Globalisation under the conditions of the ethnocultural borderland assumes a special form. The article illustrates the problem using Cieszyn Silesia, i.e. the Polish and Czech borderland as an example. In this territory the problem of identity of individuals and social groups, who live on the border of many cultures, in constant contact with the 'other', is particularly evident. An intensive exchange process of cultural elements in the course of constant and direct contacts is also characteristic. In this way a specific transborder atmosphere is created, with various cultural, social and economic contacts over the political borders of the neighbouring states. Cultural syncretism of the inhabitants of such an area and the ability to freely move in both cultural spaces is one of the features of these transborder relations. A change of attitudes, including the shortening of the ethnic distance between both neighbouring national groups, is the result of the 'open border' after the accession of Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Union. These phenomena have been favoured by the continuous local border traffic, which leads to transgressive behaviour, i.e. transgressing many existing ethnic, cultural and social barriers. Against this background the author presents a new function of the Polish-Czech border as an important factor linking rather than dividing people.
The paper deals with the life of children in eight former German villages in the Vyskovsko Region, since the end of the 19th century until the forced transfer in 1946. The children grew up within the environment that put great stress on traditions, catholic religion and definition and safeguarding of their German identity against the Czech surroundings, which was demonstrated by wearing the local folk costumes and surviving of the ancient dialect and many habits. The upbringing in families, at school or in clubs was aimed at the support of German national feeling. The contacts with the Czech children were minimal in the so-called upper language island; the Czech families became assimilated, or they were not integrated into the village collective. The Czech minority schools founded in the German villages after 1918, especially the lower secondary school in Kucerov (1926), incurred displeasure and became a source of quarrels. The more frequent contacts between the Czech and the German children can be seen in the ethnically mixed and bilingual environment of the so-called lower language island.
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