Ethnologia Europaea

The intention in this article is to propose an alternative to the modernist structural manner of referring to and representing the Holocaust. The alternative is based on performative paradigms in tourist research and on the reading of Peter Eisenmann’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, acultural heritage site in the center of Berlin. In places of remembrance such as Auschwitz-Birkenau the place is the scene of the crime but in the emotional geography of Peter Eisenmann the visitor experiences a cool authenticity, a light physical inscription in the cultural heritage. Contrary to the consuming of places which the gazing tourist perform the witnessing visitor invests bodily in this place and this investment becomes the coin of exchange with the past.

Every minute, somebody, somewhere is celebrating something. When did customs of celebrating jubilees become a matter of course in festive culture and why and when did we actually start to celebrate them? With the institution of the Holy Year in 1300 an interval of 50 years, later of 25 years, as a celebratory cycle was found which is observed in both secular and Christian celebrations up to the present. Secular jubilees or private anniversaries have a much shorter history. With a few exceptions in early modernity it was not until the nineteenth century that the number of occasions for “celebrating something” started to grow and the differences of celebratory customs broadened.1

What does it mean to study textile objects? Is it possible to use the textiles themselves to illuminate issues of production, use and interpretation? This is the main questions discussed in the article, taking a category of interior textiles from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in museum collections as a starting point. By using phenomenology as a method, the researchers’ experiences of the studied objects are seen as away of understanding the textiles to be able to contextualize them in time and place. When studying the textiles, the process of weaving, the creation of the patterns and the design of the fabric that follows by the use of them, are some of the aspects to analyze. What do things communicate and how is it possible to understand the message?

The article analyses a long-term conflict centred on an abandoned shipyard situated across the Tagus from the historical city centre of Lisbon. Since 1999, ambitious plans to build high-rise office towers and luxury apartments on the deserted site polarized politics and public opinion in the area, and local struggles about what to do with this former industrial waterfront became a catalyst for debates that reverberated through the entire country, throwing into sharp relief conflicting cultures of modernity that compete for hegemony in Portuguese society. In our study that spans the years 1999–2007, we consider urban planning and the political controversies spawned by urbanist interventions as a privileged site for the investigation of the cultural construction of modernities.

In this paper I discuss different ideals shaping the development of the reanimated Camino de Santiago (the pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela). I first analyze the heritage ideal, represented by the official discourse, especially that of the Council of Europe. I then look at the ideals represented by the material route signs, which demonstrate how the European heritage discourse is enacted “from below” together with competing ideals of the Camino. Last, I present modern traditions found on the Camino and the implicit ideals underlying them. I argue that these traditions are transmitted by face-to-face conduct (orally and bodily) as well as through written texts (mainly on the Internet). I conclude with remarks on the nature of these traditions and their interplay with the European heritage ideal.

What is the Musikantenstadl? This phenomenon showcasing popular Alpine culture is quite familiar to most people in the German-speaking countries of Europe. But even without ever seeing it, most readers are likely to have an idea what it is about.