Гръцката политемигрантска общност в България (1956–1983) и политиките по опазване на културното наследство

Author(s): Daniel Fokas / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

The article is dedicated to the Greek refugees, political emigrants, who arrived in Bulgaria in the middle of the twentieth century because of the Civil War in Greece (1946–1949). The author studies the reasons for the formation of the new community of people of Greek origin and the organizational structures that this community established with the cooperation of the Bulgarian state. Attention is drawn to the characteristic features and peculiarities of the community and the ways in which they influence its development. The focus is on the approaches for preservation and transmission of cultural tradition. The study also dwells on the development of specific set of regulations that allowed the development of amateur art among the Greeks in Bulgaria by the foundation of an educational structure and a network of clubs in the country. These activities are presented in relation with the cultural policies of the Bulgarian socialist state.

Две гледни точки към историята и историците по време на преход

Author(s): Harald Hepner,Roumiana Preshlenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

„Chleba naszego potrzebnego”?

Author(s): Weronika Plutecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

Ojcze nasz to najważniejsza modlitwa chrześcijan. Jako starożytny tekst biblijny od wieków poddawana jest badaniom oraz tłumaczona na nowo wraz z rozwojem języków docelowych. Ze względu na powszechność tej modlitwy takie zmiany nie zachodzą niepostrzeżenie i budzą sprzeciw członków różnych wspólnot wyznaniowych. Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia specyfikę przekładu tekstów liturgicznych na podstawie analizy tłumaczeń na język szwedzki. Pokazana zostaje historia szwedzkiego tłumaczenia modlitwy Ojcze nasz, aż do opublikowania kontrowersyjnej wersji ekumenicznej w 1996 r. Przeanalizowane zostają wybrane różnice w „starym” i „nowym” tłumaczeniu oraz najważniejsze postulaty w debacie nad przyjęciem wersji ekumenicznej. Artykuł zamyka przytoczenie obecnego stanowiska kościoła katolickiego i protestanckiego wobec nowej wersji oraz dyskusja nad nowoczesnością i tradycją we współczesnych tłumaczeniach Modlitwy Pańskiej. Studium pozwala zobaczyć, w jaki sposób zmiany w obszarze przekładu mogą spowodować poruszenie społeczne i konflikt, jeśli nie są dostosowane do aktualnych przekonań reprezentantów danej kultury. // "Our Father" is the most essential Christian prayer. Being an ancient biblical text it has been translated and interpreted through the ages as target languages were developing. Due to the universality of this prayer, such changes do not occur unnoticed and raise opposition of members of various religious communities. This article presents the specifics of the translation of liturgical texts based on the analysis of translations into Swedish. The history of the Swedish translation of the "Our Father" prayer is covered up to the publication of the controversial ecumenic version in 1996. Selected differences in the "old" and "new" translations and the most important postulates in the debate on the adoption of the ecumenical version are analyzed. The article ends with a description of the current position of the Catholic and Protestant Church regarding the new version and a discussion on modernity and tradition in translations of the Lord's Prayer. The study shows how changes in the area of translation can cause social uproar and conflict, if they are not adapted to the current convictions of representatives of a given culture.

Od redakcji

Author(s): Weronika Kostecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

Фалшивите новини и фолклористичният подход към тях

Author(s): Angelina Ilieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2020

The article develops and grounds the necessity of a folkloristic perspective towards the phenomenon of fake news, which has already been suggested in some publications by American folklorists. It discusses the milieu of fake news’ distribution with a focus on the cultural characteristics of Web 2.0 and the cultural dynamics which take place in it. As a possible theoretical frame of analysis, the author proposes the conceptual intersection of two scholarly disciplines: media studies and folkloristics. She presents the various genre forms that are usually defines as “fake news”; the possible transformations and hybrids; and the main active subjects of their creation. Along with that, attention is paid to the sociocultural processes, the specificities of distribution and the patterns of reception and reaction. The discussion is supported by examples from the Bulgarian internet space.

Интернет мемета и комуникация онлайн

Author(s): Dafina Genova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2020

The paper focuses on the genre and structural features of internet memes as a means of communication online – a topic unexplored so far by Bulgarian scholars. A critical overview of the scholarly publications in English on the subject is carried out and a discourse analytic approach is employed on a number of selected internet memes from English and Bulgarian internet sites in Google and the social media. “Internet meme” is regarded as a narrower concept than the concept of “meme” as understood in memetics, the evolutionary theory of culture. The analysis covers only those internet memes in which image and text interact. Internet memes are not viewed as isolated artefacts, but as a group or system: otherwise, they are perceived as chaotic and arbitrary. Internet memes are preceded by viral artefacts – a photograph, a text, an advertisement, a song, a video, a film trailer, etc., which internet users share and disseminate without change, whereas alteration and transformation are emblematic for internet memes. Necessary parallels are drawn between humour in internet memes and humour in jokes as well as parallels between intertextuality and multimodal communication in internet memes and those in political cartoons and print advertisements.

Църквата „Св. Антоний“ в Мелник – чудотворни обекти и ритуални практики

Author(s): Yana Gergova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

Anthony is a highly honoured saint, considered to be a patron and a defender of various diseases. The church “St. Anthony” in the smallest town in Bulgaria – Melnik – is known exactly for its healing aspect and can be identified as one of the most sacred cult sites in the surroundings, connected with numerous stories of miracles, healings, interesting and rare ritual practices. The modern state and functioning of the church is a complex of different components that build the role and importance of the cult site as a very attractive place for pilgrimage and healing. Besides of the cult of the patron itself, these components include also various miraculous objects, iconographic features, the location of the church, and characteristic stories of miracles, media, and personal representations and interpretations. In this article, I will examine the cult of St. Anthony in the city and church dedicated to him through the prism of two basic elements – miraculous objects or other ones in the church area and beliefs and ritual practices related to them. It is precisely the connection between the different components of the cult site, combining diverse objects of pilgrimage, honoring, and usage, that creates a truly unique context in which this church, the only one in the country until recently dedicated to the St. Anthony, exists. The analysis is based on observations from conducted fieldwork studies in Melnik and bibliographic and online surveys in the period 2016–2018.

Католическият празник Тяло и Кръв Христови в българско и полско село (Съпоставително изследване)

Author(s): Natalia Rashkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

In the thirteenth century, in the calendar of the Catholic Church, a special day is established to honour the Holy Communion – the bread and the wine, turned into the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast is celebrated everywhere in the Catholic world with a solemn liturgy and a procession. The article presents in a comparative perspective fieldwork observations and documentation of this Catholic feast in two villages in Bulgaria and in Poland: the village of Oresh, Svishtov region (in 1995 and 2015) and the village of Złaków Kościelny, Łowicz district, Łódź voivodeship (in 2016). The author outlines the specific characteristics in performing of the feast in the two communities (Corpus Christi in Oresh; Boże Ciało in Złaków Kościelny), conditioned by differences in the confessional and cultural history as well as by different conditions of practicing the religious traditions.The comparative study shows the significance of local identity, expressed through elements of inherited traditional culture. For the Bulgarian Catholics, cultural identity is affirmed mainly through their religious affiliation, which is different from the official Orthodox religion, predominant in the country. The revival of the festive Catholic processions in modern times is an expression of the desire for a sustainable connection with the restored family and community confessional tradition. An essential expression of the local specificity in the religious festivity of the inhabitants of the Polish village is the adherence to traditional elements of the folklore culture, which have cultivated the local religious tradition.

Чудотворни мироточиви икони и съвременни поклоннически практики сред православните християни – по примери от Тереспол (Полша) и Шумен (България)

Author(s): Daniel Fokas / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

A widely popular concept among Orthodox Christians is that religious images as intermediaries between man and God (the Mother of God or the saints) can give material signs of the divine presence on Earth and often do so. First comes the veneration of miracle-working icons, which are connected to narratives of miraculous events and considered the most helpful mediators for prayers addressed to God, the Virgin or a saint. Another popular notion is that icons can miraculously renew themselves or exude holy oil or blood, and give out fragrance. Two cases of largescale myrrh-gushing from the recent years offer different examples of the emergence, development and interpretation of such miraculous events in Orthodox shrines. The first case is from the town of Terespol in Eastern Poland (since 2010) and the second one comes from the town of Shumen in Northern Bulgaria (from 2017). In the Polish case, the myrrh-streaming continued for a long period of time, encompassed other icons as well and was accompanied by stories of miraculous healings. It was approved by the Church as a manifestation of divine nature. All these occurrences gave an impetus to the development of the veneration of the myrrh-streaming icon of the Theotokos Gorgoepēkoos (She Who Is Quick to Hear) and stimulated pilgrimage to the town.In the case from Bulgaria there was also large-scale myrrh-streaming, but it happened only once, at the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (15 August). The event was accepted just as a divine sign and was interpreted mainly as given for the sake of penance and strengthening of faith. The fact that no myrrh was gathered and there were no consequent miracles made the Church take a more passive position and the local bishop just unofficially referred to the general Orthodox idea of myrrh-streaming icons.Events of this kind, which were traditionally taken for miracles, often provoke scepticism and doubts of falsification in modern times. For that reason, they are examined by committees appointed by the Church or inspected by bishops, and even submitted to chemical tests. All these processes emphasize the icons’ multifaceted presence in local communities and in society in general.

Полски духовни песни в българската източнокатолическа музика

Author(s): Stefka Venkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

Polish popular religious songs are part of the repertoires of both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches in Bulgaria. These songs were introduced in the paraliturgical practice via different ways. One reason was the influence of missionaries from monastic communities from Poland: the friars from the Resurrectionist Congregation, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin и the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. On the other hand, the personal influence of St. Pope John Paul II also contributed to the process. During his pontificate, some Polish popular religious songs that he supposedly liked gained popularity in Bulgaria. The presence of Polish popular religious songs in the Eastern Catholic repertoire, accepted and assimilated in the local tradition, is an example of various interactions: between East and West; between Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic music; and between two Slavic cultures, the Polish and the Bulgarian one. The popular religious songs are a brilliant example of cultural transfer, implemented on different levels: religious, confessional, national and universal. The focus of the paper is on three songs, which are a part of the Eastern Catholic song repertoire in modern times.

За музикалнофолклорното творчество и работата на някои културни институции по време на пандемия

Author(s): Radka Bratanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The article regards and analyses examples from the new musical creation, inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those examples are published on the global network and contain some intrinsic features of folklore. The most important among these features is the reaction to events or occurrences from the current life of society. Object of analysis is also the activity of certain cultural institutions, such as community centres (chitalishta), schools, dancing or hobby clubs, retired people’s clubs and schools for folklore singing and folklore instruments, during the pandemic. The author also features some cases of postponing or cancellation of festival activities on local level and the performance of local non-professional artists in such shows.

Историческа памет и образи – различният подход към миналото

Author(s): Valery Stoyanow / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Book review

Интерпретация на сънищата от антропологична перспектива (Сънуването в различните култури)

Author(s): Vihra Barova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article presents the development of the theoretical interest in dreaming as an object of anthropological analysis. The focus of attention is on dreams per se, along with dream interpretation, narration of dreams, and perceptions related to dreams in different cultures. Beyond their psychoanalytic interpretation, dreams are examined as a specific type of ethnographic material and a means of communication within the community and between the researcher and the researched. Dreaming is a universal human characteristic, but at the same time, the importance attached to dreams in different societies varies significantly. Based on the ethnographic examples presented in the article, the author have sought to answer the question what factors make dreams in some cultures to be considered an important source of information and even a field of action, while in others they are perceived as imaginary fragments with no relation to everyday life.

Възможни подходи при изследването на бедствията и кризите. Уводни думи.

Author(s): Stamen Kanev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

„Етнография на бедствията“ – съвременният научен прочит

Author(s): Petya Bankova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa in the Context of a Local Community

Author(s): Milena Lyubenova,Stela Nenova / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

The article describes the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa in through the eyes of a particular local community, that of the village of Bistritsa, Sofia region. The study is based on fieldwork conducted in January 2015 at the local community centre. The main method of investigation is the semi-structured interview, which offers local people the opportunity to select the most significant moments in their narratives and to express their own understanding and interpretations of folklore heritage. The authors pay particular attention to the processes of transformation of local tradition into cultural heritage, which became especially visible after the 1930s and the 1940s. The text outlines the processes and means by which the local community presents its culture and understands the necessity of its contemporary safeguarding as a living practice. The influence of local and national cultural institutions is duly marked, including the influence of the local community centre and the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa. Special attention is also given to these institutions’ contributions towards the conceptualization of different elements of the respondents’ local culture and the ways in which local culture becomes a resource for the construction of different networks of identities: cultural, local and national. The text also highlights the basic accents and interpretations in the narratives of the respondents who discuss the National Festival; the Festival’s importance as a place for the representation of their traditional village cultural elements; its role in their preservation; the character of the Festival stage and changes to it through the years; as well as the personal experiences of the community members during the Festival.

Who Makes the Blonde Jokes?

Author(s): Stanoy Stanoev / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

The dumb blonde figure is very popular in the repertoire of international jokes and is characterized by two main qualities: stupidity and promiscuity. These features are also shared by jokes which have circulated in Bulgaria since the 1990s. Researchers view dumb blonde jokes as a consequence of the increasing presence of women in professional and public life in positions which were traditionally considered ‘male’ spheres. The jokes are a reaction to radical transformations in social values and also a specific response to problematized male identities. Over the course of time, the image of the blonde has undergone certain changes as the sexual innuendo has faded and stupidity has become the main object of ridicule. In this way, the blonde has become a version of the classical personage of the fool whose role has always been substantial in the processes of self-identification, whether they be national, social, ethnic, local, or regional in character. In this respect, the blonde represented in such jokes has the potential to become a universal archetype, since her image combines two major identity markers: gender, and more generally, cultural affiliation.

Tsvetelina Dimitrova. Popular History between the Oral and the Written. Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Publishing House of BAS, 2013. 218 p.[Цветелина Димитрова. „Народната история“ между устност и писменост. София: Издателство на БАН „Проф. Марин Дринов]

Author(s): Petko Hristov / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

Book review

Welcome to Cyberia! Notes from the Digital Field. Edited by: Angelina Ilieva, Lina Gergova, Lozanka Peycheva, Svetla Kazalarska. Sofia: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – BAS, 2014. 411 p.

Author(s): Svetla Petkova / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

Book review

Jaroslav Otčenášek and Vihra Baeva (Eds.). Dictionary of Terms of Verbal Folklore. Bulgaria. Prague–Sofia: EI – ASCR and IEFSEM – BAS, 2013. 380 p., with illustrations

Author(s): Stanoy Stanoev / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

Book review