Abstrakt: | The specificity of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas (PEA) research work and the
potentialities of applying atlas materials have been largely discussed over the last
few years. What should be reminded here is that the research activity of the PEA is
based on two mainstays: the documentary one (collecting fieldwork materials,
museum and library search) and the interpretative one (elaborating appropriate
systematics which take into account various forms and varieties of the investigated
phenomena, preparing maps and concluding on the basis of the spatial ethnographic
image). The first stage has been already completed – therefore, the Cieszyn Atlas
Unit has rich ethnographic archives, the only one of such a size in Poland. The
collection comprises several thousand interview questionnaires, surveys, fieldwork
photographs and other archival materials, obtained by Polish ethnologists in the
second half of the 20th century nearly all over Poland. The second mainstay of the
atlas activity concerns the elaboration of the collected source materials in the form
of maps and some corresponding commentaries as well as in the form of special
electronic catalogues.
What the article aims at is presenting the specificity of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas
in the context of documentation, preservation and popularization of cultural heritage
of the Polish countryside. Source materials of the Atlas constitute a unique source
of rural history and, in contrast to other ethnographic studies, they comprise the
whole territory of Poland. Arduously collected over the decades, the Atlas sources
are a precious part of the material cultural heritage. Presenting and popularizing
them is needed e.g. by local communities, which turn to their cultural roots to build
their local/regional/national identity. Currently, the Polish Ethnographic Atlas is
starting long-term documentary work concerning scientific processing and
popularization of source materials essential for conducting and developing the
research on the digital platform www.archiwumpae.us.edu.pl. |