Early life, education and social contacts of the Czech-born Egyptologist Jaroslav Černý (who identified himself as a citizen of Czechoslovakia in his lifetime) are shown in the context of his family history, social expectations and developing academic practices in Austria-Hungary and early Czechoslovakia. Černý’s family aspired to be considered middle class in terms of social interaction, although they lived in straitened circumstances exacerbated by the economic austerity of the First World War era. Černý himself trained as a Classical scholar and later as an Egyptologist at Prague University, but did not fit the role model combining a teaching career (which offered sustenance) with a university Privatdozent role (which offered participation in the academic community), which was the practice accepted in his teachers’ generation. Instead, he embarked on a career in financial services, alongside pursuit of his academic studies that soon encompassed major European museum collections with Egyptian exhibits and put him in contact with the international Egyptological community. His solution was appreciated by his sponsors, including major political and financier figures of the then Czechoslovakia, as being practical as well as showing single-minded determination. It is also suggested that the skills developed during his years in portfolio work were later applied to his research. Translated by Hana Navrátilová and Paul Sinclair and Překlad redumé: Hana Navrátilová and Paul Sinclair
This text analyzes the issue of the Karaim emigrants in Czechoslovakia, which has thus far been unknown in Czech scholarly circles. The Karaims arrived here in the context of the extensive Russian emigration at the beginning of the 1920s.
The study follows the lives of top state administrative representatives in Moravia who were affected by the fall of the Habsburg monarchy and the formation of Czechoslovakia. The new state adopted the state administration and administrative workers of the Habsburg monarchy. The rate of continuity of the administrative staff was relatively high; however, the demise of the monarchy still influenced the lives of many employees in the state administration. German nationals were hit hardest, and were often forced to cede important positions to new Czech office holders. The replacement of the last Moravian governor Karl Heinold by Jan Černý is one example - the tale of the dusk of one top official and the dawn of another. and Článek zahrnuje poznámkový aparát pod čarou
In the course of more than one hundred years of its existence, the sound recording became not only an important tool of ethnomusicological research, but also the factor of influence for the folk music. Forms of this relationship change together with the changes of the technical form of recording and reproduction and also with the changes of the attitude of society to these technologies. Roughly stated, there are three basic forms of relationship of folk music and sound recording. In the initial phase the sound recording - first on wax rolls - had been used for archivation of acoustic manifestations of folk music. Relatively early, however, folk music had been also spread and popularized by this means. This brought about also the influence of sound recording on mutual influencing of specific cultures and regions. The more and more accessible technologies of sound recording causes changes of the processes by which music is being passed down and taught. In the last decades, the sound recording had become also the means of music creation, a fact that manifests itself especially in various genres of contemporary electronic dance music.
This contribution focuses on the German physician Gustav Rösler, a pioneer of the thennew science of eugenics, and advocate of the movement for life reform (Lebensreform) in the Bohemian Lands in early 20th century. At this time, interest in social phenomena which were linked to industrialisation and had a negative impact on human health contributed to the creation of organisations and institutions designed to counter these phenomena. At a time when the German national movement was rapidly growing, Gustav Rösler designed a ‘programme of improvement of German fitness’. Its aim was to cultivate mental and physical fitness of the German population, especially the youth. Its institutional foundation was the Liberec-based Neudeutscher Kulturbund in Österreich and the publishing house Neudeutscher Kulturverlag.
The perception of danger represents a crucial component of everyday life (not only) in the city. The recording of the development of perception of danger in diachronic perspective of the twentieth century, as it reflected in the memory of the female inhabitants of Pilsen, enables to ascertain some changes that reflect the historical development. In its concrete parts, the research focused on the modes of „making“ of the urban space through the perception of danger (mental topography of danger), the perception of danger in general, as wall as the impact of the danger on the everyday life of the inhabitants. The qualitative methodology of the research included the making of mental maps and the half-structured interviews. The informers were nine women of age 80–91 years. For the purpose of presentation of the results of the research that aimed at ascertaining the ways of perceiving danger by the oldest generation of female inhabitants of Pilsen, the twentieth century was divided into several periods that to great degree reflected the political-historical development: the period before the Second World War; the period of the war; after-war period (1945–1960), the 1960s to 1980s and finally the period after the year 1990 up to the present. In the memory of the informers, these periods were characterized partly by differing types of danger (if danger at all) and their varying intensity. The perception of danger (or the absence of danger) was also influenced by the different development of life cycles in cases of concrete women. Besides individual differences, there was crucial influence of the general social development, the development of the city and the technological development, especially the increase of automobile transport and the media of communication.
Karel Domin (1882-1953) byl významný český botanik a vysokoškolský pedagog. Vystudoval a působil na Univerzitě Karlově, byl děkanem Přírodovědecké fakulty a v letech 1933-1934 dokonce univerzitním rektorem, s jeho jménem je spojen boj o insignie. Byl dlouholetým ředitelem Botanického ústavu Univerzity Karlovy. Ve své profesi byl mimořádně aktivní, v letech 1914-1945 byl předsedou České botanické společnosti, o jejíž vznik se zasloužil, publikoval řadu odborných i populárně naučných prací. Věnoval se také politické činnosti, v letech 1935-1939 byl senátorem za Národní sjednocení. Po 2. světové válce byl nařčen z kolaborace a zbaven všech funkcí. Přestože byl Národním soudem veškerých obvinění zbaven, do veřejného života se již nevrátil a roku 1949 byl penzionován., Karel Domin (1882-1953) was the important Czech botanist, politician, professor (a head of the University Botanical Institute), the dean of the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague and the chancellor of the University. He was very active both in his professional activities (e. g. he was a chairman of the Czech Botanical Society in 1914-1945), and in public and political activities (e. g. a National Assembly senator 1935-1939, representative of the National Democratic Party). After the World War II he was accused of collaboration and suspended from all his public and professional jobs, functions and offices. (Translated by Hana Barvíková.), and Překlad resumé: Hana Barvíková
The paper offers a synthetic overview of the historical and social sciences writings on 19th and 20th century Romanian elites. Following the original local sociological constructs developed
during the interwar period, the early socialist regime stopped almost all research on the topic for the next two decades. The interest rose again slowly in the 1970s and 1980s, when preliminary investigations highlighted some of the future research subjects: intellectuals,
economic, and political elites. After 1989, historians were the first to enter the field, opening workshops on the previously mentioned categories, and more recently on ecclesiastical, military, and administrative elites. Social and political scientists followed shortly, focusing mainly – but not exclusively – on the socialist and post-socialist elites. Despite the flourishing period of the last two decades, and the generally positive trend, the historical research on elites in Romania produced mainly empirical studies. The methodological and theoretical framework was left unapproached, partly due to a lack of tradition, partly because of the low level of collaboration between historians and social scientists.
This paper summarizes the discussion of ethnology in Slovenia between ‘narodopisje’ and anthropology from the point of view of its theoretical and methodological issues. At the same time it delineates some characteristics of ethnology and folklore studies in Slovenia in the 20th century, whereby the discussion on the wider social implications is omitted. Considerations put forward here are limited to those disciplinary issues which are the fruit of self-reflexive and critical insights in ethnology, which enable to highlight the origins, the formation and changes of research patterns from predominant philological and cultural-historical roots of ‘narodopisje’ to anthropologically oriented contemporary research. Some general observations, a retrospective view of the status of theory and methodology, the tradition of ‘narodopisje’, the ‘farewell to folk life’, the new methodological horizons, the predicament of the ‘two-headed ethnology’ and recent anthropologization are considered. and Článek shrnuje debaty o etnologii ve Slovinsku, její vývoj od „národopisu“ {narodopisje) k antropologii, se zvláštním zřetelem k teoretickým a metodologickým problémům. Nastiňuje některé charakteristiky etnologie a folkloristiky ve Slovinsku ve 20. století, vyhýbá se ale diskusi o širších sociálních souvislostech. Omezuje se pouze na ty problémy disciplíny, které jsou produktem sebereflexe a kritického přístupu k etnologii, což umožňuje zdůraznit její počátky, formování a změny stylu výzkum, od převážně filologických a kulturně-historických kořenů „národopisu“ k antropologický orientovanému výzkumu v současnosti. Připojeny jsouněkteré obecné postřehy, a také retrospektivní pohled na status teorie a metodologie, úvahy o tradici „národopisu“, „rozloučení s lidovým životem“, o nových metodologických horizontech, dilematu „dvouhlavé etnologie" a aktuální antropologizaci.
Presented article analyzes oral narratives usually defined as contemporary (urban) legends with emphasis on their main characteristics as a folklore genre. The article focuses on definition, terminology and presentation of history of International and Czech research of contemporary legends along with examples of local contemporary narratives. Czech contemporary legends can be characterized as showing clear parallels with East European as well as global folklore repertoire. The most popular Czech cautionary legend was legendary “Black Ambulance”, narrative about mysterious black ambulance kidnapping children, current mainly in 1988 and 1989. Widespread is corpus of comical narratives (“Hilarious Accidents”), in Czech oral transmission popular at least from the 1960s. Narratives showing clear parallels with traditional Czech folklore are relatively lacking in the contemporary Czech repertoire - single exception being cycle of legends about undead Nazi soldier Hagen, popular in tramping movement since the 1980s. Czech contemporary xenophobic narratives deals mainly with Romani (Gypsy) people, “Chinese Restaurant Legends” from global repertoire and anti-Turkish legends from repertoire of German-speaking countries. Newer narratives current from the end of the 1990s show more parallels with international contemporary legends.