Gli albori del folklore ucraino. Antecedenti e primi passi di un’etnografia alla ricerca delle comuni e antiche radici del popolo ucraino

This article discusses the main stages that have marked the origin and the development of the various Anthropological disciplines in Ukraine. From the seventeen-century onwards, several texts containing the notes of the foreign travellers on the Ukrainian territories and their inhabitants started to be discovered. Furthermore, over the next two centuries, the Ukrainian lands became the focus of study not only for Ukrainian scholars, geographers and linguists, but also for poets and painters, who often enjoyed adding ethnographic nuances to their stories. A crucial contribution was also provided by different institutions, namely universities, scientific societies and amateur associations, for which the interest in the demo-ethnoanthropological disciplines became stronger and even more evident.