From a Fratricide to a Family Memory

When a research deals with researcher’s own family history, a significant challenge is presented: “What is the significance of the familiarity the researcher has for their object of research? What is the researcher’s role and how their own memories influence their work?” In this article I explore th...

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Main Author: Riina Haanpää
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2011-03-01
Series:Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/35
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author Riina Haanpää
author_facet Riina Haanpää
author_sort Riina Haanpää
collection DOAJ
description When a research deals with researcher’s own family history, a significant challenge is presented: “What is the significance of the familiarity the researcher has for their object of research? What is the researcher’s role and how their own memories influence their work?” In this article I explore the possibilities my own family history offers by observing a fratricide that took place in my family, as well as the narrations it has created. My grandfather’s brother Veikko, while drunk, stabbed and killed his brother Väinö in Kauhajoki in 1974. In my family, the event has been handled in various ways, and due to its uncommonness it has also been the theme of many stories which unveil our family’s history and present lives as well as the relationships inside the family. I have chosen three interviewees as an object of closer inspection. With these interviews, I explore Väinö’s death and the attitudes towards it: “How has the killing been interpreted inside the family and what has it meant to the family” I also examine the reactions towards the death in the society and the South-Ostrobothnian culture. Because the examined manslaughter is also inside my family viewed as an unusual death, it is interesting to raise conversation on divergent deaths in general. I will thusly also observe the point of views presented in the interviews and examine them in correlation with the researches done on divergent death.
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spelling doaj-art-aa2579379d4146b7891efc718afe328a2025-02-02T14:00:06ZengSciendoJournal of Ethnology and Folkloristics1736-65182228-09872011-03-0121254235From a Fratricide to a Family MemoryRiina Haanpää0University of TurkuWhen a research deals with researcher’s own family history, a significant challenge is presented: “What is the significance of the familiarity the researcher has for their object of research? What is the researcher’s role and how their own memories influence their work?” In this article I explore the possibilities my own family history offers by observing a fratricide that took place in my family, as well as the narrations it has created. My grandfather’s brother Veikko, while drunk, stabbed and killed his brother Väinö in Kauhajoki in 1974. In my family, the event has been handled in various ways, and due to its uncommonness it has also been the theme of many stories which unveil our family’s history and present lives as well as the relationships inside the family. I have chosen three interviewees as an object of closer inspection. With these interviews, I explore Väinö’s death and the attitudes towards it: “How has the killing been interpreted inside the family and what has it meant to the family” I also examine the reactions towards the death in the society and the South-Ostrobothnian culture. Because the examined manslaughter is also inside my family viewed as an unusual death, it is interesting to raise conversation on divergent deaths in general. I will thusly also observe the point of views presented in the interviews and examine them in correlation with the researches done on divergent death.https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/35oral historyfamily historynarrationinterpretingunusual death
spellingShingle Riina Haanpää
From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics
oral history
family history
narration
interpreting
unusual death
title From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
title_full From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
title_fullStr From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
title_full_unstemmed From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
title_short From a Fratricide to a Family Memory
title_sort from a fratricide to a family memory
topic oral history
family history
narration
interpreting
unusual death
url https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal/article/view/35
work_keys_str_mv AT riinahaanpaa fromafratricidetoafamilymemory