A Woman Ethnographer in Uncharted Territory: Amalie Kožmínová in the Mountains and Valleys of Subcarpathian Rus’

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

Abstract

Upon the post-World War I creation of Czechoslovakia and the country’s acquisition of the far-eastern province of Subcarpathian Rus’, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment commissioned a woman amateur ethnographer to travel to the new province to conduct an ethnographic survey of Carpatho-Rusyn peasant villages. Her book is the earliest attempts at a comprehensive overview of Carpatho-Rusyn peasant life in the new province. It offers a woman’s perspective on peasant life with observations not found in Bogatyrev’s publications. Kožmínová observed how women wore their hair, what jewelry they donned, and how they approached the ancient craft of embroidery. Her account also tells us much about the perspective of her own educated Czech society regarding Subcarpathian Rus’, at the time nearly a terra incognita for most. This presentation opens up Kožmínová’s contribution to our knowledge of life in the remote villages of Subcarpathian Rus’ as seen by a woman.

Author

• Patricia Ann Krafcik, Evergreen State College