Series:Kultura na Pograniczach

Anthropology of continuity and change

Macedonian Poreče 80 years after Józef Obrębski’s research

Author(s): / Language(s): English

“This book is a result of fieldwork undertaken for the project Anthropology of Continuity and Change: Macedonian Poreče 80 Years after Józef Obrębski's Research” implemented at the University of Warsaw in the years 2012–2013. Our aim was to create a contemporary monograph on Poreče through critical analysis of collected field material, by posing the same or similar questions as Obrębski did 80 years ago. The research focused primarily on subjects explored by Obrębski, for instance family, yearly rituals, religion, magic, or the position of women in the rural society. Secondly we investigated new topics like the political, economic, and social changes related to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the painful transition process in Macedonia (from the Foreword by Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska and Anna Engelking).

Ludzie dwóch kultur. Wybrane przypadki transgresji kulturowej Polaków w Imperium Osmańskim w XVII, XVIII i XIX wieku

Author(s): Agnieszka Aysen Kaim / Language(s): Polish

This book is devoted to multiculturality and cultural transgression. The study begins with the definitions and descriptions of the phenomena and terminology crucial to the source materials, and presents biculturality from the micro-historical perspective of the case studies of three well-known Polish figures: Wojciech Bobowski (Ali Ufkî Bey, 17th c.), Salomea Regina Pilsztynowa (18th c.) and Konstanty Borzęcki (Mustafa Celâleddin Paşa, 19th/20th c.). Their biographies exemplify the complicated identities at the border of two cultures: Polish and Turkish, Christian and Muslim. The figures in focus are representatives of the “go-between” category which includes captives, émigré converts and Turkophile travellers who prospered in the Ottoman Empire. These “cultural brokers” made their presence felt in the history of Turkish–Polish relations and have passed into the history of culture. They are examined from the perspective of contemporary cultural studies, set against the latest anthropological theories (cultural syncretism, identity in multicultural societies), with special emphasis placed on cultural transgression as a set of shifting interactions. The analysis of the transgressive processes experienced by the individuals being studied takes into account their religious conversion, its circumstances, nature and consequences.

Piastuni dziejów

Wizerunki narodów europejskich w polskiej refleksji romantycznej

Author(s): Joanna Nowak / Language(s): Polish

This monograph examines how Polish authors writing in the first half of the nineteenth century described these European nations which in their opinion played a significant role in the history of Europe through the past centuries. The nineteenth century authors were convinced that in each of the consecutive historical epochs, typically it was one nation that due to different circumstances acquired special importance and directed a general development. Such prominent communities, via a number of missions entrusted upon them, became the "keepers of the history," playing different functions that often overlapped: they were defenders of freedom, promoters of art and civilization, leaders of economic changes, or initiators of intellectual growth.

Władysław Kowalenko (1884–1966). Badacz dziejów dawnej Słowiańszczyzny na lądzie i na morzu

Author(s): Wojciech Mądry / Language(s): Polish

The aim of this work is to present the role of Władysław Kowalenko as an initiator and advocate of research on early Piast strongholds with the use of interdisciplinary methods and of studies on connections between the early medieval Slavdom and the sea, as well as his contribution to the "Słownik starożytności słowiańskich" [Dictionary of Slavic Antiquities] – a unique compendium of knowledge about the history and culture of the early Slavs – where the editorial work of Kowalenko resulted in the publishing of an eight-volume encyclopaedia instead of the originally planned two-volume dictionary for the general public.

Wydarzenia – od traumy do euforii

Author(s): / Language(s): Russian,Polish,Ukrainian,Belarussian

This multi-author monograph looks at the 20th century from the perspective of its role in self-identification of individuals and/or communities as well as – in the latter case – of the place occupied by events of the 20th century in the structure of concepts that are key for the self-identification of Slavs. At the heart of each of the presented papers is the premise that the past, seen as a chain of events, is one of the factors determining identity and defining the system of national values which find their reflection in culture. Drawing on the tools of literary studies, semiotics, historiography and cultural studies, the authors undertake to put 20th century events on the map of contemporary European memory. They examine both the events that left a dreadful mark on contemporary history, causing a national (or global) trauma (like the February Revolution or outbreak of World War II) and those seen as positive (like the end of World War II, fall of the Berlin Wall or John Paul II’s pilgrimages) and evoking the feeling of pride. At the centre of attention are not only events defining the image of Europe in terms of political geography. Also clearly present is the mental perspective, which fosters recognizing the sources of national fascinations and national traumas, helps understand the mechanisms of myth-making, and points to the tools for reading myths that are constituted by, often seemingly hidden, references to the past.