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« 2024. # 6 (180)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2024. № 6 (180), 1721—1742

UDK 39 (477.86/87) “18/19” : 749.2

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

LIGHTING IN TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS OF THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS FROM THE LATE 19TH TO THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY: THE SPLINTER TORCH AND CANDLE

SYVAK Vasyl

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6444-0705
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences, Researcher,
  • Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • Department of Historical Ethnology,
  • 15, Prospekt Svoboda, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: suvakvasul@gmail.com

Abstract. Among the various types and kinds of devices used by the indigenous peoples of the Ukrainian Carpathians for lighting traditional dwellings during the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, the primitive lighting devices, such as the splinter torch and candle, held a unique role. Until now, the study of these devices in the specified research area has not yet become a distinct subject for ethnologists. Therefore, examining the characteristics of these devices, the materials from which they were made, and — importantly — time of their emergence and usage within the studied region, supplements a big picture of their usage in traditional dwellings of Ukrainian highlanders from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th century. This scientific exploration is therefore highly relevant.

The object of this study is the lighting of traditional dwellings in the Ukrainian Carpathians during the late 19th to the first half of the 20th century, while the subject of the study is the functional features of traditional lighting devices — the splinter torch and candle — designed for illuminating living quarters, and, as needed, outbuildings; as well as the materials, sizes, and forms of these devices. The methodological basis of the study is rooted in the general scientific principles of historicism, systematicity, and scientific objectivity, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the topic and its individual aspects, with the use of various ethnological methods, such as typological, comprehensive, comparative, and the crucial method of historical reconstruction of the studied phenomenon.

The study area covers three ethnographic regions of the Ukrainian Carpathians: Boykivshchyna, Hutsulshchyna, and Lemkivshchyna. To expand the comparative foundation, materials from published works by Ukrainian researchers, representing other ethnographic regions and areas of Ukraine, as well as by foreign researchers from Europe and the Caucasus, were used. The study’s chronological scope encompasses the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.

A review of published works from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th century provides fragmentary data on the use of splinter torches and candles as lighting devices both in the area under study and in the broader Ukrainian context. Materials collected by the author during field ethnographic research in the Skole, Staryi Sambir, and Turka districts of the Lviv region; the Bohorodchany, Horodenka, and Nadvirna districts of the Ivano-Frankivsk region; and the Mizhhiria, Perechyn, and Rakhiv districts of the Zakarpattia region have significantly enriched the foundation for this study.

Keywords: Ukrainian Carpathians, Boykos, Hutsuls, Lemkos, torch, splinter torch, candle, lighting.

Received 12.11.2024

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