Paper short abstract:

Case studies presented show 3 variants of dealing by anthropologists with nationalistic authorities political expectations: fullfilling (Dworakowski) or opposing them (Chajes, Obrębski). The important factors in these trajectories are the researcher's habitus and social and institutional background.

Paper long abstract:

The paper consists of three case studies depicting different attitudes of anthropologists towards the politics of nationalism promoted by the prerwar Polish state. Ethnographer Stanisław Dworakowski, involved in a govermental Commitee for the Issues of Petty Nobility in Eastern Poland, elaborated a study on this social stratum. Although based on reliable field research, it can hardly be considered scientific work. It has many features of political propaganda, one of the goals of which was the so called "national revindication" of the mostly Orthodox, speaking East Slavic dialects local lesser nobility. Undoubtedly Dworakowski proved to be more of an eager Pole than an impartial anthropologist. Quite opposite is the case of folklorist Joachim Chajes, secretary of the Ethnographical Commission of YIVO. Contemporary Soviet folklore was one of the fields of his research, which Polish nationalistic and antisemitic authorities found suspicious, all the more he was a Jew. Accused of communist activity, he was injustly imprisoned. Social anthropologist Józef Obrębski can be situated between those two extremes. His field research among East Slavic peasants in Eastern Poland, concerning their developing national identity, although conducted within a national scientific program and financed by the state, is an example of intelectual independence. By revealing the negative attitude of the peasants towards Polish authorities, Obrębski achieved an outcome, which did not fullfill the official political expectations. These three models of the anthropologist-state nationalism relation are indicative not only of personal factors, but also different institutional backgrounds and thought collectives the anthropologists belonged to.