Lietuvos etnologija / Lithuanian ethnology

Between 2014 and 2018, funded by the European Union’s ‘Creative European Programme’, leaders of ten European ethnographic museums met to discuss a new kind of Museum of Other People, one that would come to terms with the legacy of colonialism and take account of large-scale migration to Europe from Africa and the Middle East. Pioneered in Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, this came to be known as the World Culture Museum. It is not a Museum of Other People, because it includes Europe on equal terms, at least in principle, although in practice Europe is present, if at all, only in the form of folk traditions. So what makes a World Culture Museum different from a Museum of Other People?

International ideas about education and development, promoted in Cambodia by financial donors such as the World Bank, influence how the second and third generations of Cambodian genocide survivors interpret their reality and history. They believe that the destruction of the education system and the almost total massacre of educated people during the genocide (1975 to 1979) slowed down the country’s development. Young people often perceive the loss of human life as a loss of resources. In this article, I argue that this perception of people as resources is what bridges development, education and the history of Democratic Kampuchea. The historical interpretations among young people are similar to the interpretations advocated by Cambodian politicians, and resonate with the World Bank’s ideas on development.

The article explores the reflection of gossip in the life stories of folk singers born at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and in Lithuanian folk songs about love. It examines how the practice of gossiping shaped the emotional community of the village: what emotional expression it encouraged (or discouraged), and what norms for expressing feelings it reveals. The life stories of singers are analysed, highlighting the importance of gossip and its function of social control in the traditional rural community, as well as the singers’ personal experiences and attitudes towards it. The gossip motifs in love songs are discussed, reflecting the community’s prohibitions relating to extramarital relationships and the complex emotional reactions of the young people being gossiped about.

The article examines the construction of the Lithuanian-Polish identity in 1988–1991. Based on the analysis of Lithuanian and Polish (published in Lithuania) periodicals, the article reveals how Lithuanian Poles sought to establish their identity in the emerging independent Lithuania. The Lithuanian press often probed the question of Polish origins, the purity of the language, and the loyalty of the Poles to the state. Meanwhile, the Polish press spoke of the historical continuity of the Polish minority in Lithuania and its right to a certain territorial autonomy.

Following up on my research into youth leisure published in the last issue of Lithuanian Ethnology, in this article I compare my personal field research carried out from 1988 to 2012 and publications in the press from 1926 to 1939, analysing the calendar feasts celebrated by Lithuanians in the Vilnius region. Based on the same methodology, the study revealed that the value of leisure and festivals as a source of ethnology differs in the periodical press. While descriptions of leisure in the press tolerate traditional forms, the descriptions of festivals promote only modern customs in which one cannot trace the specificity of the customs of the Vilnius region. Although the periodical press declared its desire to preserve old folk traditions, it was a reliable tool in shaping the modern calendar.

An analysis of reviews provides a perspective on the history of the evaluation of ethnological and other works in Lithuanian studies. The article further investigates the numerous reviews of Lithuanian studies by Antanas Mažiulis (1914–2007). In order to reveal how Mažiulis understood, valued and critically approached the science, his reviews are characterised by a broad assessment of the subject matter, criticism, and at the same time, an ideological-political perspective.

The article examines ethnological research on family customs carried out since 1990, and its directions, revealed in monographs, studies and publications and articles of a methodological nature, if the publications mark the beginning or the development of a new methodological, thematic or theoretical approach in the restored Republic of Lithuania. After the restoration of independence, ideological restrictions on the study of family customs related to religion and religiosity disappeared. Since then, research has been carried out on the past and the present, rural and urban society, Lithuanians and national minorities, and ethnically mixed families in Lithuania and abroad. The research has also extended to calendar customs celebrated in the family, and interactions with other social communities through customs. To sum up the ethnological research on family feasts carried out since 1990, the thematic, methodological and problematic development of studies of family customs is evident.