Bulgarian Folklore
Journal of Folkloristics, Ethnology, Anthropology and Arts


Published by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum
at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Български

2023 / 3 – The (Im)Possible Identities. Edited by Behrin Shopova

The thematic issue includes articles, which present the various uses of identity in modern times. The wide range of thematic fields is achieved through an interdisciplinary approach and a focus on the multidimensional manifestations of (self)identification, characteristic of the globalization processes at all levels in the modern world.
Is it possible to reconstruct national identities; to what extent the manifestation of new perspectives for self-determination is acceptable or unacceptable; what is their significance for the development of society; how different modalities of identity influence polarization and opposition in public attitudes; what are the mechanisms of preservation and transmission of different identities (ethnic, cultural, religious, territorial, national, group/community, etc.); what are the connections and relations between the national and European identity and how the idea of the homeland affects the migration attitudes among the young generation and among those who have returned to Bulgaria... Those are some of the questions to which the articles in the issue are devoted.

2023 / 4 – Folklore Studies and Ethnology in Georgia. Edited by Yordan Lyutskanov, Nino Abakelia

Knowing and studying the cultures of the Black Sea region and the Caucasus provides an opportunity for a new look and a deeper understanding of traditional culture, folklore and modern processes in mass culture in our country and on the Balkans. This issue is a step in this direction by offering the reader a selection of articles by Georgian scholars presenting various aspects of the subject developed in Georgian ethnology and folklore studies.
In some of the articles, more attention is directed to the traditional and the prerequisites for its formation: the peculiarities of clothing in the past with its regional variability and gender differentiation, the influence of church music on the formation of Georgian polyphony.
Another group of articles focuses on essential elements of traditional rites and folklore, tracing also the changes occurring in modern conditions: the deterritorialization and hybridization of sacred places dedicated to St. George under the influence of new political processes, the evolution of narratives about characters from folk demonology. Another study traces how multidirectional social processes related to political changes and the search for a new identity in Eastern Georgia lead to attempts to define religiosity in new forms.

2024 / 1 – Bulgarian Gardeners in Hungary – Migrations and Cultural Interactions. Edited by Nikolay Vukov

The thematic issue aims to present insufficiently explored aspects of migrations and cultural interactions between Hungary and Bulgaria, with special attention to the role of Bulgarian gardeners since the end of the 19th century in the transfer of cultural models between the two states. The journal issue includes articles from Bulgarian and Hungarian anthropologists and historians studying the impact that Bulgarian immigrant groups have exercised on the social and cultural life in Hungary, as well as the influence that the cultural practices transferred back from Hungary to Bulgaria had on Bulgarian society in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. On the basis of new explorations and materials, the issue will present articles about the Bulgarian gardeners in Southern Hungary, their cultural interactions with the Hungarian society, the influence of Bulgarian gardeners on the agricultural movements in Hungary in the beginning of the 20th century, the Bulgarian school in Budapest and its role in the maintenance of cultural heritage abroad, contemporary representations of cultural memory about the Bulgarian gardeners in Hungary. The issue is with a wide thematic and interdisciplinary horizon and will be of interest for a wide circles of readers interested in the cultural contacts and mutual influences between Hungary and Bulgaria from the end of the 19th century until today.