VENETS: the Belogradchik journal for local history, cultural heritave and folk studies

309-321

Authors: D. Rangelova

H. Rheyngold (1993) introduces the concept of "electronic agora", claiming that virtual communities act on the square - an open space where it all happens. The theoretical framework of this paper will be set by the theory of Schutz for multiplication of reality and will build on the theory of Muggleton virtual identity. Commonwealth in Bulgaria communicates in a parallel to the real world to the virtual. Through virtual identity can reinvent itself, moving freely between multiple online roles, to be the opposite sex, younger, older, anonymous and thus to avoid the presentation of the true self. What roles occupy the British in Bulgaria in the early 21st century in cyberspace and how it used? Do they experiment with their identity? Do they develop strong relationships in social groups? Answers to these questions will be looking for in this study.

339-353

Authors: Z. Stoyanova

This paper is an attempt to show the culturally constructed boundary between women and men and how socialism blurs these boundaries. Women are officially recognized as equal citizens, including creators of the socialist state par with men. How it is possible this combination of male-female traits? How women think and feel about themselves during this period? These are just some of the questions that I try to give an answer.

372-391

Authors: P. Chaushev

From the Ancient times Danube River acts as stabile and almost uncontested Northern border of Bulgarian lands. For a very long period it divides different populations speaking different languages, developing different cultures and political units. In the same times Danube River unites it is both banks by cheap and easy to manage transportation. More than this Danube as a liquid border connects populations from the both banks with Central Europe serving as a vehicle for people, goods, money and ideas. The aim of this article is to explore one particular segment of culture connections - the evolution of traditional jewelry from 19th to early 20th century in the region of Northern Bulgaria and Southern Romania. The focus is on snake or dragon motifs carved on belt buckles originated from both sides of the border. This and related believes and cult practices reveals close cultural and commercial ties crossing Danube River. During my research I came across material that showed that those motifs were found in several Balkan countries (Serbia and Greece). The decoration of this traditional jewelry is typical for the Orient, but it is common among the Christian population of the Balkan Peninsula. It shows that in those times the Danube River was acting mostly as natural, not as a political or cultural border.

408-424

Authors: N. Toshmakova

Libraries are fundamental institutions for the life under socialism in Bulgaria (1944-1989). They provide studies and readings for big part of society. This is time when television was very rare in Bulgarian homes and the newspapers were totally controlled by Communist party. This way a library served as the main source of information. Seemingly ordinary cultural centers, they become a powerful tool in the hands of the communist state. They are the ones who are actively worked to impose new socialist thinking trough setting limits on access to readers and therefore control the flow of information. The aim of this article is to trace the influence of restricted by communist censorship institution Glavlit literature. Or to put it another way – what was the role of censorship in the process of establishment of borders created by prohibited access to scientific information.

442-455

Authors: B.V. Toshev

This is a book for the participation of Bulgaria in the First World War (1915-1916). The compilers have collected a large number of stories for martial feats of Bulgarian officers and soldiers at the fronts of the war. These stories were published in different sources during or after the war.

159-184

Authors: I. Markov

Normally nature is examined as a phenomenon which is subject to natural laws; it belongs to the field of natural sciences. In constructivist perspective the environment is subsumed under the symbolism of humans’ tradition and culture. From such point of view the very notion of nature is unthinkable without taking into account its existence and understanding in a specific social, economic and cultural context of definite time, space and society. In the proposed paper I proceed from this paradigm in examination of a definite natural landscape which, however, is divided by the political border. The research attention is focused on a region of Bulgarian-Serbian borderlands – the area where the Erma River flows. The river takes its sources in Serbia and though it is not very long, it is notable for passing the Bulgarian-Serbian border twice, and for its two remarkable gorges – the Gorge of Tran in Bulgaria and the Gorge of Poganovo in Serbia. During the socialist period this border region was under strong military and police control. The crossing of the border was formally impossible; the borderlands remained peripheral industrially undeveloped areas and were putted under strong depopulation. However, the lands on either side of the border preserved its pristine nature. During the last two decades the preserved natural landscape and certain nature objects have been turned into more important landmarks and included in the value scale of local communities as symbols and heritage. In result, the above mentioned gorges have become more important part of strategic priorities in the local policies of revival of these economically undeveloped borderlands in the Western Bulgaria and Eastern Serbia. Nowadays the local efforts are uniting through different joint cross-border projects and activities in the sphere of nature preservation and eco-tourism.

213-228

Authors: I. Eftimova

The subject of the article is the ethnic boundary maintenance. It focuses on shared criteria for evaluation and judgment or cultural differences which can persist despite inter-ethnic contact and interdependence according to Frederic Barth. Ethnographic fieldwork is a very suitable way for the identification of the cultural evaluations and the boundary maintaining mechanisms. It is constructed through the living experience in a social and cultural environment as well as the historical context. The article presents life cycle celebrations (birth, marriage and funeral customs) considering that heritage process of the main cultural differences is seen most clearly in family through socialization. The examples are from two villages in Northeast Bulgaria where compact groups of Bulgarian Muslims – Sunnis and so-called Pomaks live.

259-279

Authors: O.S. Omoera

Today hundreds of indigenous movies are produced yearly in Benin, Ebira, Fulfulde, Ijaw, among other hinterland Nigerian languages, besides the so-called dominant Nollywood films of Igbo/English, Yoruba, and Hausa language expressions. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this paper inquires into the level of institutional support the Benin language video-film industry gets from development agents, including the government. There are so many untapped cultural, artistic, and economic potentials for Nigeria’s movie-making and entertainment industry in the hinterlands which can further boost its Unique Selling Point in the national and global arenas. Regrettably, these micro-national film cultures remain largely underexplored and under-theorized, but have been demonstrated to be representationally consequential in terms of production output, audience reception, and opportunities for contending views, and voices. It is in this respect that a fuller reflection on, and influence of issues in Nollywood film cultures have become needful. This is to enable film scholars, enthusiasts, theorists, critics, and entrepreneurs to better understand and navigate the boundless cultural, artistic and economic potentials of Nollywood against the background of the kind of support it gets/should get from relevant development agents. Focussing on the Benin film industry situation, this paper finds that a significant percentage of the sampled audience holds that the support the Benin video-film enjoys is very marginal in spite of its noticeable potentials. Consequently, it recommends greater support from relevant authorities for the emergent industry by way of provision of accessible credit facilities, training schools, and requisite technologies to strengthen the capacities of its practitioners, and enhance the production of more culturally germane Benin video-films, and ultimately contribute to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).

33-48

Authors: P.S. Petkov

The paper discusses wide accepted periodization of the modern Bulgarian history in which the wars are being used as border landmarks for beginning and end of different periods. Out of the six accepted boundary landmarks in the present periodization of our modern history from the beginning of the 18th until the middle of the 20th century, five are related to wars: the Russian-Turkish war of 1828–1829, the Crimean War of 1853–1856, the War of Liberation of 1877–1878, the wars of national unification of 1912–1918/19. The author brings forward arguments in confirmation but also reasons against some of the already accepted periodization border landmarks connected to the enumerated wars. If the chronological border landmarks are defined according to different essential criteria as for example economic development, political changes, culture change then the periodization should vary accordingly.

63-84

Authors: P. Hristov

A historic and cultural region exists at the heart of the Balkans, known in geographic and ethnographic research as Shopluk. This is a region in which, over the last 150 years, state boundaries were moved several times as a result of 5 different wars. Today, the historic Shopluk is where the borders of three nations converge – Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia – and, during the last decade, the region was declared one of the “Euroregions” on the Balkans. Despite the historical similarities in traditional culture and language of this population, in the 19th century it became a subject of nationalist ambitions and a propaganda “wars” between the new national states of Serbia and Bulgaria. The joining of Bulgarian-inhabited parts of Shopluk (the regions of today’s Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad in Serbia) to the Kingdom of Serbs, Slovenes and Croats in 1919 created a long-lasting tension between the two countries, some residues of which can be felt in everyday relations even today. On the other hand, it has been a century-long tradition for men in this region to take part in seasonal labour migrations all over the Balkan Peninsula, despite political borders. In this way, preserving their cultural and lingual specifics, the groups of seasonal workers – migrants from Shopluk, became a bridge for cultural interaction and exchange with other regions in the neighbour countries. Even though today the population of Shopluk exhibits different national identities, historical similarities in culture and language can turn the Euroregion between Nish, Sofia and Skopje from one of the poorest on the Balkans to one of the most integrated and prosperous.

111-121

Authors: J.P. Madoshi

This paper examines the novel Adili na Nduguze by Shaaban Robert. It seeks to explain how humanness is embedded in the plot of this prose fiction. The study uses Utu/Ubuntu as a theory of analyzing and explaining the events and the actions within this novel. The focus of the paper is to explore the plot of the novel in order to see how it reflects humanness (Utu/Ubuntu) as it is perceived among the Bantu. The analysis is done by examining the reason of characters appellation and the author attention to diction which shows how royal characters intervene a conflict within this creative work. Also the study examines the novel in order to provide an account of the ontological conflict of two opposing beliefs in which a city is turned into stones (Mji Uliogeuka Mawe). Lastly, the paper attempts to inspect and explain reasons why Hasidi and Mwivu, Adili two brothers are turned into baboons, subjected to severe whipping from Adili and the cause of the removal of the curse placed upon them which subsequently makes them humans again.

128-128

Authors: B.V. Toshev (Ed.)

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