Memorial University DAI: The making of a collection of carved birds by Andrew Zergenyi, a Hungarian immigrant to the United States : a bio-ethnographic study

advanced search

Digital Archives Initiative
Memorial University - Electronic Theses and Dissertations 3

menu off

add document to favorites : add page to favorites : reference url

back to results : previous : next

Search this object:

0 hit(s) :: previous hit : next hit

View:

previous page : next page

Document Description

Title	The making of a collection of carved birds by Andrew Zergenyi, a Hungarian immigrant to the United States : a bio-ethnographic study
Author	Ladenheim, Melissa, 1959-
Description	Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1994. Folklore
Date	1993
Pagination	xvii, 347 leaves, 84 plates : ill., maps.
Subject	Zergenyi, Andrew, 1899-; Zergenyi, Andrew, 1899---Art collections; Wood-carved figurines--Private collections--New York (State); Material culture; Folklore--Methodology; Birds in art
Degree	Ph.D.
Degree Grantor	Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of Folklore
Discipline	Folklore
Language	eng
Spatial Coverage	United States--New York (State)
Temporal Coverage	1899-
Notes	Bibliography: leaves [328]-347
Abstract	This study considers the making of a collection of carved birds by Andrew Zergenyi, a Hungarian immigrant to the United States. The data was gathered over a period of four years through an examination of the collection and through extended conversations with Zergenyi, members of his family, and various friends. The collection serves as point of entry into the exploration of Zergenyi's life history and worldview, both of which are informed by his engagement with the natural world as a hunter, amateur ornithologist, collector of ornithological specimens, manager of a large agricultural complex, and later as a carver of birds. -- Carving and creating the collection is interpreted in the context of Zergenyi's life experience as a strategy for dealing with personal and cultural crises. Displaced from home and culture, Zergenyi turned to carving first as diversionary tactic and later, I contend, as a means of fostering integration in a life fragmented by displacement. This study also addresses the manner in which ethnography is conducted and constructed. While folklorists may be prepared to acknowledge the provisional nature of their interpretations, they arc often less willing to discuss the conditional nature of their research. Describing the process by which ethnographies are made provides the reader with the context for the ethnography itself, an account that is too often presented as seamless: and uncontested. As such, this study not only examines Zergenyi as a maker of carvings and collections, it also reflexively considers my role as a collector of ethnographic material and a maker of ethnographic documents.
Type	Text
Resource Type	Electronic thesis or dissertation
Format	Image/jpeg; Application/pdf
Source	Paper copy kept in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University Libraries
Local Identifier	76204433
Rights	The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
Collection	Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Scanning Status	Completed
PDF File	(40.21 MB) -- http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/theses/Ladenheim_MelissaRuth.pdf
CONTENTdm file name	176707.cpd