View source for Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski

{{Short description|Polish ethnographer and archaeologist (1784–1825)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski
| image = З. Даленга-Хадакоўскі. Малюнак К. Прэка.png
| image_upright = yes
| caption = Chodakowski in 1818
| birth_name = Adam Czarnocki
| birth_date = {{birth date|1784|6|4|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Podhajnej, [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1825|11|17|1784|6|4|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Tver Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| nationality = Polish
| occupation = ethnographer and archaeologist
| notable_works = ''{{ill|O Sławiańszczyźnie przed chrześcijaństwem|pl}}'' (1818)
| influences = [[Stanisław Staszic]]
| discipline = [[Ethnography]], [[Archeology]]
| sub_discipline = [[Slavic studies]]
| influenced = [[Joachim Lelewel]]
}}
'''Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski''' (4 June 1784 – 17 November 1825), born '''Adam Czarnocki''', was a Polish ethnographer and archaeologist. A [[Slavophilia|Slavophile]], he became known for his ethnographic field research and theories about the ancient Slavs, which did not convince academics but have influenced Polish cultural life. For much of his adult life he travelled the countryside without any money, collecting folk songs and other material.
Chodakowski established several themes that became prominent in [[Romanticism in Poland|Polish Romanticism]], notably a duality between native Slavic culture and imported Latin culture. His lifestyle as a homeless traveller inspired legends and he appears as a character in literary works from the 19th century. Chodakowski argued publicly that [[Christianization of the Slavs|Christianisation of the Slavs]] had been a mistake and privately described himself as a [[Paganism|pagan]]. He is recognised as a pioneer of [[Slavic Native Faith in Poland|Polish Native Faith]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nowa twarz Świętowita |url=https://www.newsweek.pl/polska/nowa-twarz-swietowita/d29fp8s |access-date=2022-05-13 |website=Newsweek.pl |date=24 January 2010 |language=pl}}</ref>
==Life and work==
Adam Czarnocki was born on 4 June 1784 in Podhajnej near [[Nyasvizh]], then part of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].{{sfn|Internetowa encyklopedia PWN}} He belonged to an impoverished Polish noble family and was forced into military service, but defected from the Russian army to the [[Army of the Duchy of Warsaw]] and took part in the [[French invasion of Russia|War of 1812]] on [[Napoleon]]'s side. He changed his name to Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski after Napoleon's defeat.{{sfn|Kraków.pl|2022}}
Chodakowski was a [[Slavophilia|Slavophile]] and took a name that resonated with his interest in [[Slavic history]] and culture.{{sfn|Kraków.pl|2022}} His interest in [[ethnography]] followed the models established by the early 19th-century [[Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning|Society of Friends of Learning]], which had studied [[folklore]] and became the centre of the Slavic movement in Poland. Its main ideologue [[Stanisław Staszic]] hypothesised in the 1815 book ''Myśli o równowadze politycznej w Europie'' ({{literal translation|Thoughts on Political Equilibrium in Europe}}) that the [[Ancient Greek culture|ancient Greek]], [[Roman culture|Roman]], [[Germanic culture|Germanic]] and Slavic cultures had been superior to the Christian nations that succeeded them.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=46}}
In 1813 or 1814,{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=59}} Chodakowski began to travel to collect folk songs and other folklore material from rural areas in hope of finding traces of ancient Slavic culture. A [[scholarship]] from [[Adam Jerzy Czartoryski]] allowed him to do ethnographic studies in [[Lesser Poland]] from September 1817 to June 1818.{{sfn|Kraków.pl|2022}} He lacked strict methodology for these studies,{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}} but went on to devote most of his adult life to ethnographic field research and archaeological studies, visiting [[Sandomierz]], [[Częstochowa]], [[Chęciny]], [[Lelów]], [[Pilica (river)|Pilica]], [[Skała]], [[Kraków]], [[Przemyśl]], [[Lviv|Lwów]], {{ill|Potylicz|pl}}, [[Zhovkva|Żółkiew]] and [[Horodok, Lviv Oblast|Gródek Jagielloński]].{{sfnm|1a1=Gajda|1y=2013|1p=47|2a1=Kraków.pl|2y=2022}} He was often homeless and without any money during his travels. He collected a large number of folk songs which remained unpublished during his lifetime.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}}
In 1818, Chodakowski published the pamphlet ''{{ill|O Sławiańszczyźnie przed chrześcijaństwem|pl}}'' ({{literal translation|On the Slavic lands before Christianity}}) where he laid out his views of Slavic history and culture.{{sfn|Kraków.pl|2022}} His theories were not well received by academics but have influenced novelists, artists and [[Modern Paganism|neopagans]].{{sfn|Gajda|2013|pp=46–47}} Chodakowski thought the Slavs originated in India and had immigrated to Europe in the sixth century.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}} He used the Polish word {{lang|pl|inąd}}—'elsewhere'—as linguistic evidence for his Indian homeland hypothesis.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=59}} He thought there always had been a unified Slavic language and culture that was characterised by a "spirit of independence"{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}} which he wished to see as the basis for a future national culture. He argued that this could be achieved through the conscious collection and study of folklore material.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=48}} He argued publicly that [[Christianization of the Slavs|Christianisation of the Slavic peoples]] had been a mistake, something no one in [[Central Europe]] had done since the 15th century. In private letters he designated himself as a [[Paganism|pagan]].{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}} He died in [[Tver Governorate]] on 17 November 1825.{{sfn|Internetowa encyklopedia PWN}}
==Legacy==
Chodakowski's view of the [[early Slavs]] as proto-democratic influenced the historian and left-wing politician [[Joachim Lelewel]], who agreed that [[Slavic paganism|ancient Slavic religion]], which Lelewel interpreted as [[Monotheism|monotheistic]], would be a good model for 19th-century [[progressivism]].{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=48}} Chodakowski established several major themes that would occupy the [[Romanticism in Poland|Polish Romantics]], notably a focus on Slavic identity and paganism, an anti-Latin sentiment and an identification with the geographical north. His view of a duality between native Slavic and imported Latin elements in Polish culture has had a lasting impact on Polish literature.{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=47}}
The homeless lifestyle Chodakowski adopted during his travels made people view him as a "[[wild man]]".{{sfn|Gajda|2013|pp=46–47}} He became surrounded by legends and appears as a character in 19th-century Polish literature. Works that feature fictionalised versions of Chodakowski include ''Mistrz'' (1838; {{literal translation|The Master}}) by {{ill|Dominik Magnuszewski|pl}}, "Przygoda podróżnika" (1852; {{literal translation|The Adventure of a Traveller}}) by [[Lucjan Siemieński]] and ''{{ill|Król-Duch|pl}}'' (1845–1849; {{literal translation|The Spirit King}}) by [[Juliusz Słowacki]].{{sfn|Gajda|2013|p=59}}
Chodakowski is considered one of the founders of [[Slavic Native Faith in Poland|Polish Native Faith]].{{sfn|Kraków.pl|2022}} The historian [[Peter Brock (historian)|Peter Brock]] argued that Chodakowski was the spiritual father of Polish [[Populism|populist]] [[nationalism]]. This is contested by  [[Mieczysław B. Biskupski]], who argues that Polish nationalism as it exists originated in the political landscape created by the failed [[January Uprising]] of 1863–1864. It thus belongs to a separate era from Chodakowski's works, in which a culturally Polish nationalism only appears within the context of a broader Slavophilia.{{sfn|Biskupski|1994|p=348}}
The literary historian {{ill|Julian Maślanka|pl}} published a monograph about Chodakowski in 1965.{{sfn|Zaczyński|2010|p=413}} In 1973, a collection of Chodakowski's folk songs was published as ''Śpiewy sławiańskie pod strzechą wiejską zebrane'' ({{literal translation|Slavic songs recorded in thatched-roof homes}}). The book has an introduction and commentary by Maślanka.{{sfn|Zaczyński|2010|p=425}}
==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}
===Sources===
* {{cite journal |last=Biskupski |first=Mieczysław B. |author-link=Mieczysław B. Biskupski|year=1994 |url=https://brill.com/previewpdf/journals/css/28/3/article-p347_47.xml |title=Peter Brock, Folk Cultures and Little Peoples: Aspects of National Awakening in East Central Europe |journal=Canadian-American Slavic Studies |volume=28 |issue=3 |page=348 |doi=10.1163/221023994X00828 }}
* {{cite book |last=Gajda |first=Agnieszka |year=2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2L3oBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 |chapter=Romanticism and the Rise of Neopaganism in Nineteenth-Century Central and Eastern Europe: The Polish Case |editor1-last=Aitamurto |editor1-first=Kaarina |editor2-last=Simpson |editor2-first=Scott |title=Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe |location=Durham |publisher=Acumen |isbn=978-1-84465-662-2 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Chodakowski-Zorian;3885628 |title=Chodakowski Zorian |work=[[Internetowa encyklopedia PWN]] |language=pl |access-date=10 April 2022 |ref=CITEREFInternetowa encyklopedia PWN }}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.krakow.pl/z_dawnego_krakowa/257816,1899,komunikat,neopoganskie_fascynacje.html |title=Neopogańskie fascynacje |trans-title=Neopagan fascinations |work={{ill|Kraków.pl|pl}} |language=pl |date=2 March 2022 |access-date=10 April 2022 |ref=CITEREFKraków.pl2022 }}
* {{cite book |last=Zaczyński |first=Marian |year=2010 |chapter-url=https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/41013/zaczynski_julian_maslanka_2010.pdf |chapter=Julian Maślanka – historyk literatury polskiej, slawista, edytor, prasoznawca, bibliograf, nauczyciel akademicki. Biobibliografia |editor1-last=Dąbrowski |editor1-first=Roman |editor2-last=Waśko |editor2-first=Andrzej |title=W świecie myśli i wartości. Prace z historii literatury i kultury ofiarowane profesorowi Julianowi Maślance |series=Studia Dziewiętnastowieczne – Uniwersytet Jagielloński |language=pl |volume=5 |location=Kraków |publisher={{ill|Księgarnia Akademicka|pl}} |isbn=978-83-7188-646-1}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Brock |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Brock (historian) |year=1976 |title=Z. D. Chodakowski and the Discovery of Folklife: a chapter in the History of Polish Nationalism |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=21 |issue=1/2 |pages=3–21 |jstor=25777365 }}
* {{cite book |last=Maślanka |first=Julian |year=1965 |title=Zorian Dołęga Chodakowski. Jego miejsce w kulturzepolskiej i wpływ na polskie piśmiennictwo romantyczne |trans-title=Zorian Dołęga Chodakowski. His place in Polish culture and influence on Polish Romantic literature |series=Prace Komisji Historycznoliterackiej |language=pl |volume=13 |location=Kraków |publisher=[[Polish Academy of Sciences]] }}
* {{cite journal |last=Saunders |first=David |year=1983 |title=Zorian Dolega Chodakowski (1784–1825) and the Unity of Slavonic Culture |journal=[[Nationalities Papers]] |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=284–297 |doi=10.1080/00905998308407973 |s2cid=161382827 }}
* {{cite book |last=Schaab |first=Philipp |year=2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TH3UDwAAQBAJ |title=Götter, Ahnen, Blut und Boden? Die Konstruktion ethnischer Identität im gegenwärtigen slawischen Neuheidentum in Polen |trans-title=Gods, ancestors, blood and soil? The construction of ethnic identity in contemporary Slavic neopaganism in Poland|series=Religionen in der pluralen Welt |language=de |volume=18 |location=Berlin |publisher=Lit Verlag |isbn=978-3-643-14512-3 }}
==External links==
* {{commonscat-inline|Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chodakowski, Zorian Dolega}}
[[Category:1784 births]]
[[Category:1825 deaths]]
[[Category:Polish ethnographers]]
[[Category:Polish folklorists]]
[[Category:Polish archaeologists]]
[[Category:Polish historians]]
[[Category:Polish explorers]]
[[Category:Polish modern pagans]]
[[Category:Modern pagan writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:Slavophiles]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish archaeologists]]
[[Category:Polish military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Polish critics of Christianity]]
[[Category:Homeless people]]
[[Category:People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent]]
[[Category:Anti-clericalism]]
[[Category:People from Slutsk]]