Ethnologia Polona

NONSENSE OF BORDER AND ONTOLOGIES IN THE MAKING

2025-02-10T10:30:35+00:00

The social sciences have long established that state borders produce, rather than simply reflect, social and cultural distinctions. Rather than examining the distinctions themselves, this article considers how perspectives on new differences are emerging. The state border between Belarus and Lithuania constitutes a distinctive example of a restricted geopolitical border, the external frontier of the EU, which emerged without any historical precedent and is still perceived as an absurdity by the locals who witnessed its emergence. I argue that the operation of the border’s bureaucracy produces estrangement through specific spatialised regimes of uncertainty, undermining the reproduction of pre-border social connections. This growing alienation is often interpreted within the logic of the “civilisational projects”
– the European one and its Belarusian counterpart – that the border is supposed to represent, sometimes appearing as accounts of substantial incommensurability. In other words, ontologies are produced from nonsense along the Belarusian-Lithuanian state border.

“WESTERNERS” VS “EASTERNERS”: SOVIET-POLISH BORDERLAND IN THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF BELARUSIAN HISTORY

2025-07-23T12:17:42+00:00

This article deals with the phenomenon of the Soviet-Polish border in Belarus in 1921–1939 as a factor that influenced the regional identity construction and development of mutual stereotypes among the Belarusians who found themselves within the Polish state and within the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Particular attention is paid to the analysis of oral history materials recorded in 2000–2010 in the area of the former Soviet-Polish borderland. The geopolitical rift of the ethnic territory and the low level of Belarusians’ national identity became the basis for new forms of identity of the population of Western and Eastern Belarus (“Westerners” and “Easterners”). During the functioning of the Soviet-Polish border, the mutual representations of “Westerners” and “Easterners” are vague and are shaped mainly by state ideology and propaganda, where the image of an external “enemy” prevails.

A detailed filling of the images of “Westerners” and “Easterners” with social, economic, and ethnocultural characteristics occurs after the physical (1939) and actual (1944) elimination of the Soviet-Polish border. During the Nazi occupation (1941–1944), and especially in the post-war years, communication between the population of Western and Eastern Belarus became intense. The massive labour migration, as well as the flows of beggars from the devastated areas to the relatively prosperous Western region of the country in the early postwar years, also signified the formation of informational flows in both directions. According to the author, mutual stereotypical ideas of “Westerners” and “Easterners” were finally formed after the end of the Second World War. The core of these ideas is the antinomy of “prosperity–poverty”, as well as a set of related connotations: “individual farmer–collective farmer”, “hardworking–idler”, “believer–atheist”, “policeman–partisan", “individualist–collectivist” and “secretive–communicative”.

HOW MANY MILES TO WARSAW?

2025-04-14T16:44:15+00:00

This article draws on oral history interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with Catholic women in the Belarusian countryside. Using a gender lens, it offers a fresh perspective on how rural women under Soviet rule organised themselves into an underground religious community in Little Warsaw. Through their religious practices – family rituals, secret gatherings and Marian devotions – these women showed resilience and agency despite state pressure and anti-religious propaganda. The study highlights the unique leadership role women played in the underground community. It argues that female religious solidarity flourished in the countryside as male religious authority weakened and as rural women were marginalised within Soviet structures. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how these women’s quiet but determined efforts sustained religious life during Soviet times and paved the way for the religious revival of the 1990s.

WOMEN'S RITUAL PRACTICES IN THE CULTURE OF BELARUSIANS

2025-04-05T11:26:10+00:00

This article aims to highlight the dominant position of women within the symbolic space of Belarusian rural culture from the 19^th to the early 21^st century, and show the specific features of women’s ritual practices known among Belarusians as abrok (a votive offering) and abydzennik (ritual fabric woven in one day). The cultural anthropological analysis of these practices is based on the author’s long-term field research and ethnographic literature. The study takes an ethno-sociological approach, and draws on concepts from gift and ritual theory, as well as gender studies. The first part of the article examines the status of women in rural society and their social responsibility within the symbolic field of relations among humans, ancestors, and the sacred, as well as the connection between women’s rituals and traditional activities, such as spinning and weaving. The second part describes and interprets the votive ritual of offering textile gifts (abroki) at roadside crosses, other sacred sites and in churches, a practice which is still carried out today. The following section analyses the practice of making abydzennik and its associated rituals. The article emphasises that this ritual was revitalised in Belarusian villages during the Second World War and in Minsk in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A conclusion is drawn about the significance of traditional women’s socio-cultural experience and the need to consider its existence in culture and collective memory when assessing the social potential of modern Belarusian society

INCANTATION PRACTICES OF BELARUSIANS

2025-04-14T19:52:03+00:00

This article communicates experience characterising Belarusian verbal healing magic by describing my own scientific pursuits. The development of scientific thought, both mine personally and that of my colleagues, with regard to incantation practices in general, has echoed the path of Belarusian folkloristics. A retrospective look emphasising research stages and corresponding results demonstrates the difficult path of deliverance from previous ideological principles that the Belarusian humanitarian science has gone through. Interest in previously forbidden topics – folk religion, magic, eroticism and so on – increased drastically with the country’s independence in the early 1990s and the slackening of ideological control. Step by step, an understanding of the dialectic of traditional culture, its integration into the broader European context and close ties with book culture came about. It was not easy to overcome the gap between the pre-Christian and Christian features in the structure and semantics of incantation texts. Post-Christian or neo-pagan influences have barely affected Belarusian tradition, and the influence of Internet sources is becoming much stronger. Turning to the experience of Western colleagues has contributed to the complicated process of including Belarusian incantations in the sphere of folk Christianity as a cultural category in contrast to institutional church doctrine. The concept of vernacular religiosity shifts emphasis to the study of religion as a living practice.

THE LONG ECHO OF SOVIET FOLKLORE

2025-04-23T10:54:04+00:00

This article considers a group of new songs that have appeared in the repertoires of folk ensembles in recent decades. The themes of these new songs are local and national holidays, glorification of the native village and the rural way of life and the wealth and prosperity of villagers, and they also include ironic chastushkas (short humorous folk songs) created on “the topic of the day”. These songs are “disguised” as folk songs, but have different performance pragmatics, connected with the dominant ideology, and are largely addressed to officials. Their origin is directly related to the implementation of the Soviet Folklore project in the 1930s–1950s and its consequences. We argue that the reconceptualisation of folklore’s social function – and the concurrent elevation of performers to authorial status in this period – represented a pivotal transformation, providing the framework for the subsequent flourishing of songwriting within folk ensembles. It was also facilitated by state support for amateur artistic activity. The study has revealed that a lack of critical rethinking of the Soviet Folklore project led to members of folk ensembles currently continuing to use the old Soviet strategies and models for creating new songs. New songs become part of a living folk‐type culture and gain “folk” status not through anonymous provenance but via collective authorship, ritual deployment and emotional response among rural residents.

SYMBOLIC FUNCTIONS OF THE BELARUSIAN DUDA (BAGPIPE) IN NARRATIVES OF MODERN URBAN BAGPIPERS

2025-03-08T14:37:26+00:00

This article analyses the symbolic functions of the Belarusian bagpipe in the narratives of modern urban bagpipers and attempts to periodise of the revival of the instrument, that is connected with those functions. In the narratives of bagpipers in mass media, social media and private conversations, some common motifs concerning their musical instrument are observed. I call them symbolic functions to separate them from the practical function of the bagpipe – to play music. The modern urban tradition of playing the duda (bagpipe) has only an indirect continuity with village musicians. Since the 1970s, the bagpipe tradition has been revitalised. Different symbolic functions of the Belarusian bagpipe were relevant at various stages of its revival. This article analyses the following symbolic functions: the bagpipe as a national symbol, as an artefact, as another art project, as an object of research, as an instrument for entertainment and for political protest, as well as an object of emotional attachment.

SMILES AND TEARS

2025-04-11T14:53:09+00:00

Until now, Belarusian cemeteries have attracted the attention of ethnologists, folklorists and historians from two main perspectives: places where historical tombstones are preserved and where traditional memorial practices can be observed. The huge new cemeteries founded outside the boundaries of growing cities in recent decades remained a “blind spot” for Belarusian researchers. This article aims to show how observation of contemporary Belarusian cemeteries and the changes taking place in them can help to understand contemporary Belarusians’ ideas about the afterlife and the development of cultural memory and memorial practices. Five characteristic examples were selected for this purpose: the spread of tombstone portraits with smiling deceased persons, the tendency to demonstrate the profession of the deceased on the tombstone, the gradual disappearance of traditional grave designs, methods of depicting and articulating ideas about the afterlife and the tradition of bringing toys to children’s graves. Interpretations of these examples are proposed. Thanks to this, we can see in the change a complex system that directly reflects the development of Belarusian society and understand what great epistemological potential modern Belarusian tombstones contain for ethnology and other social sciences.

“POWER” AS AN IDENTITY CATEGORY IN THE RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE POLITICAL DISCOURSE

2025-03-11T08:42:22+00:00

This paper analyses ways of speaking about politics in Russian-language political discourse by focusing on key cultural terms that describe political relationships and positionality. Data were collected from articles on Russian-language news sites and Russian-language comments on “Facebook”. The analysis shows how “power” is constructed as an identity category through oppositional codes and metonymic substitution in public political discourse. Agonistic relationships are political entities reflected in political discourse and a cornerstone for constructing and maintaining the status quo among participants in public political discussions. This analysis shows how discursive oppositions in the Belarusian context are central to the reproduction of populist rhetoric. In sum, this study advances a cultural mode of thinking about political events.

REVIEW OF MIGRACJE BIAŁORUSINÓW DO POLSKI: PERSPEKTYWA DYSKURSU PUBLICZNEGO (MIGRATION OF BELARUSIANS TO POLAND: PUBLIC DISCOURSE PERSPECTIVE) BY TATIANA KANASZ

2025-11-24T19:05:20+00:00

REVIEW OF MUSHROOM SPOTS BY DARYA TRAYDEN

2025-11-14T14:49:40+00:00

WE STILL HAVE NOT EMBRACED INDIGENOUS WORLDS, OR WHAT IS THE ENDGAME FOR THE ONTOLOGICAL TURN?

2024-12-19T10:37:32+00:00

This article examines some of the most important methodological and ethical challenges to be tackled by anthropologists advancing the ontological turn. I extricate such issues as causality, determinism, material relationality, Cartesian duality, Western modes of being, ethnocentric-ontological bias, the appropriation of indigenous ontologies and the decolonisation of indigenous thought. In the process, I explicitly connect with post-relational anthropology, actor network theory, thinking through things, cultural critique and controversy mapping. In conclusion, I propose a coherent set of methods with a strong potential to further improve ethnographic fieldwork, shed light on ongoing dilemmas and make the next step possible for OTTers (proponents of the ontological turn). Specifically, I point to performativity, active participation in creating “the common world” and connecting with indigenous scholars and thinkers (via ethical relationality), which encourages a way forward.

INTRODUCTION

2025-11-14T13:27:06+00:00

The idea for this issue was born in the summer of 2024, during a conference in Sanok, Poland, devoted to building dialogue between Polish and Ukrainian anthropologists. The organisers invited Katarzyna Waszczyńska and Stsiapan Zakharkevich to introduce the participants to the situation of ethnology in and of Belarus, in the form of a discussion panel. Anna Engelking, a co-editor of this special issue, was also present during this conference. This special issue can be seen as an extension of this event.

We decided not to narrow the issue to a specific topic or issue, but to take a generalist approach. Our question has been: How diverse are the approaches among ethnologists, anthropologists, ethnographers – whatever they call themselves – who are engaged with Belarus both as researchers as well as citizens? What issues do they address? What methods do they use? What theoretical fields do they refer to?