The Swedish ethnologist Dag Trotzig (1914–44) spent almost two years of his short life in Latvia. On the recommendation of Sigurd Erixon, he arrived in Riga in 1938, soon after gaining his bachelor’s ...degree at Stockholm University, to take over the teaching of ethnography at the University of Latvia. This charismatic young researcher was able to do a good deal in this short period. His primary accomplishment was to significantly change the content and proportions of ethnology subjects taught at the university. He was also interested in the study of local culture and the popularisation of ethnology in Latvia, and he quickly became a familiar figure in the Latvian media. Finally, Trotzig was the main driver behind a Latvian cultural atlas project, which was begun in 1939. Through this young Swedish ethnologist, Latvia imported scholarly practices that had developed in another country. The present article discusses Trotzig’s achievements in Latvia: his popularisation of the concept of ethnology, his activities at the University of Latvia, and his role in the creation of the Latvian cultural atlas. It also tells the story of research developments in the interwar period: active international relations, transnational projects launched during this time, and the efforts of academics working in ethnology and folkloristics to define their fields of study.
We propose a generative model of the legend. The model is elaborated based on two case studies, the first of contemporary storytelling related to vaccination on parenting blogs, and the second of ...historical storytelling related to witchcraft and folk healing in nineteenth century Denmark. The model reveals the interdependent levels of the multiscale model, solving a problem of poor fit related to many two level models of folklore genre structure. The model supports the study of rumor, and the dynamics of storytelling, including the hyperactive transmission state of “viral” stories.
The paper is dedicated to Viktor Krupa, the famous linguist and orientalist as well as long-time friend and colleague of the author of the paper that celebrates his life anniversary - the eightieth ...birthday. The author deals not only with numerous book publications and studies of Viktor Krupa focused first of all on important linguistic theoretical, typological and orientalist works, but he also analyses his other books. Viktor Krupa is an author of numerous ethnological and folkloristic works, translator of more than 100 books from the world as well as oriental languages and he published many travel and adventure books. The author speaks also about some milestones in the life of Viktor Krupa and he tries to characterise the nature, which enabled Viktor Krupa to become one of the most significant authors of the contemporary Slovak and European oriental studies and linguistics as a whole.
The paper discusses the different aspects of blessing scrolls sent in the spring of 1925 from the Diaspora to Eretz Israel, acclaiming the inauguration of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount ...Scopus, focusing on the individual case of the scroll from the town of Mława in Poland. Three central dialogues will be presented: (a) the dialogue between the Diaspora and the Jewish population in Eretz Israel, Yishuv, as special publications dedicated to the event were published in Poland, acclaiming the advent of the new University in Jerusalem as 'a new national temple'; (b) the dialogue between the small town's educational institutions in Poland and the academic institution developing in Eretz Israel, emphasized by the changing political situation in parts of Poland, i.e. the growing of the anti-Semitic political trends during the inter-war period. New restrictions were issued on the Jews in general and on Jewish students in particular, such as the numerus clausus, which limited the number of students accepted to the universities, and others, that relegated the Jewish students to the rear end of the class. In protest, the Jewish students stood up during the lectures while some of the Polish students joined them in solidarity; (c) the unique symbolical dialogue between the text and the illustration in the scroll from Mława, focusing on the tension between the traditional past and the modern scientific future at the Hebrew University. The essay concludes with the scroll's journey home to Mława in the fall of 2008.
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