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younger country house hold members who try to reject, destroy or sell as quickly as possible all the elements which remind them of past in one way or another. These phenomena are most obvious in the sphere of home-furnishing and nutrition (in structural composition of their menus and in the significance and role of "traditional" elements in nutritional structure, etc.).
We do not wish in any way the touristically oriented farm* or areas to become some "neoromantic museums" when nutrition or lodging for town guests are concerned. We simply wish to preserve and shape the newly valued cultural enviroment so it wilt suit both the bearer of the village tourism activity and the person who will come to the countryside from a highly urbanized city milieu in search of a holiday, an outing or just relaxation.
Janez Bogataj
STUDENT ACTIVITY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ETHNOLOGY
Student activity could he presented only by a detailed analysis of the successfulness of the study; but this is not the aim of this article. It is interesting how the students of ethnology — or at least a part of them — express their professional activity in a number of ways which may concern results of examinations only in~ directly.
It is certain that anybody who attends classes for one or two years, seminaries or lectures of guest lecturers, who furthermore follows discussions within the Slovene Ethnological Society meetings, etc., has come to realize that ethnology is not a study of "exotic far-off lands", but rather a fairly young science which tries to catch up with everything that may have been lost in the past regarding the present concepts, a science which forms new views and concepts for research of the vast field of work defined as a way of life or life style. Students are constantly able to witness various research projects which require participation of numerous professional ethnologists and are invited to collaborate in these projects with their field work practices, practices in various ethnological institutions or with their seminary and diploma papers. Such collaboration is constantly encouraged and welcomed by mentors and lecturers, but is at the same time also a matter of decision of each individual student and represents a direct professional experience for their future professional work. During the discussions with the lecturers students also suggest various possibilities for improvement of the educational process (which is a scientific process as well) and eventual suppletions of curriculum, altough many of their suggestions are hampered by the lack of room space and personnel shortage in the department.
AH ethnological research actions, lectures and discussions are open to anyone who may wish to cooperate. Students thus witness theory and practice which — especially in the latter days — spread on to areas of interdisciplinary researches of life style in cooperation with sciences which share similar interests or similar objects of research. After a comparatively cuccessful action of ethnologists and architects for revitalization of the old town nucleus of a coastal town of Izola (ten students of ethnology and three mentors), a conference about the relation between ethnology and architecture was organized. This topic is also the main theme of an optional subject for junior and senior students. A similar cooperation has been established with Slavicists in relation to folkloristic research of verbal literature.
Students should thus participate in all the primary tasks and researches of Slovene ethnology and some of them have already contributed to the initial stage of a long-term project entitled "Life Style of Slovenes in the 20th Century". Related to these primary researches will be reorganized seminaries which will enable students to get acquainted with contemporary theory and practice of Slovene ethnology. Each seminary will be dealing with special areas of research so the students will be able to participate in a research of, for example, Slovene immigrants, and will become familiar with problems of contemporary ethnological orientations in Europe and other parts of the world, with problems of complex researches, etc.
A stronger activity would be desirable especially where popularization of ethnology is concerned. There are quite a few possibilities for this since at least some of the mass media institutions are willing to receive ethnological contributions. In any case it would be better for the branch and the public as well if such contributions were written by ethnologists themselves and not by people outside this profession which happens often enough in practice.
Many possibilities are thus available; the development of ethnology depends on all ethnologists, therefore on students and those who have come to understand this and try to contribute as much as possible within their own qualifications as well.
Ingrid Slavec