Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the contribution of Swiss television to the invention of a modern society united in popular traditions between the 1960s and 1990s. It shows how “TV folklore” dealt with contradictions of social change and what – still retrievable – traces it left in the country’s cultural memory.

Paper long abstract:

The inseparable link between technical and social progress and cohesion through traditional popular culture has been noted time and again in Switzerland in times of crisis. Triggered by the multiple crises of the present this relationship is once again being renegotiated. This provides an opportunity to ask about the origins and effects of this relationship, also regarding a much criticized but nevertheless effective instrument.

The presentation is based on a research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation entitled “Claiming Folklore” – Politics and Practices of Folk Music on Swiss Television (1960s–1990s). Using historical-ethnographic and media-ethnographic approaches, the research examines the archives of the folklore department of SF (as state television station was called at the time) to address mechanisms of shaping and rehearsing practices of collective self-representation. Which traditions were meaningful for social cohesion, who belonged to the community, and what sounds or performances were excluded?

The social strategies and media techniques with which television succeeded in establishing a close relationship with its audience during the years under research will be examined. The focus is on the power relations between the different groups of actors (media, musicians, audience) and the impact of the staged TV performances on the cultural memory of the country, which still reverberate today. In doing so, the lecture also attempts to provide answers to the question of what specific role the uses of folklore performances have in current crises and what interpretations they are given in a current context.

Paper short abstract:

Since the end of the 20th century, some Czech musicians have been using elements of folk music to create a sense of stability in uncertain times. The paper explores motivations for such creative choices and the ways elements of traditional music are incorporated into contemporary popular genres.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1960s, musicians in various genres of popular music in the Czech lands have been looking for inspiration in traditional folk music. Even after the fall of communism in 1989, when new creative possibilities emerged, musicians keep turning to this kind of inspiration. Even though their sources might be similar, the ways they combine traditional music with elements of global popular music, be it rock, jazz, or electronic, vary considerably. Similarly, the motivations for such combinations can be varied. However, the role of traditional music as a symbol of stability and connection to “timeless roots” in complicated and uncertain times appears frequently. In my paper, I would like to show several examples of this approach and analyze how traditional music is used to invoke “good old times”, and familiarity, or to confirm the national or regional identity.

The research for this paper is based on analyses of the music itself, its lyrics, its visual presentation, and the discourse surrounding it. Examples were selected from the period between the 1990s and 2020s and include rock bands, singer-songwriters, and music used for commercials. These examples can show that the emotions carried by the elements of folk music can be sincere, but that they can also be used as a tool for commercial purposes.

Paper short abstract:

This lecture will review what allowed the formerly subaltern world of Catalonia's human towers (castells) to come to occupy a hegemonic center in expressive and folk culture: women's integration, gentrification, institutionalization, heritagization, the economic crisis, and political symbolization.

Paper long abstract:

The building of human towers (castells) is a centuries-old traditional folk sport where hundreds of men, women, and children gather in Catalan town squares to create breathtaking edifices through a feat of collective athleticism. The result is a great spectacle of effort and overcoming, tension and release. Castells has experienced a spectacular boom since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975: from just seven teams then, today more than a hundred teams build about fifteen thousand human towers a year at the festival squares of Catalonia. Furthermore, human towers have become a major symbol of the current pro-independence revival in Catalonia, as castells lend image, social base, and vocabulary to political aspirations. The story of castells is that of formerly marginal social elements shifting to the symbolic center. While folkloric practices often struggle to survive in urban modernity, castells thrive. What accounts for this redemption? This lecture will review what allowed the former subaltern to come to occupy a hegemonic center in Catalan expressive culture: women's integration, gentrification, institutionalization, heritagization, the economic crisis and other precarities, as well as the Catalanist political turn allowed castells to modernize, have relevance, and belong with the twenty-first century. This lecture will critically assess the benefits and risks of these developments.

Paper short abstract:

From the perspective of ethnomusicology, or anthropology of music, the paper will demonstrate the significance of minority music, dance and other selected and rediscovered traditions from migrantsʼ homeland as certainties in the uncertain time.

Paper long abstract:

Vienna has historically been, and still is, one of the most preferred destinations for labour and politically motivated migration of both Czechs and Slovaks. The spectrum of minority organisations still includes the old neighbourly associations founded around the middle of the 19th century. For more than fifty years, associations of emigrants and exiles founded in the wake of the turbulent events of 1968 and the subsequent normalisation in Czechoslovakia have cultivated their own activities. However, the current minority community is led by members of the middle and younger generation of Czechs and Slovaks who came to Vienna after the fall of the Iron Curtain or even just in the last few years. It is they who have created the most active and visible musical and dance world of Czech and Slovak Vienna today over the last decade. A key source of activity is the selected and purposefully manipulated manifestations of Czech and Slovak musical and dance folklore. The Czechs and Slovaks in Vienna conceive of folklore not only as a rediscovered cultural heritage of their original homeland and a symbolic identity marker related to it. The various expressions and references to folklore also provide them with existential security, the importance and powerful development of which has been greatly intensified by the coronavirus pandemic. This paper will discuss, in terms of recent ethnomusicological research, the role of folkloric elements that people turn to in uncertain times.

Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at how the local folkloric tradition serves as a political tool in the discourse of the sovereigntist by creating a sense of evisaged stability employing strategies of in-group polarisations.

Paper long abstract:

In a world dominated by 'polycrisis' (J. C. Junker 2016) the need to find some stability manifests with an increasing force and one of the tools appears to be the 'return to the roots'. However, in some cases this return comes with the recontextualization, reinterpretation, reframing, and sometimes, invention of local heritage.

Although in many cases, the revitalisation of the vernacular cultures creates a sense of natural belonging to a community, there are sufficient examples in which the transformations of the local cultures tend to carve smaller groups based on a conjunctural interests which transcend common sense of security in a moving world. This is the case of sovereigntist and right-wing political undertakings which create a new form of tradition by selection and, simultaneously, by polarisation, build smaller group with a new sense of safety against imagined insecurities.

This paper proposes to analyse the recomposed local 'traditions' during the wedding of one of the leaders of the Romanian right-wing and sovereigntist party AUR (Alliance for the Union of the Romanians) aimed at joining together those who 'fell Romanian' in the 'imagined community' of globalisation opposers. The analysis will focus on the settings, the actors, the attires, the food, the ritual songs and stages of the wedding and, additionally, will draw a comparison with another similar event, the wedding of the pre-WWII leader of the Romanian fascist, orthodox, nationalistic party.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss musical production and performance in indigenous languages by refugees from Darfur, Sudan, who reside in Israel. It will explore their relevance to ethnic and other identities among Darfuris, as well as their function within processes of community formation in exile.

Paper long abstract:

Among Darfuri Sudanese refugees in Israel, music and musical performances, usually accompanied by dance and other folkloristic expressions, play an important role in the process of ethnic identity consolidation, diasporic group formation, and local community building. This is especially evident when music is created and performed in Darfuri indigenous styles and languages, such as those of the Fur people, an act which is associated with resistance to exclusion, oppression, and the cultural hegemony of the Arabic language in Sudan.

In the Israeli context of tremendous hardships imposed by the host state, producing and performing music brings a sense of home and belonging to refugees, and is a source of pride to those who participate. Performances at cultural, social, and private events are frequent, as the dull venue underneath the shady central station of Tel Aviv becomes a vibrant and colorful ‘Sudanese’ space for the night. Performers and producers of music are greatly valued by their community members. In many cases, through documentation and distribution on social media, their work transcends the boundaries of the community in Israel and reaches Fur living elsewhere.

In the process of migration and cultural adaptation to changing conditions and settings, various transformations occur in what may be considered as “traditional” Fur styles. Ultimately, this contributes to the solidification of a now-established, yet relatively new performative tradition for this ethnic community.

Based on fieldwork, content analysis, and long-term familiarity with the Fur community in Israel, my paper will shed light on and contextualize the aforementioned issues.

Paper short abstract:

The joint performances by a contemporary group of South Bohemian bagpipers, and their social activities, give rise to questions about the new role of traditional folklore in today’s society, in particular with regard to the development of regional identity and the community’s sustainability.

Paper long abstract:

It was only in 2010 that an informal association of South Bohemian bagpipers (Budějcké dudácké sdružení) was established, representing a rare platform for contact among artists, and for the sharing and transformation of the bagpipe music tradition. The group, which consists of members of folklore ensembles from South Bohemia alongside independent individuals interested in Bohemian bagpipe play, offers public collective performances, its set-up of instruments being so unlike the traditional band composition. Their appearances include festivals, concerts and revived traditional music events (carol rounds, harvest festivals, weddings).

The establishment of the group and its mission have had foreign inspirations (Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia); a further incentive has been the artists’ internal need for sharing performance skills and expertise. This phenomenon involves some genuinely practical issues, including production of instruments and ensuring accurate tuning for better harmony, or developing repertoires of bagpipe songs and melodies; of crucial importance are the venues where music activities are to take place, as prior to 1989 they were restricted to the relatively closed community of the folklore movement. The association brings together musicians of all ages, allowing for a truly natural intergenerational dialogue, represents a natural mix of residents of small South Bohemian villages as well as cities, and has a fair representation of female performers, unprecedented in Bohemian bagpipe playing. Other important issues include the creation or rethinking of the regional identity and new roles of the bagpipe in the cultural and social representation of the South Bohemian Region and the Czech Republic.

Paper short abstract:

In the paper, the author will present, through selected examples of vernacular theater performances in Slovenia, why, how and in what way communities draw material for their (re)interpreted theatre performances. And what role plays a vernacular theater in the life of a community.

Paper long abstract:

In recent decades we have witnessed the (re)invented and (re)interpreted past elements, which often include various forms of vernacular performing activities of individual communities. Awareness of the value of a custom, dance, song and other forms of performing arts, the need to restore, revive and preserve "lost" things and display memories, thus leading to their performance on stage.

In the paper, the author will present, through selected examples of vernacular theater activity in the Slovenia, how and in what way the actors draw material for their theatre performance. An important segment represents the content, since the cases are the presentation of material relating to (local) folklore, which may include knowledge of customs and traditions, dance, songs and narratives. The author will show that performing such an act affects the life of the whole community, and it also reflects on a daily basis.

Their own folklore, which is known to the whole community, thus becomes an inspiration to the creators of vernacular theatre; and since heritage is most familiar to people, they grew up with it, lived with it, therefore it is close to them for materialization through staging. It will be shown how the materialization of past events, in seeking for identity, is carried out on different levels, everything from the choice of place and time of performance, through the appropriate clothing appearance, the use of props to the spoken words themselves, i.e. a performance in dialect.

Paper short abstract:

The Randwick Wap, England, provides an example of a folk custom that both evolves to represent the contemporary community, while tying it to a point in the past. Through interviews, oral histories, and observation I will examine and present how the Wap has contributed to the village community.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents one of the rural folk customs that is central to my research, examining folk customs in southwest England and their relationship to the communities in which they take place. The Randwick Wap, held in Randwick, Gloucestershire, was revived in 1972 following its cessation at the end of the 19th century due to accusations of licentious behaviour and waning interest. The custom celebrated the 50th anniversary of its revival in 2022 and has evolved from the somewhat homogenised revived Wap of the 1970s into an event that celebrates the community of Randwick in a distinct way. I will examine the ways that the Wap has changed since its revival in order to continue as a custom that celebrates the changes to the village, while providing a tether to heritage.

My research is being conducted through oral histories and qualitative interviews with organisers, participants, and attendees as well as field work observations of the Wap and its contemporary format. I will explore why it continues to be an important part of the cultural calendar, and how it has become entwined with the village’s identity. The Wap provides an example of how folk customs can provide a temporary alternative to modern life, and also serve to create and strengthen local community. By using first-hand accounts from those directly involved in the custom, I will place the focus directly onto the community and use their words to best explain the ongoing importance of this custom and others like it.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines Pennsylvania Dutch oral histories recorded at the annual Kutztown Folk Festival, the oldest continuous folklife festival in the United States. Participants recount growing up Pennsylvania Dutch and attending the folk festival, narrating festival folklore and identity.

Paper long abstract:

The Kutztown Folk Festival is the oldest continuously held folklife festival in the United States, having been established in 1950 as the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival by preeminent American folklife and folklore scholars, Alfred Schoemaker, J. William Frey, and Don Yoder, the father of the American Folklife movement. The purpose of the Folk Festival was to present the folk culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch (also referred to as the Pennsylvania Germans) through enactments (and not re-enactments) of their practices; participants are “bearers of the culture” (Donmoyer 2019). The festival has undergone numerous iterations under different festival directors; regardless of these changes, the festival remains an annual touchstone for many families in the area in their roles as participants, volunteers, and attendees, so much so that the annual return to the festival itself serves as an ethnic ritual. Beginning in 2015, the seminar stage, an original feature of the festival, has provided a space for people to provide oral histories about what it means to have grown up Pennsylvania Dutch, and what the Kutztown Folk Festival has meant for them. In this regard, the Kutztown Folk Festival is now generating its own folklore, an addition to the body of lore for this distinctly American ethnic group who date to the beginning of the eighteenth century. This presentation addresses the role of these oral histories in generating a new area of focus for the examination of Pennsylvania Dutch belonging and identity in the twenty-first century.

Paper short abstract:

Festivals as spaces for the performance of group identifications are examined using the example of the Slovenian folklore festival Jurjevanje in Črnomelj. The paper focuses on how the festival is used to present the selective past in order to shape the future development of the local community.

Paper long abstract:

Festivals are often understood as spaces for the articulation, performance, and rediscovery of group identifications. They enable collective representation and its celebration. Slovenia's oldest nationally and internationally known folklore festival, Jurjevanje in Črnomelj, was founded in 1964 as a showcase for the 19th century folk dances from the Bela Krajina region. Over the years, the festival has expanded and evolved, and is now promoted as "a blend of the traditional and the modern, the local and the global, all in the spirit of sustainable and holistic development of the town of Črnomelj, its residents and visitors"

In this paper, I explore the question of what identifications have been represented in the festival over time and how they have changed. Since the festival was primarily advertised as safeguarding the regional dance, song, and music heritage, the question arises as to which festival actors were most influential in reflecting and presenting the past in order to shape the future. And what and whose developmental goals and strategies for creating a stable future for the region were pursued through the festival? More broadly, I will focus on the extent to which the folklore festival in Črnomelj is a place where the articulation of the politics of identification and the development potential of the local community is possible and acceptable.

Paper short abstract:

The question of belonging emerges in 1990s in Czech Republic after the socio-political changes. In urban settings the people are seeking for the possibility how to stimulate the live in a common space and the elements of carnival become helpful to create a scape for sharing.

Paper long abstract:

The process of carnivalization has its counterparts in many countries in Europe and beyond, and it is always interesting to see which elements of the carnival are instrumentalized to harmonize with the appropriate environment and time. Among the many polysemous elements of this polysemic form, those that can become part of the ritual language are deliberately selected.

The paper will focus on the observation of carnivals held since the 1990s in Prague, where their contemporary constructs become a tool for individual districts to make visible certain groups of inhabitants and their visions. The aim is usually to emphasize the connection to a given locality through the preservation of its memory. This is done by seeking out local sources of cultural memory, often embedded in traditional music and dance, sometimes by emphasizing sites of memory and local specificities, or by reinforcing collective memory through the creation of collectively selected and accepted rural cultural expressions of the pre-industrial period (masks, music, dance, food, clothing...).

We ask to what extent this expressive culture helps to form a strong attachment to a place, to possibly locate and satisfy the need to belong somewhere. At the same time, it raises the question of the ways in which the formation of a local community, which often becomes a kind of security, albeit a fluid one, in an uncertain world, takes place in this way, and how this community helps to counteract anomie and other consequences of the uncertainty and unsettledness of a mobile world.

Paper short abstract:

In Slovenia's only region known for the circle dance kolo, the Bela Krajina, a shift can be observed in the presentation of traditions by the local folklore ensemble since the socio-political changes of 30 years ago: from an emphasis on the circle dance kolo to couple round dances in recent time.

Paper long abstract:

The folk dance and music traditions of the peripheral part of present-day Slovenia, the Bela Krajina region, have been essential for creating identities by Slovenes over the last 100 years in expressive culture and the activities of folklore groups and ensembles. In the socialist period, the tradition of kolo was particularly prominent, as it linked Slovenes with other South Slavic nations of the former common state, where kolo was and still is the predominant traditional dance form (in contrast to Slovenia, where this position is held by the couple dance).

After the socio-political changes occurring 30 years ago, there was a reconsideration of the tradition, which is reinterpreted on stage especially by the folklore ensembles from Bela Krajina. This has led to a focus on dance traditions linking Bela Krajina more closely to the traditional dance culture of the central Slovenian area. Instead of circle dancing the kolo, folklore ensembles have been stated to emphasize the tradition of round dances now.

The presentation is based on an analysis of the activities of the Bela Krajina folklore ensemble, its conceptual changes, and its efforts to reinterpret the regional tradition. Nevertheless, the images of the Bela Krajina folk music and dance tradition, especially outside the region, often remain stereotypical and are perpetuated by ever-new re-reproductions.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the multiple levels of meaning of Sa Murra Game in Sardinia, experiencing renewed interest and diffusion. It's a traditional game, fast and competitive. We present a cross-disciplinary research on the anthropological, bio-physiological and cognitive processes it activates

Paper long abstract:

Sa Murra is an ancient hand game still very popular in rural Sardinia, Italy. The game is fast, highly competitive, and currently it is considered by many Sardinians as a part of their core traditions and identity. This paper presents an ethnographic reflection on a cross-disciplinary research connecting cognitive neuroscience and humanities.

Formerly played by inland shepherds, therefore mostly by men, sa Murra has been often stigmatized because of its connection with “balentia”, a traditional form of bravado that can sometimes assume aggressive manifestations. Sa Murra was labelled as illegal gambling and prohibited by law for centuries. Nowadays, we see a rediscovery and a sort of rehabilitation of the game. For example, we assist to the blossoming of cultural associations and Murra tournaments in public events and more involvement of female players. It seems that sa Murra is progressively losing its stigma of an uncouth game to become a way to promote local communities and face-to-face encounters in a world of dis-embodied globalized relationships. Sa Murra fosters Sardinia’s identity by renewing agropastoral traditions from the rural internal zones often presented as the “true Sardinia” and the affirmation of an independent culture emerging from a post-colonial context. 

Our research is conducted in collaboration with local communities and cultural associations, who recognize the value of exploring the psychophysiological and cognitive processes involved in the game. Indeed, the fast fetaures of Sa Murra makes it an ideal testbench for the study of decision making, working memory, development of mathematical skills and artificial intelligence.