Journal articles on the topic 'Eastern Slavic Tales'

The object is the semantic-grammatical and figurative-cognitive structure of phraseological analogues and fixed comparisons (in Czech and Slovak fairy tale texts) is traced in detail, taking into account their transformations in translation and types of interlingual phraseological equivalents, cases of replacement of phrases and paraphrases by non-phraseological contexts are explicated, and vice versa, the use of figurative signs and idioms in the target text that are not present in the original text (units with spatial semantics, emotion metaphors, folklorems and cognitems related to social and marriage concepts) are analysed. The purpose of this article is the differences in the figurative and conceptual structure, some initial, medial and final formulas in parallel texts and in comparison with other linguistic cultures, in particular Ukrainian and Polish fairy tale discourse (the concept of the Way, the journey, typical for fairy tales) are briefly described. Conclusions: Differences can also be traced at the level of semantic variation in the ways of expressing the difficult tasks and ordeals of the heroes, for example, the idea of the impossible or certain pragmatic formulas and constructions. These and other transformations of plots and motifs are typical of fairy tales in different linguistic cultures. This gives grounds to refer to them as peculiar cognitems. Where relevant, authors provides ethnocultural comments on the motivation of the images, their connection with traditional folk culture, ritual and customary representations of a particular ethnic group, and highlights the specifics of the rendering of these cultural realia, the symbolic function of objects and characters in the compared languages (verbalisation of the concepts of old age, unmarriedness, laziness, ways of phraseological representation of the semantic opposition of friend and foe, good and evil, clean and dirty, etc.). *The study is published with the support of the international grant project Erasmus+ KA220-HED No. 2021–1-SK01-KA220-HED-000022917 entitled The innovation of the concept and curriculum of doctoral study programs and increasing their effectiveness.

This article examines the demonological beliefs of the Lusatians that correspond with beliefs among the Eastern Slavs. In the East Slavic region, there is a chain of related beliefs all the way to the Russian North-West. This is a chain of archaic areas: Carpathian, Polesie, and Belarusian-West Russian. One such Lusatian-North Russian parallel is demonstrated by the image of Lady Midday (Noonwraith, Noon Witch). Among the Lusatians and Russians, this female mythological character has a number of common features, and some of the similarities noted four hundred years ago by the Dutch scientist Marcus van Boxhorn have survived to our time in the North Russian tradition. The second parallel is connected with a fl ying fi ery serpent. The varying colour symbolism of the snake, dependent on the gifts (money, grain, milk) that it carries to its owner, is represented in the lower Lusatians, in Chernigov Polesie, some areas of Belarus, and neighbouring southern Russia. In the area of the Russian-Ukrainian borderland, the colour loses its signifi cance or loses its variability, becoming a characteristic of the objects that snakes scatter as bait for women, and only sometimes does the colour of the snake itself appear in these tales. In the West- and Northwest Russian tradition, the colour loses its variability and dependence on the gifts brought to the owner, and colour becomes a constant characteristic of the serpent (in one case, while maintaining a relict connection with grain as one of the types of gifts), or, while maintaining the same set and variability, is transferred from the snake to the hidden legs of the snake where it receives new symbolic meanings. The third parallel concerns some of the details related to the stealing of milk by witches in the fi eld: they collect grass for their cows from nine other people’s borders and collect dew using horse harnesses according to the Lusatians, as well as in western Ukraine, in western Polesie, in the Smolensk province, and further, in a modifi ed form, among the Russians of the Oryol and Kostroma provinces. Owing to its position on the outskirts of the Slavic world, the Lusatian folk tradition retains a number of features that are invaluable for historical, cultural, and ethnogenetic reconstructions.

No nation can exist without its own religious cults and traditions. The practical absence of records of the presence of pagan priests in our ancestors, the bearers of knowledge, beliefs and rituals, testifies only to the careful deliberate destruction of important aspects of national history. Some pages in the history of the Eastern Slavs are simply crossed out from the chronicles and replaced by pious stories in line with Byzantine hagiography. An example in this regard is the description of the baptism of Kiev under Prince Vladimir, which obviously had nothing to do with the real events. The pagan rites and traditions in the annals were changed beyond recognition and took the form of fairy tales and legends. Very interesting in this regard are the descriptions of the funeral rites related to the death of Prince Igor, which were transformed by the chronicler Nestor into the legend "On the revenge of Princess Olga Derevlyany". Even the term "priest" in ancient Slavic sources was replaced by the word "magician" or "old man". Because of all these facts, a fairly authoritative hypothesis has emerged in national historical science, according to which the Eastern Slavs did not have any "pagan priests" at all.

In the oral tradition of the Eastern Slavs, stories about miraculous threshing with fire are well known (AaTh 752A, SUS 752A). Folk hagiography often associates with the name of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker. The article presents the results of a study of Siberian texts of such legends (including folk prose plots not taken into account by the indexes) in comparison with variants of similar narratives of the European territory of historical Russia. It was found that, along with the plot forms common to the East Slavic tradition, Siberian texts contain special versions of this plot, which are the result of contamination and mixing of folklore forms in the conditions of Siberian existence. Unknown in the texts of other territories, the contaminated versions of the Siberian stories about the miraculous threshing acquire special interest against the background of the fact that the Siberian versions of Russian fairy tales, as researchers have established, generally have a strong tendency to plot contamination and the complexity of the stories. Previously, these processes were traced on the material of fairy tales (Matveeva, 1990) and novelistic tales (Kuznetsova, 2019). The Siberian variants of contaminated plot forms of legendary fairy tales presented in the article make it possible to consider contamination as an increasingly universal creative device in Siberian storytelling.

An appeal to figurative representations preserved by folk tradition is an attempt to study mentality, understanding the world of a particular culture. Immersion in the world of mythological and fairy-tale formations makes it possible to reveal social representations, the specifics of intercultural interaction at the level of folk tradition. The relevance of this article lies in the possibility of identifying supra-ethnic processes of intercultural interaction in the South Slavic realm, as well as their social, cultural and ideological aspects. The symbolism of the snake in the cultures of various samples is known from Paleolithic times. According to a biological point of view, this is one of the most common groups of animals, neighboring in the past and today to humans all around the globe. Emotional perception of the quality of a snake (danger, secrecy, unusual appearance) and its mythological derivatives, make it possible to identify alternative, but common types of the snake image reflection that take place in Western and especially Eastern Slavic, Romanesque, Albanian, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman and other mythological traditions. Their correct understanding of the ethical and aesthetic cultural paths of development of modern Slavic peoples, who have entered into a regulated dynamic cultural convergence with the whole world, is an urgent scientific and social task. The main sources of the article are songs, fairy tales, descriptions of the rituals of the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians, Macedonians. Perception of the image of a snake and giving it fabulous and mythological features in historical times revealing the inconsistency of Slavic ideas about the objects present, their natural, emotional coloring of images and detection with a person.

The word perelogi (Ukrainian перелоги, Belarusian пералогi, перэлогi) ‘livestock and horses disease’ is mentioned in the folk veterinary medicine of some regions of Eastern Slavia. The article is devoted to the analysis of this phenomenon in folklore and traditional culture of Belarusians and Ukrainians. It is considered from the point of view of its terminology, accompanying beliefs, magical practices and numerous charms used to treat animals. The charms that are commonly read against perelogi are based on the plot “Three (two) characters share what they find among themselves; the devil gets the perelogi.” The article explores the possible folklore origins of this plot, as well as the circumstances of the devil’s appearance in it, which is extremely atypical for East Slavic healing charms. The author comes to a conclusion that the main role in this was played by tales about the fooled devil and especially by ATU/СУС 1030 “Harvest Division.” In addition, the plot was most likely influenced by such circumstances as the somatic “parallelism” of devil and animal and the secondary mythologization of the term perelogi. These two circumstances supported the figure of devil which is key for this plot, using elements of folklore imagery, rhyme, cultural semantics of the keyword and other factors.

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.

This article focuses on the silence of a fairy tale hero, i. e. a deliberate withholding from speaking that is a metonymic manifestation of a symbolic death. The aim of the study was to determine the meanings of silence that are representative of this type of narration and to indicate their probable mythical and ritual connotations. Research materials included mainly Polish and Eastern Slavic tales of a sister whose silence constitutes a precondition for bringing her brothers, previously turned into birds, back into human form. The analysis showed the use of a semantic component essential to silence required to keep a secret and impossibility of revealing the truth. If a spell can be a result of a parental curse, then suspending communication becomes a form of maintaining bonds with the brothers killed by words. It can also be interpreted as a reflection of the speech behaviour of the parents, who violate the basic folk ethics of the word. The analysed narratives preserved the magical functions of silence as the assurance of the effectiveness of objects made in complete silence (in the given example — shirts made for the spellbound brothers). Nevertheless, in other variants of plot type 451, the silence of the heroine is the most significant precondition for her own existential transformation, with numerous narratives describing the multi-stage nature of the rite of passage (a marriageable girl → a married woman → a newly delivered mother → a mother). In this indirect way the fairy tale reveals the limits of female communicative behaviour in folk culture. In order to present the essence of the liminality of the given story’s heroine, the “stasis” category was used, which helped to correlate her (and any other fairy tale protagonist) basic existential experience with a temporal dimension of human existence construed as regular consecutive time passages and pauses, moments of inactivity (stasis).

The study will focus on the terminology associated with textile production and weaving in Dalmatia between the 2 century BC and the 9 century AD. Terminology originating from different cultures, such as that of the Roman, proto-Slavic or Slavic territories exercised influence on the Dalmatian culture of that period. Rare artifacts will be used to show a timeline for how these elements have been assimilated in Dalmatia. With the arrival of South Slavs who migrated from the Carpathian Mountains in the 5 and 6 century, the tradition of weaving in Dalmatia takes on the most important characteristics. However it will also face a different fate in the following centuries due to its geographic position where elements of Western and Eastern cultures met and coexisted. Some elements continued to exist while others transformed and adjusted according to new influences during the middle Ages. The study will describe the heritage of different cultures in the textile culture of Dalmatia, with focus on terminology used for the threads, the old textile techniques and the textile tools for weaving. Thanks to the treasured traditional culture of handiwork in Dalmatia, this is a part of heritage that remains preserved even today.

Abstract The article traces the impact of Czesław Miłosz’s first American stay on his image of Central Europe in Rodzinna Europa [Native Realm]. In the United States, the post-war immigrant from Vilnius learned to perceive, understand and evaluate American culture; he also gained a new perspective on his region of Europe and Slavic immigrants. This experience enabled him to adopt an American point of view in his autobiographical essay. Following William Faulkner, Miłosz carries on an analysis of Eastern and Central Europe’s history and identities. The uses Western historical and sociological glossary to describe processes that formed his “native realm.” Analogically, the poet from pre-war Vilnius reflects on American multi-ethnicity and religious diversity from a Central European perspective. In Rodzinna Europa, Miłosz takes the position of a migrant translator and a two-way mediator between East and West.

Calendarian rites are one of the main components of the spiritual culture of the nation. An important value for reconstruction of the ancient condition of Slavic traditional folk spiritual culture is the study of its polissya variant, in particular the Middle Polissya calendarian ritual of the spring-summer cycle. Development of the phenomena of traditional spiritual culture is uneven, most of the elements do not disappear, but change in the process of stratification, interchange, transition to other spheres of existence, therefore, we consider ritual text in the entity of its components, and we also take into consideration connection of rituals of the spring-summer cycle with other ceremonial spheres, in particular with funeral sphere. The main place in the spring-summer cycle takes commemoration of those who perished after Easter. Also, the cult of the dead in close connection with the cult of nature is clearly traced in the ritual of the Green holidays. The mythological motives of this cult are presented in non-verbal units of the main, religious, attributive, locative, and temporal plans and in verbal units of the Middle Polissya ritual text of the spring-summer calendarian cycle. In the ritual text, the following opposition is being implemented: alive: dead, this world: that world, its: alien, good: evil, meeting: wars, etc., they are part of the ancient folk notions about the picture of the world. Consequently, the study of this calendar cycle requires further identification of such archaic features that are the rudiments of the ancient Slavic traditional folk spiritual culture.

The purpose of this article is to test the concept of A. Greif for the operation of the principle of establishing a balance of interests in Russian society in the face of increasing external threats. The article reveals the significance of the Veche as an institution that reflected the desire to establish a balance of interests of elites in Russian society. The author traces changes in the significance of the traditions of self-government in Russian lands with the increase of military threats. The content of the balance of interests in medieval Russian society is determined. The problematic method of historical analysis is applied to the study of the political processes of medieval Russia, and the problem of narodopravstvo is brought to the fore. The conceptual idea of A. Greif is confirmed in Russian medieval history. Deviations from the rule deduced by A. Greif under certain external conditions lead society to crises. The authors point out that the easing of military pressure from the nomads on North-Eastern Russia (1408) allowed the Moscow princes to concentrate their efforts on fighting potential internal opposition and other branches of the Rurik dynasty that occupied the great tables, as well as against the Novgorod Republic, which embodied the ancient Slavic state order. In the course of this struggle, the balance of interests between strata of Russian society was disrupted, which eventually resulted in the establishment of a brutal serfdom and a reactionary form of centralized government - autocracy. In South-Western and North-Western Russia, such conditions did not develop, so the old Slavic order was preserved there for a long time, but, due to military and political reasons, the States in these regions did not manage to maintain independence.

Данная статья продолжает обзор научных исследований в области верований восточных славян, вышедший в «Богословском вестнике» № 1 (44) за 2022 г. В статье рассматривается важный для отечественной гуманитарной науки период, связанный с осмыслением сущностных черт славянской мифологии. Автор прослеживает путь изучения славянской мифологии в период со второй половины XIX в. по 1917 г. Статья начинается обзором работ, пытавшихся выявить истоки архаических представлений (Щапов, Щепкин). Рассматриваются идеи солярно-мифологической школы (Афанасьев) и использование сравнительно-исторического метода (Сумцов), указываются достижения исторической школы (Миллер), анализируется распространение идей диффузионизма (Ружнецкий, Корш) и последующее доминирование эволюционизма (Нидерле). Статья завершается оценкой научного вклада Д. К. Зеленина, использовавшего комплексный подход к изучаемым вопросам. В статье получил отражение сложный путь научного поиска в указанный период, с очевидными достижениями, неизбежными ошибками и не всегда обоснованными предположениями. Методология, применяемая при составлении обзора, носит комплексный характер с учётом не только данных, предоставленных светскими науками (филологией, этнографией, религиоведением, фольклористикой), но и с опорой на богословское видение описываемых феноменов. The article continues an overview of the scientific studies on Eastern Slavs’ pagan beliefs, published in the previous issue of Theological Bulletin, no 1 (44), 2022. The author considers a period important for the Russian humanities and related to understanding the essential features of Slavic mythology. The article presents a path of the scientific studies from the 2nd half of the XIX century till 1917. The first scientific attempts (Shchapov, Shchepkin) to identify the origins of archaic ideas are lightened in the beginning of the article. The ideas of the solar-mythological school (Afanasyev) and the usage of the comparative historical method (Sumtsov) are given a general analysis. The author pays attention to the achievements of the historical school (Miller), considers the ideas of diffusionism (Ruzhnetsky, Korsh) and the subsequent dominance of evolutionism (niederle), concluding with an assessment of the scientific contribution of Zelenin, who used an integrated approach to the issues under study. The article reflects the complex path of scientific research in the specified period, with obvious achievements, inevitable mistakes and not always reasonable assumptions. The methodology used by the author takes into account not only the data provided by secular sciences (philology, ethnography, religious studies, folklore studies), but also bases on the theological vision of the phenomena described.

Introduction. The article is a critical essay about an attempt to translate the Constantine’s treatise “De Administrando Imperio” into an artificially archaic “Pseudo-Slavic” language, made by R.A. Gimadeev. It is shown that his commentaries accompanying this translation are extremely primitive, the author does not follow scientific methods and he is not familiar with modern scientific literature. This is especially clearly seen, since this publication takes place against the backdrop of a fundamental rethinking in modern Byzantine studies of political history and the system of power organization in the “Eastern Roman Empire” of the 10th century. This rethinking of basic Byzantine issues is vastly based on the re-interpretations and new commenting of the classic text of “De Administrando Imperio”. Discussion. In recent years several special articles and monographs have been published, in which the questions about authorship, text structure, stylistics and ideology of the text of “De Administrando Imperio” and related subjects were re-posed. Analysis. For a number of parameters, the text of the introduction and commentaries on the text of the treatise in this new edition made by R.A. Gimadeev is far from the standards of academic writing. His attempts to reason about the paleography of the manuscript and the text’s structure are devoid of formal arguments and arbitrary rhetorical in their nature. The translation of the text into some artificial archaic “Slavic Russian Language” does not convey the pragmatics and stylistics of the original, but leads to a distortion of its perception. The uniformity of the principles of translating special vocabulary is not maintained: in some cases, the translator refuses the usual transliterations, in others – he introduces new ones. The publication practically does not take into account modern historiography, partly, apparently, intentionally, but often, out of unfamiliarity with the necessary studies. Perhaps, some ideas of R.A. Gimadeev will be confirmed and find application in the future, but all his observations require the most careful verification. Conclusions. The considered attempt of a new reconstruction of the Greek text of the treatise and its translation by R.A. Gimadeev are not fully scientific and qualified. As a result, the new edition turned out to be a kind of historiographical deviation, especially evident against the background of modern studies of this masterpiece of Byzantine literature.

Frantsev Vladimir Andreevich (April 4 (16), 1867 – March 19, 1942) – a Russian Slavicist, who authored more than 300 works on Slavic studies. He graduated from a Warsaw grammar school, then studied in the Imperial Warsaw University. In 1893–1895, V. Frantsev made several journeys abroad with the academic pupose. In 1895, he began to prepare for the master’s degree. In 1897, he went abroad and spent three years there. In 1899, V.A. Frantsev made a trip to Ugrian Rus, after which published an article “Review of the most important studies of Ugric Rus” in the Russian Philological Bulletin (1901, Nr. 1–2) in Warsaw. During his trip, V.A. Frantsev met and subsequently maintained contacts with prominent figures in the revival of Ugrian Rus. In 1899, he became Associate Professor of the Department of the History of Slavic Dialects and Literatures of the Imperial Warsaw University, in 1903 – an extraordinary professor, in 1907 – an ordinary professor. In 1900–1921, V.A. Frantsev lectured at the University of Warsaw, which in 1915 moved to Rostov-on-Don in connection with WWI. Teaching actively at the University, he devoted his free time to archival studies, working mainly in the Slavic lands of Austria-Hungary, where he went “for summer vacations” from 1901 to 1914. Sometimes he continued his work during the winter vacations and Easter holidays, as in 1906/07 and in 1907/08, when the university did not function due to student unrest. V.A. Frantsev reported to the “Society of History, Philology and Law” at the University of Warsaw, of which he was an active participant. In 1902–1907, Frantsev published almost all of his major works (except P.Y. Shafarik’s correspondence, published much later). Among them were his master’s thesis “An Essay on the History of the Czech Renaissance” (Warsaw, 1902), doctoral dissertation “Polish Slavic Studies in the late 18th and first quarter of the 19th century” (Prague, 1906), “Czech dramatic works of the 16th – 17th centuries” (Warsaw, 1903), etc. In 1909, during heated discussions on the future structure of Chełm-Podlasie Rus, he published “Maps of the Russian and Orthodox population of Chełm Rus with statistical tables”. In 1913, V.A. Frantsev became a member of the Czech Royal Society of Sciences. Since 1915, he was a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in the Department of Russian Language and Literature. He did not accept the October Revolution, yet never publicly opposed the new government. At the end of 1919, he received an offer from the Council of Professors of the Prague Charles University (Czechoslovakia) to head the Russian branch of the Slavic Seminar. In Czechoslovakia, he became a professor at Charles University. In 1927, he took Czechoslovak citizenship. V.A. Frantsev’s life was associated with the Russian emigration. He was a full member and chairman of the Russian Institute, as well as chairman of the “Russian Academic Group in Czechoslovakia”, deputy chairman of the “Union of Russian Academic Organizations Abroad”, a member of the Commission for the Study of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus. In 1924, the Uzhhorod “A. Dukhnovich Cultural and Educational Society” republished V.A. Frantsev’s From the Renaissance Era of Ugric Rus under the title On the Question of the Literary Language of Subcarpathian Rus and a brief From the History of Writing in Subcarpathian Rus (1929). In 1930, The Carpathian Collection was published in Uzhhorod, with Frantsev “From the history of the struggle for the Russian literary language in Subcarpathian Rus” in the preface. He spent his last years in Czechoslovakia occupied by Nazi Germany. V.A. Frantsev died on March 19, 1942, a few days before his 75th birthday. He is buried in the Olshansk cemetery in Prague.

The general regularities and main tendencies of the development of a war novel have been researched in the article, an attempt of its typology and periodization is realized, the most common genre models is identified. The novel about the Second World War as a leading epic genre, which develops the theme of war in literature, creatively synthesized all the experience gained by the writers and front-line soldiers, became a noticeable artistic phenomenon and widespread genre formation in Western European, American and Slavic writing. It is concluded that the aesthetic and ideological-thematic level of artistic modeling of war reality is localized in different national literatures unevenly and stipulated first of all for the historical and geopolitical scope of the involvement of warring countries in hostilities. For example, in German military romance, is the so-called "Remarkable" novel, as well as a novel with a marked anti-militaristic nature. The main plot of the French war novel is the resistance movement, while the Italian one is fascist domination and occupation actions in the Balkans. Instead, in Britain, which has escaped occupation, military creativity takes a rather modest place. American writing focuses on war as a social phenomenon, armed conflicts in Vietnam. The polivector artistic search, the richness of types and varieties of war novel (panoramic novel, lyric war novel, anti-fascist novel, soldier novel, war novel-education, war novel with documentary basis, etc.) demonstrates military novel prose of Eastern Slavs. In particular, in the development of the Ukrainian war novel, literary critics distinguish such branches as the war novel, the post-war novel of the first decade, the war novel prose of the "second wave" (etc. pol. 50's - 60's), war novel 70’s-80’s, as well as modern war novels.

Latvian folksongs of three types (LD 33802, 34043, 34047) and a Lithuanian song Aušrinė (‘the Morning Star’) published by Liudvikas Rėza (Ludwig Rhesa, RD I 62) depict a tree struck by the Thunderer (Latvian Perkons). The kind of the tree may vary: usually, it is an oak, but sometimes it may be an apple-tree. Researchers of Latvian mythology and folklore call it Saules koks (‘the tree of the Sun’). In different variants, the striking of the tree tends to be part of the plot of the heavenly wedding. Sometimes Perkons allegedly strikes the tree in order to express his objections regarding the Sun’s decision to marry off her daughter to an “unsuitable” groom.Scholars interpret this image of the thunderstruck tree in different ways. Wilhelm Mannhardt thought the image to have stemmed from a natural phenomenon – the rays of the setting Sun. Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov attributed this motive to the symbol of the World Tree and the Indo-European “basic myth” that they had reconstructed. According to Pranė Dundulienė, the thunderstruck oak is a symbolic representation of the bridegroom. Having amassed considerable ethnographic and folklore data, the author of this article questions the earlier explanation presented by Leopold von Schröder and Haralds Biezais. According to them, the motive of Perkons striking the oak may stem from the traditional Latvian wedding custom: the bride’s coachman makes a sign of the cross on the gate or the door with his sword upon arrival, imitating the cutting. Our analysis employs the comparative method. The appreciation of this motive requires considering the connections between the Thunderer and the oaks that exist in numerous ancient Indo-European religions (including Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Baltic). The lightning strike to the oak, possibly, only added some extra meaning to this connection (the thunderstruck wood was used for magic purposes), which emphasized power and strength attributed both to the thunder and the oak. The plausibility of relating the powerful celestial oak to the sacred tree of the homestead would require further discussions. Some variants of the mythological folksongs suggest that the oak hit by Perkons must have been growing by the gate. However, in folksongs and customs, this particular location emerges as liminal and unsafe in relation to home.Although Biezais used the Latvian example, similar customs of imitated cutting of the gate, door, or beam are also widespread in the Eastern Slavic lands. This enables us to understand better their nature, variations, and possible origins. Currently, we can use more ample Latvian and Lithuanian data. In wedding customs, actions similar to cutting or striking mostly indicate the active or masculine principle, including clashing between the bride’s and the groom’s parties, and invading of the foreign territory; but generally are characteristic of both sides. The fierce and militant character of Perkons is especially evident in this liminal sphere; there, as wedding customs and songs clearly indicate, also the hardest clash between the opposing parties takes place at some stage of the wedding. Although this clash is most prominent at the beginning of the wedding ceremony (during matchmaking, and particularly when representatives of the groom arrive to take the bride to her new home), certain “active response” is also evident in the way that the bride’s party behaves at the gate or door of the groom’s house. This may also include new elements, such as threatening to break the table with a specific musical instrument. Taunting of the wedding parties while using similar images and formulas to those used by folksongs describing animals enable us to see more clearly some peculiarities of the Thunderer’s image apparent in the songs describing the heavenly wedding (his attribution to the bride’s party and unexpectedly destructive character). The selected folklore and customs serve to considerably widen and deepen the possibilities of discussing the hypothesis raised by von Schröder and Biezais. However, this does not solve the main issues inherent in the substantiation of this hypothesis – e. g., it contradicts the authentic storylines of the songs describing the heavenly wedding; objects that are cut differ as well, while the consequences of the action – the destruction of the oak – do not ground its possible ritual purpose. The use of the sign of the cross is also ambivalent in customs, since it can serve both as means of protection against the adversary of the Thunderer – the devil, and against the thunder itself.However, the collected comparative materials provide a better idea regarding the meaning of this mythic thunder strike in the wedding contexts, elucidating certain regularities and inconsistencies.

We would like to present to you a thematic issue of “Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachun-kowości” no. 109 (165) – (ZTR, “The Theoretical Journal of Accounting”), in English entitled Accounting as a source of financial and non-financial information. It is the second volume of our journal to be guest-edited by a foreign editor – Dr. Fredrik Karlsson (Linnaeus University, Sweden). The purpose of this issue of ZTR is to indicate the directions in the evolution of accounting theory and practice, in particular, with regard to corporate reporting, which constitutes the basis for assessing the effectiveness of an enterprise’s opera-tions. The articles submitted for publication raise important issues regarding the re-porting of financial and non-financial information that is requisite for the develop-ment of trust-based relationships with the stakeholders of companies operating on the market. Due to the lack of unified applicable non-financial reporting standards in corporate reporting, the provision of reliable and useful information on the environ-mental and social aspects of functioning presents a huge challenge. It is connected with adjusting the accounting systems that entities use in order to obtain a reliable picture of the impact of their economic activity on the environment. We believe that the articles presented in this volume will contribute to a better un-derstanding of the challenges accounting faces in the new, dynamically changing reality. We tried to involve scientists from various countries in the discussion on the directions in the evolution of accounting theory and practice. By accepting for publi-cation ten articles that have received positive reviews, we believe that we have succeeded in our attempt. The Authors of the works come from research centers in seven European and South American countries, such as Chile, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, the UK, and Ukraine. The articles present the results of research on the disclosure of the financial and non-financial information in corporate reporting, which constitutes the basis for as-sessing companies’ economic, environmental, and social performance. The Authors additionally discuss the applicable accounting rules, which are requisite to obtain financial information of adequate quality for economic decision making. Various research methods have been used in the articles, such as statistical analysis, content analysis, comparative analysis, a review of the literature and legal acts, methods of deduction and synthesis, questionnaire surveys, and interviews. We can distinguish three main topic areas chosen by the Authors. The first group of papers concerns communication with users of the companies’ reports, especially regarding corporate social responsibility. The work written by Polish Authors from the University of Łódź (E. Śnieżek, M. Wiatr, K. Ciach, J. Piłacik) presents the results of research on the information needs of business information users with regard to improving the financial and non-financial information presented in annual reports. A total of 694 responses obtained from Polish accounting and tax specialists with professional experience were analyzed. The inter-pretation of the survey results takes into account the relationship between the responses received and the respondents’ characteristics, such as gender, age, and education. The Authors from Great Britain (A. Herdan, L. Neri, and A. Ruso) present the rela-tionship between sustainable development and financial indicators on the British mar-ket. The increasing social pressure exerted on enterprises, as well as the changes in legal regulations, are forcing enterprises to operate in a manner that considers the prin-ciples of sustainable development. For this reason, it is particularly important to deter-mine the relationship between the economic situation of an enterprise and sustainable development. The article written by Authors from Poland and Croatia (M. Remlein and V. Roŝka) examines the quality of the information on CSR-related investments presented in the reports prepared by Polish and Croatian companies. Based on a content analysis of re-ports prepared by non-financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the Zagreb Stock Exchange, it has been found that socially responsible investment in Poland and Croatia is still at its infancy since not many investors have been exposed to this type of investment. The authors of the next article (A. Szadziewska, B. Kotowska, L. Kloviene, S. Legenchyk, D. Prša, and M.T. Speziale) noted the existence of differences in the implementation of Directive 2014/95/EU into the national law of individual countries included in their survey, i.e., Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Great Britain, and Ukraine. Additionally, the results of the content analysis regarding the non-financial reports presented by branches of one corporation that operates in different countries indicated a different scope of the non-financial indicators published. What is more, sig-nificant differences were found between the scope of the non-financial indicators pub-lished by the capital group and its subsidiaries that operate in different countries. In the article by Polish authors from the University of Gdańsk (C. Kotyla and M. Hyży), we find a discussion on the disclosure of information on the environmental impact of companies from the mass passenger transport industry. The content analysis covered the financial statements and the management reports published by the three largest rail carriers and two airlines. The results indicate that the environmental disclo-sures in the reports analyzed do not allow for an objective assessment of the surveyed mass passenger transport enterprises’ impact on the environment. The second thematic area covered issues concerning the historical and current con-ditions that characterize accounting systems in different countries. The first article (H. Waniak-Michalak, I. Perica, and S. Leitonie) concerns non-gov-ernmental entities and the impact of accounting regulations on these organizations in Poland, Croatia, and Lithuania at the level of public trust. The results of their research indicate that accounting regulations are of marginal importance for social trust. How-ever, they have identified the possible impact of disasters and the country’s economic situation on public trust. B. Zyznarska-Dworczak, I. Mamić Sačer, and D. Mokošová conducted a compara-tive analysis of accounting systems in Central and Eastern European countries – Croa-tia, Poland, and Slovakia. The authors found important differences in the accounting standards of these countries despite their geopolitical proximity and Slavic roots. The other three articles concerned special rules of recording and reporting. M. Gierusz raises the problem of companies using the regulation of recognizing ac-quired goodwill in order to extend the useful life of goodwill. Authors from Poland and Chile (F. Morales Parada, R. Höllander Sanhueza, and M. Węgrzyńska) attempt to identify accrual adjustments as a tool to modify financial results. They indicate that Chilean firms exhibit more cases of accounting manipula-tions than Polish companies. According to the Authors, Polish firms use accrual adjust-ments to reduce the operating results, whereas Chilean companies apply accrual adjust-ments to increase their operating results. M. Szulc and P. Zieniuk answered the research question of whether listed compa-nies comply with the requirements of the International Financial Reporting Standards regarding the disclosure of events after the balance sheet date. They believe that the occurrence of such events in the economic practice of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is much more frequent than in other European countries. The editorial team takes the opportunity to thank all the supporters of the English issue of ZTR. We very much appreciate the involvement of the reviewers, the commit-ment of the authors of the papers, as well as the help of other academics and friends engaged in the preparation of the issue. We also encourage you to visit our website, www.ztr.skwp.pl, where you can find the latest information on our projects as well as all the procedures needed to submit a paper to the journal. Please submit articles to the new special issue of ZTR in 2021, entitled Ethical Issues in Accounting in Prosperity and a Financial Crisis.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Abstract The primary objective of this study was to propose a functional discrete mathematical model for analyzing folklore fairy tales. Within this model, characters are denoted as vertices, and explicit instances of communication – both verbal and non-verbal – within the text are depicted as edges. Upon examining a corpus of Eastern Slavic fairy tales in comparison to Chukchi fairy tales, unforeseen outcomes emerged. Notably, the constructed models seem to evade establishing certain connections between characters. Consequently, instances where the interactions among fairy tale characters would result in a non-planar graph structure are notably absent. To put it differently, the models refrain from incorporating sub-graphs delineated by the Kuratowski theorem governing planar graphs, specifically the minimal non-planar graphs Κ5 and Κ3,3. Remarkably, even in more extensive texts featuring a larger cast of characters, connections that would yield a non-planar graph pattern are consistently avoided. This leads to the formulation of a hypothesis positing that traditional folk tales adhere to a “planar narrative” design – an identifiable narrative variant characterized by inherent limitations in complexity. This design, in turn, appears deeply entrenched within the societal framework of the cultures that produced these folk narratives.

В статье рассматриваются отголоски человеческих жертвоприношений и каннибализма в эпических произведениях на примере осетинских нартских сказаний и русских былин. В рамках статьи осуществляется сравнительно-сопоставительный и типологический анализ традиционных эпических сказаний осетинского и русского народов. В частности, жертвоприношения на материале нартского эпоса и русских былин рассматриваются в связи с симпатической магией и тотемизмом (переходом «душевной субстанции» от мертвого к живому), экзоканнибализмом, поеданием сердца и печени, инфантицидом, обрядами побратимства, поглощением крови жертвы, отрубанием головы и части тела (например, правой руки).Целью статьи является выявление традиций человеческих жертвоприношений и отголосков каннибализма в нартском эпосе и русских былинах.Предметом исследования послужила интегральная модель семантических параллелей русского и осетинского нартского эпосов, в рамках которых прослеживается генезис и позднейшие модификации фольклорно-мифологических архетипов. Древнейшая культура, воспринятая в семантическом и аксиологическом аспектах, составляет целостную «культурную память» в единой метасистеме «миф – фольклор – литература».На протяжении различных эпох происходил тесный контакт сначала между праславянскими и североиранскими этносами, а затем – между восточными славянами и скифо-сармато-аланскими народами. Этим объясняются наличие аналогичных мифологических персонажей и генетическая связь мотивов, зафиксированных в славянской и скифо-осетинской традициях.Основное ядро былин, по всей вероятности, сформировалось в VIII-X вв. в Южной Руси – в районах Причерноморья и Приазовья, именно там, где в областях компактного проживания и наблюдались близкие взаимоотношения с наследниками скифо-сармато-аланской культуры. На юге Руси еще долго сохранялись древние эпические сказания, восходящие к скифскому времени.Основными источниками являются Онежские былины, собранные А. П. Гильфердингом на русском Севере, и корпус осетинских нартских сказаний, в т. ч. и на дигорском диалекте. The article reviews the echoes of human sacrifice and cannibalism in epic works on the example of Ossetian Nart epic and Russian bylinas. A relatively comparative analysis of the ritual-ceremonial side of the traditions of the Scythians (ancestors of Ossetians), Ossetians and Slavs is carried out. In particular, the sacrifices on the material of the Nart epic and Russian bylinas are considered in connection with sympathetic magic and totemism (the transition of “spiritual substance” from the dead to the alive), exocannibalism, eating heart and liver, infanticide, twinning ceremonies, absorbing the victim's blood, chopping off the head and parts of the body (for example, the right hand).The purpose of the article is to identify the traditions of human sacrifices and echoes of cannibalism in the Nart epic and Russian bylinas. Within the framework of the article, a comparative analysis of the traditional epic of the Ossetian and Russian peoples is carried out.The subject of the study was the integral model of the semantic parallels between the Russian and Ossetian Nart epics, within which the genesis and later modifications of folklore-mythological archetypes are traced. The oldest culture, perceived in the semantic and axiological aspects, constitutes an integral “cultural memory” in a single metasystem “myth – folklore – literature”.During the various epochs, close contact was first between the Proto-Slavic and North Iranian ethnic groups, and then between the Eastern Slavs and the Scytho-Sarmatian-Alanic peoples. This explains the presence of similar mythological characters and the genetic connection of motives fixed in the Slavic and Scythian-Ossetian traditions.The main core of the bylinas, in all probability, was formed in the VIII-X centuries in Southern Russia – in the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov regions, precisely where the close relations with the heirs of the Scytho-Sarmatian-Alanian culture were observed in the areas of compact residence. In the south of Russia ancient epic tales, dating back to the Scythian time, were preserved for a long time.The main sources are the Onega bylinas, collected by A. P. Gilferding in the Russian North, and the body of the Ossetian Nart epic, including the Digor dialect.

Research in the service of politics? The case of Józef ObrębskiThe paper concentrates on the circumstances of the production of anthropological knowledge, created in a dynamic tension between its cognitive goal and the way it is used for political purposes. It provides an insight into a complex network of conditions (intelectual, institutional, financial, personal, political) which determined the production of knowledge in interwar Poland within the then emerging disciplines of ethnology and sociology, in the scope of what today we would call social anthropology.This case study takes a closer look at Polish anthropologist Józef Obrębski (1905-1967), a close student of Malinowski, whose outstanding achievements remained mostly unpublished and thus never came into existence in the master narrative of the history of our discipline. In the 1930s Obrębski conducted ethnosociological field research in the Polesie region in eastern Poland (nowadays, part of Belarus and Ukraine), which was part of a large scale scientific project of the Commission for Scientific Research of the Eastern Territories. This project, financed by the Polish government and headed by a politician, general Kasprzycki, was supposed to be an efficient tool in the politics of the so called state and national assimilation of the Slavic-speaking ethnic minorities. Obrębski’s political views, which were democratic and liberal in character, were opposed to the official political line whereas his functionalist anthropological stance was unacceptable for the mainstream Polish ethnology of the era, still rooted in the positivist paradigm.Anthropological knowledge produced by Obrębski, which we would call today a postcolonial and constructivist approach, began to find recognition only after his death. The biography of this scholar and the story of his “unknown” work, a great example of a non-mainstream phenomenon in a provincial country, makes it easier to reveal undisclosed mechanisms of the system and the thought-collectives of science. Nauka na usługach polityki? Przypadek Józefa ObrębskiegoArtykuł dotyczy uwarunkowań produkcji wiedzy antropologicznej w dynamicznym napięciu między jej celem poznawczym a zastosowaniem do celów politycznych. Przynosi wgląd w złożoną sieć uwarunkowań (intelektualnych, instytucjonalnych, finansowych, personalnych, politycznych) produkcji wiedzy w międzywojennej Polsce, na polu młodych dyscyplin, jakimi były wówczas etnologia i socjologia, polu, które dzisiaj nazywamy antropologią społeczno-kulturową.Bohaterem tego studium przypadku jest polski antropolog Józef Obrębski (1905-1967), bliski uczeń Malinowskiego, którego wybitne prace w większości pozostały nieopublikowane, nie funkcjonują zatem w wielkiej opowieści o historii dyscypliny. W latach 1930. Obrębski prowadził etnosocjologiczne badania terenowe na Polesiu we wschodniej Polsce (region ten dziś należy do Białorusi i Ukrainy), w ramach wdrażanego tam na szeroką skalę programu naukowego Komisji Naukowych Badań Ziem Wschodnich. Projekt ten, finansowany przez polski rząd i kierowany przez polityka, gen. Kasprzyckiego, miał być skutecznym narzędziem polityki asymilacji państwowej i narodowej słowiańskojęzycznych mniejszości etnicznych. Demokratyczne i liberalne poglądy polityczne Obrębskiego były opozycyjne wobec linii politycznej jego mocodawców, zaś stanowisko teoretyczno-metodologiczne, związane z funkcjonalizmem, było z kolei nie do przyjęcia przez polskich etnologów głównego nurtu, przywiązanych do paradygmatu pozytywistycznego.Antropologiczne osiągnięcia Obrębskiego, które dziś sytuujemy w obrębie podejścia postkolonialnego i konstruktywistycznego, zaczęły zyskiwać uznanie dopiero po jego śmierci. Biografia uczonego i dzieje jego „nieznanych” prac, ważny przykład pozamainstreamowego fenomenu w prowincjonalnym kraju, przyczyniają się do poznania nieujawnionych mechanizmów systemu i kolektywów myślowych w nauce.