Ethnologia Europaea

Many ethnologists today use the historical perspective merely as a backdrop against which they stage their cultural compositions. An exaggerated obsession with actors and subjects has led to the neglect of both the rich social context and the significance of a deep historical perspective. The experiences of groups like the Swedish tinkers (tattare) in their encounter with the exercise of power in different periods has given them a cultural identity with a surprising consistency through time. This identity has not only been created by society's segregation but has also been built up by people who refused to subordinate themselves to the prevailing norms. In my study of the situation of the tinkers, I start from a conflict perspective and question the harmonious descriptions which assume that the exercise of power was successful. Conflicts based on crimes against prevailing morals have left numerous traces in the archives. By looking at the individual tinker's everyday attempts to stretch the limits of society's norm system and comparing this with various levels in the exercise of power, I exemplify how the interplay between actor and structure, between separating and generalizing forces, affects both the disciplinary system and the individual tinker. My analytical strategy is to apply a long time-depth, so that we can see more distinctly not only what remains consistently the same but also what is transient and different.

Festivals with fires are still common in Southern Italy, and many have a long tradition. This continuity is related to their possibility of adaptation. The differences between broom and wood fires in the mountain town Calvello, points to an elder system of protection, which largely faded away with the decline of the agrarian society, after the Second World War. However, change, and even the spread of fire rituals already started from the beginning of the 19th century. Long term developments show that social changes influence the meaning of these fire rituals. It is not the ritual itself that changes as a direct response to changing circumstances, but the overall rituals in which they are embedded, and which are related to symbols like saints.

Hitherto, most ethnological and anthropological research on society and culture in the North Atlantic islands has assumed, explicitly or implicitly, a very long, almost unbroken continuity ("the traditional community" or "the old peasant culture") which was superseded in the nineteenth century by a period of transformation and modernization. This article argues that the history of the islands since their settlement in c. 700-900 has been marked by considerable changes in ecological and economic conditions, and that the small island communities cannot be studied as isolated entities, but should be analysed in terms of their shifting relationships with the rest of Europe. One main thesis is that their development can be described as a movement from an economically and culturally "central" position in the early middle ages through increasing marginalization to the "peripheral" status that was typical of these communities in the centuries of Absolutism. The article seeks to demonstrate that the changes in these centreperiphery relations have been of great significance for the society and culture of the islands.

Die Fotografie, die im Polizeiwesen von verdächtigten oder einer Straftat angeklagten Personen angefertigt wird, ist eine besondere Form der menschlichen Abbildung, die sich historisch in spezifischer Weise und in Abgrenzung zur gewohnlichen Atelierfotografie entwickelt hat. Die Entstehung visueller Muster, die in eindeutiger Weise die von der Gesellschaft ausgeschlossenen Individuen bezeichnen sollen, ist nur im Zusammenhang mit dem Kontext zu verstehen, der die Bilder erst zu Bedeutungsträgern macht. Allerdings ist die Polizeifotografie mehr als ein Symbol für den besonderen Blick auf den Kriminellen. Zu einem Verbrecherbild wird die Fotografie innerhalb eines kriminologischen Diskurses, dem eine Theorie des Zusammenhanges von Physiognomie und Seele zugrunde liegt. Der Beitrag ist als eine Kritik an der visuellen und symbolischen Darstellung der Dichotomisierung von Normal und Anormal zu verstehen.

The article discusses functions of the Polish national emblem in the context of political and religious symbolism in Poland. The examination of the Polish emblem - the white eagle - in its historical development provides a background to understanding various aspects of the national and political ideology. Through the analysis of different structural forms of the emblem, composed of various symbolic elements in changing combinations, an interpretation is made of the political process in Poland. A specific feature of this process was the fact that both sides of the political conflict between the regime and the democratic opposition used the same national symbols, but in different structural contexts, thus giving them different, sometimes contradictory meanings.

Though devotional literature has its roots in the Church, one of the most civilised spheres of culture, the devil of this genre can be said to represent nature. He is depicted as a fear-inducing being and as a tempter in uncivilised, naturalistic terms. In folklore, which is looked upon as a natural, uncivilised, sphere of culture, he represents both culture and nature. As a fear-inducing being, the devil bears characteristics indicative of culture, but as a tempter he lures people into living a natural, unrestrained life. Thus tradition bearers express that which is alien and dangerous by employing inverted values. Nature and culture are indeed opposites but in the cognitive system to which the present material gives expression, they also complement one another.

How does one understand and describe cultural life which no longer exists? That is, life which must be reconstructed by the researcher through his conceptions and intuitive sensations of those traces of the past we turn into "sources". I would like to base this discussion on the presentation of some example material on the rural population of the 18th century. The material comes from a recently concluded study of a Danish estate region. I want to demonstrate how it is possible to get considerably closer to people's activities than one normally does in historical accounts. The analyses indicate that we do not, as generally assumed, have just one, but two lifestyles among the inhabitants of the same village. Through a description of the forms that feudal practice took, we can understand how the two kinds of life were reproduced in (conflictful) coexistence. I would then like to raise the issue of whether this description - illuminating as it may be - is also enough for us to experience the existence of the rural population in those days as something living. The identification of the inner rationale of the two kinds of practice is not the same as contextualizing them as lives that can also be heard, smelt and "seen" - which can be sensed by the reader as something much more "present". If we are to combine these two dimensions in one and the same description, ethnology may have to break with some of the prevailing norms for scientific research and rediscover forgotten aspects of its own roots in J. G. Herder's philosophy.

In his article the author presents an important agricultural implement of Carpathian Europe: the hayrakes. From typological view these are almost identical with the hayrakes of Western Europe. They are not only used as tools, but fulfill a social function as well. Decorative and "rattling" rakes are eventually used as gifts. The women will guard their decorated rake lifelong. Among the Hungarians a rake is carved on the grave-post of a woman distinguished in haywork. The hayrake plays various roles in the folk-belief, so for instance, when hanging on the wall of the stable, it will keep away the witches. The functional analysis of such an agricultural implement leeds us to the result, that the terminology "material culture" and "spiritual culture" is not correct. In peasant farming of Carpathian Europe the stubble-rakes and chaff-rakes are playing a major role, while a special small rake is being used for sheath-binding. The rakes are made partly at home, but there are also some villages where rakes and other farming necessities are produced and carried away for sale in remote regions. The author tries to demonstrate the geographical area of the different rakes and points out, that geographical diffusion reflects historicity. On the other hand, geographical diffusion is impaired by social and ecological impediments. The present paper is referring to an earlier article by Bjarne Stoklund (Ethnological Interpretations of Implements. The Hayrake as an Example. Ethnologia Europaea XX: 5-14).

In den östlichen Alpenländern Österreichs läßt sich die »Rauchstube« als ein besonderer Wohntypus, der zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts als solcher erkannt und von anderen Wohngrundformen unterschieden worden ist, mit Sicherheit bis ende des Mittelalters nachweisen. Offen ist jedoch bis heute die Frage der Entstehung und Herkunft bzw. des Alters dieses mittelalterlichen Stubenraumes. V. Geramb (1884-1958) sah darin nach der kulturkreislehre seiner Zeit die Verschmelzung einer osteuropäisch-slawischen Kochofenkultur mit der westeuropäischen Herdkultur und schloß daraus auf Wanderungseinflüsse durch Alpenslawen und deutsche Siedler des frühen Mittelalters. Im Sinne der neueren historischen Hausforschung entspricht dagegen die ostalpine Rauchstube als Vielzweckraum mit deutlichem Blockbau- und Stubencharakter eher einem spätmittelalterlichen Ausbautyp, der sich als solcher erst seit den großen Umwälzungen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts in Mitteleuropa zu einem so vielseitig verwendeten agrarwirtschaftlich betriebenen Wohn- und Haustyp entwickelt haben kann.