Issue 2, Vol. 101 (2014)

The case study presents the analysis of Slávo markrabství (Oh, Glory of Margraviate), a folk spiritual song celebrating St. Cyril and Methodius, the patron saints of Moravia. The song was recorded in 1906 according to oral interpretation in the village of Vnorovy in Moravia. The author investigates the relationship between function, history, and music in the document. Based on historical retrospective principle, she uses the method of a monograph on a single song. She devotes herself to the relationship between the oral tradition on one side and the hand-written and printed hymn-books on the other. While the text of the song originates in a Baroque hymn-book, the melody is a contrafactum of an older penitent song Z hlubokosti mé těžkosti volám k tobě, Pane (From the Deepness of my Hardness I pray to You, Lord) and it has developed separately in oral tradition. The study documents the history of this melody and its variants in Catholic and non-Catholic folk singing within the period of more than 300 years (1948–1608). This tune became a bearer of a tradition of Lenten, funeral and pilgrimage songs. The research displays the roles of oral tradition and cultural region for the development of spiritual singing. From the conceptual point of view, it presents the opportunity for cooperation of ethnology, ethno-musicology and hymnology in the research of the song as a typical phenomenon of Czech folk spiritual music.

The focus of the research was an anthropological and archaeological rescue excavation of the site Majetín – Náves. This research was conducted by workers of Archaeological Centre Olomouc during September and October 2012. The aim of the research was to verify a potential of this site, which is located on the northern border of the village. The location is shaped like a mild terrain elevation, Calvary column was built on the top. Municipal chronicle of Majetín describes this area as a place of storage of the bodies of sixteen Napoleonic soldiers. The research was realized through archaeological probes. Trenches covered one quarter of this mound, six human bodies were found, two bodies of adult men and four children. Backfi ll of the burial mound contained sporadic bits of pottery of the Modern period. More sensitive dating material (such as parts of military equipment) wasn’t discovered. The incisors of the lower jaw of one of the men had traces of the trauma of a military origin. Quarry and grinding of the teeth were probably caused by the systematic utilization of the teeth to open paper cartridges (charge with the dose of gunpowder and bullet), that were used during the 18th and 19th century. Neither the way of the committal of the men’s corpses which was according to the principles of Christian burial rite nor the written historical sources indicate that these graves originated from combat action. Apparently the men died during the transport to a military hospital and were buried in Majetín. The children were buried later, their burials are in superposition and one of the graves of the child disturbed another soldier’s grave. The children were likely to become victims of a cholera epidemic which extended into the region between August and October 1866, after the Battle of Tovačov. The inhuming of all the bodies corresponded to the principles of Christian burial practices, nevertheless they weren’t buried in consecrate ground and the regulations of the time required burials in cemeteries. Observed situation is probably connected with the necessity to solve the crisis situation of the epicemics from part of the relatives.

Associations of foreigners are generally presented as platforms for meetings, information exchange and social networking. But they are also cultural identity holders and centres for altruistic help and solidarity. During the integration process the associations of foreigners may as well help to reduce the socio-economic disorientation of immigrants in the host society and to facilitate the insertion of immigrants in the labor market. This study offers a broad insight into the intra- community life of Sub-Saharan Africans and migrants from former Yugoslavia residing in the Czech Republic. It analyses the basic functions of associations of Sub-Saharan and ex-Yugoslav foreigners, their forms, dynamics, and effi ciency with respect to their immigration context and the economic cycle. Moreover, the study underlines to what extent the socio-cultural proximity between the country of origin and the Czech Republic and the socio-economic situation of migrants in the host society affect the creating of associations of foreigners. The research fi ndings come from electronic surveys with academicians and semi-structured interviews with both representatives of associations of foreigners and migrants themselves.

This text is focused on those Volhynian Czechs who did not return back. The Volhynian Czechs are the last members of huge Czech minority in Volhynia (territory of former Volhynia gubernia in the Russian Empire). Historical literature has so far focused mostly on the history of this minority since its arrival to Volhynia in 1868 to the return of most of its members and their settlement in Czechoslovakia around 1947. But smaller part of them didn’t return and thanks to them the Czech diaspora continues in Volhynia. At fi rst, we specify the number of those Czechs who did not return and introduce their associations and then we analyze the compatriot association Stromovka. The members of this association call themselves compatriots, but in fact this term only applies to the oldest members. Still the labelling reaches also the younger members, who identify themselves as Ukrainians. The Stromovka and its ties to Czech institutions make easier their migration to the Czech Republic. Stromovka is, therefore, a diasporic organization, whose goal (among others) is to prepare its members for return migration. Therefore, it corroborates and helps the Ukrainian migration fl ows to Central and Western Europe.

The study resumes selected results of qualitative research of cross-generational transformations of lifestyle in the region of Hlučín. Its goal is to contribute to the knowledge of the situation when modernization infl uences in the area of lifestyle meet traditional, often conservative values. Our research shows that the region of Hlučín is undergoing modernization, but it has kept some traditional features, for example intense religiosity, local endogamy and accentuation of communality. These facts prove that the modernizing social structure offers, besides limitations, also the chances that make possible the individual choice. These choices, however, are often infl uenced by the interpretation through traditional values that come from the traditional environment of the region of Hlučín. In this region, in cross-generational development leads to the weakening of the pressure for normative conformity and therefore there is no open confrontation and increase in tensions between generations. Our hypothesis that the cross-generational development leads to the weakening of the historical context and the increase in the infl uence of modernization processes, was confi rmed, equally as the hypothesis of the existence of the specifi c regional identity of Hlučín. To its formation and corroboration contributed not only a rich communal life, but also the development of folklorism.