Paper short abstract:

Although the ancient agricultural practice of upland grazing around shielings is under threat, animals that still graze the outfields have not forgotten their ancient grazing patterns. Can past grazing practices be re-vitalised in a quest for sustainability?

Paper long abstract:

Many traditional grazing landscapes have changed dramatically due to lack of human and animal impact, resulting in the loss of specific eco-systems which rely on such impact. The sound of animal bells is the sound of a cultural and historical continuum of grazing cattle and the people who hung, and still hang, bells around their necks. In the past, the cow wearing the bell would know the way to the best pasture. The reason she knew is because she has once followed another bell cow as a calf, as a heifer. These animals are hefted to the land, they have become attached to an upland pasture because they have embodied a memory, a heritage of movement, throughout their lives.

With the quest for efficiency in modern agriculture, brushwood encroachment of heritage landscapes is prevalent. Although the ancient agricultural practice of upland grazing around shielings is under threat, animals that are still allowed to graze these outfields have not forgotten their ancient grazing patterns. Cows in an unbroken line of animals hefted to the land, maintain their practice despite lack of human encouragement. By tracking the cows digitally, their movement patters revealed that the cows sought fields surrounding old dairies that are long gone. These places had a higher biodiversity and a wider and probably more interesting selection of herbage to graze. Their hooves had habitually embodied the movement heritage of the land. Can past grazing practices be re-vitalised in a quest for sustainability, and can grazing animals reclaim their heft?

Paper short abstract:

The presentation concentrates on mire/swamp sport events and mire athletes in 21st century Finland. The study highlights new recreational uses of nature that indicate change in the human-nature relationship.

Paper long abstract:

In many western countries mires and peatlands have been utilized in various ways: people have picked berries and hunted game there, and, since the beginning of farming, peatlands have provided wild hay for cattle and bedding for barnhouses. Mires have also seen as frightening, anomalous places and resisting landscapes that were moulded into something else. Peatlands have been ditched for agricultural use, forestry, and peat production which has reduced their number. In the 21st century, the intangible values of mires have increased. In modern urbanized societies, most people live far away from mires and for many they represent mainly places of recreation.

Some unconventional uses of mires like mire/swamp sport events have grown in popularity in several European countries. For example, swamp soccer and swamp volley tournaments have established their position among the Finnish summer events calendar. The mire sport tournaments are mainly held in peatlands where peat extraction is ceased. This study concentrates on mire sport events and mire athletes, and the central research question is: how does mire sport events influence the construction of human-mire relationship and re-building of a new cultural heritage? The empirical research material consists of thematic research interviews of mire sport athletes and ethnographic observations in mire sports events held 2020-2021 in Finland. The sport tournaments are humorous in nature, however, they prompt people to think about the natural values of mire which otherwise would not be considered. This study highlights new kinds of thoughts about mires that anticipate changes in attitudes and actions.

Paper short abstract:

The forest yoga phenomenon is a new well-being trend in 2020's Finland. Drawing from the fields of folklore and landscape studies, I will analyze the relationships between the forest landscape, the forest yoga practitioner's body and the imagined 'Kalevalaic' past's presence in the practice.

Paper long abstract:

Forests have been represented as 'sacred' places for Finns in national-romantic discourses for centuries. Currently, these discourses are increasingly brought forth again, as peoples' growing awareness of the climate crisis and ecological catastrophes, fragmenting spiritual identities, imageries of popular culture, and the mobility restrictions during the pandemic have generated new urban lifestyles. Local forests are seen and experienced, on one hand, as sources for individual well-being, and places for creating ecologically driven nature connectedness on the other. The historical folklore materials such as Baltic-Finnic oral poetry or folk beliefs are utilized in these practices.

In this paper, I will scrutinize the use of folklore in the new Finnish forest practices. I will especially concentrate on the forest yoga phenomenon that is a new well-being trend that has taken shape in 2010's Finland. This branch of modern yoga is based on well-known hatha yoga poses and meditation, but the practitioners link it with Finnic oral traditions. The forest yoga practice refers to the transnational new spiritual trends that are gaining popularity especially among urban and middle-class women globally.

In forest yoga, forests are seen as transtemporal spaces in which the materiality of forest is interpreted as an interface that connects the space and the yogi's body to the imagined distant and 'Kalevalaic' past of Finnishness. Furthermore, the forest landscape is interpreted as having otherworldly dimensions such as connections to the 'underworld'.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the role of the curator concerning the exhibition The Laxá Conflict. The exhibition deals with nature conservation and a small community and raises curatorial challenges. The paper examines the road to curatorial solutions while being respectful towards the local community.

Paper long abstract:

This December the exhibition The Laxá conflict: The Morning Glow of Environmentalism in Iceland opened in the Cultural Centre in Húsavík. In this exhibition the story of a community fighting for the conservation of the river Laxá is told.

In 1969 the electricity company Laxárvirkjun officially announced its plans to enlarge its hydropower station in the valley Aðaldalur. The project would change the river Laxá and its natural environment greatly. The people living on the banks of Laxá and Lake Mývatn fought from the start against the plans and the feud continued until 1973. The conflict took place on multiple levels; in court proceedings, on the pages of newspapers, in petitions and finally with the first known case of environmental activism in Iceland that led to a court trial and judgment.

As a person that grew up on the banks of the river Laxá and the curator and designer of the exhibition the process of telling this story held many challenges and moral questions.

In this paper I explain the viewpoint of the hosting institution (The Culture Centre in Húsavík), my own approach as the curator of the exhibition and show how archival material, natural and cultural objects from the museum’s collections were used to tell a history of a fight about nature. It’s a story about complex feelings in the shadow of the Anthropocene. Love story in the age of Man.

Paper short abstract:

A number of large reservoirs were built in Bulgaria during the socialism. As a result at least forty villages in the valleys were destroyed and flooded. The population settled mainly in nearby cities. The paper deals with the mechanisms by which the flooded villages are symbolically revitalized.

Paper long abstract:

A number of large reservoirs were built in Bulgaria during the socialist period, as a result of which at least forty villages in the valleys were destroyed, obliterated and flooded. The cultural landscape has changed. The population settled mainly in nearby cities. This forced migration to the city completely changed the livelihood and lifestyle of the former villagers. The paper deals with relocated people’s memory and the mechanisms by which the flooded villages are symbolically revitalized. The annual meetings (feasts) of relocated people and their descendants on the shore of the reservoir; cultural practices (weddings, liturgies, movies, events, restorations) near the ruins of churches in obliterated villages; the toponyms from the flooded villages “transfered” to the new localities; the creation of products marked with the name of the flooded village are part of present-day cultural practices, which maintain the memory of the flooded villages. The study has been carried out within the research project “Submerged Heritage. A Village on the Reservoir’s Bottom: Migrations, Memory, Cultural Practices” (Bulgarian National Sciences Fund; 2018-2022).