DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2020490203 TRADITIONES, 49/2, 2020, 53–64
The topic of the article is the peculiar situation of the researcher 
on the borderland. The author analyzes musicological studies 
conducted after 1945 in Masuria and Cieszyn Silesia - areas 
inhabited by Polish-speaking Lutherans, and tries to answer 
the questions which elements were emphasized and which 
were omitted or distorted.
Keywords: cultural borderland, Masuria, Cieszyn Silesia, 
musical tradition, Lutheran community, national identity
Članek obravnava poseben položaj raziskovalca na obmejnem 
območju. Avtorica analizira muzikološke študije, opravljene 
po letu 1945 v Mazuriji in Cieszyn Šleziji – območjih, 
naseljenih z luterani, ki govorijo poljsko, in poskuša odgovoriti 
na vprašanja, kateri elementi so bili poudarjeni, kateri 
izpuščeni ali pa izkrivljeni.
Ključne besede: kulturna meja, Mazurija, Cieszyn Šlezija, 
glasbena tradicija, luteranska skupnost, nacionalna identiteta
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN 
POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 
1989 - ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE AREAS INHABITED 
BY LUTHERANS
ARLETA NAWROCKA-WYSOCKA
The concept of cultural borderland referred to in the title used in sociological research 
has not gained much popularity among ethnomusicologists. The descriptions of regional 
traditions were dominated by nationalism, which caused that many elements of foreign 
cultures were omitted or unnoticed.
1
 Modern research largely uses materials collected by 
folklorists in the field in the post-war years. In this article I confront past and modern 
research attitudes presented by Polish ethnomusicologists.
In the analysis of the studies conducted in the areas of the borderland from 1945 to 
1989 I will try to answer the questions about what elements were emphasized and which 
were omitted or distorted. The problem of confronting official political vision with beliefs 
of the researcher and the scientific reliability seems to be very interesting and worth examin-
ing too. The questions concerning the methods used by the researchers who were proving 
the purity of these ethnic areas are also important.
Searching for the answer to the question, I mainly analyzed materials collected during 
field research in the post-war years. The analysis of unpublished entries (reports containing 
descriptions of research situations, characteristics of informers, researchers’ comments) was 
particularly helpful. The combination of these materials with published official statements 
allowed to show the discrepancy between the ideology implemented in the research and the 
complicated reality observed in the field. The most important publication that I refer to in 
the article is a five-volume monograph of Warmia and Mazury published at the Institute 
of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences containing materials registered in 1950-1958 by 
1 
The fact that folklore research is dominated by concepts aimed at searching for national identity was 
emphasized by participants at the Ljubljana symposium in 2009. Therefore, the researchers postu-
lated, first of all, to undertake contextual research focused on the to seek personal, social, political, 
national, and other identities (Klobčar 2011: 10).

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CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 1989 - ...
the Olsztyński team collaborating with National Institute of Art in Warsaw (Krzyżaniak 
and Pawlak 2002, parts 1–5).
I treat 1989 as a breakthrough date because in 1989–1991 Poland engaged in a demo-
cratic transition which put an end to the Polish People’s Republic and led to the foundation 
of a democratic government, known as the Third Polish Republic.
CULTURAL BORDERLAND
From 1990, the notion of the borderland has become the most often quoted by Polish soci-
ologists and ethnologists in order to describe the identity of the ethnic groups inhabiting 
post-war Poland (Sakson 1990; Sadowski 1995; Kurcz 1999; Jasiński and Korbel 1999).
Borderland has become an important sociological category included in the Encyclopedia 
of Sociology and recognized researchers initiated reflection on the need for a new subdisci-
pline– borderline sociology. The borderline study took on institutionalized nature. From 
1992, began to appear in Bialystok the magazine Pogranicze. Studia Społeczne, since 1996 
cyclical conferences entitled Cross-border in a sociological perspective have been taking 
place in Zielona Góra, in 1997 the Department of Borderland Sociology was established 
at the University of Wrocław (Kurcz 2011: 5).
It played an extremely substantial role in the change of perceiving regions called 
Regained Territories. Opole Silesia, Cieszyn Silesia, Masuria and Pomerania started to be 
described as the areas inhabited by various ethnic groups which were subject to influences 
of confronting cultural patterns.
A borderland is a category understood not only as the area of the permeation of 
neighboring nations’ cultures, which is outlined by the lines of political and administrative 
divisions, but also as the situation of the social-cultural contact, independent of borders 
and artificially imposed divisions. The cultural borderland becomes visible where the pro-
moters of the competing cultural patterns make their presence felt (Domagała 1998: 15). 
Another concept often cited by Polish sociologists is highlighting three aspects of borderland 
research: spatial, socio-cultural and personality-cultural. According to this approach, the 
borderland is a peripheral area, where there is contact between ethnic or national groups 
and a new man and his culture are formed (Sadowski 1995).
The region of Warmia and Mazury thus perceived has become a place where inter-
national cultural, scientific, artistic and publishing projects began. Particular significance 
can be attributed to the “Borussia” Cultural Community established in 1990:
Multiculturalism then becomes its kind of an ideological project and a way to 
deconstruct the post-war national myths justifying Poland’s Western and Northern 
Lands’ return to the mother country. Within this project it becomes possible to 
start the dialogue with the region’s multicultural past. First of all, the German 

55
ARLETA NAWROCKA-WYSOCKA
past, yet in the programme of the group focused around the Cultural Community 
“Borussia” (i.e. the institution that is of some interest to the author) Germanness 
is understood as East-Prussianness [...]. (Domagała 2011: 81)
The popularity of the concept of borderland is also confirmed by foreign language 
publications. The authors cite many definitions used in political science, sociology, cultural 
sciences, and anthropology. However, they emphasize the common feature:
Although there is a risk of essentialising a notion such as ‘border cultures’, we 
believe that there are sufficient grounds for looking at borders generically [...]. Such 
a focus looks at states at the extremity of their power, at places where ‘national 
cultures’ mix and clash. The border areas are places where nations (i.e. populations 
who believe that because of shared culture and a common past they share the 
present and a common political future) must and do deal with two or more states. 
Nations can end at or cross these borders [...]. (Donnan and Wilson: 1999: 13)
2
The notion of the borderland also turned out to be one of the most important cogni-
tive categories for me too, because it enabled an organized and logical look at first at the 
complicated cultural, linguistic and religious legacy of Masuria, and then at the other 
regions inhabited by the Lutheran minority. Polish-speaking Lutherans have always lived in 
mixed cultures, denominations and languages, and they unwillingly identified themselves 
with the specific nationality. These are the reasons why I am going in my address not only 
to sketch the problem of objective transformations occurring in Polish ethnomusicology, 
but also to describe the peculiar situation of the researcher exploring an unknown area in 
the changing political reality (the beginning of my studies coincided with the nineties).
From the entire wealth of borderland cultures, I have mainly chosen areas inhabited 
formerly or at present by Lutherans because cultural phenomena diverge a lot from the 
current model, and those being characteristic of the minority were present in the literature 
relatively seldom. It seems that only the introduction of the notion of the cultural borderland 
enabled the free of limitations look at the Protestant Masurians or Cieszyn Lutherans in 
the sphere of the nationality, language, religion and culture.
REGAINED PEOPLE - RECOVERED SONGS
In order to understand the climate accompanying the field research right upon the comple-
tion of the warfare, one should consider the peculiar geopolitical situation of these regions, 
2 
Among the numerous ethnomusicological publications reporting on research conducted in the bor-
derlands, one can mention, for example, those describing field research in the border area of Slovenia 
and Austria or Slovenia and Italy (e.g., Hois 2005; Pisk 2009).

56
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 1989 - ...
and especially the feelings of uncertainty and temporariness. They forced people to adopt 
ideologically explicit attitudes and imposed practical popularizing actions. The following 
quotation describes this situation the best:
In 1945, after centuries of separation, the Warmian-Masurian district came back 
into the state borders of Poland and brought to the common heritage not only 
the charm of its landscape, but also the irreproachable man with his diligence, 
rich culture which hardened in fights for national and social freeing. In People’s 
Poland, this man was confronted with changed living conditions resulting not 
only from the change of the national sovereignty, but also from the victory march 
of the revolution [...]. Today, we must stand up to the distorted attitudes of the 
part of the regained people who were formed in the soured atmosphere full of 
venom of hatred for anything that is Polish [...] with the real character of our 
national culture, we have to show the beauty of our folklore, the variety of the 
folk art, and to prove the close relationship and the unity of this culture with the 
culture of regained people. (Gębik 1953: 14–15)
The manifest presented above was expressed by the Polish folklorist and the regional 
activist, and referred admittedly to the area of Warmia and Masuria, but it can be perceived 
as the motto for the field research untaken in all regained areas incorporated into the 
organism of the new-formed Polish People’s Republic. In philosophy like this, ambiguous 
and interspersing cultural phenomena, which were arousing doubts, weren’t accepted. The 
message had to be clear, so all efforts of researchers were concentrated on registering and 
proving the Polish national identity of these regions and their residents. The author of the 
statement recapitulated this action very vividly: ”Regained people - Recovered songs”. It 
was an official version which was in accordance with the line of the civil service and the 
ruling party, so in the first post-war years it were songbooks and sets of songs intended to 
be sung by folk ensembles or amateur choirs which were being published first of all.
THE OFFICIAL MESSAGE AND COMPLICATED REALITY: MASURIA
3
In order to get the perfect image of Polish Masuria, problems like bilingualism of perfor-
mances (Polish and the German) and the presence of the German repertoire legacy were 
being left unsaid. The singing was being recorded mainly in Polish, although in comments to 
individual songs one can find information that “the song was being sung in German”or “the 
3 
Masuria is north-eastern area of Poland, where at least two cultural standards clashed through the 
ages: the German standard connected with the presence of the Lutheran Church and propagated by 
Prussia and the Polish standard fostered by settlers from Mazovia and Culmland.

57
ARLETA NAWROCKA-WYSOCKA
female singer learnt this song at a German school”.
4
 However, the selectivity of researchers 
did not concern the registered material only, but also the very performer. It appears from 
remarks of field researchers that they walked around the German-speaking population and 
settlers and were choosing people who were singing exclusively in Polish:
The songs presented here come from the Polish people who settled on this soil 
from time immemorial, rather than from the foreign population arriving upon 
completion of the warfare after 1945. The distinguishing of these materials wasnot 
difficult simply because during the research the oldest indigenous inhabitants were 
sought out. The songs were usually sung by women. Sometimes, one informant 
sang several dozen songs giving thus evidence of her excellent memoryand at 
the same time documenting the vitality of the song in spite of hard years of the 
captivity. (Lisakowski 1978: 257–258)
Memories of German-speaking Lutherans residing in Szczytno confirm such one-
sided approach of the field researchers. It resulted in a strong resentment and the feeling 
of rejection provoked by researchers from Warsaw who didn’t want to record them because 
the language of the songs was not Polish, but German.
5
When we look through publications and articles from the post-war twenty-year period, 
we do not find information about exceptionally hostile climate which was accompanying 
during the collection of folklore in Masuria. Instead, we more often find enthusiastic 
statements about the diversity of the Polish repertoire legacy, and monumental profiles of 
Masurian performers. However, it appears from the field notes that the situation of the con-
temporary researcher was far more complex and extremely difficult to assess unambiguously:
[The female singer] is anxious because of her neighbours’ advice not to sing [...]. 
They are probably also trying to frighten her by saying that something bad is 
going to happen to her. As a result, when we are asking Prostka about her name, 
which should be entered into the protocol, she is suspecting that we want to report 
her [...]. People around are exceptionally nosy and hostile. It is hard to determine 
whether there is more hostility, jealousy caused by us coming to “poor men” by car 
and curiosity about the purpose, or that there is more political attitude - like in 
other places. Luckily, we have almost finished recording when one of neighbours 
who couldn’t bear the tension went into the room and sat down on the chair, 
looking around with a murderous expression. [...] Inhospitable people around us 
4 
Such notes are very often included in unpublished materials and comments relating to specific recorded 
songs.
5 
Ewa Laskowska, who was rooted in this community, studied the awareness and identity of the 
inhabitants of these areas. In her master’s thesis she also registered the memories of her informants, 
(Laskowska 2001; cf. Dadak-Kozicka 2003: 283–288).

58
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 1989 - ...
aren’tfacilitating the continuation of our work. (Krzyżaniak and Pawlak 2002, 
part 1: 55)
6
The complicated situation of Masurian Lutherans is also related in short biographies of 
singers, which were recorded on the spot. One can learn from them about forcing people to 
move to nursing homes, dramas of separated families, forcible emigration to Germany and 
not infrequent disappointment caused by it. Notes included in the protocols show that the 
researchers had doubts whether information written down by them will harm the singers. 
In protocols, we can find traces of interventions to the individual informants’ defence by 
the members of the team of the Institute in party committees or provincial authorities. 
One can suppose that the team conducting recordings was aware of exceptionally difficult 
political situation in Masuria. As a result, they distorted reality not only on account of the 
official political line, but also in order not to harm with their action the residents, who 
had been sorely tried by fate. This peculiar splitting between the real situation and the 
officially presented one was also confirmed by the then researchers who were conducting 
the recordings.
7
The conclusion is that a few hundred Lutheran songs were recorded in Masuria 
(including a lot of German origin) mainly in order to prove to the authorities the vitality 
of Polish language which was cultivated thanks to Polish hymnals, leaflets, catechisms and 
prayer books. They were not denying the Lutheran faith, but they were trying to convince 
the official bodies that it is not dangerous. Perhaps that is why some idealized image of 
the folk piety of Masurians was created, with numerous common features with Catholic 
neighbours. The individual and unique ceremony of Masurian matins called Jutrznia 
mazurska na Gody was being interpreted as the Polish nativity play drawn up and adapted 
for the needs of Masurians.
8
 In the cantional repertoire, even though there were songs of 
the German origin, Psalms by Jan Kochanowski were being especially readily emphasized. 
With reference to the folk repertoire, remarks like these were obligatory: “The folk songs 
of Warmia and Masuria in principle adopted no German features and demonstrate a close 
relationship with a Polish folk song of other regions, and organically belong to the all-Poland 
folk music” (Lisakowski 1978: 258). In order to prove this thesis, the authors of book first 
of all listed shared elements of the Masovian culture, which were numerous examples of 
pastoral calls, tracks of the existence of the shepherd’s trumpet called ligawa, and some 
6 
Characteristics of the performer and description of the difficult situation during recordings are included 
in the manuscripts of the protocols. The fragments were also published in an anthology prepared by 
the Institute of Art of Polish Academy of Sciences (Krzyżaniak and Pawlak 2002, part 1: 55).
7 
The information on this were surfacing first of all in our informal conversations.
8 
In the first publications describing the repertoire of Matins, the rite is perceived as originating from 
Christmas mysteries (Krzyżaniak 1978: 375). Later studies, however, emphasize the direct links with 
the nativity plays, i.e. a Catholic performance played at the manger (Krzyżaniak and Pawlak2002, 
part 5: 13).

59
ARLETA NAWROCKA-WYSOCKA
melodic and dance motifs. At the same time, they often ignored foreign melodies, as well 
as bilingual songs built in such a way that the verbal text sung in Polish were interspersed 
with single German words. The publications featured a few melodies with an anacrusis or 
a typical waltz rhythm, emphasizing the rhythmic difference of Polish melodies:
The rhythmic shape of the melody is combined with starting the melody with the 
beginning of the bar for “once”, not from an anacrusis. [...] It is also one of the 
most characteristic rhythmic features of our folk songs, in contrast to the typi-
cal anacrustic system of West European music, especially German. (Lisakowski 
1978: 265)
This conduct to some extent resembled the attitude of German authors such as Karl 
Plenzat (1918), Hedwig Borowski and Ewald Lukat (1930) or Joseph Müller-Blattau and 
Artur Jeziorowski (1934) who were publishing small collections of Masurian folk songs in 
the interwar period.
9
Such a view on the Masurian culture lasted in principle all the way until a turning 
point after which it is finally possible to speak openly about Masurian identity and to 
describe exactly all complex political and public processes. In sociology, as I mentioned at 
the very beginning, these new political conditions were used almost immediately, but in 
ethnomusicology the change of a viewpoint was a much slower process. A monograph on 
Warmia and Masuria published in 2002 by the Institute of the Art of the Polish Academy 
of Sciences is an example of the publication reflecting the transitional state. It was prepared 
long before 1989 and introduced both traditional view, which was emphasizing the Polish 
national identity of the regions and residents, and a lot of elements which did not fit in 
with that perfect image (Krzyżaniak and Pawlak 2002, parts 1–5).
REGIONALISM AND OMITTED FOREIGN INFLUENCES - CIESZYN 
SILESIA
The situation described in Masuria reminded a lot the one present in Lower or Upper Silesia, 
including Cieszyn Silesia. The difference was that the communities inhabiting these regions 
were more diversified with regard to faith. While a Lutheran faith was a characteristic of 
the identity of Masurians, the Silesianness combined coherently with no faith.
It was only Cieszyn Silesia where the population of Lutheran faith prevailed. On 
account of its history, which was at first connected with the Piasts’ dynasty, next with 
Prussia, Austrian Empire and in the end with the Second Republic of Poland, the area of 
9 
German researchers, in order to obliterate relationship with the Polish national identity, were trans-
lating the texts, distorting the order of measure and rhythm by replacing the rhythms of mazurek 
with upbeat or adapt tunes to the bars with mixed metre.

60
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 1989 - ...
Cieszyn Silesia has always been recognised as the borderland, but rather in the geographical 
meaning. The studies after 1945, unlike those carried out in Masuria, were concentrated 
above all on regional elements. As it was expressed by Jerzy Drozd, the author of one of 
the first songbooks published after the war: “The intense folk movement in Beskids Silesia 
has been lacking the regional songbook for a long time” (Drozd1978: 5). In contrast with 
Masuria, in Cieszyn Silesia, which was integrated into Poland as far back as before the 
outbreak of the World War II, the thorough enough field research was commenced already 
in the interwar period (Ligęza and Stoiński 1938). The regionalists who were preparing 
publications after 1945 were referring to this legacy. They did not have to prove the Polish 
national identity in this region unlike on the other side of Olza River because of the political 
dividing Cieszyn Silesia into the Polish part and the Czech one, which was called Zaolzie. It 
seems puzzling that in field research carried out in the fifties in the Cieszyn area as part of 
the Action of Collecting the Folklore, during which over 10 thousand songs were recorded, 
only a few were religious ones.This situation is strange in so far as the person conducting 
the recording, Jan Tacina, was a Lutheran himself, and knew very well the repertoire of 
his church also in the local version (he was the author of the chorale book, as well as he 
voiced his opinion on folk way of singing hymns). What is more, from certificates of the 
singers we also know that many of them were of Lutheran faith. Perhaps the reason for 
this omitting the religious repertoire was its “non-Polish” character, or perhaps the convic-
tion that one should concentrate exclusively on the recording of the folk repertoire? The 
belief that religious songs from Cieszyn Silesia are of a mixed nature was shared by the 
Lutherans themselves. It was very clearly expressed by Karol Hławiczka, an outstanding 
hymnologist and folklorist:
In the region of Cieszyn Silesia, which has the second biggest population of Polish 
Lutherans, in the Hymnal by Heczko there is also quite a lot of songs signed as 
“Old Polish” ones, but the Czech and Slovak songs firmly affected it because 
evangelicals in Silesia up to its publishing lacked their cantional and were sing-
ing songs from the Slovak hymnalCithara Sanctorum by Jerzy Trzanowski from 
Trzanowice in Zaolzie. (Hławiczka 1963: 373–374)
THE NOTION OF BORDERLAND – A NEW STANDPOINT
The quoted examples of positions of researchers expressed by them in the area of Masuria 
and Cieszyn Silesia, in spite of seeming differences, have a lot of common characteristics. 
Above all, they concentrate on some beforehand adopted vision or a stereotype to which 
suitable elements of the culture are adjusted and unsuitable ones are omitted. The introduc-
tion of the notion of borderland permitted to move the centre of gravity from formulating 
a closed, stereotyped vision of culture to an open and concentrated on an identity one. The 

61
ARLETA NAWROCKA-WYSOCKA
criteria which were taken into consideration in determining the identity were the follow-
ing: shared territory, language, origin, religion, shared experience, customs, and relative 
isolation from strangers.
The notion of the cultural borderland was acquired by the next generation of musicolo-
gists, who had neither the burden of wartime memories nor political and ethnic prejudice, 
could try to show the entire cultural panorama of this region, or clear its debt to ances-
tors by devoting the separate study to the omitted group (monograph on the culture of 
German-speaking Lutherans made by Laskowska 2001). The experienced and distrustful 
community isolated itself hermetically from researchers from the outside, therefore they 
could solely to try to interpret the gathered facts anew (Nawrocka-Wysocka 2002, 2004). 
However, representatives of the omitted groups have spoken more and more often showing 
finally the facts openly and without concealments.
As I mentioned before at the beginning, I assess the category of the cultural bor-
derland as particularly helpful in my own research on the musical tradition of Lutheran 
communities. I used it both in the description of groups which disappeared a long time 
ago, so the knowledge about their tradition is fragmentary (Slovincians from Pomerania, 
and Lutherans from Silesia and Greater Poland), as well as in the description of the groups 
whose tradition was registered almost at the last moment (Masurians) or those which I was 
observing personally in the field (Cieszyn Silesia). Such changed viewpoint allowed dealing 
with kinds from the outside of the genetically understood folk musical culture (religious 
and popular songs, legends). Also, it was at last not necessary to leave unsaid and to conceal 
the obvious or only assumed foreign influences (German, Czech, Slovak and the like).
As an example of the new interpretation I will quote aforementioned ceremony of 
Masurian Matins called Jutrznia mazurska na Gody regarded by many researchers as 
remains of the Catholic nativity play. The significant for it the practice of alternatim (the 
singing of subsequent lines of the song by four choirs standing in different corners of the 
church) was characteristic of the medieval dramatic form of Quempas (it derived its name 
from the first line of the Latin Quem pastores laudavere and was documented for the first 
time in the15th century in a manuscript from Hohenfurt). The liturgical application of 
the alternatim is confirmed by two sources: Ordo cantionum ecclesiasticarum from Dessau 
(1545) and Missale from the Wittenberg (1589) (Ameln 1966: 55). The form was probably 
adopted by Mazurians and according to their needs set into appropriate decorations. There 
are evidences of the practice of Quempas coming from various regions of Germany. Also, 
in some regional varieties it is possible to discern certain analogies in the way of selecting 
props and the decoration. The repertoire of this ceremony, which lasted for many hours, 
was very diverse because it included, apart from newer verse songs, translations of Latin 
cantiones (Dies est laetitie, In dulci jubilo), hymns, and the translations of allegorical songs 
created at the beginning of the Reformation (for example Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme 
by Philipp Nicolai) adopting characteristic Barform, coming as early as from the tradition 
of singings of Minnäsingers.

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The introduction of the category of the cultural borderland into the descriptions of 
musical phenomena in Cieszyn Silesia allowed to notice the unusual symbiosis of Silesianness 
and Lutheran faith, and to portray the musical repertoire of Cieszyn Lutherans not selec-
tively, but as a whole. It enabled also to look truly at the Czech, Slovak and German cultural 
legacy passed on through regional cantionals and hymnals.
Today, there is a lot of a criticism of the pluralism and preferring ethnicity to the sense 
of nationality. All the more so, one should appreciate the fact, that at the beginning of 
the nineties these omitted or shown in the false light communities were perceived as more 
significant. Also, the period after 1989 created a comfortable situation for the researchers 
because they didn’t have to dither over what and how they are allowed to study, but over 
what and how they should do it. This period enabled as well a free flow of ideas and the 
possibility of participating in international forums, which has been of great importance.
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KULTURNA IN RELIGIOZNA MEJA V POLJSKI ETNOMUZIKOLOGIJI 
PRED IN PO LETU 1989 - NA PRIMERU OBMOČIJ, NASELJENIH Z 
LUTERANCI
V sociologiji je meja območje, kjer se križajo različni kulturni vplivi in se pojavljajo napetosti 
med kulturno-civilizacijskimi vzorci. Ta zapletena vprašanja so dolgo časa presegala interese 
folkloristov na Poljskem. Ti so predvsem preučevali pretežno etnično poljsko folkloro, kar je bilo 
razumljivo tudi zaradi vojne, ki je vplivala na prej zbrano gradivo. Drug pomemben razlog so 
bile ideološke omejitve, ki jih je uvedla država, ko je sponzorirala tekoče raziskave. Kjer je šlo 
za t.i. Poljski “povrnjena ozemlja« (Ziemie Odzyskane), je bila naloga raziskovalcev dokazati 

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CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS BORDERLAND IN POLISH ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER 1989 - ...
poljske korenine. V teh prizadevanjih so zato raziskovalci navadno ignorirali ali spregledali 
sestavine, ki niso povsem ustrezale pričakovani podobi. Takšno stanje je bilo značilno za Šlezijo, 
Cieszyn Šlezijo in Mazurijo, kjer so npr. luterani, ki govorijo poljsko, vedno živeli v prepletu 
kultur, poimenovanj in jezikov in se praviloma niso radi identificirali le z eno narodnostjo.
Z današnjega vidika so pomembna naslednja vprašanja: katere metode so raziskovalci 
uporabili, da bi dokazali čistosti teh etničnih območij; katere elemente so izpuščali ali prilagajali 
posebnim predpostavkam ter zakaj so se raziskovalci praviloma dokumentirali skoraj izključno 
ljudski repertoar?
Delne odgovore na ta vprašanja omogoča registrirano arhivsko gradivo v obliki protokolov 
in komentarjev raziskovalcev. Veliko jih ni bilo razkritih in so ostali zaščiteni pred cenzuro. To 
velja npr. za podatke o nemškem repertoarju in o informatorjih, ki pripadajo protestantski cerkvi. 
Nekatere sledi postopkov zagotavljata tudi izbor in razvoj repertoarja. Med snemanjem so bile 
v 50. in 60. letih skoraj povsem izpuščene religiozne pesmi. Učinek poudarjanja nacionalnih 
elementov je med drugim viden tudi v prilagajanju melodij, značilnih za tujo folkloro, ritem, 
običajen za poljske melodije; poudarek je bil tudi na ustrezni interpretaciji ljudskih obredov. 
Ideološke omejitve, podrejene oz. prilagojene nacionalnemu dojemanju obmejnih območij, so 
izkrivile njihovo resnično podobo. Danes lahko brez predsodkov razberemo, da se je tamkajšnja 
kulturna identiteta oblikovala na križiščih različnih zgodovinskih in nacionalnih procesov.
Dr. Arleta Nawrocka-Wysocka    
The Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences 
Ul. Długa 28, PL – 00-238 Warszawa, Poland 
arletanw@gmail.com, arleta.nawrocka-wysocka@ispan.pl