Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 44, 1/1996
MARTIN MESSA
PhDr. Martin Messa, Slovenske narodne muzeum - Etnograficky ustav, 036 01 Martin, Slovakia
Changes in the building of houses in the 20th century, the retreat from traditional folk architecture in its various local and regional variants of the Carpathian log house were conditioned in their progress by the socio-economic situation in individual regions and localities, political history, the influence of more distant and closer economic and cultural centres. The general growth of education played an important role in the changes of house building methods, involving articulation and materials. Sources of information had an effect on the changes in the stereotyped methods of designing houses spread by the mechanism of tradition. Often there is no apparent external need to change the material, decorative elements, or fence of a house, and the change of elements is directed by value norms on the level of prestige - lack of prestige, modern - old-fashioned etc. They also became partly an expression of ethnic opposition (us-them), for example in Rusyn villages "us" (Rusyns) - "them" (Slovaks) in an effort at a corresponding self-evaluation of individuals and whole localities, expressed by the choice of the types of house, decorative elements, furniture, technical facilities of the house in the changed conditions after the Second World War.
pp. 5–44
OLGA DANGLOVA
Olga Danglova, CSc., Ustav etnologie SAV, Jakubovo nam. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The study presents portraits of four creative artists, the creative efforts of whom moved on the boundary between amateur and naive expression. The world of each of them is different, conditioned by different creative imagination, mechanisms of perception, mental dispositions, emotional experiences. It springs from different world views or evaluations of the surroundings. Each of the protagonists emphasizes a certain content or means of expression special to him. He chooses his individual iconosphere. From the ethnological point of view, it is stimulating to trace the links between the artist and the cultural context to which he is assigned.
pp. 45–62
Alfonz BEDNAR
The study is part of the diploma work from 1939, of the important Slovak writer Alfonz Bednar (1914-1989), with the title "The Slovak Ballad". In this work he traces the position of the Slovak traditional ballad in the context of the ballad tradition of the Slavonic and non-Slavonic nations. He concerns himself further with the influence of the traditional ballad on the literary ballad. The published part uses a wide range of European material to confront the Slovak subjects with the general ballad repertoire and evaluate its specific Slovak features. In a further number of Slovensky Narodopis, we will publish the part of this work about the content and formal aspects of the traditional Slovak ballad.
pp. 63–73
EVA KREKOVICOVA
PhDr. Eva Krekovicova, CSc., Ustav etnologie SAV, Jakubovo nam. 12, 81364 Bratislava, Slovakia
The work offers a reconstruction of changes in the songs of the Slovak minority in Hungary in the period from the second half of the 19th century to the 1990s. It traces processes using the examples of two small country towns in southern Hungary, that is the so-called Lowlands. The research confirmed the importance of song as an ethno-identifying phenomenon. However the processes of change in the repertoire occurred differently in the two areas. The local Slovak intelligents, church hymns, the written Slovak word and folklorism played an important role here.
pp. 74–78
IVONA BENCIKOVA
PhDr. Ivona Bencikova, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
This paper examines linguistic identity in the area of Slovakia from the sixteenth century onwards. The case of Slovak nation building is usually presented as an example of a community based on invented tradition of own national language. Although this common code, being supposed to represent individuality and national distinctiveness, was codified in the mid-nineteenth century, the own literary norm (substituted by Czech) started to be publicly used long time before that happened. On the base of analysis of written documents originated in the pre-codification period, certain positive linguistic identity as well as awareness of the differences among the population of that time may possibly be deduced.
pp. 79–95