Deconstruction and Self-reflection – Polish Ethnographic Atlas in the Perspective of Selected Memory Theories: An Attempt at Theoretical Approach

The purpose of this text is to critically discuss the method of collecting source materials as part of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas project and the ways to interpret them and to develop innovative interpretation strategies for these data, which until now are stored in the archives of this Atlas. These strategies will allow to use messages that have been rejected in ethnogeographical analyses and interpretations so far. These are primarily the records of spontaneous representations of narratives and the memory of the inhabitants of the village. What determined their significance and the role they played in learning about the reality examined was the fact that they constituted an individualized form of narrative. They were not triggered by a question in any way, so they were unique. These features made comparative studies impossible. Nevertheless, thanks to them, the interpretation of reality contained in the performances gained a context. Understanding the significance of these performances during the research was almost impossible, it took place at the level of the researcher’s intuition. The change of the paradigm allowed to extract a new cognitive value from them and gave the possibility of their redefinition and re-evaluation

Katarina Novakova , „Kulinarna kultura regionov Slovenska”, Bratislava: VEDA vydavatel’stvo Slovenskej akademie vied 2012, ss. 495 [recenzja]

Recenzja książki Katariny Novakovej, „Kulinarna kultura regionov Slovenska”, Bratislava: VEDA vydavatel’stvo Slovenskej akademie vied 2012, ss. 49

Poza marginesem : pamięć i reprezentacje przeszłości w materiałach źródłowych Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego

In this paper I discuss the possibilities of interpreting the archival materials of the Polski atlas etnograficzny by means of modern theories of memory. Referring to the theory of representation, memory locations or microhistory, new contexts of the functioning of phenomena or behaviours that are studied may be found in the records that were collected. The value of the source materials is not only in their substantive content but also in the scale of research with which they were collected. he atlas data, despite all their limitations, provide ample opportunities for the interpretation of such representations of the past, being a true reservoir of them. In many cases they require an individual approach, the knowledge of the specific context and a presentation of the interpretations in the form of a specific microhistory. Some, however, are experienced by a larger group of people, thus legitimizing inferences of a more general nature

„Młodzi ludzie w ogóle nie znają potrawy…” – zanikające dania codzienne we wspomnieniach osadników na Dolnym Śląsku. Analiza wybranych materiałów Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the state of knowledge of age-old foods brought to Lower Silesia after the end of World War II by settlers and resettlers from the eastern corners of the country and the Eastern Borderlands. The studied region is a post-migration area, within which – in the post-war period – there were processes of reevaluation, adopting or abandoning elements of the new and found cultural heritage. These processes also involved culinary heritage. The issue of culinary traditions surfaced quite often during conversations with elderly people, who in their recollections reached back to the pre-war period in their hometowns and to the first post-war years after resettlement. The present discussion will focus primarily on liquid dishes – soups/pottages, less often on thick and baked dishes. What distinguished them is the fact that they were still prepared a few years after resettlement, but nevertheless, gradually lost their popularity and eventually were abandoned. Interesting details on the subject are provided by source materials collected during field research, as part of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas project. The source basis will be the information obtained in the questionnaire “People’s material culture.”Celem artykułu jest przybliżenie stanu wiedzy na temat potraw dawnych, przywiezionych po zakończeniu II wojny światowej na Dolny Śląsk przez osadników i przesiedleńców ze wschodnich rubieży kraju oraz Kresów Wschodnich. Badany region jest obszarem postmigracyjnym, w obrębie którego w okresie powojennym dochodziło do procesów przewartościowania, przejmowania lub zarzucania elementów dziedzictwa kulturowego przywiezionego, jak i zastanego. Procesy te dotyczyły również dziedzictwa kulinarnego. Problematyka tradycji kulinarnych dość często pojawiała się w trakcie rozmów z osobami starszymi, które w swych wspomnieniach sięgały do okresu przedwojennego w rodzinnych stronach oraz do pierwszych lat powojennych po przesiedleniu. Niniejsze rozważania będą dotyczyć przede wszystkim dań płynnych – polewek/zup, rzadziej potraw gęstych i pieczonych. Tym, co je wyróżniało jest fakt, iż jeszcze w kilka lat po przesiedleniu były przygotowywane, niemniej stopniowo traciły swą popularność, by w końcu ulec zarzuceniu. Interesujące wiadomości na ten temat przynoszą materiały źródłowe, zebrane w czasie badań terenowych, w ramach projektu Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego. Podstawą źródłową będą wiadomości zgromadzone w oparciu o kwestionariusz „Ludowa kultura materialna”

Sprawozdanie z XV Konferencji Kaszubsko-Pomorskiej "Mieszkać na Pomorzu : transformacje lokalnych i regionalnych tożsamości pomorskich:, 14-15 listopada 2019 roku, Słupsk

Sprawozdanie z XV Konferencji Kaszubsko-Pomorskiej „Mieszkać na Pomorzu. Transformacje lokalnych i regionalnych tożsamości pomorskich”, 14–15 listopada 2019 roku, Słups

Współdziałanie społeczne podczas obrzędu weselnego w Polsce – rodzaje pomocy i kierunki zmian

The article raises the issue of social cooperation during the wedding ceremony in Poland in the second half of the 19th century. In the majority of works devoted to the wedding we come across the analysis in which the authors pay attention to above all the dramatic, ludic, etc. function of the very phenomenon. The participation of the members of the village community in this ceremony was perceived in a very similar way. In the foreground were the ritual, dramatic and folklore role and function. The wedding ceremony is though a series of actions in which participate both individuals and whole groups hidden behind the curtains of the action going on. O a large extent these are the actions thanks to which it is possible to organize the whole ceremony. In this context one should look into social cooperation. The exploration of the hidden and secondary functions of the engagement of the community members in the wedding enriches our knowledge on this ceremony. Help given by wedding participants took place during each stage. The easiest division of this problem to be suggested is a division from the point of view of a practical or, in the second case, a symbolic nature of the actions undertaken. The wedding ceremony in its concrete manifestations such as mutual help during its subsequent stages has not been a static form, transmitted from one generation to another in an unchanging form. A comparison of the 19th century and 20th century materials allowed for distinguishing changes cooperation underwent. The very processes went in two directions. Both in the case of phenomena in which the symbolic role was dominant and the ones which were characterized by a practical importance of the actions taken we encounter changes and loss. The analysis of violence manifestations given at the wedding time shows the observer the whole scale of aspects and meanings of the role of the group at the time of the wedding. This hidden importance of the participation of the community, often densely veiled with gestures and more spectacular behaviours largely constitutes the basic principle of the ceremony. The interpretation of cooperation and changes happening in its area enable the examination of the functions of the wedding ceremony in a wider context of social life

Potentiometric determination of cysteine with thiol sensitive silver-mercury electrode

A potentiometric procedure for cysteine thiol group concentration monitoring in media generating free radicals was developed using a thiol specific silver-mercury electrode. Electrolytic deposition of mercury on a silver wire and treatment with 20 mM cysteine in 0.5 M NaOH were used to produce the electrode. A silver-chloride electrode in saturated KCl was the reference. A glass capillary with 1 M KNO3 in 1% agarose gel was the liquid junction. The electrode responded to cysteine concentration in the range from 0.01 to 20 mM yielding a perfect linear relationship for the dependence of log [cysteine] versus electrode potential [mV], with b0 (constant) = -373.43 [mV], b1 (slope) = -53.82 and correlation coefficient r2 = 0.97. The electrode potential change per decade of cysteine concentration was 57 mV. The minimal measurable signal response was at a cysteine concentration of 0.01 mM. The signal CV amounted to 4-6% for cysteine concentrations of 0.01 to 0.05 mM and to less than 1% for cysteine concentrations of 0.5 to 20 mM. The response time ranged from about 100 s for cysteine concentrations of 0.01 to 0.1 mM to 30 s at higher cysteine concentrations. The standard curve reproducibility was the best at cysteine concentrations from 0.1 to 20 mM. In a reaction medium containing cysteine and copper(II)-histidine complex ([His-Cu]2+) solution in 55 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.4 the electrode adequately responded to changes in cysteine concentration. Beside cysteine, the silver-mercury electrode responded also to thiol groups of homocysteine and glutathione, however, the Nernst equation slope was about half of that for cysteine

Dynamics of reactive oxygen species generation in the presence of copper(II)-histidine complex and cysteine

Histidine-copper(II) complex (Cu-His2) is a form of bound copper necessary for cellular copper uptake. Due to the high affinity of histidine to copper(II) ions, the binding of copper(II) by histidine is considered a substantial part of plasma antioxidative defense. Also cysteine plays a role in the antioxidative system. However, we show here that in the presence of oxygen the histidine-copper(II) complex plus cysteine produces reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cysteine concentration was assayed using a thiol specific silver-mercury electrode. Hydrogen peroxide was assayed amperometrically using platinum electrode. ROS formation was followed by chemiluminescence of luminol-fluoresceine-enhanced system. Addition of cysteine to Cu-His2 solution at pH 7.4 in the presence of atmospheric oxygen initiates the synthesis of H2O2 and generation of ROS, which manifests as a burst of chemiluminescence. The reaction has two stages; in the first stage, cysteine is utilized for the synthesis of an unstable intermediary product which becomes a substrate for ROS formation. Anaerobic conditions inhibit ROS formation. Increased cysteine concentration enhances the lag phase of the oxidative burst without influencing the amount of ROS. The synthesis of ROS (measured by chemiluminescence) is proportional to the concentration of Cu-His2 employed. ROS production can be repetitively initiated by further additions of cysteine to the reaction medium. The study suggests that Cu-His2 catalyzes cysteine-dependent reduction of oxygen to superoxide employing an intermediary cysteine-copper(I) complex and enabling Fenton reaction with copper and hydrogen peroxide produced as a secondary product. In effect, Cu-His2 with cysteine may be a source of ROS in biological media

Silver nanoparticle-based assay for the detection of immunoglobulin free light chains

There is a wide spectrum of malignant diseases that are connected with the clonal proliferation of plasma cells, which cause the production of complete immunoglobulins or their fragments (heavy or light immunoglobulin chains). These proteins may accumulate in tissues, leading to end organ damage. The quantitative determination of immunoglobulin free light chains (FLCs) is considered to be the gold standard in the detection and treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) and amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. In this study, a silver nanoparticle-based diagnostic tool for the quantitation of FLCs is presented. The optimal test conditions were achieved when a metal nanoparticle (MNP) was covered with 10 particles of an antibody and conjugated by 5-50 protein antigen particles (FLCs). The formation of the second antigen protein corona was accompanied by noticeable changes in the surface plasmon resonance spectra of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which coincided with an increase of the hydrodynamic diameter and increase in the zeta potential, as demonstrated by dynamic light scattering (DLS). A decrease of repulsion forces and the formation of antigen–antibody bridges resulted in the agglutination of AgNPs, as demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy and the direct formation of AgNP aggregates. Antigen-conjugated AgNPs clusters were also found by direct observation using green laser light scattering. The parameters of the specific immunochemical aggregation process consistent with the sizes of AgNPs and the protein particles that coat them were confirmed by four physical methods, yielding complementary data concerning a clinically useful AgNPs aggregation test