Paper short abstract:

The Lapland war (1944-1945) has left many different memories and traces in the local people’s minds and also in the nature in Lapland. The meaning of it can be discussed here as a difficult memory and local cultural heritage. They are still today eagerly discussed.

Paper long abstract:

The Second World War did not end in Lapland with the peace treaty of Soviet Union. From summer 1944 until spring 1945 so called “Lapin sota”, Lapland war was taken place. Whole civil population of Lapland had to be evacuated in Sweden and in Ostrobothnia. People could return home after the evacuation time next spring, but their home villages, roads etc were burned down. After very hard and rapid reconstruction period the life went on.

The traces which German troops left in the nature in Lapland have been partly demolished, but I will discuss here one special site, the Järämä in Enontekiö. The German troops built Järämä – in German Sturmbock-Stellung – as a larger defensive line intended to protect their way to Norwegian cost. Now part of the Sturmbock-Stellung has been rebuilt and since 1997 there is now a permanent exhibition which displays the events and phases of the Lapland War. It includes the civilians’ experiences during the evacuation to Sweden and rebuilding of Lapland as well as photos. To whom is the exhibition made and how it is used in tourism industry? What is the meaning of Lapland war for local people in Lapland.

I will discuss here how this difficult memory is now used as a part of cultural heritage.

Paper short abstract:

Building on discussions of object-oriented ontology, hauntology, and archeologies of the future, I suggest a hybridity of these forms to be used as an ethnographic lens. Here, I ask how notions of nostalgia, longing, forgetting, and accumulation can produce an archeological site.

Paper long abstract:

What agency do future archeological subjects possess? How can we, as anthropologists, folklorists, and cultural critics, apprehend the future in the past? How can ghosts become key informants on the future? In addressing these inquiries, this paper builds on discussions of object-oriented ontology (Harman 2002, Bryant 2011) and Derrida’s (1993) concept of hauntology, along with Jameson’s (2007) notion of archeologies of the future in order to develop a hybridity of these forms to be used as an ethnographic lens. Here, I ask how notions of nostalgia, longing, forgetting, and accumulation (of materiality, time, and capital) can produce a potential archeological site, from both an ideological and phenomenological perspective. This inquiry unpacks the significance of the authentic subject of both archeology (as a reflection of Kantian dualism) and ethnography (as a humanistic pursuit) in the context of late capitalist landscapes of becoming-ruin (Deleuze and Guattari 1980). As its ethnographic subject, this experiment utilizes the author's recent fieldwork (Armstrong 2020) in the deserted Hornstrandir region of Iceland as its primary locus of exploration. Beyond an elemental thought experiment, I hope to unearth a new ontological methodology for anthropologists of the Anthropocene, one that emerges from a necessary and timely bricolage (Lévi-Stauss 1966) of the anthropologies of the past, present, and future to produce a fluid and adaptive approach to writing culture (Clifford 1986).

Paper short abstract:

The paper aims at presenting two cases of effacement of the sacral site as a result of the construction of reservoirs in Bulgaria and their subsequent development, state and use. The parts of “submerged” churches remain on the surface nowadays, visible and experienced in a new way.

Paper long abstract:

With the increased construction of reservoirs in Bulgaria mostly in the second half of the 20th century, a number of settlements were evicted and erased along with their public, cultural, historical and religious sites. In most cases, their owners destroyed private houses to use the materials to build a new home in a new place. However, many public buildings – particularly the religious ones, often stayed untouched and were submerged, and their remains continue surfacing to this day. There are several such examples on the territory of Bulgaria, all of them with stories of desacralization and reuse.

In the presentation, the focus is on comparing cases of two churches that were submerged and effaced in the course of two reservoirs' construction. However, one may observe distinct differences regarding their present development, status and (re)usage. These are the church of the former village Zapalnya (under the waters of ‘Zhrebchevo’ reservoir) and the church of Viden village (flooded after the construction of the reservoir of ‘Koprinka’). Nowadays, the remains of these sacral buildings are on the surface – visible, experienced and rethought in a new way, on the one hand, but (re)confirmed as a cult object and realms of memory, on the other.

The analysis is based on field and bibliographic researches conducted in 2019 and 2020 within the scientific project “Submerged Heritage. A Village on the Dam’s Bottom: Migrations, Memory, Cultural Practices”.

Paper short abstract:

Economic restructuring often leaves old industrial areas as deserted, marginal wastelands, which are often perceived as dangerous and aesthetically disadvantageous. Here we assess alternative uses of and engagements with these environments, and the feelings and emotions they evoke in various users.

Paper long abstract:

Economic restructuring often leaves old industrial areas as deserted, marginal wastelands, which are often perceived as dangerous and aesthetically disadvantageous. On the other hand, they function as landmarks and fascinate as material monuments of the industrial past. During our ‘Smokestack Memories’ project we have mapped various alternative ways of interacting with abandoned industrial sites. These include both official and unofficial, forbidden activities. The official uses of ruined factories contain police, military, and urban survival training, and recreational uses, such as wargames with color-ball guns. The unofficial and trespassing uses include e.g. parkour and urban exploration.

In our presentation, we assess the relationships between the various re-uses and abandoned factory environments, and reflect on the feelings that engagement with the ruined industrial environments evoke in users. Our research methods include participatory observation at the sites with different actors, and netnographic analysis of Instagram images and websites related to different activities. As an example, urban exploration has often been viewed as a way of taking over slivers of space and opposing increased control in modern society. Through the various uses, relationships are built with the places. We approach the re-uses and re-visits to industrial sites through emotions and activities they arouse in the different kinds of users. We seek to understand alternative futures for industrial heritage sites, and consider whether some industrial heritage sites could be preserved and used as decaying and eventually disappearing playgrounds for explorers and history buffs.