No 6 (2023)
Articles
The materiality of the ecology of memory and affect
Abstract
An introduction to the thematic issue on “Voyages of Living Things: Distributed Memory, Evocative Objects, and Affective Micro-Niches” with special focus on material scaffoldings in the ecology of memory and affect, exemplified by experiences of migrants, border residents, and tourists. The invited editor of the issue presents articles by Sholeh Sharokhi, Sibel Aksu Güngör, Darya Radchenko, Pavel Kupriyanov, Veronika Nurkova and Olga Sulim, analyzing the theoretical approaches and data presented within the framework of the ecology of human abilities, including the material aspects of human memory and affectivity.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):5-11
5-11
Photo albums: deconstructing narratives of the self, migration, and movable memories
Abstract
Photo albums, as personal and cultural material objects, are intertwined with ideas about identity and memory. At the same time, the importance of memory in how we shape and make sense of our place in the world that is enhanced through evocative objects such as personal photographic archives (ranging from traditional family albums, to selfies on mobile phones, and beyond) becomes more pronounced in the context of the Anthropocene era in which diverse and unequal global movability (e.g., displacement, border crossing, and migration) has become a defining feature of who we are. Connecting between anthropological studies of border-crossing and migration art, this project explores how in the absence of a photo album, alternative modes of visual archives tell the migrant stories of affective connections to family homeland the past and the present Focusing on specific examples from the burgeoning body of alternative visual artwork by contemporary migration artists in Europe and the US this paper examines how identity and otherness are entangled in an ongoing process of becoming and unraveling as sociocultural norms. Beginning with Appadurai’s observations on how migration of objects precipitates the experience of border crossing this paper looks at how migration art activism empowers modes of resistance to normative exclusionary discourses and current anti-migration practices.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):12-25
12-25
Objects on the memory borders: between Tilsit and Sovetsk
Abstract
Sovetsk, a city in the Kaliningrad region of Russia, is the typical case of a complex interaction of locals with a “foreign” past. The dwellers of the city are living within the environment of material heritage that remained after the total change of population in World War II (including everyday objects, architecture and landscape) and are building their identity through them. Drawing on the approaches of border studies and memory studies, we show how regions of memory of pre-war Tilsit and post-war Sovetsk interact and conflict in vernacular narratives of city dwellers, and how the latter move between those regions in the course of manipulating evocative objects in daily and business practices. The article is a part of the RANEPA state assignment research program.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):26-43
26-43
Homes as memory boxes: a cognitive approach to understanding attachment to possessions
Abstract
The article presents a review and analysis of collecting as collecting things of a certain type, discussed in a wide range of this practice, from compulsive accumulation to collecting works of art and museum collections. Furthermore, there are people who store and collect things related to their experiences and intentions. I designate this type of gathering as idiocentric gathering and explore the motives of their keepers. Claiming that collecting is one of the psychic manifestations, this study uses a theoretical approach that encompasses discussions (including in-depth interviews and focus groups) about the relationship of human being and thing, memory and self. A cognitive perspective and ethnosemantic analysis are used to evaluate the collected data. I argue that idiocentric collecting is a way of connecting the past and the future, providing the custodians with a sense of continuity and connectedness in time and space.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):44-60
44-60
Evocation of the self: self-defining mental photographs
Abstract
The acquisition of mental tools is a uniquely human mode of resisting situational pressure and achieving psychological self-determination. The fact that material photographs effectively trigger autobiographical memories has led to the hypothesis that they have functional counterparts in the form of memories of the most personally significant photographs. One hundred and eighty-five participants volunteered to recall, describe, and rate on several scales the memories of photographs that best express their personality. The “self-defining mental photographs” obtained from the participants were found to be subjectively attractive, highly functional, and expressive of various personality traits. The exploratory factor analysis suggested a three-factor solution interpreted as qualitatively specific types of mental photographs. Mental photographs scoring high on Factor 1 (Focus on the event) may serve as retrieval tool for extracting personal sense from a concrete episode of the past. High scores on Factor 2 (Detailed image of the narrator) probably refer to the internal dialogue between past and present self. High scores on Factor 3 (Holistic Self) were attributed to the integrated experience of personality-destiny unity coinciding with the awareness of one's history of existence.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):61-76
61-76
Other worlds in the museum: exhibits as evocative objects
Abstract
The article focuses on the evocative effect in the museum spaces: it examines the situations in which museum exhibits and their complexes operate (“work”) as evocative objects, evoking memories and emotions in visitors. The conditions and mechanisms that ensure such an effect are explored through the field observations and interviews with visitors and employees of museums, as well as reviews of expositions. I analyze the materials of three cases: The Museum-residence “Artkommunalka ‘Yerofeyev and others’” (Kolomna, Moscow region), the museum complex in the Uchma village (Yaroslavl region), and the mobile exhibition “To Trust the Dried-Up”. The analysis shows that the evocative effect in the museum spaces does not arise by itself; rather, it is provided by special efforts: in some cases, preliminary or synchronous discursive support, in others - sensory attunements.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):77-91
77-91
Vernacular museum: toward the definition of the concept
Abstract
The article considers the use of the term vernacular in various fields of humanities and the effectiveness of its utilization as an additional way of describing various types of amateur museums in modern society. An analysis of published works has shown that, regardless of the disciplinary perspective, three key features of this concept stand out. The first feature implies that vernacular is associated with locality, i.e. territorial locality correlates with individual activity. The second feature is characterized through opposition to official social institutions; therefore, vernacular presupposes properties such as informality, independence, and lack of regulation. Finally, the third feature is the great importance of the creative component, due to which the global and institutional are adapted to the individual perception of the world. Museums are considered within the anthropocentric approach as grassroots initiatives aimed at representing individual interests, as well as one of the ways of self-actualization. Despite the fact that the vernacular museum is essentially an individual practice, it refers to those museum spaces in which both the personal stories of living certain events and the narrative patterns of collective memory are presented.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):92-110
92-110
Critical reflections on the “vernacular museum”
Abstract
The article presents a critical discussion of the essay, “Vernacular Museum: Toward the Definition of the Concept” (Vernakuliarnyi muzei: k opredeleniiu poniatiia), by I.S. Sleptsova (Kyzlasova) and E.G. Chesnokova who argue in favor of introducing a special term for the description of grassroot practices of museum building arising in today’s social contexts. Drawing on the uses of the term vernacular in various fields of humanities, the authors of the essay suggest that these grassroot practices be viewed as aimed at representing individual interests, as well as one of the ways of self-actualization. The contributors scrutinize and debate their arguments, examining the case within the broader context of museum studies.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):111-138
111-138
Language ideologies and the construction of karelian identity
Abstract
The article addresses perceptions of linguistic practices underlying the construction of Karelian identity in the republic of Karelia. Based on the notion of language ideology, I analyse fieldwork data collected in the region to reveal enduring attitudes towards the functioning of Karelian. Being aware of both significant dialect variations and the generation gap in the command of the language, Karelians nevertheless tend to consider themselves part of the same ethnic group. I argue that there exist two language ideologies directly related to reproducing and reshaping the Karelian identity. The first one equates the vitality of the language with the vigour of the national community. Within the second one, which could be referred to as ideology of language performativity, various practices of using Karelian are themselves acts of constructing and rethinking ethnic identity.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):139-155
139-155
Documentary constructivism as a special form of constructivist folk sociology: evidence from Dagestan
Abstract
In this article, the existence of documentary constructivism is justified in the context of literature dedicated to folk theories of ethnicity. Documentary constructivism views ethnicity primarily as an administrative concept. This view is described based on 130 interviews conducted in Dagestan, where the state has changed ethnic classifications several times over the course of the 20th century and relocated entire communities from one nationality to another. It is shown that this view is significantly more prevalent in communities that have been the subject of such re-categorization. These conclusions are placed in the context of literature that traditionally describes folk constructivism solely as a view that ethnic affiliation is an acquired characteristic rather than an innate one. We argue that the prevalence of different folk theories of ethnicity is related to the characteristics of the social context. Furthermore, we suggest that further investigation into the variability of folk theories of ethnicity and their determinants is warranted.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):156-177
156-177
The “proconsul of african nationalism”: Nyerere and Tanzania
Abstract
In 2022, the 100th anniversary of Julius Nyerere (1922-1999), the leader of Tanganyika, the founder and first president of Tanzania, an outstanding African politician and statesman, was celebrated. His political legacy in Tanzania, as well as the socio-political dynamics in Tanganyika and Zanzibar are the milestones in the recent history of the East African region, in the history of ideology, national question, national movements on the continent. His name is associated with both African nationalism and pan-Africanism. The achievements of Nyerere as a nationalist - “gathering”, creating, structuring, stabilizing and preserving a multi-tribal Tanzania as an integral state unit - are at the same time the success of Nyerere as a pan-Africanist, since the Tanganyika-Zanzibar union is a relatively successful experience in the political unification of two previously separate sovereign territories.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):178-191
178-191
Chewing gum in the life world of soviet children in the 1960s-80s (reconstruction based on modern memories)
Abstract
Among the few niches left by isolated but fundamental studies of chewing gum in the everyday life of Soviet children (works by K. A. Bogdanov, V. V. Golovin, A.V. Kudryashev), ideas about the specific role of this confectionery product, depending on the child’s place of residence, his gender and social environment, deserve special attention. An attempt to clarify the boundaries of the application of the fetishization construct to the interpretation of the role of chewing gum in the life world of a Soviet child was carried out on the basis of 50 semi-structured narrative-oriented interviews conducted in Kostroma, Krasnodar, Moscow, Ryazan in 2020, and memoirs about childhood in the USSR by six authors. The results of the study confirm the exceptional subjective significance of chewing gum, its functioning as an object of commodity exchange. At the same time, there is a more widespread practice of gratuitous donation of this confectionery by children. Adventurous practices of criminal acquisition of delicacies in the 1960s-70s were localized in the cities becoming the centers of international tourism and seaports of the USSR; in Moscow, teenage boys who already had a marginal status were involved in these practices. A significant part of Moscow schoolchildren distanced themselves from adventurous entrepreneurship out of conviction or out of fear. For children who lived far from the territories covered by international communications, fetishization was significantly limited by the unavailability of chewing gum - the lack of children’s ability to purchase it independently.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):192-210
192-210
Sumerian poem about Lugalbanda and parallels for one of its episodes
Abstract
This article begins with the paraphrase of the Sumerian poems “Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave” and “Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird”. The retelling is made by Rim M. Nurullin who consulted the recent studies related to these texts. A parallel between “Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave” and the Rigveda is specifically discussed. Further, a classification of episodes found in the narratives recorded in Eurasia and America ca. A.D. 1850-1950 that contain the same motifs as the episode of Lugalbanda’s meeting with the Anzu bird is provided. The area distribution of two main variants is revealed. According to the first one, a man kills a serpent that was going to devour the nestlings of a mighty bird, and the grateful bird helps him. This variant is attested from Algeria to India and from Manchuria to the Carpathian-Balkan region. The American parallels also exist. According to the second variant, the man cares for nestlings (feeds them, covers from a storm, etc.) while the serpent is not mentioned. In the Sumerian poem, the hero decorates the nestlings. Concerning late traditions, such an episode being rare in the south (from the Maghreb to India) is predominant among the Eastern Slavs, Baltic Finns, and probably Balts. Rare Siberian cases are scattered from the Northern Khanty to Asiatic Eskimo. Considering the American parallels, the first variant looks like the earlier one. The basic motif of a hero who helps the nestlings is an example of a narrative element that had spread at least in the Terminal Paleolithic and has survived until recent times when it was incorporated into the fairytales.
Ethno review. 2023;(6):211-227
211-227
Being and the time of old-believers: a review of V Agaf’inoi taige: kollektivnaia monografiia, edited by g.s. shirokalova
Ethno review. 2023;(6):228-232
228-232
Representation as a concept, problem, and method: a review of Antropologiia reprezentatsii: pamiat’, obshchestvennye prostranstva i vizual’nost’, edited by A.A. Plekhanov and N.A. Belova
Ethno review. 2023;(6):233-237
233-237
What it meant to be a “public woman” in the Russian Empire: a review of Zhizn’ po “zheltomu” biletu, by I.V. Sinova
Ethno review. 2023;(6):238-242
238-242