4 65 • 2017 BOOK REVIEWS

STANISLAV BROUČEK a kol.: authors chose a pragmatic solution: “Hence, Migrace z České republiky po roce this publication does not deal exclusively 1989 v základních tematických with social mobility (such research, accom - okruzích (Migration from the panied by staying with migrants, would re - after 1989 in Basic quire more time and finance), though it Thematic Areas) seeks to grasp the value changes in mi - , Institute of Ethnology, Academy grants” (p. 15). of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2017, The monograph is divided into 12 chap - 298 p. ters (including foreword and annexes). The first parts provide a description of the cur - In recent years, the migration phenomenon rent state of the and analyse has been increasingly pushed to the centre the legislative approaches and the state poli - of attention of not only politicians and ex - cies in the inter-war period (emigration) and perts from various scientific disciplines, but in 1948 – 1989 (exile). It should be borne in of society as a whole. The general interest is mind at this point that the different parts of primarily in the consequence of the “fear this diaspora live dispersed almost all over from migrants”. This is due to the fact that the world. They differ not only in their geo - large masses of people are arriving (legally, graphical environment, but also in their his - but mainly illegally) to the European Union toric background and the motives for leaving Member States. The team of authors (Veroni - their home country. In spite of this diverse ka Beranská, Hana Červinková, Anežka nature, what is common to the Czech (and Jiráková, Zdeněk Uherek), led by compiler the Slovak) diaspora is the persisting aware - and author of the major part of the book ness of its common Czechoslovak origin: Stanislav Brouček, tackles the less explored, “The split of the republic was and still is yet potentially equally important “other side a live topic for all countrymen” (p. 21). The of the coin”. In their monograph Migrace only exceptions in this regard are Slovak z České republiky po roce 1989 v základních separatists. (Slovak realities can be found at tematických okruzích (Migration from the several places. The book includes a separate Czech Republic after 1989 in Basic Thematic chapter on the policy). Areas), they focus on the causes of departure The publication observes a number of from the Czech Republic abroad. issues. I do not consider it necessary to The project and the publication were pro - comment in detail on all relevant sources, duced on the initiative of the Ministry of interesting information or ideas for thinking. Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. As it I would only note that, apart from their own turned out, the first problem that the re - research, the authors also used (not only) searchers were facing was that the project the statistics from the ministry of foreign af - sponsor did not specify whether they were fairs and other state institutions, worked to deal only with the population movement with press releases and built on their find - abroad or also with the social mobility fac - ings from Facebook or internet communica - tor. In the latter case, they would require tion. The book chapters cover complex phe - other research procedures. In the end, the nomena (migration trends, the formation of

440 identities abroad, etc.), but also seemingly marginal phenomena (the teaching of Czech, the actions of some countries against emigrants in their territories). In the chapter On the Profile and Conditions of a Czech Foreign Migrant after 1989, the authors pro - duced a generational description of this group, while emphasising generation Y. They also observed the activities of migra - tion agencies, the forms of organised recruit - ment, the au-pair phenomenon or student migration. This material suggests that qualified experts (especially doctors and nurses), as well as (seasonal or long-term) wage-earners have the biggest chance to suc - ceed on the global labour market. The consequences of past migrations as well as recent labour migration include the formation of Czech communities abroad. The authors compare their situation in the neighbouring countries (Austria, Germany), while the other part focuses on “...an analy - in Scandinavia, oversees and in some EU sis of the reactions of foreign through Member States (mainly France and the the Facebook page of the project Analysis of United Kingdom). Particularly interesting is the Migration of Czech Citizens after 1989”, the analysis of the motives behind why peo - and presents the results of the questionnaire ple consider or do not consider returning survey (p. 161). from France to their home country. Their The monograph brings more than just return is supported by personal reasons a body of knowledge. Potential followers can (family, social and cultural). The opposite be helped by the fact that the authors’ team decision, taken by the majority from the did not conceal any complications that ap - sample, bears a warning signal. The most peared in the course of the research or in the common arguments why people prefer process of evaluation of the results and of staying abroad include the political situa - the ways of addressing them. tion, corruption and bureaucracy in the In the final chapter, S. Brouček offers Czech Republic. From this perspective, the a summary of the theme and proposals for finding that complements the above infor - general principles to deal with the issues mation is important. The analysis of the mentioned in the study. He expressed his Facebook communication showed that most conviction that the state must deal with ex - respondents (78% of the sample) are indif - ternal migration on a permanent basis, as ferent about the Czech state being interested one-time support of projects cannot bring in them and in their problems... It is ap - the desired results. He is critical about the parent, though, that the purpose is not their current approach of the state authorities, isolation from their home country. In all the and emphasises the need to adopt a political countries referred to in the study, Czech mi - decision about whether the Czech Republic grants use various forms of mutual contacts has (or feels) the necessity to build new and communication. From the future per - forms of institutionalised relationships to - spective, it is essential how the competent wards the Czech diaspora. institution would cope with this fact. The monograph Migration from the Czech The chapter based on Facebook and in - Republic after 1989 offers information and ternet discussions offers other interesting suggestions which are interesting both to of - and important findings, as well. Its first part ficial institutions and the scientific commu - “maps topics which are of interest to coun - nity. Hopefully, they will not get lost and will trymen working in an on-line environment”, become an inspiration for the work of the

BOOK REVIEWS 441 competent authorities and expert teams in to which they managed to present what the Czech Republic, in Slovakia and in other people in Slovakia considered common in countries. a broader perspective and with a certain PETER SALNER, distance. You can therefore find in this Institute of Ethnology SAS in Bratislava book mostly direct statements from part - ners in conversation, complemented with the authors’ comments aimed to “pick up” useful information which can be later used in any context. The structure of the chap - HELENA TUŽINSKÁ, ters according to the initial words copies ĽUBICA VOĽANSKÁ (Eds.): the scenario by which the authors con - In_akosti slovenské. Z rozprávaní ducted the interviews. The eleven chapters cudzincov (Slovakia: In_different? are as follows: As Told by Foreigners) – On Trusting and Checking (Elena G. Bratislava, Centre for the Research Kriglerová and Alena Chudžíková) of Ethnicity and Culture, 2016, 62 p. – On the Perception of Space (Miroslava Hlinčíková) Thanks to the media, the migration waves – On the Perception of Time (Miroslava that surged in the past two years got closer Hlinčíková) to the public, which resulted in many (often – On Rules (Helena Tužinská) unfounded) fears leading to the need to – On Communication (Helena Tužinská) answer a number of questions on one hand, – On Working and Saving (Jana and to the need to support the newcomers Kadlečíková) in seeing the country, situations and behav - – On Families and Private Life (Ľubica iour of its people from the perspective of the Voľanská) cultural context in which they found them - – On Making Friends (Ľubica Voľanská) selves on the other hand. This is the foun - – On Visiting (Alena Chudžíková) dation of the book Slovakia: In_different? As – On Considerateness (Helena Tužinská) Told by Foreigners which aims to enable both – On Blinkers (Helena Tužinská) new arrivals and old-established residents These eleven chapters represent areas alike to look at ordinary situations from dif - “in which there is evidence in Slovakia of ferent perspectives and in more details. prevailing tendencies for certain situations The book was published by the Centre to be dealt with in certain ways”. 1 I appre - for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture in ciate the “confession” of the authors that the framework of the project Intercultural the text they produced was created on the Guide to Lives in Slovakia, which is financed basis of specific materials which are not ob - from the Research towards Humanity pro - jective and which take into account the gramme administered by the Open Society specific situation of the foreigners (work, Foundation. In addition to the Slovak ver - duration and purpose of their stay, their so - sion that I held, there are also versions in cial and economic conditions, family, etc.) English, Arabic and Russian. The choice of who acted as partners in creating the text. these languages complies with the main I also appreciate the practical advice on dif - target group – third-country nationals. ferent topics on the page margins. How - The team of authors (Elena G. Kriglero - ever, I consider the statement “ Slovaks give vá, Miroslava Hlinčíková, Alena Chudžíko - the impression of being very reserved, but vá, Jana Kadlečíková, Helena Tužinská, in reality this is true only in the beginning. Ľubica Voľanská) prepared this book on Sometimes it suffices for the foreigner to the basis of material collected from more take the first step, since the Slovaks, be - than fifty foreigners who were asked about cause of caution or low self-esteem, will not their perception of life in Slovakia, thanks take it themselves. They appreciate it if the

1 Tužinská, Voľanská (2016: 12).

442 BOOK REVIEWS mistrust that is largely present in Slovak so - ciety. Secondly, it is beneficial to foreign ers who can learn more, thanks to this book, about the Slovak cultural context in which they have found themselves, and not only understand certain situations and behav - iour, but also get a “manual” on how to behave in these situations.

JÚLIA HOLÁŇOVÁ, Institute of Ethnology of SAS in Bratislava

REFERENCES: Tužinská, H., Voľanská, Ľ. (Eds.): In_akosti slovenské. Z rozprávaní cudzincov. Brati - slava, Centrum pre výskum etnicity a kul - túry / Centre for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture, 2016, 62 p.; ISBN 97880972 06956

foreigner uses a few words, for example a greeting, in Slovak. At that moment the KATARÍNA POPELKOVÁ a kol.: ice begins to melt ” 2 too generalising; in this Čo je sviatok v 21. storočí particular case, I would prefer to leave it na Slovensku? (What Is a Holiday out or use a concrete example correspon - in Slovakia in the 21 st Century?) ding to what the authors wanted to tell in Ethnological Studies 21, Bratislava, terms of meaning. This statement also as - Institute of Ethnology SAS 2014, 320 p. sumes guaranteed success, which can be misleading. Also, the statement “trust is The book of the team of authors Zuzana gained by mutuality” is in my opinion Beňušková, Monika Vrzgulová, Juraj Zajonc vague and slippery, as mutuality (whatever and editor Katarína Popelková, leader of the thought by the authors) is not necessarily VEGA project Ritual behaviour as a strategic the only path to gaining trust. tool for group identification: The social and The different chapters nicely open and cultural context of contemporary holidays in outline the topics that arose from their Slovakia (conducted in 2011–2014), focused work with the partners in research, and the on themes which are highly topical in the book as a whole can be a useful “welcome expert and the public discourse alike. The gift” for anybody willing to get familiar authors felt for many years the need to bring with Slovakia’s cultural context. I see its information about the contemporary ritual main benefits in two areas: firstly, it brings practices and answer the simple, yet not easy a broader perspective of the things which questions: What does holiday mean to the may seem to us as people who were born contemporary inhabitants of Slovakia? How and grew up in Slovakia as natural in this do they spend their holidays? What role is cultural context, and we thus do not see played by contemporary holidays? What can their background, as often pointed out in this we learn about the Slovak society through book. For example, the publication high - holidays? lights our historical context – the socialist This extensive book has a logical struc - regime which can (still) be the origin of ture: it consists of the Introduction, four

2 Kriglerová & Chudžíková, in: Tužinská, Voľanská (2016: 21).

BOOK REVIEWS 443 chapters and the Conclusion in Slovak, Ger - The book opens with the chapter by K. man and English language. The book includes Popelková Why do we have holiday legisla - colour and black-and-white pictures, visual tion? I consider it a good entry into the topic. information about the holidays described in At the beginning of this chapter, the author the publication, as well as common supple - presents the holiday calendar of the Slovak ments: bibliography; register of names, items Republic with the dates considered public and locations, and brief details of the authors. holidays and days of remembrance. The Act In her Introduction , Katarína Popelková on Holidays was passed back in the first year clearly explained the project objectives. The of existence of the Slovak Republic in au - authors explored holidays as social pheno- tumn 1993, which suggests the importance mena and sought to find out their reactions the state power representatives attributed to to the transformations of society at a specific it. K. Popelková was exploring the contents moment in history, and in a specific space. and meanings ascribed to holidays by politi - Apart from well-known and long celebrated cians when they adopted the act and other events, they also concentrated on new holi - pieces of legislation. She identified many days. I appreciate that K. Popelková de - identical as well as contradictory meanings scribed in detail the theoretical and method - of holidays across the political spectrum. ological project background and explained She also pointed out that it is still possible the basic terms – holiday, ritual and rituali - to observe the influence of churches on the sation – used in the book. She also mentioned choice of holidays and their functions, the increase in the number of holidays over which is an important finding regarding the recent decades. People still seek to search for influence of these institutions on the con - opportunities to celebrate (maybe contrary temporary society. She also mapped the to the expectations of some social prog - ways and the means by which the state noses). She also stated that in spite of the power disseminates the specific interpreta - growing number of holidays this phenome - tions and symbols of holidays. She dealt non is accompanied by its increasingly indi - with the instruments of the state´s symbolic vidual perception. We could have the impres - violence in advocating public representa - sion that it is the manifestation of one of the tions and thus contributed to the detailing modernisation processes – individualisation. of Bourdieu´s concepts (Bourdieu, 1998: 69 Certainly, neither individualisation nor other and n.). The results of her research are sup - modernisation processes can be seen as lin - ported by the changes in the content of ear and evolutionary changes, as they can holidays in a relatively short, yet politically comprise recurrent and complementary turbulent period of two decades, charac - processes (Martin, 1999). This is one of the terised by the major changes in Slovakia’s aspects that open broad possibilities for the political orientation and in the style of the research on the transformations of holidays public discourse and execution of power. At in the future. As proven by the researchers’ the same time, the gathered information results, the ritual activities were largely in - suggests the wide dispersion of opinions on fluenced by the transition period after 1989 holidays and celebrations among the con - marked by the new economic and social con - temporary population. ditions, as well as the sharp increase in the Each of the next chapters deals with a spe - number of information sources with a rich cific holiday in the form of case studies offer for celebrating holidays. And at times which we can read as examples of historical when people enjoy a variety of opportunities and political holidays – celebration of the and the unification pressures are weakened, Slovak National Uprising; church, family attention can be paid to the other side of the and social holiday – Christmas; and finally, same coin. To what extent do people return Halloween as a new type of holiday. to the older holiday practices or artefacts that In the chapter on the Slovak National had been suppressed or forgotten for various Uprising, Monika Vrzgulová analysed the reasons? Why do they do it and who does it? legislative process of recognising this his - Can we observe recurrent processes in to - toric event as state holiday. She subsequent - day’s ritual activities? ly focused on the main objective of her work

444 BOOK REVIEWS – an analysis of the widespread representa - tions of this holiday. She described the cre - ation of different pictures about the Uprising after the political changes in 1989 and the changes in these pictures. She concisely de - scribed the segmentation of the representa - tions into two lines. The first one was the representation of the Uprising as a historic event which brought Slovakia back into the group of European countries fighting against the Nazi Germany. The other one was the in - terpretation of the Uprising as a coup against the nation and the state, leading Slovakia in - to the arms of the Communist regime. M. Vrzgulová linked both lines and their differ - ent variants to the changing political estab - lishments that held the power and the means for disseminating “their” ideas about the Up - rising. The author managed to confirm the initial theses of the study according to which the representations of a certain event in his - tory are first of all a means for politicians to explain their own political attitudes and jus - tify their specific actions and aims. Among other things, she highlighted the role of works, and are therefore understandable to celebrations in supporting the existing order the reader. Yet the pairs “institutional – pri - of society, considered one of the basic func - vate” and “commercial – civil” are not so tions of ritual practices at least since the common and therefore need clarification. works by Émile Durkheim (1912). The vagueness of these terms is also due to Zuzana Beňušková focused her attention their use in the text. In the final summary, on Christmas as a complex of the most an - the author mentions the pair “private – cient customs in that acquired dif - public” together with “formal – informal”, ferent forms, contents and interpretations leaving out the term “institutional”. She throughout centuries. She aimed to describe summarises the commercial aspects of the current forms of Christmas in Slovakia Christmas, however, without explaining and the ways people celebrate and under - how the commercial aspects relate to the stand them. The author´s ethnographic re - civil ones (p. 158). In general, Z. Beňušková search includes the period from the turn of fulfilled her objectives. She offered detailed the 20 th and 21 st century until 2013. Along descriptions of the current forms of Christ - with describing the current holidays, she al - mas and clarified the complexity and the so observed the changes in their contents wide extent of this holiday. Through specific and functions. She therefore compared the examples she highlighted the changes that current state with the situation in other took place in the past decades and con - periods, for example, with the form of firmed the stability of the basic structure Christmas in the 2 nd half of the 20 th century and functions of the Christmas holiday and – during the socialist period in Slovakia. She relatively minimum shifts in them. The gath - finally aimed to grasp the holiday practices ered material thus provides a good starting and attributes through several dichotomies: point for further analyses of changes in this “sacred – profane; tradition – innovation; ru - holiday in the future, inspired by the theo - ral – urban; institutional – private; formal – retical views of Jens Kreinath (2004) and informal; commercial – civil; global – local; other authors. majority – minority” (p. 114). Most of these The fourth chapter by Juraj Zajonc deals dichotomies are common in ethnological with Halloween as a relatively new phenom -

BOOK REVIEWS 445 enon, raising ambivalent reactions in Slova - society based on the research of holidays. kia. I agree that Halloween is a good subject They analysed the similarities and differ - of research, as it provides the possibility to ences between the holidays that they exam - observe the spread of this holiday “here and ined and their relation to the state, churches now”. It also enables exploring how Hal - and the economy, but also with regard to the loween is becoming part of other holidays differentiated population groups – actors of and how it follows up on older cultural ex - holidays. They described the wide variety of pressions. Last but not least, the researcher people´s representations linked to the given can search for answers to questions about holidays, holiday practices, symbols and what attitudes people have towards this new attributes. I would conclude that the book holiday, which groups celebrate it and which represents a very good contribution to the ones refuse it, and what representations they study of the meaning of holidays in modern have in connection with Halloween. In the society. introductory part, the author offers infor - mation about the origins of this holiday in GABRIELA KILIÁNOVÁ, the British Islands, its transfer into North Institute of Ethnology SAS in Bratislava America and spread back in Europe. He sub - sequently describes the penetration of REFERENCES: Halloween in Slovakia after 1989. Highly Bourdieu, P. (1998). Teorie jednání . Prague: valuable, in my opinion, is the empirical data Karolinum. on the relation of the oldest Halloween Durkheim, Émile (1912). Les formes élémen - attribute (carved pumpkin illuminated by taires de la vie religieuse : systeme totémique a candle inside) to the oldest tradition in our en Australie. Paris. [Elementary Forms of territory. J. Zajonc also captured informa - Religious Life : the System of Totems in Aus - tion about the food, costumes and masks tralia. Prague : 2002]. and their possible relation to more ancient Kreinath, J. (2004). Theoretical Afterthoughts. cultural phenomena. The author depicted In: J. Kreinath, C. Hartung, A. Deschner the different forms of Halloween and its (Eds.), The Dynamics of Changing Rituals. links to other holidays. He also showed the The Transformation of Religious Rituals wide range of the Halloween representations within Their Social and Cultural Context . in contemporary society and the role of Toronto Studies of Religion, Volume 29, churches and other institutions in spreading New York: Peter Lang, pp. 267–282. or suppressing this holiday. This chapter Martin, D. (1999). Modernization in Crisis: provides a differentiated picture of this new From Talcott Parsons to Jürgen Habermas. holiday based on precisely analysed empir - In: W. W. Adamski, J. Bunčák, P. Machonin, ical materials. D. Martin (Eds.), System Change and In the Conclusion, Katarína Popelková Modernization. East – West in Comparative and Juraj Zajonc summarised the results of Perspective. Warsaw, IFis Publishers, pp. all the chapters. They showed what can be 23–44. learnt about the contemporary Slovak

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