Bilateral reserch project

Religious Notions. Traditional Beliefs and the Oppsition of Nature and Culture
New Realities, Theoretical Approaches and Interpretations

Estonian-Bulgarian joint research projects 2022–2023


The aim of the project is to analyze religious beliefs and traditional notions in their relationship with contemporary global challenges, their mutual influence and the consequences of this symbiosis. The project will articulate and explore the most popular religious and traditional beliefs and ideas, their promoters ("actors"), their place and influence on vital aspects of individual and social life.

The project will expand and enlarge existing contacts between the Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, BAS and the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, which in recent years have fruitful joint cooperation in the field of the study of contemporary cultural and social processes in Bulgaria and Estonia in a new perspective. In the frame of the bilateral project will be continued research about important subtopics (monasteries as nodes of traditions; new religious movements, etc.).

Comparative character of the project will allow underlying of general and different trends in folklore manifestation in the two countries on the basis of new fieldwork data, as well as the development of empirical, methodological and analytical capabilities in the field of Folklore studies in the Bulgarian and Estonian sciences.

  • Joint publication:
    The Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies (YBBS)

  • Conference:
    Nature and Culture in the Rituals, Narratives and Beliefs

  • Fieldworks:
    2021, 2022

    The project continues joint research projects «Dynamic boundaries in dynamic world: Tradition, religion and modernity. The Case of Bulgaria and Estonia» (BAN-EAN, 2018-2020), «Balkan and Baltic Holiness – Modern Religiosity and National Identity» (BAN-EAN, 2015-2017), «Sacral Space – Holy Places and Local Traditions (Bulgaria and Estonia)» (BAN-EAN, 2012-2014), «Folklore and identity in the EU – the case of Bulgaria and Estonia» (BAN-EAN, 2009-2011) and «Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religions, and Cultures» (BAN-EAN, 2006-2008), developed under the direction of Ekaterina Anastasova and Mare Kõiva.