Ethnologia Europaea

Editorial

A vertical perspective has in practice, though not in theory, dominated recent research on the civilization process. This process is seen basically as heteronomous, carried out through forces imposed on the masses by the elite. The civilization process is seen as external and coercive. Criticisms of this interpretation are developed. Though we reject a definition of civilization solely in terms of impulse control, our aim is not to shatter the heritage of Norbert Elias, but rather to integrate his contributions into a wider concept of the civilization process. As an alternative, we point to the existence of a secular learning process involving growth in the communicative capacity among large groups of people. Human thought grows through action and reflection. When entering wider social and economic networks, actors will meet many others with varied life experiences. Individual biographies will differ more from each other. As people expose themselves to others, for instance due to increased migration, personal as well as group information fields grow. This will be associated with a dramatic rise in the transaction costs involved in controlling others. Actors will have to cope with new realities where violence and tight personal control become more costly, if not impossible. This process has intended as well as unintended consequences. Several limitations of the vertical perspective on civilization are illustrated with reference to Sweden before 1850. Empirically, the striking long-term decline in interpersonal violence up to 1750 is suggestive not only of a strengthening of impulse control, but also of a growth in the communicative competence among broad strata. This situation breeds tolerance and to some extent empathy, but also indifference. Values once considered absolute – or not reflected at all – will appear more relative. The growth of knowledge associated with the widening of networks encourages reflectiveness, planning, and material growth. But reflection is also at the root of anxiety of the Kierkegaardian type, which probably did not emerge as a widespread phenomenon until the former half of the nineteenth century. Regional information on suicide rates is reviewed in this perspective. Other changes which have occurred spontaneously, interacting with State policies without being determined by them, involve secularization – strongly resisted by the authorities – and new patterns of migration and marriage.

Die Historienbücher ("Volksbücher") konstituieren sich zwischen dem 16. und 18. Jahrhundert auch in Dänemark und Schweden als übersetzte populäre Erzählliteratur. Spätestens seit dem 17. Jahrhundert werden sie zum Objekt obrigkeitlicher und sozial und bildungsmäßig elitärer Polemik (reformatorischer, pietistischer, aufklärerischer, geschmackssoziologischer Observanz) gemacht. In den Jahrzehnten nach 1800 erfahren die zuvor über ein- bis zweihundert Jahre hinweg konstanten Textbestände grundlegende Erneuerungen. Diese Bearbeitungsprozesse führen im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts dazu, daß aus den traditionellen, spätmittelalterlich-frühneuzeitlichen Historienbüchern disziplinierte, purifizierte, pazifizierte Lesestoffe werden, die den bürgerlichen Wertnormen voll entsprechen. An den Detailveränderungen, die Texte wie der Eulenspiegel und der Markolf im einzelnen durchlaufen , läßt sich der Prozeß der Diszplinierung konkret nachzeichnen.

A basic innovation in cereal foods, noodles, appeared in South Middle Europe, both in German speaking and Hungarian regions, in the 16th century. Noodle dishes spread relatively quickly over the social classes and then remained a significant, even structure-shaping part of the common diet far into the 20th century. Early Modern commentaries on noodles in this zone had already pointed to Italy as the territory from which the new food had actually been transmitted to these regions. The present study focuses on medieval and Renaissance Italy, and Early Modern Hungary respectively; it examines what exactly Italy had to offer in this particular field and what the reception was like, in terms of the example and the adoption, and of the transmission between two complex societies. These questions came about as an integral part of the examination of the development of Hungarian foodways over the long term. Italian and French publications of the last decade have qualitatively improved the insight into the Italian background.The transmission originally took place at an upper class social level while the place of noodle dishes in the arrangement of meals seems to have been changed significantly during the adoption and assimilation process. This study throws light on the dynamics of international transference of innovations and of national adoption and diffusion, leading to specific transformations, through different social strata.

Around the turn of the century a combination of Darwinism and various theories of degeneration gained a foothold in Denmark. This led to intense discussions of eugenic measures meant to increase the childbearing of "the good stock" and to put a stop to the "progressive degeneration" - especially in the form of the mentally handicapped - that was thought to be a threat to civilization. And in fact the advocates of this did succeed, in the course of the twenties and thirties, in having restrictive internment and sterilization laws passed. One precondition of implementing these measures was the possibility of identifying those borderline cases between the abnormal and the normal who were considered particularly likely to "infiltrate" civilization and undermine it from within, unless they were deprived of their potential for contact with the surrounding world and their reproductive potential. This article discusses why, in the attack on the "unadaptable", it was considered necessary to choose a biological rather than a sociocultural theory of evolution as the foundation for the construction of a "civilization" which could only be upheld if culture was turned into something that could only be encompassed by the - hereditary - good brain.

This review of 'gypsy occupations' in the period 1815-1940 has made clear that there is no such thing. Almost all the professions mentioned (including fortunetelling) were also practised by sedentary people. Even itinerancy as such was not a monopoly of gypsies. Tens of thousands of people were itinerants, without being labelled as gypsies. Finally, all the characteristics listed in the second section (the family as working unit, mobility and self-employment) are general phenomena and can therefore in the end not be explained by reference to the 'gypsy culture'. The specific feature of gypsy occupations only lies in a combination of the three: being self-employed and travelling with one's family. People who chose such a way of life were very likely to be labelled by authorities as 'gypsy' (or similar labels) in Western Europe. This 'power of definition', that had been in force since the 15th century, was so strong that it was very difficult for people to escape from it. Moreover, it easily led to the development of ethnicity: people began to feel that they were different from others and to cultivate their own way of life and the symbols attached to it. The fact that within the general category of 'gypsies' some call themselves 'Sinti' or 'Roma' believing their origin to be Indian and often speaking some Romani dialect, does not automatically prove that this claim can be upheld in view of historical research. In order to understand the groupformation of gypsies, we have to take into account the long process of stigmatization and labelling.

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