The private lives of mariners’ East Asian objects : memory and identity through the generations

Marinac, Bogdana (author), Veselič, Maja (author)

This article examines the domestic lives of East Asian objects brought by seafarers from Slovenian lands in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, mostly men serving in the Austro-Hungarian War Navy. Drawing on a variety of mate-rial, documentary and oral sources it first explores how the sailors’ social and educational backgrounds, their positions on their vessels as well as other circumstances of their voy-ages impacted their access to such objects. In accordance with the fashions of the time, decorative and souvenir items dominate in their legacies.The main part of the analysis focuses on how objects’ meanings and uses changed once they were brought to the new socio-cultural milieu and displayed in the homes of the seafarers and later their heirs. For the seafarers they presented an embodied memory and testimony of their voyages and experiences in what at the time were distant and exotic lands. Through their very presence as well as the storytelling they prompted these objects to some extent also shaped the imaginaries of East Asia. In the transmission of objects through lines of inheritance, however, most of the information about their provenance was quickly lost, and the significance of the objects became anchored in the relationship with the seafaring relative. While those heirs who are direct descendants of the seafarers tend to perceive objects as material witnesses of their families’ histories, more distant rel-atives stress the objects’ decorative and aesthetic qualities.

• Language: English
• Keywords: East Asian objects, Austro-Hungarian Navy, seafarers, Slovenia
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 105-156
• Numbering: Vol. 13 (29), iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178206
• UDC: 069.5(292.57)
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2025.13.1.105-156
• COBISS.SI-ID: 223217411
• Publication date in RUL: 21.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Zasebna življenja vzhodnoazijskih predmetov pomorščakov : spomin in identiteta skozi generacije

Abstract

Članek obravnava življenja vzhodnoazijskih predmetov, ki so jih s potovanj z ladjami av-strijske in avstro-ogrske vojne mornarice prinesli pomorščaki iz slovenskih dežel v drugi polovici 19. in prvih desetletjih 20. stoletja. Na podlagi različnih materialnih, dokumen-tarnih in ustnih virov najprej raziskuje, kako so družbeno in izobrazbeno ozadje pomor-ščakov, njihov položaj na ladjah ter druge okoliščine potovanj vplivali na njihov dostop do vzhodnoazijskih predmetov. V skladu s takratno modo v zapuščinah pomorščakov prevladujejo dekorativni in spominski predmeti.Osrednji del članka analizira, kako so se pomen in uporaba predmetov spremenili, ko so jih prenesli v novo družbeno-kulturno okolje in razstavili v domovih pomorščakov in pozneje njihovih dedičev. Za pomorščake so predmeti predstavljali utelešen spomin in pričevanje o njihovih potovanjih in izkušnjah v takrat oddaljenih in eksotičnih deželah. Že samo s svojo prisotnostjo, še bolj pa skozi spodbujanje pripovedi o ljudeh in krajih, ki so jih pomorščaki obiskali, so do določene mere oblikovali tudi imaginarij Vzhodne Azije. Vendar se je v procesu dedovanja večina informacij o izvoru predmetov hitro izgubila, nji-hov pomen za nove lastnike pa se je vzpostavil glede na odnos do mornariškega prednika. Medtem ko dediči, ki so neposredni potomci pomorščakov, predmete običajno dojemajo kot opredmeteno družinsko zgodovino, bolj oddaljeni sorodniki poudarjajo njihovo de-korativno in estetsko vrednost.

• Keywords: vzhodnoazijski predmeti, avstro-ogrska mornarica, pomorščaki, Slovenija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-3133-2021
• Name: Osiroteli predmeti: obravnava vzhodnoazijskih predmetov izven organiziranih zbirateljskih praks v slovenskem prostoru

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0243-2019
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture