Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 2009, Vol.3, No.1
Toomas Gross
Farewell to Fiestas and Saints? Changing Catholic Practices in Contemporary Rural Oaxaca
This article discusses recent changes in Catholic festivities, especially the system of fiestas in rural Mexico. The ethnographic focus of the discussion is on indigenous Zapotec communities of the State of Oaxaca. Collective religious practices in Mexican villages contribute to social cohesion. Fiestas commemorating patron saints of the villages play a particularly important role in (re)constructing communal identity and the feeling of collective belongingness. Various global processes like secularisation, integration of local economies into the capitalist market system, increasing out-migration from villages, and the rise of Protestantism have undermined the position of the Catholic Church in the region. The article scrutinises the changing organisation and role of fiestas in the communities, concluding that the impact of secularisation, migration and Protestantism in particular is not simple and always negative – these changes can actually invigorate certain dimensions of the fiestas.
Alexandr M. Pashkov
Studies of Local Lore as a Form of Ethnic Consciousness: The Karelians of Olonets Province in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Author deals with 19th century intellectuals of Olonets Karelian origin who started to be interested in local language, culture and ways of life. They started to compile and publish corresponding texts and it meant the beginning of ethnic mobilization of Karelians. Author starts with a brief overview of local historical background and continues with activities of three intellectuals of Karelian origin (I. V. Kondratyev, M. N. Smirnov, N. F. Leskov).
Taive Särg
Context-Related Melodies in Oral Culture: An Attempt to Describe Words-and-Music Relationships in Local Singing Tradition In oral folk song traditions we often find many lyrics, but not nearly as many melodies. The terms “polyfunctionalism”, “group melodies” or “general melodies” have been used by Estonian researches to indicate the phenomenon that many lyrics were sung to only one, or a small handful, of tunes. The scarcity of melodies is supposed to be one of several related phenomena characteristic to an oral, text-centred singing culture.In this article the Estonian folk song tradition will be analysed against a quantity of melodies and their usage in the following aspects: word-and-melody relationships and context-and-melody relationships in Karksi parish (south Estonia); a singer; and native musical terms and the process of singing and (re)creation.
Anu Kannike
Refuge or Resource: Home and Nostalgia in Postsocialist Estonia
The focus of this article is on nostalgia as it appears in the representations of home-decoration in postsocialist Estonia. This theme is explored, describing a dialogue and conflict between different versions of relating to the past. The empirical material comprises qualitatively analysed in-depth interviews and articles in home-decoration journals from 1997–2008. Examining some dimensions and mechanisms of nostalgia in this specific context enables to demonstrate how is transformation from Soviet everyday culture into Western consumer culture conceptualised through ideas about the home. I will suggest that in Estonian everyday life nostalgia is not only a form of escapism into the past from the uncertain present and identity problems, but it also works as a resource to cope with the traumatic past, negotiate and forge new identities.
Ester Võsu, Maarja Kaaristo
An Ecological Approach to Contemporary Rural Identities: The Case of Tourism Farms in South-East Estonia
We focus on how tourism farmers use the potential of their living environment, consisting of both cultural and natural elements, for designing and mediating certain affordances for activities that can be performed in their farms. From the ecological perspective this living environment, perceived through the set of everyday and tourism related activities, may become an important part of individual rural identities of the tourism farmers in Rõuge and Haanja municipalities in Võru County, south-east Estonia. We analyse different activities practised in tourism farms, related to particular environments as “taskscapes” and show how these “taskscapes” participate in the formation of contemporary rural identities as they are related to farm tourism and tourism farmers individual place identities.
Kaidi Tamm
On Some Aspects of the Lilleoru Community
This paper explores the raison d’être of the only proper Estonian ecovillage, Lilleoru. Exceptional in the Estonian context, this relatively small and young community is a member of three established international networks uniting similar communities. Based on fieldwork and ethnographic interviews, the present article describes some focal aspects of the community and investigates how Lilleoru functions as a community. After a brief overview of the formation of the community, the following questions are touched upon: what is its significance for its members, how are they differentiated from other similar groups, what creates coherence among its members, how is the community managed, what are the everyday practices and how does it fit into the global context. As a result of the study it might be said that although from the outside Lilleoru is mainly seen as an ecovillage, from inside being an awareness training centre is central. The ecological lifestyle is regarded as a side result of a conscious lifestyle.
Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Agnes Aljas
Digital Cultural Heritage – Challenging Museums, Archives and Users
This article will analyse the many challenges that creating, storing and using digital heritage has brought to the memory institutions and their professionals. We look at the interrelationship between the potential users of the museum collections, the collections themselves and information and communication technologies as intermediaries to these relations. By analysing survey data, we look at the average Internet user in order to find out who could be the current and future users of the online collections. In addition that, we analyse interviews conducted with 12 members of different Estonian memory institutions in order to understand their perspective on online cultural heritage. Third empirical pillar of the article comes from the two focus group interviews to understand what are users percieved needs for the digital cultural heritage. The data will be analysed through three key functions of the memory institutions in order to understand how digitisation helps with preservation, opening access to the collections and inviting audiences to become active participants and increasing their involvement with cultural heritage.
Notes & Reviews
Konrad Vanja, Elisabeth Tietmeyer
The Museum of European Cultures of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as a Platform of Intercultural Dialogue
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