Abstract:In 1993, after the Soviet army's withdrawal, the local municipal government of the tiny Latvian village of Mārciena had to take over a former residential district of the Soviet officers' families, called Gorodok, and the infrastructure of the Soviet army unit that was located in the nearby forest. Over the past twenty years, the municipality has tried to find the best solution to protect the site from decay. Businessmen have attempted to raise the profile of the area, and all of the residents have reshaped their identities within the framework of economic and political developments taking place in the country. The purpose of the article is to examine these processes of making sense of the place called Mārciena from different points of view.

Pārskats izstrādāts pētniecības programmas ZD2015/AZ85 "Latvijas teritorija kā dažādu kultūrtelpu, reliģiju, politisko, sociālo un ekonomisko interešu saskarsmes zona no aizvēstures līdz mūsdienām" ietvaros.

At the turn of the 20th century, exotic shows as a form of displaying otherness gained wide popularity among various kinds of mass entertainment in Europe and the United States. Promoted professionally, the shows attracted public interest, combining the acquisition of knowledge with leisure. The freaks and people of non-European descent exhibited in different public spaces – zoos, parks, circus – not only demonstrated ‘nature’s errors’ and the diversity of human beings, but also the development of the human body and society within the framework of racial and evolutionary theories. The socio-economic and cultural context of each host country added that country’s own meaning to the messages of the shows. Exotic shows staged in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire inhabited by Latvians created a situation in which entertainment invented by modern colonialism took place in a territory directly affected by colonialism. Providing an insight into these shows, emphasizing exotic otherness mainly in Riga, the article seeks answers to the questions of who the audience was for these shows, and what kind of power relations, if any, between “living specimens” and spectators, and among spectators, one can deduce from the performance venue.

No abstract

This study, based on archive document research and analysis of publications by Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) ethnographers, discusses the process of invention and implementation of Socialist traditions and the role of scientists in this. The introduction of Soviet traditions in Latvia did not begin immediately after the Second World War when the communist occupation regime was restored. The occupation regime in the framework of an anti-religious campaign turned to the transformation of traditions that affect individual’s private sphere and relate to church rituals – baptism, confirmation, weddings, funerals, Latvian cemetery festivities – in the second half of 1950s, along with the implementation of revolutionary and labour traditions. In order to achieve the goals set by the Communist Party, a new structure of institutions was formed and specialists from many fields were involved, including ethnographers from the Institute of History at the LSSR Academy of Sciences (hereinafter – LSSR AS). Ethnographers offered recommendations, as well as observed and analysed the process, discussing it in meetings of official commissions and sharing the conclusions in scientific publications, presentations, etc.