Home and heritage out of place: the disjunction of exile

ABSTRACT

Cultural heritage and home are not natural givens but construed and bounded in spatial, temporal and emotional terms. This similarity suggests that diasporic movements that disrupt the spatial dimension need closer examination. This article examines how geopolitical shifts affect the connection between people and the source of heritage central to their identity, and what role ‘home’ obtains in that process. Drawing on three examples of being displaced or ‘away from home’, this contribution considers the function of home in the process of heritagisation by identifying three degrees of separation: spatial dislocation, temporal disconnection, and the emergence of moral disjuncture. Heritagisation is not a neutral process of creating an unproblematic relationship between people and their past and their native homeland but one that is based on and incites partiality. This study that is ethnographic in approach with focused historical contextualisation observes the significance of ’home within’ under the condition of displacement and loss, of heritage dislocation that is consequently an experience creating an imagined and charged new space.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural heritage
• home
• diasporic movements
• heritage dislocation
• heritagisation
• moral disjuncture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Our analysis focuses on Estonia in particular, but we acknowledge similar (and often intertwining) experience of Latvian and Lithuanian diasporas.

2. Aet Annist carried out fieldwork in the Seto region, while Kristin Kuutma observed their local developments since the late 1980s; Kuutma conducted fieldwork in the USA and Annist in the UK. Annist focused in the UK on the Estonian choir, school and the more general London Estonian Society, participating in their activities and events and interviewing various generations of resident and pendulum migrants. In the USA, Kuutma participated in, observed and interviewed similar communities in Seattle and Portland, and their respective Estonian Societies, with visits also to the Vancouver and Toronto Estonians. In the Seto region, Annist lived in three villages and participated in various events and activities of local choirs and societies, discussion groups, committees, exhibition planning, etc. Kuutma participated repeatedly in Seto singing and religious events on both sides of the border.

3. We do not regard authenticity to be an analytic category but employ it as an emic perception instrumental in heritage discourse.

4. These are cultural expressions that are designated Estonian national heritage. Compare with the significance of the Baltic song and dance celebrations, inscribed jointly to the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage.

5. We include empirical data also from Canada, a host-country with most numerous long-term Estonian population and an exemplary complex setting for identity constructions (see Manning 2003; Taylor 2004).

6. See the webpage at http://www.estonianhousenewyork.com/(accessed 12.01.2019).

7. This idiomatic adjectival designation refers to the independent Republic of Estonia between 1920 and 1940, and originates from the Soviet period. Its distinct connotation is widely comprehensible and still in use today.

8. Interview with General Aleksander Einseln, a refugee Estonian who returned to Estonia in 1993 and moved up the army ranks to become the head of Estonian Defence Forces. He was asked to step down in 1995 due to disagreements with the then Minister of Defence.

9. Seto singing tradition has been inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage to represent Estonia, ensuring thus their national importance and presence in public life.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research under the Institutional Research Grant IUT34–32.

Notes on contributors

Kristin Kuutma

Kristin Kuutma is Professor of Cultural Research and UNESCO Chair on the Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the University of Tartu. She leads the UT Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, chairs the UNESCO national commission and has represented Estonia on the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. She is the principal investigator of the Institutional Research Grant team. Her research and publications in cultural anthropology focus on disciplinary histories, ethnographic knowledge production, representation, and critical heritage studies.

Aet Annist

Aet Annist is Senior Research Fellow in Ethnology at the University of Tartu, studying transnational migration, developmental ideologies, institutionalisation of heritage culture, and the effect of climate change. She has also taught social anthropology at Tallinn University, University of Bristol and University College London. She is the principal coordinator of the Baltic Anthropology Graduate School, and has served as an expert in regional economy for the Chancellery of the Estonian Parliament.