Klaipėdos universitetas

In context of the cultural identity and regional studies, the article evaluates the contribution of researchers from Kurzeme Institute of Humanities, Liepāja University, into research and preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of Kurzeme region. The aim, the main tasks, the development of conception and the course of implementation of The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kurzeme Culture (since 2012) are described as well as its thematic sections (biographies of the prominent personalities in literature and theatre, and the cultural values they have created after Latvia regained its independence). The examples give an insight into the dictionary’s content and provide the evidence for analysis of the main problems in material selection, development of the body, structure and content of the dictionary entries. The article also indicates the possible solutions in the future (development of other thematic sections, addition of audio and video recordings) and discusses the possibility of digitization of the dictionary in order to ensure its accessibility to large audiences.

The representation of the witch in Lithuanian mythological folk narratives and beliefs and her malicious activities as well as ways of preventive protection against these malicious activities are introduced in the present article. No focus was laid on numerous diverse malicious activities of the witch which encompass various fields of human life and the considerable number of ways and measures to protect against them in folk narratives and beliefs as passed on by people so far. Important to mention that the witch of the folk tales that is different from mythological folk narratives’ one is not ascribed to the object of research; and also, the sorceresses operating in mythological folk narratives are not ascribed there – because of their functions that do not concur with the ones performed by witches. The aim is to analyse the material found in written sources about the wrecking of the folk witch and the human preventive protection measures against witch wrecking ways. The objectives of the thesis: to distinguish the preventive ways of protection from witch wrecking found in folk narratives and beliefs; to distinguish between the potential universal protection measures against witch wrecking; to assess the intensity of witch wrecking during calendar feasts and to analyse the degree of variation of typical protection measures; to assess the intensity of witch wrecking and also the need of preventive protection during family feasts. The descriptive, the comparative and the interpretative methods were employed in the study.

This article open national connection of spring Pydlyassha folklore on the base of comparison with repertoire of neighbour ethnographical regions. The comparative analysys of song examples from Pydlyassha is realized on the foundation comparison of main motive of Pydlyassha spring songs and neighbouring ethnographical songs. The article also analyses existing different kind of names for spring calendar songs on the territory of Pydlyassha and other neighbouring regions.