A borderland on the edge of materiality: ancient remains, storied landscapes, and community narratives from the arm of Finland

M Van Den Berg

doi:10.1080/1751696x.2021.1951558

Abstract

ABSTRACT In past decades landscapes have become recognized as essentially liminal systems: there has been an increased appreciation for the embeddedness of lived experiences of places in four-dimensional space-time and the landscape’s connections with perceptions, stories, the material and immaterial pasts, as well as the material and immaterial present and future. Kilpisjärvi is such a place where immaterial pasts, presents, and futures consolidate into lived experiences. Intimate narratives of the local inhabitants and enveloping environment are produced through the intermingling of traditional ways of living and being with the development of modern perspectives and infrastructures. This photo essay glimpses at the flow of interconnected stories of becoming of an Arctic village’s lifeworld. It glances at what has never been built nor written down, what has been built over, the local anecdotes that speak to these, and how this amalgamation of interweaving materiality and disembodiment shape an understanding of Kilpisjärvi and its inhabitants from an insiders and outsiders perspective. The essay takes the reader through the liminal landscapes of reindeer, reindeer herders, tourist organizations, and village life, and its analysis advances our understanding of how these all connect in a meshwork that teaches old and new ways of viewing the environment.

Highlights

Kilpisjärvi (Gilbbesjávri) is a remote village in the Fennoscandian far North
In past decades landscapes have become recognized as essentially liminal systems: there has been an increased appreciation for the embeddedness of lived experiences of places in four-dimensional space-time and the landscape’s connections with perceptions, stories, the material and immaterial pasts, as well as the material and immaterial pre sent and future
Intimate narratives of the local inhabitants and envel oping environment are produced through the intermingling of traditional ways of living and being with the development of modern perspectives and infrastructures

Summary

Introduction

Kilpisjärvi (Gilbbesjávri) is a remote village in the Fennoscandian far North. Located in the upper arm of Finland and close to the borders of Norway and Sweden, it comprises a borderland in many ways. Kilpisjärvi, along with its stories, has become a hybrid amalgamation of old and new ways of viewing the cultural and natural envir onment, the indigenous and non-indigenous locals, and the omnipresent nonhuman animal in the area that cannot be overlooked: the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus).

Results

Conclusion