Kohalikud tavad ja pühaduse poliitika Trakai järvestiku piirkonnas

Abstract

The lakeland of Trakai is a historically, culturally, and ecologically meaningful place in Lithuania, an important realm of memory and symbol of national identity. In 1991 the historical national park of Trakai was established, bringing under its umbrella material and intangible qualities of the cultural landscape and spirit of this place. This article approaches components of the genius loci of Trakai, interpreting this concept through the lenses of the politics of the protected areas in Lithuania, asserting it was closely intertwined with an idea of sacrum, based on the aim to represent regional specifics and ethnic identity of the Lithuanian nation. Based on long-term personal observations of how values and regulations of the historical national park of Trakai evolved and were introduced in the local context in practice, a critical approach is applied concerning the separation of the local community from their decision-making about the symbolic or physical usage of their surroundings. Multiethnicity with the significant Slavic cultural element of Trakai is discussed as one of the reasons explaining why folkways of the local inhabitants were not equally involved in the whole picture of place identity, leaving the human component of the genius loci aside. The analytical line of the article focuses on the contradiction between the peculiarities of the local culture and national ideas, while the empirical presentation of the theme is set forth through the presentation of the four dimensions of sacrum: historical, cultural, ecological, and human.

Keywords

• trakai
• protected areas
• sacrality
• genius loci
• folk narratives