About project of an electronic ideographic dictionary from Arkhangelsk dialect

The “Ideographic Dictionary of Arkhangelsk Dialects” is intended to reflect both the linguistic characteristics of the region and popular ideas about the most important spheres of human life and activities. The main task of the Dictionary is to present all the diversity and richness of the traditional peasant culture and language of the inhabitants of the Russian North. The electronic format of the Dictionary facilitates access to it not only for specialists in the field of dialectology, ethnolinguistics, folkloristics and cultural studies, but also for a wider range of users.

Ekspansja ludyczności w kulturze współczesnej

The process of the carnivalization of urban space is aided by contemporary media, which, in popularizing myriad events, amplifies community activities ranging from festivals to mass public shows connected with historical events. Contemporary fascination with such phenomena finds its sources in ritualized models of paratheatrical activity rooted in the traditions of peasant culture, as well as in forms of mass folk protest. As a result, we can observe the rapidly-developing ability of citydwellers to occupy public space while creating emotional communities that extend into virtual, and other, realms, with the aim of realizing political goals.

Kultura ludowa – restytucja czy zawłaszczenie?

Celem artykułu jest namysł nad kulturą ludową w kontekście wiedzy o pamięci i wiedzy o przeszłości, pogłębiony o refleksję nad mechanizmami zawłaszczania przeszłości podrzędnych przez dyskursy grup dominujących. Autorka stawia tezę, że tradycyjna kultura ludowa (zwana też chłopską) jest obecnie kulturą bez podmiotu, a ideologiczne sito selekcji i procesy globalizacyjne przyczyniły się do zapomnienia/wyparcia całych jej obszarów, zachowując wybiorczo jedynie to, co łatwo może podlegać jej instytucjonalnej restytucji. Wskazując na uwikłania procesu restytuowania w polityki pamięci zawłaszczającej, podejmuje też polemikę ze stanowiskiem Barbary Fatygi, której zdaniem kultura ludowa jest współczesną kulturą popularną. Folk Culture – Restitution or Appropriation? The objective of the article is reflection on folk culture in the context of knowledge about the memory and knowledge about the past, deepened by the contemplation of mechanisms that appropriate the secondary pasts through the discourses of the dominating groups. The author argues that the traditional folk (or so-called peasant) culture is nowadays a culture without a subject and the ideological selection sieve and processes of globalisation only contributed to its whole areas falling into oblivion or being denied, while selectively keeping only those aspects which can easily undergo its institutionalised restitution. Pointing to the process of restitution being embroiled in the appropriating politics of memory, the author argues with the opinion of Barbara Fatyga who views folk culture as the modern popular culture.

Zwiastuni śmierci, żałobnicy i ostatni towarzysze podróży

The subject of the article is a scientific reflection on the behaviours of domestic animals in the face of human death. Using the rich folkloristic and ethnographic material, the author has distinguished three types of roles in which – in folk beliefs – animals are incarnated: (a) death harbingers, (b) mourners, feeling sad and regret after losing a loved one, (c) the last travelling companions. The analysis proved that the roles played by animals in the face of the death of a loved one implement the principle of „solidarity with life” – a key principle of traditional peasant culture, the basis of life and a keystone of existence in the group.

Favourite Research Topics of Estonian Ethnographers Under Soviet Rule

Estonian ethnography as one of the Estonia-related disciplines was tied with Estonian nationalism from the very beginning. Defined as a science investigating mainly the material side of vanishing traditional peasant culture in the 1920s, it fitted rather well with the Soviet understanding of ethnography as a sub discipline of history. Thanks to the major cooperation projects initiated and coordinated by ethnographers from Moscow, Soviet Estonian ethnographers could continue studying Estonian traditional peasant culture. Their favourite research topics (folk costume, peasant architecture and traditional agriculture) supported Estonian national identity, but also suited the framework of Soviet ethnography. Studying contemporary (socialist) everyday life was unpopular among Estonian ethnographers because the results had to justify and support Soviet policy. They did so unwillingly, and avoided it completely if possible. Despite of some interruption during the Stalin era, ethnography managed to survive as a science of the nation in Soviet Estonia.

Eesti etnograafid lõunavepsa külades 1965–1969

Estonian ethnographers in southern Vepsian villages, 1965–1969 Estonian ethnographers have taken an interest in Finno-Ugric peoples since the dawn of ethnography, and to the extent possible, they have made trips to the regions in question to study their culture. Starting in the 1960s, the State Ethnography Museum of the Estonian SSR in Tartu (the past and present Estonian National Museum) became the hub of Finno-Ugric ethnography under its director, Aleksei Peterson. Expeditions to the linguistic relatives in the east began at the initiative and with the support of linguists (chiefly, Paul Ariste) and continued in later years independently. The article looks at five expeditions made by Estonian ethnographers to southern Vepsian villages in the years 1965–1969. The central source is the fieldwork diaries maintained on the expeditions. In addition, the article examines the photographs, film footage and drawings from these expeditions, along with collected items and ethnographic descriptions. The scholarly and popular science-oriented texts based on the material acquired on the expeditions and coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media of that era are analysed. Interviews were conducted with a few of the people who took part in the trips. The southern Veps region was poorly connected with the rest of the world in the 1960s, and the people there led quite an isolated existence. For this reason, the villages in the region had an abundance of extant or only recently defunct aspects (such as slash and burn agriculture, dugout canoe construction or use of twigs to heat the stove), which captivated the ethnologists. The southern Veps region was a unique window to the past for Estonian researchers, who in that period dealt with questions of ethnogenesis. The material culture had received little study and Peterson saw this as his calling and an opportunity. Modernisation was already under way and everything old was at risk of fading. Ethnographers interested in these matters had to hurry to save for science what could be salvaged. The traditional peasant culture of the Vepsians was documented using still cameras and film cameras, ethnographic interviews were conducted, ethnographic drawings prepared, and artefacts were collected with great verve. Quantity was important, and the field work was generally a collective pursuit – many people could after all accomplish more than just one. The material recorded in the course of fieldwork reached academic circulation quite rapidly – presentations were delivered at international conferences, and journal articles were published. The coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media was quite lively as well. Newspapers published accounts of various lengths and on at least once occasion the ethnographers’ activities in the Vepsian region was discussed on television. Estonian scholars perceived and conveyed the southern Veps villages as some kind of Baltic-Finnic fairy tale land. In general, researchers relished the opportunity to go on an expedition. It was felt that this was a noble thing, which in some sense also tied in with the Estonian national cause. Research into the linguistic relatives was positively received by Estonian society for this reason – i.e. it was linked to the national identity. Local authorities in the destination regions generally took a positive attitude toward the ethnographers. The zeitgeist favoured science and expeditions. The Veps people – especially those in more remote and isolated villages – frequently greeted the Estonian ethnographers with initial scepticism. The Estonians had to explain their objectives and use documents to prove their bona fides. Later the alienation dissipated and once the close kinship of the Vepsian and Estonian languages was revealed, the newcomers received a rapturous reception as if they were long-lost relatives. At Sodjärv Lake, which served on multiple occasions as the ethnographers’ base camp, Estonian researchers became accepted by the Vepsians as their own people. It is difficult to gauge precisely the influence that those and later expeditions had on the Vepsian peoples. The Estonians’ visits probably helped to bolster the generally weak self-identity of the Veps people. While the Russians in the region all too often took a supercilious view of the Veps and their language, the ethnographers from Estonia had come to study them precisely because of their identity and held in high regard everything from old peasant culture to the language. Some local people still speak positively about Estonians. The five expeditions to the villages of the southern Vepsian region discussed in this article, their outcome and resonance make up a key part of a cultural current that sprang from Finno-Ugric studies in Soviet Estonia, the best-known examples of which are Lennart Meri’s ethnographic documentary films, the choral music of Veljo Tormis and the graphic art of Kaljo Põllu. Emphasising their Finno-Ugric roots was for Estonians an additional way to express their Estonian identity independent of Soviet rule and ethnographers made a significant contribution to this trend.