From the issues of expressive lexis – pilchThe object of this article is the description and interpretation of the semantic development of the pilch lexeme. In its basic meaning this word means a mammal from the Gliridae family. Pilch has already been known in pre-Slavic language and is also confirmed in the historical dictionaries of the Polish language. The historical material documents only the zoological meaning of the lexeme, while in the local dialects one can observe the semantic development of this unit. Pilch, next to indicating various animals, occurs also as a word describing 1. a mean person 2. a bad-natured person, 3. little child. Pilch is an interesting example of a lexical unit that primarily denominates an animal but which extended its meaning and became a personal expressivism as a result of connotations occurring in the folk culture.
Collaborationist Czechism took over a Reich legend about the Third Reich´s fight for Europe of everlasting peace and social reconciliation in the so-called civil war. After the triumph of the Nazi Germany, the Czech issue would have been to be solved. However, during the war intermezzo the Nazi propaganda pretended an interest in the Czech "folk culture" and its apparent creator - the Czech farmer. Simultaneously, the Protectorate promoted the German "folk culture" (mainly the national costume) and the Reich ethnography (e.g. the ethnographer Kerkman, an expert in folk costumes) as unbeatable models for the Czech ethnography. The study describes the resources of the Nazi interest in the "folk culture", the forms of the culture ́s promotion, as well as the causes of an alleged support to the ethnographic curiosities in the Protectorate. However, the "folk culture" and the ethnography that promoted this culture, worked as a support to Czechism, a Czech nation ́s anchor in its alleged roots, and as an expression of national nostalgia and sentiment. The folk costumes and traditions were revitalized. In comparison to the interwar trends of ethnography, both models of the interest in the "folk culture" gave an impression of a kind of anachronism. The models disparaged the Czech and Moravian people down to the position of an ethnographic group. The "folk culture" (especially folk costumes, folk songs) was also used by the exile propaganda around Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia, to encourage the exile Czechism, to induce a feeling of the Czech nation´s wholeness (in emigration and at home), and to manifest Czechism and Czechoslovakism in the public.
During the last Baìo in 2007, I interpreted carnival as an occasion to investigate popular traditions. Agricultural feasts have been present since ancient times, sometimes hidden behind the veil of other meanings: today they represent a way to allow the present society to feel itself as a continuation of the past. The communities of small local areas show a representation of their identity through ancient rituals – like manifestations, such as the Baìo – to sew their relationships with the modern territory. Those rituals also demonstrate several, and sometimes unexpected, connections with different cultures of the present and the past.
Straw is a particular raw material that has been widely used in the past and in the past. The text enumerates its practical qualities and reported importance in former rituals, beliefs, healing or divination. Then the text deals with the symbolism of the straw, which is becoming more and more difficult to interpret.
The article presents, on the basis of elderberries, birch, St. John’s wort, yarrow, poppy, mint, wormwood, various rituals. The article also contains folk descriptions of plants, combined with the Polish literary language and Latin names. nettle using the aforementioned plants in magical practices, religious beliefs and superstitions connected with family traditions in Hajnówka District. A special attention is paid to the positive and negative influence of plants, for instance hanging elder over the door to ward off bad powers. It has been stated that members of old generations still use the majority of the described plants in various rituals. The article also contains folk descriptions of plants, combined with the Polish literary language and Latin names.
Pieczywo obrzędowe w kulturze tradycyjnej odgrywało bardzo ważną rolę. Wykonywane było przy okazji rytuałów dorocznych i rodzinnych. Na Lubelszczyźnie na wyróżnienie zasługuje na pewno korowaj oraz chleb, który był często wypiekany. Nadto wypiekano jeszcze busłowe łapy, szczodraki, andrzejki czy małe chlebki w Woli Obszańskiej, piróg biłgorajski oraz krzyżyki wyrabiane w okresie Wielkiego Postu w Michałówce. Podczas obrzędów zyskiwały one sakralne właściwości, wykorzystywane były do realizowania różnych funkcji: religijnych, magicznych, mediacyjnych, ofiarnych, inicjujących i integrujących. Zmiany, jakie zaistniały w ostatnich kilkudziesięciu latach w obrzędach, sprawiły, że przedstawione formy pieczywa nie stanowią już ważnych rekwizytów, a te, które przetrwały, utraciły magiczno-religijne znaczenie i sakralny sens. Istotnym działaniem, jakie należy teraz podjąć, jest próba ich zachowania.
EN
Ritual bread used to play a very important role in various annual and family rituals. In the Lublin region, korowaj – large round braided bread – as well as busłowe łapy, szczodraki, andrzejki or small breads from Wola Obszańska, piróg biłgorajski and the so-called crosses, baked during Lent in Michałówka, deserve special mention. They performed important ritual functions and could be considered in the contexts of religion, magic, mediation, sacrifice, initiation and integration. Changes that have occurred in recent decades in ritual customs and traditions caused the bread to lose its function of an important prop. The types of bread that survived until now have lost their magical and religious significance. In the author’s opinion, it is crucial that actions are taken to protect the still existing traditional forms of bread.
This study deals with the personality of the writer Teréza Nováková (1853-1912). The author and her work is a classic example of the domain and genre penetration at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. the attention of society turns distinctively to folk culture and ethnology now shapes up as a scientific branch. Realism dominates the literature and rural themes are very actual. Many personalities are able to interconnect science and art and to engage themselves in both directions. T. Nováková is one of them and, moreover, she brings in the publicistic and journalistic genres, as well as the aspects of struggle for women’s emancipation.
All dialects are beautifulThe text presents the publication Visos tarmės gražiausios… Tarmių medžiagos rinkimo instrukcija [Eng. All dialects are beautiful… Dialectal material collection instruction] created by Lithuanian dialectologists. It aims to activate dialectical research data collection in various regions of Lithuania. The publication provides brief, popular and scholarly articles about the history of the Lithuanian dialectical research, as well as practical guidelines for researchers. The cooperation initiative between reserachers and dialect users is underlined. Wszystkie gwary są piękneTekst przedstawia publikację Visos tarmės gražiausios… Tarmių medžiagos rinkimo instrukcija [pol. Wszystkie gwary są piękne… Instrukcja gromadzenia materiałów gwarowych], opracowaną przez dialektologów litewskich. Ma ona na celu aktywizację pracy nad gromadzeniem danych gwaroznawczych w różnych regionach Litwy. Publikacja zawiera krótkie artykuły o charakterze popularnonaukowym, dotyczące historii gwaroznawstwa na Litwie oraz praktyczne wskazówki dla badaczy. Godna uwagi jest sama inicjatywa współpracy naukowców z użytkownikami gwar.
The text presents the publication Visos tarmės gražiausios… Tarmių medžiagos rinkimo instrukcija [Eng. All dialects are beautiful… Dialectal material collection instruction] created by Lithuanian dialectologists. It aims to activate dialectical research data collection in various regions of Lithuania. The publication provides brief, popular and scholarly articles about the history of the Lithuanian dialectical research, as well as practical guidelines for researchers. The cooperation initiative between reserachers and dialect users is underlined.
PL
Tekst przedstawia publikację Visos tarmės gražiausios… Tarmių medžiagos rinkimo instrukcija [pol. Wszystkie gwary są piękne… Instrukcja gromadzenia materiałów gwarowych], opracowaną przez dialektologów litewskich. Ma ona na celu aktywizację pracy nad gromadzeniem danych gwaroznawczych w różnych regionach Litwy. Publikacja zawiera krótkie artykuły o charakterze popularnonaukowym, dotyczące historii gwaroznawstwa na Litwie oraz praktyczne wskazówki dla badaczy. Godna uwagi jest sama inicjatywa współpracy naukowców z użytkownikami gwar.
The history of Czech ethnochoreology follows the general development of the interest in traditional folk culture and formation of ethnochoreology in the European geographical space. At present, ethnochoreology is perceived as part of ethnology; however, it overlaps beyond this discipline, especially towards the art-historical study of dance and music. The beginnings of ethnology’s current dance specialization may be part of the abovementioned interest in traditional folk culture in the late 19th century. The work Jak se kdy v Čechách tancovalo [How People Used to Dance in Bohemia] (1895) with the sub-title Dějiny tance v Čechách, na Moravě, ve Slezsku a na Slovensku od nejstarší doby až do konce 19. století se zvláštním zřetelem k dějinám tance vůbec [The History of Dance in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia from the Oldest Times to the End of the 19th Century with Special Respect to the History of Dance in General] by the historian of culture Čeněk Zíbrt remains a hitherto unequalled Czech synthesis about the history of dance. The work was published again in 1960 as a commented edition. From the late 19th century, dances began to be collected in particular regions and the first collections with folk dances were published. The always stronger wave of the interest in folk dance was intensified by the disappearing dance tradition in the countryside. The intellectuals’ efforts did not focus only on recording the dance, but also on maintaining them. The folklore movement, which built its social position between the two world wars, became stronger in the second half of the 20th century. At that time, the institutionalized aspect of ethnochoreology developed in the Czech lands, and both levels, the practical and the theoretical one, complemented each other. Czech ethnochoreology became involved in international professional structures and the subject-matter of its interest began to spread beyond the borders of traditional folk culture. It focuses not only on folk dance, but on dance as a phenomenon that is one of the oldest expressions of people’s souls and emotions in human existence.
The article tries to show Harasymowicz as a poet working under the influence of two cultures. In his poetry relations of Polish and Ukrainian cultures are shown on the cultural and historical background, which are even evident in his first volume of poetry which was published in 1956. The geographical area of the Carpathian mountains and Low Beskids hold a special place in his poetry. Family tradition, objectivity of the poet and his delight in mountain scenery for „the dream and a fairy-tale world” created a metaphorical image of the area and people living in it.
The fundamental social contact of a child includes his or her family and immediate environment, which influences the development of his or her personality and affects his or her cultural and social integration. These influences are gradually extended by the school and teachers who guide the child to adopt not only new knowledge but also life standards and values, including those based on folk traditions. The presented study aims at answering questions dealing with the role of the school as an educating and often the only cultural institution in the village, in the period of the changing position of the school and teacher in the community. It addresses the influence of the teacher on children in the realm of folk culture transfer and on the tie between and teacher, the pupil, and the region where they are active. Using theoretical basis, the text presents particular examples in Horňácko, a noticeable region in the southeast Moravia, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Although contemporary research shows the influence of regional education and national Framework Curricula for School Education, individual approaches of particular teachers are dominant.
A growing interest in tradition and memory, as well as a strong need for "taking root" in the environment are nowadays manifested, among others, in the flourishing of various spectacles based on folklore, growing out of the old folk tradition to explore it in different ways. Such spectacles have been and still are the domain of amateur theatres operating in the rural environment, outside the mainstream theatrical life, which accounts for little interest exhibited by researchers, theatrologists and ethnographers alike. To change such an attitude it is necessary to undertake thorough field research in order to describe the phenomenon of amateur ritual theatres and their condition in the contemporary times in the context which is most appropriate for them, such as folklorism, postfolklorism or revivalism. Therefore, the reflections contained in the article have become an introduction to this type of research and they aim at exploring the possibility of using the concept of cultural transfer in such research. It seems interesting to trace the paths of transmission of traditional folk culture content, that is folklore, which took place and continues through a number of ritual theatres, in the network of conditions which they are subjected to, still operating in the ever-changing cultural reality hugely affected by the media. It is also highly interesting to offer a preliminary diagnosis of the goals set by the initiators and authors of this transfer.
PL
Wzrost zainteresowania tradycją i pamięcią, także mocno odczuwalna potrzeba „zakorzenienia” się w środowisku, przejawia się obecnie między innymi w rozkwicie rozmaitych widowisk opartych na folklorze, wyrastających z dawnej tradycji ludowej, w różny sposób ją eksplorujących. Widowiska tego typu były i są nadal domeną teatrów amatorskich, działających w środowisku wiejskim, poza głównym nurtem życia teatralnego, co tłumaczy niewielkie nimi zainteresowanie badaczy, zarówno teatrologów jak i etnografów. Zmiana takiego nastawienia wymaga podjęcia gruntownych badań terenowych, by opisać fenomen amatorskich teatrów obrzędowych i ich kondycje w czasach współczesnych w najodpowiedniejszym dla nich kontekście: olkloryzmu, postfolkloryzmu. oraz rewiwalizmu. Zawarte w artykule rozważania są zatem wstępem do tego typu badań i sprawdzeniem możliwości wykorzystania w nich koncepcji transferu kulturowego. Wydaje się bowiem interesujące prześledzenie dróg transmisji treści ludowej kultury tradycyjnej - folkloru, do jakiej dochodziło i nadal dochodzi za pośrednictwem teatrów obrzędowych, w sieci uwarunkowań, jakim podlegają, działając w ciągle zmieniającej się pod wpływem mediów rzeczywistości kulturowej oraz wstępne rozpoznanie celów, jakie stawiają sobie inicjatorzy i sprawcy tego transferu.
Every discipline has its own special terms regarded to be the “difficult” ones. Very often these are part of the achievements of many generations of scholars, in the same time being components of colloquial language. Such an example for ethnology would be „folk culture”. The term is popularly understood as idealized pictures of Polish camp’s social life. For specialists, though, the term is very wide-ranging, multidimensional and set in a specific historical context. Still there is a ground for agrement and creation between academic research and popular understanding that involves activities taken by employees of cultural institutions. In their struggle to respond to a public demand, they face a dilemma of how folk culture should be widespread. On one hand, they see the presented topics to be appealing, they also recognize the possibilities lying in its educational values (craft’s demonstrations and workshops). On the other hand, they are aware of its artificialness and of their setting up meanings yet outdated. These dilemmas may as well be associated to the way ethnologists are educated in the field of regional cultures, where they are trained for potential ‘specialists’ of folk culture.
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza porównawcza działalności polskich i rosyjskich kolędników, którą rozpatrywać można w kategoriach symbolicznej tricksteriady. Jako materiał źródłowy wykorzystano opisy zwyczajów kolędniczych kultywowanych w XIX i na początku XX wieku, zawarte głównie w opracowaniach etnograficznych. Wspomniany wyżej problem nie doczekał się do chwili obecnej opracowań wykraczających poza dość zdawkowe uwagi dotyczące tricksterskiej natury przebierańców oraz ich zabaw. Kultura ludowa, tj. twór synkretyczny, ukształtowana została z elementów pogańskich i chrześcijańskich. W kontekście podjętej w niniejszym artykule tematyki dowodzą tego obrzędy słowiańskie, takie jak bożonarodzeniowe i noworoczne kolędowanie. „Przybysze z innego świata”, przebrani za zwierzęta oraz postacie antropomorficzne, naruszają kultu-rowe tabu. Czas karnawału sprawia, że dochodzi do odwrócenia porządków: akceptowane jest wówczas nawet obsceniczne zachowanie. Kolędnicy występujący w roli wędrownych aktorów wydają się zatem wcieleniem błazna na scenie.
EN
This paper provides a comparative analysis of Polish and Russian carolling activity, which may be considered as a symbolic celebration of “tricksteriada”. Descriptions of carolling customs cultivated in the 19th- and at the beginning of the 20th century, primarily in ethnographic studies, were used as the source material. The issue mentioned above, to date, has not been studied, except quite limited comments concerning the “trickster” nature of masqueraders and their plays. Folk culture, i.e. a syncretic creation, was formed by pagan and Christian elements. In the context of the subject of this paper, rituals such as Christmas and New Year’s carolling prove its Slavic origin. The “supernatural visitors”, dressed as animals and anthropomorphic characters, violate cultural taboos. During carnival the order is reversed and provocative behaviour is acceptable. The carollers, in their role as traveling actors, seem to impersonate jesters in plays.
The article describes main fields of interest of the outstanding Polish ethnologist, one of the most important researchers of folk rituals and culture in the interwar period. The article analyses her texts dedicated to ethnical and national problems, in which there are deliberations on the research subject of ethnology (whose distinguishing criterion is tradition) and its scientific material, which serve the cognition of culture’s morphology. Research on products of folk culture, mostly from Wileńszczyzna, passed in oral tradition, makes possible such cognition. Interrelationship between ethnicity and culture is present in crucial texts of Cezaria Baudouin de Courtenay‑Ehrenkreutz‑Jędrzejewiczowa collected in the volume The Tradition’s Chain written in the years 1922‑1953, such as: ‘From Studies of Wedding Rites of Polish People’ (1929), ‘A Few Notes and News about Ethnography of Wileński District’ (1930), ‘Two Cultures and Two Sciences’ (1936) and ‘Ethnical Groups on the Territory of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and Three Nations’ (1953). Using the phenomenological method in the research of folk culture on the borderland between Poland and Lithuania, Cezaria Jędrzejewiczowa interprets preserved stories, tracks down their main motifs, reveals their genesis and meaning, which has developed over centuries. The article discusses social and cultural determinants of the rural people, such as ties of tradition, ethnical collective consciousness, religion and language.
After the First Partition of Poland, another crown land - Galicia (German: Galizien, Polish: Galicja, Ukrainian: Halychyna) was incorporated into the Austrian Empire; it covered current south-Polish and western-Ukrainian territories north of the Carpathians in the basin of the Vistula to Upper Dniester and Prut. Galicia featured not only a variety of ethnic groups living in it (Polish, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, Armenians, etc.), but also a diversity in religions. The above-mentioned ethnic and religious differences were reflected in the cultural sphere whose richness of expressions drew attention of the first collectors of folk traditions among domestic authors and foreign researchers, whereby Balthasar Hacquet (1739–1815) can be mentioned as the first of them. The interest of researchers whose attention was directed rather to the National Revival and who saw in the folk culture the roots of national self-identity was based on different ideological premises. It was Pavel Josef Šafařík (1795–1861) who became the representative of Slavic ethnography and who - in cooperation with the Ukrainian (Malorossian) scholars Ivan D. Vahylevych and Jakov Holovacki - offered knowledge about Ukrainian (Ruthenian) culture in eastern Galicia. Karel František Vladislav Zap (1812–1871) was among significant Czech experts in Galicia; as a public servant he lived in Lviv at the turn of the 1830s and 1840s. His work features an effort for a critical but unbiased attitude to ethnical and economic problems of the country. The freer social life in Austria after the fall of Bach’s absolutism lead to the development of journalism. The ethnographic work of František Řehoř (1857–1899), who spent several years in the region, is of essential importance for Galicia. He published his essays, mostly of a popularizing nature, in Prague social and professional journals. His strengths included gathering of source material through field research, and collecting activities. The last important chapter of contact between Ukrainians from Galicia and the Czech lands dates back to the 1890s; it is connected with large exhibitions held in Prague and Lviv. However, the political situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire caused their reception to be diametrically opposed. World War I, the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the formation of the successor states ended the flow of ethnographic journalism on Galicia for the Czech reader; the Czech-Ukrainian contacts continued, however, on a different basis.
The symbolism of hazel in Polish folk culture. A fragment of cognitive definitionThe article discusses the symbolism of the hazel plant which constitute a segment (one facet) of the cognitive definition of a hazel bush. The symbolism of the hazel is a category which terminate and gather in together other facets constituting the entry ‘Hezel’ in the Lublin ethnolinguistics dictionary (Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, red. J. Bartmiński, S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska): i.e. the plants’ provenance, image, time and place of flourishing; its magical, apotropaical, therapeutical, ritual and practical use etc. The symbol is thus – next to the stereotype – the second key concept in this dictionary. The author shows the different symbolic meanings attributed to hazel in Polish folk culture – the symbolism of the space tree, the symbolism of sacredness, a symbol of life, duration, recovery and growth; symbol of power and health, the symbolism of fertility and abundance, and a symbol of girl. Symbolika leszczyny w polskiej kulturze ludowej. Fragment definicji kognitywnejW artykule omówiona została symbolika leszczyny stanowiąca wycinek (jedną fasetę) definicji kognitywnej leszczynowego krzewu. Symbolika leszczyny jest kategorią, która wieńczy hasło, bazując na pozostałych fasetach - dotyczących m. in. pochodzenia, wyglądu, czasu i miejsca kwitnienia, zastosowania apotropeicznego, magicznego, leczniczego, obrzędowego i praktycznego - spina je wspólną klamrą. Symbol jest bowiem, obok stereotypu, drugim kluczowym pojęciem w lubelskim słowniku etnolingwistycznym (Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, red. J. Bartmiński, S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska). Autorka prezentuje różne sensy symboliczne przypisywane w polskiej kulturze ludowej leszczynie – symbolikę drzewa kosmicznego; symbolikę świętości; symbol życia, trwania, regeneracji i wzrastania; symbol mocy i zdrowia, symbolikę płodności i obfitości oraz symbol dziewczyny.
The article discusses the symbolism of the hazel plant which constitute a segment (one facet) of the cognitive definition of a hazel bush. The symbolism of the hazel is a category which terminate and gather in together other facets constituting the entry ‘Hezel’ in the Lublin ethnolinguistics dictionary (Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, red. J. Bartmiński, S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska): i.e. the plants’ provenance, image, time and place of flourishing; its magical, apotropaical, therapeutical, ritual and practical use etc. The symbol is thus – next to the stereotype – the second key concept in this dictionary. The author shows the different symbolic meanings attributed to hazel in Polish folk culture – the symbolism of the space tree, the symbolism of sacredness, a symbol of life, duration, recovery and growth; symbol of power and health, the symbolism of fertility and abundance, and a symbol of girl.
PL
W artykule omówiona została symbolika leszczyny stanowiąca wycinek (jedną fasetę) definicji kognitywnej leszczynowego krzewu. Symbolika leszczyny jest kategorią, która wieńczy hasło, bazując na pozostałych fasetach - dotyczących m. in. pochodzenia, wyglądu, czasu i miejsca kwitnienia, zastosowania apotropeicznego, magicznego, leczniczego, obrzędowego i praktycznego - spina je wspólną klamrą. Symbol jest bowiem, obok stereotypu, drugim kluczowym pojęciem w lubelskim słowniku etnolingwistycznym (Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, red. J. Bartmiński, S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska). Autorka prezentuje różne sensy symboliczne przypisywane w polskiej kulturze ludowej leszczynie – symbolikę drzewa kosmicznego; symbolikę świętości; symbol życia, trwania, regeneracji i wzrastania; symbol mocy i zdrowia, symbolikę płodności i obfitości oraz symbol dziewczyny.
Artykuł stawia sobie za cel omówienie problemów i możliwości wynikających z przyjęcia za podstawę badawczą ludowych przekazów wierzeniowych. Niska pozycja aksjologiczna wierzeń ludowych skutkuje trudnościami badawczymi już na etapie eksploracji terenowych. W artykule ukazane zostały zarówno źródła tych trudności, jak i strategie badawcze stosowane przez zbieracza w celu reaktywacji opowieści wierzeniowej. Paradoksem jest, że te same czynniki, które decydują o trudnościach związanych z pozyskaniem opowieści, otwierają jednocześnie nowe perspektywy badawcze związane z poziomem analizy pragmalingwistycznej zebranych tekstów. Ludowe przekazy wierzeniowe zawierają bowiem wyraźnie zaznaczoną warstwę pragmatyczną, na którą składają się komentarze narratora ujawniające jego stosunek do wierzeń.
EN
The objective of the article is to discuss the problems and opportunities resulting from the adoption of folk stories related to various beliefs as the research basis. A low axiological status of folk beliefs results in research difficulties already at the level of field explorations. The article presents both the reasons for those difficulties and the research strategies applied by the researcher in order to reactivate a belief story. Paradoxically, the same factors that determine the difficulties related to collecting the story, open new research perspectives related to the level of the pragmalinguistic analysis of the collected texts. It is because folk belief stories include a clear pragmatic layer consisting of the narrator’s comments that reveal his/her attitude towards the beliefs.
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