‘Inolus, Inolus’ is one of the most mysterious text families in eighteenth-century Hungarian popular poetry. It emerges in both Latin and Hungarian manuscript versions, primarily in East Transylvania and later around Debrecen too. The secret hero of the prisoner’s song is a jailed robber who was sentenced to death. He mourns his own fate leaving a moral for those around him, or for posterity. According to some researchers, this song is about a Rumanian outlaw leader, Gligore Pintea. Others tried to identify vague Armenian references in the text. A reassuring solution has not yet been found. Another complex motif is the hidden treasure in the linden tree, about which the protagonist might have sent some encoded message in Latin from the prison. This topic is very popular in tales but not in linguistic context, so we are almost unable to decode it. It is a typical model-poem of our popular poetry and warns us against a too easy and quick interpretation; moreover, it gives us strength and patience to protect us from the danger of a ‘too clear-cut to be true’ final conclusion
This article looks at the agency of memory and remembering, mental mechanisms that serve diverse functions within the ballad tradition, and which allow characters, and us as listeners, to shade experience from the past into the present, bridging time, and distance, and leading us to rehearse the future, as Bill Nicolaisen puts it. The Child ballads begin famously and characteristically, in medias res, in the middle of the action, with a great deal of backstory unknown, or, perhaps, assumed. I have shown how, in some cases, the backstory is provided by communal cultural knowledge or by explicit narration before the song is sung and during its performance (McKean 2015), but through the device of recall, the backstory can sometimes make an appearance within the body of the song, forming a complex concatenated structure that unfolds in performance and upon apprehension by a listener into a multivalent constellation of action and meaning. I will explore remembered action, recalled relationships, and retained loyalties in relation to the unfolding of the ballad story and its narrative repercussions, looking at how memory serves as a fulcrum, a catalyst, and a narrative device.
Scanderbeg is the main constitutive figure in the collective memory of Arbereshs in particular and of Albanians in general. As such he also is the main figure in the history of Albanians that inspired many artistic and scholarly works in different disciplines including oral tradition, history, literature, ethnology, etc. The main aim of this paper, as indicated in the title, is to see how songs on Scanderbeg could be acertained as an expression of collective memory, longing, and belonging up to the present times. In order to comprehend better this process authors will give information on who was Scanderbeg, who were Arbëresh and how did they establish and maintained awareness on their distinctive cultural and ethnic identity. What was the role of Scanderbeg in this process? Beside this the role of folk songs and historical data on remembering Scanderbeg and in constructing Arbwresh/Albanian national identity will be juxstaposed. As a tool will be used three folk songs collected by Arbëresh intellectual Jeronim De Rada, which are related to two main events of Scanderbeg’s life, namely marriage and death, and these will be compared with historical data as found for same events in the Harry Hodgkinson’s historical book about Scanderbeg. This juxtaposition will be analysed in the context of Anthony D. Smith’s concept on ethno-symbolism in order to enlighten the initiation of Arbëresh/ Albanian ethnic identity. The final attempt of this paper will be to theorize on how historical facts, transformed in both oral tradition and scholar interpretations, are used in shaping collective memory-(ies) that forge identity-ies of groups in different temporal and spatial levels, i.e. local, regional, ethnic and national, in which case construction process and selectivity are quite prominent. The method used here is comparison of different literature resources (historical, literature, ethnographies) and interpreting them in different theoretical frameworks such as ethnosymbolism, collective memory and constructivis national building.
In the past decades, the study of ethnolinguistic revitalization has become an important subfield on the border between ethnology/social anthropology and sociolinguistics. In two main blocks of the text, the author focuses on both aspects of the mentioned issue — theoretical and practical. Current trends in the field of ethnolinguistic assimilation and revitalization are briefly presented at the theorizing level of the work. The question of whether ethnolinguistic revitalization efforts are a cloistered scholars’ vision or a natural phenomenon is analyzed and interpreted in detail; partial conclusions are also outlined. The level of practical dealings focuses primarily on the phenomenon of new speakers as a significant current sociolinguistic phenomenon. Three Central European cases (the Sorbs, the Wilamowiceans and the Huncokár Germans) are presented in more detail. The given data are also linked to the Europe-wide context. In conclusion, a synthesizing summary of the above-mentioned thematic levels and data of the topic under discussion is presented.
The aim of this study is to understand how communities hold onto memories through ballads and folk songs, especially when they relate to social issues, and will use a Portuguese narrative song based on a true event to examine this and other related matters. On 13 September 1914, a boy and girl from different socio-economic classes enacted a suicide pact because their families disapproved of their love. The violent death of these youngsters imprinted a strong impression on the small Portuguese community where it happened. The case was perpetuated in the narrative song, ‘José Pina e Maribela’, that spread throughout the years to various regions where it was collected. Based on fifteen versions of this song, this paper analyses how and what facts of the event were kept by the collective memory of the community and identifies the narrative invariance of the song and the variants that occur in these versions. The paper also refers to the appropriation of ‘José Pina e Maribela’ by some regional entities, creating a constructed memory as a touristic product, as opposed to the natural process of transmission of traditional literature, which accepts variation.
This study aims to introduce the Czech traditional ballad to the international reader from the perspective of mnemopoetics, i.e., inherent textual patterns of orally transmitted compositions that support the singers’ memory. It discussesCzech traditional balladry’s distinctive features and important mnemopoetic textual patterns— such as first line, genre, repetition and incremental repetition, assonance/rhyme scheme, law of three, strophe patterning, and parallelism — which are illustrated in these ballads. Special focus is paid to the supra-narrative function of formulas, especially connected to green and black epithet formulas, using the analytical framework of Flemming J. Andersen’s Commonplace and Creativity: The Role of Formulaic Diction in Anglo-Scottish Traditional Balladry (Odense: Odense University Press, 1985). The study forms a conclusion that mnemopoetics of Czech ballads exist but are less prominent than in Czech traditional lyric songs, and discusses the role of Czech traditional ballads in the formation of Czech cultural memory
This article examines how Korean narrative songs have, since the Middle Ages, formed and transmitted the memories and figures of women. These narrative songs have been created and handed down as labour songs mainly by lower-class women, reconstructing women’s specific experiences and memories. Korean narrative songs in traditional society are mostly concerned with the life of a woman in a male-centred, patriarchal society. The female figures expressed in these songs show how Korean women recognize their social reality. The figuration of women in Korean narrative songs can be categorized into 4 branches according to whether or not adversity is resolved to meet personal or social expectations. The A type (Personal expectations +, social expectations +) and the B type (Personal expectations +, social expectations –) are very rare in narrative folk songs. In the C type (Personal expectations –, social expectations +), the female figure lives according to social expectations or commits suicide. Most Korean narrative songs belong in the D type (Personal expectations —, social expectations –). When her personal expectations conflict with social expectations, the female figure commits suicide or becomes a monk. These female figures continue to reappear in women’s memories and are embodied in narrative songs. This shows the tragedy of women’s lived experiences and their perception of reality in Korean traditional society. The narrative songs were suitable for women’s work because they were lengthy and replaced expectation and frustration with the sequence of events. Women poured out their sorrows by singing narrative songs, allowing them to forget the suffering of hard work. Narrative folk songs still have many implications in Korean society because the status and reality of women still does not match that of the democratic, equal society we believe we have achieved. However, it cannot be denied that narrative songs contributed to the movement towards gender equality in Korean society
The role of folk songs in evoking memories is evident, on both a collective and individual level. Many songs, created for certain circumstances, even historical ones, remain layered in collective memory within folklore. Later, through the analysis of folk songs that shape our collective memory, in addition to shedding light on the circumstances that caused their creation, we manage to discover parts of our cultural identity, our national character and our unwritten history. Ballads and folk songs preserve our national features which were formed during certain circumstances, and which memories have brought to us today. Based on this concept I will take into consideration an Albanian folk song that can be categorized as a historical ballad, which contains historical facts from an event that occurred during the Ottoman period in the Balkans. This folk song, named ‘Fryni era, u çel taraba’ [The wind blew, the fence opened], is very popular among Albanian-speaking areas in the Balkans. The Antigone motif, a sister that sacrifices herself for her brother, is what characterizes this ballad, and reveals other features of the community’s national character such as honor, hospitality, revenge, etc. Its presence in Albanian-speaking oral tradition is very old and long, while also becoming very successful in theatre as dramas and ballets. Based on qualitative inquiry, where data collection and data analysis techniques are combined to provide a deep and comprehensive understanding of why and how things happen, I will try to raise these issues: What is the role of folklore in preserving the memories of a community? What events should become folk songs or ballads to remain in collective memory? What ‘feeds’ it to stay alive? The theoretical framework will be built on the works of authors Jan Vansina, Paul Thompson, Maurice Halbwachs, David C. Rubin, Joseph Von Hammer, Ahmet Qeriqi, Ndoc Selimi, Rrustem Berisha, Harry Hodgkinson.
The centenary of the end of the Great War, the War of Nations, First World War, has multiple meanings, expressed concretely in European geopolitics. This event, which occupies an exceptional position in the history of the last century, has led to the appearance in folklore of an epic-lyric category with specific features, Songs of Military and War. In Romanian folk literature, there is an impressive number of such poetic texts. Along with other categories of war memories — personal histories, family histories, and the versified songs of the soldiers, they make up a unitary and rich chapter of war folklore. In the occupied areas there were requisitions of all kinds: clothes, food, animals, objects, and especially bronze objects for the manufacture of weapons. Such a requisition took place in the village of Poiana Sibiului in Transylvania in which the villagers attended a funeral-like ceremony bidding farewell to the bells in song, ‘The Song of the Bells’.
Over the centuries there have been a number of attempts, for economic, political and religious reasons, to create Welsh settlements overseas. The most successful of these, in terms of longevity at least, and perhaps the best known of all Welsh emigration ventures, was the establishment in 1865 of a Welsh Settlement in Patagonia, in what is now the Province of Chubut in Argentina, where perhaps as many as 5,000 of the inhabitants still speak Welsh fluently or have some ability with the language. The preservation of Welsh identity was central to the Patagonian project, which aimed to create a new Welsh-speaking, self-governing Wales overseas, founded on Christian and democratic principles. From the outset, songs played an important role in fostering the ideals that inspired the founders of the Settlement, ideals that would come progressively under threat as the Argentine government increasingly asserted its authority over the Settlement, promoting Argentinian identity and replacing Welsh with Spanish as the medium of education. This paper gives an overview of the development of the Welsh Settlement in Chubut down to the present day, focussing especially on the role of song in nurturing the dream of the Settlement’s founders.
Narrative songs with regards to the theme called ‘murdered sweetheart”, are part of a wider repertoire of murder ballads that circulated in England, Scotland, Ireland, and North America. It is through these Murdered Sweetheart Ballads (cf. Wilgus 1979), that the balladeer informed the listeners about the tragic consequences of non-standard behavior in certain social contexts, such as: pregnancy out of wedlock in patriarchal communities. Murder ballads that contain specific references to facts which occurred in real life (such as the representative case of the assassination of Naomi Wise in Randolph County, back in 1808) passed mainly (through not only) in oral music contexts; despite the transient nature of the singing itself, the meanings behind certain verbal expressions were transmitted and finally preserved in sound recordings released from the early twentieth century onwards. These traditional patterns, that are related to the controversial imagery of women murdered by men and developed in both oral and written traditions, were gradually revised, transposed, and reinterpreted in popular culture by musicians who were engaged within the recording industry as well as filmmakers—each applying their own understanding with regards to this sensitive subject.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is perceived by many as simply an adventuristic endeavor of Vladimir Putin and the result of his desire to maintain his personal power in Russia itself and extend his influence beyond its borders. Proponents of such views try to explain Vladimir Putin’s appeal to Russian chauvinism and its ideologues as purely situational and populist, and present the current regime in Russia as opportunistic and lacking a clear ideology and ideological goals. This paper however argues that Vladimir Putin’s policy towards Ukraine, including the war unleashed against it, stems from his doctrinal views, which have been unequivocally outlined by him over the years in various speeches and articles, but ignored by the world due to a flippant attitude towards them. These views have not only a historical dimension, but also an ethnological one, as they are based on a certain and very specific understanding of Russian and Ukrainian ethnicities, which is an arbitrary combination of primordialist and constructivist arguments. Along with the presentation of these views themselves, the article demonstrates the discrepancy between the propaganda myths resulting from them and the actual facts about Russian and Ukrainian political and ethnic history.
The Lemkos, a distinctive ethnic group with roots in the Carpathian Mountains, have forged a unique cultural identity shaped by their language, traditions, and historical experiences. This study delves into the intricate dynamics of the „Łemkowska Watra“ (Lemko Bonfire), a symbol embodying both unity and division among the Lemko community. Originating in 1983, the Watra marks a renaissance of Lemko identity, resonating with communities worldwide. However, it also serves as a poignant illustration of the divisions within the Lemko community. This research scrutinizes the contrasting perspectives of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Rusyn factions, revealing how differing national affiliations have shaped Lemko identity.
According to Gellner the raison d’être of nationalism is the (nation) state. This has been gradually achieved in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania through the disintegration of colonial and multi-national empires. The nation-building process was accompanied and enabled by national languages. Many colonial languages remained (the Americas, most of Africa, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa before and after apartheid, and post-independence English imposed on Namibia). Ironically, English is now the main language of the EU while UK is no more a member. Iran reacted to speedy westernisation by Islamic revolution. Arab „revolutions“ are reactions to secular regimes of capitalist or socialist kinds. Basically the nation state, though many declare its demise, is a very successful invention. The present neo-nationalism is the reaction to supranational integration imposed by economic globalisation or late imperial ideological interests. The Soviet Union fell apart for various reasons but neo-nationalist states such as Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltic states or even the autonomous Tatarstan are now thriving2 . China still keeps its empire together but may eventually face nationalist explosions on its margins. The European Union is under threat of late because various neo-nationalist elites find unbearable the super-state trends and economic neoliberalism of bureaucratic cosmopolites. Nationalism is a populist doctrine by definition that was framed by democratic polities. Neo-nationalism, however, uses populism as a substitute for liberal democracy3 . The result could be closed national societies that (once again) become prone to military solutions of their differences.
Memories of the poor and impoverished in Serbian and South Slavic oral poetry are linked to contradictory beliefs: poverty is explained by reasons of fate, some offence, sin, or misfortune, however, the poor (as well as orphans, widows, wretched, etc.) are considered to be intermediaries between this world and the next, therefore close to God and the ancestors, and who possess certain healing and miraculous powers. These beliefs are merged and intermixed with other ideas about the poor, which entered oral tradition through human experience and everyday life, and were influenced by historical, social and economic changes (the poor who do not work or do not wish to contribute to their community, become a social threat and their lifestyle and use of welfare are disapproved of). In Serbian and South Slavic folk songs and ballads, representations of the poor and impoverished are diverse regarding aspects, such as, the selection of motifs and genre, time, place, context of recording, etc. Representations of the poor and impoverished in Serbian and South Slavic oral poetry vary from tragic to comic, from idealistic to ironic, or the subject can be depicted from a moral or realist standpoint. Poverty is usually related to the person’s private life, his or her feelings and moods, and may reflect their attitudes toward family, nature, community or society. Different portrayals of the poor and impoverished may reveal personal experiences, collective customary law and practices, way of life, ethical and religious norms, a system of values, as well as psychological motivation or background. Special attention will be paid to poverty as a fact of daily life, and to realistic details which make the songs and the characters particularly convincing and vivid.
Every year leading up to Victory Day on 9 May, Russian screens, large and small, show feature films, documentaries, and miniseries about the Second World War. These films have helped unify Russian citizenry and develop patriotism. The year 2015 proved to be notable for war cinematography: three feature films and one twelve-part miniseries premiered in honour of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. While all of these cinematic releases retell or engage with wellknown narratives, these remakes reflect tensions surrounding the conflict that erupted in Ukraine following years of increasing strained relations with Russia. ‘Performing Identities and Negotiating Memory in Contested Spaces: Ukrainian Folk Songs in Contemporary Russian War Films’ analyses the incorporation a Ukrainian folksongs into Sergei Mokritskii’s feature film Battle for Sevastopol and Leonid Pliaskin’s twelve-part miniseries, The Young Guard. In every cinematized version of The Young Guard, music has played a significant role. The author asks how directors use these songs to respond to the annexation of Crimea and conflict that erupted in the Donbas in 2014 as the films take place in these two regions. Contextualizing her analysis in scholarship related to collective memory, nationality, nostalgia, and intertextuality, she argues that the directors use the films to take two different approaches: symbolically reuniting the Soviet Union in film one and appropriating a Ukrainian song to underscore suffering caused by Ukrainian and German ‘fascists’ in the other.
There is a category of English folk song called the Broken Token song, in which an article (often but not always a ring) is broken in two, one half each to be kept by lovers upon their separation, generally because the male lover has to join the armed forces (mostly navy) or seek his fortune (also often on a merchant ship). The present study investigates the purpose of the ring-faithfulness to each other, or recognition (jogging memory) after a period apart. Was it so easy to "forget" the person one loved in days before the camera and the photograph?
In this article I want to show a changing perspective on my role as an anthropologist in the field connected with social forestry in Poland. From doing research on the democratic environmental project called The Model Forest — where my role was limited to the evaluation of project activities — I move to the group of forest activists in Poznań and get engaged in its running. I become an anthropologist working with the people and interacting with them in a more-than-human society. We create stories based on relationships other than utility — trying to be attentive to forest socialites. In my view, this is the role of the modern anthropologist — staying with and imagining better worlds together.
For a long time the world has campaigned against child labour, both with local and global efforts. These initiatives however tend to ignore contextual forces such as, specific socio-cultural contexts and societal interpretation of child labour. Scholarship on this subject uncovers several circumstances, reasons, consequences, processes, and challenges of child labour among different communities in Africa. Extant literature also reveals information regarding the complexities of sociocultural dimension in examining child labour practices. Building on the already existing evidence, this paper uncovers sociocultural complexity in explaining child labour practices among semi nomadic pastoral Wataturu communities in Igunga. The paper exploits various information collected through library and archival research, participant observation, and oral interviews to demonstrate how sociocultural set up of Wataturu challenges the mainstream approach to the claimed child labour practices.
Established in 2008, the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Network “supports cities in reviewing their policies — and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realize the diversity advantage” (ICC, 2018). According to their website, the ICC approach “helps build trust between members of the community through policies which encourage mixing, interaction and participation” (ibid). More than a hundred cities are now members of the ICC network, but their discourse — based on dialogue and trust — is challenged by another apparently contradictory discourse. According to Asa and Yaari (2014), two Israeli military experts, the era of wars between nationstates has passed, but has not brought about a kind of ‘world peace’ as expected. What has emerged are the ‘new wars’ — which are conducted within a civilian environment, between the authorities and enemies who are citizens of the state or its residents. Unlike the ‘enemy of the past’, who could be identified by means of his uniform, language, appearance or simply being a foreigner, the new enemies are hard to recognize, as, in the age of globalization, the cosmopolitan city is full of aliens — most of whom, of-course, are not enemies at all. (Asa and Yaari, 2014). According to Arjun Appadurai (2006) the globalization process makes it very difficult to define who ‘we’ are and who ‘they’ are, thus creating feelings of constant uncertainty. This is the discourse of mistrust and suspicion, which challenges the ICC’s discourse of trust and dialogue. The current paper is part of a PhD research done in the years 2015–2018 for the Haifa University Anthropology Department, supervised by Prof. Amalia Sa’ar. It was based on about 20 interviews with integration officers in European cities which are members of the ICC network, as well as observations in different conferences and trainings held by the organization. The paper examines the complex and fascinating ways these two discourses challenge each other, contradict, react or get entangled with one another in trying to deal with the reality of these years of terror.
