Embodied practices form an integral part of the everyday processes of formation and sustenance of cultural identities and social bonding. At the same time, their everydayness and apparent self-explanatory character make them particularly prone to dematerialisation and oblivion. What is obvious and ubiquitous rarely becomes materialised in artefacts or solidified in institutions, relegated instead into the immaterial - gestures, memories, and intangible qualities of bodies themselves. One example can be "biady", a folk wrestling style once wide-spread in rural parts of north-eastern Poland. The practice played an important role in the region's communities, being involved at all stages of their male members' ontogeny. It was crucial for childhood bonding and progressing into adolescence and manhood, regulated social tensions and physical needs among adults, and provided an incentive for bodily and cognitive development. Nevertheless, despite its prominence, it has been almost immediately forgotten when the second half of the 20th century brought about a deep restructuring of the Polish countryside, severing long-established socio-cultural patterns. At present only a handful of elderly people remain who remember "biady" as it was back in the day. Since their bodily and cognitive condition does not allow them to demonstrate wrestling in motion, "biady" are efficiently a dead cultural practice.
The present paper is based on the transdisciplinary work undertaken by a small team ("The Biady Project"), composed of academicians and wrestlers, and presents our attempt at reviving and rematerialising "biady". First, a method developed specifically for interviews with the elderly practitioners ("embodied interview") will be presented, demonstrating the challenges and successful solutions for reconstruction of a dead intangible and highly-kinetic practice. In particular, the focus will be on the ways in which performance and prolonged accumulation of motor experience can be used to overcome various obstacles to communication with elderly practitioners. Next, the results of the application of this method will be discussed - the project's primary output is a catalogue of wrestling techniques (motions, gestures) and tactics (concepts) reconstructed during the 6-years-long series of "embodied interviews". Finally, some remarks will be made on the epistemological status of the reconstructed practices and their relation to the past "as it was".
Maciej Talaga holds a PhD in archaeology and cultural studies and works as a researcher employed at the interdisciplinary Faculty "Artes Liberales", University of Warsaw. His academic interests revolve around physical culture, embodied practices as a form of knowledge-making, and body-based and performative methods of studying the past, especially Polish and German medieval and early-modern periods. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6169-8623
"Embodied practices are crucial for cultural identities and social bonding. Simultaneously, their everydayness make them particularly prone to dematerialisation and oblivion. The present paper is based on transdisciplinary work undertaken in an attempt at reviving and rematerialising ""biady"", a folk wrestling style once wide-spread in rural parts of north-eastern Poland. The practice played an important role in the region's communities, especially their male members' ontogeny. Due to specific challenges in the field, a method had to be developed for interviews with elderly practitioners (""embodied interview"") and will be discussed, demonstrating solutions for reconstruction of a dead intangible and highly-kinetic practice. "