Nous sommes heureux de vous convier à venir à la séance du séminaire des Études mongoles & sibériennes le 1 février 2023 pour écouter Sergei Shtyrkov (EPHE, GSRL) et  Alena Davydova (Barents Centre of the Humanities of the Kola Science Centre, en ligne), pour une intervention intitulée : “Narratives of cultural heritage in a New Age pilgrimage to Seidozero (Murmansk Region, Russia) : How tour guides use Sámi traditions (locations/spaces?) in places where there are no Sámi“, au Campus Condorcet, 14 cour des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers cedex., de 14h à 16h, en salle 5.067 (bâtiment de recherche nord).
Il sera également possible d’y accéder en ligne, sur inscription : isacharleux@orange.fr 

Résumé

Seidozero, located in the Murmansk region (Russia), has been gaining popularity as a spiritual (New-Age) tourism destination for the past two decades. Small travel agencies and single guides invite their potential clients there, using the image of this place as a locus full of mystery and enigma, that means it promises very special sensations to its visitors. This reputation is based on two – sometimes competing, sometimes interacting – narratives. One describes Seidozero as the centre of an ancient Slavic civilisation that perished in a global catastrophe but passed on high cultural achievements to all of humanity. Another story connects this place with the past and the religion of the Sámi, the indigenous people of the Kola Peninsula. Those travel brokers who consistently adhere to the second version of the etiological narrative understand that they must be intermediaries between the real “hosts” and “guests”. But since there is no presentation of the place by the hosts, the guides have to take on the role of bearers of the local religious tradition in order to give their clients a special experience of visiting the “site of the spiritual heritage of the indigenous peoples”.

Au plaisir de vous retrouver nombreux,
I. Charleux, G. Delaplace, D. Oparin & V. Vaté