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SLOVENSKÝ NÁRODOPIS
SLOVAK ETHNOLOGY



Volume 51, 2003, No. 2

OBSAH / CONTENTS

RECEPCIA SVETOVEJ MÓDY V ODEVNEJ KULTÚRE NA SLOVENSKU V 20. STOROČÍ Z POHĽADU ETNOLÓGIE

PhDr. Rastislava Stoličná, CSc., Ústav etnológie SAV, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The political and social changes in most of the European countries during the 20th century influenced the development of clothing and its character. Variety, vicissitude, specialisation, differentiation, strict functionality on one side and democratical freedom on the other side happened to be distinctive for the clothing culture. All these trends can be also found in the Slovak society. The specific development of these trends which was determined by its social and economical potential and by the political situation in Slovakia.

Kľúčové slová: odev, odevná kultúra, móda
Key words: clothing, clothing culture, fashion

Summary: The political and social changes in most of the European countries during the 20th century influenced the development of clothing and its character.
Variety, vicissitude, specialisation, differentiation, strict functionality on one side and democratical freedom on the other side happened to be distinctive for the clothing culture. All these trends can be also found in the Slovak society. The specific development of these trends which was determined by its social and economical potential and by the political situation in Slovakia.
General civilisation streams heading to Slovakia in the first half of the 20th century from western Europe and Bohemia came into contact with the conservatism in Slovak society. We understand this conservatism as a consequence of a delayed urbanism and industrialisation in Slovakia at the time. The preference of a rural lifestyle by most of Slovak people at that time had the same basis. These are the reasons of the conspicuous difference between clothing culture in larger towns where a modern and socially differed clothing was worn and the traditional costume (or “polokroj” – a reformed traditional costume made of new materials (e.g. nylon) and being cut simpler) preferred by people living in a rural environment.The development of clothing culture in Slovakia in the second half of the 20th century, when Slovakia became on of the socialism building countries, was forcibly interrupted and manipulated into a form suppressing individualism and the clothing was being made mainly for a manually working man.There was a period in the development of clothing in Slovakia, when clothing and shoeware became to  hardly obtainable goods and people were forced to use their creativity by sewing clothes by themselves, adapting already made clothes or by getting them from abroad.

MESTO A SPOLOČENSKO-HISTORICKÉ PROCESY: VÝCHODISKÁ ANALÝZY. NIEKOĽKO PRÍKLADOV Z MESTA NITRA1

PhDr. Juraj Zajonc, CSc., Ústav etnológie SAV, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia, e-mail: juraj.zajonc@savba.sk

The article is based on the assumption that communities of an urban organism are an optimal level for entering the city as an object of ethnological research. Historical aspect represents a primary part of social relation research in a town via explaining relations between its communities: except for the events of “big history”, each town has the milestones of “local history” that are reflected in its development. Several examples from Nitra (western Slovakia) show the influence of events of both “historical levels” for the shaping of the town image within various temporal and territorial contexts, including creation of historical constructs and myths…

Kľúčové slová: mesto, Nitra, urbánna etnológia, metodológia výskumu
Key words: town, Nitra, urban ethnology, methodology of research

Summary: The aim of research in urban environment, which is based on urban communities, is to recognise social relations within a town. As dynamic and processual view is a substantial element of ethnological research, historical aspect is an inevitable component of approach towards the research of urban communities and of their social relations. Delimitation of a time span, within which it is necessary to watch them, represents an important part of research intention and hypothesis. Political, economic or cultural milestones or breaks are the points defining the limits or segments of this time span.
When doing the research in Nitra (town in western Slovakia) we defined the time span with the help of two historical events – creation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and the communist coup d’état in 1948. Except for the important events of a „big history“ that found a reflection also in life of the town and in the development of its social structure and relations, Nitra has its own milestones of the „local history“. In Nitra we can mention in this respect, for example, Pribinove oslavy (Pribina celebrations, 1933), importance of which went over the frame of town and even region; bombardment of town on March 26, 1945; or the liberation of the town on March 31, 1945.
The agrarian element created an important part of inner characteristics of Nitra. Although at the beginning of the 20th century Nitra was one of twelve towns in Slovakia, where capitalist urbanisation was taking place, it still maintained the importance of an administrative-government centre of region, but at the same time several signs signal its at-that-time agrarian character. Heterogeneity in Nitra found a reflection in the ethnical composition of its inhabitants. At the beginning of the century the inhabitants declared mostly Hungarian, German, Slovak and Jewish nationality. Each of these spoke their own language while their members were able – to certain extent – to speak also the languages of other nationalities. After the foundation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia (1918) the scale of nationalities broadened by the Czechs. While in 1910 almost 60% of the town population claimed Hungarian nationality, in 1921 it was only 12% – this fact of rapid shifts in national structure can be interpreted as a major change, a crisis of identity.
Town was the centre of Nitra principality (based around 800), which was later integrated into Great Moravia, and it was also a seat of Nitra episcopate. This fact was the reason for the town being part of two cultural-ideological lines that gave rise to national-state re-constructions of the past in 19th century – Great-Moravian and Cyrilo-Methodian tradition. Nitra as a town symbolising historical continuity of Slovaks and of their national-political entities played its role in the state-political evolution of the territory of Slovakia in 19th and 20th centuries as well. For example, in 1933 Pribinove oslavy (Pribina celebrations) took place in Nitra as a commemoration of 1100th anniversary since the consecration of first Christian church that was built in Nitra in the seat of prince Pribina. As the government wanted to use the event as a presentation of Czechoslovak national unity, only the speakers supporting this idea were supposed to take the stage. Andrej Hlinka – the leader of autonomist Hlinka’s Slovak people’s party read the resolution containing requests for solving the position of Slovaks by means of autonomy within the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Pribina celebrations, instead of proving unequivocalness of the idea of Czechoslovak state, showed the contradictory nature of unitary state idea and diversity of opinions and strategies of Slovak political representation.
Connection of Nitra with Great-Moravian and Cyrilo-Methodian tradition led also to the creation of monuments, memorial places which – connected with contemporary historical contexts – took on a specific importance for the community as well as for the whole society; e.g. the statuary of Cyril and Method on the hill over the border village of Branč near Nitra. In 1938, based on the Vienna arbitrage, villages and towns in the south were attached to Hungary. Situating the statuary in the neighbourhood of the border with the occupied territory of southern Slovakia the initiator expressed the idea of inviolability of further Slovak grounds. His political intention got hidden behind a fabricated reasoning that this was exactly the place where brothers Cyril and Method took a rest after an exhausting travel to Nitra.
The above-mentioned examples show that the research of communities can serve as a gateway of a special type of entrance into the social space of a town as well as that of a state and of its society. It is not possible to understand substantial social and historical movements in their entirety without their forms expressed concretely in the way of life of a community, its members and their relations.

HORSKÍ NOSIČI VO VYSOKÝCH TATRÁCH
História a premeny motivácií socioprofesnej skupiny

Mgr.Katarína Nováková, Ústav etnológie SAV, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The article is dealing with the problematics of a professional group of mountain bearers in the High Tatras. It focuses on the main factors of motivation, that led people to perform this skilled profession. The study analyses the difference between the approach and organisation of work, attitude and opinion of the representatives of several generations of mountain bearers.

Kľúčové slová: socioprofesná skupina, transport, horskí nosiči
Key words: professional group, transport, mountain bearers

Summary: The article is dealing with the problematics of a professional group of mountain bearers in the High Tatras. In the beginning they were mainly residents of local villages and colonies, who were interested in performing the bearer´s services as an opportunity of seasonal by degrees a permanent income.The profession of a bearer at the end of the 19th century developed after the Košice- Bohumín railway was built and a lot of tourists began entering the High Tatras region. At the beginning of the 20th century a lot of local used to help as workers and bearers. They helped to build the mountain chalets and the cableway to Lomnický štít. These people continued working as mountain bearers also after the work on the cableway was finished. They performed this profession only for utility reasons, it was their only revenue. Since the 1950´s till the 1970´s a new kind people started working as mountain bearers and chalet landlords. These people came usually from other parts of Slovakia. It were often university students, educated people who protested against the actual political situation in Slovakia. They tried to escape, they looked for freedom and fulfilment of their dreams. Since the 1990´s until today (the present days) we recognise a change in the thinking of the bearers, a change in their attitude to their work, their clothing and lifestyle. Their values, ambitions and their attitudes has also changed. However, for all the generations of the mountain bearers stays the same motivation to perform this profession: they like mountains, nature and the environment very much, they decided to work and live there. The mountain bearers build relatively enclosed group and through their specific work a heterogenous professional group with own rules, structure, consciousness and identity. Enough reasons to be interesting for an ethnology research (as an ethnological problem).

SLOVESNÁ FOLKLORISTIKA V PADESÁTI ROČNÍCÍCH SLOVENSKÉHO NÁRODOPISU

PhDr. Marta Šrámková, M. Steyskalové 70, 616 00 Brno, Česká republika, Tel. & Fax: +420 549247669

The author concentrates on the history of folkloristics through 50 volumes of Slovenský národopis. She enumerates as well as evaluates methodological points of view, research methods and topics elaborated in the articles. The author pays attention also to the comparison of publishing studies on folklore in Czech and Slovak leading research periodicals.

Kľúčové slová: folkloristika, Slovenský národopis, dejiny vedy
Key words: folkloristics, Slovenský národopis, history of science

Summary: Slovenský národopis celebrates the 50th anniversary of establishing and successful activity in the science in Slovakia. This periodical is important from history of folkloristics point of view in Slovakia as well as in Bohemia. There were also published articles of the authors from neighbouring countries and from co-operating scientific institutes. Slovenský národopis offered possibility to spread new ideas, concepts and topics which were actual at scientific projects.
The author concentrates on the history of folkloristics through 50 volumes of Slovenský národopis. She enumerates as well as evaluates methodological points of view, research methods and topics elaborated in the articles. The author pays attention also to the comparison of publishing studies on folklore in Czech and Slovak leading scientific periodicals.
New ideas were visible in Slovenský národopis predominantly at the area of Slavonic studies. Editorial board streamed to support publishing studies on folklore continuing the best achievements from the inter-war period.
However there were some articles in Slovenský národopis in the decade on the threshold of 60-ties influenced by the ideological press this phenomenon was n ot so strong as in Czech ethnological periodicals. Slovenský národopis was paying attention to co-operation with history of literature, ethnography, sociology, ethnomusicology and folkloristics not even home but also from abroad.
Every columns like Studies, Materials, Discussion, News-Horizons-Glossary, Bookreviews-Annotations are the source of history of folkloristics in Slovakia and they are the mirror of reflecting of real contacts with folkloristics abroad predominantly through books and periodicals.
The topic of robber tradition and its reflection in folklore in Slovakia and in other Slavonic countries was the long-lasting topic solving at articles published in Slovenský národopis. From 1963 Slovenský národopis up till now is publishing studies on research of fairy tale. From the beginning of 60-ties the number of articles on folklore is increasing in periodical. It means that the number of folklore researchers in Slovakia was increasing. Except those personalities like A. Melicherčík and M. Kosová were J. Michálek, V. Gašparíková, S. Burlasová, M. Leščák, Ľ. Droppová, Z. Vanovičová, S. Švehlák, A. Elscheková, O. Elschek, S. Dúžek recovered new topics from every branch of folklore studies publishing in Slovenský národopis. From early 80-ties E. Krekovičová, Z. Profantová, G. Kiliánová, H. Hlôšková are the stabile authors publishing in Slovenský národopis on ethnomusicology, paremiology, folklorism, identity, genre studies.
Every volume of Slovenský národopis published annual bibliography prepared by M. Kubová which offered issues on folklore in Slovenský národopis.

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