Anna Kowalska-Lewicka

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Anna Kowalska-Lewicka (born May 24, 1920 in Krakow ; † August 20, 2009 there ) was a Polish ethnographer .

biography

Anna Kowalska grew up as a child of a family of professors from Kraków. She was closely connected to both the Jagiellonian University and the Polish Academy of Scholarship (PAU) through her family ties . Her father was the Polish orientalist, professor at the Jagiellonian University and general secretary of the PAU (1939-1948), Tadeusz Kowalski . Her brother was the paleozoologist, professor of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and member and chairman of the PAU (1994-2001), Kazimierz Kowalski .

Kowalska began studying philosophy and Romance studies at the Jagiellonian University in 1938. During the occupation, she attended lectures on archeology, anthropology, art history and ethnography at the underground university. She was conspiratorial in the Polish Home Army and was involved in the distribution of forbidden writings. At the same time, Kowalska worked in the Central Welfare Council Rada Główna Opiekuńcza (RGO).

In January 1942 Kowalska found a job at the PAN Archaeological Museum, which was under German administration. She worked there until the end of 1953.

With the end of the Second World War , Kowalska began studying ethnography at the Jagiellonian University after the lectures by Roman Reinfuss had piqued her interest. She finished her studies in 1948 under the guidance of Kazimierz Moszyński with the dissertation Zarys kultury Indian Shipibo na tle kultur innych Indian leśnych Ameryki Południowej [Outline of the culture of the Shipibo Indians against the background of the cultures of other forest Indians in South America], which she successfully completed in 1950 defended.

On January 1, 1954, Kowalska took up a job at the newly established department for ethnography at the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the PAN in Krakow. From 1963 to 1971 she was the deputy head of the Department of Ethnography in Łódź and returned to the Kraków Department in 1971, where she was the director until her retirement on August 31, 1980.

Kowalska's interests were initially in the field of exotic ethnography. She dealt with Latin American peoples and later directed her research focus to the ethnography of Poland and the Carpathian theme. Since childhood she felt particularly connected to the Podhale region, where she carried out intensive field research on folk culture and especially on material culture, field and pasture farming, folk costumes, but also on the manifestation of intellectual and social culture. She devoted a lot of time to the topic of nutrition and took part in international conferences, some of which she co-organized, which were devoted to the questions of ethnological research on this problem.

Anna Kowalska married the orientalist Tadeusz Lewicki , professor at the Jagiellonian University and head of the Institute for Oriental Philology and a full member of the PAN and PAU.

Anna Kowalska-Lewicka was buried in a family grave in the Radowicki Cemetery in Kraków.

Awards and memberships

  • 1947: Member of the Polish Ethnological Society
  • 1956–61: Editor of the Biblioteka Popularnonaukowa series of publications [popular science library]
  • 1970–82: Editor of the Biblioteka Popularnonaukowa series of publications [popular science library]
  • from 1973: Member and secretary of the PAN ethnography commission
  • 1981–89: Member of the Scientific Committee for Ethnology of the PAN, the last 2 years as a member of the Presidium.
  • 1982–89: President of the Society for Ethnology
  • 1975: Winner of the Krzyż Kawalerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski [Knight's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland]
  • 1991: Honorary member of the Polish Folklore Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze)
  • 1995: Prize from the Ministry of Culture and the Arts
  • 2007: Silver Gloria Artis Medal for Cultural Merit

Publications

Monographs

  • Hodowla i pasterstwo w Beskidzie Sądeckim [Cattle breeding and shepherding in the Beskydy Sands ]. 1980. Wrocław.
  • Mauretania. 1976. Warszawa.
  • Shipibo. 1969. Wrocław.

Anthologies

  • Studia z kultury ludowej Beskidu Sądeckiego [Studies on the folk culture of the Sandets Beskids]. 1985. Wrocław.
  • Pożywienie ludności wiejskiej [The feeding of the rural population]. 1973. Kraków.

Sources and evidence

Individual evidence


swell

personal data
SURNAME Kowalska-Lewicka, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish ethnographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow , Poland
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2009
Place of death Krakow , Poland