Embodied Memory and the Social Trauma of Family Separation: A Case Study of the Ingrian Diaspora

In this article, we explore how the descendants of displaced Ingrians relate to historical forced migrations and family separation by analysing their embodied family memory and family mentality in making sense of past events. By illuminating the narrative and emotional responses to past family separation among grandchildren of displaced persons, we attest to how individual reminiscing intertwines with family memories and the collective aspect of the body. We show that family memory of family separation has often been transmitted to the next generation in the familial space nonverbally. By analysing two cases from the biographical data collected among the descendants of displaced Ingrians, a historically persecuted ethnic minority, we illustrate the lack of words and affective embodiment of family separation and show how family mentality frames their sense-making of social trauma. We also discuss how past memory politics are carried in contemporary bodies.