Papers by Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska
Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria nowa, 2015
Kashubian national discourse – an anthropological viewpointAn animated discussion concerning the ... more Kashubian national discourse – an anthropological viewpointAn animated discussion concerning the status of the Kashubs is at present ongoing in Kashubia. In 2005, the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and the Regional Language was passed in Poland and Kashubian gained the status of a regional language within Poland but Kashubs were not recognized as a distinct group. Following the 2011 Census, the Association of People of Kashubian Nationality, Kaszëbskô Jednota, was created. The Association considers Kashubs to be a nation and is striving to change the Kashub status to that of an ethnic minority. The Kashubian–Pomeranian Association which until now was the only institutional representative of Kashubs does not recognize the Kaszëbskô Jednota aspirations and they consider that Kashubs have a double Polish and Kashubian identity. Both organizations are trying to convince as many people as possible to support their arguments. Meanwhile in Kashubia there are numerous cultural and po...
Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej, 2015
Can the presently created Kashubian literary language and the currently formed new Breton languag... more Can the presently created Kashubian literary language and the currently formed new Breton language be objects of consideration for researchers of the linguistic picture of the world?The influence of the Polish language in conjunction with education and the mass media have brought about in the second half of the 20th century a growth of Polish-Kashubian bilingualism and a decline of Kashubian dialects. Simultaneously, work on the creation and promotion of the literary Kashubian language has begun. The standard Kashubian language is new to all users as is the new Breton language standardized in the last decades of the 20th century. Intergenerational transmission of the Breton language was severed after WWII. The ethnic revival of the 1970s led to the revalorization of the Breton culture and language, taught since then in a number of schools and at adult courses. Normalized Kashubian and Breton languages are full of neologisms. But at the same time they have also been considerably puri...
Contested Languages, 2021
It is difficult to imagine linguistic minorities functioning in the modern world without their ow... more It is difficult to imagine linguistic minorities functioning in the modern world without their own media. In this article, the role and significance of minority media are examined through a broad anthropological perspective. The media not only transfers information and provides entertainment but also influences people’s perception of the world and the creation of imagined communities. Therefore, the media plays an essential role in the process of maintaining group cultural identity and raises the prestige of the minority language. This article considers the essential issues related to minority media and the ambivalent consequences for a minority group of their existence: i.e., protection of a minority language at the price of cultural uniformity, and the necessity of being financed from above resulting in limitations on the minority media’s scope. Based on examples from a few European linguistic minorities, some practical problems concerning the functioning of the minority press, radio, television, and Internet are presented.
""Maintaining cultural identity. Ethnic consciousness and insti... more ""Maintaining cultural identity. Ethnic consciousness and institutional support of young Upper Sorbs. One of the greatest challenges that confront every ethnic and linguistic minority is ensuring continuity. Only by doing this can the language continue to be used and the consciousness of group identity preserved. In today’s world, which is shaped by migration, the new media, as well as social and demographic problems, it is mostly no longer enough to leave responsibility for bringing up the younger generation exclusively to the parents. Young people are subject to far stronger cultural influences than earlier generations. They live in a transcultural world, change their place of residence more easily, are more likely to be citizens of the world than inhabitants of one particular “home“ area. The choice of ethnic identity, consciousness of belonging to a particular culture and feeling responsible for it is less a result of their upbringing in the family, but depends to a large extent on the actions and activities in which young people are involved, for example on friends with similar interests and on the specific values of a minority culture. This piece contains the report from a cultural field study carried out in Upper Lusatia in 2010. The analysis is based on interviews, which were conducted with young Sorbs aged 16–25 years. "
Revitalizing Endangered Languages, 2021
The article analyses the role of netnographic research as a part of the classical ethnographic re... more The article analyses the role of netnographic research as a part of the classical ethnographic research concerning linguistic, cultural and identity practices of young people belonging to European linguistic minorities. Based on personal experience from field research, two main attitudes of the Facebook researcher are presented: the participant–observer and the observer not participating. The first is engaged in Facebook community life and actively reacts against informants listings, poses questions and stimulates conversations. The observer not articipating is mute and does not react in any way to the contents placed on Facebook. Both attitudes are loaded with ethical problems: from breaking the anonymity and consciousness of being observed rule to the possibility of manipulation of observed people. This article concentrates on the advantages of using the Internet and particularly Facebook as a supplement to classical ethnographic fieldwork while it gives the observer access to all spheres of young people’s lives which are not accessible when researching only in the off-line reality.
"Kashubs - a Nation, Minority, a Dialectal Group Kashubs constitute an exception... more "Kashubs - a Nation, Minority, a Dialectal Group Kashubs constitute an exceptional cultural and ethnic phenomenon. Their status and position in Poland were changing in time: from the status of ethnographic group, through ethnic minority, to the position of a group using a regional language. Moreover, even the notion of nation, minority and ethnicity are fluent. Analyzing the attitudes of Kashubs and their present status, I refer to the theories of the Polish sociological school, and especially to Florian Znaniecki, Józef Chałasiński, and Stanisław Ossowski, as well as to my studies and interviews with Kashubian activists. The problem with classification of the group and especially the question of Kashubian nationality is today a very sensitive case which devides the Kashub society. There are two main attitudes: first, polonocentric, represented by most of Kashubian activists and by Kashub community, and the second attitude, represented by the radical Kashubian milieu who consider Kashubs to be a nation distinct form the Polish one. The status of Kashubs depends on themselves: their self-awarness, determination, engagement in actions undertaken by them in order to protect and develop their language and culture."
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
The article discusses the attitudes of young people belonging to certain selected European minori... more The article discusses the attitudes of young people belonging to certain selected European minorities, to their culture, traditions, folklore and modernization. The analysis is based on participatory observations and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2012 and 2013 with young (aged 16–25) Catholic Upper Sorbs (in Germany), Kashubs (in Poland), Welsh (in the UK) and Bretons (in France). The analysis of the young peoples’ statements and the anthropological research shows that a relation with tradition is still important for minority culture participants, although it depends on the way this culture is lived daily. Tradition and the importance of customs is perceived as the most significant in the case of Catholic Upper Sorbs for whom it constitutes one of the most important aspects of their identification with the minority culture. In the case of young Kashubs their attitudes towards folk culture are ambivalent. On the one hand tradition distinguishes Kashubian culture from Polish culture. On the other, after years of folk- lorization its image is negative in the eyes of young people and they want their culture to modernize. The young Welsh respect traditions and have Eisteddfod as the event of cultural, language and community recognition, but wish Welsh could function in everyday life, not only at an organized level. Young Bretons try to show their culture as modern and interesting although they are conscious of its traditional image which for most people is equivalent to the Breton culture. Anthropological analysis has revealed that this conflict between tradition and modernity is in fact based on the apprehension of the recognition of the distinctiveness of a minority culture against that of the dominant one. Young people rebel against the folklorique image they do not identify with of minority cultures but at the same time they relate strongly to the traditions on which their culture is founded.
The article is based on participatory observation and semi-structured interviews conducted in 201... more The article is based on participatory observation and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2012 with young Kashubs (aged 16-25). The research carried out has combined a cultural (anthropological) and a sociolinguistic viewpoints. The language policy not only concerns important bottom-down acts and laws established by the state and by minority activists, but is also based on people’s everyday practices, such as their choice of language. This is why activists responsible for the minority language policy should make use of the ethnographic methodology which would make the minority members the subject of the research. Their experiences related with using the minority language, attitudes toward their language and culture can be an important component and indicator for policy decision-makers. This article presents the statements of young Kashubs referring to their culture and language, diffi cult experiences related to the prohibition of speaking Kashubian, and the language shift which emerged with the coming into force of the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and the Regional Language. The teaching of the Kashubian language in schools is one of the most important achievements of the language policy – although, in the opinion of young people, it is a challenge. Young Kashubs tell about the decisions they took concerning their language and what motivated them to use the language of their ancestors. They speak about their attitude towards the Kashubian culture and its stereotypical, folkloristic image.
Sprawy Narodowościowe, 2010
Mémoire(s), identité(s), marginalité(s) dans le monde occidental contemporain
Le haut-sorabe et le bas-sorabe sont deux langues slaves parlees dans la partie orientale de l... more Le haut-sorabe et le bas-sorabe sont deux langues slaves parlees dans la partie orientale de l'Allemagne, pres des frontieres polonaises et tcheques. Elles peuvent etre considerees comme menacees, en effet la communaute catholique haute-sorabe a reussi a maintenir la transmission intergenerationnelle, tandis que le bas-sorabe est aujourd'hui parle par quelques centaines de personnes uniquement. Par consequent, en ce qui concerne le soutien des langues sorabes en Allemagne, deux strategies doivent etre developpees : le maintien de la langue dans la partie catholique de la Haute-Lusace et la revitalisation de la langue dans le cas des protestants de la Haute-Lusace et en Basse-Lusace. Cependant, la politique linguistique en Lusace ainsi que les efforts visant a revitaliser les langues sorabes rencontrent de graves problemes. Ils sont lies au manque de recherches appropriees sur la vitalite ethnolinguistique des langues sorabes, des experiences historiques des Sorabes qui les ont rendues passives. Pour cette raison, la politique linguistique des institutions sorabes est souvent de nature intuitive. A partir des etudes de terrain dans la Haute- et la Basse-Lusace et d’une analyse critique des entretiens avec les acteurs principaux de la vie sorabe et militants des langues sorabes realises dans le cadre du projet SMiLE, nous montrons quels problemes sont generes lorsque les besoins et les attentes different dans ce groupe linguistique. Nous analysons les relations de pouvoir en Lusace et les ideologies linguistiques exprimees par les militants linguistiques.
Lětopis. Zeitschrift für sorbische Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur, 2018
Zeszyty Łużyckie 53, 2019
Adeptus, 2018
This article provides an analysis of the discourse concerning language endangerment used by the y... more This article provides an analysis of the discourse concerning language endangerment used by the young European minority language activists. The collected narratives come from 100 interviews with young people who are engaged in activities on behalf of minority languages such as, Kashubian in Poland, Upper Sorbian in Germany, Breton in France and Welsh in UK. The way they formulate ideas on language endangerment and arguments they choose to encourage others to use these languages bears a strong resemblance to the discourse produced by international organizations, researchers and publicists. The analysis concerns three aspects of the young activists’ discourse: appropriation of the dominant discourse of language endangerment and its role; constructing a collective identity as a part of a language movement through the discourse of responsibility for the future of the languages; discursive strategies of presenting the advantages of multilingualism and in so doing of learning and using a minority language.
This article is based on the field research carried out among young (16-25 years old) members of ... more This article is based on the field research carried out among young (16-25 years old) members of four European linguistic minorities: Kashubs (in Poland), Upper Sorbs (in Germany), Bretons (in France) and the Welsh (in Wales, UK), conducted between 2012-2014 using ethnographic methodology – semi structured interviews and participant observation. It presents the most important – from the emic perspective of the young generation – aspects of their sense of the cultural insecurity (the negative attitudes of the dominant society against minority cultures and languages, language discrimination and ideologies) which leads to cultural and linguistic assimilation. The second part is devoted to the process of building the cultural security of today’s European linguistic minorities. It includes the image of these cultures, and the route to becoming interested and engaged in these languages and cultures maintenance and development. Cultural and linguistic activism is perceived as one of the conditions for the survival of these cultures.
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Papers by Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska
Kashubs, Warsaw 2011, Series: Communicare – History and Culture, pages 586.
The book, titled Minority Languages and Cultures in Europe: Bretons, Sorbs, Kashubs, presents the current situation of three ethnic cultural groups, the way they function against the
background of a dominant culture, methods of protecting their identity and especially their own languages. A particular role in these processes is played by ethnic activists; consequently
the author’s conclusions are based on the interpretation of their initiatives and statements. Linguistic changes, shown as the result of the existence of contending processes - the disappearance of dialects on one hand and attempts to increase the number of their users on the other hand - are described in a chronological and media order. A particular emphasis is placed on the scope of the use of minority languages in the world of the digital media. The
author begins from a sociolinguistic point of view to attain an anthropological analysis of the status of minorities at present, with a description of identification methods and the possibilities of the
survival of small languages in the world of today.
The book, The Kashubs from Pomerania, describes the Kashub minority living in the north of Poland, their history, language, culture, traditions, cultural movement and their present socio-political situation.