The Image of the Different, the Other, and the Enemy in Folk Art. An Analysis of Selected Examples

Abstract

In the community of the former village, many things from the world around it were a great unknown. Fears born from the fear of the unknown were often transferred to supernatural forces, people with specific physical features or diseases, as well as to newcomers from outside a given community. An important issue for the researcher is how these types of concepts were presented in folk art, and in what areas. Based on the secondary literature and practical knowledge as a folk artist, an analysis (together with the study of selected examples) is offered of the issue of broadly understood otherness in Polish folk art, both in the narrow sense referring to other people and in the broad sense including demonic beings embodying certain human features or forces of nature. Although folk art largely focuses on decorative, ritual, and religious functions, we can also find representations of, for example, the devil, a witch, or Jewish neighbours, i.e. of various categories of otherness. With the development of knowledge, images based largely on stereotypes slowly disappeared, becoming at most a part of the local folklore, treated as a relic of old times or a harmless tradition. Focusing on the issues of otherness in folk art allows for a better understanding of folk culture, which in various forms persists to this day, as well as of how certain thought and social patterns are adapted and processed by folk artists.