The role of individuals in the system of the culture of a small ethnographic region

• Main Author: Pospíšilová Jana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade 2017-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU
• Subjects: local culture; bearer; generational transmission; chronicler Josef Káňa (1929-1994); the Czech Republic
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2017/0350-08611702255P.pdf
• ISSN: 0350-0861; 2334-8259

The Czech countryside has passed a considerable transformation since the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989. It is no longer a peripheral area from where people move to cities, although some villages are still depopulating. Rural development actors are local and national institutions and individuals who somehow influence the activities in the countryside and are important for the maintenance and development of local culture and the transmission of ethno- cultural traditions. In a small region in the south of Valašsko (Wallachia) called Závrší on the Moravian-Slovak border it was Josef Káňa (1929-1994), who was an important bearer of tradition, collector of folklore, storyteller, dancer, local chronicler and regional writer, painter, illustrator and founder of the local Scout troop. His son and other family members keep father's memory both in a small private museum and also develop his intellectual legacy in the local culture, particularly in the traditional storytelling and in the Závršan folk ensemble. It is an example of generational transmission. Creation of the so called commemorative archaeology in the form of chronicles, photos, commemorative objects etc. is a conscious follow-up to intergenerational continuity that strengthens the integrity of the group, the family, the village or the region.