I. Sanders, J. Obrebski and K. Karavidas

Interwar ethnography in the Balkans

We will focus on the common aspects of their methodology their research agenda, their theoretical background.

(Other similar cases…)

Sanders, Obrebski and Karavidas

1. Conducted fieldwork in central Bulgaria and the geographic region of Macedonia

2. Started their research projects in the period between mid 1920s – late 1930s

3. Were in favor of ethnographic fieldwork research

4. Focus their attention on ‘community studies’

5. Shared similar political agendas (Sanders and Karavidas)

Fieldwork sites

Irwin Sanders (1909 - 2005)

(I. Sanders in 1981)

The American College of Sofia(Main entrance)

The American College of Sofia(Sanders Building)

I. Sanders

1929: Washington and Lee University, Va. 1929: travels in the southern Balkans 1930: Fieldwork research in the village of Talpa, lecturing at the Α.C.S. 1936: ‘A Bulgarian Village’ 1938: Ph.D. (Cornell University) 1940: Staff member at the USA Consulate in Belgrade 1940 – 1956: University of Kentucky 1949: ‘Balkan Village’ 1951 – 1952: Fieldwork research in Βουλγαρία and Greek Macedonia 1952 – 53: ‘Rainbow in the Rock: People of Rural Greece’ 1960 – 1963: Boston University (‘Graduate Community Sociology Program’) 1963: Ford Foundation (Assist. Director of the international educational and

research program)

1936, A Bulgarian Village. 1939, May. “Neighborhoods and Neighborly Relations in a Bulgarian Village”, Social

Forces, Vol.17, No. 4, pp. 532-537. 1939, Oct. “Sociometric work with a Bulgarian woodcutting group”, Sociometry, Vol. 2,

No. 4, pp. 58-68. 1940, Alabama Rural Communities: A study of Chilton County, Alabama College. 1940, Mar. “The School Discovers the Community”, Journal of Educational Sociology,

Vol. 13, No. 7, pp. 397-402. 1940, Oct. “Bulgarians and the Southern Rural Whites in Contrast”, Social Forces, Vol.

19, No. 1, pp. 88-94. 1943, Aug. “Sociometry and the Sociology Classroom”, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 249-250. 1945, Farmer of the World; the development of agricultural extension, New York,

Columbia University Press. 1947, Dec. “Societies around the World”, Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 21, No.

4, pp. 238-242. 1949, Oct. “Societies around the World: A Social Science Course at the University of

Kentucky”, Social Forces, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 40-45.

1949, Balkan Village, University of Kentucky Press: Lexington, KY. 1949, Oct. “Societies around the World: A social science course at the University of Kentucky”, Social

Forces, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 40-45. 1949, Nov. “The Use of Block Leader in Effective Community Mobilization”, Sociometry, Vol. 12, No. 4,

pp. 265-275. 1950, Making good communities better: a handbook for civic-minded men and women, University of

Kentucky Press, Lexington. 1950, Preparing a Community Profile: The Methodology of a Social Reconnaissance (Lexington, KY:

Kentucky Community Series No. 7, Bureau of Community Services, University of Kentucky). 1950, Sep. “Changing Status of the Peasant in Eastern Europe”, Annuals of the American Academy of

Political and Social Sciences, Vol. 271, Moscow’s European Satellites, pp. 78-93. 1953, Making Good Communities Better, Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press. 1954, Dec. “The Nomadic People of Northern Greece: Ethnic Puzzle and Cultural Survival”, Social

Forces, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 122-129. 1955, “A statement on a proposal resettlement project in Bolivia”. 1955, Nov. “Selection of Participants in a Mutual Aid Group in Rural Greece”, Sociometry, Vol. 18, No.

4, Sociometry and the Science of Man, pp. 326-329. 1955, Dec. “The Contribution of the Specialist to Community Development”, Journal of Educational

Sociology, Vol. 29, No. 4, The rule of the Community Consultant, pp. 151-163.

1956, Oct. “Communist-Dominated Education in Bulgaria: A study in Social Relationships”, American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 364-381.

1956, Oct. “Research with Peasants in Underdeveloped Areas”, Social Forces, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1-10.

1958, “Theories of Community Development”, Rural Sociology, Vol. 23, pp. 1-2. 1958, The Community: An introduction to a Social System, New York, The Ronald Press. 1958, “Collectivization of Agricultural in Soviet Strategy”, in Collectivization of Agriculture in Eastern

Europe, University of Kentucky Press, pp. 49-66. 1959, Mar. “The moral basis of a Backward Society”, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 64, No.

5. 1960, Feb. “The Community Social Profile”, American Sociology Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 75-77. 1962 Rainbow in the Rock: The People of Rural Greece. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1962, Aug. “The involvement of health professionals and local officials in fluoridation controversies”, A.

J. P.H., Vol. 52, No. 8, pp. 1274-1287. 1963 Making Good Communities Better (Rev.). Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. 1966 The Community: An introduction to a Social System. New York: The Ronald Press Company. 1968, Sep. “Tzintzuntzan: Mexican Peasants in a Changing World”, The American Journal of

Sociology, Vol. 2, pp. 211-213.

1970 Bridges to understanding: International programs of American colleges and universities, New York: Mc Graw-Hill.

1975 The Community, New York: Ronald Press. 1975 “The Community Social Profile”, American Sociological Review, 25: 75-77. 1975 Polish American Community Life: A survey of Research, New York: Polish Institute

of Arts and Sciences in America. 1976 East European Peasantries: Social Behavior. An annoted bibliography of

periodical articles, Boston: G. K. Hall. 1976 “Rural Community Studies in the United States: A Decade in Review”, Annual

Review of Sociology, Vol. 2, pp. 35-53. 1977 Rural Society. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1985 “The social renaissance method of community study”, in F. Fear and H.

Schwarzweller (eds.), Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Greenwich. Connecticut: JAI Press.

The concept of Community Development, Community Development as a process. University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

K. Karavidas (1890 – 1973)

K. Karavidas

1908 – 1912: Athens University Law School, active in the «φοιτητική συντροφιά» (‘Students’ companion’)

1912 – 1913: Fighting in the Balkan Wars 1917: Advisor at the Bureau of E. Venizelos’ revolutionary government 1917 – 1921: Staff member at the ‘Head Administration Service’ of

Greek Macedonia Winter – Spring 1921: Fieldwork in the Florina – Bitola valley 1922: Staff member at the ‘Greek Higher Commission’ at Smyrna/Izmir 1922 – 1924: Head publisher of the ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΣ (COMMUNITY)

Journal 1924 – 1926: Staff member of the Greek M.F.A. positioned in Greek

Macedonia 1941 – 1944: Founding member of the «Δημοκρατική Ομάδα»

(Democratic Defense) resistance group

K. Karavidas

1920: The farmers’ anthem 1927: The Slavo-Macedonian rural community in the region of

Monastir 1930: Democracy and local administration in Greek 1931: Ruralis. A comparative study 1936: A communalist addressing a communist 1936: Economic rationalism and local authorities 1938: The institualization of farmers’ rites de passage 1939: Essay on the importance of the nature and meaning of

community institution in Greece

Joseph Obrebski (1905 - 1967)

(Obrebski in Volche in 1932 – 1933)

J. Obrebski

1930: Μ.Α. (Krakow University) 1929 – 1932: fieldwork in Bulgaria, Dobrudja and Macedonia 1932 – 1933: fieldwork in Volche (Ph.D. research under the

supervision of Β. Malinowski in the L.S.E.) 1934 – 1936: Fieldwork in Poland 1934 – 1939: Assist. Director of the Polish Institute of Rural

Culture1945 – 1959: L.S.E. 1947 – 1948: Fieldwork in Jamaica (Development etc.) 1959 - 1967: Staff member at the UN Secretariat at NY,

lecturer at the C.W. Post College of Long Island University

J. Obrebski

1933 LSE Ph.D Thesis Family organization among Slavs as reflected in the custom of couvade

1974 Yesterday’s people: peasants in Polesie: an exhibition of photographs of rural eastern Poland, Amherst, Massachusetts.

1976 The changing peasantry of Eastern Europe, edited by Barbara and Joel

1977 Ritual and social structure in a Macedonian village, edited by Barbara Ker

“Ludwik Krzywicki”, in Obrebski Collection, Special Collections & Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Ritual and Social Structure in a Macedonian village”, EthnoAnthropoZoom 2:1-18

Bronislaw Malinowski’s Functional Method (unpublished)

Visual material from J. Obrebski fielwork

Obrebski, Sanders and Karavidas common background

(1) The existence of two different types of society which are treated as the very antithesis of each other

(2) The assumption that communities are a special form of group life which can only be found in the one of the two parts of the dichotomy, that is the traditional, rural folk etc. society

(3) The acceptance of some common characteristics of every folk rural society (both on the national and Balkan levels)

(4) The quest for ‘sample communities’

5. The presupposed isolation of rural communities and their unchanging character

6. The presupposed egalitarianism of community life

7. The romantic nostalgia for community life (S., O., K.)…

8. … which, in the case of Sanders and Karavidas, is developed into a political position refering to issues of modernisation and development