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@article{JEF, author = {Anete Karlsone}, title = { Ethnographic Research in Soviet Latvia – The Source of a Stronger National Identity}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {ethnography, Soviet Latvia, Mirdza Slava, Aina Alsupe, folk costume, textile history}, abstract = {This article provides an insight into ethnographic research during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, viewed in the context of national self-consciousness. Ethnographic research in Soviet Latvia was conducted by the ethnographic sector at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR). By successfully using phrases appropriate to the political situation as well as the right quotations from Soviet ideological works, it was possible to maintain ideas and attitudes developed in interwar independent Latvia, for example, regarding Latvian national costume – in the works of Mirdza Slava. In turn, Aina Alsupe managed to carry out substantial new studies of the history and development of weaving in Latvia, and collect materials on the development of applied art in Soviet Latvia. The studies conducted by both Alsupe and Slava allowed researchers to keep applied folk arts and the folk costume topical, and in doing so to help maintain Latvian cultural identity.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {48–70}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/314} }

@article{JEF, author = {Aimar Ventsel}, title = { When Sacred Sites Become Symbols of Nationhood}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {}, abstract = {}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {134–136}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/343} }

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Review of the publications Taking Sides: Ethics, Politics and Fieldwork in Anthropology. Edited by Heidi Armbruster and Anna Lærke. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books 2008, 258 pages; and Samuel Gerald Collins, All Tomorrow’s Cultures: Anthropological Engagements with the Future. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books 2008, 140 pages.

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This paper explores the material culture of ‘karakat’ (Russian karakatitsa) hybrid vehicles in the town of Kallaste, east Estonia. It focuses on the social factors that allow karakat culture to change. The region of study was part of the Soviet Union so the phenomenon of self-assembled vehicles implies socialist and communist considerations. Local people are still surrounded by the material legacy of that time. Technological assemblages from the past therefore continue to live in the present. It was popular in the USSR to maintain off-road vehicles, which were put together with the owner’s own hands. Such a bricolage technique has been preserved since the middle of the 20th century and is something that is used as a marker of local identity. The distribution of spare parts was problematic in former Soviet times and this has influenced the way men now make karakats. Current owners spend a lot of time servicing their vehicles. The issue of masculinity is highly relevant here because dealing with technology is seen as a masculine activity. Moreover, because it is increasingly open to tourists, karakat culture is becoming a tradable commodity.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

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The object of this paper is to examine the contemporary wedding meal in Latvia, focusing on one particular social group of well situated young couples who choose fine dining restaurants or rented venues for their wedding celebrations because they considered restaurant weddings more elaborate and modern. The desire to embrace a modern lifestyle is the way in which to obtain a new identity in a rapidly changing post-socialist world.The aim of present research is to reveal how different traditions intertwine in the wedding meal – new or borrowed, with ancient and national or Soviet traditions. While followers of a modern lifestyle are emphasising a challenge to traditions, it is nevertheless the wedding meal and symbolic practices connected with it that indicates a more or less intentional respect for tradition.I argue that the wedding ceremony reveals the shift from rites of passage to social distinction. This argument is developed by analysing how social and family relationships, value systems and the ethos as a whole have changed recently in Latvia. The use of the symbolic capacity of wedding food, denoting fertility and prosperity, provides the stability of the structure of the wedding feast, which also affects the structure of the marriage ceremony as a whole. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

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@article{JEF, author = {Jeana Jorgensen}, title = { Dancing the Numinous: Sacred and Spiritual Techniques of Contemporary American Belly Dancers}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {6}, number = {2}, year = {2013}, keywords = {dance; belly dance; spirituality; sacred dance; feminism}, abstract = {In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its meanings in the relevant social context.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {3–28}, url = {http://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/96} }

@article{JEF, author = {Lili Di Puppo and Jesko Schmoller}, title = { Sacred Geographies and Identity Claims: The Revival of Sacred Sites in the Post-Soviet Space}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {13}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, keywords = {}, abstract = {}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {124–127}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/340} }

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This paper argues that researchers doing ethnography can fail in their commitment to take what their informants say seriously. This often occurs, despite ethnographers’ best intentions, when informant statements depart radically from Western distinctions between what is real and what is imaginary. When informants talk about things like ghosts, witches and magic, there is a tendency to apply analytic strategies which translate these informant statements about the world so they conform to Western understandings about what is possible in the world and what is not. This article describes for example some commonly applied interpretive moves used in dealing with informant statements about other-than-human persons. The analytic models and categories we use in these cases are equivalent to often tacit and taken-for-granted Western strategies for dealing with ‘non-existent things’ and these make it impossible to take native statements at face value. We could turn the situation around in ethnographic analyses if we put under the microscope our own Western taken-for-granted assumptions and did so by taking definitions of reality, community, and the person radically different from our own seriously.

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Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

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In our paper, we have developed a list of modes for audience engagement on social media on the basis of the Facebook posts of selected museums in Latvia and Estonia. Within the frame of our study, the museums’ Facebook posts covering a timespan of one year have been analysed using the method of close reading and applying the principles of grounded theory. A multi-dimensional approach to various modes of engagement is proposed in order to involve different visitors in the activities of the museum, and considering different functions of the message. The results of the paper are applicable when considering diverse repertoires for modes of engagement with the museum’s audiences on social media, as well as when engaging with them on-site. The paper contributes to the trend of democratisation within the museum context by exploring the potential of museums when forging their relationships with their visitors.

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Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

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Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes, 3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Authors retain the following rights:

– copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,

– the right to use the substance of the article in future own works, including lectures and books,

– the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,

– the right to self-archive the article.