In this article, using publications from the Jaunimo draugas magazine published in Vilnius and personal field research material, I seek to compare ethnographic material collected during field research and published ethnographic material and how these harmonise to reveal the particularities of youth leisure time in the historic Vilnius Region (1920–1939). After conducting a comparative analysis, it could be concluded that press publications cannot reveal all forms of youth leisure time, however, they do convey a strict diachronic perspective when identifying the modernisation of leisure time, which often omits the regional differences of this phenomenon. Having carried out this research, one can conclude that press publications can be important to ethnologists beyond just serving as an additional source that expands the limits of perception of field research data.
Vidutė Gumbytė (1949–2021), who was known as Rožytė (Rosie) by residents of the city, strolled the streets of Vilnius for almost five decades. Her story was unique, her style of fashion was eccentric, her lifestyle was idiosyncratic. In this article, I analyse Vidutė Gumbytė-Rožytė’s story as a Vilnius legend. I argue that Vilnius residents were fascinated by her freedom from social norms, her unusual sense of fashion, and the mystique that surrounded her persona. Her story is a story about the city of Vilnius, which became freer, wealthier, and more tolerant of otherness in post-Soviet times.
The aim of the article is to compare two original proposals for the exploration of Vilnius, depicted in the publications by the historian Adam Kirkor (1818–1886) Przechadzki po Wilnie i jego okolicach and the photographer Jan Bułhak (1876–1950) Pejzaż Wilna. The juxtaposition of both works highlights the difference between the perception of the city as a historical configuration of the urban layout and architecture ‘told’ from the perspective of historical events and the lives of famous inhabitants, and the city as a space combining the values of the natural environment, urban planning, architecture, and the living culture of its inhabitants.
This paper offers a reading of Mantas Kvedaravičius’ research findings from the perspective of visual anthropology. The paper describes the continuities between Kvedaravičius’ theoretical concerns on the anthropology of war and his filmmaking approach. These continuities imply an epistemological position that approaches research cinematically and proceeds to write from that position. Kvedaravičius’ work is illustrative of research that takes audio-visual ethnography seriously and works through the possibilities and limitations of different media to produce new stories on the human experience.