Ethnologia Fennica

Editorial: Crises and Recoveries

Arja Turunen — 2018-12-25

From Silence to Recovery

Kirsi Maria Laurén, PhD, Senior Researcher — 2018-12-25

A paramilitary forces of Soviet partisans attacked villages and remote houses in the Finnish eastern borderlands during the Continuation War 1941–1944. They burned the houses, stole food and cattle, and killed women, children and elderly people. After the war, the actions of Soviet partisans against civilians were not discussed openly and extensively in public before the late 1990s. The long period of silence slew down or prevent the recovery from traumatic experiences. However, the villagers found their ways to remember and tell about the past events. This article discusses the personal narratives of those violent and traumatic events and the process of recovering from the consequent crisis after 70 years afterwards. The narratives are told by civilians who have had personal experiences of the actions of Soviet partisans, or who have heard about them since childhood. The research is based on an oral history approach and seek to explore how the individuals interpret the meanings of fearful and traumatic memories in their narratives, and how they think these memories have influenced them. The article points out the role of remembering and narrating in the subjective and social process of recovering from painful and traumatic experiences.

Remembering and Forgetting, Discovering and Cherishing

Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

The events of the Second World War left considerable material remains in Finnish Lapland, ranging from the remnants of structures that were destroyed in the 1944–45 Lapland War, through to small, portable objects connected to soldiers, prisoners of war and civilians. These material remains have variously been saved and cherished by survivors and their families, disregarded as ‘war junk’, ‘discovered’ by hobbyists exploring the landscape, amassed and exchanged by private collectors, and accessioned into official museum collections. These various processes represent transformations of material culture to take on various meanings and embodiments, depending on the different individuals and organizations involved.

In this article we present and analyse data collected through ethnographic fieldwork in and around the Lapland village of Vuotso: primarily interviews and observations. We have conducted interviews with history hobbyists and museum professionals who engage with the WWII history of Lapland, and observed the treatment of ‘war material culture’, for example through exhibitions (both public and hidden) and through personal meaning-making practices. These encounters have centred around the material remains of the Second World War, and the ways in which different actors perceive, value and otherwise understand those remains. While some objects are transformed through musealisation, others remain ‘officially’ unknown and unrecognized (although known – even traded and exchanged – through private channels). Furthermore it may be as important for some actors to leave material culture in situ – for example as testimony to the past conflict or trauma – as it is for others to exercise personal ownership. Within this context, we deconstruct the notion of ‘expert’ as it relates to the local and historical knowledge. Being regarded by peers and others as an expert is not necessarily the same thing as having professional authority and status, for example as a museum curator or university-affiliated scholar.

We draw upon theories of relational materiality, and suggest different typologies of engagement with the material culture. Different networks of interest and expertise emerge, dependent on the actors involved (including their status – e.g. museum professional, survivor, ‘incomer’, local activist – and how their knowledge is thus accepted, challenged or rejected by others), the context of ownership, situationality and perceived levels of authenticity.

‘Cos I’m a Survivor’

Kirsi-Maria Hytönen, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

In post-war Finland thousands of children experienced poor upbringing, neglect and abuse, and had to deal with their experiences without social support from adults. In this article we study how difficult and bitter experiences related to childhood crises are remembered, reinterpreted and reframed in later life and in contemporary Finland. As research material we use both oral and written reminiscences of childhood in the post-war years collected in the period 2014–2016. We argue that in the recollections of difficult childhood coping and resilience emerge as major narrative themes. Although informants in their childhood were forced to suffer in silence, they remember themselves as being resilient and capable of surviving in adverse environments. In their late adulthood public collection of childhood memories has offered them a suitable medium to remember and reframe their experiences as meaningful, by exposing the ‘culture of silence’ which prevailed in the post-war Finland.

From Tar City to Smart City

Tiina Suopajärvi, PhD, Senior Researcher — 2018-12-25

In a smart city, technologies are designed to assist people in their everyday lives, like in intelligent homes, public transportation, and e-services. However, this can lead to new kind of marginalisation if people do not fit into the idea of smart citizen. In this article, I consider how the smart city ideology of Oulu in northern Finland becomes lived in the everyday practices of senior citizens; and how they sense themselves as “smart citizens.” Through generating ethnographic composition of ICT-biography and walk-along interviews, and series of workshops with seniors, city officials and researchers; and thinking this process as collaborative knowledge-making, the configuration of ageing in a smart city has emerged. In this configuration, the city is understood as an assemblage with dynamics of temporalities, structures, communities and individuals; and as part of global power-geometry. Though the seniors support the smart city ideology as regional strategy, they want to make a voluntary decision to become a smart citizen. Current smart city is made for and by technology enthusiasts, and it often excludes other citizens. To become a smart community the city must include variety of citizens in the making of their city. Many seniors are willing to take up this challenge.

100th Anniversary of Professor Ilmar Talve´s (1919-2008) Birth

Hanneleena Hieta, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

Playfulness and Freedom of Choice in Matters of Belonging

Viktorija L.A. Ceginskas, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

Dorothea Breier 2017. The Vague Feeling of Belonging of a Transcultural Generation. An Ethnographic Study on Germans and their Descendants in Contemporary Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. 250 pp. Diss. ISBN 978-951-51-3811-8 (paperback). ISBN 978-951-51-3812-5 (PDF).

Inherited Fashion

Pia Olsson, PhD, Docent, University Lecturer — 2018-12-25

Seija Johnson 2018. I den folkliga modedräktens fotspår. Bondekvinnors välstånd, ställning och modemedvetenhet i Gamlakarleby socken 1740–1800. [In the footsteps of a common folk fashionable dress. The wealth, social position, and fashion awareness of farmers’ wives in Gamlakarlebyparish 1740–1800.] Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 339. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. 269 pp. ISBN 978-951-39-7368-1. Permanent link: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7368-1

Finnish Women, Muslim Spouses

Hanneleena Hieta, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

Kaisa Nissi 2017. Uskonnot, kulttuurit ja perhe. Etnologinen tutkimus monikulttuuristen
liittojen kerronnoista Suomessa. [Religions, cultures and family. An ethnological study on
the discourses on multicultural marriages in Finland.] Siirtolaisuusinstituutin julkaisuja
12. Turku: Finnish Migration Institute. 366 pp. ISBN 978-952-7167-29-8 (print) ISBN
978-952-7167-30-4 (electronic) ISSN 2343-3507 (print) ISSN 2343-3515 (electronic).

The Many-Voiced Factory Community

Pirjo Korkiakangas, PhD, Professor Emerita — 2018-12-25

Maria Vanha-Similä 2017. Yhtiöön, yhtiöön! Lapsiperheiden arki Forssan tehdasyhteisössä 1950–1970-luvuilla. [To the firm, to the firm! The everyday life of families who worked in the Forssa textile industry from the 1950s to the 1970s.] Kansatieteellinen Arkisto 58. Helsinki: The Finnish Antiquarian Society. 250 pp. Diss. ISBN 978-952-6655-05-5 (print). ISBN 978-952-6655-06-2 (electronic). ISSN 0355-1830.

New Lines of Thinking and Practicing Urban Planning and Community Development

Tiina-Riitta Lappi, PhD, Docent — 2018-12-25

Maunu Häyrynen & Antti Wallin (eds) 2017. Kulttuurisuunnittelu. Kaupunkikehittämisen uusi näkökulma. [Cultural planning. A new approach to urban development.] Tietolipas 258. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.

From Multi-targeted Ethnography to Hybrid Humanism - Perspectives to Applied Cultural Studies

Maija Johanna Mäki, MA, University Teacher — 2018-12-25

Pilvi Hämeenaho, Tiina Suopajärvi & Johanna Ylipulli (eds). 2018. Soveltava kulttuurintutkimus. [Applied cultural studies.] Tietolipas 259. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. ISBN 978-952-222-975-5.

When Art and Anthropology Meet. Introduction to Visual Anthropology

Maija Johanna Mäki, MA, University Teacher — 2018-12-25

Jari Kupiainen & Liisa Häkkinen (eds). 2017. Kuvatut kulttuurit. Johdatus visuaaliseen antropologiaan. [Pictured cultures. Introduction to Visual Anthropology.] Tietolipas 253. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. ISBN 978-952-222-837-6.

Useful Basic Work on Minorities and Migration

Tytti Steel, Dr, Postdoctoral Researcher — 2018-12-25

Mats Wickström & Charlotta Wolff (eds) 2016. Mångkulturalitet, migration och minoriteter i Finland under tre sekel. [Multiculturalism, migration, and minorities in Finland during three centuries.] Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland nr 803. Helsinki: Society of Swedish Literature in Finland. 360 pp. ISBN 978-951-583-342-6.

Eat, Share, Love

Inkeri Hakamies, MA, Doctoral Student — 2018-12-25

Katja Uusihaka & Matti Eräsaari (eds) 2016. Ruoan kulttuuri. Antropologisia näkökulmia ruoan tutkimukseen. [The culture of food. Anthropological perspectives to the study of food.] Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Toimituksia 1419. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 241 pp. ISBN 978-952-222-712-6. ISSN 0335-1768.

Jani Kaaro (ed.) 2017. Ruoka-Kalevala – eli makumuistoja Suomesta. [The Food Kalevala – or taste memories from Finland.] Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 432 pp. ISBN 978-952-222-826-0. ISSN 2323-7392.

Sense and Sensibility – Ethnology of Affect

Konsta Kajander, MA, PhD Student — 2018-12-25

Heritage across Borders – Conference on Critical Heritage

Maija Mäki, MA, University Teacher — 2018-12-25

Staying – Moving – Settling

Lauri Turpeinen, MA, PhD Student — 2018-12-25