Wooden Memorials of the First World War Bound with Nails in the Light of Ethnology Cover Image

Drvena spomen-obilježja Prvoga svjetskog rata okovana čavlima u svjetlu etnologije
Wooden Memorials of the First World War Bound with Nails in the Light of Ethnology

Author(s): Jelka Vince Pallua
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Politics of History/Memory, Politics and Identity
Published by: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet
Keywords: First World War; Croatian memorial heritage; memorial statues; brave mariner on Sušak; driving nails into wood; lime-tree; Vienna; Rijeka; Zagreb; nail figures; Wehrmann im Eisen;

Summary/Abstract: This paper is dedicated to a peculiar segment of forgotten Croatian memorial heritage – wooden memorial statues and other memorials into which nails are driven (so-called Nagelfiguren) primarily as a humanitarian means for collecting aid for the war victims of the First World War, but also as a form of personal or collective petitioning and thanksgiving. Based on the ethnological aspect of the research, the aim of this contribution is to connect this material culture of monuments with the customary-traditional, even customary-ritual practice of driving nails and metal wedges into wood/trees, and to show that such practices existed much earlier, long before the Great War. Wooden memorials with nails are subjected to ethnological research for the first time, which is an additional aspect of the multifaceted and innovative nature of the discussed topic.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 34
  • Page Range: 193-222
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Croatian