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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 4 (190), 1132—1142

UDK 069.51:391:745.5(=161.2)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 18.06.2026
  • Accepted: 15.07.2026
  • Published: ??.??.2026

«FOLK PRODUCT»: THE PROBLEM OF SPATIOTEMPORAL ATTRIBUTION OF COLLECTION BEADWORK ITEMS

FEDORCHUK Olena

  • Dr. Hab. in History, Senior Research Fellow,
  • Leading Researcher
  • Ethnology Institute of the National Academy
  • of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: olena-fedorchuk@ukr.net

Abstract. The study is devoted to the methodology of spatiotemporal attribution of folk beaded ornaments and bead-decorated headwear from the Museum of Ethnography and Crafts of the Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In the museum inventory book, information about these items is limited to the brief entry «folk product». The chronological framework of the study covers the first stage of the Tradition of Beaded Decoration in the Ukrainian Folk Costume (late 18th — late 19th centuries), from which the largest share of anonymous artifacts originates. The relevance of the article is determined by the present-day need to accumulate knowledge about cultural heritage as a fundamental basis for the formation of national identity, which is an important condition for the consolidation of civil society during Ukraine’s War of Independence. The aim of the article is to present an effective methodology for dating and determining the place of origin of folk beadwork items whose accompanying information has been lost for various reasons. In developing the methodology, the following methods were applied: the historical method, used for the theoretical reconstruction of the development of the tradition of beaded decoration in folk costume in its chronological sequence and specificity; methods of analysis and synthesis, used to understand the results of folk creativity as complex and, at the same time, integral objects; as well as methods of comparison and generalization. The effectiveness of the methodology proposed in the article is demonstrated through specific examples of the attribution of anonymous artifacts.

Conclusion. Museum and private collections in Ukraine contain a large number of valuable cultural heritage artifacts that have not yet been introduced into scholarly circulation. A necessary stage in introducing a collection object into scholarly circulation is its professional description, which is often complicated by the absence of accompanying information about the time and place of its creation. For the spatiotemporal attribution of anonymous beadwork items, the article proposes a comprehensive approach involving the simultaneous application of the following methods: assessment of the state of preservation, source-study analysis, historiographical research, the method of comparisons and analogies, technological analysis, typological analysis, artistic and stylistic analysis, and the method of scholarly intuition.

Keywords: Tradition of Beaded Decoration in the Ukrainian Folk Costume, Museum of Ethnography and Crafts of the Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, collection object, folk beadwork item, spatiotemporal attribution.

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