Social inequalities and marginality often go unrecognised in the Nordic welfare states. This proj... more Social inequalities and marginality often go unrecognised in the Nordic welfare states. This project examines the effects of neoliberalism and intersectional inequality in Finland from a contemporary archaeology perspective; the case study is a Second World War German military camp turned into a working-class community occupied until the 1980s.
The Finnish wartime landscape was altered by Nazi troops who were stationed there during World Wa... more The Finnish wartime landscape was altered by Nazi troops who were stationed there during World War Two. This paper examines wartime sceneries through Finnish Army Information Company's photographs from the period of the war known in Finland as the Continuation War (1941-1944). The images reveal a completely different side to the Nazi co-belligerence to what is traditionally acknowledged in Finland. I discuss the ways the Nazi troops altered the Finnish landscape, adding `German-ness´ to their surroundings and more specifically, how Nazi ideology manifested in the northern Finnish landscapes. The Finns have been completely oblivious to the symbolic messages the Nazis crafted in their surroundings. Photographs as haunting representation addresses in this paper both the difficult memory of German presence that frames these pictures and the specific potency of these photographic encounters. Haunting as a theory deals with the evocative ways an image can convey information about the past.
CHRISTIANISATION IS A PROCESS that manifests as locally distinctive traditions and behaviours. Wh... more CHRISTIANISATION IS A PROCESS that manifests as locally distinctive traditions and behaviours. While traditionally in Finland it has been assumed that local populations were subjected to a forced conversion, recent research has abandoned such top-down approaches and has emphasised local agency in the Christianisation process. This article contributes to the investigation of religious conversion in the Bothnian Bay coastal region of Finland, where the northernmost Catholic parish of Kemi was established in the early medieval period. The site under scrutiny, the Cape Valmarinniemi burial ground, presents archaeological evidence that questions long-held assumptions about the area’s Christianisation. We employ AMS-radiocarbon dating, geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, and a thorough osteological analysis to examine the site. This article addresses the importance of scientific methods and the careful analysis of excavation data in the investigation of religious transformations.
This paper discusses Finnish war commemoration in social media where the public connects with the... more This paper discusses Finnish war commemoration in social media where the public connects with their history through wartime photography. The focus is on one Finnish social media site that chooses images out of the official Finnish military photography collection for posting. Through social media, the public can participate in heritage work themselves and these sites are becoming increasingly important in creating views of the nation's past. The pages tend to repeat nationalistic narratives and recreate national myths. One important symbol in Finnish cultural imaginings is the colour white. In the imagery of World War Two, with Finnish soldiers dressed in white snow camouflage, it is used to emphasise the moral purity and innocence and victimhood of the nation. Such symbolism can distort understandings of the war, and the social media pages have become venues where ethnonationalism is maintained and even racist discourse accepted. I argue that more attention should be paid to photography in the construction of heritage narratives, and professionals should react to the kind of heritage invoked by the public in social media.
This article examines a series of unsettling images from the Finnish Continuation War (1941–1944)... more This article examines a series of unsettling images from the Finnish Continuation War (1941–1944) and the memories of the war that these photographs construct for contemporary Finns. We argue that these images can be viewed through Alison Landsberg's (2004) notion of ‘prosthetic memory’, which underlines how visual media enable the acquisition of vivid memories of past events. The paper outlines how these long-ignored photographs narrate unexamined dimensions of World War II in ways that transform how Finns in particular remember the war. The images illustrate a neglected Finnish occupation of Soviet territories and the treatment of Russian civilians under Finnish rule. We argue that the images can provoke empathy for their experiences and therefor challenge traditional and nationalist Finnish war interpretations.
ABSTRACT Nestled in a quiet part of Oulu, Finland, on an Island called Hietasaari, was a resident... more ABSTRACT Nestled in a quiet part of Oulu, Finland, on an Island called Hietasaari, was a residential area called Vaakunakylä. Hietasaari was, from the 19th century onward, largely undeveloped with an oceanside beach amidst pines, small, cultivated fields and a modest number of expensive villas. Vaakunakylä was a working-class neighborhood, but city planners committed to developing the Island forced the residents to move in the 1980s. The decision to remove the community was influenced by the Finnish state’s commitment to a seemingly classless society living in harmony with nature, and a difficult World War II history of the site. Finland is a Nordic welfare state and marginality in society is sometimes difficult to recognize. In this paper, archaeology is used to counter the city’s narrative about social problems and residential quality of life in Vaakunakylä.
Summary Charred Wooden Remains and Other Features from the Early Mediaeval Churchyard of Cape Val... more Summary Charred Wooden Remains and Other Features from the Early Mediaeval Churchyard of Cape Valmarinniemi, Keminmaa The excavations arranged by the University of Oulu at cape Valmarinniemi, Keminmaa during the summer of 1981 yielded extensive and significant research material concerning the early medieval history of Northern Finland. The traces of early ecclesiastical buildings were found with close to 150 burials. Nils Cleve pointed out the location of the churchyard in the Kemijoki-river mouth already in the 1950s, and archaeologist Pentti Koivunen finally uncovered it after decades of debate regarding the location by other researchers. This article aims to examine the churchyard and the existing evidence of building remains, their radiocarbon dating and certain aspects of burials, such as their depth and orientation, with the help of GIS. These features can help understand the use of the churchyard throughout the medieval period, as the ecclesiastical activities at the site dat...
In this article we examine a popularly-oriented Finnish wartime photographic book, Suomi kuvina. ... more In this article we examine a popularly-oriented Finnish wartime photographic book, Suomi kuvina. Das ist Suomi. Finnland in Bild und Wort, from 1943, which introduced Finland ‒ its landscapes, culture and people ‒ for a German target audience. We analyze the choices of images and captions and explore how the familiar visual tendencies were both changed and maintained during the war, for instance, through the representation of landscapes and gender. Although the book appears to be a coherent description of an idealized nation, a minute detail in one photograph reveals underlying tensions that challenge the discourse of a nation unified by war.
This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during th... more This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War. We will analyze the German photographic representation of Lapland from the perspective of how the Germans portrayed and experienced this northern land, with a focus on Fahrbahn Lappland (Lapland's Roadway), a coffee-table book by the German photojournalist Mabre (Max Martin Brehm). It affords interesting insights into German perceptions of and engagements with the Far North of the European world. The photographs in Fahrbahn reflect a sense of dislocation on the one hand and an attempt to neutralize the physically and mentally threatening northern wilderness on the other. In addition to capturing the "spirit" of the German experience of Lapland through his photographs, Mabre's work resonates with a dystopian tradition of representing the North of Europe dating back to the early modern period and beyond. It presents Lapland as a "blank slate" by distancing the locals from the view and showing the region as a virtually unoccupied periphery on the fringe of the modern world. This can perhaps be understood as making "mental groundwork" for the anticipated Nazi German rule in the North of Europe after the war.
This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during th... more This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War. We will analyze the German photographic representation of Lapland from the perspective of how the Germans portrayed and experienced this northern land, with a focus on Fahrbahn Lappland (Lapland’s Roadway), a coffee-table book by the German photojournalist Mabre (Max Martin Brehm). It affords interesting insights into German perceptions of and engagements with the Far North of the European world. The photographs in Fahrbahn reflect a sense of dislocation on the one hand and an attempt to neutralize the physically and mentally threatening northern wilderness on the other. In addition to capturing the “spirit” of the German experience of Lapland through his photographs, Mabre’s work resonates with a dystopian tradition of representing the North of Europe dating back to the early modern period and beyond. It presents Lapland as a “blank slate” by distancing the locals fr...
Feelings and photography have both been neglected to some degree in heritage research. This is th... more Feelings and photography have both been neglected to some degree in heritage research. This is the case both internationally and locally in Finland, where my research was conducted. In this dissertation, I examine one Finnish photograph collection from World War II and trace the photographs’ uses in various heritage contexts. I examine cultural representations of the war in both museums and social media, which I interpret here as an amateur heritage engagement with wartime images. Feelings are an integral part of engaging with visuals, as they are in any other heritage encounter. The purpose of my research is therefore twofold: On the one hand, I examine how the wars are represented; on the other, I examine how images influence the viewer’s emotions. I apply visual methods to study representations of the war and phenomenological methodology to examine the images’ affects. By doing so, I hope to show that studies of representation alone do not account for the entirety of a photographic encounter. I wish to argue that the difficult emotions caused by facing dark histories are not to be feared but can provoke useful discussions of Finnish identity and history. Such difficult histories include Finnish cooperation with the Nazis in the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the imprisonment of Soviet Russian civilians in concentration camps in East Karelia under Finnish rule. Finns have also shied from a critical examination of their relationship with the Holocaust, for example. The images’ power to influence viewers can be used for more inclusive narratives of the Finnish national character and to challenge some of the cultural myths surrounding the wars. Perceptions of Finnish masculinity especially seem to draw a lot from the wartime generation’s imagined qualities. Visual representation plays a significant role in producing these stereotypes. Some photographs in this collection could be used to create more varied perspectives on the war that challenge the accustomed patriotic lens through which the wars are examined in Finland.
Social inequalities and marginality often go unrecognised in the Nordic welfare states. This proj... more Social inequalities and marginality often go unrecognised in the Nordic welfare states. This project examines the effects of neoliberalism and intersectional inequality in Finland from a contemporary archaeology perspective; the case study is a Second World War German military camp turned into a working-class community occupied until the 1980s.
The Finnish wartime landscape was altered by Nazi troops who were stationed there during World Wa... more The Finnish wartime landscape was altered by Nazi troops who were stationed there during World War Two. This paper examines wartime sceneries through Finnish Army Information Company's photographs from the period of the war known in Finland as the Continuation War (1941-1944). The images reveal a completely different side to the Nazi co-belligerence to what is traditionally acknowledged in Finland. I discuss the ways the Nazi troops altered the Finnish landscape, adding `German-ness´ to their surroundings and more specifically, how Nazi ideology manifested in the northern Finnish landscapes. The Finns have been completely oblivious to the symbolic messages the Nazis crafted in their surroundings. Photographs as haunting representation addresses in this paper both the difficult memory of German presence that frames these pictures and the specific potency of these photographic encounters. Haunting as a theory deals with the evocative ways an image can convey information about the past.
CHRISTIANISATION IS A PROCESS that manifests as locally distinctive traditions and behaviours. Wh... more CHRISTIANISATION IS A PROCESS that manifests as locally distinctive traditions and behaviours. While traditionally in Finland it has been assumed that local populations were subjected to a forced conversion, recent research has abandoned such top-down approaches and has emphasised local agency in the Christianisation process. This article contributes to the investigation of religious conversion in the Bothnian Bay coastal region of Finland, where the northernmost Catholic parish of Kemi was established in the early medieval period. The site under scrutiny, the Cape Valmarinniemi burial ground, presents archaeological evidence that questions long-held assumptions about the area’s Christianisation. We employ AMS-radiocarbon dating, geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, and a thorough osteological analysis to examine the site. This article addresses the importance of scientific methods and the careful analysis of excavation data in the investigation of religious transformations.
This paper discusses Finnish war commemoration in social media where the public connects with the... more This paper discusses Finnish war commemoration in social media where the public connects with their history through wartime photography. The focus is on one Finnish social media site that chooses images out of the official Finnish military photography collection for posting. Through social media, the public can participate in heritage work themselves and these sites are becoming increasingly important in creating views of the nation's past. The pages tend to repeat nationalistic narratives and recreate national myths. One important symbol in Finnish cultural imaginings is the colour white. In the imagery of World War Two, with Finnish soldiers dressed in white snow camouflage, it is used to emphasise the moral purity and innocence and victimhood of the nation. Such symbolism can distort understandings of the war, and the social media pages have become venues where ethnonationalism is maintained and even racist discourse accepted. I argue that more attention should be paid to photography in the construction of heritage narratives, and professionals should react to the kind of heritage invoked by the public in social media.
This article examines a series of unsettling images from the Finnish Continuation War (1941–1944)... more This article examines a series of unsettling images from the Finnish Continuation War (1941–1944) and the memories of the war that these photographs construct for contemporary Finns. We argue that these images can be viewed through Alison Landsberg's (2004) notion of ‘prosthetic memory’, which underlines how visual media enable the acquisition of vivid memories of past events. The paper outlines how these long-ignored photographs narrate unexamined dimensions of World War II in ways that transform how Finns in particular remember the war. The images illustrate a neglected Finnish occupation of Soviet territories and the treatment of Russian civilians under Finnish rule. We argue that the images can provoke empathy for their experiences and therefor challenge traditional and nationalist Finnish war interpretations.
ABSTRACT Nestled in a quiet part of Oulu, Finland, on an Island called Hietasaari, was a resident... more ABSTRACT Nestled in a quiet part of Oulu, Finland, on an Island called Hietasaari, was a residential area called Vaakunakylä. Hietasaari was, from the 19th century onward, largely undeveloped with an oceanside beach amidst pines, small, cultivated fields and a modest number of expensive villas. Vaakunakylä was a working-class neighborhood, but city planners committed to developing the Island forced the residents to move in the 1980s. The decision to remove the community was influenced by the Finnish state’s commitment to a seemingly classless society living in harmony with nature, and a difficult World War II history of the site. Finland is a Nordic welfare state and marginality in society is sometimes difficult to recognize. In this paper, archaeology is used to counter the city’s narrative about social problems and residential quality of life in Vaakunakylä.
Summary Charred Wooden Remains and Other Features from the Early Mediaeval Churchyard of Cape Val... more Summary Charred Wooden Remains and Other Features from the Early Mediaeval Churchyard of Cape Valmarinniemi, Keminmaa The excavations arranged by the University of Oulu at cape Valmarinniemi, Keminmaa during the summer of 1981 yielded extensive and significant research material concerning the early medieval history of Northern Finland. The traces of early ecclesiastical buildings were found with close to 150 burials. Nils Cleve pointed out the location of the churchyard in the Kemijoki-river mouth already in the 1950s, and archaeologist Pentti Koivunen finally uncovered it after decades of debate regarding the location by other researchers. This article aims to examine the churchyard and the existing evidence of building remains, their radiocarbon dating and certain aspects of burials, such as their depth and orientation, with the help of GIS. These features can help understand the use of the churchyard throughout the medieval period, as the ecclesiastical activities at the site dat...
In this article we examine a popularly-oriented Finnish wartime photographic book, Suomi kuvina. ... more In this article we examine a popularly-oriented Finnish wartime photographic book, Suomi kuvina. Das ist Suomi. Finnland in Bild und Wort, from 1943, which introduced Finland ‒ its landscapes, culture and people ‒ for a German target audience. We analyze the choices of images and captions and explore how the familiar visual tendencies were both changed and maintained during the war, for instance, through the representation of landscapes and gender. Although the book appears to be a coherent description of an idealized nation, a minute detail in one photograph reveals underlying tensions that challenge the discourse of a nation unified by war.
This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during th... more This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War. We will analyze the German photographic representation of Lapland from the perspective of how the Germans portrayed and experienced this northern land, with a focus on Fahrbahn Lappland (Lapland's Roadway), a coffee-table book by the German photojournalist Mabre (Max Martin Brehm). It affords interesting insights into German perceptions of and engagements with the Far North of the European world. The photographs in Fahrbahn reflect a sense of dislocation on the one hand and an attempt to neutralize the physically and mentally threatening northern wilderness on the other. In addition to capturing the "spirit" of the German experience of Lapland through his photographs, Mabre's work resonates with a dystopian tradition of representing the North of Europe dating back to the early modern period and beyond. It presents Lapland as a "blank slate" by distancing the locals from the view and showing the region as a virtually unoccupied periphery on the fringe of the modern world. This can perhaps be understood as making "mental groundwork" for the anticipated Nazi German rule in the North of Europe after the war.
This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during th... more This article examines photographs illustrating the German war effort in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War. We will analyze the German photographic representation of Lapland from the perspective of how the Germans portrayed and experienced this northern land, with a focus on Fahrbahn Lappland (Lapland’s Roadway), a coffee-table book by the German photojournalist Mabre (Max Martin Brehm). It affords interesting insights into German perceptions of and engagements with the Far North of the European world. The photographs in Fahrbahn reflect a sense of dislocation on the one hand and an attempt to neutralize the physically and mentally threatening northern wilderness on the other. In addition to capturing the “spirit” of the German experience of Lapland through his photographs, Mabre’s work resonates with a dystopian tradition of representing the North of Europe dating back to the early modern period and beyond. It presents Lapland as a “blank slate” by distancing the locals fr...
Feelings and photography have both been neglected to some degree in heritage research. This is th... more Feelings and photography have both been neglected to some degree in heritage research. This is the case both internationally and locally in Finland, where my research was conducted. In this dissertation, I examine one Finnish photograph collection from World War II and trace the photographs’ uses in various heritage contexts. I examine cultural representations of the war in both museums and social media, which I interpret here as an amateur heritage engagement with wartime images. Feelings are an integral part of engaging with visuals, as they are in any other heritage encounter. The purpose of my research is therefore twofold: On the one hand, I examine how the wars are represented; on the other, I examine how images influence the viewer’s emotions. I apply visual methods to study representations of the war and phenomenological methodology to examine the images’ affects. By doing so, I hope to show that studies of representation alone do not account for the entirety of a photographic encounter. I wish to argue that the difficult emotions caused by facing dark histories are not to be feared but can provoke useful discussions of Finnish identity and history. Such difficult histories include Finnish cooperation with the Nazis in the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the imprisonment of Soviet Russian civilians in concentration camps in East Karelia under Finnish rule. Finns have also shied from a critical examination of their relationship with the Holocaust, for example. The images’ power to influence viewers can be used for more inclusive narratives of the Finnish national character and to challenge some of the cultural myths surrounding the wars. Perceptions of Finnish masculinity especially seem to draw a lot from the wartime generation’s imagined qualities. Visual representation plays a significant role in producing these stereotypes. Some photographs in this collection could be used to create more varied perspectives on the war that challenge the accustomed patriotic lens through which the wars are examined in Finland.
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photographs’ uses in various heritage contexts. I examine cultural representations of the war in both museums and social media, which I interpret here as an amateur heritage engagement with wartime images. Feelings are an integral part of engaging with visuals, as they are in any other heritage encounter. The purpose of my research is therefore twofold: On the one hand, I examine how the wars are represented; on the other, I examine how images influence the viewer’s emotions. I apply visual methods to study representations of the war and phenomenological
methodology to examine the images’ affects. By doing so, I hope to show that studies of representation alone do not account for the entirety of a photographic encounter. I wish to argue that the difficult emotions caused by facing dark histories are not to be feared but can provoke useful discussions of Finnish identity and history. Such difficult histories include Finnish cooperation with the Nazis in the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the imprisonment of Soviet Russian civilians in concentration camps in East Karelia under Finnish rule. Finns have also shied from a critical examination of their relationship with the Holocaust, for example. The images’ power to influence viewers can be used for more inclusive narratives of the Finnish national character and to challenge some of the cultural myths surrounding the wars. Perceptions of Finnish
masculinity especially seem to draw a lot from the wartime generation’s imagined qualities. Visual representation plays a significant role in producing these stereotypes. Some photographs in this collection could be used to create more varied perspectives on the war that challenge the
accustomed patriotic lens through which the wars are examined in Finland.
photographs’ uses in various heritage contexts. I examine cultural representations of the war in both museums and social media, which I interpret here as an amateur heritage engagement with wartime images. Feelings are an integral part of engaging with visuals, as they are in any other heritage encounter. The purpose of my research is therefore twofold: On the one hand, I examine how the wars are represented; on the other, I examine how images influence the viewer’s emotions. I apply visual methods to study representations of the war and phenomenological
methodology to examine the images’ affects. By doing so, I hope to show that studies of representation alone do not account for the entirety of a photographic encounter. I wish to argue that the difficult emotions caused by facing dark histories are not to be feared but can provoke useful discussions of Finnish identity and history. Such difficult histories include Finnish cooperation with the Nazis in the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the imprisonment of Soviet Russian civilians in concentration camps in East Karelia under Finnish rule. Finns have also shied from a critical examination of their relationship with the Holocaust, for example. The images’ power to influence viewers can be used for more inclusive narratives of the Finnish national character and to challenge some of the cultural myths surrounding the wars. Perceptions of Finnish
masculinity especially seem to draw a lot from the wartime generation’s imagined qualities. Visual representation plays a significant role in producing these stereotypes. Some photographs in this collection could be used to create more varied perspectives on the war that challenge the
accustomed patriotic lens through which the wars are examined in Finland.