Seminar
Oral History as the Reflector of Societal Change and
Emerging Cultural Differences and Values.
Abstracts
Man, Woman and Longings in the Sexual Humour of
Heikan Jussi
Tuija
Saarinen
Recently, the research
methods of micro- and mentality history have started to become used in folklore
research. These methods allow us to treat topics formerly considered of lesser
value or even taboo, such as sexuality, or the life and biography of the common
folk, exceptional individuals or minority groups. My research topic is
connected with an eccentric, a cobbler, Juho Mäkäräinen, known as Heikan Jussi
(1892-1967) who lived in the village of Herrala in southern Finland. I will
study his life history, the humour he created and also his contribution for the
Herrala village culture with the help of the interviews I have recorded and the
written sources.
The course of Heikan Jussi’s
life changed dramatically when he caught tuberculosis at the young age of 12
years. This curtailed his school education and he was never able to work enough
to earn a real living. Tuberculosis was also the reason why he never married.
However, Jussi had the will to live and was eager to learn. Private studies broadened
his knowledge and led to him acquiring a reputation of being too wise. He also
had hobbies uncommon for an ordinary man – photography and writing newspaper
articles. In addition to these, Jussi was known as a humorist whose unique
humour touched all aspects of his life and work.
The humour of Heikan Jussi
was not limited to practical jokes altering his physical appearance or
decorating his surroundins, house and yard, but also included verbal jokes.
These jokes included witticisms, linguistic tricks and giving nicknames. The
interview material I have collected from the male inhabitants of Herrala
village includes much sexual humour, similar to other material found in
different regions in Finland. These folk traditions can help us study the
concepts of the sexual norms of the individual and the group, as well as
relationships between men and women. The sexual humour of Heikan Jussi lives on
in the village of his birth; many of the people I interviewed repeated his
witticisms and sayings when they were commenting on sexual norms.
Biographies of the
Deaf as a Part of Sign Language Narrative History
Liina Paales
One of the richest parts of Deaf folklore is
Sign Language storytelling tradition. Storytelling places are wherever the deaf
meet: residential schools for the deaf, deaf clubs, homes with deaf families,
camps, parties, athletic events etc. The storytelling tradition of Deaf is
their wisdom passed on to the next generations "by sign of hands".
Deaf
storytelling tradition has been for many reasons largely neglected. My own
experience is that it would be the best for Deaf history researcher, if he or
she will be fluent in Sign Language, so the subject would be directly
accessible for researcher. This in turn raises several theoretical questions as
pointed out by researchers of Deaf history all over the world.
1. As the Deaf are seen as a lingual-cultural minority, who could deal with
the Deaf heritage? Would it be the Deaf people or the hearers? If the hearers
there is the counter-argument the lacking experience of deafness, so they would
never competent enough. At the same time - the Deaf have not enough theoretical
knowledge necessary for collecting and interpreting the material. And based on
what should we interpret the Deaf heritage: the frames set by the hearers, or
should a new framework considering all aspects of the lingual and cultural
uniqueness of deafness be developed? The worst variant would be that the deaf
are seen only as receivers of material coming from hearing community and are
thus treated from the hearers' point of view.
2. In collecting biographic data from the deaf, interviews should be
conducted in Sign Language as I pointed before. Thus the interviewer
establishes direct contact with Deaf person; this will not be happening in
using Sign Language interpreter. Naturally, the whole storytelling act should
be videotaped, leaving a primary source. The video will be supplemented with
translation from Sign Language, making the material accessible in typed form
for non-signing people. Since these narrations require a kinetic, not a verbal
medium of expression, and a visual, not an aural appreciation, there is also
the problem that all aspects of visual and kinetic accents are lost. But
certainly, there is variety of ways collecting Deaf biographies: some of them
would be written whilst others would be collected by interviewing. The language
of interviews will be ranged from spoken language to Sign-supported spoken
language, and Sign Language. One some occasions Sign Language interpreters would
be used.
3. An important aspect is how the Deaf person himself interprets his own
life course: this may be contrary to that of his or her family, friends and
relatives, especially if they are hearers. Many of the Deaf biographies deal
with questions of identity and community, isolation and rejection, and overt
discrimination. The stories of the deaf reveal how they have managed in the
hearing world, how they have arranged their life, how they are solved the
communication problem etc.
There can find two threads in the Deaf
biographies: 1) the deaf person's isolation (i.e. a deaf person in a hearing
family); 2) the deaf person's social isolation (A deaf child in the school of
deaf, creating tight connections in the community. The hearing world has been
seen as cruel and unjust, within the Deaf community, relations are caring and
warm, etc.). But there is a lot more possible conclusion. Deaf bibliographies
are not, however, a collection of 'victim' stories. There are many successes
among these people and much for Deaf people to celebrate. We can't find a
"typical" Deaf life course. There are as many experiences as there
are deaf people, and the storytellers represent only themselves.
The Deaf should not be excluded when collecting
Estonian biographies; the life and experiences of deaf are an enriching, unique
aspect in understanding the world. Their biographies range from light-hearted
and amusing to sad and angry as some biographies of hearing people too. After
all, these people live beside us day by day.
(Additional
material: "The Biography of Fritz Helstein" (A Summary); episodes
from the film "Stan of Life and Choices of the Deaf".)
The Child-birth Heritage of the
Udumurts East of the Kaama River
Tatiana Minniiakhmetova
Udmurts living East of the Kaama River have maintained more traditions
than the general Udmurt community. In addition, they practice old customs not
on a random basis but use actively in everyday and holiday customs. Customs
connected with childbirth can be considered important and necessary.
As is clear from both literature and my own fieldwork material, Udmurt
women know mechanisms of having a baby. But in addition to this, they are
convinced that gods and fairies influence the birth of a child. They do not
believe that children come from the underworld, but many aspects of childbirth
customs show that dead forefathers or habitants of the other world participate
in these matters.
According to Udmurtian beliefs, everybody has two souls: lul connected to breathing and urt seen as shadow. Urt and lul are different
in that the first can leave the body for while the person is asleep or ill,
while the other stays in the body till death. Both are necessary for normal
life.
The birth of a child is participated by these gods and fairies: vorshud – the protector of the kindred
and the family; mukõlchin – the earth
god; inmar – the god. The
continuation of the kindred is the main goal of every person’s life. Therefore
a pregnant woman must constantly pray for a live and healthy child. Up to the
1970s, Udmurt women gave birth in the sauna or at home; naturally in recent
times they give birth either at home or in the hospital.
The new-born was received in the sauna by the midwife who gave the child
her first name - min'cho nim or sauna
name. The afterbirth was gathered into a clean piece of cloth and buried into a
sauna corner. In some villages, however, it was put into bass shoes and buried
in the orchard or garden. It was not advisable that anyone notice the buried
afterbirth. It was especially horrifying and dangerous if a dog found it. Also,
the umbilical cord was not to be simply thrown away.
Children born in a lucky shirt were and are still
treated as special. The embryo sac was washed and kept to be later used for a
specific purpose.
For 40 days following birth, the child was washed in the sauna almost
every day, as it is also done today. For the first three days the baby is
washed in the sauna, later every other day and still later less and less often.
If the new-born gave no sign of life, a ritual of calling the soul of
the stillborn was carried out: the register was opened and a family member hit
the iron register hard. At the same time, the midwife held the child and said
audibly: Kulemjes, peresjes. Sjotele solõ
lul – “Dead forefathers, old ones. Give his soul.” There is also a custom
that the midwife lit a match in the oven in front of the woman. Holding the
match, she called all dead relatives by saying Lul vaje – “Bring the soul”.
The child was also given a second, official name. The first, “sauna
name”, was a secret name that was not used; this name protected the child.
There is even a custom for changing name, for if the child is sick or cries
much, it is thought that the name is not suitable for him and needs to be
changed.
After birth, on the same day or soon after, ritual food is cooked –
bread and porridge – and the first praying is held.
Very many customs related to what is to be done after birth have reached
our time. When the child is brought home, he and the mother are certainly taken
to the sauna, a place still important for the Udmurts. It is believed that the
sauna cures diseases. For 40 days after birth the baby is not considered a
human. He is referred to as vil' lul
- new soul or vil' zõn - new smell.
Also, during this time the baby is not to be seen by strangers in fear of the
evil eye. The child is not to be left alone in fear of being exchanged by bad
and evil fairies. After these 40 days, bäbäj
tuj or nunõ sjuan – “the child’s
wedding” is held, after which the child is considered a human.
Beliefs and Customs Related to
Death
Tiia Köss
Beliefs and customs related
to death have been and are varied in Estonian folklore. They change in time as
folklore changes, reflecting the attitudes to life in different eras.
Some aspect of contemporary
death culture:
1.
A prevailing
theme is fear and veneration of death.
2.
In contemporary
society, death culture is not only related to folk belief, but also encompasses
juridical, medical, psychological, etc. aspects, thus making the subject
interdisciplinary. In village society all these aspects were an organic part of
heritage.
3.
Today, a good
death is considered one that comes unexpected – for example, dying when asleep
–, contrary to Estonian traditions where death was not to come suddenly,
disrupting the world order everyone believed in.
4.
Death has become
a routine: the hospital department – preservation – autopsy – the funeral
bureau – the funeral – the death certificate. Death is no longer a part of
everyday life but a field of occupation; death has become impersonal. Taking
care of the dead is handled by strangers. Death has moved onto paper, becoming
the last event of a person’s biography. Contemporary urban society turns a lot
of attention to the death of celebrities.
5.
Contemporary
death culture is characterised by individuality, distancing from death. The
world of beliefs is much more subdued in the rational present – it is not
considered proper to believe, although answers for the time and place of death
are still sought from everyday life. However, death omens are not considered to
apply to oneself but rather to somebody else, usually a close person. Thus we
can observe a developmental tendency of from the self to the outside.
6.
Archive material
reveals whether the respondent is still lives according to the described world.
Contemporary researcher is more distanced from the research material as a
representative of a newer and more realistic world view.
7.
Cross-cultural
communication undoubtedly influences death culture. Processes of integration
are unavoidable on funerals.
What do we need a death culture for today? In the heat of emotions it is
difficult for a person to find the best way of expressing feelings. He is
helped by the funeral customs with determined rituals and ethic norms. Rituals
help establish balance within the person and organise relationships in the
society. Funeral customs are one way of guaranteeing consistency between
generations. Today these customs are a multileveled mix from different times,
religions, beliefs. Estonians’ traditions connected with death have not become
disconnected, but have changed. But the changes are yet too fresh to have any
concrete form.
The current paper is based on a proseminar work
defended at the chair of Estonian and comparative folklore dealing with grave
markings and data on them: personal data (name and dates), writings and images
found in the K-sector of Kärdla cemetery.
The section in question encompasses 164 graves from 1970 to 2000.
Tombstones are classified according to outward characteristics (material,
colour, shape, etc.) and special characteristics of grave markings. Descriptive
statics reveal three aspects of tombstones that could be of interest to
folklorists.
1.
The discrepancy between impression and reality.
Moving about the cemetery all
grave markings from an era seem alike, while closer examination reveals
differences - contrary to the general impression, grave markings vary widely within a
single era. The so-called typical grave marking is an abstraction.
2.
The grave marking of a common person versus of
a celebrity. The main subject
of investigation is the grave marking of an ordinary person which despite
abundant variations still form a unity: there are common characteristics as to
both the tombstone and the design of its markings (see photo 1). Differences
are caused by locality, partly due to the proximity of the sea (see photo 2),
partly due to the fact that Kärdla is situated on an island and its habitants
are islanders (see photo 3). But tombstones of people that have had an
important contribution to culture stand outside the canon; their grave markings
differ from the traditional in almost all respects (see photos 4, 5, 6).
3.
Attitudes and values. Far-reaching conclusions are made about how
the deceased was perceived by his relatives by the design of the grave and
choice of grave markings. There are certain stereotypes that people are
expected to follow. Among others, it influences the concept of what a grave
marking (i.e. the typical grave marking) should be like, and the real tombstone
is made in accordance to this concept. The relationship of how much typical and
individual a grave marking is shows us how much we can (or is proper) to differ
from others. This also explains the contradiction between an ordinary person’s
and celebrity’s grave marking.
The
Boundaries of the “Us” and “They” Groups among Siberian Estonians
Astrid Tuisk
My father was in the Sangaste manor
in Estonia. My father was 14 when they left. There was little land available.
When they came here, the village was all measured out, there were 4 wells.
There was railway till Omsk, from there on you had to come on your own. The hay
was up to their chests. My mother started crying: “We will die here, who would
help us here!”
This emotional story was related in the village
called Zolotaia Niva – the Golden Cornfield. The story is but another
expression of the most memorable events in the short history of Siberian
Estonians – emigration and establishment of a new home. Only about thirty of
the settlements established at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th
centuries have survived, while the number of Estonians in Siberia has winded to
a half of the 33,600 counted in 1939.
After resettling, boundaries between the groups of “us” and “they” were
established. This was accomplished, for example, by creating a myth of common
past. Although life in Estonia is not remembered, depicting the hard and unjust
serfdom times are important elements of emigration tales. What is remembered of
how places were named is related to coming to Siberia and the hardships of
beginning a new life. Events connected with the former fatherland Estonia as
well as those happening before their arrival and outside their own village are
at the background. Difference is made between “tallinn” and “tartu”, or
respectively North and South Estonian dialects, but more importance is given to
whether one comes from settlements established by South or North Estonians.
Contemporary habitants of various ethnicity and
settled at different times are connected by their common geographical location
– Siberia. Still, Estonians give little importance to whether the neighbouring
village habitants are re-settlers from Belorussia, the Ukraine or from the
Viatka gubernia. Tartars is the common name used for Tartars, Kazakhs,
Chuvashes and other peoples. The forgotten Estonian local legends have not been
replaced by Siberian ones.
A
new national group sharing common history, geography, chronology and identity
has appeared – the Siberian Estonians. What is it that determines the boundary
between the us and they groups today: nationality, place of origin, language
use, current location, cultural background? Why was it that especially at the
beginning of resettlement times they preferred to stay aloof and integration
was not considered important? Whether we are dealing with a marginal national
group in-between two cultures – this question is sought to answer with the help
of the Siberian Estonians’ opinions and their folklore.
Crooks
and Heroes, Priests and Preachers. Religion and Socialism in the Oral-Literary
Tradition of a Finnish-Canadian
Mining Community
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander
My paper is based on a case study of
the history and oral-literary tradition of a Finnish community in the
goldmining center of Timmins and South Porcupine in Northern Ontario, Canada.
The goldmining center was founded in 1909 and grew very fast into one of the
largest goldmines of the Western hemisphere.
The largest ethnic groups in this
community were the Finns, the Ukranians, the French, the Italians and the
Croatians. Strikes, great fires
and mine accidents are described as the most important events in the short history of the community.
The focus of my paper is on the
controversial relationship of religion and socialism as it has been discussed
in various oral or literary narratives of the Finnish immigrants. My source
material includes handwritten newspapers from th 1910s and 1920s, manuscript or
published local histories and interviews.
The political situation of the
community was complex: the Finns of Timmins and South Porcupine had a
reputation of being communists and atheists, and the Finnish (Socialist)
Organization of Canada actually was the strongest political group for a long
time. The strict ideology led to the marginalization of the Finns, and many of
them moved to Soviet Carelia at the end of the 1920s. At the beginning of the
1930s both the right-wing,
religious Finns and the more moderate socialists were organized. Also the
religious situation was complex, since both the preachers of the United Church
of Canada and the Lutheran priests were competing for the souls of the Finns.
Until the 1960s the Finnish community was strictly divided into several
political groups, and all avoided contact with each other.
Priests and preachers are central
characters in the oral-literary local tradition of the Finnish community.
Presbyterian preachers of the United Church in particular are described as controversial
crook-hero-characters. In my paper
I will analyze narrative strategies and tendencies of “the priest/preacher
stories”. I will also discuss the relationship of the immigrant narratives to
the Finnish legend tradition and oral history in the light of the research done
by Anna-Leena Siikala and Ulla-Maija Peltonen.
On the Ethnic Identity of St. Petersburg Estonians
Liina Rootalu
St.
Petersburg is a multicultural city. Why in such circumstances ethnic identities
change or are maintained as important is the main question sought to answer by
the present paper. It would be perhaps more correct to say that identification
is a process -
never
finished but constantly ongoing. Ethnic identity should be viewed as a person's
relationship with a certain ethnic group. The construction of ethnic identity
can be studied through how and what is told of one's life. Thus biographical
stories is the best means for this goal. I will view a certain group of ethnic
Estonians with whom
biographical
interviews were conducted.
My
informants are connected by command of the Estonian language. There are a total
of about 500 Estonians born and grown up in the Leningrad oblast and in St.
Petersburg, former Leningrad. However, only 18 of them spoke Estonian. The
eldest was born in 1903, the youngest in 1958. 13 of the sample had born in the
Soviet times and 3 after World War II. They see the language as the key symbol
to being an Estonian. The majority of them was born in the first half of the
20th century and define themselves as Estonians in Russia. Although they are
also connected by the events of the same era, their lives have been very
different.
For
comparison, I interviewed 13 Estonians who have for various reasons resettled
to St. Petersburg after acquisition of school education. The eldest was born in
1916 and the youngest in 1954. It is interesting to observe how the group
adapted to another culture. Thus we have the biography of 31 people considering
themselves Estonians living in St. Petersburg. The choice of material allows us
to compare the perception of history by people with different cultural
background and memory, their search for themselves as connected to the quality
of life.
Considering
the factors contributing to the development of ethnic identity, Russian
Estonians are of more interest. Biographies reflect Russian history and social
context connected. The totalitarian ideology of the socialist country contributed
to the attempts of growing the soviet person for whom ethnicity was of no
importance. National groups were dispersed, leaving only separate persons
carrying ethnic identity. I had the opportunity to talk to people with strong
personalities. They were not killed or broken, nor had they adapted. While many
had returned to Estonia as soon as there was a possibility, I was interested in
those that for different reasons could not return but still carry a strong
national identity. They have managed to be integrated, while not assimilated in
St. Petersburg.
The
existence of ethnical Estonians in Russia is connected with language acquired
in childhood, family oriented to Estonia, and in some cases also with attending
Estonian schools and the Estonian Society. Religion and church were not as
important, they could not have been in the USSR. In 1937, all schools and
societies were closed. But it seems that Protestant ethics has still influenced
them, probably through the childhood home. The informants consider Estonians to
be individualistic, neat, hard-working and introverted.
Reasons
for the ancestors for coming to Russia are known fairly well: relatives were
lost in repression actions, homes burnt down in the war. There are few written
sources, but some photos have been acquired and family trees reconstructed.
It
is the role of ethnic stereotypes to stabilise and support ethnic concepts. Due
to Estonia becoming independent, isolation from Estonia has increased further.
Russian Estonians relate songs, tales and linguistic forms no longer in use in
Estonia. Instead of Estonian territory, the Estonian Society is the cultural
outlet, running language courses and divine service in Estonian. Unfortunately,
these are of little interest to the young; being Estonian is mostly restricted
to the retired.
In
biographic tales, fatherland is not perceived as a territory. Childhood homes
in the country are often recollected. The land of the forefathers is dear to
them, but generally unknown or idealised; they know little Estonian history and
the oppression of Estonians is beyond their understanding. Fatherland and
country are not synonyms. They live in a situation different from the Estonian
one country, one territory. Russia is like a mainland, with extremely different
regions. There is no common nominator for Estonians living in the East as they
are called by where they live.
The
attitude of those grown in Estonia is quite different. For them, Estonia will
remain the fatherland they want to return to. But their children and
grandchildren are already rooted in St. Petersburg. One's own nationality is
always perceived more clearly when person gets into the foreign country. The
first generation of resettles carries different understandings and has
different scars, sometimes causing conflicts in the Estonian Society. With the
changing of generations, there are less and less decisions based on emotions.
Based
on biographic and situational stories of different cultural background and by
understanding the remembering of the past in the context of the present, it is
possible to study the current social background of Estonians living in St.
Petersburg. The narration’s reflect the individual level, not a common
attitude. One's identity is attempted to be defined via national feelings.
Cultural memory comes from childhood. It is important for the Estonians living
in the city that they form a group which has a common social basis. We know who
we are only when we know who we are not.
Mara Lazda
Oral histories and memoirs play a particularly
significant role in societies which have been denied the ability to write their
own histories. In the second half of the 20th century, Latvia was occupied by
two authoritarian states — the Soviet and the Nazi — which sought to control
memory and history. The recording of individual memories was limited to the
private sphere and could be freely expressed only in underground literature or
in the oral tradition. Individual and social remembering, however, continued
and the glasnost period in 1985 revealed the need for
individuals to express their experiences and to find others with common
histories. Oral histories provide insight into the past not only for the
researcher, but also for the individual interviewee.
At the same time, official history, based on
documents and "objective" facts, has remained dominant. This study
argues that all levels of memory--individual, social, and official--must be
considered in order construct a more complete picture of the 20th century in
Latvia. Specifically, this paper will focus on the history of World War II in
Latvia.
One of the most painful memories of the Soviet
occupations in Latvia is the mass deportation of Latvians to Siberia. These
days, June 14, 1941, and March 25, 1949, are days of national mourning in
Latvia. This history is presented on an official and social level as a national
tragedy. The oral histories of deportations support this social understanding
of history and describe feelings of sorrow and memories of brutality, but they
also provide a more complex picture of this experience. They reflect the
different experiences of men and
women, of representatives of various social, economic, and ethnic groups. Life in exile often constructed a sense of solidarity with
other nationalities and social groups, which provides a context for official
"national" history. Finally, while the period of exile in Siberia is
clearly a period of isolation and despair, these narratives are also stories of
strength and pride. The deportees
were able to construct some kind of a life in Siberia and to survive.
Latvian society today also struggles with its
history and memories of the Nazi occupation. This paper will also briefly
examine oral histories of the Nazi occupation as a source of valuable insight into the different
experiences and memories of various ethnic groups (for example, Latvians, Russians, Jews, Germans).
Oral histories which reveal the individual in history shed light on the
conflict between the individual and national groups during war. Wartime
propaganda divides society into large faceless groups. Individuals, however,
often continue to remember the individual.
In conclusion, the use of oral histories, as
well as more traditional sources, in the study of World War II in Latvia
reveals a history not only of the nation, but of different social and national
groups. This multidimensional approach may also serve as a common bridge
between these groups in the future.
Narrated Kin, Narrated
History
Pauliina Latvala
My
paper focuses on narrated family history. The material consists of texts sent
to a collection competition “The Great Narrative of the Family” organized by
the Finnish Literature Society Folklore Archive 1997. In addition, this paper
is based on a few interviews. My interests here are threefold. Firstly, I
explore the narrated family history as tradition. How the narrators actualize
and create their tradition, and in what purpose? One important aim is to
describe the individual experiences of the changes in family and kin in 20th
century Finland. Peoples’ categories of their kinship system differs from the
official model. The old cultural model is based on patriarchal lines of
genealogy and is often vertical. The texts and interviews stress that non-blood
relatives and emotional kin are important, as well as horizontal- and
matriarchal-lines of genealogy. The kin and ‘one’s roots’ get different
regional, historical and ethnic emphasizes and cultural meanings. Furthermore,
the texts are produced according to what is important to narrator’s identity.
Secondly, while dealing with the written material, I examine the narration
process and its’ textual strategies as literary discourses. Narrators have
written their memories, oral history and experiences in different genres and
styles. This production process is called a textualisation strategy. Different
registers and their markers are used in texts in order to bring forth the
meanings. Thirdly, I analyse the historical representations of texts. Family
history differs from official history. For example, family history tells about
the most important individual events of
the World War II, the official history on the other hand concentrates on nations and states. The
memories tell about tragically and personal experiences.
The Soviet Time in the
Biographies of the Estonians
Ene Kõresaar
Reading the written biographies of
the Estonians sent to the Estonian Museum of Literature, one gets a weird and
confusing impression: compared to the periods of the independent republic of
Estonia the period of the soviet Estonia is much less and one-sided expressed
in the biographies of older Estonians. We may as well say that this particular
period as well as the lives lived at that period almost disappear in the life
histories, not to mention that almost no estimation of a political, historical,
economic or moral kind is given to that period.
Considering that particular
experience, questions about the soviet time in Estonia were included in the
biographical interviews to elderly Estonians conducted during the project “Memory as a culture
factor” in 1998-1999. Here, at first, the similar picture occurred but at a
closer look it seems that the biographies of the soviet time just take another
form in which the experiences of the time are filtered. When so, we must look
behind the form and read between the lines to grasp the “soviet life
experiences” of individuals. Further more, even if hidden, the soviet time as
experienced often constitutes a point of departure for elderly Estonians in
comparisons and estimations of the times of independence of the Estonian
Republic.
My paper deals with both written and
told biographies of the Estonians born in the 1920s. I will concentrate on
following questions:
1. How to
interpret the matter of almost exclusion the soviet time in the biographies?
2. Which
forms the experiences of the soviet time take in the biographies? How the
experiences expressed differ by gender and social class?
3. How the
soviet time as experienced functions in the comparison and estimation of the
Estonian history?
Baiba Bela-Kruminja
Oral history not only gives a voice to so called common people,
to social groups or ethnicity’s
usually silenced by the dominating version of official history, but it also
allows us to observe how each individual story draws upon a common culture. Life stories may tell us about
symbolic categories through which
reality is perceived and interpreted. Analysis of life stories shows changing facts of life as well as
indicates changes in the culture, language, traditions, habits, social praxis etc.
I would like to use life stories of apolitical women in Latvia
in order to show different
possibilities of perception and creation of history. Also, I will show how life story can throw light on the process as well as on the
mechanisms of social change and
emerging cultural differences.
I chose life stories of apolitical women, because they still
can be seen as significant social
group, but are traditionally evaluated as an insignificant historical power. These life stories
allow a focus on the relationship between
privacy and history. How historical is private life? How private is
history?
History, private as well as academic, is composed from only some
events from the flow of life. We
are looking for traditions and existing genres when creating our history — private as well as academic. Maybe the creation of the
apolitical life course is one
possibility of many others. The construction of these life stories differs from the construction of more
political ones. The narrative is made
through private events and action take place usually in a close
neighborhood. The flow of time is
segmented without using years and conventional points of reference to adjust individual life
story to common history.
Despite everything political events
transform a life's worldview, and we can see these transformations in described events - in narratives
about confirmation, wedding, work, children etc. In these life stories among other things we can
see the conflict between two discourses -
how the Latvian national cultural discourse, the active shaping of which
started at the end of the 19th
century, was affected by the Soviet discourse after 1940, on the ideological
and political level as well as in its attempt to change social life and redefine the perceiving
and interpretation of world
events.
A life story is composed of both the narration itself as well
as the events narrated. An oral
historian should take into account that
both aspects of narration:
the narration and the events in the narration are not hard facts and can not be understood without
understanding of the act of narration,
which has the concrete cultural and social background. Therefore content
and form of a life story as well
as the act of narration signify social changes and emerging cultural differences and values. And in one society
simultaneously may exist different
ways of perceiving and creating history.
Dace
Bormane
Our movement in time is much more similar to
movement in space than we usually imagine (Jaan Kross). History is topical. A
house represents the movement of time in a certain space, a space which absorbs
and is shaped by the experiences around it. The house is socially archeological
(completely different, seemingly unrelated factors can be found next to one
another). As far as spatial construction and language are concerned the house
provides the environment, background, and context for events and
happenings. The house becomes a
part of an individual's biographical situation and becomes the object of the
ethos reflection.
Currently an opportunity for discourse is
developing regarding "another history" which exists along with
official, political, aristocratic, military, silent etc. history. In Latvia's
society, which has been ruled for decades by "doubles consciousness"
or "silence," the presence of the individual is evident throughout
history. This kind of history represents a process, which does not consider
people to be simply subjected to external influences or submitted to a certain
power, but rather puts the individual at the center of the 20th century, in the
context of history. The issue is the culture of history (J. Ruesen), as well
as historical consciousness and
the application of history: moral,
existential, political, commercial.
In this study of a rental building in Riga
(1996-1999), the lifestories of its owners and inhabitants (20) are recorded.
This includes interviews, photographs, information regarding the house since
the 1930s. The individuals are invited to share their lifestories because of
their connection to this house. History is shaped in these texts: lifestories,
which free history for the present and for document testimonies. The recording
of lifestories is a dialog: a conversation with oneself, with others about
life's reconstruction. Lifestories cross time lines not only in one direction,
its historicity reflects not only linear time, but also a philosophical sense
of time. Text creates text. The
components of this study complement and support each other, interact, and thus determine the relationship between the
objects studied, the researchers themselves, various concepts.
Questions which are considered in the study of
the house as a specific social unit:
1)
the
owners of the house and their families lives (chronology, social structure,
individual's history)
2)
the
biography of the home (in a broad sense) reflects social changes, relationships
and value changes regarding one's livingspace, his/her relationship and sense
of belonging to this place, the influence of the structure of one's living
space on one's living situation, value orientation, identity, "history of
beliefs"
3)
dialog
interaction in the house
(considering national, class, gender differences)
The histories both in the House and of the
House itself provide insight into the social changes past and still present,
make these changes clear and available for analysis.. .
Mara Zirnïte
Lizete Svanenberg, 85 years old,
recorded at Luzna, Kurzemes peninsula, in1987. She spoke in the Tamian dialect
of Latvian. There is a simple explanation that the Tamian dialect was created
by Livonians when they use Livonian Grammar rules in Latvian speech, In Lizete's life-story there are memories about an Estonian
professor Loorits, whom she calls "Baltgalvîtis" (Whit-headed man,
because of his white hair), carefully listening and learning her mother's Livonian language and folk-tales.
"Like roe in the wood's darkness - so beautiful and clueless" - this
folk-teller Oskar Loorits wrote poetically about Lizete's mother. The call of
the wild and mythological outlook echoes throughout Lizete's life- story.
Lizete narrates about her own life in a creative way: about 2
years at school, before her father - a seaman, took his family to Odessa,
Sevastopole - during World War I; about her husband's death on the sea, about
the last Livonian feelings when their Fatherland became the Soviet
boundary, with various
military forces around. She likes
to repeat the belief of her Mother that everybody needs to leave a cup of water
in the bail of well for Spirits, and after washing water at the bath house
leaving something for the Daughter
of Mâra. The many times Lizete was recorded, every time she had another history
to tell. When a bus with tourists came, she always was ready to tell how she
found Livonian language in TV and how she came a star of cinema, how she in
childhood saw Lenin and Stalin and how she played games with the Tsar's children on Sevastopole's
railway station when she was a refugee.
Fantasies and real happenings — all
are mixed in the way of Lizete's Story telling. In Lizete's version of the
traditional Livonian folk-tale motif about Blue Cows and Sea Goddess the
Daughter of Mâra was played by a
real person — Lizete's
neighbor Davins. Many years later in another world he could listen Lizete's tales
about himself in many ways.
"The Daughter of Mâra came out
of the sea with her blue cows. She had twelve cows, twelve blue cows. She left
them graze there on Davins' field, right across Davins' field she led them. And
then old Davins looked: what are those cows on his field?
He says: I'll take a stick to you!
Now he takes a stick and drives
them out, drives those blue cows out. So the Daughter of Mâra looks on dunes,
she looks and says:
- Don't touch them, they are my cows!
So Davins says:
- Drive them away, drive those cows away from my field, drive
them away, I'll beat them off!
Who wants his fields trampled down?
The Daughter of Mâra takes her
twelve cows and drives them into the sea, drives them back into the sea and
says:
- Hunger is upon you and from hunger you will have to die,
for not letting me graze them, for driving my cows away.
And she leads them away, she leads
all her cows off into the sea. And she never returns."
The Life-stories keep specific Livonian character and
poetry longer than language which flew away in a rapid way — nobody on the
Livonian coast speak the Livonian
language in the family now. Without language, Livonians could still find their identity in the historical memory.
O. Loorits. Volkslieder der Liven, Tartu, 1936.
Collective Farms as Reflected in
Biographies
Marietta Aardam
The subject of collective farms is reflected in biographies collected in
the 1990s in the following ways:
1.
in biographies of
rural people;
2.
the topic is more
or less related to conflict situations;
3.
most cases are
presented as informative summaries.
The collective farms are related to history: many biography writers have
emphasised that they are writing so that the generations to come would know how
it all really was; i.e. they were motivated by the need for truth. However, we
are here not dealing with the factual historical truth but historical facts as
perceived subjectively, as related to one’s life. Thus for example the
Molotov-Rippendroff Pact is not mentioned while deportations and establishment
of the collective farms are.
The topic is related to heritage via
self-justification. Those that have been in Siberia have been rehabilitated,
while those that joined collective farms are not. It is important to show that
the writer was not to blame, but the soviet regime was. This also shows a clear
US-THEY opposition.
Biographies end with the appreciation that what
happened in the past has no meaning – Estonians have always found a way out
through hard work. The person does not reproach himself.
The presentation will elaborate the third point
– how the past is told and what is considered important. Naturally, this is
closely connected with appraisal in general and thus these topics are not
viewed separately.
Tiiu Jaago
At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, I became more and
more acquainted with the field that I started calling family heritage. People
related about everyday life, calendar holidays, religion and singing for the
kids in a way that it reflected the person’s own close relations: when mother died…; when I first went to a wedding then mother …; when I was in the army, father …; my mother sang …; when mother
got married then … The stories following these phrases could, of course, be
classified into folklore genres following the scientific tradition, but this
lost the whole the story carried: the connection between the narrator’s life
experience and heritage. This evoked me to analyse the material from another
point of view – family heritage.
The narrator’s relationship with the family and whether this manifests
in the story told is influenced by several factors, three of which I will
elaborate further:
1.
Societal
background system. Tales told by narrators coming from rural and urban
societies, with local and mobile lifestyle are principally different. (From
this point of view the nationality of the narrator is not considered.) The
differences are caused by the differences of experiences. Another important
factor is who, how and in what circumstances relate: experience determines
topics, emphasises, what can be talked about at all.
2.
The function of
family heritage for the heritage carrying group. For example, in the soviet
times family heritage was largely alternative history correcting formal
education; it filled in gaps that the formal history left for different
reasons. In the 1990s the socio-political situation changed, followed by a
change in heritage. Topics and emphasise in narrating is influenced by the
function narrating carries.
3.
Earlier tradition
of narrating – cultural facilitation. Prior to World War II narrating had clear
regional characteristics. I have thoroughly studied heritage of Läänemaa and
Virumaa parishes: the difference in family heritage is displayed by the fact
that in Läänemaa county action thread is dominating while in Virumaal county
more emphasise is given to the tradition of narrating. Traditions influence
what is considered proper to narrate and how the narration is carried out.
Up to the 1990s, Estonian family heritage was centred on knowledge of
forefathers as connected with a “new beginning”: forefather came from Sweden after the Great Northern War; forefather
was exchanged for hunting dogs from Hiiumaa Island to Virumaa county after the
Great Northern War; grandfather became a bar-keeper… ; grandfather came from
Hiiumaa island and bought a farm here ….
The continuity of the family and the connection of all members of the
family to the same location is considered important.
At the end of the 1990s, the emphasis of family heritage moves to a
person’s individuality. Forefathers are important if they are connected with
the narrator by some outward similarity of character or abilities: there are freckles in our family because the
forefathers came from Ireland. Neither is family heritage any longer in the
role of alternative history as it used to. Heritage is rather more connected
with comparison of personal experiences and behavioural norms.
Family heritage reflects history on at least two levels: what has been
(the factual level) and what importance is given to the past at the time of
narrating (the level of appreciation). Narration’s are centred on information
thus allowing us to assume that the factual level remains unchanged. However,
this is not quite so: the factual level depends on the interpretation of the
story. In heritage history both what is told as well as what is left untold is
important.