Romanivka: Field Ethnographic Studies at the Homeland of Maksym Rylskyi

Author

TaranOlena

a Ph.D. in History, a research fellow of the Ukrainian Ethnological Centre Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine). ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0548-0678

Romanivka: Field Ethnographic Studies at the Homeland of Maksym Rylskyi

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the presentation and analysis of field ethnographic materials in the area of the rites of the family cycle, the complex of folk food and oral history, collected during the ethnological expedition By the Ways of Pavlo Chubynskyi. One of its routes has passed through the homeland of M. Rylskyi – the village of Romanivka of Popilnia district in Zhytomyr oblast.

The memory on a prominent fellow villager – Maksym Rylskyi – is preserved strongly among the local population. This fact is facilitated with the cultural and educational activities of the Rylskyi Family Museum, situated in the village of Romanivka. The expedition study has made it possible to follow the process of mechanization of means of transportation and soil cultivation. The threat of loss of the traditional architectural face of the Ukrainian village has prompted the research participants to record carefully the specific character of traditional housing construction and the rites connected with this process. The village gasification in the late 20th century has caused changes in the interior of the house – the peasants start to dismantle the oven, that affects the preservation of rituals and customs related to the stove as a sacred center of living space. The existence of the street (vulytsia) as the centre of public leisure for rural youth is fixed until the late 20th century. Winter holidays (St. Andrew’s Day, Christmas and New Year cycle) are the most preserved among the calendar rites. Vesnianky (is a type of spring dance songs), Kupala Night, Honey Feast of the Saviour, Apple Feast of the Saviour are known from the spring-summer cycle. The range of issues that we have touched upon requires further thorough ethnographic research of the village, as global integration processes cause the gradual disappearance of certain ceremonial traditions or the peculiarities of homekeeping – the main cultural markers of Ukrainian folk culture. A significant part of the collected information has been included in the multi-volume corpus of expeditionary folklore and ethnographic materials Ethnographic Image of Modern Ukraine.

Keywords

ethnographic expedition, folk life, rite, tradition, oral history, Maksym Rylskyi.

References

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2. SKRYPNYK, Hanna (ed.‑in‑chief). An Ethnographic Image of Modern Ukraine: A Corpus of Expeditionary Materials of Folklore and Ethnographic Studies. NAS of Ukraine; M. Rylskyi IASFE. Kyiv, 2016, vol. 6: Calendar Rituals, 400 pp.; 16 ill.
3. SKRYPNYK, Hanna (ed.‑in‑chief). An Ethnographic Image of Modern Ukraine: A Corpus of Expeditionary Materials of Folklore and Ethnographic Studies. NAS of Ukraine; M. Rylskyi IASFE. Kyiv, 2017, vol. 7: Household Occupations, Trades, and Crafts, 496 pp.; ill.
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