Ułuda wspólnotowości. Polski badacz na Syberii

Abstract

Based on the author’s experience in long-term field research among the Sakha (Yakuts) and Buryats, the indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia, the article deals with the complications of the field anthropologist’s thinking that they should not only understand but also share the mental structures of their subjects. When these subjects were or still are the object of someone else’s colonial superpower policy, the researcher feels absolutely obliged to be an advocate, a defender of their subjects. However, along with the sense of understanding and empathy, doubt arises when the researcher is openly criticised and the oppressors are presented in a positive light. In Siberia such is the case with the sympathising attitude to the myth of the “Great Patriotic War”.