Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2023.85.keskula
Eeva Kesküla
This article gives an overview of how to research work and labour from an anthropological perspective. Based on the examples of my ethnographic research with miners, teachers and digital nomads, I show how the anthropology of work is based both on the dark anthropology of suffering and the dispossessed as well as the anthropology of the good. Anthropology of work, like anthropology in general, is characterised by a holistic approach, cultural relativism and the ethnographic method. I present five points that I have developed in my own research. First, based on the political economy approach, I argue that at the core of the anthropology of work are global inequalities and their everyday expressions at the workplace. I bring examples of my work in an underground mine in Estonia where miners try to regulate and control the tempo of everyday work while the managers try to make them work faster and more, and how such micro-tempo of the everyday is an expression of larger class structures. I also bring an example of the overlap of class and ethnicity among working-class Russian speakers in Estonia. I then discuss how anthropologists also consider the wider political-economic dimension as the industrial accidents in a Kazakhstani coal mine are affected by the global economic situation as well as global inequalities. Secondly, following David Graeber, I argue that work should be studied as producing both material value and immaterial values. I discuss how miners find salary and respect for their job both important and how Estonian teachers produce value in the future labour force and values as the moral base of society simultaneously and feel that they should be given both a decent salary and an immaterial value expressed in their autonomy and professionalism for their work. In neoliberal Estonia, where different values dominate and other professions are more appreciated, they claim to be lacking both. Thirdly, I argue that anthropological research looks at work from a wider perspective than just paid employment and considers also reproductive work. I bring an example of the transformation of women’s work in a Kazakhstani coal processing plant where the specialist work of regulating the production process has gradually been taken over by cleaning work akin to domestic reproductive tasks, invisible and unappreciated. Fourthly, I emphasise the embodied nature of work and how it creates intersubjective relations between bodies and inanimate objects such as machines or computer programmes. Finally, anthropology as a discipline that does not take the status quo for granted, is a good tool for questioning the centrality of work and dominance of the Protestant work ethic in the contemporary capitalist world. Based on the example of my work with digital nomads, I discuss how these young professionals knowingly decrease their work hours and are trying to spend their time on other pleasant non-commodified activities. Despite this, it is hard to completely denounce
{"title":"Antropoloogiline vaade tööle: mõtisklusi kaevuritest ja diginomaadidest","authors":"Eeva Kesküla","doi":"10.7592/mt2023.85.keskula","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2023.85.keskula","url":null,"abstract":"This article gives an overview of how to research work and labour from an anthropological perspective. Based on the examples of my ethnographic research with miners, teachers and digital nomads, I show how the anthropology of work is based both on the dark anthropology of suffering and the dispossessed as well as the anthropology of the good. Anthropology of work, like anthropology in general, is characterised by a holistic approach, cultural relativism and the ethnographic method. I present five points that I have developed in my own research. First, based on the political economy approach, I argue that at the core of the anthropology of work are global inequalities and their everyday expressions at the workplace. I bring examples of my work in an underground mine in Estonia where miners try to regulate and control the tempo of everyday work while the managers try to make them work faster and more, and how such micro-tempo of the everyday is an expression of larger class structures. I also bring an example of the overlap of class and ethnicity among working-class Russian speakers in Estonia. I then discuss how anthropologists also consider the wider political-economic dimension as the industrial accidents in a Kazakhstani coal mine are affected by the global economic situation as well as global inequalities. Secondly, following David Graeber, I argue that work should be studied as producing both material value and immaterial values. I discuss how miners find salary and respect for their job both important and how Estonian teachers produce value in the future labour force and values as the moral base of society simultaneously and feel that they should be given both a decent salary and an immaterial value expressed in their autonomy and professionalism for their work. In neoliberal Estonia, where different values dominate and other professions are more appreciated, they claim to be lacking both. Thirdly, I argue that anthropological research looks at work from a wider perspective than just paid employment and considers also reproductive work. I bring an example of the transformation of women’s work in a Kazakhstani coal processing plant where the specialist work of regulating the production process has gradually been taken over by cleaning work akin to domestic reproductive tasks, invisible and unappreciated. Fourthly, I emphasise the embodied nature of work and how it creates intersubjective relations between bodies and inanimate objects such as machines or computer programmes. Finally, anthropology as a discipline that does not take the status quo for granted, is a good tool for questioning the centrality of work and dominance of the Protestant work ethic in the contemporary capitalist world. Based on the example of my work with digital nomads, I discuss how these young professionals knowingly decrease their work hours and are trying to spend their time on other pleasant non-commodified activities. Despite this, it is hard to completely denounce","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2023.85.jurgenson
A. Jürgenson
At the end of the 19th century, Estonian settlers encountered malaria in the Volga region and Siberia, but outbreaks with the most serious consequences hit Estonians in the Black Sea coastal region of the Caucasus. The article looks at the first contact of the local Estonians with malaria, how the disease affected migrations and settlement activities, what the Estonians’ descriptions of the disease were, what the causes of the disease were believed to be, how malaria was treated, and what preventive measures were used against the disease. Although malaria had also been present in many parts of Europe in earlier centuries, it had almost disappeared in the second half of the 19th century due to improved hygiene and sanitation. Europeans encountered malaria mainly in colonial countries, and so did Estonians. While in Estonia there were still several outbreaks of malaria in the first half of the 19th century, it was no longer a problem in the second half of the century. Now, Estonians came into contact with malaria mainly abroad – in warmer and wetter regions, where Estonian men had been conscripted into military service (e.g., the Russo-Turkish War, the Crimean War; cf. the Turkish disease) or where they had emigrated and established settlements. The resettling of Estonians to the Caucasus, which took place in the last quarter of the 19th century, cannot be described without mentioning malaria. Malaria hit Estonians primarily in settlements built in coastal areas, where there were sufficiently moist conditions for the development of malaria mosquitoes. Estonian colonists fell very ill in the first years of settlement, and their mortality rates were high. Many Estonians decided to return to their homeland due to malaria. The struggle of the Estonian settlers of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus with malaria occurred at a time when science had not yet discovered either the plasmodium that causes malaria or the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of the disease. The colonial authorities had introduced quinine as an antimalarial agent, which was distributed to the settlers, including Estonians, and began to drain the land, but the mechanisms of the disease’s origin and spread were unknown. This is also reflected in the disease explanations and treatment methods that were common among Estonian settlers. Folk names and magical healing methods for malaria were brought from Estonia, and were applied in combination with methods from conventional medicine. Neither the first nor the others corresponded to the true nature of the disease. Although malaria has been familiar in Estonia as well, also as a mythological disease, the mythological aspect has not been thoroughly thematized in the material of Caucasian Estonians, which does not mean that it was unknown. Although there are no surviving legends related to malaria as a mythological disease, and malaria is not presented as a disease demon, this may be due to the choice of the medium: our knowledge of Es
{"title":"Musta mere ranniku eesti asunikud malaaria meelevallas","authors":"A. Jürgenson","doi":"10.7592/mt2023.85.jurgenson","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2023.85.jurgenson","url":null,"abstract":"At the end of the 19th century, Estonian settlers encountered malaria in the Volga region and Siberia, but outbreaks with the most serious consequences hit Estonians in the Black Sea coastal region of the Caucasus. The article looks at the first contact of the local Estonians with malaria, how the disease affected migrations and settlement activities, what the Estonians’ descriptions of the disease were, what the causes of the disease were believed to be, how malaria was treated, and what preventive measures were used against the disease. Although malaria had also been present in many parts of Europe in earlier centuries, it had almost disappeared in the second half of the 19th century due to improved hygiene and sanitation. Europeans encountered malaria mainly in colonial countries, and so did Estonians. While in Estonia there were still several outbreaks of malaria in the first half of the 19th century, it was no longer a problem in the second half of the century. Now, Estonians came into contact with malaria mainly abroad – in warmer and wetter regions, where Estonian men had been conscripted into military service (e.g., the Russo-Turkish War, the Crimean War; cf. the Turkish disease) or where they had emigrated and established settlements. The resettling of Estonians to the Caucasus, which took place in the last quarter of the 19th century, cannot be described without mentioning malaria. Malaria hit Estonians primarily in settlements built in coastal areas, where there were sufficiently moist conditions for the development of malaria mosquitoes. Estonian colonists fell very ill in the first years of settlement, and their mortality rates were high. Many Estonians decided to return to their homeland due to malaria. The struggle of the Estonian settlers of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus with malaria occurred at a time when science had not yet discovered either the plasmodium that causes malaria or the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of the disease. The colonial authorities had introduced quinine as an antimalarial agent, which was distributed to the settlers, including Estonians, and began to drain the land, but the mechanisms of the disease’s origin and spread were unknown. This is also reflected in the disease explanations and treatment methods that were common among Estonian settlers. Folk names and magical healing methods for malaria were brought from Estonia, and were applied in combination with methods from conventional medicine. Neither the first nor the others corresponded to the true nature of the disease. Although malaria has been familiar in Estonia as well, also as a mythological disease, the mythological aspect has not been thoroughly thematized in the material of Caucasian Estonians, which does not mean that it was unknown. Although there are no surviving legends related to malaria as a mythological disease, and malaria is not presented as a disease demon, this may be due to the choice of the medium: our knowledge of Es","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2023.85.sedakova_valentsova
Irina Sedakova, Marina Valentsova
The renowned philologist Nikita Tolstoi promoted revolutionary ideas not only in Russian but also in the worldwide Slavonic studies. He, together with Svetlana Tolstaia, established the Moscow school of ethnolinguistics, the methodology of which is becoming increasingly topical, covering novel themes, and the number of researchers working in this field in different countries grows year by year. The 100th birth anniversary of the academician instigated his disciples to review their mentor’s work in order to evaluate his scientific contribution from the perspective of modernity and to analyse the evolution of his ideas.
{"title":"Õpetaja mälestuseks","authors":"Irina Sedakova, Marina Valentsova","doi":"10.7592/mt2023.85.sedakova_valentsova","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2023.85.sedakova_valentsova","url":null,"abstract":"The renowned philologist Nikita Tolstoi promoted revolutionary ideas not only in Russian but also in the worldwide Slavonic studies. He, together with Svetlana Tolstaia, established the Moscow school of ethnolinguistics, the methodology of which is becoming increasingly topical, covering novel themes, and the number of researchers working in this field in different countries grows year by year. The 100th birth anniversary of the academician instigated his disciples to review their mentor’s work in order to evaluate his scientific contribution from the perspective of modernity and to analyse the evolution of his ideas.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48535747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2023.85.schumann_sazonov
Andrew Schumann, Vladimir Sazonov
In this paper we have traced some basic attributes belonging to the Mesopotamian goddess Nanāia, from their origin in the period of Ur III (2112–2004 BC) in ancient Mesopotamia up to the period of the Kuṣāṇas and Kūšānšāhs (from the 1st century AD to the late 4th century AD) in Central and South Asia, and up to the period of their successors – the Kidarites and Hephthalites. We have shown that there was a smooth transformation of these attributes of Nanāia to the standard Indian iconographic motif of Durgā.
{"title":"Mesopotaamia jumalanna Nanāia mõjudest Kesk- ja Lõuna-Aasias","authors":"Andrew Schumann, Vladimir Sazonov","doi":"10.7592/mt2023.85.schumann_sazonov","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2023.85.schumann_sazonov","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we have traced some basic attributes belonging to the Mesopotamian goddess Nanāia, from their origin in the period of Ur III (2112–2004 BC) in ancient Mesopotamia up to the period of the Kuṣāṇas and Kūšānšāhs (from the 1st century AD to the late 4th century AD) in Central and South Asia, and up to the period of their successors – the Kidarites and Hephthalites. We have shown that there was a smooth transformation of these attributes of Nanāia to the standard Indian iconographic motif of Durgā.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2022.84.tuvikene_ianchenko
Tauri Tuvikene, Aleksandra Ianchenko
The article brings together public transport, art, landscape, and atmosphere. The article aims to demonstrate landscape thinking, a way to attend to the multi-faceted nature of landscape, using two artistic interventions in the urban landscape as case studies: Invisible Tramline in Tallinn and Tram Chalk Walk in Turku, created by one of the co-authors of the paper (researcher and artist Aleksandra Ianchenko). Here, we look at atmosphere as a concept that can be used to bring the material and the sensory aspects of landscape together. In both artworks, atmosphere emerged in the metaphorical (re)creation of infrastructure through material interventions: in one case, the tram was made to appear as tracks skied in the snow, in the other as chalk lines. Lasnamäe tram is a case of planned but unfinished tramline whereas Turku had an active tram service for almost a century before it was discontinued in 1972. Yet, as in the case of Lasnamäe, sentiments echoing a desire to have the tram in active function are present. These artworks resonated with these sentiments although they did not have a desire to make a political statement. Instead, they artfully played with the ephemeral nature of landscape by generating atmospheres of tramlines. The article shows how atmosphere can emerge in the interaction between material aspects and being present in this environment, more specifically in the activities that metaphorically animate infrastructures in the landscape. Although the tram itself was not present in either intervention, the holistic landscape experience brought present an idea of the tram created by the interventions.
{"title":"Olematud trammiteed linnamaastikus: atmosfäärialased kunstiprojektid Turus ja Tallinnas","authors":"Tauri Tuvikene, Aleksandra Ianchenko","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.tuvikene_ianchenko","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.tuvikene_ianchenko","url":null,"abstract":"The article brings together public transport, art, landscape, and atmosphere. The article aims to demonstrate landscape thinking, a way to attend to the multi-faceted nature of landscape, using two artistic interventions in the urban landscape as case studies: Invisible Tramline in Tallinn and Tram Chalk Walk in Turku, created by one of the co-authors of the paper (researcher and artist Aleksandra Ianchenko). Here, we look at atmosphere as a concept that can be used to bring the material and the sensory aspects of landscape together. In both artworks, atmosphere emerged in the metaphorical (re)creation of infrastructure through material interventions: in one case, the tram was made to appear as tracks skied in the snow, in the other as chalk lines. Lasnamäe tram is a case of planned but unfinished tramline whereas Turku had an active tram service for almost a century before it was discontinued in 1972. Yet, as in the case of Lasnamäe, sentiments echoing a desire to have the tram in active function are present. These artworks resonated with these sentiments although they did not have a desire to make a political statement. Instead, they artfully played with the ephemeral nature of landscape by generating atmospheres of tramlines. The article shows how atmosphere can emerge in the interaction between material aspects and being present in this environment, more specifically in the activities that metaphorically animate infrastructures in the landscape. Although the tram itself was not present in either intervention, the holistic landscape experience brought present an idea of the tram created by the interventions.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49062436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Internet and its social media platforms offer opportunities to make visible grassroots creative products and activities, which would not otherwise receive wider attention. In November 2018, as Facebook enables to create online meeting spaces for various events, a series of fake events was initiated on this social media platform by Estonian-speaking users. The “actions” were announced exactly like any other Facebook event, yet were not actually intended to be performed. It is reasonable to consider the event-organising game as a special vernacular practice that deserves to be observed from a folkloristic perspective. The analysis focuses on various aspects of fake events – the genre of these actions, the seriality of events, the dialogue between the participants and those interested in the comments sections, but also the peculiarities of the co-created content. The article attempts to frame the groups of internet users that temporarily gathered around the events within the concept of event community, and traces which stages of the formation and operation of an event community occur in the fake events. In a broader context, the author discusses the similarities between the parodies that lie at the forefront of the fake events initiated by social media users’ communities and the Renaissance carnivals in a public city square.
{"title":"Sööme, joome, lükkame, sõidame... Sotsiaalmeediakasutajate mäng Facebooki sündmuse formaadis","authors":"Mare Kalda","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.kalda","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.kalda","url":null,"abstract":"The Internet and its social media platforms offer opportunities to make visible grassroots creative products and activities, which would not otherwise receive wider attention. In November 2018, as Facebook enables to create online meeting spaces for various events, a series of fake events was initiated on this social media platform by Estonian-speaking users. The “actions” were announced exactly like any other Facebook event, yet were not actually intended to be performed. It is reasonable to consider the event-organising game as a special vernacular practice that deserves to be observed from a folkloristic perspective. The analysis focuses on various aspects of fake events – the genre of these actions, the seriality of events, the dialogue between the participants and those interested in the comments sections, but also the peculiarities of the co-created content. The article attempts to frame the groups of internet users that temporarily gathered around the events within the concept of event community, and traces which stages of the formation and operation of an event community occur in the fake events. In a broader context, the author discusses the similarities between the parodies that lie at the forefront of the fake events initiated by social media users’ communities and the Renaissance carnivals in a public city square.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2022.84.koivupuu
Marju Kõivupuu
On the landscape, there are natural caves known as hells or hell graves, formed, for example, as a result of the outflow of spring water and in some cases expanded and deepened by human hands over time, as well as sandstone outcrops, feather holes or sölls or valleys, where, according to folk tales, mythological creatures-giants have lived or live: old pagans or devils. In this article, the focus is on “hell” as a traditional landscape element and places named “hell” in place lore and place creation, in original fiction based on folk tales, in tourism economy, etc. I claim that hell-themed place stories written down by folk over the ages stick to the landscape in different ways, whether it is the reuse of stories based on standard motifs in place creation, the consolidation of the landscape image embedded in traditional texts in tourism, even when the landscape itself has long since changed, etc. Scenically interesting places need attractive stories; this is one of the key themes of placemaking. As a concept, I use local place lore as an umbrella term for oral tradition in the field that can be linked to certain places in the landscape. Local place lore includes both international motifs and local legends, which in some cases have also been told as true stories. Local lore, as a type of lore that shows the connection between a person and a place, has been valued mainly because of the aspect that creates and supports local identity. However, the landscape surrounding the community is not a static but a dynamic space, in which new meanings that reflect the life of the community arise or are created, and these are also reflected in the lore related to the landscape.
{"title":"Maastikule kleepuv tekst: põrgupärimus","authors":"Marju Kõivupuu","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.koivupuu","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.koivupuu","url":null,"abstract":"On the landscape, there are natural caves known as hells or hell graves, formed, for example, as a result of the outflow of spring water and in some cases expanded and deepened by human hands over time, as well as sandstone outcrops, feather holes or sölls or valleys, where, according to folk tales, mythological creatures-giants have lived or live: old pagans or devils. In this article, the focus is on “hell” as a traditional landscape element and places named “hell” in place lore and place creation, in original fiction based on folk tales, in tourism economy, etc. I claim that hell-themed place stories written down by folk over the ages stick to the landscape in different ways, whether it is the reuse of stories based on standard motifs in place creation, the consolidation of the landscape image embedded in traditional texts in tourism, even when the landscape itself has long since changed, etc. Scenically interesting places need attractive stories; this is one of the key themes of placemaking. As a concept, I use local place lore as an umbrella term for oral tradition in the field that can be linked to certain places in the landscape. Local place lore includes both international motifs and local legends, which in some cases have also been told as true stories. Local lore, as a type of lore that shows the connection between a person and a place, has been valued mainly because of the aspect that creates and supports local identity. However, the landscape surrounding the community is not a static but a dynamic space, in which new meanings that reflect the life of the community arise or are created, and these are also reflected in the lore related to the landscape.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2022.84.jyrgenson
A. Jürgenson
In the minds of Estonians Abkhazia is associated mainly with Estonians living there. When the Georgian-Abkhazian war broke out in August 1992, the Estonian state evacuated about 170 Estonians and their families from Abkhazia in the autumn of the same year. The reception of the war itself in the Estonian media was low and related to the situation of Estonians there, but the motives and direct causes of the war and the development of war events were also examined. One Baltic News Service journalist observed the evacuation of Estonians and wrote about the events of the war on the spot, but most of the authors operated in Estonia and used various sources. In today’s context, it may seem surprising to what extent materials from Russian information channels were used, but at that time it was understandable: Russia covered events in its border countries more actively than Western agencies. Materials translated directly from Russian newspapers were also published in the Estonian press. The choice of sources also influenced the framing in which the events of that time were mediated. The coverage of the war in the Estonian media has undergone significant developments over the decades. The articles published during the war presented the events in a neutral way, rather sympathizing with the Abkhazians than the aggressor. While in the first half of the war the fighters of the Confederation of Mountain People of the Caucasus were presented as allies of the Abkhazians, the articles published at the end of the war sometimes included Russians, although the contribution of the Russians was not explained. However, even at the end of the war, the coverage remained largely neutral, conveying the views of both Georgians and Abkhazians. From the middle of 1994, the reception of the war began to change, which was related to Georgia’s international self-assertion. Reports from international organizations increasingly highlighted the issue of Georgian war refugees and Georgia’s claim to territorial integrity. This was also reflected in the Estonian media, where Abkhazians were increasingly called separatists without the right to independence. However, until the end of the 1990s, some articles were published that also provided Abkhaz views on events. Estonia had taken a clear direction towards integration with the West, but there was no clear understanding of Georgia’s orientation, which also influenced the attitudes of Estonian media towards Georgia-Abkhazia relations. Georgia’s leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, maneuvered between the West and Russia, pushing Abkhazia into an economic blockade and concluding agreements with Russia, while seeking integration with NATO and the European Union. The situation changed dramatically after the Rose Revolution in Georgia, when Mikhail Saakashvili, who had come to power, began to move unequivocally on the path of Western integration. At the same time, Georgia’s relations with Russia deteriorated. Georgia, a small brave country in conflic
{"title":"Gruusia-Abhaasia sõja (1992–1993) retseptsioon eesti meedias sõja ajal ja järel","authors":"A. Jürgenson","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.jyrgenson","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.jyrgenson","url":null,"abstract":"In the minds of Estonians Abkhazia is associated mainly with Estonians living there. When the Georgian-Abkhazian war broke out in August 1992, the Estonian state evacuated about 170 Estonians and their families from Abkhazia in the autumn of the same year. The reception of the war itself in the Estonian media was low and related to the situation of Estonians there, but the motives and direct causes of the war and the development of war events were also examined. One Baltic News Service journalist observed the evacuation of Estonians and wrote about the events of the war on the spot, but most of the authors operated in Estonia and used various sources. In today’s context, it may seem surprising to what extent materials from Russian information channels were used, but at that time it was understandable: Russia covered events in its border countries more actively than Western agencies. Materials translated directly from Russian newspapers were also published in the Estonian press. The choice of sources also influenced the framing in which the events of that time were mediated. The coverage of the war in the Estonian media has undergone significant developments over the decades. The articles published during the war presented the events in a neutral way, rather sympathizing with the Abkhazians than the aggressor. While in the first half of the war the fighters of the Confederation of Mountain People of the Caucasus were presented as allies of the Abkhazians, the articles published at the end of the war sometimes included Russians, although the contribution of the Russians was not explained. However, even at the end of the war, the coverage remained largely neutral, conveying the views of both Georgians and Abkhazians. From the middle of 1994, the reception of the war began to change, which was related to Georgia’s international self-assertion. Reports from international organizations increasingly highlighted the issue of Georgian war refugees and Georgia’s claim to territorial integrity. This was also reflected in the Estonian media, where Abkhazians were increasingly called separatists without the right to independence. However, until the end of the 1990s, some articles were published that also provided Abkhaz views on events. Estonia had taken a clear direction towards integration with the West, but there was no clear understanding of Georgia’s orientation, which also influenced the attitudes of Estonian media towards Georgia-Abkhazia relations. Georgia’s leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, maneuvered between the West and Russia, pushing Abkhazia into an economic blockade and concluding agreements with Russia, while seeking integration with NATO and the European Union. The situation changed dramatically after the Rose Revolution in Georgia, when Mikhail Saakashvili, who had come to power, began to move unequivocally on the path of Western integration. At the same time, Georgia’s relations with Russia deteriorated. Georgia, a small brave country in conflic","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Silence and tranquillity form an integral part of rural life and contribute to our understanding of rurality. Thus, it is generally held that time passes slowly in the countryside, far from the nervous city life. Therefore, it is not surprising that mobility and movement (which are associated with speed and being busy) are associated with urbanity and stillness with rurality. Peace and quiet and the absence of hustle are highlighted even by those who live in the countryside and spend long hours in the car commuting between work and home. Such an image affects people’s daily life decisions, movement patterns, local development and infrastructure, as well as national policy of shaping rural life. What is often overlooked is that rural areas are connected to cities in hybrid and extensive ways that affect the development of society as a whole. This article analyses the networks between the country and the city in two recent crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukrainian refugee crisis. It is argued that these relational connections surface vividly in situations of crisis and show that urban-rural networks constitute a kind of hybrid socio-spatial form. Although the boundaries between them are blurred, the image of both rurality and urbanity is powerfully created in discourses and in everyday debates, justifying daily decisions, thus ignoring the intertwined character of these urban-rural relations. Both crises referred to the importance of motility – in both cases, who could move, where and with what timing was of critical importance. In the case of the pandemic, inequalities in mobility manifested themselves in different spheres – which urban dwellers could move to the countryside (owning a country home is a privilege), who could work remotely (mostly in middle-class jobs) or who could go to a place with limited access (mostly islands or popular domestic tourism areas). In the case of Ukrainians, the ability to move was also critical – it consisted in the very possibility of leaving Ukraine. Even after arriving in Estonia, the fate of the refugees largely depended on the location where they found themselves – either in a big city where it was easy to move with the help of public transport or on foot, or in rural areas where it was more difficult to get around due to the lack of public transportation. During the Ukrainian refugee crisis, the rural cosmopolitanism emerged in Estonia more clearly than before. On the one hand, the ethnic and cultural composition of small places changed almost overnight, and thus rural areas became more diverse. On the other hand, this unexpected challenge showed that the rural cosmopolitan community is in many ways vulnerable and precarious. It is noteworthy that strong cultural constructions of rural people (peaceful, safe) and urban people (dangerous invaders) surfaced in conflict situations. On the other hand, the tensions showed how closely the country and the city are connected through mobility. At the same time, mo
{"title":"Liikuvus maal – läbi kriiside hübriidse võrgustunud ruumi poole","authors":"R. Nugin","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.nugin","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.nugin","url":null,"abstract":"Silence and tranquillity form an integral part of rural life and contribute to our understanding of rurality. Thus, it is generally held that time passes slowly in the countryside, far from the nervous city life. Therefore, it is not surprising that mobility and movement (which are associated with speed and being busy) are associated with urbanity and stillness with rurality. Peace and quiet and the absence of hustle are highlighted even by those who live in the countryside and spend long hours in the car commuting between work and home. Such an image affects people’s daily life decisions, movement patterns, local development and infrastructure, as well as national policy of shaping rural life. What is often overlooked is that rural areas are connected to cities in hybrid and extensive ways that affect the development of society as a whole. This article analyses the networks between the country and the city in two recent crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukrainian refugee crisis. It is argued that these relational connections surface vividly in situations of crisis and show that urban-rural networks constitute a kind of hybrid socio-spatial form. Although the boundaries between them are blurred, the image of both rurality and urbanity is powerfully created in discourses and in everyday debates, justifying daily decisions, thus ignoring the intertwined character of these urban-rural relations. Both crises referred to the importance of motility – in both cases, who could move, where and with what timing was of critical importance. In the case of the pandemic, inequalities in mobility manifested themselves in different spheres – which urban dwellers could move to the countryside (owning a country home is a privilege), who could work remotely (mostly in middle-class jobs) or who could go to a place with limited access (mostly islands or popular domestic tourism areas). In the case of Ukrainians, the ability to move was also critical – it consisted in the very possibility of leaving Ukraine. Even after arriving in Estonia, the fate of the refugees largely depended on the location where they found themselves – either in a big city where it was easy to move with the help of public transport or on foot, or in rural areas where it was more difficult to get around due to the lack of public transportation. During the Ukrainian refugee crisis, the rural cosmopolitanism emerged in Estonia more clearly than before. On the one hand, the ethnic and cultural composition of small places changed almost overnight, and thus rural areas became more diverse. On the other hand, this unexpected challenge showed that the rural cosmopolitan community is in many ways vulnerable and precarious. It is noteworthy that strong cultural constructions of rural people (peaceful, safe) and urban people (dangerous invaders) surfaced in conflict situations. On the other hand, the tensions showed how closely the country and the city are connected through mobility. At the same time, mo","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71371665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.7592/mt2022.84.palang
Hannes Palang
This paper studies further the idea expressed by Paul Claval about landscape as a playground. For a decade, scholars have wondered whether games such as geocaching could be used if not in planning, then at least in getting feedback about people’s landscape preferences. This paper studies the role of geocaching in landscape changes through three lenses: geocaching as consumption of nature’s contribution to people, as influence on the environment, and as place making. The author concludes that, first, landscape can indeed serve as a playground and let the players inscribe on its layers of meaning understandable only for the dedicated (initiated). Second, the hope for getting feedback about preferences will probably fail, as the players care more about the contents of the game, but at the same time we could get insights into the preferences of the player communities. Finally, the game allows for recreating and remembering places and telling stories.
{"title":"Maastik kui mänguväljak","authors":"Hannes Palang","doi":"10.7592/mt2022.84.palang","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/mt2022.84.palang","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies further the idea expressed by Paul Claval about landscape as a playground. For a decade, scholars have wondered whether games such as geocaching could be used if not in planning, then at least in getting feedback about people’s landscape preferences. This paper studies the role of geocaching in landscape changes through three lenses: geocaching as consumption of nature’s contribution to people, as influence on the environment, and as place making. The author concludes that, first, landscape can indeed serve as a playground and let the players inscribe on its layers of meaning understandable only for the dedicated (initiated). Second, the hope for getting feedback about preferences will probably fail, as the players care more about the contents of the game, but at the same time we could get insights into the preferences of the player communities. Finally, the game allows for recreating and remembering places and telling stories.","PeriodicalId":37622,"journal":{"name":"Maetagused","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47741015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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