2024 / 3 – Sights and Directions. Edited by Valentina Ganeva-Raycheva, Valentin Voskresenski

The issue presents the research of PhD students from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The articles are original scholarly works on a range of themes, including ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, sociolinguistics, migration studies, studies of religious beliefs and concepts, and the examination of spiritual teachings and contemporary healing practices.
The content presents new perspectives on the processes of transformation and community influence in the music of Kosovar Albanians in the period of the 1990s
The tendencies of europeanization, archaization, folklorization and lexical changes in the Bulgarian language are outlined as present on the pages of Tsarigradski vestnik (1848–1862).
The continuation of the analysis of the motif "A virgin rescues Malta" is also included – this time with a particular emphasis on the circumstances of its creation and on the folk tradition that facilitated its survival in the Balkan context.
The images and concepts pertaining to menstruation in the biblical texts and plots, along with their interpretations by church authorities are followed, while the norms in this respect are analysed.
Various information about folk dancing in Sbornik za narodni umotvoreniya, nauka i knizhnina (from volume I to volume XXI) is presented as a resource for future ethnochoreological research.
Furthermore, the issue offers the findings of a fieldwork study on the Italians in Bulgaria, encompassing their social profiles, intercultural communication, and the conditions and challenges associated with residing in their country of immigration.
Last but not least, the dissemination in Bulgaria of the generic therapy of rodonavtica, which combines elements of traditional rites, family constellations, ancestor veneration and different ritual acts or practices is studied. The issue is interdisciplinary in nature and will be of interest to those focused on different problems of traditional and contemporary culture, as well as on historical and contemporary cultural interrelations in Bulgaria or abroad.

2024 / 4 – From Fieldwork to Theory. Edited by Anna Shtarbanova, Ivaylo Parvanov

The issue is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Prof. Anna Ilieva, D. Sc. and reflects the thematic scope of the National Round Table “From Fieldwork to Theory – Contemporary Scholarly Paradigms in Bulgarian Ethno-Choreology”, held in October 2023.
The articles seem quite different in nature, but actually present a wide variety of original ways in which the authors re-read certain aspects of Prof. Ilieva’s numerous contributions. The issue offers an insight into the ways the traditional dances and plays are documented by using kinestenography – a special dance writing system created by Rayna Katsarova and further developed by Anna Ilieva. Fieldwork observations and analytical thoughts on the traditional dance lexica and its contemporary interpretations are presented also within the theoretical paradigm of Prof. Ilieva. The ethnomusicological scholarly contributions by Prof. Ilieva are reviewed including her studies “Musical and Folkloristic Investigations in the Region of Svoge” (1964) and “The Bulgarian Folk Dances and Their Music” (1971). Rayna Katsarova’s substantial contributions for the description of the content and function of the folk dances of the Bulgarians in Bessarabia are outlined while analyzing archival fieldwork data from her expedition to Ukraine and Moldova in 1958. The ritual of Mevlid is presented as an important religious practice in the system of the local calendar and family rites, as well as an expression of the local identity of the Bulgarian Muslims in the town of Madan. On the intersection of folklore and the present, the life and the artistic development of the composer, kaval player and director Zhivko Zhelev is traced.