A break of tradition: the case of deported ukrainians from Western Boykivshchyna in 1947

In this article, based on the materials of the author’s search ethnographic expeditions аnd published works, by the example of ritual culture the result of breaking tradition of Ukrainians from Western Boykivshchyna, who were displaced within the framework of ’Operation Vistula’ have been analysed. It was the forced resettlement of approximately 150,000 Ukrainians and mixed Polish-Ukrainian families from the territory of Rzeszów, Lublin and Krakow provinces (Voivodeships) to the western and northern territories of Poland (1947–1950). After the deportation of the Ukrainians, the processes of accelerated breaking of both their the way of life and the unique world of traditional culture with its archaic customs and rites have begun. This was actively facilitated by local government policies aimed at inciting inter-ethnic tensions, creating difficult relations with representatives of various regional groups of the Polish ethnic community, as well as censure and ridicule of the traditional elements of the folk culture of re-settlers by their neighbors. Nevertheless, with the help of tradition (in ritual form or in form of their memories), re-settlers from Western Boykivshchyna continue to keep memory of their own (non) traumatic past, and, based on it, construct their own identity in the perspective of modernity.

Forced displacement: critical lessons in the protracted aftermath of a flood disaster

Forced displacement and resettlement is a pervasive challenge being contemplated across the social sciences. Scholarly literature, however, often fails to engage complexities of power in understanding socio-environmental interactions in resettlement processes. Addressing Zimbabwe’s Tokwe-Mukosi flood disaster resettlement, we explore hegemonic uses of state power during the pre- and post-flood induced resettlement processes. We examine how state power exercised through local government, financial, and security institutions impacts community vulnerabilities during forced resettlement processes, while furthering capitalist agendas, drawing insights from analysing narratives between 2010 and 2021. Concerns abound that multiple ministries, the police, and the army undermined displaced people’s resilience, including through inadequate compensation, with state institutions neglecting displaced communities during encampment by inadequately meeting physical security, health, educational, and livestock production needs. We explore how forcibly resettling encamped households to a disputed location is not only an ongoing perceived injustice regionally but also a continuing reference point in resettlement discussions countrywide, reflecting concerns that land use and economic reconfigurations in resettlement can undermine subsistence livelihoods while privileging certain values and interests over others. Policy lessons highlight the need for reviewing disaster management legislation, developing compensation guidelines and reviewing encampment practices. Analytically, lessons point to how state power may be studied in relation to perspectives on the destruction of flood survivors’ connections to place, people and livelihoods, underscoring the critical need for theorising the relationships between power dynamics and diverse experiences around displacement.

A History of Marginalization - Africville: a Canadian Example of Forced Migration

The people of Africville, Nova Scotia were removed from their homes and had their community razed in the 1960s during an era of urban renewal. Africville, Nova Scotia will be explored as an example of forced resettlement in Canada. Specifically, this case study will display the extreme racism Black people in Nova Scotia have endured upon settlement and onward. This paper will trace their migration, while highlighting the exclusion from the dominant society – by the colonial government of Nova Scotia, through lack of access to quality land, hence denial of their livelihoods. The racialization of space and the dominance of whiteness theories will be applied to the case of Africville and Blacks in Nova Scotia. The migration of Black people to Nova Scotia is unique, in that they arrived in Canada during the same time as the early European settlers, yet are still treated as the Other.

A History of Marginalization - Africville: a Canadian Example of Forced Migration

The people of Africville, Nova Scotia were removed from their homes and had their community razed in the 1960s during an era of urban renewal. Africville, Nova Scotia will be explored as an example of forced resettlement in Canada. Specifically, this case study will display the extreme racism Black people in Nova Scotia have endured upon settlement and onward. This paper will trace their migration, while highlighting the exclusion from the dominant society – by the colonial government of Nova Scotia, through lack of access to quality land, hence denial of their livelihoods. The racialization of space and the dominance of whiteness theories will be applied to the case of Africville and Blacks in Nova Scotia. The migration of Black people to Nova Scotia is unique, in that they arrived in Canada during the same time as the early European settlers, yet are still treated as the Other.

The trauma of no-choice: Wild food ethnobotany in Yaghnobi and Tajik villages, Varzob Valley, Tajikistan

Due to global change and the migration crisis both needing rapid attention, there has been growing debate about the drivers of change in the diet of migrants. Our study aimed to evaluate the consequences of forced resettlement on local ecological knowledge related to wild food plants among forcefully resettled Yaghnobi people in Tajikistan. We conducted 49 semi-structured in-depth interviews and recorded 27 wild food taxa and five unidentified folk taxa used by Yaghnobis and Tajiks in the villages surrounding Yaghnob Valley (including families ressetteled from Yaghnob Valley) in central Tajikitsan. The comparision between the two considered groups showed a high level of Tajikisation among Yaghnobis, both those who live alongside Tajiks as well as those living separately. The few families that still have distinct Yaghnobi plant uses are the ones which were given the opportunity to choose the spot in which to relocate and still visit the Yaghnob Valley regularly. On the basis of our study, we suggest that affording a choice of where to relocate is better than no choice, as the loss of motivation also affects the use of wild food plants. Given the pressure of the possible relocation of many groups of people in the light of global change, we suggest focusing efforts on studying similar cases in order to minimize the damage caused to people by relocation. The trauma of forced relocation, even just a few kilometers away, directly or indirectly affects wild food plant use and with this the food security of the community.

Captives, Deserters, and Exiles: Control of Migrant Mobility in the Northern Wei Period (386–534 CE)

Controlling the physical movement of people was a well-established tradition throughout imperial China. Scholars have argued that the Qin (221–206 BCE) and Han (206 BCE–220 CE) empires required their subjects to register personal information, including their place of residence, with local governments, and both empires exerted strict control over the flows of officials and those who traveled for personal reasons within the territory, mainly through checkpoints and travel documents. Recent studies have also shown that forced resettlement was a common means of mobility regulation. Ancient states, from the Qin to the Mongol empire, achieved their imperial goals through a variety of measures, one of the most important of which was the relocation of subjects and conquered peoples whenever and wherever they saw fit.

ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS IN GRIBOEDOV’S MIND

A systematic analysis of all the contexts from A. S. Griboyedov’s works in which the words Armenia, Armenians and Armenian are used allows us to consider them as a single narrative describing the history of Griboedov’s attitude to Armenia and the Armenians. At the beginning of his diplomatic career (the turn of the 1810-1820s) Griboyedov treated modern Armenians quite indifferently, without any personal interest. For Griboyedov, Armenia did not exist as a state entity but rather as a historical and cultural phenomenon, and his statements about the Armenian statehood are explained either by the ignorance of historical facts or by his poetic passion. However, Griboyedov knew the history of the forced resettlement of the Armenian people from the places of traditional habitation (Great Surgun). In the late 1820s, in connection with the mass immigration of Armenians to his historical homeland, Griboedov appeared to have reconsidered his attitude to the fate of modern Armenia, although his assistance to the Armenian people can be interpreted either as a state official fulfilling his duties, or as an interested assistance to the suffering people.

THE NAMING OF LOCI AND CHARACTERS IN NARRATIVES ABOUT FORCED EVICTION FROM THE INUNDATION ZONE

The article analyses the names of loci and characters in the memoirs about forced relocation from flood zones due to the construction of hydroelectricity. This is a continuation of the study of resettlement vocabulary, that is nominative constructions of different types (tokens, phrases, idioms, phraseologies, descriptive frames), which function in the migrants’ memories and represent the verbal image of forced resettlement. The nomination in the memoirs reveals the special vision of the experienced event by its participants, classifies their gained experience. In the studied autobiographical narratives, the most common location nominations are the names of the spatial objects in the flooded places and in the new place. In this semantic category of nomination, as well as in other analysed categories, the following regularity operates: the more nominative density of this or that territory indicates the more mastered, native locus. In the studied texts the different density of the spatial nomination of these two contextually oppositional loci is striking. Thus, a telling feature is the presence of numerous microtoponyms in stories about the lost territory and the almost complete absence of such nominations in the description of the new settlement. Descriptions of the resettlement place are concise, stingy, with a tangible contrast in favour of the lost place. In the memories of people who have personally gone through all the stages of resettlement, the arrangement of characters often occurs through the opposition ‟we — the perpetrators of resettlement” (in memories about preparation and resettlement) and through the opposition ‟we — neighbours” (in memories about adaptation to a new place). A typical place of memories is the presentation of the resettled village community as friendly and cohesive. Autonomy of direct participants in forced evictions is most often formed from the verb creative basis переселяти (resettlement): переселенці, переселенські люди, переселені (migrants, displaced people, displaced persons). At the opposite pole of the contextual semantic opposition ῾immigrants — performers of resettlement’ are numerous characters who are direct performers. The figures of people are folklorized — most often old men and women, who had been refusing to move until the last minute. Today, these images have been symbolizing the people’s resistance to the forced migration.