Vol. 27 (1999): War and Peace, Exceptional Times

The themes of the 1999 spring seminar arranged by Ethnos, the association of Finnish ethnologists,
were war, peace, and exceptional times as objects for research in the fields of ethnological and related studies. The first three articles in the present volume of Ethnologia Fennica are based on lectures given at this seminar. In addition, the theme of the fourth article is closely associated with war and peace. Thematically speaking, it seems that the interest of Finnish ethnologists is focused on war-time and the traumas and sentiments linked to it.

The Finnish collective memory and emotionality were shaped and shaken especially by the Winter War (1939 - 1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944). Also, it was not until the last couple of decades when the bitterest traumas in recent Finnish history, caused by the Civil War (1918), have started to unwind through research in various fields of study. The Civil War created an atmosphere in which the need and will for the defence of the country gained emphasis as well as the need to build armament; this is another theme this joumal deals with.