Current issue

The fundamental social contact of a child includes his or her family and immediate environment, which influences the development of his or her personality and affects his or her cultural and social integration. These influences are gradually extended by the school and teachers who guide the child to adopt not only new knowledge but also life standards and values, including those based on folk traditions. The presented study aims at answering questions dealing with the role of the school as an educating and often the only cultural institution in the village, in the period of the changing position of the school and teacher in the community. It addresses the influence of the teacher on children in the realm of folk culture transfer and on the tie between and teacher, the pupil, and the region where they are active. Using theoretical basis, the text presents particular examples in Horňácko, a noticeable region in the southeast Moravia, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Although contemporary research shows the influence of regional education and national Framework Curricula for School Education, individual approaches of particular teachers are dominant.

The Slovácko verbuňk is a solo male dance of jumping nature. Originally, it was part of military recruiting and was danced by soldiers or, much more often, by the recruiters. Verbuňk had many functions. Some of them, for example the psychological and the symbolic and social ones, have already disappeared, some others, such as the identification, erotic, and competitive ones have survived to date. It is due to the competitive feature of the dance that a “dance race” has been organized at the International Folklore Festival in Strážnice since its foundation; the Festival has given rise to the Contest for the Best Dancer of the Slovácko Verbuňk. This has significantly changed the form of the Slovácko verbuňk - for example, the Contest has supressed the improvisation, but increased the awareness of the dance and attracted many dancers who want to learn it. The performance of the Slovácko verbuňk by child dancers is a phenomenon of the last twenty years. This fact has its supporters and opponents among Slovácko verbuňk dancers and leaders of folk ensembles.

Applying the micro-historical approach, the presented study maps fifteen years of the renewed tradition of Královničky [Little Queens] in the Slovácko village of Svatobořice-Mistřín (District of Hodonín, Czech Republic). The treatise contains an analysis of transformations that the custom has undergone for the quite short time of its existence. Attention was paid both to the initiating impetuses and motivations leading to the revival, and to the role of persons and groups that have taken part in organizing the custom. One of the major objectives was to analyse the social and other functions that the Královničky (tied to Pentecost) are fulfilling towards the actors and the whole local community.

The baptismal cap was the most decorative and costly part of the baptismal garment. It was often given to the mother of the newborn by the grandmother or godmother and often passed down through generations. In families, caps were kept as a precious memento of the earliest period of the childs life, and the reinforced form of many of them undoubtedly contributed to thein preservation. A not very extensive, but nevertheless interesting collection of caps is kept in the Vysočina Museum in Pelhřimov. When examined, it proved necessary to place them in a broader historical and cultural context. The introductory chapters are therefore devoted to the connection between the use of the baptismal cap and the hooded garment, while the next part is devoted primarily to the question of the protective elements that were applied to these headdresses. Due to the abundance of preserved knitted and crocheted caps, one of the chapters also deals with the aforementioned techniques, especially the lace type of knitting. In the last chapter, selected pieces from the Pelhřimov collection are presented, the description of which usually also refers to more general topics related to baptismal caps.

Housing construction in Czechoslovakia began to grow in the 1940s, which was reflected in the increased number of flats and improved housing standards. This growth was made possible mainly due to the construction of blocks of flats. Although in the countryside, in contrast to the cities, people predominantly lived in their own family houses, the construction of apartment blocks also contributed to the increase in capacity there. However, the experience from the 1940s and 1950s shows negative impacts of adopting the projects for blocks of flats which were designed for the city and the urban way of life and did not suit rural residents, who had different working patterns and needs. In the 1960s, an intensive dialogue between local participants, architects, and the authorities took place, leading to the adaptation of the apartment block concept to the needs of agricultural workers. The adaption concerned both the external appearance, which had to respect the village environment, and the internal layout. The adapted projects included separate rooms for residents to wash themselves after their return from fields and gardens, and storage compartments for foods and livestock feed. Attention was also paid to the surroundings, where buildings related to residents’ farming activities were designed (small animal breeding, working in the gardens and small fields). The willingness to conduct the dialogue and to adapt the projects for rural blocks of flats disappeared in the 1970s as a result of the normalization and gradual improvement in agricultural workers’ living standards.

The local Gypsies and the Gypsies coming to the country from Upper Hungary (present- day Slovakia) practiced mainly blacksmith’s trade. They produced a variety of blacksmith’s products, in the production of which guild blacksmiths were not involved or not able to make such products. A funnel for force-feeding geese is a recently identified product of the Hungarian Gypsies.