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In this article, I investigate some of the elements and mechanisms involved in the process in which cultural heritage, in the form of narrated local history, emerges. My argumentation is that certain collectively known phenomena achieve such a strong agency of their own that they have the power to force themselves into individuals’ life histories. In analogy with Albert Eskeröd’s concept dominant of tradition, I suggest that these elements from local and national history be called dominant units. The interplay between several individual narratives in a local community and the collective elements takes the form of a joint negotiating process, generating agreements and discrepancies, shared ‘truths’ and contested disagreements, the acceptance of shared local symbols and the forgetting of less captivating material. The emerging products of such processes are grand narratives in different degrees of development circulating at different levels and in different cultural arenas in a community.

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This personal exploration of “tradition” started after my father died, an event which sparked a series of inner conversations about being a son, being a parent, and the learning that happens over generations. What do I mean by “tradition”? What kinds of conversations would I like the term to open up for me? If I were to consider it as a signpost, what conversations, communities, and contexts might it point to? I work to clarify what “tradition” can mean for me, outlining a wish-list of the aspects I would like my own understanding of “tradition” to encompass. I highlight two common approaches to “tradition” I would like to steer away from: “tradition” as prescriptive-invariance, and “tradition” as resource management. I offer a personal-is-political account of “tradition” to open up analytic opportunities, as I seek to make more appropriate sense of learnings, relationships, and death.

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Authors retain the following rights:

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This article explores different perspectives on indigenous communities and their traditional knowledge on the national level as well as on the global stage. It aims to provide a survey of such perspectives and the links and interdependencies between them using the example of the world Intellectual Property organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (WIPO’s IGC). It is argued that different socio-political constellations and power relations lead to terminological perspectives of differentiation, i.e. the semantic construction of an external Other in the past that is used to evaluate the present and place oneself in a position of advantage.

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The conceptualisation of culture in international law has been rooted in two main conceptual poles: persons – protection of cultural rights of individuals, groups and communities, and property – protection of cultural goods. This finds an explanation within the subject and object dichotomy that is fundamental in law but seems to be insufficient for the interpretation of ‘intangible cultural heritage’. The article analyses whether ‘intangible cultural heritage’ can be interpreted as being linked to the one, the other or both of the named poles of conceptualising culture in international law. The purpose of the article is to seek a conceptual sequence that in the history of international law has lead to an existing network of legal concepts and the ‘intangible cultural heritage’ therein.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2019-0006 Missionary work by Pentecostal Finnish Roma (Kaale) started among the Roma in Estonia during the 1980s. These mission activities, carried out by both Finns and local Roma, intensified over the next two decades and continue today. The article looks into a specific case of how converted (Pentecostal and Baptist) and non-converted (Russian Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic) Roma women in Estonia conceptualise the practice of fortune telling. For this purpose, the role of fortune telling as a traditional Roma skill and occupation is discussed as a part of the conceptualisation, together with the possible efficacy of fortune telling and its relation to beliefs in magic that also shape the women’s attitudes towards it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that although fortune telling is considered satanic by born-again believers and is therefore abandoned, its condemnation is not straightforward in less controlled narration situations, thus posing an extra challenge for Roma women in the conversion process.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2019-0006 Missionary work by Pentecostal Finnish Roma (Kaale) started among the Roma in Estonia during the 1980s. These mission activities, carried out by both Finns and local Roma, intensified over the next two decades and continue today. The article looks into a specific case of how converted (Pentecostal and Baptist) and non-converted (Russian Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic) Roma women in Estonia conceptualise the practice of fortune telling. For this purpose, the role of fortune telling as a traditional Roma skill and occupation is discussed as a part of the conceptualisation, together with the possible efficacy of fortune telling and its relation to beliefs in magic that also shape the women’s attitudes towards it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that although fortune telling is considered satanic by born-again believers and is therefore abandoned, its condemnation is not straightforward in less controlled narration situations, thus posing an extra challenge for Roma women in the conversion process.

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

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Authors retain the following rights:

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2019-0006 Missionary work by Pentecostal Finnish Roma (Kaale) started among the Roma in Estonia during the 1980s. These mission activities, carried out by both Finns and local Roma, intensified over the next two decades and continue today. The article looks into a specific case of how converted (Pentecostal and Baptist) and non-converted (Russian Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic) Roma women in Estonia conceptualise the practice of fortune telling. For this purpose, the role of fortune telling as a traditional Roma skill and occupation is discussed as a part of the conceptualisation, together with the possible efficacy of fortune telling and its relation to beliefs in magic that also shape the women’s attitudes towards it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that although fortune telling is considered satanic by born-again believers and is therefore abandoned, its condemnation is not straightforward in less controlled narration situations, thus posing an extra challenge for Roma women in the conversion process.

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:

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@article{JEF, author = {Helena Ruotsala}, title = { Does Sense of Place Still Exist?}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {2}, number = {1}, year = {2011}, keywords = {place; locality; Lapland; landscape; tourism}, abstract = {In this article my aim is to discuss place, locality and their role and changed significance in the ethnological studies. I argue that although the meaning and role of place have been changed, place still is an important concept in ethnology. Researches are now paying more attention to the changed nature of the concept, e.g. for the multivocality of places. The anthropological literature on space and place forms my theoretical framework, with which I study some empiric cases from my familiar environment, from Finnish Lapland and from Kola Peninsula. ‘Place’, in my examples the sieidi of Taatsi, Lake Seidjavr, the Pallas fells or the tourist centre Levi, can have a unique reality for each inhabitant and visitor. While the meanings may be shared with others, the views of the place are often likely to be competing, and contested in practice. According to Margaret Rodman (2004: 207), researchers should empower place by returning control over meanings of place to the rightful producers, and empower their own analysis of place by attending to the multiplicity of local voices found about place.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {43–54}, url = {/index.php/journal/article/view/36} }

@article{JEF, author = {Liina Paales}, title = { On the System of Place Name Signs in Estonian Sign Language}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {4}, number = {2}, year = {2011}, keywords = {Estonian Deaf community; Estonian Sign Language; signlore; name signs; Estonian place name signs}, abstract = {A place name sign is a linguistic-cultural marker that includes both memory and landscape. The author regards toponymic signs in Estonian Sign Language as representations of images held by the Estonian Deaf community: they reflect the geographical place, the period, the relationships of the Deaf community with hearing community, and the common and distinguishing features of the two cultures perceived by community’s members. Name signs represent an element of signlore, which includes various types of creative linguistic play. There are stories hidden behind the place name signs that reveal the etymological origin of place name signs and reflect the community’s memory. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to introduce Estonian place name signs as Deaf signlore forms, analyse their structure and specify the main formation methods. Secondly, it interprets place-denoting signs in the light of understanding the foundations of Estonian Sign Language, Estonian Deaf education and education history, the traditions of local Deaf communities, and also of the cultural and local traditions of the dominant hearing communities. Both perspectives – linguistic and folkloristic – are represented in the current article.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {31–54}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/54} }

@article{JEF, author = {Risto Järv and Mairi Kaasik}, title = { Estonian Fairy Tales Up the Beanstalk into Heaven and Coal Porridge: Two Tales of Growing Up}, journal = {Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics}, volume = {12}, number = {1}, year = {2018}, keywords = {children’s tale; folktale; tale of magic; Seto}, abstract = {The article focuses on two Estonian fairy tale types that have been recorded among the Orthodox Seto minority in the south-eastern corner of Estonia. In the index of Estonian folktales they have been described under tales of magic (fairy tales) as tale types Ee 328C* and Ee 327H*. One of the tale types observed is a masculine folk tale (one with male protagonists), the other can be considered a feminine folk tale with female protagonists despite it seemingly having two main characters of different genders. In both tales the protagonists reach a hostile place after moving through liminality, and both tales can be interpreted as tales of growing up.}, issn = {2228-0987}, pages = {7–20}, doi = {10.2478/jef-2018-0002}, url = {https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/278} }