IZABELLA BUKRABA-RYLSKA

 

Culture in Local Society. Subjectivity Regained

 

SUMMARY

 

The aim of this volume is to describe the culture of selected communes and to assess how it influences the formation of subjectivity of local milieus. The reflection revolves around such issues as: how is ru­ral culture functioning under present circumstances; are decentralisa­tion, pluralism, and self - government sufficient conditions for local mi­lieus to shape this sphere of life according to their own needs, tastes, and traditions, i.e., fully subjectively; what part does local heritage play in local culture?

The four communes selected for the analysis differ in location, popu­lation, historical experience, and attitude to their own heritage, yet each of them represents a case of borderline (ethnic, religious, or cul­tural) community: Bialowieża, located in the East of Poland, has a mixed Orthodox and Catholic population; Lipnica in Orawa region lies next to Slovakia; Popielów in Opole region is inhabited in half by the so-called repartiates; and Przedbórz, although today located in the centre of Poland, during the partitions used to be crossed by the border and had a very large Jewish population, and now lies at the junction of three regions (Opoczyńske, Radomszczańskie and Kieleckie).

The research was conducted with the use of various methods and tools (questionnaire survey, test of cultural competence, guided inter­views and narrative interviews, analysis of local press, analysis of docu­ments and materiale, personal correspondence with informants). It embraced various categories of respondents (inhabitants of communes divided roto four age groups, members of local authorities, employees of local cultural and education centres, stimulators and creators of cul­ture, and local luminaries). Thanks to that it was possible to produce a complex, multidimensional, and at the same time unequivocal image of local cultural reality pertaining both to the past of each of the com­munes and to their present state.

Within the investigated field the institutional (existence and state of centres), consciousness (views and opinions of people), and content (signs and values existing in the local repertory) spheres have been distinguished. They allowed to define the character of each commune. At Białowieża, lacking any well-formed and documented formula of local culture, a process of a sui generis introspection is taking place, aiming at recollecting fragments of the past, tradition, and achievements; care is taken that no ethnic and religious biases dominate the collective consciousness. Lipnica has been cultivating its folk lore, characteristic for the larger cultural sphere of Wielka Orawa. At Popielów, the customs connected with family and neighbourhood typical for ehe wkole Opole region and popular culture are the main characteristic, serving as a basis for integration of the mixed population. Przedbórz was divided by the partitions and has an ill­-defined folk lore, representing influences of three regions: it stresses its links with the whole country (the numerous competitions with "homeland" in their name) and patriotic tradition (e.g., the celebrations of anniversaries of regaining independence or of the Constitution from the 3rd May). The analysed milieus do make an effort to define their specific character, but, on the other hand, mainifest a clear aspiration to put their local heritages in a broader context, which should safeguard them against further differentiation and separatist tendencies. The observations have revealed that if the phenomenon of locality is to form and last, not only the sense of separatedness but also that of affiliation has to develop. The community links developed within a milieu must be complemented with supra-local binds, and the notion of "small homeland" makes sense only if links with a greater whole are retained. To realise the former aspiration the distinctive features are developed; to fulfill the latter one, it is necessary to refer to the broader context.

The conclusion of the volume is that the problem of local culture, constituting (as it has been assumed) the prerequisite for subjectivity of a given milieu, can not be restricted to a concrete milieu, but should be "transcended" to a larger, macro-social, plane. Then, however, cul­ture becomes something more than a "lifestyle" of a certain group; it becomes its "way of being", testimony for its presence, and the reason for its subjective existence also in the context of the global society and the challenges it has to face.