Fwd: A Field-course with a Muslim community in the Balkans
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 97 11:59:11 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: A Field-course with a Muslim community in the Balkans
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: Petia Mankova \ Internet: ([email protected])
FWD: MOUNTAIN PASTORALISM: A FIELD-COURSE WITH A MUSLIM COMMUNITY
IN THE BALKANS
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From: Bulgarian Society for Regional and Cultural Studies <[email protected].
bg>
A field-course of the Bulgarian Society for Regional Cultural Studies (BSRCS
), 15 July -10 August 1998, Hadjiyska, Bulgaria
Organised by: Yulian Konstantinov (Institute for Regional Cultural Studies,
New Bulgarian University)
1st Announcement
MOUNTAIN PASTORALISM: A FIELD-COURSE WITH A MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN THE BALKANS
(BULGARIA)
Following the Workshop of September 1997 (Muslim Communities in Bulgaria
Seven Years After the Exodus of 1989) the BSRCS organizes a second such
event, focussing on the pastoralist economy of a mountain Muslim community.
The field-course is addressed mainly to students or practioners of
anthropology or related disciplines who are interested in problems
concerning Bulgarian Turks and Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). Its aim is to
gather together a relatively small group of researchers (10 - 15 persons),
independently of levels of academic seniority. They are invited to help
with their efforts to gain an understanding of current processes within
Turkish and Pomak communities after the dismantling of the socialist state
and the liquidation of collective farming.
A particular focus will be placed on the mechanisms within extended Muslim
households and kinship/neighbourhood networks for the use of specific social
and economic practices as instruments for the reinterpretation of stable
cultural meanings. More particularly, the following externalizations will
be considered: kinship/neighbourhood frames of
reference and management systems in respect of internal and external
migration; political structures and power relations against the background
of a new economic stratification; survival stategies and infrastructural
practices as bearers of cultural meanings and statements.
The specific method of the field-course will be close observation of a key-
event in the herder's calendar: hay-gathering. Participants shall be invited
to participate in the campaign, if they wish, as well as in related
gathering activities. Preparing forage for the animals and preserves for the
herders' families for the coming winter is a facet of praxis through which
the social organisation of the community can be seen as a network of
relationships and dependancies, as well as its assessment of the past and
orientations for the future.
An initial five-day introductory course will be followed by discussion at
the end of each working day and the event, as a whole, shall rely for its
effectiveness on an open-ended exchange of ideas in a friendly informal
atmosphere.
The event follows previous research of the BSRCS, carried out since 1990,
and details about that can be sent upon request.
Registration
Participants should indicate their wish to join at their earliest
convenience. There are available places for not more than 15 persons. Work
shall be more effective if participants have a working knowledge of
Bulgarian or a related Slav language (Russian), and/or Turkish, and have
conducted previous research in Muslim communities. In the absence of such
skills, language problems shall be solved by interpreting. The working
language of the event is English.
The project relies on a budget provided mainly by participants' fees. These
will be based on a daily fee of USD 20 which includes board, lodging and
travel expenses to the respective villages. Fees should be sent to:
Bulgarian Society for Regional Cultural Studies; b/acc No 1 160 165 118 (USD
). Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) JSC; Bank Code: 15591550. Correspodent
Bank: Chase Manhattan Bank, N.Y. Swift Code:CHASUS33 Acc. No.
400-220520.
Preferences will be given to participants coming for the whole period and
registering before 1 June 1998.
Note: Participants should be prepared to share the rugged life of the Balkan
mountain pastoralists and be in a suitably fit physical condition.
The Hamlet of Hadjiyska is situated in Central Bulgaria, in the foothills
of the Balkan Range. Nearest Municipal Centre - Zlataritsa (15 kms.),
Regional Centre - Veliko Turnovo (30 kms.)
Contact-address: Yulian Konstantinov, Bulgarian Society for Regional
Cultural Studies (BSRCS) BG-1233, P.B.59, Sofia, Bulgaria, e-mail:
[email protected]
Bulgarian Society for Regional Cultural Studies (BSRCS)
P. O. Box 59, BG-1233 Sofia, Bulgaria
E-mail: bsrcs@mbox. cit. bg
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