Cultural Transmission in Slovak Mountain Regions: Local Knowledge as Symbolic Argumentation

Abstract

Anthropological findings and symbolic activities of native populations can be argumentative tools in environmental communication. This chapter presents the ethnography research and assistance of anthropologists in the re-adaptation of the new mountain generation in Vrchár communities in Slovakia, Central Europe. Here, in the second half of twentieth century, several generations were evicted from their original surroundings. The anthropologists compiled an inventory of the current state of local culture in outlying locations. They subsequently used a mixed method to analyze the consequences of interrupting generational transmission and created a model for sustainable transmission of local culture. The new generation adapts Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as lived heritage and periodically presents newly learned knowledge of symbolic events. This symbolic reference to sustainability constitutes important argumentation in environmental communication with multiple stakeholders.