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Anthropology of the word is an approach that originated in Poland, at the University of Warsaw, in the early 1990s. It emerged from philological study of language and literature, by widening and strengthening their cultural dimensions. Gradually, this approach grew closer to linguistic anthropology but retained its specificity, which consists essentially in considering linguistic practices as cultural practices, including language-mediated practices in which the verbal line is only one thread; studying historical forms of linguistic practices; recognising verbal art (including literature) as a set of peculiar linguistic practices and making it a subject of anthropological study; including linguistic practices other than oral and written ones; identifying various cognitive aspects of the textual bias in order to eliminate its distorting effect on the study of linguistic practices.

"Na Lubelszczyźnie słowem-kluczem staje się graniczność: znajdujemy się przy Białorusi i Ukrainie, między Wisłą a Bugiem. Różnorodność tego obszaru (m.in. wpisane w jego krajobraz cerkwie, synagogi, ślady Ormian i Tatarów) wpływa na wielość podejmowanych w opracowaniu tematów. Regionalistyka kulturowa potraktowana została przez autorów i redaktorów tomu (etnologów, antropologów, filologów, geografów, ekonomistów) jako wehikuł pozwalający czytelnikowi wyobrazić sobie przestrzeń Lubelszczyzny. Badający zasoby historyczno-kulturowe na styku między Wschodem i Zachodem wbili cyrkiel zainteresowań w Lublinie, by zakreślić łamane koło od Białej Podlaskiej, przez Włodawę, Hrubieszów, Zamość, Zwierzyniec, Biłgoraj, Janów Lubelski, Kraśnik, Opole Lubelskie, Kazimierz Dolny, Puławy po Łuków. Margines Lubelszczyzny stał się dla autorów, by użyć formuły bell hooks, miejscem radykalnego otwarcia" (ze wstępu). ; "In the Lublin Region, the key word is the border: we are right next to Belarus and Ukraine, between the Vistula and the Bug. The diversity of this area (manifested by Orthodox churches and synagogues as well as Armenian and Tatar traces) finds its reflection in the multiplicity of topics considered in the volume. The authors and editors of the volume (comprising ethnologists, anthropologists, philologists, geographers and economists) treat cultural area studies presented as a vehicle allowing the reader to imagine the space of the Lublin Region, where the West meets the East. Analysing the Region's historical and cultural resources, the authors drew a broken circle, going from Biała Podlaska, through Włodawa, Hrubieszów, Zamość, Zwierzyniec, Biłgoraj, Janów Lubelski, Kraśnik, Opole Lubelskie, Kazimierz Dolny, Puławy to Łuków. These margins of the Lublin Region have become for them, to use bell hooks's formulation, a place of radical opening" (from the introduction).