In the latest issue of the Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (Vol. 7, No. 2, 19-35) Vlado Kotnik, researcher at the Institute for Anthopology in Ljubljana, gives an interesting account of “the role of the televised landscape in presenting alpine skiing as a Slovenian national pastime”. Though not offering overly suprising insights, the article once again confirms the significance of the alpine landscape as a nodal point of Slovene national discourses.
The fact that quite a lot of Slovenes actually do not ski, just confirms the constructed character of national identities. I assume that those spoil-sports do not consider themselves less Slovene than the part of the population which follows the annual call of the snowcapped mountains.
