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Paper short abstract:

The author reflects on silences in her research of population transfers, national heroes and other heritages which are perceived as consequences of national amnesias, contested pasts, national homogenizations of heritage, appropriations, interruptions of histories, changes of social positions etc.

Paper long abstract:

Among the reflections on different kind of silences in her ethnographic research the first one refers to an omnipresent silence on the "Istrian exodus", the migrations of 90% of Italian speaking population after WW II from the contested region of Istria after its annexation to Yugoslavia. Due to decades of fascist oppression and war violence, the Italian population was collectively criminalized in the dominant Yugoslav memory, thus, the memories and heritage of the ones who stayed in Istria as a minority were silenced. The question will be raised who, when and why was silenced. The research of memories on this period resounds in different kind of silences, which could be interpreted as consequences of incompatible individual/collective memories, individual traumas, struggles for power, outsider/insider position etc. However, silence can be also saturated with words, when memory tries to rationalize, censure and prevent from being hurt again. The second reflection refers to monuments to national heroes as material sites of official memory which reflect tensions with the individual memories and collective silences decades after the fall of the official memory. The paper reflects on reasons for persistent regional collective silence in a case of a national hero, which was still strong enough to obstruct the erecting of the monument. Silence in this case can be a result of adapting to a political system, a way to survive. Other silences can occur in the field of intangible heritage of beliefs as resistance against authoritative researcher, clash of different worldviews etc.