The Role of Personality in the Transmission of Cultural Forms. An Example of the Bearer of Regional Traditions in Central Moravia (the Ethnographic Area of Haná)

• Published in: Glasnik Etnografskog instituta Vol. LXV; no. 2; pp. 273 - 288
• Main Author: Válka, Miroslav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Етнографски институт САНУ 2017; Institute of Ethnography SANU
• Subjects: 19th Century; Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology; Customs / Folklore; Geography, Regional studies; Museology Heritage Studies; Nationalism Studies; Recent History (1900 till today); intangible cultural heritage; Czech Republic; Marie Pachtová; Haná region
• ISSN: 0350-0861; 2334-8259

The ethnographic area of Haná in Central Moravia (Czech Republic) has been among distinctive ethnographic regions since the 16th century. Even though traditional regional forms had gradually disappeared as a consequence of the modernization of village life, these returned alongside new functions in terms of national consciousness from the late 19th century. It was the intelligentsia, mainly teachers, priests, physicians and artists, who contributed to the spread of these forms. The personalities´ activities did not stop even in the 20th century. The teacher Marie Pachtová (born 1932) is an example of one such person (in study by Miroslav Válka). She not only led a children´s folklore ensemble, moderated programmes aimed at presentation of folklore, and worked as a lector, but she also tries to involve older folk traditions of Haná in the present cultural calendar of the town where she lives. Among other things, she was instrumental in the preservation of the production of Easter eggs from Haná which are decorated with stuck-on straw. She paid similar attention to the ceremonial pastries. With the focus of this example, it is possible to prove the transformations of regional culture´s expression into the contemporary social life as well as the mechanism of the creation of a new tradition.