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
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Conducted fieldwork in central Bulgaria and the
geographic region of Macedonia
Started their research projects in the period
between mid 1920s – late 1930s
Were in favor of ethnographic fieldwork research
Focus their attention on ‘community studies’
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
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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)
(1)
(4) The quest for ‘sample communities’
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The presupposed isolation of rural communities
and their unchanging character
The presupposed egalitarianism of community life
The romantic nostalgia for community life (S., O.,
K.)…
… which, in the case of Sanders and Karavidas, is
developed into a political position refering to issues
of modernisation and development