Pastoral Life Research Report for Poland
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CULTURE AND NATURE: THE EUROPEAN HERITAGE OF SHEEP FARMING AND PASTORAL LIFE RESEARCH THEME 3: PASTORAL LIFE RESEARCH REPORT FOR POLAND By Małgorzata Maj PhD Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology Jagiellonian University MUZEUM KRESÓW W LUBACZOWIE NOVEMBER 2011 The CANEPAL project is co-funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Education and Culture, CULTURE 2007-2013.Project no: 508090-CU-1-2010-1-HU-CULTURE-VOL11 This report reflects the authors’ view and the Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein Pastoral life in Podhale Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Ownership relations in the Tatras and forms of pasturage......................................................... 5 Organization of work in shepherds’ families ............................................................................. 8 Organization and course of pasturage ...................................................................................... 10 Agenda and life on a pasture land ............................................................................................ 12 Food.......................................................................................................................................... 14 Dishes, equipment and other accessories connected with pasturage ....................................... 18 Cheese production.................................................................................................................... 21 Outfit of shepherds of Podhale................................................................................................. 23 Rites and beliefs connected with sheep pasturage ................................................................... 26 Glossary of dialect concerning pastoralism ............................................................................. 30 Literature .................................................................................................................................. 31 Il. 1. The sheep pasturage in Podhale. Phot. Diana Woch, 2011 Introduction The Polish Carpathians are a part of a vast mountain range spreading across the whole middle Europe. They cover the majority of northern western part and a small part of the eastern wing of the Carpathian arch. The highest mountain group in the Polish Carpathians is the Tatras, for which high mountainous Alpine landscape is characteristic. Talking about cultural image of the Polish Carpathians on one hand it should be emphasised that in many aspects this region is separate from neighbouring areas and it has its own peculiarity, and on the other hand, it is also greatly diversified inside. The basic factor which influenced the cultural image of the Polish Carpathians, besides direct and indirect influence of natural environment, was the fact that it was the crossroads of previous agricultural and ethnic waves of settlers arriving here from flat parts of Poland from the 13th century and those arriving in the mid 15th century to eastern Carpathians whereas in the 16th and mid 17th centuries the western part of the Carpathians was flooded by Russian and Romanian-Balkan people (Vlach migrations), which is said to have spread the skills of sheep breeding and pasture in higher parts of mountains. Depending on different courses of processes of crossing of these settling waves the initial ethnic and cultural divisions took place. Later they continued, for example in connection with a few-century lasting activity of patrimonial authorities, which led to significant unification or spreading of the same cultural complexes within ownership and administrative units. Also cultural contacts leading to adoption of new values played an important role and in this category of factors the most noticeable ones are pastoral migrations, various kinds of seasonal migrations as well as contacts of smaller reach, for example trade ones. Under the influence of these factors over centuries cultural differences between various regions of the Polish Carpathians deepened. Ethnographers, historians and linguists broadly considered the problem of Romanian- Balkan elements in the folk culture of the Polish Carpathians, which were the effect of the significant participation of the pastoral people of Transilvania and the Balkans in creating the ethnic and cultural image of the region. Although it is very problematic to decide what the real influences were, it is assumed that, besides natural conditions, the phenomena related to the “primary” cultures of Carpathian and Balkan highlanders (called Vlachs) shaped the particular archaic and specific folk culture of the region. Il. 2. Podhale landscape around Zakopane. Phot. S. P. Makara, 2011 Since the mid 19th century attempts have been made to define, in ethnographical aspect, the population of the Carpathians. Among many regionalizations which can be found in ethnographic literature it is worth mentioning one made by Bronisława Kopczyńska Jaworska, the author of famous works about the Carpathian pastoralism. She distinguishes nine ethnic groups in the Polish Carpathians, which are explicitly different. Moving from west to east they are: Górale Śląscy (Silesian highlanders), Górale Żywieccy (Żywiec highlanders), Górale Babiogórscy (babia Góra highlanders), Orawiacy (Orawa highlanders), Spiszacy, Podhalanie, Górale Szczawniccy, Rusini Szlachtowscy, Łemkowie. In this short study it is not possible to discuss the whole diversity of pastoral economy forms with which we deal in this enormously varied, also in settling and physiographic aspect, part of the Polish Carpathians. Thus, this elaboration will concentrate only on the high mountain region called Podhale, where great pasture of sheep was the basic form of economy and up till now the pastoral traditions are definitely more vivid than in other regions of the Polish Carpathians. Podhale is a region in southern Poland spreading at the foot of the Tatra Mountains – the highest mountain range in the Central Western Carpathians. The landscape qualities of this area as well as the peculiarity of the local folk culture (Podhale highlanders), starting from the 19th century attracted numerous Polish ethnographers, travellers, artists and later – masses of tourists. During the period of national bondage (the 19th c.) this region was strongly mythicized and proclaimed the oasis of Polish national identity and independence. During the Second World War German occupiers attempted to pursue a denationalization action among local people by realization of the so-called Goralnvolk idea. Nowadays, Podhale is one of the most interesting regions in Poland. This relatively small area (24 km x 34 km) is the centre of the Polish Carpathians not only in the geographical but also in the cultural sense. Even today Podhale is considered to be the bastion of vivid folklore, where elements of the folk tradition are still creatively developed by the inhabitants. The contemporary situation in Podhale, social-economic transformations initiated by the system transformation in 1989 forced the change of development strategy of the region. From the area where the basic source of income was until recently the agricultural-pastoral economy temporarily reinforced by incomes from tourism and emigration to the USA, Podhale has turned into a typically tourist region, which takes advantage of its landscape and cultural resources1. [a map of Podhale from Misińska’s work] Ownership relations in the Tatras and forms of pasturage Pastoralism has been connected with the Tatras for ages. It is assumed that we owe the pastoral economy and culture to high mountain shepherds of Balkans and modern Romania. In summers they used to pasture herds on pasture lands and in winters they had to look for shelters in lower lying settlements. Mixed with the population of lands through which they were migrating they also reached the area of Podhale. After some time, these nomadic groups started settling down and thus they initiated the agricultural-breeding economy and the pastoralism became a seasonal activity [Starek, 45]. As the settlement was approaching the foot of the Tatras, more or less at the turn of the 15th century, the development of pastoralism entering higher and higher mountain areas started. The flow of settlers and development of settlements at the foot of the Tatras caused the increase in number of co-owners of particular pasture lands, and thus the pasture of bigger and bigger number of animals. Clearings of forests connected with ores mining in the Tatras enabled crossing beyond the upper border of 1 In the administrative sense Podhale is divided into Tatra County, which spreads at the foot of the Tatras and Nowy Targ County, which covers villages located in the southern part of the region. It is worth noting that as much as 65% of the professionally active population works in services. The tourism dynamically ousts, or even has already ousted traditional form s such as pasture and agriculture. Source: http://www.powiat.tatry.pl forest, where vast spaces of high mountain pasture lands opened to shepherds [Śmiałowska, 81] Il. 3. Shepherd's hut in the vicinity of Zakopane. Phot. Diana Woch, 2011 The historic, economic and social transformations of the second half of the 19th century caused weakening of the developmental dynamics of pastoralism in the Tatras. It was the period of crucial ownership changes in the Tatras,