PERFORMING VOTIANNESS

Heritage Production, the votian Museum and village Feasts

Ergo'Hart V!jstrik and Ester V su
'['his
artic e- investigatcs ho.lv Votian iderrtit1, lras beetr stagec1 anc1 pcrfortrrec" irr the corrtcxt ofthe
Votiatr Mttseum atrcl in t re course of the L.,uzhicyvillage f#ast. Our'arralysis conce ]tfates ol1 pe$._
ftlrnlative aSpects clfcr.r tura lreritage and et -rnic iclentityrelated [o t le clcal-ion ofspcciIic crr trrra
spaces. I'he Votian Mtrseum is exatnitred as the setting of the villagc feast, reflecting the tlisplay
aspectofheritageandiclentitypr'ocluct!oIr.
WefocLtsonthelteye"errrerlts-t reopeninr:ceremony,
the conrtrrurral meal, and carnivalesque aspccts _
of the feast, rvhich invo vc various embo<liecl
practices and articitlate the mar-rifestatiorrs of traditiona cttlttlre chosen by tlre or.ganisers of the
festival, as tvel as contelllpo .a$y e ]actlllelrts ofvillage life.
"(eywords: cu tr-lral lreritage, et"rr-ric identity, loca trrttseltm, perfbr'mance, r,i"lage t#ast, Votians
Among the valiety of ethnic minorities living in
the Russian Federation, the Votians are the smal -
est indigenous group in the Lerringrad ob ast of
northwest Russia (cf. Viikberg 200i). Today the Vo-
tian ianguage has been listed among the endangered
larrgtrages of the Russian Federation (Ageeva 1994),
and since 2008 Votians have had the official status
of a smal indigenous people of the Rtrssian North
(Regnum 2008). A demographic survey in the middle
of the nineteenth century documented the number
of Votians as exceeding 5,000 (Koppen 1867) but,
after the changes in the Soviet nationality policy of
the t930s (cf. Slezkine 1994:4 4), until the turn of
the millennium they were not counted as a separate
nationality in censuses. Long-term non-recognition
and even ethnic stigmatisation during the decades
after the Second World War brought with them as-
simi ation and even a conscious repudiation of Vo-
tian identity. According to the all-Russian census of
2002, no more than 73 people declared themselves
as belonging to this ethnic group (Perepis 2002),but
evidently there are people of Votian descent who
deliberately listed themselves (or were forced to ist
"henlselves) as ethnic Russiatrs.
Today Votians live in two villages *
Luzhicy and
Krakolye
-
in the Kingiseppski District of the Len-
ingrad Oblast, by Luga Bay. These villages of about
250 inhabitants are situated next to the multipur-
pose merchant seaport of Ust-Luga, which has been
developed rapidly since 1995 by the federal authori-
ties, and has been described by the Russian
prime
Minister Vladimir Putin as "one of the largest infra-
structure projects ofEuropean scale in Russia" (Usr'-
Luga 2008:2). According to the officia construction
plan, publicise d tn 2007, the intention was to replace
both villages with a modern town of 35,000-70,000
future port workers and their families. After protests
by the villagers, articulated and disserninated by the
E$HN0LoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
scholarly
comtnunity frotn Moscow research !trsti-
tutes
(Regr!ls 2008), this idea was abar-rdoned but,
nonetheless, the expansion of the port constantly
threatens traditional commuuities in a zone of size-
able construction.
Paradoxically, the process of developing the Us
Luga port (i.e. the threat to the Votians from outside
the villages) has occurred in parallel with a consid-
erable ethnic revival inside these villages since t re
end ofthe 1990s. The core institution in this process
has been a private Votian Museum in Luzhicy, which
has mobi ised a gloup of cultura activists from
nearby urban centres, as we as from Luzhicy and
Krakolye. These peop"e, altogether l 5_20 in number,
have different ethnic and educational backgrounds,
inclrrding schoo teachers, linguists, artists, mttsi-
cians, engineers, students etc. Some of them have
roots in Votian villages, but they reside mostly in
Kingisepp, the regional administrative centre, and
in St. Petersburg.!
The estab ishment of the museum instigated a
number of other activities connected with the pro-
duction of Votian identity that included, for exam-
ple, classes on native language and cultural history
in the Krakolye Basic School, the founclation of the
Society of Votian Culture, two Internet sites, and
the smal Votian newspaper Maalliici. However, the
most viable manifestation of the revival movement,
closely related to the Votian Museutn, ras been the
local village feast Luzhickai% sk"achina,2 ce ebrated as
a joint community festival since 2000. This celebra-
tion is based on a traditional religious feast re ated to
the Orthodox village chapel. In the re-invented feast,
the religious function of the festival has been aban-
doned, with the emphasis being laid on the produc-
tion ofVotianness, and the celebration ofthe ethnic
past and cultural heritage in a variety of forms.
This article investigates how the ethnic identity of
an endangered minority group has been staged and
performed in the context of the corlmunity museum
and through the village feast. Our analysis concen-
trates on performative aspects ofVotian heritage in
those ctrltr.lra spaces where the heritage of the grotrp
is procluced individually as well as collectively. In
the first part of the paper, we exarnine what <ind of
m!!se"tl$-l tlre Votiarr Musetttn is and lrow this irrstittr-
tiorr, basecl orr an irrc!ividttal grass-roots level irritia_
tive, is used in heritage production. Conseqr,rer-rtly,
we will stucly the ways in which official history has
been questioned in a museum exposition expressiug
a vernacular viewpoint. Our research questions also
concern the strategies of building up the museum
display by relying on personal memories ar.rd partic-
u ar materia ities of exhibitec" artefacts. Finally, the
reliability of the actua museum Space as a memory
storage is discussed.
The Votian Museum is examined as the setting of
the vil1age feast, as the atter expiicitly demonStrateS
performative aspects of heritage and identity. The
aim ofthe study is to analyse the key e ements ofthe
feast, such as the opening ceremony, the communal
meal and carnivalesque enactments' We articu ate
the manifestations of traditional cu ture that have
been chosen by the organisers of the festival to lep-
resent the Votian cultural heritage and how cliffer'-
ent understandings of Votianness are reflected in
the aforementioned embodied practices. Our study
demonstrates how the m! se!!m and village feast,
considered as ptrblic crr tura performances, are im-
portant components in the process of the revitali-
sation and constitution of local identity on a grass-
roots level, combinirrg traditiorra crr ture and the
ideas ofthe present-day Votian cultr,rral activists.
The Performances of Ethnic ldentity:
Heritage Production in Museums and
Community Festivals
As a conceptual tool, performance emphasises the
importance of cu ture as a plocess enacted in em-
bodiec! encounters of people as active agents, either
in mundane practices of everyday iife or in more
"staged" events, such as ctrlttrra performances of
different ktnds. Performance, for us, constitutes a
methodological lens for analysing the village feast
and the local museum as performative practices, al-
though they are not described as performances by
the organisers and participants (cf. Taylor 2003:3;
Schechner 1990: 9). As out ined by Edward Schief-
felin, performance is a pherromenotr re ated to "hab_
its of the boc"y more than Str!!ctures of syrnbols,
(...)
E$HNoL0GlA EURoPAEA 40:2
:l
j:
:]::
w!t r tl-rc social cotrstruction of rca"ity rather tlrarr its
lepteserrtatiot.t" (Scl.rieffelin I99Bl. I94). Wheu seeu
from this per'spective, cr-r ttrra space is constructed
and created ir-r particular performances, perceived
rnultisensorily in actior-r and participation, and ex-
periencec" in emotiorral ic!entificatiorrs with the corn-
munity involved in the events, emerging hic et nunc.
Ctrltura performances are situated in certain tan-
gible locations and, at the same time, the perform-
ance space is created wher-r the existing materialities
are transformed into a symbolically rich space, into
something that is more than what is visible. These
are cu tural pelformances that give traditions and
heritage an emboc!ied form, even though, paradoxi-
cally, they are themse ves transient. Culturai per-
formances may be considered to be restorations of
cu ture, though they are never merely leplesenta-
tions (e.g. of ethnic identity, heritage etc.), but are
also enacted presentations, pleasures of doing, and
ce ebrations of being.3
Village feasts, for instance, are lepetitive in the
sense that they restore certain events regularly ir-r
time and, yet, they have a rather open structure that
leaves space for personal interpretations. As a form
of ctrltura performance the village feast "embodied
ideas and enacted interpretations" that plovided
opportunities fol increased and intensilied experi-
ences, and for reflections on both individual and
social identities (Stoeltje & Bauman 19BB: 590). The
village feasts, which once had a predominantly re-
ligious meaning, ale tlowadays $ostly sec!llar cel-
ebrations, as in the case of the Lrzhicy. However, the
traditional feast and re-established festival share the
function of creating in-group cohesion in the village
community. The village feast provided, and now
provides, an opportr,rnity for the participants to feel
a tlansie lt personal experience oftogetherness. T1-re
re-established Votian village feast can thus be in-
tefpleted, witlr some reservations, as an exatnp"e of
"invetrted tradition" (cf. Hobsbawm 1983; Hand er
& Lirrrrekirr 19B4); as here too e ements of past peas-
ant cu ture are selected and placed into new con-
texts, these e ements gain new meanings that he1p to
constitLrte (and support) ethnic identity, and these
tladitions are reconstructed in the present.
Accor'ding to Tttrrrbridge arrd Ashwort!r, her'itagc
production is the process in which "the present se-
ects an inheritarrce from an imagined past for cttt'_
rent use and decides what should be passed on to an
irnagined future" (Tunbridge & Ashworth 1996: 6).
So for a group, heritage may become the cot-rnectiorr
between its history and its current life, and reinforce
its attachment to its dwellir-rg place. From the com-
mur-rity perspective, heritage production includes
processes involving "performances of remember-
ing" (Smith 2006: 47), either in the form of (re)in-
vented feasts oI m!!seum_making processes. Those
performances both explicitly and implicitly expless
what is valued by the group and what is worth dis-
playing publicly. In these events, the community
makes use of symbolic and imaginary realms of
"co lective myths and history" and creates opportu_
nities both for confirming and transforming exis
ing values and traditions (MacAloon 1984: 1). Heri-
tage is what gives material reality to the comtnuni-
ty's identity and ma <es it observab e and perceivable
in the form of material artefacts, significant places,
mythologies, memories and traditions (Ashworth &
Graham 2005:4).
Furthermore, cu"ttrra perfortnances, as enacted
forms of heritage, may become an important device
of the identity politics of a group (and sometimes
also expressions of resistance). The museum is a
pr,rblic space where a community's memory becomes
mediated: produced, explored and performed. Mu-
seum artefacts have come to be seen not just as mere
representations of the past but as objects that may
acquire the statr"rs of agents in the process of remem-
belir.rg. By the selection of what to exhibit in com-
munity m!lseums, the group controls the display of
themse ves arrd atternpts to manage how others see
thern (Crooke 2010:27-28). Festivals, in turn, may
be considered public "comn-remorative ceremonies"
that revitalise stories and images of the past, repre-
sent "collective autobiograpl-ry" for a cornmunity, and
"convey and sustain" tl-rem thlough ritual perfonn-
ances (Conneiton 1989: 70*7I). The village feast as
a commemorative performance and the museum
as a site of commemotation may both be related to
the cultnral archive, as weil as beingrepertoire medi'
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40|2
ated
by the "proccss of selection, tnemorization, ancl
i 1tel
na izatiol-!"
(Ihylor 2003: 20). However, tlowa-
days
oue cannot iguore the fact that heritage per-
formances
are often deliberately staged, as traditions
61e
transfortnational and people who want to keep
them
alive are trying to (re-)create means for keep-
ing
certain cultulal knowledge and plactices alive
and
educatir-rg younger community members. Per-
forming
commemo!'ative events "engenders strong
e $otions,
as collective memories and identities ar'e
either
maintained and transmitted to younger gen-
erations
or contested and remade" (Smith 2006: 69).
Th!s emotional involvement may become an impor-
tant criterion for individual"y meaningful heritage
experiences,
yet it also struggles over whose heritage
representations
better express the community's past.
Museums, which were traditionally related to of-
ficial histories and narratives of uations and ethnici-
ties, have become places for heritage negotiations,
"contact zones" (Clifford 1997: 192_ 93) in which
different meanings of a community's identity are
exhibitecl, perceived and intelpreted. Furthermore,
an increasing number of community museums
have corne into existence in recent decades as
Part
of grass-roots initiatives by those groups who were
formerly represented by public state- or municipal-
ity-run rnusenms. Often, there are particular indi-
vicluals behind these initiatives rvho ale not trained
as muse!!m professiorrals but feel the need to cre&te
their own story of their heritage, together with com-
munity members. These m!lseums faci itate the idea
of comrnunity heritage as "a forum for alternative
histories, voices and experiences", which can be used
to "express local identity" and to wor < "as an educa-
tiorral too " (Crooke 2009:42t-422). In the context
of sma l irrdigenous communities, it has been noted
that these muse" ms trsually emelge as the resu t of
the interest of one or a few commur-rity members,
and often they survive as long as this person or
'group is in colrtlo of the mttsettm-makirrg process
'(Bolton
2003:47). Thereby, the process ofmuseum
: making may become a performance of both the in-
.dividual
ar-rd collective dimension. The same can
l"e said of the museutr-rs established by endarrgered
'ethnic groups after the collapse ofthe Soviet Union
ir-r the territory of I"trssia: c1uitc ofterl clt"crly corrr-
rnurrity tnembers who perceivc tlrenrse ves as the last
carriers of community heritage feel tl-re responsibil-
ity to orgar-rise tl-ris heritage somehow itlto a museul$
display for the your-rger members of the ethr-ric corn-
rnunity (cf. Leete 2008; also Olsen 2000).
Analysing performances of ethnic identities as
they are expressed in the museum-making process,
as we l as in the vil"age festival, provides an oppol-
tunity to understand where ancl when, how and for
whom those identities are publicly created and nego-
tiated by different community members. Addition-
alln we may see what e ements are consideled rep_
resentative and appropriate for the public display of
the group's heritage, and to whom they are directed.
We argue that ethnic identity, in order to be sustaiu-
able in the changing cu ttrra space, rec1uires mani_
festations, restorations and co ective celebrations,
either in the for-m of a museum or a village feast.
Both these cultural phenomena bring ethnic Votians
and Votian activists, who otherwise are geographi-
cally dispersed, together into one locality and give
them opportunities for spatially shared and joir.rt
embodied experiences of Votianness. Yet, a museum
ar-rd a vi"lage feast ca l both be considered as hetero-
geneo""s performance spaces in which strpportive as
well as more critica voices are co-ar'ticulatec! and
publicly staged, as well as spaces in which personally
perceived identities are enacted.
The Votian Museum: Creating and
Contesting the Space for Votian Heritage
Irr his sttldy of the mttsetlms of Br'itish Co umbia,
Jan.res Clifford (t992) made a distinction between
"majority mtlseums" and "tliba museums". He
outlined the basic characteristics of majority muse-
ums and comparecl these with the agendas of Native
American l$ !!se!!ms. According to Clifford regard-
ing the latter', (1) they are to some deglee opposition-
al, as their exhibits reflect excluded experiences and
c!lrlent struggles; (2) the distinction between (fine)
art and (ethnographic) culture is for them often ir-
relevant; (3) the notion of a trnified History is cha -
ienged by local and community histolies; and (4)
they have no intention of incltrding tl-reir col ections
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
in thc patriurony of the natiorl, ofgreat art etc. (Clif-
$orc" 997: I2I*I22)'
Tlre characteristics of the tribal lnLlSe"!ms ilr l]rit-
ish Columbia correspond in some respects to spe-
cific traits of the Votian Museum, and a similar op-
position can be seen between the regional
,,majority
museum" in Kingisepp, the nearby adn-rinistrative
centre, and the local "rninority museum,, in Luzhicy.
Despite the fact that the mrrnicipality m""seum,
dedicated to the history of the region, was founded
in the 1960s, an exposition of the archaeology and
ethnography of indigenous peoples of the area was
not opened there unti 2000. Therefore, the vely fact
of founding a "grass-roots level" Votian Museum in
Luzhicy in 1997, without any institutiona and finarr-
cial support from loca or federal authorities, can be
considered to be an oppositional activity, a form of
performative resistance, with the aim of drawing at-
tention to the non-recognised ethnic group.
The Votian Museum was established as a private
Ventule of the Efimov fami"y, who furnished, for the
sake of the exhibition, one room of their summer
cottage. The primus motor of the m!"seum has been,
since the very beginning, Tatiana Efimova (born
in 1956), a chemical engineer by profession, whose
husband Sergey is a Votian from Luzhicy, where the
'fimovs have spent their weekends and summers
in the o d wooden house inherited from Sergey,s
pa 'ents. Tatiana Efimova has since then taken the
leading ro e irr the Votiarr revival lnovement arrd has
dedicated, with short inter.vals, her entire energy to
"Votian affairs". As revea ed repeatedly in our inter-
views with Tatiarra Efimova, her se f-awareness was
closely attached to Luchizy despite the fact that she
was a Russian newcome . in the village arrd the Efi-
movs officially !ived in Kingisepp, Howevet, in2006
they moved to Luzhicy and have since then been per-
manent residents of the village.
According to the rostess of the museum, the rea-
son for the exposition was to educate her childten
by doctrrnenting and sharing the loca lristory of the
village she became acquainted with at the end of the
1970s. Tatiana was fascinated by the customs and at-
titudes sl-re came acloss in Luzhicy, which c ifferec!
considerably from those traditions she had been
r-tsec! to in lrer "!trssiarr lrorrre village irr the
-I'ikhviu
District of tlre Lcr-ringrar! oblast. In her own wo1.6!c,
slre discoverec a people that did not officially exist
w ro were not lecogniseci, btrt shared .i.h .ulturnt
traditions (ERA, DV 154).
On the one hand, the museum has been, for
it.
initiator, a private endeavour to edttcate her chi dren
and to understand her close family n-rembers; on 1!1g
other hand, this project had wider public implica-
tions as Tatiana started to question the officia
mi_
nority politics represented by the regiona museum
in Kingisepp. In this way, she took on the ro e of a
guardian of the Votian tradition' even thotrgh s (
was not an expe$t in mtrseology, ethrrology or a y
re ated fie!d. During her investigations, Tatiana
discovered various popular and scholarly misinter-
pretations of Votiansa that we$.e articulated frory1
the cosmopolitan point of view. In many cases, she
formtr ated her own a1ternative theories, which con_
tested the we 1-established stereotypes and explana_
tions, from the standpoint oflocal knowledge.
Her itage P ro du ctio n thro ugh Mus eum
Di splay : Ar tefact s an d Indivi du a" s
The establishment and development of this particu_
ar museum can be interpreted as a plocess, a series
of performative acts that created a specific cultural
space. As stated by Laurajane Smith, "The very act of
possessing, managing and conserving (...) museum
co ections is itself a perfornrative utterance of hav-
ing identity" (Smith 2006: 68). Despite the fact that
the Luzhicy t$!tseum was based orr the individual
ilritiative of a newcomer, members of the oca" com-
murrity were inc trded in the process as dotrors and
informants. According to Tatiana Efirnova, the first
artefacts of the expositions were items of the house-
hold equipment of her husband's family, but later,
when villagers got to know about her "hobby,,, they
started to bling new exhibits of their own accord.
Therefore we can speak of the museum-making
process as a negotiated and collaborative perfor.m-
ance. The hostess of the museum formulated this
idea vividly in the interview recorded in Ar.rgr.rst
2000:
E$HNoLoGlA EUROPAEA 40:2
..., Irr the very "legirrr-ring, there wer'e items that !acked
..
. n y information about their application atrc
:.
...1 eaning,
not to mentiotr what they were called.
:'... But
it was a pity to throw them away. So I went to
,, ask.
And I got to know that, for example (Tatiana
,)i
points
to the artefact), this is an astija (vial), and
,r this
a lannikko (wooden vessel with cover), a con-
.. tainer
for curds or butter. This is also an astija
(Tatiana takes another vesse in her hand), but for
'
:
mashing
potatoes. This is an u)atti (woodenpail;
,
she again takes the artefact in her hand), a pro-
fttype of the present-day bucket. (...) Villagers
themselves
now bring the majority of exhibits. I
,
have fishing nets, of course, an anchor etc. All this
reflects that our viilage was, first and foremost,
a fishermen's village, and this is what I want to
show. And villagers just brought me exhibits such
as, fo$ example, a kurviverkko (a net for smelt), a
whole set, a net for catching smelt, in its entirety.
Recently, they presented me with pul"od (floats)
and v/eights of an archaic type. Even those villag-
ers yo! would not expect to do so bring exhibits
(...). (ERA, DV 1s7)
n 1998, when oulresearch team visited the musettm
for the first time, !he Efimovs had eqtripped a room
of abotrt 20 m'zwith a variety of exhibits that were a-
belled in Votian and Russian. During onr next three
visits (1999-2001), we witnessed the gradual growth
ofthe display and explored how new layers had been
added to the "home-made" exhibition. The museum
display consisted mostly of ethnographic artefacts
(nineteenth-century household equipment, clothes,
working tools, including fishing gear, and items
used in agricuiture and catt e breeding), pieces of
art (icons, paintings and drawilrgs mad by ama-
tetir artists), documents, books and photos donated
by the villagers, as well as those acquired from ar-
chives and visitors.5 Half of the wal s of the museum
room were coveled with fishing nets; clothes and
working too s were attached to the wa s and some
were placed on long benches ocated at the edges of
the room. For Tatiana Efimova, every single exhibit
had its own story; she knew by heart the previous
owners of the artefacts and all of them represented
for her certairr periods irr tlre history of t"re vil"age.6
For exan-rple, the existence of a pre_war Ortlroc ox
chapel in Luzhicy, and the religious life of the vil_
lage in general, were marked by icons donated by the
Vasi iev family, in the "irnprovised" ho"y corner of
the museum room, and religious iterature of the
pre-war period. The Swedish period was indicated
by two Swedish coins, dating back to 636, found
in the Efimovs' vegetabie garden and considered by
the hostess of the museum to be the most precious
exhibits of the disp"ay.7 Her relationship with the ex-
hibits was quite emotional; when we asked Tatiana
Efimova to mention her favourite exhibit she an-
swered: "I cannot say that I have one favourite item.
A i these things are for me ike my own children"
(ERA, DV 157).
Thus, the exposition of the museum was built up
from objects that supported remembering and dic-
tated the narrative of the museum c$eator. In addi-
tion, for the sake of the exhibition Tatiana Efimova
had ordered, from the Russian Ethnographic Muse-
um in St. Petersburg, copies ofphotos taken by Sovi
et ethnographers in the 1920s. These photos mostly
depicted villagers of that period and were mainly
focused on personal aspects and genealogies of the
villagers. Individuals were a so dominant in the old
famiiy photos donated to the museum and exhibited
together with ethnographic artefacts. According to
Tatiana Efimova, one of her aims in putting together
the exposition was to co nmemorate and pr'esent
native inhabitants and to "show how talented our
peop e are" (ibid.). one ofthose gifted personalities
was, fol example, Nikolay Nesterov, born in 921
in Luzhicy, who worked for decades as an electrical
engineer in St. Petersburg, and donated to the mu-
seum his drawings that were made during and after
the war. Nikolay Nesterov had never studied art, but
his ta ent a owed him to ea$n additional money and
survive as a prisoner of war during the Second World
War (FM 2000).
The hostess of the museum had accumulatec! a
considerable amount of information on the gene-
alogies of the villagers, so that we witnessed how
she (as a newcomer) explained, with the help of
museum photos, the genealogical relationships of
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
i:'
a.,.
t"re orre-til-tle villager's to t rc native irr rabitarrts of
Luzhicy (rI!A, DV 266).
'"atiarra
Efin-rova thlrs hac!
a sotnew rirt arr-rb!va ent role irr the "-reritage prodtrc-
tion process: s"re col ected knowlcdge of local rr-rat-
ters fiom state alchives and scholarly literature and
by ir.rtelviewing local villagers, but also shared this
krrowledge wit r the village commurrity, gaining the
stattrs of oca heritage specialist per se.
Two opposite trends in the practices of arranging
the display appeared. On the one hand, there was
lestolation of ocal history and heritage throtrgh ar.-
tefacts, documents and photographs; these were ac_
cumulated and displayed in order to create a va id
depiction ofthe past, to support and recreate Votian
identity among villagers. On the other hand, clue to
the creative nature ofthe performative process, new
interpretations were put forward that re-scripted
various cultural phenomena from the vernacular
pet'spective and alticulated new "cu turai nryths,,,
which placed Votians at the centre of the universe,
and contested cosmopolitan views of centre ancl pe-
r'iphery (cf. Ttran 1974:239; Grad n 2003). For ex-
ample, Tatiana linked the term for public assembly
in medieva Novgorod, the Veche (Russian aeve),
with the Votian word v"ici - 'people'. She also inter_
preted, with the help of Votian words, many local
place narnes and thus presented various folk etymo-
logica" explarrations (see Efimova 2006, 2009' FM
2003).
The museum attracted both inhabitants of Lu-
zhicy and visitors (rnostly reiatives who came to
the cotrrrtrysic"e dtrring the summer vacation), as
well as groups of schoolchildren and tourists whose
sight-seeing routes passed through the region. How-
evel, the scarcity of museum space set a "imit on the
number of visitors who cou d enjoy the ciisplay at
any one time.
The Community Museum as
% Contested Site of Action
The museum as a syrnbolically rich cultural space
and memory site may become a stage for contest-
ing comrnon views, and sometimes even a battle-
field of identity, as wel1 as loca politics, especially in
unstab e socio-cu!tura situations. The story of the
Luz-"ricy tll!!sCL!!11 is a charactelistic cxatlrple Ofstrqh
developnretrts, arlcl !t cr'r mirrated irr two (!Ial$1%tic
everrts tlrat clestroyed lot o lly thc nrttsetttn bLri!c"irrn
but also the Efimov householcl. There was a fi.c
i,l
their house in September 2001 that resulted ir.r 1 .
desttr-lction of the who e building, including all
61
the mtrsetrm holdings (around 70 etlrnographic o _
jects, 200 photos and cloctlments). The carrses of t g
fire were not identified, btrt loca villager.s aSSociated
the casua ties with vengeance agairrst the Efimovs,
appeals to officials concerning the illegal logging go-
ing on in the forest. The Efimovs' activities in the
field of the Votian revival and their fight for tlr(
rights oflocal inhabitants were evidently opposed by
those people who were interested in developing ancl
earning from the plunder econonry due to the ack of
contr'o and changirrg political situation in the Rtrs_
sian Federation.
However', after the hr.e, villagers continued to clo_
nate new objects to the rnnseum, and even two years
ater our lesearch teatn found a llew temporary ex_
hibition set up on the veranda of the Efimovs, new
house. In these years, Tatiana and Sergey Efimov at_
tracted a group of activists from St.
petersburg
ancl
other nearby nrban centres, who btought along new
ideas to advance the Votian reviva . For exanrple,
classes on native lang!"age and local history were
initiated in the ocal Basic School of Krakolye, the
first Internet homepage dedicated to Votian mat-
ters (see http://vadjamaa.nar.od.ru) was opened and
brand-new Votian ethnic sytrbols (a flag, a coat of
arms and an anthem) were invented. Activities a so
irrcluc!ed the publicatiorr of a bilingr'ra co "ectiorr of
Votian folk tales, which gave rise to a discussion on
Votian orthoglaphy ar.rd the possibilities ofcreatingl
a literary language. While at that time "Votian af-
fairs" were predomirrarrtly based on individtra in!
tiatives, it was logica" that a phase of institr'rtiona i-
satiorr fo owed. In April 2005, tlre Society of Votian .
Ctl ture was estab ished, and sirrce then it has been
the core institution ofthe Votian revival. In order to
share information and present its icleas, the society
started to prrblish the sma -sca e Votian newspaper,
which is free and distributed to all villagers.
.
In oc!ober 2005, a ha"f of an old_stvle Votian
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
rcas!l)t
ll()!lsc wits tlolla!ctl to thc Socicty of Vrrtiltr
Cu !trr'c
by Lhc Filipov ant" Kttztrclsov l'aInilics. arrd
!t '{as r'enovated with tlre help of t"re village colnm! -
l ity arrd vol!lt]teer enthttsiasts. The followir-rg year a
, ew exhibition, displaying the interior of a Votian
house
at the beginning of the twentieth century, was
opened.
While visiting the mnseum ir.r May 2006, we
lrea ised
that tl-re new muse! $ Space was much big-
ger;
the living room of the old-type Votian peasant
. house
was ftrrnished with o d household equipment,
including
a large oven, a bed covered with home-
ade textiles, fully functional looms, a spinning
rwheel,
a long table and benches. There were several
she ves
for' displaying ethnographic artefacts, which
wele olganised according to the materia s the tools
were made of (wood, clay or metal). In addition, an
o d-fashioned woman's fo k costume was exhibited.
,The "og walls of the living room were covered with
textiles and panels with photographs clepicting out-
)tarrding villagers and recent activities OfVotian ac_
tivists.
The expanded museum space made it possible to
carry out a variety of activities initiated by the So-
ciety of Votian Culture. The new building was used
enthusiastically as a comm! nity centre; it served
as the ven!!e fol classes of native language and lo-
cal history, and workshops of traditiona lrandicraft
and ctrisine, under the gtridance of elderly vil"ag-
ers. "n 2006, the museum was the scene of the an-
nual village feast and the ce"ebration of the Day of
Indigenous Peoples of the region. This new space
provided an oppor't! llity to experience nineteenth-
*entury peasant life through old househo d irrteri-
ors and artefacts. As seen in the photos taken by the
Efimovs, these opportunities were taken advantage
ofbyVotian activistS, as wel as members of the chi -
dren's fo k ore group, who dressed in folk costumes
and participated in workshops dedicated to learning
the Votian language and o d crafts (see ill. i). The
m!lse"tm space promoted more intense involvement
in o d-tirne everyday practices, such as baking pies,
weaving with looms, singing folk songs etc. It con-
centrated
the activities of the viliagers and their
guests,
who par-ticipated in common get-togethers
and experienced the physical c oseness oftheir com-
Ill. l: Workshop of baking traditiona pies in the Votiarr
Museum. (Photo: S. Lotov,2005)
lii:
panions in the ir-rtimate atmosphere of the feasts.
Due to its successful activities, the new m!lseum
receivec! a great deal of attention irr loca ne vsPa-
pers and on local TV channels. All tlris n-rarkec! the
achievements of the levival movement before the
muse!lm was btlrnt down again in September 2006.
This time, some of the ex -ribits were saved thanks to
the rapid action ofthe villagers. The cause ofthis fire
a so remains unclear.
It is c ear that the repeated destruction of the
museum has caused a considerab e reaction in the
Votian revival movement. The ic!ea of fotrrrding a
thild museum has been laised, despite the fact that
the Efimovs have r..efused to accept new artefacts
donated by the villagers. New exhibits have been
partially photographed anc! a virtual musetrm has
been set up on the homepage of Votian activists (see
w\i/r^/.vatland.ru). However, the destruction of the
museum house did not diminish the enthusiasm of
the initiators ofthe Votian identity disp"ay; q!!ite the
contIa$y. Tlre process ofestablishing and constantly
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
re-establ!shil1g tlrc Ltrzhicy m! seul'l1 reflects t -re
performativity of the enterprise
-
it is not just the
building anc! material objects that can be relatec! to
the museum but also the people and the activities of
creating the exhibition of Votianness.
Considering the above-mentioned events, the
question arises of whether the museum space is an
appropriate mode for storing Votians' memories and
mediating their identity.
The Village Feast as a Performance
of Ethnic Revival
The Luzhicy museum as a cu tura sPace integrates
private and public representations, individua and
col ective depictions ofVotian heritage. once a year,
the museum and museum yard are used as a
,.stage,,
for hosting the village feastLuzhickaia sk"achin%.
In pre-industria rura societies of northwest
Russia, viliage feasts ^/ere expressions of co ective
activity that included certain religious, socia and
economic functions. This phenomenon of collec_
tively celebrating certain days of the church ca en-
dar, which included a reiigious ritual, a common
meal, singing and dancing in the course ofthree or
four days, was a part of the common Russian Ortho-
dox tradition shared by several ethnic groups in the
second ha fofthe nineteenth century and the begin-
ning of the twentieth.s The religious ritual, consist_
ing of a procession and a service in the local chapel,
once an important part of the event, has been aban-
doned and the ce"ebration of the ethnic community
is now the focus ofthe feast. The village feast, once
a tacitly religious testimony that enforced the sacra
ties of the community, has now become a conscious-
ly re-estabiished event by a group ofVotian activists,
the "stage directors" of the Votian ethnic identity,
and has become a public dispiay for self-reflection.
From the performative perspective, ethnic tradi-
tions have always been constantly re-invented by
different agencies involved in the process and pre-
sented for an auc!ience (either for the gloup itse f
or for outsi<!ers) (Bendix 1989). Beverly
. Stoeltje
states that all festivals display certain characteristic
features, being "calendarically regulated interva s,
public in nature, participatory in ethos, complex
itr stlltctttre, arrd n-rr"rltiple it-t voice, sCene, an(! p!!I.
pose." The varied opportr-rtr!ties for. participatio
and, at the same time, integratiolt of the w"role gt6
o
because of a common purpose is what makes
th!
kind ofevent so captivating for participants (Stoeltje
1.992:266). Thereby, festive events become perforrn-
ances ofa group's ethnic identity that involve diver5(
political interests and various artictrlations of 1 .
past realised in communa ly shared involvemen1

both real and imaginary cu tura space (cf. Grad#
2003; Hoe scher 1998; Mathisen 2009). Thoug
public displays of ethnic identity ure ul*ay. mor.
or ess collective creations, they may be initiated
by
paIticu ar individuals serving as "directors,, of these
events.
The loca village feast in Luzhicy, Luzhickai% skl%-
china, was re-established in 2000 to ce ebrate the
500th anniversary ofthe village.e Since then, Tatiana
Efimova, the hostess of the Votian Museum, %5
been the main organiser of this community festiva"
ce ebrated each year, usually on the third weekend of
u1y.'0 The venue of the village feast has varied, but
for several years it has taken place on museum prop-
erty. The main participants in the feast are local vil_
lagers, their fami ies and re atives Who come to visit
their home village for this very event. Therefore, the
feast a so functions as a Space for family reunions,
in which Votian ethnic identity is celebrated by cre-
ating the feeling of tempo$aly communitas (Ttlrner
1969). In addition, the village feast has attracted the
attention ofVotian activists from St.
petersburg,
re-
searchers and students oflinguistics, ethnology, and
fo klore, journalists and representatives of1ocal and
fedelal govemrnents. However, folklore experts play
a minor ro e here in comparison with large-scale
pubiic folk-life festiva s _
the village feast in Luzhicy
is a co aboratively created event encouragillg par-
ticipation (cf. Bauman & Sawin 1990: 2BB-314).
Tatiana Efimova, along with other cultural activists,
has created the gelreral directoria" concept for the
whoie event by structuring it, and by doing so has
provided value and legitimacy to certain elements of
Votian heritage.
The number of festival participants has varied
too, over 200 in the first year but stabilising in re-
6B
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
,.'i,aant
y.n.. at al'! !!vcrage of 100. f'he dot-nitrant secu-
',.iu1.
orp..t
of tlre village feast arrc t re irrvolvemetlt
,
l
ethnic
revival has, on the other hand, evidently
..g1c !rded
some nrembers of the village community.
.,por
example,
in 2003 one of the native inhabitants,
.,r1ndy in her eighties, for whom the religious aspect
.,,of the feast day was more important, refused to par-
:ticipate
in the ce ebration and, irrstead, that week-
l1.. ! she attended the liturgy in t re nearest ortho-
'dox church
(ERA, DV 792)' Some villagers of Votian
.'d.r..rt
might have missed the comm" nity festiva
,.:du. to the opposition of their non-Votian family
l.rembers, who perhaps,fe t embarrassed in an un-
,
fami]riar
ethnic society (ERA, DV 795). The village
feast
was also consciousiy rejected by those villagers,
mostly
datshniki (summer-cottage ownels) of var!
. ous ethnic backgrounds, who had moved to Luzhicy
, cluring the post-war period and were not connected
'with
age-old family networks, thus lacking the mo-
,, tivation to communicate with other villagers (FM
2004). Therefore, the feast has been oriented to-
.
lvards a certain segment of the viliage population:
: native inhabitants and theil closer family members,
I
as well as Votian activists. These people appreciate
the organisers' endeavo!lrs arrd they have give$l
Posi-
tive feedback
-
for them the festival has increased
the irr-group coherence of the vil"age commttnity
(ERA, DV 154). The village feast can be character-
. !sed as a heterogeneous cu tural space wlrere differ-
ent "voices" preserve their varied intentions.
tween the pelforrners ancl the auclicnce can be noted;
tlre festive part that comes zrfter !s tnore irrrprovisecl
ar-rd invo ves al" the participants. T'lrtrs, two dist!r-rct
performances meet !n the vi"lage feast: the opcn_
ing ceremony, which corresponds to a stagecl folk-
loric programme in the forrn of a gala cor-rsisting of
carefully selected heritage e ements, and the nrore
spontaneous ce ebration that fo ows, involving irn_
provisatory self-expression, commensality, dances,
games, etc. Although, in the course of ten years, the
village feast has had a stab e Structure, the fo"lowing
analysis is based on participant observation of the
performances in 2003 and 2004, supplemer.rted by
later photos and descriptions.
The opening Ceremony of the Vil"age
F east: Staging Votianness
The most explicitly staged and rehearsed par! ol the
event is a gala that inc udes speeches, arlanged po_
ems, musical pieces and other performances. These
parts of the programme were, in 2003 and 2004, in-
tr'oduced by the main organise ' of the feast, Tatiana
Efimova, who, through her commentaries and short
presentations, framed the who e official part of the
feast. The opening ceremony usually reveals some
significant social roles in the community and con-
firnrs dominant cotnmunity values (Stoeltje 1992:
264). Yet, the way the ceremony is staged reveals
the organisers' valnes and principles regarding lvhat
should be brought to the stage as representative of
the commtlnity's heritage. A considerab e alnount
of attention has been paid to the opening ceremony
through various acts of commemoration, includ-
ing the presentation of elderly villagers and certain
events in the history ofthe village. Ln2003, the idea
of "commemorating all past members of the village
community" was manifest d in the ritual placing of
cand es in front of a wooden cross erected tempo-
rarily on the site of the formel village chapel. This
performance of remembering was introduced by
reading the Orthodox Church court protocol frotn
the 1730s, which accused the villagers of Luz}ricy
of carrying out vernac!! ar cultic practices, not ap-
Pl'oved
by Church officia s, irr the chapel. The per_
formance of remembering peaked with the reading
::t:
.,:;:!
::)
:.:].]].]
:.ri,,:
l,i.,l.
tt:r,,:.
:::.,r,:
1l:ii.
;,,
.::
Luzhickaia sklachina, as a contelnporary secular
,,r, village festival, has the following basic elements: (l)
,,;,',- an openil'g ce emony; (2) a cornmunal meal (food
'tr,::,;
and drinks); and (3) carnivalesque activities (games,
,l:, sports, dancing and a visit by disguised Chudi) (cf.
',,r:, Stoeltje 1992: 2; Turner & McArthur 1990: B5).
.:.ll:
yet,
the overa l stluct" re of the event is open and
,r,,,,
on. might also note the preparatory and aftermath
,.,..r,,, phases of this process. The event is pre-planned ar-rd
:,. certair-r elements of it are rehearsed by the organis-
i]::,::
,,:,:, ers and key performers. Likewise, there is no forma
l::,i'. conclusion and the feast disperses in space, continu-
:'. ing in p.irrute celebrations in people's homes. The be-
t. ginni,.rg, the official programme, is carefully staged
'rl. by organisers and, therefore, a clear distinction be-
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
:-]',r
t,
tjl!a;.;
of tlre Lorc! praycr, trarlslatecl irrto Votian lbr tlre
sa <e oftlrc festival by otie oftlre elclerly villager.s.
Sirrce 2003, tlie con-rpulsol.y clemcnt of the ce -
ebtatiorr has been the hoistirrg of the Votian flag,
which was presented publicly for the first time clur_
ing the village feast. n addition, the Votiarr coat of
arms and anthem (an arrangement of a folk song)
were introdnced to the participants of the feast, es_
tablishing the legitimacy of the village corrmunity.
For the sake of the festival, a distinctive cu!tural
space with its own tu es and aesthetics was created,
where participalrts could sense anc! petform
,,gentt_
ine" Votianness. Ethnic identity was maniiested
vividly in the fo k dresses of the performers, which
stlesses the role of materia objects in the process
of establishing cultura heritage. These ena!ments
of hybrid performance
have historical roots (peas-
ant life ofthe nineteenth century), but also .on,ni,
modern e ements.
The ambiva ent natu .e of conternporary
Votiarr_
ness was vividly represented in the performances
of
the oca fo k ore g$oup at the opening ceremony.
Schoolchi dren,
most of whom had neither an in-
digenotrs cu tural backgrouncl nor klrowledge of the
native langtrage, performed Votian fo k song" for the
audience, among whom only a small minority could
understatrd the iyrics. 2 In2004,Votian
heritage was
te-introdttced irr staged perfo .mances of fo k c!&nces,
a-s we as in the fi.agments of the weclcling ritual of
the nineteenth-cent!lry
peasant,s life cycl". Besides
the songs, Votianness was stressed in these perfor.m-
ances through dialogues in the native language, ancl
mar'ked with fo k costumes that were rec!lrs!ucted
according to the descriptions of eighteenth-century
scho ars (FM 2004). Here the terrclency to explore
trrore archaic forrns of traditior-ra cultule is mani-
fested in order to c .eate a feeling ofarrthenticity. The
sa ne co lcelns the clothing of Tatiana Efimova, who
durirrg the 2006 village feast was dr.essec! in a fo k
cost!lme from the beginning of the twentieth cen-
ttlry, but since 2007 slre has worrr a stylised anc! more
o.:1"i: costume designed according to archaeologi_
cal findings.
These representations
of past cultural traditions
in a new context reflect, however, only one possible
way of per.{ilrnring Votiarlrress. Whi e artalysing
t"r(
lreld lnaterials, wc also for-rtrc! an alterrrative wiy
11,
wl-rich tlre Votiarr identity was ce ebratecl in the
!r.o_
graln$ne of t re festive gala. T'l-rese were variotls
!gr_
fot'mances,
for example rhythrnic
8ymnastics, ;o o
silrging, etc., that were inc uc!ec! irr the prograrnr
g
because of the fact that tl-rey *... p"rfo.,rr.& uy tr,.
commtrnity
members or their chi dren. Accor.ding
to this approach, everything that was presented
by
the ocal inhabitants, tl-rat is, people of Votian
de-
scent, reP$esented Votianness
The opening cer.emony of the village feast can be
.
interpreted as a conscious act of ternembering
and .
commemoration
that is oriented to attra and visua!
.
perception.
only certain e ements of traditiona ctrl-
tu 'e a$e selected and presented by the
..stage
c!irec_ ,:
tors" as Votian heritage.
The Loca CtLisine %nd the Commlmal Mecil
]
AnotheraspectofVotianidentitythathasbeen
marrifested and celebrated viviclly during the vi age
..
feast is the ocal cuisine. Comparecl to tt'. op"niig _,
ceremony' the communa meal is clearly u l.ss stage& .,
part of the evenr. According to Beverly Stoeltje, ihe l
food eaten dur.ing the feast
,,embodies
the iclentity :
of the group and represents the par.ticulo. o..o- ,,
sion"; the food as it is perforn-red (preparecl,
...u.,1 1.,
and chosen) colnmunicates
a traclition of the corn_
...1
murrity (Stoeltje
)'992:265).,,Throtrgh
1h( 6h91gg 96
,,,,
food and drink and the way they are servecl, people
l
ar'e borrded into groups throtrgh commensa !.t*i- ,r..
ty" (Stoeltje
& Bautnan 19B8: 594). In this ritua -like ,..,l,,
event, which carries both traditiona ancl rrroclern
.i,
meanings,atemporarycommttnitas,thefeelingof
an "extended
family,,, is createcl.
,
al
In the fir.st revived viilage feasts, the presentation
,,,---,
of local "forgotten"
delicacies was initiated by the
',-.14
organisers of the feast, and this was carr.ied out in
':,.:
the form of contests: trac itional food (mostiy pies
:..rl
with different shapes arrd fillings) *o, p..pu"j by :
the o der fema e members of the cornmrrlity; th.s.
,.
were judged
by a jur.y and finally shared with all par_
,...
ticipants in the feast. This <ind ofactivltynetpejthe ,li
Votian activists explore and revive oca foo& truai-
.,.,
tions, bring them forth from the memories of elderly
',,
,,t
llirj
.li,
ji::rli
i:ii:. ]
ja']j +o
E$HNoLoG A EURoPAEA 40:2
ll
peoplc
arrd' iIr tIlis way, !Ltt'tt cct'!aitt nritrtil'cs!lttitlIrs
of for,',',.I.
tr'at!iriorlal ctrisittc i tt!o cc cbratct crr ! trraI
heritage'
. Becattse
tlre getrre of contest was not successftt
in
the context of village feasts (as the food was not
c istributed
evenly), this idea was later sonrewhat
transformed.
As the prograrnrne of the annual feast
has,
from the ver'y beginning, inc uded a cotnmuna
rreal,
where palticipants share their home-made
dishes
ar-rd drirrks, the presentation of traditiona
cuisine
has become a compulsory pat t of the festive
menu.
We can also examine this issue from another
perspective:
a tradition was re-invented to prepare
certain
dishes for the sake of the village feast, and
this has giver-r them a new function anc" thus helped
lhe recipcs oi past de"icacies !o survive.
our reldwork team also witnessed a de iberate in-
vention ofheritage in the sphere ofcuisine: in2004,
a herba tea made of the ferrnented "eaves of Rosebay
Willowher'b
( pi"obittm angustifoliunt) was pIesent-
ecl during the viliage feast as a local drink that had
once gairred irrternationa fatne for the Votian peop1e
(cf. Nikolaeva 2005). This interpletation was based
on a Velnacular R!lssian desiglration of the drir]k
rconopctcu
, at!, "tea of Koporye", which lin <ed the
origir.r of the tea with the medieval centre of the Vo-
tian land, Koporye.
According to Barbara I(ir'shenb att-Girnblett,
"feasts are prominent in rites of incorporation,
where corlmensality, the act of eatirrg togethe$, is an
archetype of trnion'' (Kirshenblat Gimblett 2001:
23). The communal meal can be regarded as the
sta!'ting point of the tlnofficial part of the Luzhicy
village feast. When we attended, the meal \ir'as ar-
ranged on long tables, where home-made dishes
and drinhs were shared and served by the partici-
pants themselves. Wlrile !!p to that point perform-
ers and audience were sepalated, durirrg the mea
these borders disappeared and the activities were
no longer directed by the organisels but by the vil-
lage community itself. People sat around the tables
grouped into fami ies and kinship g$oups. Howevet,
there were no rigid hierarchies and peop e were wel-
come to change their places, as the mea served as
a ven!le for active conrmunication. Peopie, some of
wl-ror-r-r dic" not t-neet facc to fatce lnorc crftctr t ratl <lncc
a ycar, had tlte opportunity to share news, to recall
past events or to just have a goocl time in the corn-
pany oftheir relatives and neighbours. It was evident
that, through the communal r-r-real, kinsl-rip ties were
continuously strer-rgthened and the same was tlue of
the local village identity.
The meal ir-rc uded short greetings and toasts, as
we l as commur-ral sirrging. However, these were no
longer old Votian songs, performed within the gala
by the folklore gro! p, btrt poptrlar Russian songs,
learned from and distributed by popular movies,
radio programmes, and other mass mec"ia. The very
act of sirrgirrg together, the pleasure of co ective
perfotmance, united Vi lagers, relieved tensions and
clearly created a feeling of cohesion.
'I'hese
perform-
ances also reflected contemporaryVotianness, which
is not defined so much through the native language
as through shared past and common activities.
Music and dancing are important factors in gen-
e$'ating the shared experience and ce ebration so crtt-
cia to the success of the festival (Turner' & McArthur
1990: 85). However, in 2003 we witnessed, in this
respect, contested approaches, as more educated
"guardians of authenticity" (cf. Annist 2009: 1.32)
from St. Petersburg intervened to contlol the rep-
ertoire of common singing, to avoid popular music
and choose tr aditional songs, as well as to oppose the
disco dancir.rg favoured by villagers and their guests.
Carniva"esque E ements of the Vi""age Feast
The fina part of the feast is minima1ly staged and
much more spontaneous and irnprovisatory as a per-
formance. As Michai Bakhtin (1984: 196_277) has
argued, popular festive forms in cultut'e, especially
carnivalesque events, invo ve all the participants
and are often a humorolts and playful l$ix of the
high arrd ow, the sacred and the pr'ofane. In 2003
and 2004, the feast reached its culmination with
a variety of games and contests between the par-
ticipants, dancing and visits by disguised "guests",
cal ed the Chudi, who appeared suddenly to tlre
participants of the feast.'3 These were mostly elderly
villagers, accompanied by their grandchildr..en, who
had disguised themse ves and brought in carniva_
E$HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
!esque elemerrts tlrat firrally broke dowrr al borc"ers
and conventions, freeing the participants in their
bodily expressions through joy ar.rd merriment. f'he
ln"lmmels entered the "stage" of the feast singing a
Russian song, and then joined the dancers and asked
the participants to dance with them, repeating their
provocative movements and gestures. The Chudi
also made attempts to get those people who were sit-
ting at the tables into the dance area, thus causing
overa l disorder and joy. After public
,,presentation,,
of their masks and costumes, some of the mummers,
playing certain roles, asked the participants ques_
tions. For example, in 2003 one of the elderly women
was disguised as a soldier and as <ed the guests to
show their certificates that allowed them to be in the
border zone (ERA, DV 798).
The institution of visiting mummer.s is based on
a nineteenth-century peasant tradition, a custom
related to miclwinter feasts of the folk calendar,
1a,s,1-
dirrgs arrd othet' commutral get_togethers (cf.
# 151u
1969: 142_1#8). !n the coll"emporary viIlage feast"
this phcnornenon was not res"ored deliberatety
"l
the "direc"ors'',
but it re_emerged spontaneouslv
as an in"tiative of oldcr community members, th

beirrg an autonomo! s vernacu ar creativity uniti
g
various aspects of bodily expression. The selectioi
of disguises also echoed, on the one hand, topical
problems of the vi!lage community (lor examp!e,
1$_
strictions in the border zone, and the constructio
of the port; see a so ill. 2); on the other hand, the
masks of mummers reflected villagers' spontaneous
inspitation, as these represented a variety offolklor_
ic and fictional characters (for example, Baba yaga,
the Booted Cat and the Gypsy Woman).
Carnivalesque elements may articulate aiternative
modes of self-expression and they often integrate
::;1'.
::lt::.
,::a:
:t,'tl'
t:i,i t .
:.illr:.
.::.::.4
":li:
E%HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
t l. 2: Chudi disguised as a soldier, a bric1e anc" a sailor. (Photo: Ser-gey Efimov,2007)
different
groups withirl thc cotnmttnity through
"rnus"ng
gameS, conteSts etc. il'hrouglr latrgl-rter,
tensio ls
and even traumas of everyday life rnay be
collectively
derided and overcome. Individual and
social
identities become transformed; as in the case
of the Chudi, at the tirne of our visits, villagers wore
glo"csq"le
costumes and masks while performing
ih.
,o ., oi imaginar'y characters. The costumed
Derformer
was more than just a par!icular person;
h. o. h. became a "bearer'' of symbolic messages
(from the past) (cf. Stoeltje 1992:270). Dance and
rnusic,
ikewise supportin8 carnivalesque solidarity,
engaged
all the participants in the same action, cre-
&ting
emotiona1ly enhanced memorable moments.
Thus,
the integration of various participants, mem-
bers of the village conrmunity and cultura activists
into one commL nitas was realised by carnivalesque
iaughter,
play and games.
Conclusion
The Votian Museum and the Lttzhicy village feast
are "heritage practices" (Hafstein 2009: 11) in which
the cu tural identity of an ethnic group is publicly
perfolmed anc! negotiated through the creation of
a symbolic space. These acts of commemoration
make it possible to establish and revitalise the co -
lective myths and images of the past, reflect upon the
present condition of the community, and ensure the
S"!stainability of an endangered minority group.
The reviva of the Votiarr ethnic identity irr the last
decade has been initiated by particular individuals,
. cultura activists, who have takerr the role of guard-
ians and "stage-directors" of contempo%afy Votian-
ness. Both in the case of the Votian Museurt and the
Luzhicy village feast, certain elements of the ethnic
past are consciousiy selected, combined with poPu-
Iar cu tural practices, and publicly displayed by the
activists. However, staged performances also include
spontaneous enactments t ]at plod"!ce hybridity,
blending traditions of different origins and thereby
maintaining the vitality of heritage practices, as well
as the identity of the group. These performances
provide opportunities for active participation and
facilitate in-group cohesion.
Our research proved that a museum, traditionally
corrsidered to be a static arch"ve ofctrlttrral her.itage,
rnay also be seen as a process of perforr-native acts.
Furthermore, this archive is not eternal and can be
a challerrged space of resistance. Thus, a muse""m
is not only a set of rooms with artefacts br"rt also a
conglomerate of ideas that are reified in exposition,
as well as being articulated in various practices and
performances attached to it. The Votian Museum,
as a "minority museum", exhibits the local history
from a subjectively perceived a!ternative perspective
that contests the story of the "majority museum" in
the regional administrative centre and brings forth
the excluded experiences of Votianness.
The Votian Museum has been the main setting for
staging the most vibrant manifestation of the Vo-
tian ethnic reviva . Although the re-inverrtec" feast
is based on the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy,
religious e ements have been discarded in the con-
text of the contemporary festival, which provides
an embodied multisensory expetience of helitage
and a tempofaly fee ing of communitas. While ana-
lysing the Lrlzhickaia sklachina, we outlined three
basic components that had been staged to different
ciegrees, starting with the most arranged part, the
opening cerel%ony, arrd concluding with the most
spontaneo""s
Part,
the calnivalesq! e reve . It seems
that the e ements of the atter, especially mummeIs,
joint singing aud dances (not necessarily folkloric),
afe the most vita aspects, as these enco"lra8e paf_
ticipation of ali atter.rdants and, at the same time,
they are the most sustainab e, as they can be adapted
to changing cultural conditions. The commensality
of the festive tnea supported this clairn: col%].m! -
nal sharing of food and drinks proved to be more
important tharr including trac"itional recipes in the
menu. The Luzhicy village feast as a performance
of cu ture (cf. Schechner 2002:38) produces ethnic
identity arrd conso idates the village conrmunity; it
al ows fot'communication with the imagined etlrr-ric
past and, at the sarne time' educates younger
Partici-
pants. Furthertrrore, the village feast c 'eates a space
for the increased and intensified experience ofethnic
identity through the co lective commemoration of
the past. It gives rise to festive joy and a celebration
of shared moments for families and kinship groups'
E%HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
Wc c ainr t rat, irr tlre corrtetnporar.y socio_political
situat"orr, tlre Luzlricy village feast, througlr "ts nrate-
rial objects ancl sensory involvement, has provecl to
be a rnore ploductive and sustainable mode of cre-
atirrg ancl s"lppo"ting ethrric ider-rtity tharl the tnore
transient exposition of the Votian Musenrn.
In conclusion, an ethnic cultural space can be cre_
ated in either tnore stab e places, such as a m!"seum,
ol in temporal, performative spaces, such as the vil_
lage feast. Yet, both cases indicate that the cultur.al
space is active!y produced by partictrlar indiviclual
agencies, who, in their embodied actions and expe_
riences, constant"y rregotiate the present and the fu-
ture of ethnic survival.
Notes
*
This lesearch project was supportecl by the European
Union through the European Regional Development
Fund (Centre of Excellence CECT), the Estonian Sci_
errce Foundation grant no. 7795, and target_financecl
projects SF0180157s08 and SFO180139s08. The arti_
cle is mainly based on field naterials documentecl irL
]998_2006' including video recordirlgs and fielc" notes
made at the Luzhicy village feasts in 2003*2004. E._H.
Vstrik provided errrpirical tnaterial, while E. V su
contl'ibuted to the theoretica and methoclological
framework for. the study. We ackr.rowledge the assist_
ance of Tatiana Efimova wlio helpecl us during the fielcl
trips, allowed "rs to ""se her photo archive ar-rcl providecl
us wit!r additiolral infornration on local matters.
1 Al! the activists were interested in
..Votian
affairs,,, br-rt
only few ofthem possessed active knowleclge ofthe Vo_
tiar.r language.
2 We use the term "village feast,,to mark a subcategory
of a festival, a co lective phenomenon tlrat creates"r-rd
s"lpports in_gl.or'lp cohesion within the par-ticular com-
munity. A more specific ter.m is preferred here in orcler.
to stress the one-time religious and communal func_
tion of the celebration (cf. Shevzov 2004). The terrn
Lttzhick&ia sklachina, literally trar-rslated as,,chrbbirrg
of Luzhicy" (crcla wna < crc"l& t'rcctmucrz
.c trb
to-
getlrer; pool one's resotrrces'), refers to the conrmrtna -
ity of the eve%it. Activists a"so lrse the Votian parallel
%er m LL L tsan vakkov
'
3 Richard Schecl-rner's (2002: 22) basic c!efirrition of per_
forrnance as "restored,, behaviour. indicates not only
the r'epetitiveness ofcultural practices, but also the wa"
identities (whether personal or.collective) ard tradi_
tions at'e enacted "tr mu!tiple acts that are uniq"le, yet
E%HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
alrvays ctltltaitr sonle ".ci.%lll"! %ts of w!rat was <!orrc irr t
pas ".
4 Fot exanrplc, Sovict scl-ro ars, as wcil as authoritics,
d1,1
not ntakc thc distinction betwceti vat.ious indigenoll"
peoples of the regiorr and label ed t -rerrr al as lzhori_
ans, anotlter Balto_ ;irrr-ric etlrr-ric gr.oup living in 1hq
Leningr.ad oblast. That is the reason wl-ry !ocal Votia11
vi!lagers started to iclerrtify thet-nse ves volur-rtari!y
as
Izhorians atrd, dtte to lot-tg-term norr-recognition
,1
assin-rilatiotr in recetrt decades, irlso as Rltssians.
,f&1i&
o
Efimova stressed the importance of the.,enlighteni
g,
aspect of her activities in interviews recorded in l9;g
and 2000. (All interviews with Tatiana Efimova cited
be ow were conc"ttcted in Russ"an.)
5 Both scholarly books on Votian fo"klore ancl LPs anc"
CDs witlr music received from visiting resea"chers
as
gifts had beerr put on disp!ay.
6 I'hese periocls mentioned by Tatiana Efimova in the in-
terview included the Swedish rr-rle of the seventeenth
cel1t" ry, the growth ofthe vi!lage at the errd oft re nine-
teenth century and at the beginning of the twent"eth
celltury, the Stalinist repressiotrs of the 93Os, tlre ca-
lan-rities of the Seconci World War, and the ir.rsecurity of
the post-war period (ERA, DV "57)'
7 The Swedish period is marked "n vernacular place_
related "ore by medieval burial molrrr<]s that are intet-
preted as "Swedish cemeteries,, (Votiar-r 't, eeta& k& noc ,
Rnssiarr araedcn ue .troeun L), despite the fact that these
moulrds c"ate back to an earlier period. Memories of
seventeenth-century Swedish nrle are a part of the
comlnon knowledge of the nat"ve inhabitants of the
region.
8 On the phenomenon of local feast days iu popular
Eastern orthocloxy see, for exatrrp!e, Shevzov 2004 ancl
Vstri < 2008.
9 Luzh(cy was for the first tirrre mentioned in writtetr
sources in tax lists of the year 1500, clocurnenting the
irrhabitarrts of the Votian Fiftlr, a forn-rer ac"rn"r-ristra-
tive unit ofthe Novgorodian Republic.
10 This date generallycorresponds ro the DayofSts. peter
arrd Paul ilr the or"hoc"ox cIrtrrclr ca encllrr, cclebrltec
traditionally as or-re ofthe feast <lays by the Luzhicy vi!-
lage chapel "!P to the 1960s (cf. V""str.ik 2008: 106_ 07).
1 on the flag, designed by Votiarr activists irr 2002, there
is a recl cross on a w rite centreboard, wlrich is framed
by two b!ue triangles.
2 Thel'e are only a few dozen people, e!clerly men anr"
wo!]]en, who lrave an active krrowledge of Votian.
Nonet -reless, the rrative larlguage is arr important sym-
bolic value for the Votian reviva movemerrt.
l3 Theword Chudi (uy al)denotes, inthe fo"kloreofRus-
sians and seyeral Finno-Ugric peoples, n-rythological
others. %n Votian folklore, the Chtdi correspol d to the
Nordic mrrmnrirrg tradition (cf. Gunne!l 2007).
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of Estorriarr arrd Cotnparatil.e Folk!ore, Univer.srty of
.|arttr,
Ijstonia. F is iic ds of iltercst are folk religion, history of
re1lrcsen|atiotr alttl tnuseunl s"r.rc"ies. FIc has trlac"e ficlc! .,ork
arnong llalto-Finnic rninor.ity groups in nor.thu,est Russia
and ryt'otc ris P r.D' t rcses on text"ta representatior-r of Vo-
tians' anc" #zhorians' religiorr irl histtlrical sout.ccs.
(ergo J.ralt.vastrik@ut.ee)
l]ster Vc]stl is a t.cscarcher at thc Dcpartrtlcnt of }ithrlology,
Universi[y of
'Irtu,
'ston"a. LIe". Iie"c s of "nterest inc!r""
t leories of cttlture and setniotics' perfortrrance sttrclies and.'
tot"tt'isln' !]stcr is currcnrly a Plt'D. candic ate arlcl rcr clis.
scr"at"on is about applicabiliLy of theatrc_analogies in lural,
Iuulism lcsearch.
(Cstcl'.Vos""@]!ll.('c)
E#HNoloGlA EURoPAEA 40:2
A
PERFORMATIVITY OF NORDIC SPACE
#he
Tension between Ritual and Sincerity Re-Embodied
:ll..'
through
Each Performance of Sweden's Allsng p Skansen
Chad
Eric Bergman
Drawing on Riclrard Sclrec rtret''s ideas of perforlllance, mode#n ritual theor'y (especia!ly tlre lvor <
of Seligman, Weller, Puett and Sirnon), anci Butler'.s considerations of perfolmativity, this arti-
clc considers that the perfornrativity of Nordic Space is !ocated in t rc tension bct'tveett ritual ilrrd
sirrcerity. Usinu examples from the "50th te evisecl installment of Al!sngp Sknnsen (a Swedish
comtrrunity sirrg-alolrg event) I e,Kamil]e lror.v repetition affbr'c"s trs the oppol'tLrnity to crea!e and
Ie-C 'eate a sense of wlrat Nordic cou d mean ill a variety of aretras. I!epeating Nordic Space zrs a
bl.errc" clf lllelnol'y anc re-creation continually i'eestab ishes tlre refl'eshing tetrsiotr betweerr r'itrra
and sinccrity.
Iky wort!s: perfor'rnativity, ritua , sir-rcerity, sing_along, Swec"en
There will be more "in-between" pe#formative
genres. In-between is becoming the norm: be-
tween iterature and recitation; between religion
and entertainment; between ritual and theatre.
Also, the in-between of cu trrres: events that can't
easily be said to o#iginate in, or belong to, this or
that cult!lle but that extend ilrto severa cu tures.
(Schechner I9B5:322)
I wonder: What would a performativity of Nordic
Space look !ike? Sound like? Fee like? Smel ike?
Taste like? These questions begin a discussion of ac-
tion ancl doing that is central to the project ofNordic
Spaces. These are not passive places, pieces of real
(State to be possessed, owned oI leflected in a state
of being. On the contrary, Nordic Space evokes an
active exchange of doing and calls forth a space re-
located and re-imagined. To do this imaginative
thinking, I want to exP ole these concepts ofperfor_
mativity and Nordic Space as an "in-between" genre
that might offer insight into events that "extend
into severa cu tures." I will then look at the Nordic
Space of Al!sng
Pa
Skansen (a Swedish community
sing-along event) in particu ar through the ens and
speaker of sight and sound.
Richard Schechner, groundbreaking theatre
and performance scholar', opened up the discur-
sive vista, or a fan in his case, of what is possib!e
to examine under the rubric of performance and
as a resu t created an intelconnected web of pos_
sibi ities for understanding the way we expelience
the wor d. Undergirded by collaborations \^/ith and
w#itings of anthropologists Victor Turner, Erving
Goffman and C ifford Geertz, Schechner explained
that the basic performance stl'ucture of gathering/
performing/dispersing under ies
_
and literally con-
E#HNoLoGlA EURoPAEA 40:2