The Role of Authority, Gender, and Trust: The Folklore Collections of Petr Bogatyrev (1920s-1930s) vs the Presenter’s Field Archive (1987-2019)

• In Event: The Gendered Voice in the Cultural Context of Subcarpathian Rus’/Transcarpathia

Abstract

The accuracy and completeness of data collected by the folklorist in the field are influenced by numerous factors. This presentation examines two datasets gathered by Russian ethnographer Petr Bogatyrev in interwar Subcarpathian Rus’ and by the presenter in Soviet and post-Soviet Transcarpathian Ukraine. The presenter highlights factors that shaped the scope and nature of Bogatyrev’s data, comparing and contrasting them to hers, including the amount of time spent in each village, the use (or absence) of survey programs, methodological practices, and issues of trust in the informant-ethnographer relationship when the genders match and when they do not. Bogatryrev’s informants were largely men; the presenter’s informants were of mixed gender. This presentation analyzes who served as informants and what kinds of information they permitted to be recorded, their fears, and how their attitudes toward the collector might be interpreted based on their gendered value systems.

Author

• Kira Sadoja, Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf (Germany)