Abstract
This paper discusses various approaches to the topic "place names and identities", addressing the meaning of place names, their role as links to the past as well as their identity-building capacity. The author argues that there is an intimate relationship between place and place name, and he discusses how place names may reflect or give rise to feelings of individual and collective identity attached to the places in question. Three particular personal experiences of the identity role of place names are given, two at the beginning of the paper and one in the conclusion.
Highlights
This paper discusses various approaches to the topic “place names and identities”, addressing the meaning of place names, their role as links to the past as well as their identity-building capacity
The identity role of a place name may even be demonstrated by a slogan, like the one I noticed some years ago on the T-shirt of a young woman from Botswana: “Serowe is home”
Anthropologists in particular have investigated the role of place names as references to and symbols of acts and experiences both in tribal and Western contexts
Summary
This paper discusses various approaches to the topic “place names and identities”, addressing the meaning of place names, their role as links to the past as well as their identity-building capacity. Place names play an important role on a regional and national level too, and name changes may create strong feelings among large groups of people, especially in multi-ethnic areas.
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