Numerous renowned scientific societies, institutions or whole fields of study have their own codes of ethics.The code defines the basic principles that ought to be respected by members in the course of their work. Czech ethnology lacks this code of ethics; in spite of the fact that numerous activities carried out by Czech ethnologists (research, publication, archiving and presentation of research outcomes) do present various ethical dilemmas. The importance of ethics in this field of study is underlined by the fact that the creation of the code of ethics has been defined as one of the goals within the framework of the implementation of the government programme entitled Koncepce účinnější péče o tradiční lidovou kulturu (Strategy of improved care for traditional folk culture). The issue of ethics in ethnology has been discussed (along with other, rather internal issues) in professional media with almost no real outcome, since most of the contributions to the debate were nothing but short comments and thoughts.Based upon these tips and recommendations, the members of the Czech Ethonological Society decided, in September 2011, to prepare and submit for discussion the Code of Ethics of the Czech Ethonological Society by the next session of the general assembly. This task was assigned to Petr Janeček and Jana Nosková. They presented a draft Code of Ethics in October 2013 at a workshop Etika a etnologie 2held in Brno. The debate about the document yielded several remarks which have been addressed in the draft. That said, it is necessary that more serious debate on this important document takes place among the general professional audience prior to the adoption of the Cod od Ethics in in autumm 2014. Therefore, it was decided that the draft shall be published in the most important professional journal and representatives of this field were asked to comment and provide their feedback on the final version of the document.
Ethnologists began research of Czech tramping (tramping movement or tramping subculture) as part of modern research of urban culture only in the 1980s; before 1989 they dealt with it only marginally (A. Mann from Bratislava researched contemporary tramping festivities, V. Vohlídka and J. Svobodová from Prague focused on history and material culture of tramping in Bohemia). At the beginning of the 1990s, it was Z. Uherek who investigated inter-war festivities of Prague tramps; J. Souček pointed out other possibilities of similar research. In 1995, focus of ethnological research of tramping moved to Moravia when the researchers from branch of the Institute of Ethnography and Folkloristics in Brno, the current Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, resolved the project “The Culture of Contemporary Children and Youth with Special Attention to Folklore Expressions”. The project also included research of youth subcultures, tramping included. It was mainly Karel Altman who focused on the research of tramping. The project investigated history and present of the tramping movement in several regions in Moravia (WesternMoravian Trojříčí, the Tišnov, the Valašské Klobouky and the Vsetín areas). Karel Altman presented themes relating to tramping in the form of cycles of lectures called “Tramping as a Subculture” at the Department of European Ethnology at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno. These lectures encouraged several students to write their Master’s theses on this theme. At the turn of the century one of the compulsory courses for students of the Department of European Ethnology included field research of tramping movement especially in southern Wallachia, conducted during several years. Research of tramping still continues in Brno.
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