Historical skills of the population of Halychyna Hutsul region
The study of the geography of folk arts and crafts in Hutsulshchyna is particularly relevant, as the revival of traditional home crafts and folk art for the mountain population will address a number of social, ecological, economic, and spiritual issues. It is evident that the program for the revival and organization of folk arts and crafts requires a deep analysis of all aspects of individual production (working conditions, availability of raw materials, forms of sale), which depend on the geography of craft centers and artistic traditions of each village.
The development of the complex of folk arts and crafts (FAC) in the region is influenced by the historical skills of the population. It is these skills, combined with the use of the available raw material base, that contribute to the development of production and determine its specialization and local characteristics. Since ancient times, the Hutsuls have used products from agriculture and animal husbandry not only for making artistic products but also for household needs. Animal husbandry used to occupy one of the most important places in the economic activities of the Hutsuls. Transhumant sheep farming was the main means of livelihood for the Hutsuls and influenced their way of life, culture, and everyday life. Sheep were particularly valued for the dairy products, wool, and fur they provided. Tax lists from 1515 contain information about the large number of sheep that were owned by the peasants of Halychyna Hutsulshchyna at that time.
In the 16th century, natural taxes in the form of animals, sheep dairy products, and woolen goods predominated in the territory of Halychyna Hutsulshchyna. This indicates that sheep farming played a leading role in the economy of the mountain people [3, p. 18], and thus, the main raw material for weaving (especially in high mountain villages) was sheep wool.
Mountain pastures – polonynas contributed to the development of transhumant seasonal animal husbandry, and from the late 19th century – to the practice of meadow farming. Cattle were driven to the polonynas at the end of May – beginning of June. During this holiday, in addition to folk festivities, there was a fair where one could buy household products made by local craftsmen from wood, metal, leather, and clothing, etc.
On the large polonynas, a "bodnar" worked, who made wooden household products, containers for storing produced goods (brynza, cheese, milk, etc.) for his own and neighboring smaller polonynas. The produced products were stored in wooden barrels (berbenytsia, zharchyky, etc.), and less often – in goat bags – "burdyuky".
In addition to traditional brynza, shepherds used molds to make ritual pastries and various figurines of cows, horses, sheep, hares, deer, and other animals. The molds were made of wood or metal, and they were ordered from bodnars and metal craftsmen. Butter was manually produced from cow's milk using a wooden container – "kolotyvka" [6, p. 20].
In everyday life, shepherds used wooden utensils: "kruh" – on which they served kulisha, a salt shaker, "rakhva" for storing butter, wooden (linden, maple, beech) spoons, deep bowls "derev'yanky".
Shepherds wore shirts and trousers made from homespun fabric, which were specially boiled in sheep's fat and added spruce resin (gum). Such clothing was adapted to the climatic and everyday conditions of the high mountains. On festive days, they wore woolen trousers made from homespun cloth, over an embroidered shirt a kephtar, and in rainy weather – a sardak or baibarak. On their heads, they wore felt hats. They were belted with a wide leather belt – "cheres", in the pockets of which they carried a knife, a pipe, tobacco, a flint, and a steel. Their footwear consisted of leather postoly. In their hands, they had an axe or a stick. The components of their clothing and accessories were ordered from craftsmen or bought at fairs in Kosiv (Fig. 1), Kuty, Yabluniv, Delyatyn, and Kolomyia (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Fair in Kosiv. Postcard from the archive of Fraciszek-Adzhey Magda, professor at Wrocław University, Poland.
Fig. 1. Valeryan Krytsynskyi. Fair in Kolomyia. Postcard from the archive of Fraciszek-Adzhey Magda, professor at Wrocław University, Poland.
From the late 19th to the early 20th century, the mountain population combined work in their households with home industries and small crafts to ensure their minimum livelihood. Only in the Kosiv district in the 1930s were 2878 people engaged in various areas of home industry [4, p. 25]. V. Shukhevych wrote that in no other corner did home industries play such an important role as in Hutsulshchyna [5, p. 241]. In the circle of economic activities of each Hutsul family, home processing of plant and animal raw materials has long occupied an important place. Evidence of the spread of traditional methods of processing flax, hemp, and wool in Hutsulshchyna as early as the first half of the 1st millennium AD is found in numerous discoveries of spinning and weaving tools [2, p. 60].
Wool was used to produce various types of fabrics: clothing, interior, and household purposes. The processing of wool in Hutsulshchyna was carried out manually for a long time, using tools and means of processing.
Leather processing and the production of utility products from it were widespread activities. In Hutsulshchyna, this was facilitated by a significant raw material base and the presence of traditions in this field of production. Sources indicate that in the 17th-18th centuries, the local population widely used such products made by Hutsul craftsmen as belts-cheresi, tobyvky, belts for powder horns and saddles, various leather cases for hunting knives, wallets, etc.
At the beginning of the 19th century, well-known centers functioned where leather crafts developed quite extensively. In 1812, there were 30 workshops employing 70 craftsmen.
The tanning and dyeing of sheep skins in Hutsul leatherworking became widespread only in the 19th century. Initially, it was practiced in larger workshops in the villages of Kuty, Yabluniv, and only in the 30s-50s began to develop in the villages.
Leatherworking as a craft, which included tanning leather with fur and sewing coats, kephtars, hats, etc., was also widespread in the Kosiv district in the 1880s, where there were 107 leatherworkers [9, p. 51]. In the eastern part, the largest centers at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were the towns of Kosiv and Kuty. Each of them had over 50 craftsmen working. At this time, the villages of Pistin, Nyzhniy Bereziv, Banya-Bereziv, and Verkhniy Bereziv also stood out for the development of leatherworking. In western Hutsulshchyna, the most leatherworkers were in the towns of Delyatyn, Yaremche, and Vorokhta.
In the last century and at the beginning of the 20th century, Hutsul leatherworkers worked in the craft not only at home but also sought work throughout the region. In most cases, each furrier had his own defined territory where his work was already known. Working in remote villages (sewing or patching coats), they contributed to the revitalization, or even the birth, of this craft.
With the beginning of the 20th century, especially in the 1920s-30s, the excessive number of small individual workshops became a typical phenomenon. Only in the Kosiv district in 1937, there were about 200 leatherworking workshops [9, p. 21-22]. Even urban craftsmen, who had industrial certificates, were often forced to work for wealthier masters (Vorokhta, Kuty, Kosiv). As a result of usury at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, almost 80 leatherworkers from Kosiv and surrounding villages, having gone bankrupt, were forced to emigrate abroad [1].
To expand the craft, the regional department and the Lviv Chamber of Crafts carried out a number of measures aimed at restoring the craft. In particular, in the 1920s-30s, leatherworking courses were organized first in towns and later in villages. In Hutsulshchyna, such courses operated in the town of Yaremche, and the villages of Mykulychyn, Nyzhniy Bereziv [1].
Shoe-making in the Ukrainian Carpathians developed mainly in towns. This was explained by the fact that the products of shoemakers (boots, shoes) were in demand among townspeople, while typical footwear for peasants (postoly) was made in every village family.
In the 19th century, Kuty, Kosiv, Kosmach, and Delyatyn stood out for having a larger number of shoemakers. In the 1880s, there were up to 100 shoemakers registered in Kuty, 55 in Kosiv, and about 30 in Kosmach [9, p. 21-22]. Until almost the middle of the 20th century, local shoemakers provided the bulk of the population with artisanal footwear.
According to the nature of the sale of products, shoemakers were divided into those who sewed to order or only for fairs. Well-known fair shoemakers were those from Kuty, who took their products to Kosiv, Kolomyia, Horodenka, and Zabolotiv [9, p. 21-22].
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the demand for raw materials for artisanal production decreased. Urban residents increasingly ordered footwear made from industrially produced raw materials. At the end of the 19th century, black boots were common in the Verkhovyna, Kosiv, and Nadvirna regions. Women's boots were yellow, red, and in the 20th century – most often black.
The craft of liming in Hutsulshchyna developed on a small scale. At the end of the 19th century, four limers were registered in Kuty and three in the Nadvirna district. At the beginning of the 20th century, well-known limers were in Delyatyn, Kuty, Kosmach, and Tatariv [1]. Rural craftsmen most often engaged in repairing old harnesses. Good harnesses were bought by Hutsuls in Kolomyia, where liming developed on a larger scale.
Metal processing in Hutsulshchyna has been known since ancient times. Centers were located in the towns of Kosiv, Verkhovyna, Vorokhta, and the villages of Richka, Kosmach, and Krasnoilsk [4].
At the end of the 19th century, stone masonry developed in the villages of Verkhniy Yaseniv, Kryvorivnia, Brustriv, Tydiv, and Kosiv [8, p. 35].
Wickerwork was developed in the villages of Kuty and Tydiv. They wove baskets of various shapes and sizes for transporting and storing products, vegetables, and fruits. As a home craft, wickerwork continues to develop today in Kuty and Tydiv.
Tailoring existed as a home occupation and craft. In the form of the latter, it developed mainly in towns (Kosiv, Verkhovyna, Yaremche, Vorokhta) and in larger villages. For sewing clothes, homespun fabrics were used: linen, hemp cloth, woolen fabrics – felt, and imported raw materials.
Cooperage, as a type of auxiliary occupation, experienced its greatest flourishing in the 19th century. At that time, there was a great need for cooper products among numerous distilleries, enterprises producing potash, resin, salt, and later – oil and petroleum products [7]. The craft workshops producing cooper products were not large: in Kryvorivnia, 20 workers worked in 15 enterprises; in Richka, 41 in 37 enterprises; in Zhabye, 16 workers in 15 enterprises [1]. The demand for cooper products led to the emergence of significant centers of this type of craft in Hutsulshchyna. These became populated areas such as Hrynyava, Brustriv, Yaseniv, Kryvorivnia, Velykyi Rozhin, Richka, Zhabye.
Spoons were made for home use and for sale in almost every village, and such settlements as Yavoriv, Brustriv, and Prokurava specialized in spoon-making. For example, in Prokurava, there were 94 spoon makers working in the 1920s, and in the Kosiv district – 80 spoon makers. Starting from the 1930s, with the appearance of metal spoons, the production of wooden ones gradually changed its purpose. They lost their utilitarian function and acquired a purely decorative one.
Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, the auxiliary types of economic activities of the population of the region began to take on new forms, evolving. Some of them disappeared completely, while new ones were born. Certain types of auxiliary occupations, such as cooperage, gradually transformed into artisanal production. The development of commodity relations and the expansion of the sales market stimulated the development of commodity production, leading to professional specialization and the emergence of craft enterprises. This, in turn, led to the emergence of significant centers of various crafts in the territory of Halychyna Hutsulshchyna.
Archive of the Lviv Institute of Folk Art, fund 1, inventory 2, case 243, sheets 5, 27, 38, 43, 44, 48, 54, 60; case 244, sheet 42. 2. Vakulenko L. V. Memories of the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians in the first half of the 1st millennium AD /L. V. Vakulenko – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1977. – 142 p. 3. Mandibura M. D. The pastoral economy of Hutsulshchyna in the second half of the 19th – 30s of the 20th century /M. D. Mandibura. — Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1978. – 191 p. 4. Skukha L. M. Artistic metal products of Ukrainians in the Eastern Carpathians /L. M. Skukha. – Kyiv, 1959. – 104 p. 5. Shukhevych V. O. Hutsulshchyna /V. O. Shukhevych. – Verkhovyna: Journal "Hutsulshchyna", 1997. – 350 p. 6. Harasymczuk R. Ethnography of Hutsul Polonynas /R. Harasymczuk, W. Tabor // Lud. – Vol. XXXV – Lviv: Printing House L. Wiśniewski, 1938. – 88 p. 7. Yearbook of statistics of industry and trade of the country. Wood industry. – Lviv, 1888, vol. 10. – p. 12, 18. 8. Yearbook of statistics of industry and trade of the country. – Lviv, 1886, vol. 1-2. – p. 35. 9. Yearbook of statistics of industry and trade of the country. – Lviv, vol. 1, 1889. – p. 21-22.
