Authors

Ismo Björn¹; Pirjo Pöllänen²;  ¹ University of Eastern Finland, Finland;  ² University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Discussion

Referring to Rita Felski, Eeva Jokinen (2005) states that everyday taken for granted is a "puzzling state of affairs". If one tries to define everyday, it gets out of hand. Theoretically and conceptually, everyday is difficult to define. Our presentation is based on this kind of theorization of everyday by Felski (2000), where everyday stretches out and escapes conceptualizations. We follow Jokinen's (2005) footsteps, according to whom everyday can be viewed through five dimensions: temporality (routines), spatiality (feeling of home), modality (habits), customs (gender conventions) and rhythms (the encounters between the forced rhythms of everyday of society and the individual's own rhythms). In our presentation, we look at everyday gender norms in the context of cemetery caring routines. Our approach is socially focused historical research.
When we talk about taking care of graves, we define care like Fisher and Tronto (1990). Care is here understood as maintenance of life on behalf of another. In this case, the object of care is the last resting place of the deceased – the grave. We believe that when the grave is cared for in a feminine way, the memory of the deceased is cared for and cherished, and the community and identity of the living is maintained and nurtured. We treat the cemetery as a gendered space and grave care as a woman's place of work, and we look for a historical explanation as to why the cemetery is specifically a place for care for women. In addition, we ponder how national views of caring for graves are seen in rural border context in eastern Finland. How caring for cemeteries and graves have become gendered, national or transnational and how they change over time. We focus our attention especially on the rural border context and ponder also the changing forms of transnationalism.