'Lebendiges Ganzkorn' - Anni Gamerith in search of the "original wisdom ofpeasant tradition" (ethnology of Austrian food)

Anni Gamerith (1906-1990) was one of the few women involved in the early er a of the study of Austrian folklore. As a co-founder of the ethnological st udy of food, her chosen approach to the field was a mix of societal reform effort and research. Though only active in the field as such after the Seco nd World War, in her personal life as well as in her interests in the field , she remained true to the cultural and political climate of the interwar y ears. That is, she was committed both in and out of the field to the ideals of the bourgeois youth movement, ideals that were both nationalistic and r omantic, as well as to the 'promotion and protection of what was native' (H eimatschutz), a movement that arose from pessimistic assumptions about the state of culture in the homeland. Against this background-one which influen ced the founding of Austrian folklore as a field in those years-this essay sketches the intellectual development and biography of Anni Gamerith.