Kitija Balcare will participate in the conference “Latvietis kokā ēd sēnes: nopietni un nenopietni par latviešiem”

On December 8 at 10:00 a.m., the conference “Latvietis kokā ēd sēnes: nopietni un nenopietni par latviešiem” (“A Latvian Eats Mushrooms in a Tree: Serious and Playful Reflections on Latvians”) will take place at the University of Latvia Library (Kalpaka bulvāris 4, Riga).

At the end of the year, specialists from various academic disciplines will gather at the University of Latvia Library to speak about Latvians—both seriously and humorously—through a thematically rich and diverse range of papers. The idea for organizing such a conference emerged in the spring, when questions arose about the historical origins of the quote: “Latvians are a small nation by the Baltic Sea who live in trees and eat mushrooms.”

This quote has been interpreted in various wordings, and although the saying is widely known and often heard, research into written sources has unfortunately failed to determine its origin. One intuitive assumption was that the characterization might stem from the works of an 18th- or 19th-century author. Another version suggested that Latvians themselves invented it, while yet another view holds that it may have appeared in an encyclopedia or history book dating roughly to the 18th century. At the same time, it is quite possible that it is a modern myth.

The conference will also feature Kitija Balcare, Scientific Assistant at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (UL ILFA), with the paper “Where There Are Mushrooms, There Are Latvians: The Bioperformativity of Mushrooming in the Performance Mushroom Foraging Championship 2021.”

The program is available here:
https://www.biblioteka.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/projekti/lu_biblioteka/Konferences_programma_12.08.jpg