Descriptions of Ukrainians' Traditional Material Culture in the Columns of The Ethnographic Review Periodical (1889-1916)

Author

Hlushko Mykhaylo

a Doctor of History, a professor at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University Ethnology Subdepartment.

Descriptions of Ukrainians’ Traditional Material Culture in the Columns of The Ethnographic Review Periodical (1889–1916)

Abstract

The ethnographical data on traditional material culture of Ukrainians, published on the pages of Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie (Ethnographic Review) magazine (1889–1916), are analyzed in the article. Thematically they cover two types of folk culture: housing and economic complex (works by Oleksandr Shark and Vira Kharuzina) and folk food (articles by Varvara Shchelokovska and Raisa Dankivska). The geography of these sources origin (Slobozhanshchyna, Middle Over Dnipro Lands, Lower Over Dnipro Lands), their nature, scientific authenticity of the records, etc., have been ascertained.

O. Sharko has collected ethnographic information in the basins of the Sula, Psiol and Vorskla rivers, that is, in the territory of the Middle Over Dnipro Lands and Slobozhanshchyna. The author has described in detail the design of traditional dwelling and most of the economic buildings, their erection technology, indicated the total size of the objects and parameters of individual components of each of them, recreated the buildings graphically. The work of V. Kharuzina is valuable for Ukrainian ethnology for the representing of authentic examples of Ukrainian folk construction of the steppe zone – current important industrial cell of the Lower Over Dnipro Lands (Kryvyi Rih). It has developed rapidly and influenced significantly the daily lives and household activities of local peasants as well as dwelling in the late XIXth - early XXth centuries.

The national food traditions of the Ukrainians of Slobozhanshchyna (Kupiyansk county of Kharkiv province) at the late XIXth century are considered in the large-scale work of V. Shchelokovska. In particular, the researcher has described thoroughly the domestic utensils, casual, festive and ritual dishes and drinks, customs and ceremonies of the calendar year and family events connected with them, etc. In addition, the false interpretation of the historical and ethnographic belonging of ethnographic records of V. Shchelokovska, followed by some modern Ukrainian ethnologists, is disproved.

R. Dankivska has written four ethnographic works, published on the pages of EtnograficheskoeObozrenie (Ethnographic Review) magazine. The authoress has described the bread theme in three of them. She has considered the ways of baking, appearance and functional purpose of various bread articles, which have been cooked by the Ukrainians of Slobozhanshchyna specially for certain days of the calendar year and for wedding. The researcher has reconstructed the wedding ritual of Slobozhanshchyna inhabitants of the 1870s, basing on the collected ethnographic materials.

The ethnographic message of B. Yatsymirskyi about the custom to slaughter pigs before Christmas on St. Hnat day (December 20/January 2) pertains superficially to traditional meals of the Ukrainians in Podillia.

Keywords

Etnograficheskoe obozrenie (Ethnographic Review), Ukrainians, material culture, ethnographical sources.

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