Adaptation of traditional places in Estonia: The case of village wooden swing sites

Abstract

Village swing places serve as examples of the possibilities for survival of traditional places in rural areas, and illustrate the socio-economic conditions for this. The concepts of form, function, process, and context are applied to reading ‘place’ and interpreting its meaning. The changes in these aspects of place are studied by analysing the development and typology of 76 swing sites located in different parts of Estonia. Comparison is made with earlier descriptions of swing sites in the Estonian Literary Museum. Processes that may have affected swing sites are related to the sequence of socio-economic events over the last two centuries. Theories explaining the appearance and vanishing of swinging places and their particularities are considered in the framework of these changes. The invisible part of the landscape – meanings, attitudes and values attached to swinging – is studied on the basis of 520 complete questionnaires. The answers show the present-day changes in the role of swing sites situated in rural areas. The swing sites as traditional places are preserved due to their ability to adapt. The most useful adaptation for a site to stay alive is adjustment of functions and slight adjustment of form in terms of additional elements in the swing sites.

Keywords:

• adaptation
• Estonia
• meaning
• places
• swing sites
• traditionality

Acknowledgements

The writing of the article has been partly funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence CECT), partly by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research targeted funded programme No. SF0130033s07 and, partly by the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, basic funding project 08951 ‘Spatial modelling of appearance of landscape changes’. Two anonymous reviewers and Professor Michael Jones are most gratefully appreciated for their constructive and comprehensive feedback.

Notes

1. A. Vissel (2003) ‘Eestlaste kiigekultuur enne ja nüüd’, E-journal: Mäetagused 21, 7–84. (http://www.folklore.ee/Tagused/nr21/kiik.pdf) (accessed July 2008).

2. Archive material from Estonian Literary Museum. Collected by Põldmäe 1938. ERA II 192, 341/2 (7)