Part of the resources of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas can be viewed on the Internet

Several thousand materials from the resources of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas can now be viewed online. These are collections documenting the culture of the Polish countryside in the second half of the 20th century, m.in. more than 12 thousand. field photographs and surveys of the herbs people collected.

The Internet archive is the result of a project just ending, ktory consisted in scientific preparation and publication on the Internet of selected resourcesoatlas.

The head of the project, Dr. Agnieszka Pieńczak of the Cieszyn-based Department of Ethnology and Education Sciences at the Silesian University in Katowice, recalled that the Polish Ethnographic Atlas is one of the largest projectoin ethnology in Poland since the end of World War II, ktory still ongoing.

– Its goal, practically from the beginning, i.e. since 1945., is proba making an inventory of Polish folk culture in its temporal and spatial dimensions. Today it is primarily a huge collection ofor materialow ethnographic sites from virtually all over Poland – mowiła.

Atlas resources relate to the roThe project will focus on a number of issues from the circle of the so-called. traditional culture. – They mainly concern twelve subjectsoin nodal covering selected aspects of material, spiritual and social culture, in particular theoThe issues concern e.g. construction, land transportation, family rituals,” explained Pieńczak. The data is collected m.in. in the form of questionnaires or surveys.

Over the past three years, some of these collectiveoin has been by more than a dozen osob participating in the project scientifically compiled and digitized. – The goal of the project, which is nearing completion, is to make three collections available online. The first covers our oldest collections, whichoThe archive includes questionnaires with herbariums dating back to 1948-1953. The second collection consists of just over 12 thousand. unique photographs from field research conducted in 1954-1971. The third collection includes 780 atlas maps published to date, the researcher listed.

In herbarium surveys, people indicated, m.in. what herbs they collect, for what purpose, for treating what ailments; there were also places to attach dried leaves of herbs andoł.

DetailedoPieńczak paid particular attention to theoHowever, it was on the collection ofor 12 thousand. field photographs, depicting m.in. Rural life, people’s occupations, objects used on farms or rural construction.

According to Pieńczak, digitalization is not only a need for a jointomodern timesoThe new law has been introduced, but also the need to. – Our oldest collections were already in need of maintenance. It concerned mainlyownie questionnaires with herbariums, whichowhich contain the original dried plants, pasted by the so-called “superheavy elements”. correspondentoin the field, to whichorich were sent these surveys – she indicated.

She added that nowadays the topic of collecting – whether for consumption or medicinal purposes – is getting people interested again.

By making these materials availableoOn the internet, researchers of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas want to roalso promote the project more widely. – For many osob from outside the scientific community, our collections are not known because access to them was limited – mowiła Pieńczak.

The project, which has just ended, included only part of the resourceoin the atlas. In the future, researchers are planning more such initiatives. – We would like to digitize and develop collections on family rituals, that is, practices related to birth, wedding and funeral. Today, people are looking for this type of information, ktore are associated with the behavior of the so-called. of intangible cultural heritage,” Pieńczak stressed.

The project pn. "Polish Ethnographic Atlas – scientific development, electronic data catalog, publication of resourcesoon the Internet, stage I" It has been implemented since 2014. Still until January 2018. As stated, it was subsidized by the funds of theoin the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as part of the National Program for the Development of the Humanities. To carry out the project, the Silesian University in Katowice received nearly 550 thousand. PLN.

The results of the scientists’ workow can be seen on the Polish Ethnographic Atlas website.

Sourceosource: PAP – Nauka w Polsce , Agnieszka Kliks-Pudlik, fot. photo. Pixabay