<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In the Polish pastoralist tradition there have always been two seminal community events which bracketed the winter season. There was the autumn event of “Redyk Jesienny” when the sheep brought back from the summer alpine pastures were given back to their owners and there was also a spring “Redyk” also called “Mieszanie Owiec” which literally means the Mixing of Sheep. Historically, it was an important event in which the head shepherd, or the <italic>baca</italic> had to use his magical knowledge to ensure that the big herd made up of sheep from the individual owners would keep together as one and produce enough milk to make this summer venture profitable. To do that he used magic spells and performed rituals learned from his predecessors. The <italic>bacas</italic>' magical knowledge was frequently in opposition to the powers of the priests who viewed them with suspicion. Today, this spring event of “Mieszanie Owiec” is much changed. It is no longer a private affair of the <italic>baca</italic> and the sheep owners. Frequently, it is a public event, a tourist attraction, with the priests often taking centre stage. There is even a new, “invented” tradition of region wide “Mieszanie” at the sanctuary of Ludźmierz. There, a small herd of around 200 sheep is symbolically used to bless all the herds going up the mountain pastures for the season. The paper examines how these traditions changed from old ethnographic descriptions and how they are evolving in a modern economic and social reality.</abstract>

The Bacas and the Priests: How Old Adversaries Came Together to Revive and Reinterpret Tradition

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article considers the role of information, communication, and knowledge in processes of exchange and value creation in the British antiques market. As such, it positions itself between the long-standing anthropological interest in the cultural construction of value (see <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_002_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ab2Aa">APPADURAI 1986</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_013_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ac13Aa">GRAEBER 2001</xref>), and the equally long-standing interest in how asymmetries of information affect consumer behaviour (see <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_001_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ab1Aa">AKERLOF 1970</xref>). Drawing on ethnographic material gathered over three months of fieldwork amongst antique dealers in the Notting Hill and Kensington Area of London, I aim to through light on what it is that dealers ‘know’ and how this knowledge is translated into profit within the trade. I argue that dealers’ knowledge of objects is encyclopaedic, discursive, and tactile at once and it is gained mainly through many years of handling of objects. Dealers must also keep abreast with the market movement of objects and their prices using this information to gage the potential profit they may accrue from a deal. Both forms of knowledge, I argue, are mobilized at once when a dealer is investing in stock and when he or she seeks to sell an item, in a ritual of show-and-tell that serves to both to verify the quality, condition and authenticity of a piece and to simultaneously negotiate its price.</abstract>

The Poetry of Antiques: Trade and/in Knowledge among British Antiques Dealers

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">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>

Department of History and Heritage Managment

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

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article aims at legal and illegal activities of Lusaka´s traditional healers within the system of traditional medicine which is primarily anchored in the constitution of traditional healers´ associations. It primarily focuses on witch-finders, whose social status, professional position and authority is constantly negotiated within the formal and informal sector of traditional medicine. Since the late 1990s, the quest for services of traditional healers specialised in witch-finding has gained popularity, particularly amongst the impoverished Lusaka compound-dwellers. Due to the increasing public violence against those denoted as witches, the activities of witch-finders were officially banned by the Witchcraft Act in 1995 and this profession is not officially recognised by the Constitution of Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia (THAPAZ). In spite of the prohibition, there remain many witch-finders in Lusaka who practise witch-finding secretly, in order not to commit an offence they do not openly denounce the name of an alleged witch. Their authority and credibility is threatened by many “official” as well as “unofficial” competitors in the city and it must be constantly reaffirmed and negotiated by introducing innovations. The ability to keep clients and to gain a good reputation thus depends on the originality of their diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. At the same time witch-finders must counter diverse obstacles and uncertainties resulting from their illegal status within the sector of traditional medicine. The author analyses tactics that Lusaka´s witch-finders have developed and employed to negotiate their social status, credibility and authority visà-vis the competition from the “official” traditional healers.</abstract>

Negotiation of Legitimacy of Witch-Finders in Lusaka

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">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 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper reviews pain, social and physical, and its suffering in and beyond the body. It has reviewed evidences for neuro-chemical and neural overlap between social and physical pain. It also explores the consequences of this overlap followed by the sociocultural aspects of pain through an anthropological lens. This is an anthropological exploration of pain for the benefit of the understanding of our clinicians about human pain and suffering beyond the body in their local world.</abstract>

The Pain: How Does Anthropology Look at it? Suffering of Body and Mind

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 22 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 21 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 21 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

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Volume 19 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

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Volume 18 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

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Volume 17 (2017): Issue 1 (December 2017)

Volume 16 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 16 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 15 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 15 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 14 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 14 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Ethnologia Actualis

 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 research findings that pertain to ethnic groups and their cultures. The journal prefers articles from authors coming mainly from humanities and social sciences, although interdisciplinary approach is strongly encouraged. We intend to offer an opportunity of academic presentation to all those who engage in search of recordable evidence that emphasizes the interrelatedness of cultural, social, and religious aspects of human life. Therefore, we kindly invite ethnologists, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, social-scientists, linguists, philosophers, and others to participate in our academic activity. The journal is planned to be published semiannually.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 