STUDIES OF FOLK LITERATURE, ETHNOGRAPHY, ETHNOLOGY, AND ANTHROPOLOGY. INTERESTS OF THE EMERGING POLISH ETHNOLOGY/CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN MID 19TH CENTURY (Polish title below)

(Polish title: Studia nad literatura ludowa, etnografia, etnologia, antropologia. Kierunki zainteresowan kształtujacej sie w polowie XIX wieku polskiej etnologii/antropologii kulturowej). The aim of the article is to discuss the importance of mid 19th century (1840-1865) for the development of Polish ethnology and cultural anthropology. On the basis of publications and archival materials from that time the author presents ethnological/anthropological interests and studies. Using the terms applied at that time, the author identifies studies of folk literature, ethnography, ethnology and anthropology and indicates the subject and problems of those studies. Folk literature was no longer the main object of interest; it was more often connected with a broader scope of folk culture, studied within the framework of ethnography. A concept of ethnology that focused not on the people - a social layer, but on nationalities and peoples - ethnic groups was developed. Ethnology understood in this way comprised ethnography as an empirical science, aimed at collecting materials. The concept of anthropology as a science with the broadest scope, i.e. comprising the human being belonging to both the world of biology and culture was also known. Polish ethnological/anthropological research was pursued on the basis of the knowledge of the achievements of European science, mainly German and French. The conditions connected with the lack of a national state were also important for the directions of studies. Besides, the lack of the national state made establishment of scientific institutions much more difficult, which, in turn, prevented professionalisation of researchers. Studies pursued in mid 19th c. did not result in the identification of ethnology/cultural anthropology as an independent scientific discipline. However, they created foundations for its emergence at the turn of the 19th c.