Abstract
This book is an outcome of cooperation between academics and students at the Department of Ethnology, Charles University (Prague), Stanislav Havel, the Czech teacher in Czech villages in Serbian Banat. An important support also came from a number of the local compatriot organizations (Česká beseda Bela Crkva, Česká beseda Kruščica, Česká beseda Češko Selo, Česká národní rada Srbsko).
Czech students of ethnology and cultural anthropology carried out their research in Serbian Banat in August 2021, focusing on a number of issues, like the rural architecture, wedding ceremonials, customs related to birth-giving, local "Czech" cuisine or the attitudes towards death. Some of the data from the research were later elaborated into the studies presented in this volume.
The volume consists of two main parts. The first part comprises short reflections by individual participants on their research in Serbia.
In the total sum of 20 final "reflections", students and their teachers wrote about their experiences in the Serbian Banat. They described their encounters with local people, culture differences but also similarities, the culture shock.
Many contemporary issues are also touched in these texts, like the memories of socialism, attitudes to post-socialism, reflection on the Yugoslav Wars, or the question of "authenticity" of the local culture. This material is accompanied by photographs and drawings made by the students in the field.
This section of the book is the part where (almost) all participants of the research are represented. The second part of the book comprises specialized studies.
Lenka Jakoubková Budilová, one of the teachers who supervised the whole fieldtrip, wrote the first text of this part. In the text Research of the Czech villages in Serbian Banat in the context of the compatriot discourse (Výzkum českých vesnic v srbském Banátu v kontextu krajanského diskurzu) she focuses on ways the Czech villages in South-eastern Europe have been conceptualized in the works of Czech historians, sociologists, and ethnologists.
The author analyses conceptualizations of the Czech villages in Serbian part of Banat from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The text brings an overview of the topics, discourses and publications associated with the life of Czech compatriots in the region.
Next contribution, written by Jan Haken and Boris Jedinák, is titled Vernacular architecture in the Czech villages in Serbian Banat: historical development and the present day (Lidová architektura českých vesnic v srbském Banátu: historický vývoj a současnost). An authorial team focuses on the population and migration processes in Serbian Banat, in the context of Austrian policy of colonization of the Military Border.
They describe the phases of Czech settlement in the region around the town Bela Crkva and discuss urbanistic development of villages populated by the Czechs (Kruščice, Češko Selo). The core of their study is the phenomenon of typical houses of the colonists within the Austrian Empire.
The authors use a comparison with other places with the Austrian colonial architecture, like the village of Voyvodovo in Bulgaria. The paper also analyses the contemporary condition of the colonists' houses, and the relationship of local Czechs to their own houses.
The text Peace to their ashes: Czech compatriots' tombs in Serbian Banat (Klyd popely jejih: České krajanské hroby v srbském Banátu) by Viktorie Hermanová, Lucie Kantová, Natalia Trušina, and Marie Vosáhlová, is a kind of an inventory of the Czech tomb inscriptions in Bela Crkva, Kruščice and Češko Selo. Authorial team presents pictures of the tombs and epitaphs, and analyses them in relation to ethnicity and religion (Czechs in Serbian Banat being mostly Catholics, compared to the surrounding Serbian Orthodox majority population).
Their study focuses on the attitudes of the local Czechs towards death. They argue that in comparison to the contemporary Czech Republic, death is not seen as a taboo in Serbian Banat and could be said to be more "tame death", according to P.
Ariés. The contribution by a married couple Kristýna Veverková and Marek Veverka Wedding rituals in Serbian Banat (Podoba svatebních rituálů Čechů v srbském Banátu) focuses on the emic description of the wedding ceremony in the Czech villages in the region.
The reconstruction of the wedding ritual is based on the experience of the local people, many of whom participated in the institution in different roles in the past. The study is based on data gained during the fieldwork in two villages inhabited by the Czechs in the past, but also at present (Češko Selo and Kruščice).
Next paper, written by Lenka Zahrádková and Šárka Vášová, called From baba Julka to maternity house, from maternity house directly to the church (Od baby Julky k porodilišti, z porodiliště rovnou do kostela: Narození dítěte u českých krajanů v srbském Banátu) is concerned with birth giving and customs associated with new-borns. The authors collected data in Kruščice and Češko Selo on customs associated with pregnancy, home births and puerperium that the ancestors of their informants had brought from the Czech lands to their new homeland.
The most important finding is the evidence of the traditional midwives and a recorded story of a midwife from Kruščice called baba Julka. The authors have also recorded memories of the Czech villagers associated with births and related customs that are disappearing, and the childbirth related terminology, in the context of religiosity and kinship dynamics.
The study by Tereza Kroužková Cuisine of the Czechs in Serbian Banat: sweet (not only) afters (Kuchyně krajanů v srbském Banátu: sladké tečky nejen na závěr) aims to contribute to the knowledge of the culture of Czech villagers in Serbian Banat, mainly to the analysis of the culture of food. It focuses on main differences between the Serbian and the Czech local cuisines and identify basic elements of a specific gastronomic tradition of the region that combines various "national" and regional cuisines.
The study is based on the data gained during the fieldwork that was carried in the villages Kruščice, Češko Selo and Bela Crkva. The last contribution is a short reflection by Boris Jedinák on the role of the amateur theatre in the Czech compatriot villages.
His chapter Amateur theatre as a tool of the language and cultural revitalization (Ochotnické divadlo jako nástroj jazykové a kulturní revitalizace) analyses theatre as a potential means of language and cultural revitalization of ethnic minorities. The author focuses on a particular case of an amateur theatre in the villages of Kruščice and Češko Selo in Serbian Banat.
He analyses historical development of the local amateur theatre activities that have been present with short breaks since 1921, and compares it to the contemporary state. The study aims to suggest strong and weak sides of the theatre in relation to local community formation and the development of the local culture life.