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The article deals with the history of commercial contacts between Northern and Southern Bulgaria (Thrace) from antiquity to the present day, focusing on the trade routes between the towns of Omurtag and Kotel. The geographic location of the Kotel Pass in particular, which linked the two towns across the Balkan Mountains, made it an important trade route as well as a strategic military line of communication.
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The present research report aims at revealing the evolution of one of the most typical Bulgarian head ornaments in the region of Veliko Tarnovo, namely of the so-called “sokai”. This ornament was very popular from the 18th c. to the beginning of the 20th c. Its construction is very complex: it consists of several parts which are linked together with the help of a big kerchief and it has a wooden base (“buka”). Each part has a unique name. The big metal section in the shape of a crown is called “krazhilo”. According to some researchers from the beginning of the 20th c. the “sokai” dated as far back as the mediaeval Bulgarian royal court. In the opinion of this author however they were first produced in the 18thcentury. The decoration is typical of the Orient. Some new elements were added to it in the beginning of the 19th century.
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This article examines the place of the specialty Ethnology in the structure of the History Faculty of the Veliko Tarnovo University “St. Cyril and Methodius”. Traced are the links of ethnology with other disciplines in the Faculty – history, archeology, geography and cultural tourism. The article explored the common research fields among all specialties.
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At this stage of development of the Bulgarian Ethnology, in the absence of funds for well-paid professional PR, everyone should be able to stand before a camera or microphone to “translate” in popular language the results of their work. Because the media prefers to communicate directly with scientists, rather than professional PR’s or people responsible for this activity. Science is assessed on its public importance and this means that we can not afford to look at promoting it as something frivolous or as “haltura”.
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The article considers the stages through which passes specialized archive of IEFEM and the tests that have been subjected its classification system.
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The article considers the question of tradition as a cultural heritage or scientific reconstruction. Asking the question whether our understanding of “tradition” covers the concept of a model of transmission of cultural values, the author assumes that the tradition should be understood as a modern interpretation of our own cultural background!
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The article focuses on the importance of ethnographic fieldworks in the construction of young professionals – ethnographers. These are the memories of students, members of the study circle of Ethnography, touching the magic of this science in the 80s of XX century.
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The article follows the stories of the field’s records relating to the magical cure of various diseases. Central to this is the story of one lady, who is a healer from Staro Stefanovo, Lovech area, and who, in 1987, submitted her experience and wisdom to the author.
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This article presents some of the results from a study of tourist tours to Holy Meteora, Northern Greece, one of the most popular destinations for shortterm tourism in contemporary Bulgaria. The aim of this study is to objectively measure, identify, and characterize those tours having (or declaratively designed as having) some characteristics of pilgrimage or religious tourism as a newly emerging phenomenon in post-socialist Bulgaria in a real context, where real choices made by tourists are observed. The main questions to be explored are: if tourism to holy shrines still remains a “pure” tourist trip; if religious tourism to holy places traces its path to turn into a pilgrimage; what the reasons for the observed processes and who the agents to manage this complex process are
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The article presents the EU as a new, globalization community, whose specificity and organic system is defined by the characteristics that give her cultures of European nations in the process of their further development. The homogenisation process of the EU reveals optimal opportunities for the Bulgarian national community and its culture – to overcome the depersonalization of them today and its negative processes, for their new revival as an organizer of the Bulgarian society and the equal of other European nations and a builder of prosperous Europe.
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The article examines the political and socio-economic history of Kvemo and Zemo Khviti, two villages near the occupation line in Shida Kartli, its population dynamics, ethnic and religious composition, village antiquities, fortifications, material and spiritual monuments, lapidary inscriptions and epitaphs. The meaning and origin of the toponym "Khviti" is also researched, along with Khviti’s relationship with the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. Khviti was the property of the Taktakishvilis’ from ancient times, but apart from them different numbers of serfs here and the lands were owned by Machabelis’, Kherkheulidzes’, Pavlenishvilis’, Tumanishvilis’. The village has been actively appearing in written sources since the 16th century. The population was mainly engaged in agriculture and horticulture. The church of the Virgin Mary is the oldest in the village. According to the inscription, in 1672, Mroveli Episcope Ioane Taktakisdze had built a church on his own lands for himself and his brothers: Ardashel, Philip and Elisbar, to "confess the sins", which had been a “Metoki” of the Virgin St. Mary church of Vredzi. It is noteworthy that the same persons built the chapel of the famous monastery of Tire, north of Khviti, in 1682, with the difference that the older brother Ioane it is not mentioned in the inscription. We have to assume that he is already dead by this time, so “Mroveloba” moves on to his next brother - Philipe.
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Reviews of: Die Ostsee. Berichte und Geschichte aus 2000 Jahren. Koost Klaus-Jürgen Liedtke. Köln: Galiani Berlin, 2018. 650 lk. Kadri Viires. Kaugelt näeb lähemale. Eesti Kunstiakadeemia uurimisreisid soome-ugri rahvaste juurde 1978–2012. [Tallinn:] Argo, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, 2019. 335 lk.
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Review of: Pille Arnek. Eestikeelsed tekstid 16.-19. sajandi Põhja-Eesti hauatähistel. (Tallinna Ülikooli humanitaarteaduste dissertatsioonid 54.) Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2019. 333 lk
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This article is a review of the book “Turkology in Exile: Mefküre Mollova. A Biographical Study”, authored by Zeynep Zafer and Murie Muratova. Mefküre Mollova (1927–2009) was the first Turkish woman and university professor in Bulgaria, who gained international fame with her research in the field of Turkology. She devoted herself to unexplored issues of Turkish dialectology, related to the Turkish dialects in Bulgaria and other linguistic questions. Mefküre Mollova was among the founders of the Turkish Philology at the University of Sofia. She had worked for only about 7 years (1953–1961), when she and her husband were dismissed from their academic positions. Although unemployed and persecuted in communist Bulgaria, Mefküre Mollova continued to publish her work both in the country and abroad. She published her research in four languages – French, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Russian, but mostly in French. Mefküre Mollova was also the first Turkish poet to publish poems in Turkish periodicals and the only woman who managed to publish an independent collection of poems in Turkish in Bulgaria. In addition, she is the first author of several well-written travelogues. Having gained fame and recognition around the world, in her homeland she and her husband Riza Mollov are forgotten and neglected. Their refusal to collaborate with the communist authorities and to falsify academic research stigmatized them for decades and the autors hope that this book will contribute to correcting this injustice.
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The history of the publication Karl Marx - Însemnări despre români epitomizes the importance of interpreting from a transnational perspective the reformulation of national identity-scripts during communism. The context that underpins this editorial project highlights the fact that the identitarian transformation of the communist regime and the dynamics of the so-called historiographical front at the end of the 1950s and during the 1960s are inextricably tied to the evolution of the socialist camp and of Romania’s European re-positioning during the Cold War. Însemnări despre români exemplifies the role of transfers, exchanges, and entanglements between socialist officials and academics, as well as across Europe despite its ideological divide. This case study defies narratives about presumed isolation of Romania and its representatives under the heavy shade of the Iron Curtain. The article shows how transnational histories alter our frameworks for understanding the international dimensions of local state socialism beyond the usual, exclusive focus on the diplomatic history.
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The article is devoted to analyzing arrival circumstances, population, settlement, work conditions, socio-cultural adaptation and particularities of relations with the local community of builders from Bulgaria who migrated to Western Siberia within the framework of government contracts. The sources for the research were unpublished archival materials, data from journals and field trips recorded in the Tyumen region in 2019–2020. The research has revealed that travelling to the USSR in order to get income played an important part in the individual success strategies of Bulgarian youth in the1970s and became quite widespread. Between 1970 – the late 1980s Tyumen region had 7000 Bulgarians living in it with the biggest groups working in Tyumen, Surgut, Nizhnevatovsk, Urai, and Nadim. Several neighbourhoods, working villages and oil extraction facilities in Western Siberia were built by them. Also, both in Tyumen and Surgut there are squares of Soviet-Bulgarian friendship, and in Surgut there is a monument to Georgi Dimitrov. Upon arrival in the USSR, the Bulgarians had a privileged status. The main adaptation difficulties were associated with the local climate and language barrier. The life of Bulgarians and the work of “Glavbolgarstroy” company in Western Siberia laid a strong foundation for economic activity that gave rise to a large inflow of Bulgarian migrants to Russia in the 1990s. As a result, according to all Russian censuses in 2002 and 2010 Tyumen region had the largest community of Bulgarians registered in Russia. Today Bulgarians in Western Siberia are present as third-generation migrants; they play a significant role in the socio-cultural and economic spheres of Tyumen Region. A large number of them maintain emotional bonds with their motherland and keep in touch with their families and close people in Bulgaria.
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The present article analyzes the state of inter-ethnic relations among the intellectuals of the Hungarian Autonomous Region (in the localities of the current Covasna and Harghita counties). In the beginning, data are presented regarding the ethnic and confessional structure of the communities in the reference period. Then the inter-ethnic relations between Romanian and Hungarian intellectuals are analyzed, differentiated into the main socio-professional categories: political leaders, state officials, teachers, doctors, engineers, priests, etc. The article shows the negative aspects of the inter-ethnic relations between the few Romanian intellectuals left in the area and their Hungarian colleagues, but also moments of “normality”. At the same time, the difference between the period 1952–1960, when the districts of Tg. Secuiesc and Sf. Gheorghe belonged to the Hungarian Autonomous Region from 1960 to 1968, when the two districts were part of the Stalin Region and Brașov, respectively.
More...Transnacionální baťůžkáři a lifestyloví migranti v Českém Krumlově
This study presents the innovative results of repeated ethnographic research and brings insight into the contemporary phenomena of lifestyle migration and backpacking. The studied issue is examined on the example of several groups of foreigners in Český Krumlov, Czechia in the period between approximately 1995 and 2015. These groups were located around several hostels. The main focus is placed on the life trajectories and lifestyle preferences of the studied groups, which are illustrated on the stories of particular actors. In conclusion, the transnational backpackers and lifestyle migrants in Krumlov, i.e., on the alleged “new left bank”, were searching for happier and more content lives. Lifestyle migration was perceived as a certain escape from modernity, consumerism, and materialism. In the first decade of the 21st century, the lifestyle of many of the transnational backpackers could be compared to Bauman’s “vagabond”, nevertheless, presently, the town is “flooded” with tourists. These shifts in the tourism industry according to the majority of the transnational backpackers and lifestyle migrants had a negative impact on the town’s “magic”, which has begun to disappear due to its gentrification and disneylandization.
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