Electronic Library of Scientific Literature


SLOVENSKY NARODOPIS / SLOVAK ETHNOLOGY



Volume 44, 3/1996

DIETARY TABOOS IN WORLD RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS

ALIMENTÁRNE TABU VO SVETOVÝCH NÁBOŽENSKÝCH SYSTÉMOCH

PhDr. Rastislava Stoličná, CSc.,
Ústav etnológie SAV, Jakubovo námestie 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

All the important religious systems, which are professed by 60% of the world's population, significantly influence the character and forms of diet. The norms and patterns of eating are dictated to millions of people through religious prescriptions and taboos. These dietary prescriptions are normative for the followers of the religion. By maintaining these rules they distinguish themselves from communitieswhich profess other religions. Orthodoxy in religious practices also determines the degree of closedness of these communities. People who gradually abandon their religious dietary rules are also usually more rapidly acculturated.

pp. 277-285

THE LIFE AFTER DEATH BY THE ANCIENT SLAVS

PREDSTAVY O ŽIVOTE PO SMRTI U STARÝCH SLOVANOV

Mirjam Mencej,
Inštitút etnológie a kultúrnej antropológie Filozofickej fakulty, źubžana, Zavetiška 5, 61 000 Slovinsko

The author starts by quoting records on the beliefs of ancient Slavs, according to which the soul of the dead assumed the image of various animals, especially that of a bird, sheep, mouse and cat. She refers to theoretical contributions which interpret such beliefs as a twofold presence of the dead, metempsychosis and an early stage in the understanding of soul. Veles, a god of afterworld (which function can be found in Nicholas and George from Slavic mythology), as the god of the cattle and a wild beast - might have represented the two aspects of the souls. The author work research in comparative of Slavic mythology.

pp. 286-301

MAGIC IDEAS, MEASURES AND PRACTICES IN HUMAN ETHNO-MEDICINE

MAGICKÉ PREDSTAVY, OPATRENIA A PRAKTIKY V HUMÁNNEJ ETNOMEDICÍNE

Mgr. Dušan Belko,
Ústav etnológie SAV, Jakubovo nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The study is directed towards human ethno-medicine and especially towards the magic elements included in it. It introduces the accessible literature on these problems and analyzes the magic ideas about the causes of illnesses, magic-protective measures and magic healing practices preserved in the traditional culture of Slovakia.

pp. 302-318

THE CATEGORY OF THE PAST IN STORY TELLING STRATEGIES

KATEGÓRIA MINULOSTI V ROZPRÁVAČSKEJ STRATÉGII

PhDr. Hana Hlôšková, CSc.,
Ústav etnológie SAV, Jakubovo nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

Every community has a time, when it presents itself as an integrated consciousness of a common past. Family, ethnic, religious, professional or interest groups form collective memories, preserve and hand down events, which are important for the community or are thought to be.
The bearers of the historical consciousness of a community are specialists: witnesses, chroniclers, authors of historical prose etc. Historians are representatives of efforts to achieve an exact interpretation of the past of the community. The paper is a case study of one witness (V.H. born 1914) and her repertoire of stories from life, the development of which, the author has had the opportunity to trace for twenty years.

pp. 319-333

RESEARCH IN TOWNS AND THE FORMATION OF URBAN ETHNOLOGY IN SLOVAKIA

VÝSKUMY MESTA A FORMOVANIE URBÁNNEJ ETNOLÓGIE NA SLOVENSKU

Daniel Luther, CSc.,
Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Jakubovo nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The ethnography of towns, as we have usually referred to ethnographic research on urban communities, is developing with a search for an adequate thematic orientation and methodological approaches, into an independent sub-discipline of ethnological research. The first work of trained ethnographers originated in the 1960s and was aimed first of all at the environment of "greater Bratislava". The first integrated conception of an ethnographic understanding of the problems of urban settlements, worked out by K. Fojtík on the pages of Slovenský národopis in 1965, could by an appropriate theoretical starting point for making more precise the present direction of urban ethnology in Slovakia. An emphasis od research about older periods and the application of historical methodes to the interpretation of the objects of study is still characteristic of urban ethnology in Slovakia. The demand to learn about the development of phenomena is emphasized.

pp. 334-344

TRANSFORMAČNÉ PERIPETIE SLOVENSKÉHO POĽNOHOSPODÁRSTVA A ZMENY VIDIECKEJ SOCIETY

STANISLAV BUCHTA

pp. 345-350

PRÍSPEVOK K PROBLEMATIKE HRANICE A HRANIČNÉHO PÁSMA V SUSEDSKÝCH VZŤAHOCH

MÁRIA PAULOVIČOVÁ

pp. 351-356