Path dependency and landscape biographies in Latgale, Latvia: a comparative analysis

This paper focuses on the path dependency of landscapes in Latgale, Latvia from the present perspective at the regional and local scale. During the last centuries Latvia's landscapes have passed through radical changes, which were driven by political events. Each new political era discarded the ideas of the previous era and subsequently reorganized the land(scape) according to the new views. At the regional level the role of history is significant in analyzing landscapes while at the local level the main force is people, often themselves not knowing the history of the place but putting the existing path dependency into practise or disregarding it. The biographies of two former villages are discussed: one which is nearly deserted but filled with forgotten or neglected cultural heritage values and the other - alive and interwoven with some old (almost forgotten) cultural practises. Path dependency in landscapes is relevant only regarding the attachment of people to a place and the experience on which their further desires are based.