<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The study ‘Current Manifestations of the Ethnic Identity of Transylvanian Saxons’ presents this ethnic minority in Romania. Based on the theoretical concepts of T. H. Eriksen, it deals with the issues of the ethnic identity and its contemporary manifestations in the culture of Transylvanian Saxons. Information gathered during the qualitative field research make it possible to capture changes in the manifestations of the ethnic identity and the relationship between the minority and the majority culture. As a result of modernization processes and large-scale emigration, there has been a change of the group’s mentality, with traditional behaviour patterns and models of social coexistence disintegrating. The need has arisen to revise the ethnic identity of the community. The observed aspects of the ethnic identity include ethnicity and Saxon self-concept, Saxon dialect, Saxon Evangelical Church, festivities, minority education and interethnic relations. Attention is also paid to the opinions of Saxon politicians and intellectuals of the current situation of the society and its future direction.</abstract>

Current Manifestations of the Ethnic Identity of Transylvanian Saxons

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Tanzania’s Rural Development Policy which encompassed, among other things, establishment of well-planned <italic>Ujamaa</italic> villages across the country, was a nation-wide agenda implemented immediately after the Arusha Declaration of 1967. The Arusha declaration marked the actual beginning of <italic>Ujamaa,</italic> a socio-economic policy based on egalitarian principles of traditional African societies practiced in Tanzania from 1967 to the mid-1980s. Contrary to government’s intentions, the Wataturu negatively responded to this programme since it conflicted with their socio-cultural set-up. Scholarships on this subject converge on the failure and success of the programme, its ecological impact as well as land disputes and social unrest resulting from the implementation of the policy. Yet, little is known about the extent to which the socio-cultural life, perceptions, beliefs, and cattle economy determined the responses, participation and mobilization among the Wataturu (<italic>brediga</italic>) - Datooga of Igunga. This paper exploits ethno-historical accounts from Igunga district and archival materials collected as part of a PhD project to fill this gap. The paper establishes that modernisation through the resettlement scheme and establishment of <italic>Ujamaa</italic> villages were never a reality for the Wataturu who uphold their traditional socio-cultural set-up with great pride.
</abstract>

Failure of <italic>Ujamaa</italic> in Modernising Wataturu Community in Igunga from the Early 1970s to the the Mid-1980s

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> This short tribute to Ján Podolák comments on the space between two extremes: pure science and blind belief. If religion is not susceptible to scientific proof because it is a belief in an invisible world inhabited by spirits who influence human existence on earth then science in its strictest sense is the opposite of religion because it is not based on any beliefs but solely on provable facts. However, the anthropology of science should be based on the pluralism of knowledge and the seeking of truth in different cultural settings around the world. Everything human, also science, is a social and cultural phenomenon. This means that rationality is not a preserve of the Western mind only and that without falling into the trap of postmodernist excessive relativism, we should admit that rationality is not only universal but also not hierarchized evolutionistically or qualitatively by giving preference to its Western brand. Science thus ceases to be the only realm of rational knowledge. Religion in its turn is a kind of non-scientific knowledge.</abstract>

Religion and Science: What Can Anthropology Offer?

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>S<italic>atsaṅga</italic> is a public domain where ideas related to transcendence and culturallycontingent “Truth” are suggested. This paper combines a longitudinal study of Shanti Mandir’s (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.shantimandir.com">www.shantimandir.com</ext-link>) <italic>satsaṅga,</italic> with close reading of local and non-local literary theories related to the performativity of <italic>satsaṅga</italic> and the doctrine of appreciating tranquillity (<italic>śāntarasavāda</italic>). This leads to the possibility of framing <italic>satsaṅga</italic> as a <italic>rasavatkāvya</italic> (charming-literature) literary artefact; which we can regard as a type of hybrid <italic>campū-rasavat kāvya</italic>. Finally, from an interdisciplinary perspective, I provide a novel epistemological bricolage to understand the soteriological and sociological aims of <italic>satsaṅga</italic> from within the Temple of Peace (Shanti Mandir) organisation, and propose an analytical framework about how <italic>satsaṅga</italic> operates as a formal learning domain; where <italic>sādhaka</italic>-s (aspirants) attempt to gain access to a yoga-inspired disposition related to becoming (<italic>praśama</italic>), embodying and experiencing <italic>śānti</italic> (tranquillity), which occurs through learning to become <italic>śāntamūrti</italic>-s (embodiers of tranquillity) by appreciating <italic>śāntarasa</italic> (the aesthetic mood of tranquillity).</abstract>

Suggesting <italic>Śāntarasa</italic> in Shanti Mandir’s <italic>Satsaṅga</italic>: Ritual, Performativity and Ethnography in Yogaland

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> In 1998, the source materials of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas - collected over many decades with the participation of the Institute of History of Material Culture (a unit of the Polish Academy of Sciences) and several leading ethnological centres - were moved to the Cieszyn Branch of the University of Silesia (currently the Faculty of Ethnology and Education). It was then that Z. Kłodnicki, the editor of the PEA, came up with the idea to continue and finish the atlas studies. However, the work on fulfilling the PEA, the biggest project in the history of Polish ethnology, is still going on. Nowadays, the materials of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas constitute a precious, unique in the national scale, documentary base. For several years, a lively cooperation has taken place between the PEA staff (representing the Faculty of Ethnology and Education of the University of Silesia) and various cultural institutions, government and non-government organizations. The discussed projects are usually aimed at the preservation and protection of the cultural heritage of the Polish village as well as the broadly related promotion actions for activating local communities. The workers of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas since 2014 have been also implementing the Ministry grant entitled The Polish Ethnographic Atlas - scientific elaboration, electronic database, publication of the sources in the Internet, stage I (scientific supervision: Ph.D. Agnieszka Pieńczak). What is an integral assumption of the discussed project is the scientific elaboration of three electronic catalogues, presenting the PEA resources: 1) field photographs (1955-1971) 2) the questionnaires concerning folk collecting (1948-1952), 3. the published maps (1958-2013). These materials have been selected due to their documentary value. The undertaking has brought about some measurable effects, mostly the special digital platform www.archiwumpae.us.edu.pl. This material database of ethnographic data might become the basis for designing various non-material activities aimed at preserving the cultural heritage of the Polish village. </abstract>

The Polish Ethnographic Atlas: Research Achievements and Prospects

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The article deals with contents, as well as social contexts and functions of sixteen laws enacted by Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina or Motecuhzoma I, the fifth ruler (ruled ca. 1440-1460 AD) of a pre-Hispanic city-state Tenochtitlan, the principal capital of the Aztec Empire. The author also focuses on the problem of Motecuhzoma I´s laws´ factual enforcement and discusses its possible limits.The enactment of Motecuhzoma I´s laws was an important part of state formation process in Tenochtitlan. These laws reinforced the internal hierarchy of Tenochtitlan society and the privileged social position of a tiny ruling class (ruler, nobles by birth, merited non-noble warriors and their quasi-noble descendants), particularly by excluding masses of ordinary people from the exercise of political power, as well as the acquisition, ownership and public display of the so-called “prestige objects”, which were markers of a higher social status (i.e. belonging to the ruling class). Further they established a complex state apparatus of Tenochtitlan (a system of both central and local city-state administration and judiciary), which was headed by a ruler (<italic>tlatoani</italic>). The laws also helped spread Tenochtitlan official ideology of a religious nature among the population, as they created a mechanism to introduce virtually all nobles and commoners (of both sexes) to the ideology (public schools compulsory attended by all later pubertal and adolescent youth of Tenochtitlan), as well as an organization of priests who dramatized the ideological doctrines by their (mostly public) ritual performancies. Finally, there were also laws concerning the punishment of adulterers and thieves. The factual enforcement of Motecuhzoma I´s laws by Tenochtitlan ruler/state apparatus was limited due to several reasons, e.g. the rise of local autonomous and autarchic socioeconomic units resisting to some degree the power of state and the law enacted by the state.</abstract>

The Laws of Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Traditions and customs carry socio-cultural and economic values of the community where they are practised. Infanticide was a traditional practice among the Gweno people in Kilimanjaro, northern Tanzania. This practice had socio-cultural, political, and economic significance which persisted. As a global phenomenon, infanticide has attracted enormous scholarship from different disciplines covering mostly its practice, its associated beliefs, and its eradication campaigns. Despite the popularity of infanticide practices among the Gweno people, particularly during the early colonial period, little has been revealed and documented on how it was practised, associated beliefs and the socio-cultural, political, and economic significance it carried in this community. Benefitting from research findings collected in 2015 through historical and ethnological methods such as oral traditions, interviews, archival materials, and anthropological accounts, this paper uncovers the socio-cultural, political, and economic grounds of infanticide practices among the Gweno people. The paper is built on the argument that infanticide practices served as cultural, socio-political, and economic survival strategy of the Gweno people.
</abstract>

Infanticide: A Survival Strategy among the Gweno People during the Early Colonial Period in Tanganyika

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Since the beginning of the last century, there has been an increase in the number of Bedouins who prefer a settled way of life. As a result, their daily life is gradually changing, and clan and tribal ties are slowly being broken. Settled Bedouins born into a nomadic family strive to continue to apply the principles of Bedouin ethics and viable old traditions in the new environment, as they are deeply rooted in them from an early age. However, some traditions of their ancestors are gradually changing and being modified due to new socio-cultural and economic conditions. On the other hand, there are traditions that continue to survive, although Bedouins now must cope with rapid technological progress. Bedouin families tend to settle and adapt their lifestyles to the conditions of the 21st century. Bedouins are proud of their origins and even in the conditions of a settled way of life they try to keep their traditions. This study analyzes the way of life and the identity of Arab nomads in the process of social and cultural changes. It focuses on Bedouin communities living in the Syrian Desert. In the last decade, however, it has been the wars in the Middle East that have pushed the Bedouins out of their natural environment, restricting the application of their cultural traditions in everyday life. This study builds on previous findings of repeated field research stays in the Syrian Desert where the first author lived among Bedouin families with whom he currently maintains virtual contact as the war situation interrupted further planned research stays.
</abstract>

Syrian Bedouin Lifestyle and Identity Concept in the Conditions of the Social and Cultural Changes of the 21st Century

Book Review: Religions in Contemporary Africa

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The aim of the text is to analyse contemporary Bolivian decolonial feminism using Cusicanquiʼs model of cultural hybridity. Cusicanqui formulated the concept of chʼixi as an analytical tool for theorizing about the mixing of cultures that maintain distinct aspects but enter a mutual creative dialogue and create new qualities through it. In my analysis, I focus on two streams of Bolivian decolonial feminism, represented by Mujeres Creando and Mujeres Creando Comunidad movements. First, I describe historical roots of Bolivian decolonial feminism with an emphasis on the influence of anarchist ideas both on the formation of the Bolivian workersʼ movement and on strategies and practices of social and indigenous movements at the turn of the millennium. In the following discussion I analyse the ideologies and strategies of Mujeres Creando and Mujeres Creando Comunidad movements using Cusicanquiʼs model of hybridity. I conclude that both movements construct a subversive network of alternative knowledge and practices, within which seemingly contradictory experiences can coexist harmoniously and create a new, non-dichotomous qualities. According to Cusicanqui, these chʼixi spaces are the source of a new, emerging epistemology based on which a radical vision of decolonised modernity can be formulated.
</abstract>

“We are Indians, Whores and Lesbians, Revolted and Twined Together.” Decolonial Feminism in Bolivia

Conference Report: Student conference KSA FF UPOL Conference Report

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Taiwanese identity has been the subject of much scholarly inquiry in recent decades. The rapidly changing political, social and international environment around Taiwan has made the question of what it means to be Taiwanese both more complex (in terms of aspirations for the future of Taiwan) and simple (that being Taiwanese is different from being Chinese). The purpose of this study is to explore the intricacies of Taiwanese identity in the face of recent developments such as changes in education, shifting attitudes towards China as a result of ongoing tensions between Taiwan and the mainland. The study posits that the previously ambiguous Taiwanese identity, which might have been a subject of contention during the 1990s, has now become a distinct and unified construct. This can be attributed to the maturation of Taiwanese society following decades of martial law, leading to a clear consensus among the majority of Taiwanese citizens that they do not wish to be absorbed by the People’s Republic of China. In order to understand the Taiwanese identity, it is essential to examine the collective aspirations and hopes of the Taiwanese population for the future of their nation. This can be seen through the active involvement of individuals in various civic movements and volunteer initiatives. The way in which the Taiwanese people envision their society, government, and place in the world is heavily influenced by their past and present experiences.
</abstract>

Taiwanese Identity - a Done Deal? Understanding the Contemporary Consolidation of Taiwanese Identity

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This essay offers an ethnographic analysis of the role of food in modern Italian food festivals. Starting from the ethnographic case of Borgonovo, a rural town in Southern Piedmont, and its festival, it highlights the nonlinear role played by food in the festivals and points out gastronomic festivals should be read as a local response of rural, and marginal communities to the phenomenon of their social marginalization.</abstract>

Food Festivals and Expectations of Local Development in Northern Italy

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This study deals with the early history of Jimma town and its growth from its foundation until 1936. It explores social, economic and administrative themes, but also attempts to show the interrelationship between these themes. The town of Jimma evolved during this period from being the home-town of a relatively homogenous society and culture into a place of residence for a diverse and increasingly cosmopolitan population. Economically, the story of Jimma during this period is one of both continuity and change. It is a story of continuity because Jimma, which had been a center of trade from the very beginning, continued to be so during this period. There was significant change, however, because unlike the previous decades in which Jimma had served as a point of exchange or transit for elite goods that mostly originated from beyond the borders of the Oromo Kingdom (such as slaves, ivory and musk), during this period the town developed into the chief center for the collection, organization and export of a cash crop that was grown locally (coffee).Economic change, therefore, resulted in both production and exchange. The social, economic and administrative history of Jimma is closely intertwined, however. The mixture of peoples and cultures, as well as the nature of the urban social institutions that evolved in the town, are closely tied to “the cash crop revolution”, which brought streams of permanent and temporary residents to the town; the evolution of the town into a chief administrative center, as well as the introduction of somewhat peculiar administrative and fiscal institutions, came about, at least in part, as a result of the location of the town in the heart of the “coffee country”, as southwestern Ethiopia came to be known. In short, both the urbanity and the urbanization of Jimma can be explained by the story of coffee production and trade. This article documents these processes extensively and accounts for the growth of a major town in modern Ethiopia.</abstract>

Jimma Town: Foundation and Early Growth from ca. 1830 to 1936

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Ever since the 1980s, the Maya Studies became seeped with influence of the theories of Mircea Eliade. The article traces the origins and contexts of this influence and evaluates both the results it yielded and the problems it brought to the discipline. First of all, it shows that the way Eliade’s influence has been brought to the Maya Studies (mainly via the Maya Cosmos monograph) is seriously problematic, since it does not discuss or even acknowledge the Eliadian origins of its main concepts. This lack of theoretical reflection opened the door to simplifications and misunderstandings, which spread through the discipline. At the same time, the fundamentally empirical character of Maya Studies practically prevented any deeper conceptual discussion of Maya religion. The article therefore calls for a much needed theoretical and methodological self-reflection of Maya Studies and its concepts related to ancient Maya spirituality.</abstract>

Axis Mundi in the Tropics: Uses and Abuses of Eliade’s Phenomenology of Religion in the Schelean Maya Studies

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article deals with <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution, which is very important in inter-ethnic peace building and resolving conflict among people of south-central Ethiopia. This institution was named after the Oromo term <italic>‘Gurraacha’</italic> (literally meaning black) to indicate its power in inter-ethnic peace building and conflict resolution. It is one element of Oromo <italic>Gadaa</italic> system which was established time immemorial to sustain peace between Oromo and non-Oromo neighboring ethnic groups. The data for this study was collected through interview, observation and focus group discussions in 2014 and 2015. As revealed by this study, <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution is a guarantee for sustaining peace among people of south-central Ethiopia by managing conflict over boundary, grazing land, looting of cattle and water points. Overall, the study concluded that <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution has real significance in inter-ethnic peace-building, sustaining social harmony and inter-ethnic conflict resolution. In <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution, people rebuild lost peace and order of <italic>Waaqa</italic> (God) by performing purification rituals. There is no corruption in <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution since all activities are undertaken according to Waaqa’s law and order. There is no false oath in this institution because such act is believed to have negative consequences. The oath of <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution which are made during reconciliation process transcend generations. This institution is the model of conflict transformation which is hardly found in today’s world. Therefore, using this indigenous institution for future policy formulation in the country as inter-ethnic peace building and conflict resolution model is important for the realization of sustainable peace and development.</abstract>

<italic>Gurraacha</italic>: An Indigenous Inter-Ethnic Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Institution among the People of South Central Ethiopia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The topic of this paper reflects the reasons why formal education is not in accord with Datoga pastoral life in Tanzania and why this marginalized Nilotic tribe hesitates to send children to schools. In an attempt to grasp different reasons of avoiding education, the paper is focused especially on education of girls, which is less preferred than that of boys. The discussion reveals the impact of formal/informal education on traditional life of mobile Datoga and how norms, habits are slowly weakened. The suggestion is offered that unless the communication between pastoral Datoga and the government regarding school attendance and better conditions takes the cultural context, Datoga will remain outside the schooling process and their marginal position in the society will not change and neither their image of savage people.</abstract>

‘We Don’t Need No Education’. A Case Study About Pastoral Datoga Girls in Tanzania

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Throughout the paper the author focuses on the ritual of female circumcision in Indonesian Java, more specifically in the city of Yogyakarta. By the help of fieldwork and academic literature she examines this not merely taboo but also legally forbidden practice in the biggest Muslim country in the world. Female circumcision (FC) in Java and Indonesia in general is considered as a daily practice going hand in hand with tradition. The author puts to the foreground the form of circumcision performed in Yogyakarta and its classification as a symbolic and less invasive one. She explains the history of this ritual in the archipelago, national and international regulations and guidelines, analyzes the role of different authorities (state, religious leaders and NGO’s) on the persistence/abundance of FC and as a consequence its ‘globalized’ form (medicalizetion of FC). The author learns and emphasizes that this is a practice taken for granted, whose origin is little known to the interlocutors (the executors and participants of the ritual) and that the existing literature on the subject is insufficient. For such research a careful approach is of key importance and the author frequently utilizes the help of cultural relativism, reductionism and the use of narrative.</abstract>

Khitan Perempuan: Who Speaks for the Indonesian Female Circumcision?

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Ethnologia Actualis

The Journal of Ethnographical Research

 Ethnologia Actualis is an academic peer-reviewed journal published by the Department of Ethnology and World Studies, University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. It promotes...

 Ethnologia Actualis is an academic peer-reviewed journal published by the Department of Ethnology and World Studies, University of SS Cyril...

Ethnologia Actualis

The Journal of Ethnographical Research

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