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In the given article we analyze the representation of the period from the recent history- Socialist Yugoslavia- through the case study of national history museum and private exhibition. Although both of the analyzed objects are located in Ljubljana, the metastories which they construct and display are based on the different cultural patterns. We compare the differences of the narratives being used by the private and state institution and apply the visual analysis method together with semi-structured interviews for these purposes. As a result of our research, we show how differs ‘official narration’ compared to the so-called ‘Yugonostalgic’ or ‘Titostalgic’ viewpoint and describe their main characteristics.

Nationell identitet och hur den konstrueras är i hög grad en politisk angelägenhet. Men vad gäller konstruktionen av regional identitet, som är nära kopplad till såväl kulturell som nationell identitet, är detta inte alldeles självklart. Bland aktörer i den regionala identitetsskapandeprocessen har turistnäringen spelat en viktig roll. Och så är fortfarande fallet. Med Gotland som exempel diskuteras i artikeln, i vilken mån imagebildning påverkas av eller påverkar den politiska agendan; och vilka konsekvenser detta kan medföra. Redan under 1800-talet har Gotland blivit en eftertraktad turistdestination. Särskilt gällde det tyska turister, som kring år 1900 utgjorde den största utländska turistgruppen på ön. Denna utveckling var bland annat resultat av Gotlands imagebildning eller branding (varumärkesutveckling), som här belysas från Carl von Linnés tid fram till andra världskrigets början, då Gotlands image som ”tysk ö” uppmärksammades som ett problem för den svenska regeringen vad gäller Hitlertysklands syn på Gotland och gotlänningarnas lojalitet mot den svenska regeringen. Hållbara besök

On September 23, 2013, the leading Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, published a front-page story revealing that a classified listing of Roma had been found on a server belonging to the regional police of Skåne. The illegal database comprised a register of 4,029 persons of Romani descent, more than 1,000 of whom were children living all over Sweden. This news understandably elicited horrified reactions in Sweden and throughout the world. But how exceptional is the concept of such a register to Sweden? To answer this question, we must examine Sweden’s treatment of Romani people during World War II.

The article presents some new radiocarbon dates of burnt bones found in cairns and stone-settings in Northern Sweden. The author also describes the earliest known graves in the north. The low and discreet Late Mesolithic stone-settings, with red ochre and inhumations, seem to be elements of a northern burial tradition that continued into the Neolithic Period. The latest hitherto known of these descreet stone-settings was excavated west of Umeå in Västerbotten, and was radiocarbon dated to 1750-1520 BC. However, this grave lacked the typical red ochre. During approximately the same time monumental cairns were erected along the coast of Norrland. The oldest of these were traditionally believed to have been introduced during the Early Bronze Age and contain inhumations in long stone cists, which were replaced by cremations during the Late Bronze Age. However, new radiocarbon dates from five cremations in cairns and stone-settings strongly challenge that belief, placing all in the Early Bronze Age. The cremations in cairns are not necessarily the oldest monumental stratum. The author suggests that the cairns were linked to the introduction of agricultural activities along the coast during the end of the 3rd Millennium BC.

Abstract Background Hunter-gatherer lifestyles dominated the southern African landscape up to ~ 2000 years ago, when herding and farming groups started to arrive in the area. First, herding and livestock, likely of East African origin, appeared in southern Africa, preceding the arrival of the large-scale Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralist expansion that introduced West African-related genetic ancestry into the area. Present-day Khoekhoe-speaking Namaqua (or Nama in short) pastoralists show high proportions of East African admixture, linking the East African ancestry with Khoekhoe herders. Most other historical Khoekhoe populations have, however, disappeared over the last few centuries and their contribution to the genetic structure of present-day populations is not well understood. In our study, we analyzed genome-wide autosomal and full mitochondrial data from a population who trace their ancestry to the Khoekhoe-speaking Hessequa herders from the southern Cape region of what is now South Africa. Results We generated genome-wide data from 162 individuals and mitochondrial DNA data of a subset of 87 individuals, sampled in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where the Hessequa population once lived. Using available comparative data from Khoe-speaking and related groups, we aligned genetic date estimates and admixture proportions to the archaeological proposed dates and routes for the arrival of the East African pastoralists in southern Africa. We identified several Afro-Asiatic-speaking pastoralist groups from Ethiopia and Tanzania who share high affinities with the East African ancestry present in southern Africa. We also found that the East African pastoralist expansion was heavily male-biased, akin to a pastoralist migration previously observed on the genetic level in ancient Europe, by which Pontic-Caspian Steppe pastoralist groups represented by the Yamnaya culture spread across the Eurasian continent during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age. Conclusion We propose that pastoralism in southern Africa arrived through male-biased migration of an East African Afro-Asiatic-related group(s) who introduced new subsistence and livestock practices to local southern African hunter-gatherers. Our results add to the understanding of historical human migration and mobility in Africa, connected to the spread of food-producing and livestock practices.

This article considers colonial rhetoric manifested in representations of early settlement in the mining town of Kiruna in northernmost Sweden. Kiruna was founded more than 100 years ago by the LKAB Company with its centre the prosperous mine on Sami land. Continued iron ore mining has made it necessary to relocate the town centre a few kilometres north-east of its original location to ensure the safety of the people. The ongoing process of the town’s transformation due to industrial expansion has given rise to the creation of a memorial park between the town and the mine, in which two historical photographs have been erected on huge concrete blocks. For the Swedish Sami, the indigenous people, the transformation means further exploitation of their reindeer grazing lands and forced adaption to industrial expansion. The historical photographs in the memorial park fit into narratives of colonial expansion and exploration that represent the town’s colonial past. Both pictures are connected to colonial, racialised and gendered space during the early days of industrial colonialism. The context has been set by discussions about what Kiruna “is”, and how it originated. My aim is to study the role of collective memory in mediating a colonial past, by exploring the representations that are connected to and evoked by these pictures. In this progressive transformation of the town, what do these photographic memorials represent in relation to space? What are the values made visible in these photographs? I also discuss the ways in which Kiruna’s history becomes manifested in the town’s transformation and the use of history in urban planning. I argue that, in addressing the colonial history of Kiruna, it is timely to reconsider how memories of a town are communicated into the future by references to the past. I also claim that memory, history, and remembrance and forgetting are represented in this process of history-making and that they intersect gender, class and ethnicity.