Ethnological and Folkloristic Research in Slovenia and in Europe

The project has been designed as a total of research investigations into culture and the way of life of Slovenes within the European cultural space, with the focus on the 19th and the 20th centuries. It represents a continuation and a more extensive examination of the general research orientation of the Institute of Slovene Ethnology which focuses on material, social, and spiritual culture in the entire Slovene ethnic territory. Suggested are also new themes and methods, aimed at comparisons with other European countries. Important components of the project are history and theory of ethnology, visual research, formation of collections, and publications in the form of articles, monographs, films, and on the internet. The project is based on fieldwork, classification, research, and archival preservation of materials and sources. Research field: architecture, dwelling culture, food culture; social communities, family and kinship, neighbor relations, everyday communication, customs of the yearly and life cycles, work customs, interurban and interethnic relations, life along national borders and in areas of transition, national identity prior and after the incorporation of Slovenia into the European Union; literary folklore, proverbs, sayings and riddles, folk narrative, mythology, belief, life stories, contemporary legends, stories of the everyday, tales; history and theory of ethnology. The Institute's central documentation center contains written material, illustrations and photographs, sound and film material, and fieldwork notes. Audovisual Laboratory activities: research of visual production among the minorities in Slovenia and amateur filmmaking; the making of visual documentation in the field and the making of research and ethnographic films; preparation for internet presentation of the Audovisual Laboratory's visual documentation. Institute of Slovene Ethnology Library is the central library with written and other material on Slovene ethnology. Its visual collections contain material from the oldest ethnological film documents to most resent video material. The Institute's publications Traditiones and Studia mythologica Slavica are the result of team work.