Ethnologia Europaea

Obwohl die ethnischen Aspekte der Gegenwartskultur ihr Thema waren, sind die Ethnowissenschaften vom vehementen Aufbrechen ethnischer Argumentationsmuster in den politischen Bewegungen der letzten Jahre überrascht worden. Die Europäische Ethnologie hatte die ethnische Kultur als zwar wichtiges, aber doch eher freundliches Kolorit der modernen Gesellschaften interpretiert und dabei die dunklen Seiten ausgeblendet, die ein steigender Homogenitätsbedarf im Verlauf der Modernisierung und der sie begleitenden Differenzierung aktivierte. Ethnokulturelle Gefühle und die Renaissance der ethnischen und nationalen Solidaritäten bewegen die Menschen derzeit offenbar heftiger als gemeinsame Klassenlagen, ökologische Interessen oder Frauensolidarität. Die Jahrhundertwenden, in unserer Kultur immer als Wendemarken gedeutet und als Schwellen wahrgenommen , scheinen diesen Bedarf nach Sicherheiten zu aktivieren. Angesichts der Deutungen der Moderne als Individualisierung der Lebenswelten und andererseits als Uniformierung der Weltgesellschaft scheint das ethnographische Paradigma immer wieder seinen Reiz in der mittleren Reichweite zu entfalten, die Identität durch Differenz verspricht : als Möglichkeit einer zwar partikularen, aber doch kollektiven Identität. Der Artikel will schließlich nach der Zuständigkeit und Verantwortlichkeit der Ethnologie fragen.

In the United States, folklorists are entering the public sector. With the advent of multicultural programs in education and cultural politics, so-called public folklorists are increasingly assuming a new role in cultural brokerage, mediating the relationship between immigrant cultures and the wider public. This paper contends that rather than reflecting cultures "as in a mirror", public folklore entails representational practices that invent cultural otherness.

The article is a microsonde in to the social relations of a Slovak-Hungarian village community. Determinants influencing the 20th century ethnic consciousness and cohabitation of ethnically mixed region in southern Slovakia are being analyzed. The changes of ethnicity and mutual relationship of Slovaks and Hungarians were mostly influenced by extra local factors (historical events, political changes, influence of surroundings). Intralocal factors (family, kinship and other informal groups) were consolidating the cohabitation of its population. In traditional community ethnic influences intermingled with religious ones. Village authorities and ambitions of individual people played an important role, too.

Nach dem 2. Weltkrieg, zwischen 1945 und 48 ereilte mehr als 200 000 Ungarndeutsche das Schicksal der Zwangsumsiedlung. Auf Pusztavám in Transdanubien, dessen Einwohner fast zu 100% deutschstämmig waren, wartete die gleiche Erfahrung. Die aus Pusztavám herausgekommenen Ungarndeutschen und ihre Nachkommen wohnen grösstenteils in Geretsried in Bayern. Hier in Geretsried führten wir 1992 eine Feldforschung aus. Um auf diesem Gebiet gesammelte Erfahrungen auch auf die Erforschung des Lebens der in Bayern verstreuten Ungarndeutschen auszudehnen, versandten wir bayernweit 300 Fragebögen. Unser Ziel war es, die Akkulturation der Geretsrieder Ungarndeutschen aufzuzeichnen und das in Bayern gesammelte Material mit den Geretsrieder Erfahrungen zu vergleichen. Die wesentliche Frage in unserer Untersuchung bestand also darin, inwiefern in welchen Teilen und durch welche Einflüsse sich die wahrend des 300-jahrigen deutschungarischen Zusammenlebens sich herausgebildete ungarndeutsche Identität und Lebensweise nach der Übersiedlung in die neue Umgebung, geändert hat. Mit der neuen lebensweise veränderten sich ihre Beziehungsstruktur, Materialkultur, Identität, sie nahmen neuen Sitten von den anderen ausgesiedelten Deutschen und den Bayern an. Die Bewahrung der Tradition ist bei den in Geretsried zusammenlebenden Puzstavámer wesentlich stärker als bei den in Bayern verstreuten anderen Ungarndeutschen.

The author proposes to analyze messages (prayers) addressed to the Virgin Mary. They are written on the walls of the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is located in the church of St. Peter and Paul in Osijek (eastern Croatia). The appropriate genre into which these messages can be ranged is discussed and a proposition is reached that they cannot be considered graffiti. In the analysis the author compares them to similar messages found at yet another Croatian church and at a church in Alsace, France. The conclusions are reached regarding the age and gender of the authors, the themes and beneficiaries of the prayers, the appellation of the Virgin, and the relationship that the authors establish with her.

The basis of my study is formed by a written material which was gathered in 1903 amongst Swedish-speaking Finns. Seven subject areas are covered: religion, mother tongue, geography, general history, arithmetic, geometry, and knowledge of nature. Several questions are answered according to an understanding of the world which is based on three aspects: the different subjects' own experience of physical existence, the teaching of the Church, and in some cases, on the reading of books. The worldview contained in those folklore narratives which also have cosmological themes is of a different nature. The analysis attempts to demonstrate how different worldviews are described in an interview and in narratives, respectively. Bricolage and codeswitching are scientific concepts used for this purpose.

Following a brief sketch of a theoretical framework the author examines a selection of contemporary Dutch pilgrims’ accounts. With the help of a model of analysis an attempt is made to interpret the accounts as 'biographical stories of experiences', at both a textual and contextual level. Three clusters, with the help of which the analytical material can be ordered for an analysis of contents, could - in the opinion of the author - be listed as follows under the supportive and binding denominator of 'experience of contrast' and 'self-presentation': a/ the ritual, the journey, pilgrim-beingness; b/ meeting, relations; c/ the past. The theme of 'involvement with the past ' is more closely examined, especially within the framework of the so called musealisation of culture. In the ritual of pilgrimage the past is used, invoked and deployed. The ritual extends to a sort of 'vessel-ritual' that may be filled according to individual necessities: it is a 'vessel-ritual' that is attractive because it is 'traditional'. But beside or in this aspect of continuity and tradition, innovation is also involved. In the corpus of pilgrim's accounts we find a completely new and emerging type of pilgrim and pilgrimage in the sense of a new function and appropriation. Through a detour to the past, one seeks identity and quality of life through a series of contrasting experiences. The article concludes with some comments on the 'proportion of tradition', popular culture and European ethnology, and on the (Dutch) terminology of 'pelgrimage'/'bedevaart'.

This cross-national study of values is based on Shalom Schwartz's psychological instrument. It can also be characterized as a cross-disciplinary project involving psychological and ethnological contributions. It further exemplifies one model of combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Its main purpose is to point at the research prospects of assessing similarities and differences in universal values, and how to account for the differences by relating them to various societal and historical aspects.

The different styles of research of two historians - Jacques Le Goff and Aaron J. Gurevich - are analysed and compared. Both understand anthropology as the basis of a new all-encompassing attempt at synthesising historical studies, and produce independent results by taking into consideration literary-hermeneutical, ethnological and structuralistic methods, thus forming two different coexisting "styles of relationship" of medieval mentality. Le Goff and Gurevich contribute to historical anthropology and to a publicly effective renewal of the science of history through explanatory, deterministic and contemporary examination. An interview with A. J. Gurevich on the relationship between social history and the history of mentality is published as an appendix.

Johann Gottfried Herder hat die deutsche Volkskunde - wie auch eine Reihe anderer Disziplinen - als einen ihrer Begründer ausgemacht. Das Bild Herders, das fast unangefochten durch die Fachgeschichte hindurchgeistert, besagt, daß er der Erforschung der mündlichen Volksüberlieferungen vorgearbeitet und den Begriff 'Volkslied' überhaupt erst erfunden habe. Weil die Geschichte der deutschen Volkskunde eine Geschichte mit nationalem Einschlag ist, wurde auch Herder, der weitgehend ungelesen blieb, phasenweise als nationaler Stichwortgeber in unterschiedlichsten Kontexten bemüht. Die selektive, sich auf die Invention des deutschen Volksliedes beschränkende Rezeption Herders im Fach Volkskunde brachte es mit sich, daß eine Auseinandersetzung mit Herders komplexem ethnischen Verständnis im wesentlichen unterblieb.

In der zweiten Halfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts wurde verschiedenen Ausdrucksformen der Volkskultur ein nationaler Wert zugemessen. Wie lokale Phänomene zu nationalen gemacht werden konnten, zeigt zum Beispiel die Musealisierung der Hindeloopener Stube. Die Verwendbarkeit von Ausdrucksformen der Volkskultur in der nationalen Symbolik verschafft im Zeitabschnitt von erhtöhtem Nationalismus Ende des neunzehnten und Anfang des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts ausreichend Tragflache for Musealisierung aufnationalem Niveau: die Gründung des niederlandischen Freilichtmuseums. Mit dem Umzug zum nationalen Niveau verlieren Gegenstände jedoch ihren exklusiv ortsgebundenen Charakter. Trotz der Tatsache, daß das Museum assoziiert wird mit Echtheit, bietet es dennoch Volkskultur aus zweiter Hand. Es sieht danach aus, daß die Unterschiede zwischen Musealisierung und Folklorisierung hauptsachlich in den Gruppen lagen, die sich das Gebotene aneigneten, wobei Museen als exklusiv und verfeinert betrachtet wurden im ästhetischen Sinne, intellektuell und mit einem gehobenem Ziel.

The paper describes the early introduction of the potato in Sweden - and the process whereby it has become an important staple. Although consumption has decreased since the 1930s. the potato still holds its position as one of the traditional foodstuffs, which could be interpreted as a sign of conservatism regarding people's food choice. Via data concerning potato consumption in contemporary households the paper questions this conclusion. By pinpointing considerable changes in food practices - and attitudes toward the cooked dinner -it is suggested that this single item rather expresses the dynamics or food habits and its constantly and successfully capacity for adjusting to surrounding living and working conditions.

In many parts of the world fishermen attribute their success to good luck. Since it is difficult to control often highly mobile fish, there is indeed a large component of chance in fishing. But shellfish farming is a less unpredictable activity, because it involves managed harvesting of sedentary marine resources. Yet, like fishermen, shellfish planters in the Dutch town of Yerseke refer to luck and natural forces rather than expertise, skill and effort to account for their relative success. This article shows how these representations are rooted in their experiences and casts light on the ideological function of these representations.

The article is based on the ethnological concept of fear as a social phenomenon. The author examines how a popular Swedish daily, Expressen, deals with various occurrences of fear in modern Swedish society. The newspaper is rather sensitive to the social and cultural categories which are perceived to be threatened. Namely, it challenges the notions of security, home, and well-organized society. By showing that none of these categories can be completely trusted, Expressen not only reflects the feeling of fear, but also participates in the social construction of the same.

The main subject of this paper is the interpretation of emerging nationalism in post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe. The first part of the study describes the conception and apprehension of national culture characteristic of Eastern Europe since the late 19th century. The main direction of the argumentation is to emphasize the social, political, and ideological functions of this perception of nationality. The second part of the paper tries to characterize post-socialism through general cultural feeling of uncertanity, and argues that the "new" nationalism can be interpreted only as a manifestation of cultural fundamentalism typical for Eastern Europe as a therapy in the periods of pervasive political and social changes.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the great international exhibitions, with their millions of visitors, grew into gigantic instruments for education and refinement where contemporary ideas were formulated and imprinted through visual communication, often in symbolic form (e.g. the aesthetic ideals of the bourgeoisie; human progress in evolutionary perspective; the superiority of the white race based on the sovereignty of the people). The article discusses the role played by the international exhibitions in the construction of what Orvar Löfgren has called an "international cultural grammar" of nationhood, choosing among other symbols the elements of folk culture that were later put on exhibition in the folk museums (folk costumes, vernacular buildings, peasant living rooms).

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