-
Title
-
A Few Remarks on the Past and Present of Polish Ethnology / LUD 1995 t.79
-
Description
-
LUD 1995 t.79, s.27-34
-
Creator
-
Jasiewicz, Zbigniew
-
Date
-
1995
-
Format
-
application/pdf
-
Identifier
-
oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:1977
-
Language
-
ang
-
Publisher
-
Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
-
Relation
-
oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:publication:2129
-
Subject
-
etnografia polska
-
Text
-
Lud,
II. THE PAST AND PRESENT OF POLISH ETHNOLOGICAL
ZBIGNIEW
Institute
Adam
vol.
79, 1995
STUDIES
JASIEWICZ
of Ethnology
Mickiewicz
and
Cultural
Anthropology
University
Poznań
A FEW
REMARKS
ON
THE PAST AND
ETHNOLOGY
PRESENT
OF
POLISH
The centennial anniversary of the Polish Ethnological Society as a good
opportunity to reflect on some problems of Polish ethnology's past. It is also
an excellent occasion to discuss the current situation of Polish ethnology.
Because of the political and social changes in Poland, above all, the fall of the
communist state, there are greater possibilities of establishing contacts with the
international academic community and participating in the development of
science. In Poland the autonomy of scientific communities has increased; they
can decide now on the directions of the development of their various
disciplines. A question arises as how to deal with the specific features of Polish
ethnology generated under specific local conditions? What should be preserved
of the local scholarly tradition and how should the positive elements of
Poland's unique experiences be used? On the other hand, how should those
features that create barriers to the exchange of views and cooperation with
scholars from other countries be eliminated?
In this short article I can only touch upon some problems of ethnology
which I consider very important. I will try to answer the following questions:
1. What was and is Polish ethnology as a "national" ethnology?
2. What is the significance of the history of Polish ethnological sciences and
studies of this history?
3. What is the features of Polish ethnology that have been shaped by
historyand
what are their consequences for present studies?
4. How should the various changes in Polish ethnology be understood?
5. What is the present state of Polish ethnology/ethnological
sciences in
Poland? Do they form a coherent discipline or are they an unrelated
configuration of interests pursured by individual scholars?
The concept of "national ethnology" is understood here as a set of people
and their different activities pursured within the nation - defined as
a historical, cultural and political community. The exceptional sensitivity of
ethnology to local conditions is well known. These conditions were created by
the geographic location and history of Poland: a country and people located in
28
central and eastern Europe, which for centuries was an agrarian society, with
a specific in the past social structure (a large group of noblemen and gentry)
and with strong ties with the culture of Western Europe. For most of history
Poland has been a multi-ethnic country until 1945, when war-time' territorial
and population changes transformed Poland into an almost entirely mono-ethnic society. Poland is a nation in which has been deprived of its own
state due to the Partitions and Nazi occupation, and whose independence was
taken away after the Second World and the Yalta agreement, which for many
years placed the country under the control of the Soviet Union. All these
circumstances are important in understanding Polish ethnology as a national
ethnology.
Institutions of the nation state did not support Polish science, since for
a long time Poland did not posess an independent state. Paradoxically, because
of the lack of these institutions and other circumstances during the Partitions
in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Polish ethnology developed
close contacts with ethnological studies in other countries. The Polish
ethnology experienced its greatest isolation after the Second World War when,
due to political and ideological constraints it like all other social sciences,
particulary humanistic studies, were confined to the boundaries of the socialist
state. In spite of the difficulties it faced in Poland, national ethnology was like
in other countries under influence of eminent scholars - great masters who
headed ethnological institutions and who attracted teams of students and
followers.
The history of Polish ethnology is full of indications of the changing
relations between ethnology and ethnological sciences in other countries.
Therefore, it is not possible to present national ethnologies as distinct
ethnologies which are internally homogenous. Quite the contrary, the use of
concept of national ethnology assumes not only differences but also the
adoption of mutual interaction between these ethnologies and the existence of
broader ethnology and socio-cultural anthropology,
both European and
universal. During discussions of the relations between national ethnologies and
continental or world ethnology/anthropology,
the incompleteness of the
concept of "centre-periphery" was noticed. This paradigm was faulted since it
made the creative features of some centers absolute and alleged a cultural
infertility of other regions and human grDups.
As Polish ethnology has held the status of a national ethnology since the
second half of the 19th century, some effort is required to sustain and develop
it. Further work is required to enfold Polish ethnology as a whole: such work
will include the syntheses of individual directions and studies, manuals of
methods and dictionaries, descriptions and analyses of its history, literature etc.
I want to emphasize that I am thinking here about ethnology as a "certain"
whole - a whole that draws from the achievements of the broaden scientific
29
community yet remains a functional whole. Therefore, it is necessary to present
the relations between Polish ethnology and its place in world ethnology and
anthropology.
A special role in the shaping and functioning of national ethnology is
played by studies of ethnological history. They not only let us trace the changes
in the problems that were investigated and the development of notional and
theoretical concepts, but also the relations between the conditions in Poland
and world science. Furthermore, they point to a tradition to which reference
can be made and in this way help define the scope of this discipline. Mention
must be made here of valuable works on the history of Polish ethnology
(Kutrzebianka,
1948; Terlecka, ed., 1973; 8urszta, Kopczyńska-Jaworska,
1982; Damrosz, 1988). However, there is a need for new studies which will
provide answers to our current question. What were the relations in the history
of Polish ethnology between tendencies to make this discipline a universal one
on the one hand and, on the other, to focus on the folk culture of the country?
Why did Polish ethnology not take the opportunity to reestablish international
scholarly contacts in the relatively free intellectual climate that existed in
Poland after 1956? What were the reasons for the limited interest in
anthropological theories in the post-war period - was this due only to
political or ideological limitations imposed from outside, or were their
constraints created within the community of scholars? What caused the
manifestation of differences between generations, which is stronger in Polish
ethnology than in other social sciences? What are the reactions of Polish
ethnology to wider contacts with world anthropology, including post-modern
anthropology? Attempts to answer the questions were made recently by some
authors, for example by E. Jaworski and E. Kosowska (1994) and Z. Jasiewicz
and D. Slattery (1995). I hope that they will be the beginning of a wider
discussion of the past and present of ethnology, so much needed for further
reflections on this direction of studies.
Different assumptions can be adopted to study the history of ethnology. In
Central Europe, and in Poland, the paradigm of the history of local ethnologies
is prevalent. According to this analysis, the past is seen as a gradual transition
from descriptive knowledge of peoples or ethnography to global dimensions of
culture, typical of socia-cultural anthropology. A different perspective which
examines the coexistence of these two directions of interest is more valuable.
Seen from this perspective, the historyand tradition of ethnology includes not
only descriptions of folk culture, but also the various interpretive frame works
that ealier ethnographers employed to discuss and analyse their research.
Using the perspective of coexistence it is possible to study works such as the
folk descriptions of S. Staszic at the beginning of the 19th century, and the
programmes of investigations of folk culture, as outlined by H. Kołłątaj in
1802, and which is treated as the beginning of Polish ethnology (Kutrzebianka,
30
1948, p. 71; Posern-Zieliński, 1973, p. 31) and also consider Staszic's and
Kołłątaj's ideas on the development of culture and man's aims, debated within
the framework of "philosophical history" (Szacki, 1981, vol. I, p. 147). Such an
approach is particularly valuable as this works make many references to results
of investigations of peoples inhabiting regions outside Europe.
The task of an ethnological historian is not to find the time and situations
in which, in addition to description, there is also an overall concept and in
addition to the interest in folk culture there is also interest in global culture,
but also to try to determine the character and mutual relations between these
two ways of seeing the world. Adoption of this wide scope of ethnological and
anthropological investigations helps us to return to the past and look there for
more extensive foundations of modern ethnology.
The reasons for the appearance and consequences of the two features of
ethnology which I treat as characteristic of Polish ethnology can only be
discussed in a wider historical context. The first is the focus of interest on folk
culture, another - combination of local studies on folk culture and studies of
cultures of peoples inhabiting regions outside Europe, the so-called tribal or
primitive cultures.
The studies of folk culture were focused on the "national" territory,
a construct which has varied greately depending of time and place. Initially, the
territory was equivalent to the territory of Poland before the Partitions then
was restricted to the territory of Poland between 1918 and 1939 and finally to
Poland after 1945. Scholars were mainly fascinated with the eastern lands, the
so-called borderlands, and regions with separate cultural features such as the
Carpathian region, Cracow region, Kurpie (a district north-east of Warsaw)
and, to a lesser extent, the Łowicz area, Kashuby, and Silesia. The selectivity of
investigations was only restricted by O. Kolberg who advocated collection of
materials from all the areas that were considered "national" or were treated as
historically related to the old Polish Republic. The ethnically Polish character
of regional groups was neither an encouragement nor discouragement of
investigations. What was decisive was the degree to which a given group
preserved traditional folk culture and its originality. The area of Slavdom
rarely defined the limits of programmes of ethnological investigations. Interest
in Slavonic peoples can be found in Z. Dołęga-Chodakowski
(1818), in some
presentations of tasks attempted in the second half of the 19th century by O.
Kolberg (1965, p. 246), in A. Fischer's works (1932 - 1934), and primarily in the
monumental work by K. Moszyński, published after Poland regained her
independence (1929- 1939). With the exception of K. Moszyński's work, these
were interests focused on "closer" Slavonic peoples, with no regard of the
Russian folk culture.
Folk culture was interesting because it was either archaic, a remnant of the
past, or it was different from the culture of non-folk communities. It was
31
analysed from two points of view: as a subculture or even culture of these
groups and as a carrier of values which were cherished at a given time - native
character, traditional character, originality, simplicity, spontaneity. Scholars
noticed the connection between folk culture and important socio-cultural
problems - the gaining of identity by peasant communities, the inclusion of
these communities into the national community, the development of local
government, prevention of alienation and stresses during the modernization
process. Axiological and instrumental treatment of folk culture led to its
mythologization and this in turn triggered a demythologization
effect. The
above has had a nearly ISO-year old tradition in Polish ethnology (cf. R.
Berwiński who denied folk culture the value of unchangeability and independent from the culture of the elite strata (1854)).
What should be done with the abundant achievements of studies of folk
culture? The task of the modern ethnologist is to grasp the many dimensions of
the phenomenon and the different meanings of the term. This entails the
cultural system of the former village which belongs to the past and the
tradition transmitted from the past and continued in the modern family, local
and regional groups. It also includes, however, those traditions and cultural
forms the transmission of which was interrupted but to which reference is made
because they are treated as values or, finally, as elements of cultural and social
policy, that is as a tool and an activity which is to help in the solution of some
problems of our contemporary life. The work of ethnologists should not
simplify this multidimensional picture.
The valuable results of studies on folk culture can be used and the studies
continued in the following main directions:
1. historical studies of the folk culture as a cultural system of former
communities, primarily rural communities;
2. studies of folk culture as a tradition, mechanisms of transmission and the
place and significance of elements and values of this culture in modern
society;
3. studies using the materials and inspirations connected with folk culture
in other studies of culture, for example those presenting folk culture as
an aspect of culture, always present in it, and in discussions of the theory
of culture, mainly when folk culture is treated as a model structure.
On the European map of ethnologies Polish ethnology was placed between
the territory of Germany, where the culture of the German people and the
cultures of peoples inhabiting the territories outside Europe were investigated
separately, and the territory of Russia, where these two directions of interest
were combined. Polish ethnology is more inclined to pursue the latter direction
and for this reason I have treated it as one of its features.
There are no studies of the genesis of this link, its character and
consequences for the overall picture of Polish ethnology. I can find reasons
32
for this link in the influence of evolutionism, strong in Poland, a certain
distance to one's "own" people and the lack of an ideology of the folk that
dictated separation of these two objects of interest. Another reason can be seen
in the living conditions and the research possibilities that scholars had. In
a country, which did not abound in scholars, at one time scholars were
interested in rural people and quite often against their own will, they also
became detainees or emigrants among peoples inhabiting territories outside
Europe, primarily those in Asia. First investigations of the rural people in the
scholars' own country and the peoples inhabiting territories outside Europe
were conducted by the some scholars at the end of the 19th and the beginnings
of the 20th century by J. Witort, B. Piłsudski and S. Poniatowski (Kuczyński,
1994). In the interwar period, out of nine professors who dealt with ethnology,
five pursued studies of the folk culture in Poland and the cultures of peoples
inhabiting territories outside Europe. Even today the number of scholars who
work in this way is quite considerable.
The above combination of interests resulted in a tendency to relativize the
value of Polish folk culture. Consequently, within the framework of Polish
ethnology the nationalistic idea was not identified with the "folk" as was the
case with German Volkskunde. An openess to anthropological concepts of
culture, created primarily on the basis of materials collected outside Europe,
was another consequence of the above combination.
Observance of the past and present of Polish ethnology leads us to note its
exceptional changeability and variability. The range of interests changed,
depending on the time: the culture of the rural folk in territories of Europe,
sometimes restricted to its verbalized manifestations, the culture of peoples
inhabiting territories outside Europe, folk culture including also non-peasant
groups, primarily workers, community culture and, finally, culture in the global
dimension. Changes in theoretical orientations, related to ideologies and
directions in the social science in Poland was often dramatic. The conditions of
national ethnology and its relations to the social sciences as a whole, ideology,
socio-economic conditions and the political situation in Poland were different.
Polish ethnology, like other national ethnologies, was also under tension
related to its changing contacts with the international academic community.
Today this tension is felt in Poland in connection with wider possibilities and
participation in the development of world ethnology and anthropology.
Changeability, sometimes alternation, was also typical of the name of our
discipline: folk studies, ethnography, ethnology, socio-cultural anthropology,
anthropology. A well known Polish ethnologist, the late Professor Anna
Kutrzeba-Pojnarowa,
who I once asked whether she was not annoyed with the
diversity and changeability of notions which we use to define our studies said,
"I am not annoyed by the many names ... Ethnology is always in statu nascendi
in trying to find its own identity and autonomy".
33
Today ethnological sciences in Poland comprise, in addition to ethnology,
other branches of science as well folkloric studies, ethnomusicology, ethnoreligious studies and other studies bordering other sciences. Some scholars
call themselves social anthropologists or cultural anthropologists. Ethnology is
most stable in the formal structure of science. Following recent discussions,
ethnological studies remained separate department at universities and ethnology is one of the scientific and scholarly disciplines which can be pursued
for advanced degrees. Besides, ethnology is well established in many centres at
universities and other scientific institutions and museums. There are six
ethnological journals and the Polish Ethnological Society is celebrating its
centennial anniversary. Attempts at integrating the diversity of directions of
studies and tradition is made by the Committee of Ethnological Sciences of the
Polish Academy of Sciences.
What makes the search for the identity and autonomy of ethnological
sciences in Poland possible? What are some common factors in the diversity
and abundance of changes? It seems that it is the way in which socio-cultural
reality is perceived and interpreted - the choice of the object of investigations
which signify common cultural denominators, the historicism which makes it
possible to cross the border of real time and the sociological approach which
contributes values of culture to sociallife. These research methodologies, with
their strong empirical bent, are complemented by a specific spatial universalism
that helps to compare phenomena from different areas, and the effort to
formulate valid generalizations - through the creation and use of many
theories of culture.
The above features are not discriminants. that act independently. Acceptance of these features as a factor that creates a branch of science called
ethnological sciences is a matter of choice. We define our belonging, we are in
favour of some tradition which we continually enlarge and, when we start
investigations, we delineate the limits of the discipline and give it a specific
theoretical status. The possibility of choice is also typical of scholars from
another tradition - philosophers, sociologists, historians, philologists. Some of
them, together with ethnologists, build modern ethnological sciences. Today
the term "ethnological sciences" best describes the sense of diversity and
commonness within folkloric, ethnological and anthropological
studies in
Poland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berwillski Ryszard
ze stanowiska historycznej
i naukowej krytyki [Studics of
Folk Literature from the Standpoint of a Historical and Scientific Critique], Poznań.
Burszta Józcf, KOPCzYIiska-Jaworska Bronisława
1982
Polish Ethnoqraphy
a/ier World 1#1,. Il, "Ethnos" vol. 47, No 1- 2.
1854
3 -
Lud
t.
S/udia o lilera/U,.;;e ludowej
LXXIX
34
Damrosz
1988
Jerzy
Rozwój
pojęć
podstawowych
w polskiej
nauce
o kulturze
ludowej
do
1939 roku
[Development of Basic Concepts in the Polish Science of Folk Culture to 1939],
Ossolineum, Wrocław.
Do/ęga-Chodakowski
Zorian
1818
O Slowiańszczyźnie
przed chrześcijwistwem
[On Slavdom before Christianity],
"Ćwiczenia Naukowe" vol. 2, No 5.
Fischer Adam
1932- 1934 Etnografia słowiańska [Slavonic Ethnography], vol. I Połabianie [Polabians]; vol. 2
Łużyczanie
[Serbs]; vol. 3 Polacy [Poles], Ksi,!żniea-Atlas, Lwów - Warszawa.
Jasiewiez Zbigniew, Slattery David
1995
Ethnography
and Anthropology.
The Case oj Polish Ethnology,
in: Fieldwork and
Footnotes. Studies in the History oj European Anthropoloyy,
eds. H. F. Vermeulen
and A. A. Roldan, Routledge, London and New York.
Jaworski Eugeniusz, Kosowska Ewa
1994
Antropologia
i hermeneutyka.
O tekstach JózeJa Liyrzy [Anthropology and Hermeneutics. On the Texts' of Józef Ligęza], ŚI,!sk, Katowice.
Kolberg Oskar
1965
Dzieła wszystkie
Oskara Kolberya
[Oskar Kolberg's Complete Works], vol. 64
Korespondencja
[Correspondence],
part l, Pozn~lł\ - Warszawa.
Kuczyński Antoni
1994
Polskie opisanie świata. Studia z dziejów poznania
kultur ltldowych i plemiennych
[Polish Descriptions of the World], vol. l Azja i Afi'yka [Asia and Africa],
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław.
Kutrzebianka Anna
1948
Rozwój
etnografii
i etnologii
w Polsce [The Development of Ethnography and
Ethnology in Poland], Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, Kraków.
Moszyński Kazimierz
1929 -1939 Kultura ludowa Słowian [Slavic Folk Culture), vol. I - 3, Wydawnictwo Polskiej
Akademii Umiejętności, Kraków.
Posem-Zieliński Aleksander
1973
Kształtowanie
się etnografii
polskiej jako samodzielnej
dyscypliny
naukowej
[The
Formation of Polish Ethnography as an Independent Scientific Discipline] in:
Historia
etnografii
polskiej
[History of Polish Ethnography], cd. M. Terlecka,
Ossolineum, Wrocław.
Szacki Jerzy
/98 I
Historia myśli socjologicznej
[H istory of Sociological Thought], vol. I - 2, Państwowe
Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa.
Terlecka Małgorzata (ed.)
1973
Historia etnografii polskiej [History of Polish Ethnography], Ossolineum, Wrocław.
Translated
bY Zhigniew
N adstoga
