On “Reliving the Past”: An Anthropologist’s Perspective

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical conceptualization of the metaphor of “reliving the past” for ethnographic fieldwork use. The following three issues are elaborated: (1) how the metaphor of “reliving the past” is present in the academic literature; (2) what anthropological theories inspire the proposed use of the notion of “reliving the past”; and (3) how the use of this kind of “theory” and “method” might affect the practice of ethnographic fieldwork. The article is based on the author’s experience gathered during the realization of research on the memory of the Second World War and the post-war period in the Podhale region.