jesús Pena Castro / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This paper will analyse the identity construction processes of the migrants’ communities in the context of the European Union. Based on the fieldwork developed with the Bulgarian community settled in Castile and Leon (Spain), this article will explore the strategies of identity management in order to succeed in the integration process. First of all, we will take into account the local strategies of community development consisted on the promotion of associations. Secondly, we will analyse the way the local population reassume the global discourses of Interculturalism promoted by the European Union. Thirdly, we will consider how far these facts affect the migrants’ communities. Bulgarian community developed a wise identity management strategy that enables them to be integrated in the local society without losing their own traditions.

Владимир Демирев. Местно знание и сакрална топография в Сливенско. Сливен: ИК „Жажда”, 2014

Author(s): Ivan Marazov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

Book Review

Марек Якубек. Войводово, едно непознато чешко село в България. София: Парадигма, 2013

Author(s): Todor Bozhinov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

Book Review

От неуспешна мобилизация на младежта към патерналистично визуализиране на Путин: неравният път на младежкото движение „Наши“

Author(s): Jussi Lassila / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2016

This article examines the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi (2005-2012) – the hitherto largest youth organization since the Soviet-era Komsomol – in order to elucidate the background of changes that have appeared in the Kremlin’s symbolic politics since 2012. Nashi’s disappearance from Russia’s political scene by the summer of 2012 can be seen as an elementary part of the crisis that the Kremlin faced with the large-scale protests that shook Russia’s major cities in the winter of 2011/2012. However, Nashi’s negative image did not fi rst appear in Russia with Putin’s decreased popularity and the beginning of the large-scale protests; rather, such a negative image has been manifested throughout the existence of pro-Kremlin youth formations supporting Putin’s political leadership, before and after Nashi. Rather than demonstrating a well-planned and calculated insistence on patriotism and moral conservatism, the history of the whole pro-Putin youth movement indicates that it has continuously struggled with its public image ever since its idol, President Putin, appeared in Russia’s political arena. By focusing on Nashi’s online writings as its major voice, the author exemplifi es the basic and unsolved dilemma of governmental mobilization – the tension between didactics and stimulation – that is crystallized in the movement’s political communication. After that, in a short excursion on Nashi’s successor, the project Set’, the author’s aim is to pinpoint how the ‘exit’ from Nashi’s communicative dilemma, in line with the Kremlin’ssymbolic politics since 2012, appears as a proliferation of Putin’s personality.

Евромайдан и Революцията на достойнството: студентски протест, катализиращ политическа промяна

Author(s): Tom Junes / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2016

This article explores the role of students as actors during protests in Ukraine. It focuses primarily on the 2013 -2014 Euromaidan revolution, but uses a broader historical context and comparison with the so-called Revolution on Granite in 1990 and the Orange Revolution in 2004. While it demonstrates that students were on the forefront of all three major upheavals, the article underlines the key differences between the three ‘revolutions’. The Euromaidan protests and the ensuing Revolution of Dignity are chronicled and subsequently analysed from the point of view of students’ actions. The article examines why students were not able to leave their mark, even though they had in fact spearheaded the protests. It points to the absence of a clear set of demands, the ambiguous role played by new social media, and the lack of organizational structures within the student movement. More so, the article concludes that though there were certainly similarities between Euromaidan and the other protest movements in the so-called global protest wave since 2008, it was foremost the experience of previous maidans that framed the protests in Ukraine.

Запрещенные песни (Песни в записи Л. В. Домановского из коллекций фольклорного собрания РО ИРЛИ)

Author(s): Natalia Komelina / Language(s): Russian Issue: 14/2016

The article deals with an episode in the history of Soviet folkloristic, namely a prohibition of certain genres of folklore. In 1920s there occurs a boom of recording modern urban folklore, but in 1930s the recorded texts were destroyed or concealed in restricted folklore storage of large research institutions. Based on archival materials the article draws conclusions of the reasons for recording unfavorable (criminal, heroic, political) texts and the reasons for placing them into the restricted storage (“spetskhran”). The article is appended with published documents stored in Petersburg archives.

“Working Class Gone to Heaven””: From Working Class to Middle Class and Back

Author(s): Tea Škokić,Sanja Potkonjak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This paper problematizes the relationship between the working and middle classes in socialism, which was characterized by consumer culture and state of welfare. It also tackles the extinct middle class in the post-socialist context of the economic crisis and economically defined but politically void "new" working class. The economic realization of the Yugoslav socialist model - a hybrid of planned and market economies - combined the capitalist idea of the state of welfare with the communist execution of social rights. The socialist consumer culture, "searching for welfare", established a homogenous middle class as a proof of its own social success, leaving the "working class" to be conveniently invoked only in ideological manifests of the governing nomenclature. The discussion about the capitalist restoration of the post- socialist period gives precedence to the lament over the extinction of the middle class and its high standard of living over the issues of class relations. On the other hand, the majority of the 286,075 unemployed and 15,230 of the employed who did not receive their salaries in the first quarter of 2015 are low-skill or vocational work- ers, i.e., the working class. This new relationship between the working and middle classes problematizes the socialist inheritance of transformation of the working class into the middle class, the recent phenomenon of economically defined working class without a political meaning, the post-socialist class inequality between the employed and the unemployed, and the emancipation of the worker as "the scorned subject" and his mobilization without being necessarily included in the middle-class political activism for the "general good".

Tyrania oka, pokora ucha? O potrzebie sound studies

Author(s): Dariusz Brzostek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

This article presents contemporary sound studies by outlining its field of interest as well as its main problems and concepts. Brzostek contextualizes sound studies with discussions on media and collective memory, the dialectics of voice and power, as well as the reproduction of sound and cultural identity. This context also includes thematically and methodologically diverse studies on the media coverage of acoustic experience through electronic media (from ‘archaeological’ forms such as the Walkman or the Discman to such ‘futuristic’ forms as mobile phones and iPods), as well as studies on these media’s effect on the transformation of the acoustic environment. Brzostek presents works inspired by R. Murray Shafer’s acoustic ecology, which touch on sound in the public sphere, urban soundscapes marked by noise pollution, as well as the acoustic environments of lo-fi and hi-fi.

Coffitivity: dźwięk, praca kreatywna i posthegemonia

Author(s): Artur Szarecki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Sound presents a unique subject of study, functioning in culture not only as a conveyor of meaning, but also as a sensory and affective intensity. To perform a cultural analysis of acoustic phenomena, therefore, we must take into account both the semiotic/interpretive dimension of soundedness and its bodily/material dimension. Szarecki illustrates his approach with the example of the internet site Coffitivity, which supports creative thinking by reproducing the ambient noise of a cafe. Szarecki draws on the theoretical tools of sound studies and of posthegemonic political theory to show how by arranging and controlling the sound environment Coffitivity broadens the possibilities – in time and space – of performing creative work, thus turning such work into an omnipresent component of everyday life.

Музикантът (закир/Имам Джафер) в културата на алевиите и бекташите от Кърджалийско

Author(s): Rumyana Margaritova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

The paper concentrates itself on the figure of the Alevi-Bektashi musician (zakir, Imam Jafer) in Kardzhali region, who has at the same time religious, social, and artistic roles in society. Because of his characteristics, this figure could be categorized as an epic musician. His non-professional, but specialized activity is presented through the insiders‘ views on the specifics, educational manners, musicians’ quality assessment and their differences in performing styles. A young Bektashi musician from the region, whose biography and performing manner are marked by the complex interaction between his great talent and strong religious feelings is also portrayed in the paper. The interaction itself determines his complicated path as a musician and as a member of a community of heterodox Muslims.

Песни и граници във всекидневната култура на гагаузите от Източна Тракия в началото на ХХ век

Author(s): Galin Georgiev,Dinka Angelova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

The article is dedicated to the folklore singing of the Gagauzs in Eastern Thrace. The authors analyze primarily archival and published material from the early twentieth century war period and the following displacement of large groups of populations, which raises the question of their cultural traditions and specifics. The songs are used as a source allowing the outlining of a number of specific characteristics of the ethnic and cultural identity of the Gagauzs. Special attention is paid to bilingualism in some records and its ritual functions. The article is reminiscent of Adela Peeva’s film “ Whose is this song?”. Undoubtedly it will again show the development and the fate of the spiritual heritage from the Ottoman period bequeathed to the later national societies and countries in the Balkans, where the heritage (which was previously common) is “assigne” and began to be felt “our” and “native” or, in other cases, is strongly rejected. The aim of the article, however, is to show that this initial space was not always so common and open and that the relationships in it (respectively in the culture in general) depended on local developments, different situations and participants. At least in terms of knowledge about the various cultures and traditions on the Balkans, together with the question “Whose is this song?” goes the question “Whose song is the best?”. That is, except the origin of the songs, which in many cases is common, it is also important to understand it, to know how it is valorized and constantly acknowledged.

Динамика и устойчивост на границата във възприятията на локалните общности (По материали от региона на град Златоград)

Author(s): Yana Berova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

The way in which the phenomenon of border determines the being and the cultural specifics of the population inhabiting the adjacent regions becomes nowadays increasingly the subject of scholarly research. The region close to the southern Bulgarian border around the town of Zlatograd provides for a field study of how local people interpret the border and how it affects their lifestyle over the years. The historical and cultural memory of the border population clearly reveals the influence of the dynamics or stability of the border lane as depending on the current political reality. From a freely crossable border in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire, it turned into part of the “Iron Curtain”. Today it is actaully an ambivalent reality and a “frontier in infinite globalization”. The turbulent history of Zlatograd Region unquestionably plays a key role in the formation of the local “frontier” identity of the nearby population. The combination, from the one hand, of the dual nature of the border as both separating and defining, and, on the other hand, the process of globalization and ethnocentrism turns the fieldwork in a very specific experience which needs particular addressing.

Ружа Нейкова. Етнокултурни паралели по пътя на старите българи в Балкано-Кавказкото пространство и Поволжието. София: Издателство на БАН „Проф. Марин Дринов“/ Фондация „Тангра ТанНакРа“, 2015

Author(s): Veselka Toncheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

Book Review