The present study aims at sketching some aspects of the last phase of existence of one mixed Czech-German community (Karlov-Libinsdorf), on the basis of ethnographic and historical sources. It offers a reflection of a more general process from the point of view of a local microlevel, a process that finally resulted in the ethnic homogneization of the Czech lands. The analysis of the controversy fo r national character of the community is being realized, on the one hand, through the study of the competition for the character of national schools in the locality, and, on the other hand, through the symbolical importance that the contesting parties ascribed to the existence of this mixed enclave. As a result of the general ethnic homogneization, the inhabitants of the naturally double-language community were confronted with the necessity of the unequivical declaration of their ethnicity. The nacionalization of the collective identity of the local inhabitants and the necessity of the „actualization“ of this identity according to the political situation of the moment was being imposed through the general social context and through the movement of „ethnic defense“ that was being incited from the outside, by the representants of the „defense associations“ The possible alternatives, however, were in competition one to another and, at the same time, they were inconsistent with the „traditional“ local (i.e. non-ethnic) identity. This dilemma hadbeen „imported“ from the outside, from the makrosocial level, but had to be solved on the level of local everyday life. In the situation of real existence of two different (ethnic) linguistic groups in the community under study, however, didn't exist the need to express the social reality through explicitly ethnical cathegories. If this expression was realized, it was in the direction to the outside, especially as a reaction to the demands from part of the State administration to define unequivocally the ethnic denomination - for example, for the use of the population censuses at the times of the Austria-Hungary and the Czechoslovak Republic or during the Protectorate when asking for the citizenship of the Protectorate or of the Reich - or in connexion with the regular interventions of the nationally outspoken activists. Similarly, also the institutionalized form of the „national struggle“ that seemingly found its possibility for expression in creating theparallel social structures in the community acquired such imposed character. There are many arguments for the assumption that the rivalry of the nationalist associations didn’t stem from the authentic local conditions. The local inhabitants could not be labeled as the ori and ginators of the conflicts with nationalist bacground, even though they have been sometimes perceived as the actors of such conflicts. We can sum up that the nationalization of the social ties didn’t occur spontaneously and represents rather a product of the interventions to the life of the community and a response to the ethnic enunciation imposed from the outside
The article that rememorates the seventieth anniversary of death of the founder of the journal „Český lid“, Čeněk Zíbrt, reviews the earlyphase of the career of this ethnographer and historian of culture. The period in which Zíbrt entered the Czech science had been marked by the conflicts between the Czechs and the Germans living on the territory of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. In the year 1891 started the preparation of the Czech-Slavic Ethnographic Exhibition that took place in the year 1895. This period represented the climax of the „ethnographic movement“ that absorbed in itself the national emancipation movement with certain aspects of political resistance against the government of Austria-Hungary. Zíbrt joined this movement only in its early phase. Together with several Czech ethnographers that were engaged around the National Museum in Prague he kept aloof of the preparations for the Czech-Slavic Ethnographic Exhibition. The reasons were not political, the most important was the question of a professional prestige. The group of ethnographers and historians of culture from around the National Museum felt double-crossed by the politicized exhortations around the ethnographic exhibition, since they had organized an ethnographic section, the so called Czech House, that formed part of the Land Jubilee Exhibition in the year 1891 and then continued their work within the frame of the National Museum. The exhortations to organize a new exhibition they perceived as alienation of thier own ideas and as a neglect of their credit. The article is based on one letter of the archaeologist and, at the time, redactor of the journal „Český lid“, Lubor Niederle, adressed to Čeněk Zíbrt. By using the facts mentioned in the letter, the author of the article tries to elucidate the broader political and social circumstances of the time and explains the divergence in opinion of the two redactors that at the end led to their break with one another.
Authors of the article are members of the Ethnological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and students of the department of Ethnology of the Philosophical Faculty, Charles University in Prague. It is based on the knowledge obtained in the course of the field research of multiethnic villages and towns with Czech minorities, realized in the year 1999 in Southern Ukraine. The research was focused mainly on the town Odessa and villages Bohemka, Veselinovka, Novhorodkivka, Alexandrovka and Lobanovo. Also Melitopol, Zoporoží and other localities are
mentioned. In the text, attention is given especially to the development of the ethnic composition of the inhabitants, their family life and family connections, sociál life and religious activities,
language communication and, partially, also to their folklóre and materiál culture. The researches arrived at a conclusion that in the times of „perestroika “ there was a rapid iníensification of the
interest in the origins of individual families, as well as a growing emphasis on the ethnical consciousness of the inhabitants, At the same time, manifestations of ethnic, minority and national
life in towns and in villages differ profoundly. The authors try to reveal reasons of this foct especially among the members of the Czech minority and to show what exactly do they perceive being base of their Czech identity.
The Rom first enteredMoravia at the beginning of the fifteenth century and in the course of time their numhers increased. Because of their distincteness, different lifestyle and hehaviour the majoritě society accepted them with mistrust, uneasiness andgrowing antagonism. These negative attitudes resulted in repressive normative acts that represented the basis of restriction, banishment and persecution of the Rom immigrants. The anti-Rom manhunts started in the sixteenth century, continued and escalated in the next decades and culminated in the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The discrimination and persecution then continued, in a somewhat more moderate character, and didn ’t stop even in the rule oflaw: in the Austrian monarchy as well as in the democratic Czechoslovakia the Rom kept being citizens of the second rank.
On February 20 of this year, 70 years passed since the death of the traveller, writer, photographer, collectioner and adventurer in the best sense of the word - Enrique Stanko Vráz. His origin and youth have been up to now covered with doubts. The first documents relate only to the first journey of Vráz outside Europe. Since 1880, Vráz lived in Africa - in Marocco, Gambia and on the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), where he started to photograph. After a short stay on the Canary Islands he headed for South America and decided to transverse it in the equatorian part. This goal he completed successfully. After this, he travelled between America and Europe, he visited Japan, New Guinea, Thailand, China, Korea, Siberia. Then he again started for South America and for Mexico. During all his trips Vráz made photos. Some of his photographs, preserved today in the Náprstek Museum, are absolutely unique. Vráz perceived photography as a natural media for documentation, he placed its informative value above the emotional. The most frequent topics of his photographs were architecture and its details, nature, landscape and especialy the recordings of the everyday life. These photos have a high documentary value because of the place and the time of origin and also because of the fact that Enrique Stanko Vráz was a sensitive observer that wanted to utilize the photography to informe about the life in the distant, strange lands.
Článek se věnuje problematice vytěsňování rodného jazyka ve venkovské vystěhovalecké komunitě ve Spojených státech a vztahu tohoto fenoménu k procesům asimilace národnostních skupin do většinové angloamerické společnosti. Odpoloviny 19. století do první světové války byl Texas cílem soustavného vystěhovalectví z Čech, Moravy a rakouské části Slezska, tedy z oblastí ovládaných po několik století, předcházejících založení Československa v roce 1918, Rakouskem. Češi a Moravané usídlení na farmách v úrodném zemědělském vnitrozemí středního Texasu si uchovali svůj jazyk a prvky kultury svých předků po půldruhé století. Během posledních padesáti let tohoto období, v době po druhé světové válce a po zavedení televize celková asimilace jejich komunitu dramaticky změnila. Zatímco Češi a Moravané přehodnotili hranice a definici své národnostní příslušnosti, je jasné, že tyto procesy byly v mnoha směrech určovány změnou jazyka. Zachování takových tradic, jako byly svatební zvyky a svátky staré vlasti, bylo v texaské komunitě úzce svázáno s uchováváním jazyka předků. Dnes už Češi a Moravané netvoří komunitu, v níž jedinci definují svou identitu především prostřednictvím českého jazyka, národnostní příslušnosti a kultury. Převažuje anglický monolingvismus, ačkoliv někteří příslušníci starší generace, které můžeme nazývat polovičními mluvčími, posledními mluvčími nebo „pamětníky“ jazyka, si uchovávají částečnou znalost jazyka předků. Hovorový jazyk předků má dnes ryze symbolickou funkci a již není užíván pro aktivní komunikaci. Během 80. let 20. století prodělala národnostní příslušnost jakousi formu znovuzrození, když mladí aktivisté, z nichž většina nemluví ani nečte česky, opětně vybudovali svou kulturu a identitu, aniž se vrátili k českému jazyku a literatuře.
Like the music of other nations, Irish traditional instrumental music too is being spread across the whole world through the mass-media and the recording Industry. There are certain differences between stage performances and traditional playing in its natural milieu though. The dance function of the music was becoming redundant in recent decades and a concert form of playing replaced the role of the house dancing accompaniment. The fact that Irish traditional music has developed up to the present day is being stimulated by the phenomenon of Irish musical session, an association of musicians gathered to play tunes (short melodies), mainly of dance music character. Irish sessions have its own rules, etiquette and controlling factors. According to this rules the session leader, being the musician with the highest status among the others, starts each set of tunes, sets the pace and rhythm of music. The music making of this kind appeared in Irish traditional music quite recently, especially thanks to musicians from the Irish diaspora that lived in North America and in the industrial towns of the Great Britain. From these places the post-WW2 phenomenon of Irish traditional music sessions gradually expanded to the Irish communities ali around the world. Of great importance for the next development and contemporary form of traditional Irish music were the musicians that came out of the Irish emigrants in the United States. In the 1930s it was Paddy Killoran, James Morrison and Michael Coleman, all living in New York, whose musical styles were often imitated. It was the beginning of great changes in the local musical styles in Ireland: under the influence of the personal styles of these famous fiddlers, originally from County Sligo, the local musicians tried to imitate this grandiose interpretation in their own playing. Thus gradually the differences between local styles are disappearing. This trend is stronger with the development of the musical industry. Even though some of the interpreters are afraid that through the weakening of the local music styles Irish traditional music looses its enchantment (draiocht), others consider the contemporary development being a proof of the fact that also in the future Irish traditional music will stay a live phenomenon and not a conserved manifestation of „folklorism“.
One of the chapters of the synthese „The folk song, music and dance in the Czech culture“, prepared by the employees of the Department of Ethnomusicology, of Ethnological Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences, will be dedicated to the Urban (folk) song in the historical ad social cultural context. The present study tries to formulate a summary of theoretical information as a methodological and terminological point of departure for a further research, a summary based on the sematic analysis of the individual components of the term „urban folk song“ and on the previous fundamental editions and monographies. The author proves that the inomissible part of the so called national treasure of songs has its roots exactly in the urban folk song, he reflects on the purpose of the contemporary investigation in this field and on the problem of the very existence of the urban folk song as a recent type. He points out the difficulties brought on by the attempts of the systematization in this sphere, he analyses various classification criteria and recommends their combination with the so called phenomenons (market song, party song etc.) In conclusion, he recapitulates briefly the hitherto produced bibliography in this field.
The professional structure of the Romani ethnics developed in an uneven pace and in a regressive way. The traditional blacksmiths, horse-dealers, musicians or artists were outweighed by wage-workers , home-producers and unproductive persons with illegal sources of income. Because of this the experiences and usages passed over from one generation to another were disappearing. The only thing left was the coarse work force and even this was possible to be used casually and in season. Outside the summer months members of some families had to complement their incomes by begging, petty thefts and other forms of sponging.