Prywatne geografie. Fenomen poszukiwań genealogicznych we współczesnej Polsce jako przyczynek do studiów nad oddolnymi strategiami percepcji przestrzeni
Private Geographies. The Phenomenon of Genealogical Searches in Contemporary Poland as a Contribution to the Study of the Bottom-Up Space Perception Strategies

Summary/Abstract: The paper provides a multidisciplinary theoretical proposal, joining perspectives of human geography, sociology and cultural anthropology. Its goal is to enable the categorization and analysis of problems regarding the phenomenon of amateur genealogy in Poland. The author presents selected aspects of this phenomenon at various levels related to the issue of human-space relations: ranging from the elementary ties to the place of origin of our ancestors, through spatial memory practices of resettlement genealogies, ending with constructing ideas about the space of ancestral life based on “a great story”, which provides family genealogies with reference points in the form of symbols, places, events or characters. Various ways by which amateur genesists construct knowledge of the family past, mark the paths of space perception: both in the private and local dimension, as well as those related to the collective memory of the nation as well. This allows the category of space to be considered as a key reference point in family memory practices. Meanwhile, the resulting social images are “private geographies” which are the conceptual equivalent of “private” or “bottom-up histories” / “histories of below”.

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