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EN
The essential attribute of socio-cultural anthropology and ethnography – fieldwork – is a process that interferes in the intimate lives of the population under observation, and that of the researcher as well. This study reconceptualises the issue of sexuality and gender, as they are for the individual the primary characteristic which determines a researcher’s position in field. The article highlights the discrepancy between the way fieldwork techniques are taught, and the real practice of fieldwork. One solution could entail relaxing methodological formalism, which may be in practice unachievable, and the removal of the taboo surrounding the whole issue. Different strategies for dealing with the researchers’ own sexuality and gender in the field, and their accompanying adaptation to the situation, are considered. Attention is paid to the issue of sexual violence in fieldwork.
EN
Henryk Oskar Kolberg (1814–1890), a musician, composer, the greatest Polish ethnographer and one of the fathers of European ethnomusicology, collected over 20,000 folk songs, dances, and instrumental melodies from the territory of today’s Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and other Slavic countries. The musical culture of the Hutsuls was an object of Oskar Kolberg’s interest in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The research material related to this region was collected by Kolberg, similarly as in other regions, from two different types of sources. The core of his work consisted of field notes written down during his few trips to that region. Another way of collecting information for Kolberg’s publication included an extensive study of already published resources – historical and ethnographical works, collections of songs, short articles, etc. Kolberg’s study of the musical culture of the Hutsuls is a very valuable source for the history of the culture of this part of Europe.
PL
At the time of postmodern deconstruction in thinking about aesthetic education, the concept of prof. Irena Wojnar on the integration of art with daily life is still valid. In the 1980s and 1990s, the legitimacy of prof. Wojnar’s theory were our studies of amateur artistic teams from youth vocational schools in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Lublin, Kraków, Andrychów, Koronowo, Kołobrzeg. Despite various profiles of the schools such as: mining, metallurgy, medicine, gastronomy, railway, amateur creativity was developed within the three following stages: (1) social meetings functioning instrumentally; (2) workshops enhancing the autonomy of art; (3) formation of a lifestyle that shapes the hierarchy of values. The integration of art with daily life is not limited to the past: Młodzi i teatr (‘Youth and the Theatre’) report prepared by the Malta Festival Foundation in Poznań (2013) shows its usefulness in the educational practice. Together with defining the typology of audience and the conditions for dissemination of the theatre, it emphasises the need for a broader cultural participation in the debate on art creation within the new social environment.
EN
The 360-degree camera is a relatively new technology that might become an effective tool for the development of students and teachers and overall educational improvement. As “normal” video provides a maximum 130-degree perspective, it could not offer a complex capture of education. This paper presents a way to use a 360-degree camera during two different modes of trainee teachers’ fieldwork and proposes how to evaluate this form of education in terms of teacher-student-environment interactions by identifying the occurrence and duration of each type of interaction. It is evident that the type and intensity of interactions affect fieldwork significantly and may lead to different depths of learning.
5
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Evergreen Ethnographies

100%
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2012
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vol. 179
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issue 3
431-442
EN
The article promotes the argument that anthropological or ethnological knowledge is primarily produced through ethnographies that present fieldwork experience. As publications that appear after returning home, they provide the social sciences with the most recent information about the present reality. Moreover, that is where we can find new methodological approaches and new theoretical concepts. Our contemporary experience in such a fast-changing world shows the uselessness of the formerly applied analytical notions, forcing us to search for a new form of description and new interpretative categories. The article is actually a survey of the best known fieldwork monographs presented through theories, schools and trends in cultural and social anthropology that have been constituted or overcome by these very monographs, which are milestones in over a century of ethnological/anthropological research. As the last ones are from the 21st century, they present not only the newest research results, but also the most up-to-date methodologies.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy kwestii uwspólnienia procesu tworzenia tekstowego opracowania wyników badań etnograficznych prowadzonych przez zespół badawczy. Autorzy omawiają doświadczenie wspólnego działania w dwóch projektach terenowych – pierwszy poświęcony był pamięci o stacjonowaniu wojsk radzieckich w Legnicy, drugi spotkaniom rocznicowym organizowanym w Prywatnym Muzeum Ludowego Wojska Polskiego i Pamiątek po Armii Radzieckiej im. gen. Ludwika Polańskiego prowadzonym przez Michała Sabadacha, które znajduje się w Uniejowicach koło Złotoryi (ok. 30 km od Legnicy). Wynikiem tego pierwszego, realizowanego w ramach grantu NCN Legnica – pamięć podzielonego miasta, było powstanie zespołu Spółdzielni Etnograficznej. Jedną z manifestacji wspólnotowości badań jest omawiany w artykule dziennik terenowy, będący zarazem zapisem doświadczenia terenowego jak i rodzajem gry między badaczami. Eksploracja imprez rocznicowych w Uniejowicach od początku była doświadczeniem wspólnotowym. Autorzy artykułu wskazują, jak wpływało to na generowanie wiedzy i koncepcji interpretacyjnych. W efekcie badacze Spółdzielni zdecydowali się na pisanie monografii o rozmytym autorstwie, posługując się metodami współtworzenia tekstów on line. Dynamika tego procesu i trudności, jakie napotkał zespół, stanowią temat ostatniej partii artykułu.
EN
The article concerns the mutualization of the textual creation of the outcome of ethnographic research conducted by a team. The authors discuss the experience of joint activity in the course of two field projects – the first about the Soviet army stationed in Legnica, and the second, conducted by Michał Sabadach, about anniversary meetings organised by the General Ludwik Polański Private Museum of the Polish People’s Army and Soviet Army Mementoes situated in Uniejowice near Złotoryja (ca. 30 kms from Legnica). The outcome of the first project, realised as part of a National Science Centre grant: Legnica – memory of a divided town, was the creation of an Ethnographic Cooperative. One of the manifestations of the communality of the studies is the field diary, discussed in the article, a record of field experiences and, simultaneously, a game of sorts conducted by the researchers. From the very onset the exploration of the anniversary events held in Uniejowice was such a communal experience. The authors of the article indicate the manner in which it affected the process of generating knowledge and interpretation conceptions. Consequently, the Cooperative researchers decided to write a monograph with a vague authorship, while using methods of creating online texts. The dynamics of this process and the obstacles encountered by the team are the topic of the last part of the article.
EN
This article concerns a fragment of research interests of the ethnographer from Lodz – professor Jaworska. In fact, Jaworska neither created the methodological theory of doing an ethnographical field research in a rural socio-cultural context nor the special theory connected with rural study, despite the fact that the most important area for her (in terms of science as well as her personal interests) were the Carpathian villages and the type of pastoral economy. The author of the text analyzes the letters of Jaworska written over 40 years, which reflect Jaworska’s attitude to her mountain field work carried out there as well as to the area itself.
PL
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EN
This article focuses on personal experience of fieldwork in the Basque Country. The author reflects on the linguistic and political dimensions of her research, on the relationship between the researcher and research participants, and on the emotional challenges of ethnographic fieldwork, with particular focus on the impact of motherhood on such research. Emphasizing the importance of autoethnography, the author also points out a variety of approaches to the research process and ways of presenting research results.
EN
The article is based on materials collected during fieldwork focusing on mapping place lore objects, including natural holy places, as well as the author’s personal experience. The main focus lies on so-called silent places with scant data in the archives, and also the places difficult to identify in today’s landscape without a local guide. The oldest lore narratives were written down about one and a half centuries ago. Since then landscapes have been extensively rearranged, which has brought about changes in people’s way of life, their recollections of place lore narratives, and the appearance of lore places, sometimes also in their names. Northern and western Estonian hiis (holy grove) lore, for example, manifests fragmentariness and fast fading during the Soviet period. Researchers fulfilling their primary assignment within fieldwork can find themselves in rather wild conditions and therefore the romance that is perceived while reading older holy place lore tends to fade away quickly in reality. The article emphasises that meaningful places speak, first and foremost, through people; most regions have had their own key persons with a sense of mission, thanks to whom we have archival data in the first place. The author highlights the problems of today’s fieldwork, for example, difficulties in finding a well-informed guide, as consistent lore information with its carriers has often shifted away from the vicinity of the historical object and has to be searched for somewhere else. It is not seldom that links between narratives and places cannot be established anymore, as the object has been destroyed, the initial data are too scarce, or the connecting link or the person who has information is missing. So a stone, a hillock, or a spring remains silent until new people come to create new connections. On the other hand, if we interpret archival lore and old maps sensibly and competently, these silent places can sometimes be turned into eloquent ones again. But do today’s people still understand what they are saying? In any case, fieldwork results can be interesting both for guides and those establishing local identity.
EN
Scientific research and student education aimed at preparing students to practice their profession under the conditions of civilization and technological changes play a special role in geography teaching. It is important to be aware of the impact of key competences which are necessary for every person to function in the modern world and are needed for self-fulfilment, personal development, social integration, flexible adaptation to any changes and which determine the success in adult life. Proper development of such skills contributes to the correct interpretation of natural and socio-economic phenomena and processes. The aim of the article is to present and discuss research work and teaching activities pursued by the Department of Geography Didactics and Ecological Education at the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, aimed at the use by students of various educational concepts and the resulting key competences necessary for their future work. Students also have the opportunity to develop soft competences, such as communication, courage of expression, self-esteem or responsibility for the group, to which employers have paid special attention in recent years. Therefore, comprehensive preparation of the student requires the implementation of specific educational concepts. The most important ones include bilingual education; CLIL, inquiry based science education (IBSE), project method, fieldwork, geographical educational trails, participation, as well as the use of geoinformation technologies, GIS and ICT.
Mäetagused
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2023
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vol. 85
43-60
EN
To study the childbirth customs and stories of Siberian Estonians, I used conversations and interviews conducted in various Siberian Estonian communities during the fieldwork of the Estonian Folklore Archives between 1991 and 2013, as well as the memories of Estonians who had been born in the Estonian settlements in Siberia and repatriated during or after the Second World War. As information related to childbirth customs is very much a private matter, the collection of such material during fieldwork in Siberia was somewhat limited due to short time and the guest status of the collectors. Women born in the 1910s–1930s who had experience of giving birth at home were more likely to share information. Siberian Estonians, who were born and raised in village communities with a rich heritage, share both personal and community experiences in their childbirth stories. Although the triumph of state medicine, with its small hospitals, had reached Siberian villages after the end of the Second World War, the initially trained medical professionals were met with mistrust and alienation. Village midwives were still respected, and villages adhered to many of the old beliefs about childbirth, as childbirth was controlled by the village community. Over time, giving birth under the supervision of hospital-trained medical staff became the norm. So, the need for village midwives has disappeared, and some of the traditions and customs associated with childbirth have been forgotten. At the same time, traditions related to the pre-pregnancy period and some childbirth stories helping to raise community awareness have remained very much alive.
EN
In this article, I elaborate on some ethical and methodological doubts that have emerged in the course of my ethnographic fieldwork. They relate to the process of constructing the field, moments of collective experimentation, and the process of developing long-term relationships between the ethnographer and his or her interlocutors. I show how the stage of constructing the field may be uncertain and contingent, yet at the same time crucial for understanding the studied phenomena. I then explain how some forms of closeness and friendship in the field may be also transform into common social and artistic projects. Finally, I reflect on deeper ethical tensions related to authorship and authorization during the writing-up stage of research. I argue that some forms of collaboration in the field lead both towards a form of shared authorship and to the necessity to make our interlocutors’ identity anonymous and invisible.
EN
The aim of this anthropological essay is to present the emotional and intellectual processes accompanying me over the years of field research among the Bolivian Moré, who belong to the Chapacura language family. The narrative structure is twofold: addressing both topics and issues that motivated me intellectually to do the research, and the attitudes of Moré themselves, as well as conceptual categories around which their narratives seem to focus. Some passages of this essay take a more analytical form, as I focus on the impor- tance of unpredictable events, the context, and the transformation of field experience over time during the research process. I conclude that both sides of the fieldwork encounter face the task of getting to know the Other. Each gets to know the Other in a particular way through conceptual categories and ways of acting that result from their current way of being in the world.
EN
The study opens with an introductory section devoted to a brief presentation of the concept of minority and its definition. Based on comparison of the situation in Europe and the United States, as well as in different scholarly disciplines, the author aims to show main differences in its conceptualization and usage in the humanities, social sciences and law. On the background of the discipline´s development from comparative musicology to ethnomusicology, or musical anthropology, changes in the concept of minority and related research problems are outlined. At the beginning of the discipline, scholars focused on musical marginality embodied in non-European and predominantly rural European music in pursuit of its inclusion to the hypothetical timeline of musical development. While some scientists still continue documenting the music of endangered ethnic/national minorities, anthropology of music tends to study musical activities with respect to wider issues, such as music and identity negotiation among minority members, music and migration, etc. Finally, the author presents main questions, theoretical concepts, methodology and a summary of conclusions of her own research on musical activities of the contemporary Czech minority in Vienna, which was realized in the years 2012–2015.
EN
The article gives an overview of the achievements in Belarusian folkloristics in the 21st century, highlighting the most vulnerable areas in folklore research, and trying to understand the reasons and prerequisites for successes and shortcomings in folkloristics. The author is especially concerned about the shortage of professionals in the country to block the non-scientific publications. Although entertainment-specialised publications offer the reader exiting mythology, they also contain unsubstantiated generalisations made on the basis of traditions in a narrow region. This makes detailed research into folklore as a complete historical and cultural phenomenon the more essential. Therefore, Belarusian folklorists’ most important direction of work is the recording of the folk heritage, identification of the typology of the folklore genres, determination of the spread areas of song melodies, dances, plots, motifs, and images, and preparation of collections revealing the richness of the cultural landscape of the Republic of Belarus in its regional and local peculiarities. In 2013 the Centre of Fine Arts, Ethnography, and Folklore at the Belarusian Academy of Sciences launched an annual collection of scholarly articles under the heading Belarusian Folklore: Materials and Studies. The edition has already become a fruitful and interesting platform for discussing topical problems in folklore studies. The research covers the main directions of Belarusian folkloristics, and new approaches to study and understand the traditional world of Belarusian spiritual culture.
EN
Pierre Bourdieu’s social scientific concepts and theories are very popular among social scientists today. However, his early writings based on fieldwork in Algeria are far less well known, despite the fact that in was in these texts that his famous concepts and theories originated. This article sets out to examine the mutual relationship between Bourdieu and the Kabyle people from several perspectives. The author focuses on Bourdieu’s relationship to the fieldwork, his relations with Kabyle intellectuals, and at the role they played as his key informants and ‘experts’ on Kabyle culture. The article investigates to what extent and how in France Bourdieu defended the academic activities of the Kabyle people relating to their own culture. It also studies Bourdieu’s opinion on the Kabyle people’s emancipation efforts within independent Algeria. Finally, it looks at how familiar the Kabyle people are today with Bourdieu’s work on their society and culture and how his body of work is interpreted, taught at universities and used as a tool in the formation process of Kabyle collective identity. The article is based on a study of primary and secondary sources: Bourdieu’s scholarly writings, media interviews, his speeches at ceremonies, and his correspondence, and it draws on published interviews with Bourdieu’s friends and colleagues. The author also used her own fieldwork in Algeria as an auxiliary source of data.
EN
In 1923 Bronislaw Malinowski repeated his claim for an "Ethnolinguistic theory" which he enforced 1920 in his first linguistic paper and which became the guideline for his "ethnographic theory of language." In 1997 the linguist William Foley published his monograph "Anthropological Linguistics-An Introduction"; and in the same year the anthropologist Alessandro Duranti published his monograph "Linguistic Anthropology." It seems that with the publication of these two standard textbooks the interdisciplinary field of "ethnolinguistics" has finally gained its due importance within the disciplines of anthropology and linguistics. Bill Foley states in his textbook that "the boundary between pragmatics and anthropological linguistics or sociolinguistics is impossible to draw at present." So if we recognize Bronislaw Malinowski not only as one of the founders of modern social anthropology but also as one of the founding fathers of anthropological linguistics, we should have a closer look at Malinowski's importance for pragmatics in general. This paper presents Malinowski's contributions to the ethnographic theory of language, assesses his role as an apologist of anthropological linguistics, and discusses his influence (not only) on (new) developments in linguistic pragmatics.
EN
The article aims to bring together debates surrounding the use of ethnographic methods in contemporary art, and attempts to theorize and define artistic research or “research in the arts”. It stems from concern about differences and overlaps between the application of ethnographic methods in contemporary art and in folkloristics, ethnology and cultural anthropology, referred to here as empirical cultural research. Contemporary artists and researchers might rely on the same qualitative methods (e.g. interviewing and participant observations) in order to collect and generate data for their works, and they might even address the same or similar topics. Nevertheless, their approaches, working processes, results, and concerns differ in fascinating ways that tend to escape definition. A picture is worth a thousand words, but researchers seem to be shackled by language, especially when trying to capture the ambiguity that often characterizes the making and undoing of belonging and non-belonging. However, both researchers and artists employ ethnographic methods as their own working instruments, and their work is heavily dependent on the goodwill of others. Moreover, both art and ethnography have the ability to draw our attention to the obvious and the unseen, to show the familiar from a new and unexpected angle. The empirical starting points for the article are the author’s ethnographic fieldwork on ethnic interactions in Lasnamäe, a part of Tallinn commonly associated with Soviet-era apartment complexes and Russian-speaking immigrants, and Kärberi 37, a series of 49 portraits by the Estonian artist Eve Kask of her neighbors in the same district. Both the author and the artist are Estonian-speaking natives of Tallinn. The article discusses how their work required them to go beyond, and even transgress, the tacit norms of interethnic coexistence that call for the silencing of ethnicity. Shared by the capital’s residents, these unspoken rules contribute on a daily basis to the separateness of ethnic Estonians and Russian-speakers. While an ethnographer concerned with research ethics and anonymity might not dream of exhibiting photographs of her interlocutors, in the context of an artistic project portraits become a mirror reflecting viewers’ implicit assumptions, Estonian society, and ethnographic practices. Providing an overview of diverse approaches to artistic research, the article supports the view that artistic research is not a new discipline, but intrinsic to art.
EN
In this article we analyse factors that help interpret silence and speaking in different cultures. Economic activities and lifestyle related to natural conditions as well as beliefs are crucial here. In terms of speaking and silence, a relatively good distinction can be made between peoples traditionally engaged in hunting-gathering and agriculture, and the modern Western code of communication that has developed from the latter. The modern code does not tolerate silence and non-speaking very well, considering it either as expression of impoliteness, stupidity or lack of sincerity. For indigenous peoples silence clearly has a magical function in order not to be threatened by ambivalent animistic agents. This also explains the greater carefulness of indigenous peoples in expressing their emotions. For the same reason, in animistic cultures, which are not so human-centred, the usual communication situations (meetings, departures, making compliments) and the corresponding speech acts are very diffuse, minimalist or non-existent. In (monotheistic) agricultural cultures the sphere of spirit beings has generally been demonized, and the norm of silent behaviour that reflects it has become incomprehensible or interpreted as inappropriate. The Veps living in north-western Russia have been in close contact with Russian peasant culture for more than 1,000 years. The relatively emotional and speech-oriented Russian culture has undoubtedly had an impact on the Veps. On the other hand, the Finno-Ugric animistic norm and the corresponding tendency to speak less or remain silent can be perceived. It also seems that from Russians the Veps have acquired speech acts used at meetings and departures – greetings, farewells, blessings, formulas that close and delimit situations, and so on. The corresponding words and phrases taken from Russian also refer to borrowing. Because of the Russian influence the interpersonal relations of the Veps are not that diffuse as those of the non-agricultural indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, as the forest and beliefs related to it are still very central in Vepsian folk life, the Veps are very careful in their ways of speaking because of the animistic spirits around, which very much determines their behaviour in general. In the fieldwork situations we have noticed that silence/speaking significantly depends also on the social role and profession of the informant. There exist also situations that require silence (for example eating, certain works related to starting of something, getting on the road). Our experiences show that silence may arise also when issues related to death and the supernatural sphere are touched upon.
EN
This essay discusses two episodes of temporally bounded consultant work on Tundra Yukaghir (isolate) and Tuvan (Turkic) and attempts to bridge, or at least narrow the gap between reflexive anthropological thinking (e.g., Geertz, 1973, 1988) and reasoning about linguistic fieldwork. In this respect, the essay is a follow-up on Siegl (2018), which analyzed experiences from fieldwork in moribund speech communities. Similar to Siegl (2018), this essay also focuses more on data gathering and (personal) challenges in the field and less on presenting polished research results; therefore, references to literature on linguistic fieldwork are minimized (this literature was covered in detail in Siegl, 2010, 2018). Given that the process of data gathering is usually blended out in research reports, a second aim of this essay is to offer insights on consultant/fieldwork in action so that this process becomes more transparent and can be evaluated by those without primary research interests in this sub-discipline of linguistics.
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