SMUGGLING AS A CULTURAL HERITAGE

Talking about smuggling, Joppaus, in the cross-border area between Finland and Sweden is secretive, risky

and ambivalent: Joppaus, from a state perspective, used to be a crime, but according to the local concept

of justice it was not. Practices of smuggling based a narrative form which serves to create local identity by

constructing differences between “us”, as the local inhabitants of Tornio River Valley, and “them”, as the

“others” in Sweden and Finland. The lecture will discuss Joppaus, as well as other examples of cross-border

practices, to become part of the cultural heritage of the Tornio River Valley in the 2000s.

Helena Ruotsala is professor of European Ethnology, University of Turku, Finland. Her recent research focuses

on transnational everyday life in the twin city of Tornio-Haaparanta at the Finnish-Swedish border.