Land and Communities

The project results highlight the importance of cultural heritage and social factors in shaping the relationship between people, soil, and traditional farming practices. The research was based on a scholarly synthesis of existing ethnographic knowledge, an analysis of available historical, academic, and visual sources, and the preparation of case studies focused on agrarian culture.

One of the main outputs is the study Cultural Map of Slovakia – Soil from an Ethnographic Perspective: Soil Cultivation, Crop Growing and the Agrarian Culture of Slovakia. The publication explores regional forms of agrarian culture, traditional soil cultivation and crop-growing practices, viticulture, pastoralism, and dispersed settlement farming. It also provides a scholarly foundation for the development of the digital Cultural Map of Slovakia.

The work package also included an output in the field of visual anthropology. Drawing on photographic documentation of Indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea, it examines cultural identity, traditional ways of life, and the relationship between people and their cultural and natural environment.

The outputs present soil not only as a natural resource but also as a cultural phenomenon that shapes livelihoods, identity, and the traditional ways of life of communities. The project thus supported an interdisciplinary connection between ethnographic, historical, social, and environmental knowledge.