KOR and the transformation of polish politics in the 1970s

It has been widely observed that the pattern of dissenting and oppositional activity in Poland had changed considerably by the early 1980s. While in the 1950s and 1960s it was characterised by spontaneity, lack of programme and strategy, the opposite holds true in the 1980s. Till the second half of the 1970s dissent in Poland was spasmodic and short‐lived, intertwined with relatively long periods of social calm and inactivity.

In the mid‐1980s the Poles have become highly politicised people, the previously common political apathy, to a great extent, has disappeared. Clandestine political organisations, inimical towards the communist state, abound. The number of free, uncensored publications can be counted in hundreds if not thousands. In the early 1980s there existed officially in Poland a free trade union which in fact performed some political activity as well. For this and other reasons it was suppressed, however the struggle to restore its official activity continues.

Nothing of that nature has happened in any other communist state. Poland seems to be the odd man out in the communist world. Political crises occur there more often than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. The period of official activity of the trade union Solidarity has usually been called the ‘Polish Revolution’ due to the seriousness of the crisis in that country.

The aim of the paper is to trace the changing pattern of dissent and opposition among the Polish intellectuals exemplified by the activity of the Workers’ Defence Committee KOR. It argues that the Polish intellectuals gathered in KOR influenced in a significant way the Polish crisis of the 1980s. The KOR group considerably contributed to the emergence of Solidarity, it also helped to shape its activity and articulate its demands.     

Towards transnational gender identity. A case study of Polish children growing up in Norway

This article focuses on migration experiences of Polish children living in one of the most gender-equal countries in the world – in Norway. Empirically, the article is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with children aged 6–13 who were born in Poland and migrated with their parents to Norway after Poland’s accession to the European Union. Observation of their rooms during the interview also contributed to the study. We discuss ways in which gender roles, practices and identities are shaped by mobility in the Polish-Norwegian context and how ideas about girls/women and boys/men are affected by the migration experience. The article seeks to explore children’s experiences in the two highly contrasting and differentiated contexts: one where the children were socialized and the other where they then moved, the former being highly traditional in terms of gender, the latter emphasizing gender equality. We argue that the Polish home is the most important site for the formation of the traditional gender identity, while the Norwegian school and peer group are the most important sites for the formation of the modern gender identity. This situation causes tension and ambivalence with regard to children’s gender identities across a number of different spaces and spheres of their lives.     

'Pomorze' or 'Preussen'? Polish Perspectives on Early Modern Prussian History

The attitudes of Polish historical scholarship towards the historyof early modern Prussia has been deeply marked by the partitionsof Poland and the anti-Polish coalition between Prussia, Russiaand Austria, which denied Poland its own statehood for wellover a century. In contrast to nineteenth-century German ‘Landesgeschichte’,which focused on local research and archival resources, historiansfrom Poland have usually opted to stay more within patternsof national history-writing. When the Polish state was reconstitutedafter the First World War, hostilities built up between Germanand Polish historical schools on Prussia, expressed in the NationalDemocratic-influenced myl zachodnia (Western thought) on thePolish side, and a not less expansionist Ostforschung on theother side of the border. It was only after the catastropheof the Second World War, the redrawing of national borders ineast central Europe, and under the influence of Marxist historicalconcepts in the People's Republic of Poland that nationalistapproaches as well as the ‘black legend’ of thePrussia's past were temporarily suppressed and finally replacedby a more research-led scholarship. During the second half ofthe twentieth century, Polish historiography was in fact muchquicker and more thorough than its German counterpart to forgethe history of Prussia into a major academic subject. Sincethe 1980s, if not earlier, an extremely fruitful dialogue hasdeveloped between scholars—a dialogue which does not alwayspenetrate journalistic and public awareness, as recent polemicssurrounding the controversially planned ‘Centre for Expulsions’in Berlin have shown.     

High-skilled Return Migration and Knowledge-based Development in Poland

It is by now well known that return migration of the highly skilled can have a significant impact on knowledge-based development in the regions to which they return. Whereas previous research has mainly focused on developing and newly industrializing countries, this paper looks at high-skilled return migration in an East European transformation economy, namely Poland. In our paper, we propose an analytical framework which integrates migration theory and regional development perspectives. Based on narrative interviews with high-skilled return migrants in Warsaw and Poznań, we show that high-skilled return migrants have an impact on economic development by acting as both investors and innovators, i.e. that they transfer and successfully integrate financial means as well as different types of knowledge into these local economies. Furthermore, the Polish example illustrates that social relations and institutional context are crucial in understanding how high-skilled return migrants contribute to knowledge-based development.     

On the Trail of the Oldest Domestic Cat in Poland. An Insight from Morphometry,Ancient DNA and Radiocarbon Dating

It is believed on the basis of archaeozoological research that the domestic cat appeared in Central Europe during the Roman Period. In Poland, the domestic cat is a common species in medieval deposits. Only a few finds of cat remains of pre‐medieval age have been reported from Poland to date, including several specimens from deposits older than the Roman Period, dated to the pre‐Roman Period and even the Bronze Age. To clarify the earliest history of the domestic cat in Poland, the paper presents a review of the available published cat remains and adds some data about newly discovered remains. Combined methods of morphometry and ancient DNA were applied to enable distinction of wildcats and domestic cats. The domestic cat remains were radiocarbon dated. In six cases of domesticated cat reported in the literature, five were positively taxonomically verified, both by morphology and by genetic analysis, and one was recognised as a European wildcat. According to radiocarbon chronology, the oldest studied find is dated to the fourth–third century bc and represents a wildcat. Only two individuals of domestic cat – skeletons from Łojewo and Sławsko Wielkie, both from Kuyavia region (central‐northern Poland) – represent the Roman Period (first–third century ad ), and they are the oldest confirmed domestic cats in Poland. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unusual burial from an early Neolithic site of the lengyel culture in central Poland: Punishment,violence or mortuary behaviour?

During excavations at the Early Neolithic site of the Brześć Kujawski Group of the Lengyel Culture in Osłonki (central Poland), an atypical burial of an adult male was discovered. The individual's skeleton revealed traces of several perimortem injuries: both broken shins (the right shin with two fractures), a large fracture to the frontal bone and about 25 cut marks made with a flint blade in the parietal‐occipital region of the cranium on the left side. The arrangement of the fractured parts of the lower limbs might suggest that the injuries were intentionally exposed. Due to the relatively rich grave goods, it seems unlikely that the buried person was rejected by the community and thus killed or stigmatized by mutilation of the cadaver. The way the cuts were made is different from the cases of scalping or severing muscles in cannibalistic or mortuary practices known from the literature. This burial probably reflects some special funerary rite, which is now difficult to reconstruct or interpret. It is both possible that the observed injuries resulted from wounds that led to the individual's death (perhaps in circumstances that motivated the other special features of the burial) or that they were inflicted on the dead body. Taking into account the probable practices of dismembering of the dead body or human sacrifice found in the later Neolithic period in Poland, all of these possibilities may be considered with respect to this burial. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sir Robert G. A. Jackson (1911–91): an Appreciation

Abstract

Although the celestial observations made by the Aborigines were precise, the significance attached to them was conceptual rather than perceptual. It could not be derived from observation but only from knowledge gained by initiation into tribal values. The legends which embodied the astronomical knowledge had a threefold pragmatic role in tribal culture: they functioned as a predictive calendar for terrestrial events; they were associated with stories which reinforced the moral values pertaining to tribal identity; and they contributed to the belief system which provided a philosophical rationale for a tribe’s understanding of the universe. Selected myths relating to the sun, moon, the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, Venus, and various constellations are outlined and illustrated by traditional bark painting designs to provide examples of these general statements. Parallels are drawn with the theories of some contemporary philosophers of science.     

The Impact of the First World War and the Polish-Soviet War on the ‘Culture of Suffering’ in Post-1914 Polish Fiction

ABSTRACT

Using Jeffrey C. Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, this article focuses on the three major types of narratives of suffering which appeared in Polish fiction, after Poland regained political independence in 1918, outside the strong myth-creating narrative of the Polish Legions’ role in the war for independence. It argues that Polish post-1918 fiction developed these three major paths in the face of suffering inflicted on Polish lands, during WWI and Polish-Soviet War. These paths were to: 1) continue the narrative of Polish suffering within the framework of heroic, and selfless, sacrifice for Poland that has been well established since Romanticism; 2) present suffering as the universal fate of humanity outside the notion of national identity, due to the monstrosity of modern bureaucratic systems wherein human beings are treated as objects; and 3) present suffering as the result of modern warfare, but told outside of “patriotic phraseology” – thus suggesting a growing need as to finding a solution to national conflicts outside narrowly defined identities.     

A People's History of Industrial Philadelphia: Reflections on Community Oral History Projects and the Uses of the Past

Abstract: In this article the author reflects on three community oralhistory projects he conducted in Philadelphia between 1978 and1984. Brief histories of these projects are used as an opportunityfor reflections on urban folk history, and some of the forcesand often unacknowledged "purposes" of the oral historian thatshape interviews and the history that emerges from them.     

Did Children in Medieval and Post‐medieval Poland Suffer from Scurvy? Examination of the Skeletal Evidence

Late‐medieval and post‐medieval writings report that scurvy was a widespread condition in medieval and early historical Poland. Archaeological and historical data indicate that the diet of children was based on foods poor in vitamin C and contained small amounts of raw plant products. Also, historians emphasise that in medieval and post‐medieval Poland, there were seasonal fluctuations in food availability, frequently accompanied by poor harvests. Both resulted in long periods of poor nutrition, which affected children most severely. The aim of this study was to investigate skeletal manifestations of scurvy in subadult remains from medieval and post‐medieval Poland. Following standards described by Ortner and colleagues, anatomical sites pathognomonic of scurvy in subadults (<17 years) were assessed for abnormal porosity and hypertrophic bone among skeletons excavated from three sites: Ostrów Lednicki (dated to the 11th–14th centuries AD), Cedynia (10th–14th centuries AD) and Słaboszewo (14th–17th centuries AD). In total, 3.6% of all examined children were found to bear traces of vitamin C deficiency. The prevalence of scorbutic lesions was 4.5% for Cedynia, 2.6% for Ostrów Lednicki and 3.6% for Słaboszewo. The majority of affected children were less than 7 years of age. Scurvy was likely more widespread in the living populations than it appears from the calculation of skeletal markers, because some individuals might have recovered or died before obvious traces became apparent. Also, in some children, scurvy might not have reached an advanced stage, identifiable in the skeletal material. The prevalence of scurvy reflects not only dietary patterns but also food storage and preparation techniques adopted in the Polish territories during the Middle Ages, which contributed to low intakes of vitamin C. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Poland, Germany and the EU

The eastward enlargement of the European Union may well be the biggest challenge in the history of European integration. It is, however, accompanied by profound internal and external crises highlighted by the EU's difficulties in coping with the effects of economic globalization, of which the most obvious are high unemployment and a growing scepticism with regard to integration. This article argues that the solutions to both these challenges are deeply interconnected: while enlargement is a strategic necessity in its own right, it is also the only factor galvanizing EU member states into action for the reforms which are inevitable if the integration project is to be kept afloat.
As the new democracies of central and eastern Europe prepare for EU membership and the EU prepares for enlargement, Poland and Germany can reflect on the past eight years of a historically unprecedented improvement in their relationship. Bringing Poland into the EU (as well as into NATO) has become a key item in the Polish-German 'community of interest'.     

Do ‘in vitro children’ exist? The ‘ontological choreography’ between public debates and private experiences in Poland

ABSTRACT

Children who were born used IVF in Poland are subject of vivid discussion nowadays. In this article, we probe the ontology of the in vitro child: do in vitro children exist? If so, how and where? We analyse how an ‘IVF child’ is constructed through public discourses and private narratives. We explore media publications, as well as doctors’ and parents’ narratives concerning IVF children. A very strong voice in the debate has Catholic Church, which opposes medically assisted reproduction. Our main interest in this text are the answers of children and adults born using in vitro. Even young children recognize some focal points from the debate over assisted reproduction and refer to them. Their narratives show that they feel interpellated into existence by various discourses. In this manner, we argue, being an ‘in vitro child’ in Poland is a political status, not a biological one.     

Indirect Evidence of Falconry in Medieval Poland as Inferred from Published Zooarchaeological Studies

Although written sources indicate that falconry or hawking was very popular already in early medieval Poland, there is no hard zooarchaeological evidence that would support it. So far, only two studies based on animal remains suggested hawking in medieval Poland. The purpose of this study was to examine all published zooarchaeological reports from all archaeological sites in Poland and check for possible clues of hawking. Altogether, 281 remains of 12 species of diurnal birds of prey were recorded from 38 sites (49 time‐site units) in Poland beginning from the Middle Ages onward. The most frequently found was the goshawk Accipiter gentilis followed by the white‐tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla and the sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus. Clues of possible hawking include high status of sites, occurrence of species used in falconry outside their natural ranges, preponderance of females, the presence of sub‐adult specimens and others. It is suggested that surface damage observed on prey bones done by the hawks' beaks and claws may be an extra evidence of hawking. The present study strongly supports the notion that hawking was a very popular activity in medieval Poland. In the future, medieval bone assemblages should always be checked for clues of hawking. The present study may also be used as a source of raw data for other analyses because it includes detailed information on birds of prey from all zooarchaeological reports published so far in Poland. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Forging of the Polish Army, 1918-1919

ABSTRACT

With the regaining of independence by Poland in November 1918 it was essential to create a unified homogenous army, the more so that Poland was faced by conflict from its neighbours at a time when the borders of Poland were by no means formed let alone finalised. There were at least four seperate Polish armies and a plethora of local formations springing up all over the country. From these four formations: the Polish Military Organisation, the Polnische Wermacht, the Greater Poland Army and the Polish “Blue” Army in France. Moreover, the officer and NCO corps came from four distinct traditions. Those of the wartime Legions (Polish tradition) and of the three partitioning powers. All had different military traditions and training. An important factor was also that many of the them had only a rudimentary knowledge of the Polish language having served in garrisons far from the Polish lands. Faced with wars with the Ukrainians for Lwów and the south eastern lands, with the Germans over the Province of Greater Poland, Pomerania and Silesia, with the Czechs over Teschen and above all with Bolshevik russia in the east it was essential that the Polish Army unified as quickly as possible. That this was done within the year and eventually resulted in Poland winning the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920 and securing its borders and independence was in no small measure a result of the rapid unification and creation of an homogenous Polish Army with a single command structure and organisation. The binding glue was the deep rooted sense of national pride and desire to live and work in a free Poland.     

Visual culture in Brazil's First Republic (1889–1930): allegories and elite discourse

ABSTRACT. The research on which the present work is based analyses the ornamentation of the façades of major Brazilian public buildings and investigates how that representation contributed to the construction of a visual national identity during Brazil's First Republic (1889–1930). Two government buildings are discussed: Pedro Ernesto Palace, inaugurated in 1923 to house the municipal chamber of Rio de Janeiro, and Tiradentes Palace, erected in the years 1922–26 to house Brazil's Parliament. The article focuses on the allegorical figures ornamenting these two buildings in order to explore contradictory aspects of the discourse they convey. It will be argued that visual culture, more precisely architecture and architectural sculpture, served the elites of this period as a powerful tool for projecting their values and for preventing contradictions within Brazilian society from emerging in visual terms.     

(Re)framing identity claims: European and state institutions as opportunity windows for group reinforcement

How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, Silesians and Kashubs in Poland. It is argued that in order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings to which groups adjust by reframing identity claims. In doing so, they re‐imagine and reinforce their communities. Following Rogers Brubaker, group‐making is presented as an eventful process where ethnic elites invest identity categories with groupness by taking advantage of opportunity windows at hand. Further, tracing changing political opportunities, strategic adjustments and groups' boomerang effect bid, the paper embeds identity groups within the social movement literature.     

Performing space across time: a 520-year anniversary in a western Ukrainian village

Abstract

Festivals and celebrations have special significance for the foundation of community and collective memory. They are part of social practice and, at the same, also reveal much about current and historical social structures, traditions and rituals. Festivals contrast with everyday life, taking participants away from it; celebrations, conversely, celebrate and reinforce social hierarchies, the role of individuals in the community and the characteristics of the community. This is clearly demonstrated in this contribution on the example of the festivities of two western Ukrainian village communities celebrating 520 years of existence. The communities’ notable peculiarity lies in the fact that they were founded as a single village. Due the partitioning of Poland along the Zbru? River, however, the two sides were situated in Austria-Hungary and Russia, respectively. In the interwar period, they were located in Poland and the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Second World War, they were part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Although they did not have borders for the first time in 150 years, they nevertheless continued to exist as independent villages. Given this starting point, a celebration of the 520th anniversary of the founding of these communities obviously has very complex historical contexts within different past state regimes. The following analysis of the village festival will first demonstrate how such a celebration was achieved. Further, it will examine the extent to which a socio-spatial demarcation was reproduced just as efforts were simultaneously made to eliminate it. The village is a striking example of the manifestation of the experience and perception, design and imagination of present and past spaces.     

Phenomenology and the Problems of Oral History

Abstract: In this article, the author argues that many of thebest practices of oral history reflect phenomenological thinkingeven though practitioners may not describe themselves as usingphenomenological methods. The author suggests that knowledgeand application of phenomenology can clarify or minimize suchpotential problems as interviewer bias and informant unreliabilityand can refute accusations that oral history is less reliablethan history taken from documents.     

Pathological Changes of the Cranium of a Young Female Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus R.)—A Case Study (the Sudety Mts,Poland)

A cranium of a young female cave bear (Ursus spelaeus R.) was found in the Upper Pleistocene sediments of Bear Cave in Kletno, SW Poland. A detailed analysis of the cranium, including radiology, CT and histological methods, revealed numerous pathological changes caused both by diseases and by injuries inflicted by another predator. It is likely that during its lifespan, the young female was exposed to several attacks (bites on the head) from adult bears. The injuries varied in extent and caused bone infection and inflammation. The nature of most of them suggests that they were not fatal but could have had a significant effect on the overall fitness of the animal. In contrast, the lesions on the frontal bone and in the anterior part of the parietal bone may have been the cause of the individual's death. Additionally, the cranium was found to have cut marks, sharp‐edged longitudinal scars that indicate the use of a sharp‐edged tool, and are usually interpreted as effects of skinning. The finding is suggested to be indirect evidence of the existence of people in southern Poland during the Pleistocene. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reenacting ethnic cleansing: people's history and elitist nationalism in contemporary Poland

This article addresses the problem of the present‐day historical discourse in Poland by taking under scrutiny one specific event: the historical re‐enactment of the ethnic cleansing of Polish villagers by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, staged in a small town in southeastern Poland, Radymno, in the summer of 2013. It is based on research, carried out by the author and a group of students in Radymno and its surroundings in the period preceding and following the performance, as well as on content analysis of the press. The comparison of the top‐down political and mass media discourse with local responses to the idea of re‐enactment and, more broadly, local understandings of Polish–Ukrainian relations, reveal many contradictions. In attempting to understand them, the article discusses broader ramifications of the ‘democratization of history’: the political contestation, class rhetoric and societal tensions that are tangled up in historical debates.