Volume 14 of the series “Ethnographic Problems of Folk Culture” brings together seven studies. Two of them fall within the field of historical-ethnological research. Using the methods of historical ethnology, the study highlights the intertwining of national, religious, and mystical elements in modern Madara, one of the key sites in the nation’s history and collective memory. The book analyzes Christian-Muslim interactions and the dynamics of heritage transmission in two eastern Albanian villages (Urbele and Gorno Karchishte), where the ethnic and religious landscape has been changing since the second half of the 19th century.
Two other studies in the collection fall within the field of contemporary ethnology. They focus on the “small town”—tracking contemporary processes of creating and maintaining places of memory in Belogradchik and the integration of the corresponding narrative into local collective memory; the “deinstitutionalization” of at-risk children is discussed—their removal from specialized institutions and placement in foster families, as well as the involvement of the non-governmental sector in these processes. Three of the studies in the collection fall within the classical field of traditional culture and art. They present the wedding rituals and marriage customs of Bulgarians in Ukraine and Moldova, focusing on the customs and rituals from the engagement to the Sunday wedding day; the polysemy of a votive monument from the village of Kiselevo, Montana Province, is analyzed from the perspective of V. Toporov’s theory of universal sign complexes and in accordance with the principles of traditional plastic arts; the relationship between the culinary code and the dead—conceived as the souls of the righteous and the sinners—is examined through the symbolic function of meat-based food.