Paper short abstract:

Pandemic challenges in the research of intangible cultural heritage in small scale repeated fieldwork emphasized issues of (dis)trust in the methods of indirect communication and (non)belonging to different types of communities during a process of knowledge distribution in activities of a curator.

Paper long abstract:

As part of the work on the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage in the mostly rural area of Jadar in Western Serbia, every year I conduct repeated small scale fieldwork on customs which are a part of the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage and collect data on customs that could become a part of the Register. I do my research as part of my curatorial work in the memorial house of one of the founder of ethnography in Serbia, Vuk Karadžić (1787-1864).

During 2020, the pandemic set obstacles and challenges for this type of researches, but also emphasized some aspects of customs and communities that had not been visible or noticed before. The challenges facing researchers were different: absence of some annual customs because of "lockdown"; the (semi)secret keeping of some customs despite all gatherings being forbiden; a rapid change of customs and communities of participants; the use of adjusted research methods not recognized by institutions and local communities as "serious" and "scientific" ... All these and other changes emphasized the issues of mutual (dis)trust and (non)belonging, which was additionally deepened by the spatial distance. The fieldwork became an observation without participation and was reduced to using finished stories from social networks of members of local communities and photos with content that is "in focus" for members of communities. However, all things mentioned only emphasized the role of the anthropologists which is necessary in studying the dynamics of social relations in various changes.