I am almost 100% pure Pole. On the day my mother married (in the words of my grandmother) "that no-good, son of a coal mining Polish ^&*&^&%^%$%&" that same grandmother made the announcement to her own family "We are no longer Polish. We are now Ukraine".
So I understand completely. Things like this are more fluid than we might like. ;-) Chris *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 12/12/2007 at 6:31 AM Arle Lommel wrote: >Orest, > >Your research points out one of the problems we have in discussing the >instruments. When we talk about them we tend to want to put labels on >them for where they come from. Those labels tend to be based on modern >concepts of geopolitics and ethnicity, but categories like Polish and >Ukrainian, as useful as the may be, are abstractions that actual >people tended to ignore. So if the lira korbowa and lyra don't >correspond exactly to political constructs, we shouldn't be surprised: >after all the region you are talking about was known for years as >Galicia and people moved freely through it. Trying to determine >whether a type is "Polish" or "Ukrainian" in that region is really >impossible and historically inaccurate. (I know you're not trying to >do that, and your mail shows exactly why it can't be done.) Especially >in Eastern/Central Europe, borders in the past were much more porous >than today and culture and ideas blended and swirled pretty freely. > >If we take the "Hungarian" instrument as an example, it's really >Austrian in origin and was imported to Hungary in the 1800s, probably >displacing a lyra-type instrument already in use (there is some >evidence of that type in modern-day Hungary prior to the 17th >century). So is it Hungarian or is is Austrian? The answer, perhaps, >is just "yes". Some changes were made in ethnic Hungarian areas and >the instrument found a home in what is today considered "Hungarian" >music, but it was also found in areas with a some people we'd now call >Serbs and Croats, so is it a Serbian or Croatian instrument? It >depends on definitions that are harder to make the closer you look at >them. There is even a fellow in a "Hungarian" area of Serbia (modern >nation-state) who builds Hungarian-type instruments... > >I write this not to pick on anything you wrote at all, but rather to >emphasize that calling something "Polish", "Ukrainian", "Hungarian", >or "Austrian" is an action that conceals as much as it reveals and >that, to some extent, trying to make hurdy-gurdies fit in these >categories is like trying to pound a round peg into the proverbial >square hole. > >Best, > >Arle
