Pranė Dundulienė (February 12, 1910 in Pilypai,

Švenčionys district Švenčionys (, known also by several Švenčionys#Etymology, alternative names) is a town located north of Vilnius in Lithuania. It is the capital of the Švenčionys district municipality. , it had population of 4,065 of which about 17% is part ...

- February 27, 1991 in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

), was a Lithuanian

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Academic career

In 1935-1938 she studied

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

at Stefan Batory University in

. In 1938-1940 she was an active member of the Lithuanian Science Society. In 1941 she was a researcher in the Institute of Ethnology of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, in 1942-1943 - in the Ethnographic Museum of the

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

, in 1944-1950 - in the Institute of History of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA ( lt, Lietuvos mokslų akademija) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that ...

. She was one of the organizers of the Department of Ethnography in Vilnius University in 1951 where she spent all her future scientific and educational activity. Since 1971 she was a full Professor. Her lectures mostly were related to Lithuanian, Baltic and East Slavonic ethnography. She was a scientific advisor of more than a hundred diploma works and doctoral dissertations. Pranė Dundulienė published her first scientific paper in 1939, it was related to ethnographic relics and traditions of the Marcinkonys area in Lithuania. Her two doctoral dissertations (1954 and 1969) were related to history of agriculture and farm implements in Lithuania. Since 1948 each year she organized student expeditions to various regions of Lithuania to collect the relics of old household utensils, folk art objects, crochet works, national costumes, folklore (tales, songs, customs), astronomical knowledge (names of the planets, stars, constellations, etc.).

Mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, religion and world outlook of the ancient

Balts The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...

were permanent subjects of her scientific interests.

Selected works

Pranė Dundulienė is the author of 13 books and of more than 500 articles. Here is the list of her main publications (all in Lithuanian): * Agriculture in Lithuania, 1963 * Calendarian and Agrarian Customs of Lithuanians, 1979 * Grass-snake and its Symbols in Lithuanian Folk Art and Folklore, 1979 * Trees in Beliefs of the Ancient Lithuanians, 1979 * Lithuanian Ethnography, 1982 * Birds in the Ancient Religion and Art of Lithuanians, 1982 * Fire in Lithuanian World Outlook, 1985 * The People Cosmology of Lithuanians, 1989 * Heathenism in Lithuania, 1989 * Mythology and Religion of the Ancient Lithuanians, 1989 * Lithuanian Ethnology, 1991 * Lithuanian Feasts: Traditions, Customs and Rituals, 1991 * The Arbor Vitae in Lithuanian Art and Folklore, 1994 She also published her personal account of Polish

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...

murdering 3 Lithuanian civilians in July 1944 during

Operation Ostra Brama , Second Polish Republic) , coordinates = , result = Failure of the operation , combatant1 = Polish Secret State (Armia Krajowa) , combatant2 = , combatant3 = , commander1 = Aleksander KrzyżanowskiAntoni Olechnowicz , comman ...

in Vilnius."Voruta", vol. 13-14, Vilnius 1991

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunduliene, Prane 1910 births 1991 deaths Lithuanian mythology researchers Lithuanian ethnographers Academic staff of Vilnius University Vilnius University alumni 20th-century Lithuanian historians