The article takes a parochial academic anniversary in Britain as an occasion to reflect on ensuing changes of paradigm in social anthropology, notably the rejection of evolutionism and the neglect of history that accompanied the 'fieldwork revolution' led by Bronislaw Malinowski. In the light of this discussion it is argued that the 'anthropology of postsocialism' of recent years should not content itself with ethnographic studies of transformation but would benefit from engaging more seriously with multiple layers of history as well as with adjacent social sciences. It is further argued that social and cultural anthropologists should form a common scholarly community with the 'national ethnographers', since these two styles of enquiry complement each other; but such integrated communities remain rare, in Britain no less than in east-central Europe.
The paper describes the relationship between social anthropology and development, that is, since its inception rated as ambiguous and ambivalent. It presented forms of engagement of social anthropologists in development projects, while it distinguishes three basic approaches anthropology to development: instrumental, populist, and deconstructionist. In form of overview study it approaches a discourse widespread especially in the Western Anglo-Saxon academic society, while its theoretical and methodological assumptions are applicable in the study of development in the Central European context. The paper identifies the basic theoretical and methodological postulates and current trends in anthropology of development and social change.
Surveying the fifty-year-long history of Slovenský národopis (SN), it is possible to speak first about its remarkable stability. During its whole existence it has retained a scientific bias as the overwhelming majority of the published texts has been based in empirical field research. A study of the traditional rural culture was soon complemented by research into the urban environment. A continually firm position, next to various elements of material culture, has been held especially by orally rendered practices. SN has also attempted to reflect world events and to reach beyond the territory of Slovakia. Articles relating to Poland, the Ukraine and the Czech Republic as well as issues concerning Roma culture have always been part of the publishing history of the journal. However, only gradually a growing number of studies devoted to other ethnic groups living in Slovakia, such as Germans and Jews, have began to appear. Nevertheless, even today, comparative studies of the Hungarian ethnic group are still very scarce. SN has always provided a space for international scientists to publish their articles. Although till 1989 it was exclusively open to those from the socialist countries, at present the spectrum of contributors to the journal is constantly growing. Even the period of the so-called normalisation in the 1970's strengthened its position. Over that period the theoretical reflection of the discipline was deepened and this may also be the reason why after 1989 SN attained a balance between texts on empirical material and theoretical and methodological reflections. Although the texts and examples taken from the Slovak environment prevail it is important that it contains articles from other countries, even of outside Europe. Most probably, their numbers will grow. A similar characteristic may be applied to 'Lud' and 'Etnografia Polska' journals. The study of cultural identity, nationalism, environment, cultural constructions of reality, and theoretical reflections have made SN fully comparable to, for instance, 'Ethnologia Scandinavica'.It is regrettable that the effectivity of SN is restrained because of the language generally used despite the fact that a selection of texts, or whole volumes of key importance are published in English or German. It is necessary to underline that the journal bears the marks of the publishing institution, which is exclusively oriented to scientific research because the researchers from the Institute for Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences are the most frequent contributors. In the 1990', although publishing results of scientific research, SN acquired traits of a social bulletin for the scientists community. The journal creators have exerted much effort to preserve continuity in scientific research and to search for coherence in a wide diversity of ethnological subjects.
This paper compare two paradigms used for addressing the question of migration and conducting research work on Czechs living abroad in the 1960s and ´70s, in what was then the Institute of Ethnology and Folkloristics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. It is shown that there was an older paradigm, derived from nationalist ethnography focused on one´s own ethnic group, and simultaneously a second paradigm using the assimilationist and acculturationist models emerging in countries with high immigration which had projects for the absorption of minorities and migrant groups. While both these approaches found adherents throughout the world, in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and ´70s they were adapted to the existing social situation, and as the text demonstrates, they also proved applicable at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s. The article is based on content analysis of texts on research by Jaromír Jech, Vladimír Scheufler, Olga Skalníková and Vladimír Karbusický on Czechs in Banat region of Romania, and also content analysis of Iva Herdlová´s works on Czechs in Poland and Prussia. The text aims above all to extend the spectrum of knowledge about what the ethnological community of that time was working on, and which methods and paradigms were used, since the generalizations made hitherto in this regard have tended to oversimplify the situation.
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