Topicality
98th General Meeting of Delegates and PTL scientific conference
MCK SOKÓŁ
Nowy Sącz
September 21-24, 2023
We decided to devote this year's conference to "anthropology of the senses" - the "cultural dimension of the senses". This is a hot and important topic in both Polish and foreign humanities and social sciences. This is not just an academic topic. It is related to museums, gardens and multi-sensory artistic installations that appear in many places in Poland. The "Accessibility Act" is based on sensitivity to a different sensory way of experiencing the world. "Sensory tourism" is extremely fashionable - e.g. trips abroad with a cooking school (getting to know different cultures through taste).
In general, sensory anthropologists recognize that the senses may be used and understood differently in different cultures (and societies). Roughly speaking, biologically speaking, all people have receptors that work the same way, but each culture changes them. A prosaic example concerns the sense of taste: what seems rotten to us (e.g. Scandinavian pickled herring) is tasted delicious in Norway or Iceland. Our sauerkraut may have a difficult taste for a Sicilian. Experiences such as "silence", "noise", "stench", "dirt", etc. undergo cultural "transformations". In many European languages, love is "at first sight", and in China there is a saying in which falling in love is compared to hearing a sound. bell! Love is understood by sight in one culture and by hearing in another. In Poland, you fall in love with your eyes, and in China, you fall in love with your ears. Which shows that the hierarchies of the senses and the relationships between them can be different. How we use our senses is not obvious to a representative of another culture, and vice versa. These ethnographic comparisons are important because they allow us to learn not only about a "foreign" culture, but also a "homely" one. Another culture becomes more familiar, and your own culture becomes more foreign (strange).
Sensory anthropologists often experiment with new media. Using visual, audio, artistic tools, etc. in their work, they try to present their research not only in the form of written articles, but also: podcasts, radio reports, films, multimedia exhibitions, etc.
During the conference, we want to talk about how we experience the world through our senses in different ways? How differently are we in the world through our senses? How do the senses influence ideas about man and the world?
During WZD, you will be able to take part in a sound walk around Nowy Sącz (prov. Marcin Dymiter), a guided tour of the Nowy Sącz Shtetl (prov. Artur Franczak and Łukasz Połomski), a radio play "Na Giewont się" (prov. Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska), a walk through the history of Nowy Sącz (director of the District Museum in Nowy Sącz, Dr. Robert Ślusarek).
The program also includes a sightseeing and scientific trip and a visit to the Sądecki Ethnographic Park.
WZD is held under the honorary patronage of the Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Witold Kozłowski, and the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, prof. Ph.D. Jacek Popiel.
We received prestigious funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the "Excellent Science - support for scientific conferences" program and from the Excellence Initiative - Jagiellonian University (Research University).
I invite everyone interested
Dr. Łukasz Sochacki
Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Jagiellonian University
Nowy Sącz
September 21-24, 2023
We decided to devote this year's conference to "anthropology of the senses" - the "cultural dimension of the senses". This is a hot and important topic in both Polish and foreign humanities and social sciences. This is not just an academic topic. It is related to museums, gardens and multi-sensory artistic installations that appear in many places in Poland. The "Accessibility Act" is based on sensitivity to a different sensory way of experiencing the world. "Sensory tourism" is extremely fashionable - e.g. trips abroad with a cooking school (getting to know different cultures through taste).
In general, sensory anthropologists recognize that the senses may be used and understood differently in different cultures (and societies). Roughly speaking, biologically speaking, all people have receptors that work the same way, but each culture changes them. A prosaic example concerns the sense of taste: what seems rotten to us (e.g. Scandinavian pickled herring) is tasted delicious in Norway or Iceland. Our sauerkraut may have a difficult taste for a Sicilian. Experiences such as "silence", "noise", "stench", "dirt", etc. undergo cultural "transformations". In many European languages, love is "at first sight", and in China there is a saying in which falling in love is compared to hearing a sound. bell! Love is understood by sight in one culture and by hearing in another. In Poland, you fall in love with your eyes, and in China, you fall in love with your ears. Which shows that the hierarchies of the senses and the relationships between them can be different. How we use our senses is not obvious to a representative of another culture, and vice versa. These ethnographic comparisons are important because they allow us to learn not only about a "foreign" culture, but also a "homely" one. Another culture becomes more familiar, and your own culture becomes more foreign (strange).
Sensory anthropologists often experiment with new media. Using visual, audio, artistic tools, etc. in their work, they try to present their research not only in the form of written articles, but also: podcasts, radio reports, films, multimedia exhibitions, etc.
During the conference, we want to talk about how we experience the world through our senses in different ways? How differently are we in the world through our senses? How do the senses influence ideas about man and the world?
During WZD, you will be able to take part in a sound walk around Nowy Sącz (prov. Marcin Dymiter), a guided tour of the Nowy Sącz Shtetl (prov. Artur Franczak and Łukasz Połomski), a radio play "Na Giewont się" (prov. Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska), a walk through the history of Nowy Sącz (director of the District Museum in Nowy Sącz, Dr. Robert Ślusarek).
The program also includes a sightseeing and scientific trip and a visit to the Sądecki Ethnographic Park.
WZD is held under the honorary patronage of the Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Witold Kozłowski, and the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, prof. Ph.D. Jacek Popiel.
We received prestigious funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the "Excellent Science - support for scientific conferences" program and from the Excellence Initiative - Jagiellonian University (Research University).
I invite everyone interested
Dr. Łukasz Sochacki
Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Jagiellonian University