Introduction to the Thematic Issue The City – Identity – Memory – Minorities ****************************************************************************************** * Blanka Soukupová ****************************************************************************************** Článek v PDF ke stažení [ URL "LM-861-version1-1_introduction.pdf"] Every city derives its character from its own history. This history finds its roots in the city, its monuments and memorials, its symbols, but also in the structured memory of its i Some places in a city absorb several temporal layers of memory and the oldest can, with ti temporary or permanent forgetting. It is not always a question of natural processes; memor in a violent or controlled manner: urban renewals, forced expulsion of a population, etc. also has the ability to flash back to its past: a walk through historic streets and quiet back to the receptive walker what that space was like in the past. Often connected to the memories is nostalgia: valid and invalid phenomena. The preservation of a significant poin of a city requires a combination of the past with the present and the future: history lose if it cannot be used for updating. People search in a city’s history so that, with its sup master the present or, more precisely, project their interests into the past. That is, eac those eyes granted to him by his time. In a city there are, to be sure, areas filled with meaning and also areas that, at least f are meaningless. However, one cannot exclude the idea that even, for example, uniform hype sweeping away differences among European cities that are historically founded or construct identity on history, are still waiting for their history. In the current issue, mainly dev urban anthropology and, therefore, Slovak cities and their memories, are analyses of memor worlds from several viewpoints. The unifying topic of the issue is, however, minority urba The Bratislava ethnologist Peter Salner, for example, drew fresh attention to the phenomen loss of memory of the Jewish minority in the Slovak capital after World War II. As a conse Shoah and postwar waves of emigration, the Jewish Orthodox community, a majority in a mino but also some of the assimilated Jews disappeared from Bratislava, a city with a strong Je Judaism as one of the significant elements of Bratislava’s memory, however, also faded into forgetfulness because of insensitive demo Jewish monuments. And finally: the group of Orthodox Jews and Zionists have not yet even b newly forming Jewish memory built by secularized, assimilated Jews and Communists. Many of them, moreover, lack Bratislava roots. Salner’s colleague, Daniel Luther, chose to the Czech minority who arrived programmatically in the city in the period after 1918 (the Czechoslovak Republic) and, in 1938, were expelled from there. At present, their existence by the break-up of the federation (1992). Using them as an example, Luther introduced the demonstrated the role of memory in the process of formation of contemporary minority ident Vrzgulová, the last of the three Bratislava researchers, using the example of research of distinctive social and occupational group of tradesmen of non-Jewish and Jewish origin bet 1938, convincingly applied the thesis of Maurice Halbwachs about the influence of social o conditions and social strategies on human memory. Probably every memory, however, is a det to highlight the importance of one’s own state (one’s own group) for the over-all characte What is interesting is knowledge about intergenerational transfer of memory in one social Bystrica researcher Jolana Darulová analyzed the contrast between two periods of the forme medieval mining town (1918-1945/1948) and the present. Her research on the city center, formerly a sort of heart of the city, shows how the sourc view the postmodern era with its propensity toward unification. The article by Katarína Koštialová is a vivid example of the manipulation of memory. Using the example of an interesting, prestigious organization in Zvolen that has t of city hall, she shows the possibility of revitalization of certain segments of memory of subconscious of its inhabitants and visitors. The study of Katerína Popelková dealing with wine-growing cities in the Malé Karpaty (Modra and Pezinok) is, in its way, the most relevant for post-Socialist society. On the basis of research, Popelková reveals mechanisms affecting memory in the development of the city. Me to say, is capable not only of slowing down the development of a city, but also of acceler example, it is skillfully used in the development of tourism (Pezinok). The current issue is essentially dedicated, then, to the functions of minority memory in a Methodically it emanates, just as the first Polish-Czech issue did, from anthropological a postmodern approaches. We are, however, introducing two new sections: a Discussion section can include, first of all, discussions of contributions relating to methodology in our fie of its sources, and the most important books in our specialization and, in the English ver section, The city and its personalities. This is in accordance with the propensity of cont Socialist societies toward individualization and, at the same time, in accordance with our foundation. We start from the fact that the city and its inhabitants create an inseparable words: urban worlds cannot be understood without empathetic insight into mentalities (ways strategies of behavior) of those who inhabit, work, found families, create values and enjo Blanka Soukupová [ URL "LM-364.html "]