Od národozpytu k evropské etnologii

To understand metamorphoses of the methods and research subject matters in Czech ethnography in the second half of the 20th century, it is necessary to search an answer to a question, whether there existed any continuity with the scientific discourse in the Euro-american scientific milieu. It was the pupils of Antonín Václavík in the 1960’s who endeavored to build such continuity, despite the restrictions imposed by the totalitarian regime, in the newly established review Ethnographical News (nowadays the Ethnographical review) and in the re-established Czechoslovak Ethnographical Bulletin in 1966-1972. In spite of all the problems, the Brno university department of ethnography survived purges from the end of the 1960’s and from the beginning of the 1970’s. Under the leaderhip of Richard Jeřábek, they gradually stabilized their activities within the framework of the comparative approach to European ethnology. Karel Fojtík, no matter how his works were products of their time, understood the general tendency of Czech ethnography, when he wrote that the professionally organized listing of material became a reliable base of the theoretical studies,whose necessity was lately emphasized by Chris Hann in the sociological review in 2007.