Leader of research:
Professor Anna-Leena Siikala
anna-leena.siikala@helsinki.fi
Research Project financed by the Academy of Finland
in 2004-2007
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The unmaking of the Soviet order and the introduction of new economic
and political systems have led to an unstable society in which, besides
growing importance of market economy, people turn to traditional forms
of subsistence economy, barter and reciprocal networks of relatives and
neighbours. The pace and direction of development vary from one area to
another. This does not lead to easily comprehensible cultural entities,
but to cultural domains in which disparate cultural elements are simultaneously
present. The meaning and practice of ”tradition” varies greatly
from one area to another depending on the economic and societal development.
The word is connected to everyday life: people are turning to the customary
livelyhoods and healing for economic reasons. The counter-reaction to
the international economy and information exchange typical of globalisation
is the rice of the local and marginal. Hence, ”tradition”
is also a tool for cultural policies today. Neotraditionalism in Russia
represents global trend. In the different republics of former Soviet Union
the nature of neotraditionalism depends on the historical, political and
economic experiences of the people.
The “Other Russia” project examines the making of Post-Soviet
cultural multiplicity in the Northern Russia and Western Siberia. Special
attention is being paid to the recreation of indigenous traditions. ‘Ethnic’
in this connection does not refer to a holistic entity of a primordial
nature. On the contrary, the cultural multiplicity of North Russian communities
is a consequence of not only the multi-ethnicity of communities, but the
fact that ethnic groups are internally divided by many factors such as
economic opportunities, politics, values, religion, dialect, everyday
habits and the relocation of populations.
The aims and principal ideas of the work are as follows: 1) To identify
the diverse mechanisms of social and economic change in different Northern
Russian areas and their relationship to the transformation of cultural
practices.
2) To examine the making of the cultural multiplicity of the Post-Soviet
era.
3) To trace oral and literal discourses, events and cultural processes
expressing ethnic diversities in micro-level local communities and to
examine them from the perspective of area, state and global cultural policies,
and in the light of historical and socio-economic developments.
4) To see the pursuit of new socio-cultural agency by minorities as interaction
in a multicultural situation instead of the minority – majority
dichotomy.
5) To trace the different ‘voices’ of minorities in culture-making
processes, e.g. seeing recreations of tradition as a topic for negotiation
and even conflict among ethnic groups.
6) To pay special attention to the gendered nature of these processes.
7) To define the forms and items of culture which bear symbolic value
in presenting ethnicity and the arenas and ways in which these symbolic
representations are manifest.
8) To examine the role of politicians, intellectuals and the media in
circulating different interpretations of recreated traditions.
9) To trace the political and economic implications of different manifestations
of neotraditionalism. The results will add to the knowledge on the ongoing
socio-cultural processes of Northern Russia and contribute to the understanding
of the local manifestations and counter-currencies of globalisation.
Besides the project leader, the research group includes following persons:
Karina Suominen, MA, Marja-Leea Hattuniemi, MA, C.Sc. Oleg Ulyashev, Dr.
Vladimir Napolskikh and C.Sc. Irina Il’ina; (consortium: the project
of Dr. Arno Survo financed by the Niilo Helander Foundation). The research
group is closely connected to an international network of 18 scholars
established in the frame of the Encyclopaedia of the Uralic Mythologies
(Siikala, Napolskikh, Dr. Mihály Hoppál). Seminars and international
post-graduate courses (e.g. FFSS) are organised in the frame of international
co-operation with institutes and researchers from Russia, Hungary, Germany,
USA, Sweden and Norway.
Takaisin folkloristiikan
sivuille
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