Contribution short abstract:

The first ethnology professorships in Finland were established at the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University (both in 1921). The University of Turku was the third university to establish a professorship in ethology in 1961. This period has not properly been studied in Finnish ethnology.

Contribution long abstract:

The University of Turku was the third university to establish a professorship in ethology in 1961. The Ethnology Department was founded in 1958 in Turku and Ilmar Talve came to Turku to work first as an acting professor until 1962, when he received a permanent professorship.

Talve’s initial years with the department can be described as a starting point for changes in ethnology in general and the beginnings of a regional ethnology focusing on the modernisation process in rural areas.

Did the Ethnology at the University of Turku differ from other ethnological disciplines, and if so, why? What would have been the main reasons for such a different focus? What role did Talve play and what were his main ideas as the first professor of ethnology in Turku? He started his ethnological studies in Tartu, was a prisoner in Germany, escaped via Germany and Denmark to Sweden and did his PD studies at the University of Stockholm’s Ethnology Department under professor Sigurd Erixon. Professor of Sociology Esko Aaltonen had thought that it was important to establish an ethnology professorship at the University of Turku. According to Aaltonen, it had to differ from the tradition of Finno-Ugric ethnology at the University of Helsinki. Aaltonen also mentioned that Sigurd Erixon and his teachings on Swedish ethnology would serve as an ideal role model for ethnology in Turku. I will discuss the legacy of ethnology at the University of Turku and especially the first professor of ethnology, Estonian-born Talve, in my paper.

Contribution short abstract:

This paper discusses how did Estonian archaeologist Harri Moora, a man with clearly “bourgeois nationalist” biography from the pre-war decades, managed to continue his professional career in Soviet period and even to become the main policymaker in post-war Estonian ethnography.

Contribution long abstract:

Harri Moora (1900-1968) was an Estonian archaeologist, but also very important policymaker in the post-war Soviet Estonian ethnography. He was a slightly leftist intellectual with clearly nationalistic background, educated at the Tartu University in the 1920s. Besides of archaeology, he was always interested in ethnography too. These disciplines were quite close in pre-war Estonia and Soviet Union. His wife Aliise Moora was a professional ethnographer.

The cream of Estonian ethnography fled to the West during the war. At least one was arrested by the Soviets and died in prison camp. There were no educated ethnographers who could teach their discipline at the Soviet Tartu University. Harri Moora, the professor of archaeology since 1938, took charge of ethnography, considering it an important branch of Estonian studies. He made contacts with leading Soviet ethnographers and started to find ways to accommodate Estonian ethnography to the Soviet academy.

Harri Moora was accused of “bourgeois nationalism” in 1950. The chair of archaeology was closed down in Tartu. However, somehow Moora managed to avoid arrest and continue career in Tallinn, at Soviet Estonian Academy of Sciences. Did his well-established colleagues from Moscow support him as a well-respected scholar making his contribution to Estonian and Soviet ethnography? Did he have an arrangement with KGB? Moora remained the main policymaker in Estonian ethnography until his death. He directed studies of Estonian ethnogenesis in the 1950s, edited general overviews of the Estonian folk culture, was active in ethnographic map-making etc.

Contribution short abstract:

Music ethnology and folk music between political adaptation and artistic freedom. This paper deals with how folk musicians and music ethnologists in the GDR during the 1970s and 80s worked together and used historical folkloristic sources to gain a certain artistic and political freedom.

Contribution long abstract:

In the GDR there was a folk revival in the 1970s and 80s. Inspired by American artists, such as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others, numerous folk music groups emerged during this period. Groups such as Folkländer, JAMS and Wacholder were very successful, and folk music and folk dance spread. These activities were often seen by the participants as an alternative to the official FDJ singing movement in the GDR. Within the GDR folk scene, musicians and the audience were able to gain a certain amount of political and artistic freedom. One important strategy for this was, among other things, the use of historical song collections published in the GDR, such as the “Steinitz”, the song collections of “German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries” published by the folklorist and linguist Wolfgang Steinitz. Songs from the Steinitz in particular were often used by folk musicians to express a covert critique of society, which was usually understood by the audience, without risking interrogation by the Stasi. Another strategy was to contact key people, such as the music ethnologist Erich Stockmann, who was employed at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in East Berlin and was able to arrange important contacts at home and abroad, as well as keeping the musicians informed about interesting musical innovations. This contribution provides an insight into how folkloric and music ethnological knowledge was transformed in order to protest against political injustices as unnoticed as possible by the authorities.