Ethnologia Scandinavica

Ethnologia Scandinavica 2010 This year’s Ethnologia Scandinavica refl ects a renewed interest in materiality among ethnologists, no longer primarily an interest in artefacts as such but in processes of materialization, concerning both things and living bodies. Several articles also consider the signifi cance of place. Most things that happen literally take place and thus materialize themselves somewhere. The research front in Scandinavian ethnology today has adopted gender-specifi c analyses and is often phenomenologically inspired.

Printed in Sweden Textgruppen i Uppsala AB 2010 ISSN 0348-9698 A JOURNAL FOR NORDIC ETHNOLOGY 2010 Ethnologia Scandinavica A JOURNAL FOR NORDIC ETHNOLOGY ISSN 0348-9698 Volume 40

Editorial office: Folklivsarkivet, Finngatan 8, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden www.kgaa.nu/tidskrifter.php Editor: Birgitta Svensson, Stockholm E-mail: [email protected] Assistant editor: Margareta Tellenbach, Bjärred E-mail: [email protected] Editorial board: Tine Damsholt, Copenhagen, [email protected] Jonas Frykman, Lund, [email protected] Anna-Maria Åström, Åbo, [email protected] Kirsti Mathiesen Hjemdahl, Kristiansand, [email protected]

THE ROYAL GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ACADEMY FOR SWEDISH FOLK CULTURE

Cover illustration: Mounted Kirgiz man. Zoologisk Haves Arkiv, Copenhagen.

Papers 113 Snake Charms as Secret Female Knowledge. – Ritwa Herjulfsdotter, Jungfru Maria möter or- 3 Editorial. By Birgitta Svensson men – om formlers tolkningar. Rev. by Camil- 5 De/stabilising Otherness. Acts of Subversion, la Asplund Ingemark Transgression and Appropriation in Live Eth- 115 Checking Up On Children. – Helena Hörn- nographic Exhibitions. By Anne Folke Hen- feldt, Prima barn, helt u.a. Rev. by Lena Ma- ningsen rander-Eklund 16 Defending the Body. By Karine Aasgaard 117 What Couples Are Like. – Sarah Holst Kjaer, Jansen Sådan er det at elske. Rev. By Ulrika Wolf- 27 Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? The Knuts Role of the Elderly in the Sami Community. 118 Negotiating Urban Spatiality. – Tiina-Riitta By Marianne Liliequist Lappi, Neuvottelu tilan tulkinnoista. Rev. by 43 The Practice of Ageing. The Experience of Kirsi Saarikangas Being Old and the Significance of Bodies, 120 Stories Told by Museum Objects. – Camilla Things and Places. By Åsa Alftberg Mordhorst, Genstandsfortællinger. Rev. by 52 Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes. An Birgitta Svensson Anthropological Analysis of the Relationship 122 When Older Workers Stay On. – Björn Ohls- between Danish Homeowners and Their son, Vi som stannade på Volvo. Rev. by Niels Jul Nielsen Houses. By Mark Vacher 123 Ethnologists in the Wartime Occupation of 68 Diversity and the Concept of Place. Inclusion East Karelia. – Tenho Pimiä, Tähtäin idässä. and Exclusion Mechanisms among Norwegian Rev. by Pertti Anttonen City-dwelling Parents. By Hilde Danielsen 125 Between Art and Handicraft. – Johanna 82 Standardisation and Consumer Responsibili- Rosenqvist, Könsskillnadens estetik? Om ty. By Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala konst & konstskapande i svensk hemslöjd på 94 The Conception of the Swedish National Day 1920- och 1990-talen. Rev. by Maria Ekqvist Meal. Building a National Identity on a Blend 127 Lifestyle Hotels. – Maria Strannegård, Hotell of Existing Festive Food Elements. By Rich- Speciell. Livsstilskonsumtion på känslornas ard Tellström marknad. Rev. by Per Strömberg 130 The Gendered Forest. – Tiina Suopajärvi, Su- kupuoli mien metsään. Rev. by Anja Nygren 133 Who(se) Is the Corpse in the Coffin? – Inge- Biographical Notes borg Svensson, Liket i garderoben. Rev. by Jan Wickman 106 Holger Rasmussen 1915–2009. Bjarne Stok- lund Book Reviews 136 Magic and Witchcraft. – Bente Gullveig Al- Reviews ver, Mellem mennesker og magter. Rev. by Marie Lindstedt Cronberg New Dissertations 138 Ethnographic Observations. – Gösta Arvast- son & Billy Ehn (eds.), Etnologiska observa- 107 The Rockefeller Foundation and the Danish tioner. Rev. by Helena Larsson Welfare State. – Henriette Buus, Indretning og 139 Music and Politics. – Alf Arvidsson, Musik efterretning. Rev. By Kristofer Hansson och politik hör ihop. Rev. by Niels Kayser 109 Encounters with Resistance. – Ingrid Fioretos, Nielsen Möten med motstånd. Kultur, klass, kropp på 141 A Taste of Skåne. – Nils-Arvid Bringéus, Den vårdcentralen. Rev. by Tove Fjell skånska smaken. Rev. by Else-Marie Boyhus 110 Sisterhood and Fanzines. – Jenny Gunnarsson 142 The Spirit of the Works. – Kirsten H. Clausen Payne, Systerskapets logiker. Rev. by Ann- & Torben A. Vestergaard, Ånden på værket. Charlotte Palmgren Rev. by Göran Sjögård 112 Living with Burnout. – Mia-Marie Hammar- 144 Habits, Waiting, and Fantasy. – Billy Ehn & lin, Att leva som utbränd. Rev. by Kyrre Orvar Löfgren, När ingenting särskilt händer. Kverndokk Rev. by Niels Kayser Nielsen

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 146 Honour Killings and Words. – Simon Ek- 168 Touching Things. – Pirjo Korkiakangas, Tiina- ström, Hedersmorden och orden. Rev. by Riitta Lappi & Heli Niskanen (eds.), Ethno- Magnus Berg logical Aspects of Modern Material Culture. 148 A Cultural History of Museums. – Anne Erik- Rev. by Sanna Lillbroända-Annala sen, Museum. Rev. by Göran Hedlund 169 Identity of Orcadians. – Michael A. Lange, 149 Voices from the Archive. – Outi Fingerroos & The Norwegian Scots. Rev. by Terry Gunnell Tuulikki Kurki (eds.), Ääniä arkistosta. Rev. 171 Tradition and Tourism in Åland. – Yrsa by Carola Ekrem Lindqvist (ed.), Tradition och turism på Åland. 151 Analysis of a Childfree Life. – Tove Fjell, Å si Rev. by Agneta Lilja nei til meningen med livet? Rev. by Kristofer 173 Pre-modern Attitudes. – Marie Lindstedt Hansson Cronberg & Catharina Stenqvist (eds.), För- 152 Local Cultural Patterns of Ill Health. – Jonas moderna livshållningar. Rev. by Nils G. Holm Frykman & Kjell Hansen, I ohälsans tid. Rev. 174 Contemporary Folk Art. – Eva Londos (ed.), by Anne Leonora Blaakilde Rondellhundar och schablonspindlar. Rev. by 154 Humans and Animals in History. – Anne Helle Ravn Katrine Gjerløff, Jette Møllerhøj & Bo 176 Tracing Jewish Immigration History. – Karin Poulsen (eds.), Folk og fæ. Rev. by Nils-Erik Lützen, Mors hemmelighed. Rev. by Tone Landell Hellesund 177 Power Play in Dress. – Bo Lönnqvist, Makt- 156 History and Nationalism a Century Ago. – spel i kläder. Rev. by Marie Riegels Melchior Harald Gustafsson et al. (eds.), Den dubbla 178 The History of a Noble Family. – Bo Lönn- blicken. Rev. by Barbro Blehr qvist, En finsk adelssläkts öden. Rev. by Mats 157 Food in Nineteenth-Century Denmark. – Ole Hellspong Hyldtoft (ed.), Kost og spisevaner i 1800-tall- 180 Rituals. – Lina Midholm & Annika Nordström et. Rev. by Håkan Jönsson (eds.), The Ritual Year and Ritual Diversity. 160 Labour Movement and Workers’ Culture. – Rev. by Camilla Asplund Ingemark Lena Johannesson, Ulrika Kjellman & Birgitta 183 Contacts over Öresund in the Twentieth Cen- Skarin Frykman, Arbetarrörelse och arbe- tury. – Kjell Å. Modéer (ed.), Grændse som tarkultur. Rev. by Niels Jul Nielsen skiller ej! Kontakter över Öresund under 1900- 162 Concert Arrangers in Sweden. – Lars Kaijser, talet. Rev. by Helena Ruotsala Musikens ögonblick. Rev. by Johannes Brusi- 184 A Century of the Hedmark Museum. – Ragnar la Pedersen, Hedmarksmuseet. Rev. by Göran 163 Reading Public Sculpture: Contextualizing Hedlund and Recontextualizing Art in Profane and 185 In the Arms of Morpheus. – Mikkel Venborg Sacred Space. – Harri Kalha, Tapaus Havis Pedersen, I søvnens favn. Om søvn og sove- Amanda. Liisa Lindgren, Memoria. Rev. by vaner på landet ca 1600–1850. Rev. by Birgit- Tuuli Lähdesmäki ta Svensson 166 Two Centuries of Danish Traditions. – Else 185 Living in a House That is Mine, and Yet not Marie Kofod, Traditionen tro? Hverdag og fest Mine. – Outi Tuomi-Nikula & Eeva Karhunen igennem 200 år. Rev. by Carola Ekrem (eds.) Kotina suojeltu talo. Arkea, elämää ja 167 Reindeer Fences in Focus. – Teppo Korhonen, rakennussuojelua Suomessa ja Saksassa. Rev. Poroerotus. Rev. by Helena Ruotsala by Petja Aarnipuu 3 Editorial By Birgitta Svensson

This year’s Ethnologia Scandinavica reflects can incorporate and integrate the sexed, bio- a renewed interest in materiality among eth- logical body in the social and cultural sci- nologists, no longer primarily an interest in ences without necessarily into the “essential- artefacts as such but in processes of materialism trap”. Running throughout her argumen- ization, concerning both things and living tation is the conviction that feminist phenom- bodies. Several articles also consider the sig- enology and ontology, as propounded by nificance of place. Most things that happen philosophers like Simone de Beauvoir and literally take place and thus materialize Lucy Irigaray, provide new tools for com- themselves somewhere. The research front in parative and intersectional inquiries that in- Scandinavian ethnology today has adopted clude sexed/gendered experience of illness. gender-specific analyses and is often phe- This refiguring attends to the body’s corpor- nomenologically inspired. eality and its social, cultural and political One remarkable place is the zoo, and even situation without essentializing. Moving the more remarkable is that it was once a source sexually specific body and its materiality of amusement to go there to see exotic peo- from the periphery to the centre of analysis, ple. Anne Folke Henningsen examines how she reveals not just new ways to study illness Copenhagen Zoo and the Tivoli amusement but also how difference might be a fact, park from the 1880s to 1905 hosted exhibi- though it should not be conceived as a norm. tions of “exotic” peoples, such as Chinese, Marianne Liliequist introduces us to the Indian, Kirgiz and “Negro”. These ethno- role of the elderly in the Swedish Sami com- graphic exhibitions were an important part of munity. They use different strategies to life in major European cities. One of the most achieve and maintain quality of life. Com- important figures in this was the showman mon to all elderly Sami is that family belong- Carl Hagenbeck from Hamburg, who ing means always being included. Liliequist through his worldwide network of people in- notes that the elderly have a firm identity and volved in trading the “exotic”, supplied zoos are always welcome at family events and in and amusement parks with a wide range of different Sami settings. She finds two domi- animals and people. By playing with notions nant strategies among elderly Sami. One is of in/appropriate, Henningsen discusses how practised by those who still live among their sights of perceived otherness and sameness relatives in the Sami village and means being could assume different meanings and affect active as long as possible in the reindeer spectators differently according to context. herding. Another strategy available to the Otherness could both be stabilized and de- elderly living in a larger village or in the city stabilized through the agency of the people is to take on the role of creator of Sami iden- on display; the participants in the live ethno- tity for the younger generation. She has graphic exhibitions in Copenhagen were all found a duality in the status of the elderly in their own way engaged in de/stabilizing women: a formally subordinate position in the otherness the exhibitions cast them in. the Sami village and in society at large, but Otherness can also be in focus when it informal power within the family and in the comes to illness, as Karine Aasgaard Jansen Sami community. They now have a more shows in her article defending the corporeal- ideological role in keeping the Sami group ity of bodies. She argues that the material together as a culturally specific entity. body related to illness and sexual difference In Åsa Alftberg’s article the focus is like-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 4 Birgitta Svensson, Editorial

wise on women’s bodies. She argues that age the product aspects of things. Ingun Grim- is a mental construction which positions peo- stad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala claim that the ple in a cultural category. It is not the body new interest in materiality had a fertile that reveals to us that we are old, but other ground in consumer research. In their article people. In contrast to prevailing opinions that on the benefits of standardization, they con- growing old leads to loneliness and isolation nect consumers’ experiences, knowledge and as well as illness and dependence on others, practices with technical studies of clothes. she shows that people’s experiences and From two examples in the form of flamma- thoughts about ageing concern something bility properties and sizes, they show that co- very material and situation-bound. Her re- operation with other disciplines makes the spondents speak of everyday situations and most out of the study of the artefacts of in- depict the different ways ageing is “done”, dustrial society. They combine methods from based on places or objects. international standards for the testing of tex- Mark Vacher asks how the modern Dan- tiles and from ethnology, which gives a voice ish home can be studied not only in terms of to the use of and attitudes to products. the objects contained in it but also through Consumption and consumers’ choice also social relations. By contrasting the terms play an important part in Richard Tellström’s housing and home he seeks to show how the article on the conception of the Swedish Na- home is both a practice and a purely material tional Day meal. Food culture is a result of manifestation. As such it must be studied as the individual selection of food and drink, also belonging to other ongoing processes in which are products that best carry desired society. values to be used in a collective context for It has become popular to live in the inner the expression of self-identity and a sense of city with children among groups of people with resources to choose where to live. In belonging to a society, but also to establish Hilde Danielsen’s article, city life is present- boundaries with respect to “the others”. Tak- ed as a normative ideal because of its associ- ing his starting point in the celebration of the ation with diversity. The analysis is based on Swedish National Day, Tellström discusses an interview study of parents with children how the selection of food and the organiza- aged 6–10 living in the centre of Bergen in tion of festive activities indicate an increase Norway. They feel that they can offer their in the use of the meal as a platform for the ex- children many choices, and thus freedom and pression of national identity. security to develop their own personality, The only biographical note this year is in while choosing to live in the city centre. memory of the first Danish editor of Ethno- A new interest in the study of material logia Scandinavica. The many different culture appeared in the 1980s. Anthropolo- directions in ethnological research are re- gists such as Tim Ingold, Igor Kopytoff and flected in the 45 reviews of new ethnological Arjun Appadurai contributed by understand- monographs and edited volumes from the ing artefacts from their biographies but also Nordic countries. Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 5 De/stabilising Otherness Acts of Subversion, Transgression and Appropriation in Live Ethnographic Exhibitions By Anne Folke Henningsen

“To be an object of exhibition for the amusement of but equally if not more important and inter- others made me bashful but also furious inside” esting to the crowd were the different daily (Victor Cornelins 1977:26) tasks they were to perform to give the Danes From the 1880s to 1905 the Copenhagen Zoo a peek into the everyday life of these people and the Tivoli amusement park hosted a se- from foreign lands. ries of rivalling, if similar, exhibitions of dif- The mixture of educational and entertain- ferent ‘exotic’ peoples, such as Chinese, In- ment shows in so-called edutainment is a st dian, Kirgiz and ‘Negro’. Many of the well known phenomenon in 21 century so- troupes exhibited in Copenhagen were im- cieties but it is by no means new. With Zoo ported to and distributed within Europe by director Julius Schiøtt’s engagement and one of the most important figures in the eth- dedication to increase popular education and nographic business, the German showman, the diversity of shows and exhibitions in the animal trader and Zoo director Carl Hagen- Zoo, he can be said to be an exponent for this beck from Hamburg, who through his world powerful mix of genres, which, as Aileen wide network of people involved in trading Fyfe and Bernard Lightman have shown, the ‘exotic’ supplied European and North grew increasingly strong in Europe in the 19th American zoos and amusement parks with a and 20th centuries (Fyfe & Lightman 2007). wide range of animals and people to be ex- The live ethnographic exhibitions fit nicely hibited in the larger cities of the western into this hybrid: “The spectacle of ‘racial’ di- world (Rothfels 2002; Ames 2008; Blan- versity in the form of ethnographic scenes chard et al. 2008). These live ethnographic was constructed around three distinct func- exhibitions were an important part of the life tions: to amuse, to inform and to educate, ap- in the larger European cities in the late 19th pearing in different configurations in the and early 20th centuries and served to portray various types of exhibition” (Blanchard et al. the inherent difference and inferiority of the 2008:24). This form of edutainment is linked strange people on display: with the convergence of scientific and popular racism and evolutionism in the exhibi- The aim of these [human] zoos, exhibitions and parks was, essentially, to display the rare, the curious tions: and the strange as expressions of the unusual and the Visitors to the exhibitions had little sophistication. different, set in opposition to a rational construction [...] They were encouraged to interpret what they saw of the world that operated along European standards as a demonstration of the progress of humanity from (Blanchard et al. 2008:110). savagery to civilization. [...] The entertainment value By being part of this larger European trend of of the ‘savage’ was increased by activities considered to be primitive in nature, such as dance, mu- exhibiting the foreign, inhabitants of semi- sic, games and traditional physical pursuits, in which peripheral Denmark could feel affiliated with the body of the ‘savage’ was the key element. This the practices of the ‘civilised’ world. And the body was represented as the reflection of a universe exhibitions were very popular with the citi- far removed from the technological progress of the zens of Copenhagen, as can be seen from the West and close to nature, where man’s survival de- fact that more than 18 000 people visited the pended on his physical prowess (Blanchard et al. 2008:24f.). Zoo in one single day in 1901 to see the In- dian people on display in the staged village So, in many different guises, ‘exotic’ people there. The Indians performed ‘traditional’ were put on display to the amusement and in- dances and were engaged in artistic routines struction of the European audiences, and or-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 6 Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness

ganisers and press alike praised the educa- tain, interesting people or ‘race’ (Rothfels tional qualities of such shows, that were able 2002; Ames 2008). I have studied the staged to give the audience “living impressions” character of the ethnographic exhibitions in (Politiken July 22, 1902) of the ways and Denmark and the obsession with racial au- lives of foreign people. The key word here thenticity on the part of both organisers and besides ‘living’ is, of course, ‘foreign’: the spectators elsewhere (Henningsen 2009), but logic behind the ethnographic exhibitions in this article I aim to move beyond the was to show the difference, the foreignness, staged typicality of the people on display to the otherness of the people on display paint a picture in which the exhibited people vis-à-vis the European public. In his book Af- emerge as acting subjects with agendas, feel- ricans on Stage Bernth Lindfors takes this ings and desires rather than mere objects of logic to its extreme when he ends the intro- exhibition. duction to the study with these words: “Eth- At the core of the analysis lie the many nological show business thus promoted and ways in which the people on display in Tivoli perpetuated racism, pushing whites and and the Zoo are engaged in practices of stabil- blacks further apart by placing them in closer ising and destabilising the otherness they were proximity. Africans were put on stage in or- cast in through their participation in the live der to distance them from the rest of human- ethnographic exhibitions. In the article “Dif- ity” (Lindfors 1999:xii). ference. A special third world women’s issue” Much as in the well-established genre of from 1987 the Vietnamese-American film- freak shows, the people on display in ethno- maker and postcolonial theorist Trinh Minh- graphic exhibitions were put on stage to em- ha introduced the concept of inappropriate/d phasise their difference. But there is a rather otherness as a way of analysing difference and important divergence in the aim of the two differentiation as a power tool. Her focus in types of exhibition: while the so-called the article lies on the ways in which differen- freaks were put on display to represent differ- tiation is often used as a political weapon ence in the shape of a more or less incidental when someone is sought positioned or cast as deviance from the norm, the people in live Other, and the ways in which it can become ethnographic exhibitions were displayed in possible to reject this invitation onto the scene order to embody the inherent difference from of authentic difference, of absolute otherness the spectators that was thought typical of (Minh-ha 1986–87). I will argue that the stag- their ‘race’ (cf. Ames 2008:70f.). And this ing of live ethnographic shows is exactly such supposed and staged typicality of the ethno- an invitation for the participating ‘exotic’ sub- graphic exhibitions is important for the un- ject-objects of exhibition to express their au- derstanding of the phenomenon. Carl Hagen- thentic difference to the amusement and edu- beck, the leading supplier of live ethnograph- cation of the European spectators. Throughout ic troupes in Europe including Denmark, the exhibitions the exhibited people, through branded himself as supplier of authenticity their acts, aspirations and desires, were ac- and his success in the business of ethno- cepting or rejecting the invitation to express graphic shows rested on the fact that people otherness. This complicated dynamics of un- believed in the typicality of the people he dis- stable yet sometimes stabilised positions of played, they believed that they left his exhi- otherness and sameness will be guiding the bitions with an increased knowledge of a cer- following analyses. Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 7

The article falls in two parts: the first is and thus – at least potentially – could de- focused on how the logics of the live ethno- stabilise their otherness, while at times the graphic exhibitions are challenged and dis- actions of the exhibited people were seen in- rupted by the different desires, agendas and stead to enhance, emphasise and stabilise transgressing practices of the people on dis- their otherness in the eyes and minds of the play, all of which are contributing to the sta- spectators and the press. A series of different bilising or destabilising of their staged other- situations and occurrences at the live ethno- ness; and the second part contains analyses of graphic exhibitions in Tivoli and the Zoo will situations in which the ‘appropriate’ other- serve to illustrate this dynamics of othering ness of some of the exhibited people and in and/or familiarising agency on the part of the turn the ‘inappropriate’ sameness of others, exhibited people. each in their own way is causing discomfort and even conflict in the Danish press and public. Rejecting ‘Friendly’Interaction Through the diverse case studies of the ar- The West Indian Victor Cornelins, who was ticle, tales of agency of the objectified will be exhibited in the colonial exhibition in Tivoli told by examples of subversion, of transgres- in 1905, when he was only seven years old, sions and of appropriation; the objects of ex- with another West Indian child, Alberta, de- hibition will emerge as subjects. scribed the experience of the invasion of the ‘starees’ in his memoirs. Generally speak- Destabilising the Logics of the Exhi- ing his experience of being in Copenhagen bitions when he first arrived was one of discomfort, Eric Ames makes the case that the possible and in the memoirs he described how the interaction between exhibited people and the people of Copenhagen would follow him public potentially lessened the divide and and Alberta on their way to Tivoli and made the exhibited people more familiar, would touch their hair and faces to see if more human, and such cases were also re- they were “real negroes”. He writes that in ported in the Danish press, for instance when Copenhagen they were “almost looked upon Waldemar Dreyer – who, incidentally, be- as strange animals that had eloped from the came director of the Zoo in 1910 – gave a Zoological Garden. This feeling made us vivid account in the daily newspaper Politi- frightened and we were afraid to go into the ken of his conversation at a dinner party with streets were we would be seen [...]” (Cor- one of the exhibited Kirgiz people (Ames nelins 1977:24). But obviously the interest 2008; Politiken August 25, 1900). But the infor the black children was not only strong teractions between ‘starer’ and ‘staree’, as outside of Tivoli. Inside at the colonial ex- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson has put it hibition, the marvelling spectators would (Garland-Thomson 2009:3), were not always grab the children in order to get the fullest benevolent and friendly and the actions of the experience of the encounter with the for- people on display were not always within the eign: “[...] all day we had to let ourselves be bounds of what the organisers of the exhibi- glared at by the interested audience. The in- tions had imagined. Even so, the people on terest with some was so strong, that they display were at times engaged in practices would fondle us and turn and twist us to that were very familiar to the Danish public make us photogenic before taking the pic- 8 Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness

tures” (ibid.:25). One instance in particular that this behaviour perhaps was not appropri- is strongly present in his memory, and will ate but that he lacked the means to act in any serve to illustrate my point of Cornelins’s other way: “[The spitting] was not very nice, rejection of ‘friendly’ interaction with the but I had at the time no other means to assert crowd: a man came to the exhibition area my human dignity” (ibid.:27). Again, Cor- with a little girl and wished for her and Cor- nelins – contrary to Alberta, who negotiated nelins to hold hands while he took a photo- the situation by acting in a very well-behaved graph of this scene in “black and white”. manner – acted in a way, which enhanced the Cornelins was unwilling to do as they sug- thrilling sense of savagery, that the organis- gested and when the girl nonetheless ers – knowingly or unwittingly – had already reached out for Cornelins’s hand, he reacted increased by placing the children in a cage. In by spitting at her beautiful white dress” retrospect, Cornelins regretted his hostile be- (ibid.:25). In the vulnerable situation of haviour, but in the memoirs he explained it Cornelins – a child of seven separated from with the fact that he had felt his humanity un- his family and brought to a strange land to dermined by the forced participation in the be exhibited – this apparently innocent ges- exhibition. ture from the man and the girl was felt like Cornelins further described how he an invasion to Cornelins, and he tried to pro- throughout his life felt vulnerable to being tect himself from the unwanted attention as visibly different in large crowds (ibid.:49, best he could. His hostile respond to the 87, 104), and in his memoirs he related how staging of a ‘Kodak moment’ with the girl he, later in life, as a teacher, often took the obviously only increased his ‘savage’ other- children to the Zoo but always remained af- ness to the spectators. fected by the children’s obvious enjoyment But this was not the only way or the last at laughing at the monkeys in the cages: “I time he would displease the organisers of the remembered all too vividly my own experi- colonial exhibition. To their great dismay, ences behind the bars!!!” (ibid.:27). In the Cornelins did not always stay in the exhibi- case of Cornelins, the child on display at the tion area designated for the West Indies, but colonial exhibition in Tivoli 1905, his inter- ran around and was particularly interested in actions with the audience destabilised the – and thus often to be found in – the Green- logics of the exhibition in as much as they landic exhibition area. To keep him in the ap- went beyond the bounds set by the organ- propriate surroundings the organisers turned isers, but they did so in a way that stabilised to a drastic solution: “They procured a his ‘savage’ otherness rather than humanis- cage!!! In this Alberta and I were placed, and ing him – even if he, in retrospect, frames his the influx of spectators to the West Indian actions as trying to preserve his human section increased, perhaps because of the ru- worth. mours circulating, that we were cannibalistic children, who were dangerous and could not be let loose.” In the memoirs, Cornelins de- Drinking scribed how the caged exhibition made him Widespread use of alcohol among the ex- even more desperate and how he as a conse- hibited people was another disturbing phe- quence “rewarded all advances with a clot of nomenon in the shows. When, for instance, spittle” (ibid.:27). In retrospect he suggested in 1902 a troupe of Japanese people was ex- Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 9

hibited in Copenhagen Zoo an unfortunate the Japanese wrestler was disrupting the incident was reported in the newspaper show and that being senselessly drunk at a Politiken. The Sumo wrestler was apparent- major performance would not be considered ly unable to perform as expected due to a appropriate whether the artist was Japanese large intake of alcohol just before the show: or Dane, there are two interesting points of he was reported to appear at the stage othering going on in the situation or at least screaming and gesticulating and obviously in the report of it in the newspaper. The first drunk in his traditional wrestling suit has to do with a widespread idea in the Dan- “which as is well known consists of practi- ish public about the existence of what could cally nothing”. He then tried to make a few be called ‘racial anatomy’ (cf. Henningsen wrestling moves but fell over repeatedly 2009). When the Japanese wrestler showed and became very upset and “a moment ap- up drunk, the organisers procured what was peared in which the audience was unsure supposedly a racially attuned remedy: the whether to be amused or frightened” (Poli- pickled cucumber. In the article it was con- tiken July 30, 1902). The drunkenness of the trasted with the suitable remedy for a drunk- Sumo wrestler thus unsettled the crowd and en Dane, which was described to be a pickled occasioned a man to suggest to Mr. Wil- herring (Politiken July 30, 1902). And so, gaard, the Danish agent who had collected what could have been an everyday occur- the Japanese troupe, that they should try to rence – a drunken man – was here turned into sober him up by giving him a pickled cu- something in between familiar and foreign cumber, which curiously was assumed to through the introduction of a ‘racially’ deter- have a sobering effect on Japanese people. mined anatomy supposedly affecting the so- In the meantime a couple of geishas made bering processes. Similarly with the second their performance and two swordsmen othering feature of the article. Again, the fenced while Mr. Wilgaard, according to the point of departure is the potentially very or- reporter, was wondering whether to stop the dinary scenario of a drunken man, but in this show as he could “risk that the combination case he was wearing foreign ‘traditional’ of the momentary condition [of the wrest- clothing, which in combination with his ler] and his sparse attire could foster conse- drunkenness became – or could be con- quences best avoided” (Politiken July 30, sidered – a threat to the common decency. 1902). Unfortunately, the cucumber did not The familiar behaviour of drinking, albeit in have the desired effect and the wrestler re- excess, became somewhat foreign in the turned in a very bad mood and the perform- guise of the Japanese wrestler, whose drunk- ance eventually ended in a huge fight in enness was framed by the practice of other- which both Mr. Wilgaard and some of the ing. other Japanese people participated in order to pacify the angry and drunk wrestler. He was then put to bed in the house in which the Eloping troupe was living during their stay in Co- To pass the time – and possibly to escape the penhagen (Politiken July 30, 1902). boredom of the exhibition venues – some of Drinking was of course not an unknown the exhibited people also eloped from time to phenomenon in Denmark at the time. But be- time. They always returned to the exhibitions side the obvious fact, that the drunkenness of but even so, the organisers thought it a major 10 Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness

problem and possibly also a security risk. Of- cision. One could then easily make the con- ten in the contracts it was stated that they nection to the life on the Steppe of this would look after the people on display while ‘natural people’ dependent on their close they were in Denmark and in the paternalistic contact with nature (cf. above). And so, again frame of the time, they were perceived as in the familiar behaviour is turned into the – need of control and looking after if they were biologically determined – foreign natural to be safe from harm. It is of course impor- skills. tant to remember that this fear for their safety not necessarily was an expression of pater- Striking nalist control: the exhibited people were visibly foreign and in a completely unfamiliar The last disruptive practice I will point to is city, which could have led to problems. But an extraordinary one. When in 1902 the still, the obsession with control over the Chinese on display in Tivoli took to striking members of the ethnographic exhibitions is in order to get the financial settlement they at least partly connected to a paternalistic desired it was breaking news in Copenha- sense of having to protect them – often from gen. The strike was reported in the newspa- themselves. pers and the satirical magazine Klods-Hans, which had always shown a great interest in When, for instance, the Kirgiz who was the different ethnographic exhibitions, exhibited in the Zoo in 1900 snuck out of the made its own mock report in which fun was Garden at night, they had a very specific pur- made of both the striking Chinese, the sen- pose, which was to entertain themselves with sation hungry press and, to a lesser extent, games at the nearby amusement site Alleen- the organisers of the exhibition and the lead- berg: ers of Tivoli. In the daily newspaper Politi- [The Kirgiz] have become difficult to look after. ken the strike was covered extensively and Every night they climb over the walls to the Garden from this coverage one can get an idea of the and go to Alleenberg only to return late at night. […] It is the different throwing games and ring games problems causing the conflict. As men- with prizes that are the main attraction for these sons tioned it had to do with financial issues but of the Asian Steppe. For the owners, however, their it was the date of payment rather than the frequent visits are no source of income[,] for they are amount itself that caused dissatisfaction born champions in all forms of throwing games, and among the exhibited Chinese. According to it is not often that one of them misses a throw (Na- Politiken’s journalist they did not trust the tionaltidende August 12, 1900). organisers of the show to pay them their full What is interesting in this newspaper article, amount at the end of the engagement and besides the frustration of the organisers cre- consequently they wanted the full amount ated by the eloping of the Kirgiz, is the way paid to them beforehand. The organisers the familiar practice of playing games in the were not interested in this solution, as they amusement park is turned into something feared that the Chinese, upon reception of somewhat foreign. Again, it has to do with their entire salary, would neglect to fulfil biology. When, namely, the Kirgiz played their obligations to the amusement park. games at Alleenberg they very seldom lost This refusal to pay them in advance caused because they were, as the article states, natu- the Chinese to go on strike. The strike lasted rals who were born to throw things with pre- for one evening only and the following day Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 11

a parade of rickshaws through Copenhagen more or less in a sober – if somewhat over- could bring the happy news that the strike bearing – tone, albeit with the clear sentiment was ended. The agreement had been that the organisers rather than the Chinese reached that the organisers deposited the re- had the right on their side, and that the Chi- maining salary in a bank account in the nese were engaged in practices, that did not name of four of the Chinese people, but with really belong to them and their culture (Poli- the condition that they could only be with- tiken August 5, and 6, 1902). In the satirical drawn on the day the exhibition ended magazine Klods-Hans on the other hand, the (Politiken August 5, and 6, 1902). strike was turned into a question of the Chi- The satirical report in Klods-Hans had a nese interaction with Danish women, and so somewhat different take on the strike. In- the familiar practice of striking for your right stead of the serious – if somewhat sceptical – or for better conditions was turned into if not approach of Politiken of the trust issues be- something other, then at least something ri- tween the Chinese and the organisers of the diculous qua other. exhibition, the satirical magazine turned the The disruptive practices of the exhibited matter in to the, to their mind, laughable and people described above in the different cases ridiculous romantic relations between Chi- are on the one hand affirming their otherness nese men and Danish women to which more while on the other providing a sense of their attention will be directed later in the article. common humanity with the spectators when For now it will suffice with a few quotations they employ the familiar strategy of striking, to illustrate this mocking view of the conflict. engage in romantic relationships, and when Under the heading “The Chinese Riot” the they indulge in familiar vices such as drink- pseudonym ‘Lup’ writes: ing and visiting the tombola and other forms As far as I have been informed, there was much un- of entertainment that were very popular with rest in the Chinese village [the exhibition area] last the Danish public. And this double move of night. The reason is dissatisfaction with the econ- sameness and otherness, of familiarity and omic position. The Chinese wishes to have money to foreignness, in line with the situation Trinh be able to treat the ladies coming to visit them with Minh-ha pointed to when explaining the no- Swedish soda water. […] Mr. Thomas Lorenzen [a tion of inappropriate/d otherness (cf. above). Tivoli director] has succeeded in procuring peace on the following conditions: that the Chinese from now One could argue that the disruptive practices on will be paid fifteen Øre [Danish currency] a day of the exhibited people can be likened with to meet the expenses of their lady visits (Klods-Hans Minh-ha’s (1986–87) and Haraway’s (1992) no. 46, August 17, 1902). inappropriate/d others in their unsettling and As with the other disruptive practices of the subversive potential – a potential that goes people on display, the Chinese strike also beyond the mere destabilising of the logics of ended somewhere between the foreign and the exhibitions and enters the realm of per- the familiar. Obviously, the weapon of strike ceptions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in an unsettling itself was not unfamiliar in Danish society of manner. the time, but the press put a particular spin on the Chinese strike, which served to de-legiti- Conflicts of In/appropriation mate it. In the serious part of the press, the The figure of the inappropriate/d other was anxiety of the Chinese over their payment reused above to capture the meaning of the mained inexplicable, but it was reported agency of the exhibited people when they 12 Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness

engaged in practices not sanctioned by the article was a report from his visit to the organisers of the shows. In this section I Japanese village in Copenhagen Zoo, and wish to play a little more with the pair ap- reflects on the educational and political sig- propriate and inappropriate – both as verbs nificance of the exhibition of Japanese and as adjectives. I will present two cases or people. As Clausen explains, the headline phenomena, each of which it is possible to refers to Kaiser Wilhelm’s assertion that the grasp analytically by different usages of in/ peril for Europe comes from the east, from appropriate(ing). Thus, I will show how on Japan, a sentiment that he apparently sec- the one hand the Japanese exhibited in the onds. He writes: Zoo are considered a dangerous threat be- The danger, that he [Wilhelm] warned against, is cause of their ‘inappropriate’ sameness with there, and never have I felt it more acutely, more the Danish audience, while on the other vividly, more personally, than the other day when I hand many of the exhibited men are con- saw the Comoran Fisherman from the Japanese sidered threatening because of the ‘inap- troupe in the Zoological Gardens sitting hour after propriate’ use of their otherwise ‘appropri- hour teaching himself English from a learner’s book. […] Before me I saw in that moment the entire ate’ otherness in their love relations with young, knowledge-hungry, progress-crazed Japan Danish women. (Hver 8. Dag August 10, 1902). The terrible peril lies in the young Japanese Appropriating Inappropriate Sameness: man trying to learn English; to appropriate a the Japanese Western language for ill-willed purposes, In 1902 the journalist and historian C.C. one supposes, after reading Clausen’s article. Clausen published an article in Hver 8. Dag , But an even more frightening thing is the ap- under the headline “The Yellow Peril”. 1 The pearance of the Japanese fencer who – after

Japanese man in Western dress. Zoologisk Haves Arkiv, Copenhagen. Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 13

having performed dressed in a coat of mail with a bamboo stick: [He is seen] strolling in a European outfit. If you saw him in the streets you would mistake him for a Co- penhagen worker in his best Sunday suit. He carries the clothing with ease, as if he and his fathers had been dressed after European fashion for centuries. All the agility of the Japanese people, its ability to appropriate a foreign culture, come to life in this fencer with his black coat, black trousers, walking cane and the English shag pipe in his mouth (Hver 8. Dag August 10, 1902). Thus, it was not merely the appropriation of the language, but also the dressing style that caused the reporter to take fright. One can sense his anxiety over the chameleon-like way in which these Japanese people can hardly be discerned from the Danish working class. But why was the appropriation of Western language and style such a threat? The answer follows in the next segment of Clausen’s article: [The Japanese are] a danger, a serious danger to Eu- rope. Everywhere else that the Europeans arrived Japanese wrestlers. Zoologisk Haves Arkiv, Copen- they met uncultivated people, who stood aside, and hagen. were exterminated, or let themselves be suppressed; made into underlings or slaves for the strong Arians. For the first time the Arians have encountered a Inappropriating Appropriate Otherness: people, as intelligent as themselves, with flexibility, the Improper Love Relations susceptibility, which far surpasses that of the Euro- When live ethnographic exhibitions entered peans. They learn our weapons-skills, they copy our machines, with their minimal requirements they are Europe there was often quite a large interest able to produce them far cheaper than us, they meet in the exhibited men from the European us on all the markets in the East, and then send their women, which did not go unnoticed in the own goods into the European markets (Hver 8. Dag press or in the public. Copenhagen was no August 10, 1902). different in this respect than the other Euro- So we see the reason why Clausen perceived pean cities. The women of Copenhagen free- the Japanese as posing such a threat to Dan- ly engaged in romantic relations with the ex- ish and European societies: chameleon-like hibited men, who in their turn often were just he thought them able to observe, learn and as willing to engage in such relations.2 When copy our languages, our ways, culture and for instance the Central Asian Circassian technologies, and turn it all against us, and in troupe came to Tivoli in 1900 an article in so doing they were, to the mind of Clausen Politiken described how groups of Danish and the Danish public, appropriating an inap- women always lacked proper resistance propriate sameness. when it came to these foreign troupes – re- 14 Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness

gardless of the state of their cleanliness (Poli- doubt that these relationships were seen as tiken July 15, 1900). And so, the men on dis- illegitimate and immoral. This also explains play in the ethnographic exhibitions were al- why the organisers of the shows actually most always very popular with the women. tried to intercept the letters before they But none more than the Chinese in Tivoli in reached their proper recipient, as a report 1902, whom some Danish women actually from the newspaper Provinsen will show. It ended up marrying and settle down with. is the earlier mentioned Johannes Madsen, This was not looked upon benevolently by who was in charge of the Chinese exhibition society or the women’s families, as the next in Tivoli, who tells the inquisitive journalist example from Politiken will illustrate. The directly that he intercepts as many letters as article describes the usual fascination with possible and explains that “he not only the foreign men among the Danish women, would have lost the entire troupe, but fur- but the reporter notes that there is a differ- ther that scores of families here and beyond ence with the Chinese. It seems that even “la- the sea would have been unhappy had he not dies of good families have lost their minds withheld scores of letters and destroyed ro- along with their hearts” and have courted the mantic attempts of eloping” (Provinsen Au- Chinese. As an illustration of this the reporter gust 15, 1902). gives a recollection of a letter he has read Unlike with the Japanese in the Zoo, who from a concerned father to one of these ‘good showed inappropriate amounts of sameness, girls’ who had been engaged in improper re- the inappropriateness of these exhibited men lations with a Chinese man. The gist of the lies in the romantic allure of their otherwise letter is that it has come to the attention of the appropriate otherness. father that his daughter has been in a relationship with the Chinese recipient of the letter Concluding Reflections: De/stabilis- and that she has asked this Chinese man to ing Otherness in (Re)strained Situa- come and visit them. The father then begs tions him not to do so, as that would only cause By playing with the notions of in/appropriate grief to all parties involved. And so, the fa- and in/appropriating in different settings, I ther made it very clear to the Chinese man have shown how sights of perceived other- that he had no intention of allowing their re- ness and sameness could assume different lationship to go on. But the girl thought meanings and affect the spectators differently according to context, and how the other- otherwise: Inside the letter she had put a tiny ness staged in the restrained conditions of note, saying: ”Dear ..! I am writing this with- live ethnographic exhibitions could both be out Father seeing it. But I wish to let you stabilised and destabilised through the agen- know that I love you and will never forget cy of the people on display: by their accept- you!” (Politiken July 31, 1902). ance or rejection of the invitation to express The reporter sums up the morale of the the otherness expected in the exhibitions. story in the following terms: “We have told First, the subversive practices of the ex- this story […] to give the young girls a good hibited people were active in de/stabilising fright, who might consider increasing the the otherness staged in the shows them- gallery of beauties possessed by the Chinese selves, by engaging in practices at once fa- but who rather ought not to do so” (Politi- miliar and foreign. Then, the otherness of the ken July 31, 1902). No one could be left in Japanese was destabilised by their unsettling Anne Folke Henningsen, De/stabilising Otherness 15

sameness, while the romantic relations be- Andreassen, R. under publication: Sexuality at Dan- tween Danish women and exhibited men re- ish Exhibitions of ‘Exotic’ People. Blanchard, P. et al. (eds.) 2008: Human Zoos. inforced the otherness of the men on display, Science and Spectacle in the Age of Colonial Em- as they were romantically attractive qua pires. Liverpool University Press. other. In short, the different participants in Cornelins, V. 1977: Fra St. Croix til Nakskov. the live ethnographic exhibitions in Copen- Odense: Frimodts Forlag. hagen were all in their own way engaged in Dreyer, W. 1910: Den Hvide Races Sejrsgang. København: Gyldendal. de/stabilising the otherness the exhibitions Freiesleben, B. 1998: Fra St. Croix til Tivoli. En his- cast them in. torisk beretning om to vestindiske børns lange rejse. Forlaget Acer. Anne Folke Henningsen Fyfe, A. & B. Lightman (eds.): Science in the Mar- PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow ketplace. Nineteenth-Century Sites and Experi- Saxo Institute, History Section ences. Chicago and London: The University of University of Copenhagen Chicago Press. Njalsgade 80 Garland-Thomson, R. 2009: Staring. How We Look. New York: Oxford University Press. DK-2300 Copenhagen S Haraway, D. 1992: The Promises of Monsters. A Re- e-mail: [email protected] generative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, P. A. Treichler (eds.) Notes Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge. 1 Clausen was not the only one in Denmark who Henningsen, A. Folke 2009: Producing and Consum- was interested in ‘the yellow peril’. The before ing Foreignness. In A. Folke Henningsen, L. Koi- mentioned W. Dreyer, who later was to become vunen & T. Syrjämaa (eds.): Nordic Perspectives director of the Zoo, wrote of the great danger on Encountering Foreignness. Turku: Histories 1. facing Europe from the far East in both the General History, University of Turku. preface and the postscript of his book Den Hvide Hver 8. Dag August 10, 1902. Races Sejrsgang (Dreyer 1910). Klods-Hans nr. 46, August 17, 1902. 2 Interestingly, I know of no examples of the re- Lindfors, B. (ed.) 1999: Africans on Stage. Studies in verse situation in which European men were en- Ethnological Show Business. Indianapolis: In- gaged romantically with exhibited women. The diana University Press. women on display were almost always exhibited Minha-ha, T. 1986-87: Difference: A Special Third in a highly sexualised manner but this, apparent- World Women’s Issue. In Discourse. Journal for ly, did not lead to any romantic relationships, at theoretical studies in media and culture. least none that are reported (cf. Andreassen un- Nationaltidende August 12, 1900. der publication). I will contend that the forward Politiken July 15, 1900. and explicit behaviour of the European women Politiken August 25, 1900. was facilitated by their privileged whiteness, Politiken July 30, 1902 which would enable them to be able to approach Politiken July 31, 1902. the non-white men in a manner not possible with Politiken August 5, 1902. white men. Politiken August 6, 1902. Provinsen August 15, 1902. References Rothfels, N. 2002: Savages and Beasts: The Birth of Ames, E. 2008: Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Enter- the Modern Zoo. Baltimore & London: The Johns tainment. Seattle and London: University of Hopkins University Press. Washington Press. 16 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body Defending the Body By Karine Aasgaard Jansen

A Discussion of de Beauvoir, Irigaray stripped of subjectivity and meaning. Body and the Relevance of “Sexual Differ- matter can be a historical and cultural crea- ence” for Empirical (Medical Anthro- tion, e.g., a living body.2 In addition sexual pological) Research difference might be a fact, but should not be The problem of the sexed and/or gendered conceived as a norm (Grosz lecture held in body is an essential(ist) one within various Paris 19.10.2006). While moving the cor- feminist theories. In order to avoid falling poreal, sexed and living body from peri- prey to essentialism and its unspeakable cog- phery into the centre of analysis (Grosz nates biologism, naturalism, reductionism 1994), the aim of the following hypothetical and universalism many feminists have avoid- pondering is to discover possible new ap- ed discussing the corporeally and sexually proaches to study illness within medical an- specific body and rather relied upon the so- thropology and other related empirical cially constructed gender. The material body fields by drawing upon knowledge from has thus remained a convenient conceptual feminist theories of sexual difference based blind spot (Grosz 1994:3), and ‘politically in phenomenology (e.g. Merleau-Ponty incorrect’ questions of bodies, sexed specifi- 2002 [1945]; de Beauvoir 2000 [1949]; Moi cities and sexual difference have been largely 1998; Heinämaa 2003; Young 1980) and disregarded. Then again, the trouble(d) body ontology (Irigaray 1991 & 2004; Grosz seems to persistently reappear as it refuses to 1994 & 1995). evaporate or be ignored, but rather continues to haunt social constructionism with its very A Medical Anthropological Perspec- real and material presence (Alaimo & Hek- tive on Bodies and Illness man 2008). The traditional role of anthropological re- The body’s incessant physical re-emer- search within the medical field has been gence becomes perhaps particularly apparent validation and translation of ethnographic within my own empirically dominated field aetiologies. The body was therefore up until of medical anthropology. After all, sick the beginning of the 1990s hidden within bodies and their narratives comprise the very empirical descriptions of rituals and analy- fundamental focus of my research.1 But mind ses of social organisations as a symbolic you; there is nothing pretty about illness. Ill marker/maker. The body was acknowl- bodies are weak; they leak and they ache. No edged as more than nature, but also as a wonder then, that through illness the body largely passive slate for inscriptions of cul- tends to become the focus for our orienta- tural values much in line with Foucault’s tions in the world as various diseases reminds understanding of bio-power (Foucault us that the bodies we live in are very real, (1999 [1971]; 2001 [1977]; 2003 [1973] & corporeal and sexual indeed. 2004 [1976]), and social constructionism. The following article has its origin in a With the phenomenological entry the focus desire to think through and find potential of inquiry and analysis shifted. Ethnogra- touching points between biological and phic accounts within medical anthropology feminist accounts of sexed body materiality, should no longer be sole representations or e.g., theories that acknowledge the material, only about the body, but rather originate sexed body, but does not reduce it to a pure from the very body itself (see for instance anatomical biomedical object or symptom Scarry 1985; Morris 1991; Kleinman 1988

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body 17

& 1995; Good 1994; Csordas 1994). The periences and situations (Grosz 1994).4 In body became an experiencing agent articu- such a perspective being ill, no matter what lated through embodiment as the existential the illness and its symptoms might be, condition of expressions of subjectivity and would thus constitute distinctly dissimilar cultural life (Csordas 1994); a view which is realisations for the two sexes (Moi 1998). largely maintained today with ethnographic Medical anthropological research con- narrative accounts of experiences of various cerned with gender aspects could therefore illnesses, pain etc. Being ill is thus con- in addition to cross-cultural and/or intersec- sidered to be differently experienced, ar- tional comparisons of diseases look for ticulated and ‘performed’ by various sick variations in experiences and expressions of individuals. The illness is given meaning the same (diagnosed) illness between the through people’s social and cultural reper- sexes. Physical symptoms and experience toire, for instance particular personal – and have their locus within the body, and neither family stories, categories of social differen- can be separated from the other. Both are tiation such as ethnicity, class, gender, age, also necessarily sexed or gendered. Do for religious and/or traditional aetiologies – and instance varying gendered experiences of folk beliefs, and discursive encounters or illness create various physical symptoms, or bio/body politics. Medical anthropology is at least different physical behavioural ex- thus generally concerned with both the phe- pressions of symptoms? As well as looking nomenological and social, cultural and po- for social and cultural evidence for potential litical aspects of illness, and tries to under- differences or similarities between genders, stand the contextual situatedness of the one should also take account of the sexually sickness’ occurrence on a holistic level. specific body materiality and its morpholo- gy in order to include and acknowledge gen- Phenomenology, Sexual Difference dered experience as a fertile variable and Illness (Young 1980). Despite the empirical and analytical focus on the living body, embodiment, life worlds etc. Corporeal Experience and Feminist within medical anthropology, I have yet had Phenomenology the pleasure to find ethnographic accounts of Phenomenology is largely about the ways in sexual difference, or even comparisons of ill- which we relate to the world and its beings ness and gender. It might seem that many (Heinämaa 2003), e.g. through experiences analyses are either gender-neutral, e.g., gen- situated in the body according to Mer- der is not part of the inquiry, or rather some- leau-Ponty (2002 [1945]).5 In addition Mer- what gender-specific, e.g., for instance men leau-Ponty sets off his “Phenomenology of and health-reducing behaviour, women and Perception” with a fundamental presump- reproductive issues etc.3 tion of the interrelatedness of mind and According to feminist theories con- body; res extensa, in opposition to Des- cerned with sexual difference the phenom- cartes’ res cogito. He continues his explora- enology of the female and male body differs tive thinking by claiming that the body is radically, and not only due to social ascrip- not an object, but rather the condition and tions, but also because living (in) a female context for subjectivity, and our orienta- or a male body are two entirely different ex- tions in the world. Then again, as others’ 18 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body

bodies are similarly situated, my body will come the woman/subject that I am capable become an object to others’ perceptions. of becoming (Moi 1998:109). The phe- Hence Merleau-Ponty argues that the body nomenological (and existential) body is in- is both object and subject, depending on tentional, and the possibility for transcend- whether it is perceived by others or experience will be played out in the interaction be- enced by the self. The world and bodies tween the body’s desire for freedom and so- come into existence together, and remain in- ciety’s restrictions on its factuality. terconnected as living bodies. According to newer critical readings of Embodiment and Gendered Morphol- Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex ogy (2000 [1949]) as represented by for instance If the sexually specific female body truly is Heinämaa (2003), de Beauvoir’s reflections more subdued to immanence than the male on female bodies should be understood as a body due to various experiences of being in phenomenological philosophical endeavour the world, how might such diverse corpor- rather than only a socio-historic and empir- eal experiences play out? According to ically based description of women and their Young (1980) (contemporary, western and limits for transcendence as has traditionally particularly bourgeois) women do not uti- been the case (Sampson 2008). By follow- lise their body’s full, physical capacity for ing in Merleau-Ponty’s corporeal footsteps instance within sports, or in everyday move- de Beauvoir utilises women’s concrete, ments, bodily comportment and relations to lived experiences to ask how one sexually space. Women and men sit, stand, walk and specific body becomes female. In order to even throw balls differently. Whereas a man discuss this de Beauvoir famously claims often sits with his legs wide apart, strides that the body is “not an object, but rather a and swings his arms when he walks, and situation”, in addition to “our grasp of the twists his entire body backwards and then world and draft for our projects” (de Beau- leans forward to release the ball to reach its voir 2000 [1949]):77/78). According to de farthest possible goal, women tend to sit Beauvoir women and men have different ex- with their legs close together, take smaller periences of being in the world due to the steps and remain immobile except for the various values and practises placed upon arm when they throw that very same ball our sexually specific bodies within a patri- (Young 1980:142). Such variations can no archal society. Women have for instance longer be explained away by for instance throughout history commonly been forced dress codes, e.g., ‘women only wear skirts to experience their own bodies as more sub- or dresses’, social codes for gendered be- dued by biology than men (Moi 1998). haviour or varying muscular strengths ac- Women have thus come to consider their cording to Young. Then again, it can neither bodies as more based in immanence than be clarified by biology inasmuch as both fe- transcendence according to de Beauvoir. male and male bodies are, at least for the Then again, as my (female) body can not be most part, capable of a wide variety of phys- reduced to sole object, e.g., a social inscrip- ical activities and movements. Young tion, I continually (and until death) interact (1980) therefore rather takes these differ- with my surrounding world and society’s ences to be examples of variations of how limitations on my freedom/projects to be- each sex uses their bodies, and that women Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body 19

tend to be less free and open in their bodily De Beauvoir’s Phenomenology and comportments and motions than men, as Sexual Difference women are, according to Young, generally Young’s (1980) analysis of female morphol- less comfortable with their own bodies . As ogy remains true to de Beauvoir’s phenom- women repetitively experience that their enological project. Then again, de Beau- bodies are encapsulated as immanence, the voir’s acknowledgement of the historical and female body-subject’s intentionality and cultural situations within which sexually spe- reach towards transcendence is ultimately cific bodies are part, does not necessarily le- inhibited (Sampson 2008). In short: Female gitimise the common placement of de Beau- and male bodies constitute dissimilar situa- voir within the sex/gender divide, but rather tions. According to Merleau-Ponty and his verifies her strong connections to Mer- notion of “corporeal schema” or body image leau-Ponty (Moi 1998; Heinämaa 2003). our bodies somehow ‘know’ what to do and Within Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology be- how to move (Grosz 1994; Merleau-Ponty coming would not refer to becoming a social, 2002 [1945]). Apparently female bodies cultural and historical gender as this neces- ‘know’ how not to move. According to sarily entails a dichotomous understanding Young (1980) feminine bodily existence is of the world. Heinämaa (2003) thus claims thus somewhat ambiguous as women live that de Beauvoir rather discusses different their bodies as object as well as subject, meanings accorded to and experienced by our living, (sexually different) bodies as il- whereas a male body, at least from a man’s lustrated by Young (1980). Being a man or own experience of him(self), only constitute being a woman is not a question of possess- subject. ing some fixed property or essence, but ex- Then again, from a social and cultural sci- presses basic variations in our ways of relat- ence perspective there are some obvious ing to the world and its objects. Maleness and problems associated with Young’s analysis femaleness should not be confused with any that makes it rather difficult to defend. Al- so-called inherent physical or psychological though Young, at least in a footnote (1980: traits, but are open to individual inter- 143, footnote), acknowledges that women pretation and modification (Heinämaa 2003: who do heavy physical work, whether in 68). western or non-western contexts, might not Still, sexual identity is not a question of fit this particular observation and descrip- performance or choice within a phenomeno- tion, Young does not discuss and distinguish logical framework, but rather the result of re- between various female bodies’ corporeali- petitive perceptions, motilities and experi- ties and morphologies according to age, eth- ences (Heinämaa 2003). The relative stabili- nicity, class, context etc. The female body ty of the gendered hierarchy is understood to within Young’s analysis might therefore be the result of repetitions of practices rather seem to be a universal rather than a cultural than causal explanations based for instance and contextual-specific category despite the in biology (Sampson 2008). It is thus us, as phenomenological focus upon the body as a men and women that maintain the hierarchy “situation”. There are of course different (Heinämaa 2003). Many of de Beauvoir’s ways of being (male, female and everything critics would probably disagree with such a else) bodies in the world. reading of de Beauvoir as it has been com- 20 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body

monly claimed that de Beauvoir perceives Both the standard of the human body and its the female, reproductive body as oppressive representations was the male body. Man was in itself. On the other hand, although de the measure for all things, and woman did not Beauvoir might be quite ambiguous and neg- exist as an ontologically distinct category ative in her writings on pregnancy and (Laqueur 1992:63). motherhood, she would contradict herself if The one-sex-model also rings quite loud she (so famously) claimed on the one hand resonances within Freud’s psychoanalytical that: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a model. The little boy suffers a severe shock woman” (de Beauvoir 2000 [1949]: 329), when he discovers his mother’s lack of a pe- and on the other hand that: “the female is vic- nis, and to avoid his deepest fears, e.g., cas- tim to the species”. If read through a phe- tration, he comes to identify with his nomenological lens though, neither the sub- non-castrated father to develop a masculine ject nor the object, or nature and culture can identity. The little girl on the other hand, is be separated from each other. De Beauvoir’s forced to accept her destiny as a castrated acknowledgement and focus on the impor- boy and overcome her penis envy in order to tance of the non-essentialist, but still sexual- become a healthy (non-hysterical or frigid) ly specific, corporeal and living body is thus woman. According to Freud there is only one still highly relevant within current discus- libido, and that is the masculine one sions of sexual difference as articulated by (Mortensen 2008). for instance Luce Irigaray. Lacan takes psychoanalysis a bit further and introduces the idea that it is through the The Problem of the One-Sex-Model acquisition of language that humans become To Luce Irigaray it would come as no sur- (gendered) subjects. In short Lacan claims prise that the female body is perceived to that in order to become represented and heard lack a reach for transcendence. After all, the within the cultural or symbolic order, the woman does not have a penis; the only sexual child needs to overcome the imaginary, or organ worth representation according to the the unconscious, pre-oedipal phase repre- one-sex-/one-flesh-model which has been sented by the child’s non-linguistic relation dominant within the tradition of western with its mother. Then again, because girls medical and philosophical thought (Sampson finally identify with their castrated mothers, 2008; Irigaray 1985; Laqueur 1992). Women they never really enter the symbolic. The and their bodies have thus been considered to symbolic is thus only represented by the be literally inverted and hence incomplete phallus, something which made Lacan con- copies of male bodies. The anatomical mor- clude that women do not really exist phology of the penis and the vagina was (Mortensen 2008). As a linguist and psycho- thought to be basically the same except that analysist trained (and later cast out) by La- women carried their penises on the inside, can, Irigaray responds to Lacan’s one-sex- e.g., in the wrong place (Laqueur 1992). As model by developing a feminist philosophy bodies and the placement of their organs which claims that if the woman does not ex- were regarded as epiphenomenon of a greater ist, it is because she is not represented within world order, the one-sex-model legitimised the symbolic as anything other than an im- and displayed the already evident subjuga- perfect copy, negation or a reflected male im- tion of women within contemporary society. age. Even the very language itself is formed Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body 21

within a phallic morphological image. The agine that male and female are incommen- one-sex-model does thus not only legitimise surably different. The female will then final- women’s subjugation to men on a sexual ly become a subject and de Beauvoir’s sec- level, but is also textually articulated, and in- ond sex will no longer need to be considered scribed in language. the other in its static and negative relation to the One male. As the possibility of a com- Feminist Ontology and Sexual Differ- mon, single denominator vanishes, equality ence between the genders will be based in true re- As mentioned above, the female subject does spect of each other as complete and ultimate not exist according to Lacan and Irigaray. different beings. Meetings between the two Whereas this is hardly a problem for Lacan, (sexes) will be based in difference, and not in Irigaray actually perceives this as an oppor- either sameness or contrast (Irigaray lecture tunity for an ontological inquiry of what the held in Paris, 19.10.2006). According to Iri- female sex might potentially become, and not garay (2000) “Democracy begins between necessarily what she already is. The question two”. Irigaray argues for instance that with of femininity can not be reduced to a compar- the creation and birth of the female subject ison with masculinity, e.g., what the female the woman is not to constitute a new One. is not or rather lacks. According to Irigaray The solution to the dissolving of the the central focus for query is sexual differ- one-sex-model and its potential for emanci- ence which she also claims to be “one of the pation of the currently repressive gender pat- major philosophical issues, if not the issue, of tern is not a reversion of positions as this will our age” (Irigaray 1991:165).6 Irigaray only represent a continuance of the hierarchi- shares de Beauvoir’s phenomenological ap- cal structure between the two (Sampson proach to the body as our way of being in the 2008). The other would still remain an ob- world, and the question of sexual difference ject. Irigaray thus focuses upon the space be- should therefore be considered a very real tween the two sexes as a potential point of one indeed within her philosophy. Whereas reference for future constitutions of sexual for de Beauvoir sexual difference is only one identity. Subjectivity is constructed in rela- amongst many markers of/on our bodies, for tion with others,7 e.g., inter-subjectively, and Irigaray sexual difference is the fundamental is therefore in a continuous process or flow, basis for all other differences. Sexual differ- from birth until death. Irigaray thus acknowl- ence is the origin of life itself, and we will edges the corporeal, fleshy and sexual specif- therefore never be able to rid us of it (Irigaray icity of bodies, but also the fact that bodies lecture held in Paris, 19.10.2006). function as beings in an ever-changing The problem according to Irigaray world. In order to avoid falling back into the though, is that despite sexual difference’s snares of the One and truly engage in a poli- very real existence it lacks equivalent repre- tics of difference, questions of sexual differ- sentation within the symbolic, e.g., as a gen- ence will need to be asked over and again at uine, irreducible distinction between the two all times according to both time and space, sexually specific bodies. To be able to avoid e.g., history and context. Both the phenom- reductionist analyses of male and female enological and the ontological interrogation identities, we need to radically re-think our of what it means to be a woman (or a man), western conceptions of gender and rather im- and how the world appears to such a being, 22 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body

will therefore always be inconclusive In addition, and probably due to the acknowl- (Jegerstedt & Mortsensen 2008). edgement of biology or nature as an ingredient of sexual difference, the focus on differ- Feminism of Difference, Feminism of ence is often thought to represent and even Equality and the In-Between glorify pregnancy, motherhood etc. Differ- The female subject’s naissance and the meet- ence within feminism of difference though, ings between the two are still to happen, and is a difference with neither value nor identity. even remains to be thought according to Iri- It is rather pure and does to reflect any of our garay. This part of Irigaray’s philosophy is existing ideas of sexual difference. Is the sex therefore commonly considered to be utop- oppressive in itself, or do women’s differ- ian. Still, her focus on (sexual) difference as ences from men necessarily need to be cate- a necessary prerequisite for equality between gorised and defined according to reproduc- the genders is quite dissimilar to perspectives tive capacities? To accuse feminism of difference of biologism or even essentialism offered by egalitarian feminism. Due to the will hence only reflect the one-sex-model influential impact of the one-sex-model, the within current history. The future of sexual right to equality today entails the right to be difference is still unknown according to Iri- the same as men according to feminism of garay. difference (Grosz 1995). To argue that only On the other hand, de Beauvoir who has sameness can ensure equal rights is to give traditionally been considered the Mother of up on the idea of a female subject that is cap- egalitarian feminism has herself been criti- able of a true autonomy defined by her own cised for essentialism. Instead of praising needs and desires. Women should not need to motherhood and pregnancy though, de Beau- become men in order to achieve equality, and voir has been accused of a devalorisation and neither should men become women. Equality repression of any form of biological feminin- should rather concern questions of particu- ity, including women’s capacity to become larity, and thus articulate specific rights to mothers. De Beauvoir has for instance been specific bodies (Fermon lecture held in Paris, accused of reproducing phallocracy due to 19.10.2006). her ‘hostile’ accounts of the pregnant woman On the other hand, egalitarian feminism and her “womb as a tomb”, and pregnancy as has charged feminism of difference with ac- an “ensnarement by nature” (in Kaufman cusations of both essentialism and universal- 1986:125). Egalitarian feminists sympathetic ism. After all, feminism of difference shares to de Beauvoir has commonly excused these its insistence of women’s dissimilarities with unfavourable descriptions to the time of her men with patriarchy. According to for in- writings. They have also claimed that to de stance Moi (in Grosz 1995:55) Beauvoir pregnancy might have symbolised …any attempt to formulate a general theory of femi- all impositions on the female sex from patri- ninity will be metaphysical. This is precisely Iriga- archy as pregnancy and motherhood could, at ray’s dilemma: Having shown that so far femininity that particular time in history, be considered has been produced exclusively in relation to the logic responsible for hindering a woman’s reach of the same, she falls for the temptation to produce her own positive theory of femininity. But, as we for transcendence and self-fulfilment. Then have seen, to define “woman” is necessarily to essen- again, if de Beauvoir’s text is not to be taken tialise her. as a socio-historical account of women’s op- Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body 23

pressed positions, but rather as a philosophi- Heinämaa (2003) rather claims that the cal phenomenological inquiry as argued by most important dissimilarities between de Heinämaa (2003), these descriptions might Beauvoir and Irigaray are their different re- actually be reports of de Beauvoir’s critique lations to psychoanalysis. Whereas de of the male myths surrounding the female Beauvoir rejects Freud’s theories on sexual body and her reproductive capacities. Within identity as one of the already mentioned mi- phenomenology the body and its biological sogynist myths on female sexuality, Iriga- functions is not something which can be ray takes psychoanalytical insights, and es- overcome as it is our bodies that constitute us pecially as articulated by Lacan’s linguistic as subjects (Merleau-Ponty 2002 [1945]). turn, to be indispensable in order to raise These accounts do thus not verify de Beau- consciousness related to the becoming of fe- voir’s accounts of female biology as essen- male within history. If one is to become two, tialist or biological determinist, but are rather women need to search for their genealogies an attack and correction of misogynist con- in order to develop a language and a culture ceptions of female sexuality and identity. that is suitable to the women that we are by Even Irigaray seems to acknowledge Beau- nature. Irigaray adds the necessity of a poli- voir’s role in the deconstruction of the sex/ tics based on sexual difference to de Beau- gender, nature/culture divide by conceiving voir’s philosophy, and claims that women the body as a situation: will never be able to become autonomous subjects if we are not capable of creating a It’s not as Simone de Beauvoir said: One is not born, new, feminine language and an accordant but rather, becomes a woman (through culture), but rather: I am born a woman, but I must still become female culture for and by ourselves. De this woman that I am by nature (Irigaray in Heinä- Beauvoir on the other hand, does not articu- maa 2003:xvii). late or develop a theory of the becoming of a female subjectivity outside of patriarchy. Whereas Merleau-Ponty (2002 [1945]) over- In contrast to Irigaray, de Beauvoir does looked or did not find sexual difference rele- therefore not ‘offer’ a methodological or vant for human experience (Grosz 1994), de political ‘solution’ to the problem of female Beauvoir problematises this assumption and repression. Then again, both Irigaray and de makes sexual difference the central point for Beauvoir have managed to develop philoso- her philosophical inquiries (Heinämaa 2003). phies that acknowledge the sexually distinct Irigaray’s and de Beauvoir’s various body and its impacts on our experiences of takes on sexual difference might be quite dis- being male or female in the world, without similar, but due to their common roots within reducing these experiences to be mere re- phenomenology the differences between sults of inescapable, non-contextual and their philosophies might be of a different non-historical biology. kind than commonly discussed. Heinämaa (2003: xvii) states that: Concluding Remarks Until now, Irigaray’s relation to Beauvoir has been In much the same way as illness tends to considered as merely negative. Commentators have situate the body at the centre of focus; this claimed that Irigaray overcomes Beauvoir’s “equali- tarian” feminism or simply rejects it. This is a mis- article has aimed at doing the same. As a conception based on a superficial reading of Beau- medical anthropologist I take on the empiri- voir’s work and Irigaray’s comments on it. cal reality of ill bodies face-on, in all their 24 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body

glory and gory. In addition I find the tenden- ogy and ontology as discussed throughout cy to gender-neutral and in some cases even this article might also be able to provide new gender-specific analyses of illness within the tools for comparative and intersectional in- phenomenological inspired medical anthro- quiries that include and acknowledge sexed/ pology somewhat peculiar, inasmuch as gendered experience (of illness) as a valuable there exists at least two living bodies in this scientific variable. world. With this article I have therefore tried to utilise insights and thoughts about bodies and Karine Aasgaard Jansen PhD student sexual difference as articulated and dis- Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural cussed by feminist philosophy based in phe- Studies and Religion nomenology (de Beauvoir) and ontology (Iri- University of Bergen garay), and suggest them as methodological Øysteinsgate 3 models for further empirical inquiries with- N- 5007 Bergen in medical anthropology. From a feminist E-mail: [email protected] metaphysical perspective sexual difference has become a theoretical concept that relates Notes to the sexually specific body and its cultural 1 My PhD project ‘Colonised Bodies and Gen- dered Illness: An Ethnographic Study of the identity as an inseparable entity (Irigaray lec- 2005–2007 Chikungunya Epidemic in French ture held in Paris, 19.10.2006). Such a re- Réunion’ (2008–2011) focuses on the recent and figuring of the body thus attends to the only outbreak of chikungunya, a vector spread virus, in the French overseas department and In- body’s corporeality and its social, cultural dian Ocean island Réunion. The disease gives and political situation without essentialising painful rheumatic symptoms and infected almost what being male or female might entail one third of Réunion’s population between 2005 and 2007. There is no known vaccine against the (Grosz 1995). The focus of inquiry is rather disease and over 200 people died. upon how we become sexed beings in various 2 Although it has been common to utilise the term societies (Moore 2007), a necessity within the lived body, I follow Heinämaa (2003:xxi) my empirical field of anthropology and its and discuss the living body throughout this article, as the living body never can be reduced somewhat malicious appreciation of ethno- to mere matter in the same manner as a body that graphic deconstructions of western episte- is potentially “lived by” someone or something. mology. In addition the feminist focus on 3 Moi (1998) has for instance claimed that feminist oriented scholars interested in women’s sexual difference is not fixed in neither time health tend to overemphasize reproductive is- nor space, and is therefore not only open to sues and overlook other local and gendered the possibility of cultural variances of gender medical concerns. constellations, but also changes regarding 4 A methodological problem within phenomenologically inspired research and its focus on expe- what might compose or become male and fe- rience is of course that experience is personal, male in the future (Jegerstedt & Mortensen non-linguistic and therefore not immediately ac- 2008). I therefore believe that a focus on sex- cessible or scientifically measurable. The field of phenomenology therefore continually and ual difference might be able to incorporate thoroughly discusses whether access to informa- and integrate the sexed, biological body tion on people’s experiences is even achievable, within the social and cultural sciences with- e.g., how is it possible to know or verify whether living (in) female or male bodies comprise dif- out necessarily falling prey to the ‘essential- ferent experiences? The typical focus of empiri- ism-trap’. In addition, feminist phenomenol- cal inquiry within phenomenology has therefore Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body 25

been so-called social expressions of experience Foucault, Michel (1977) 2001: Seksualitetens Histo- such as for instance narratives. rie. Oslo: Exil Forlag. 5 The difference between Husserl and Heidegger Foucault, Michel (1973) 2003: The Birth of the is first and foremost based in their various takes Clinic. London & New York: Routledge. on the so called phenomenological reduction or Foucault, Michel (1976) 2004: Society Must Be De- époche. Heidegger refused to accept Husserl’s fended. London: Penguin Books. insistence on the existence of a human con- Good, Byron J. 1994: Medicine, Rationality and Ex- sciousness capable of freeing itself from all so- perience: An Anthropological Perspective. New cial and cultural preconceptions, and perceive a York: Cambridge University Press. world devoid of human interference, as he Grosz, Elizabeth 1994: Volatile Bodies: Toward a claimed that we will always be part of our sur- Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington and Indiana- rounding world. Based on this Heidegger includ- polis: Indiana University Press. ed ontology within phenomenology, and laid the Grosz, Elizabeth 1995: Space, Time and Perversion: foundation for future existentially oriented phe- Essays on the Politics of Bodies. New York: nomenology as articulated by for instance Sar- Routledge. tre, de Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty (Sampson Grosz, Elizabeth 2006: Irigaray and Ontology of 2008). Due to the gender-specific focus of this Sexual Difference, lecture held at the international article only Merleau-Ponty and de Beauvoir will graduate seminar Luce Irigaray and the Future of be presented and discussed. Sexual Difference, Paris 19.10 and 20.10.2006 by 6 As ontology has its origin in Heidegger’s criti- the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research cism of Husserl’s phenomenological époche (SKOK), University of Bergen. (see note 5), Irigaray’s understanding of sexual Heinämaa, Sara 2003: Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, difference is also always both nature and culture. Beauvoir. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Pub- 7 In many non-western societies it is rather com- lishers, Inc. mon to conceive of the self as the sum of the Irigaray, Luce 1985: This Sex Which Is Not One. subject’s social relations. The idea of a ‘pure’ in- New York: Cornell University Press. dividual or identity as represented by western Irigaray, Luce 1991: “Volume Without Contours, epistemology is non-existent. See for instance and Sexual Difference”. In: Margaret Whitford various writings by the anthropologist Marilyn (ed.): The Irigaray Reader. Cambridge: Basil Strathern on Melanesia. It is perhaps also for Blackwell. this very same reason. e.g., Irigaray’s explicit Irigaray, Luce 1996: I Love To You: Sketch of a Poss- criticism of western epistemology, that I find Iri- ible Felicity in History. New York: Routledge. garay to be quite suitable for anthropological Irigaray, Luce 2000: Democracy Begins Between contemplation. Two. New York: Routledge. Irigaray, Luce 2004: Key Writings. London and New References York: Continuum. Irigaray, Luce 2006: The Path Towards the Other, Alaimo, Stacy & Hekman, Susan 2008: “Introduc- lecture held at the international graduate seminar tion: Emerging Models of Materiality in Feminist Luce Irigaray and the Future of Sexual Differ- Theory”. In Stacy Alaimo & Susan Hekman ence, Paris 19.10 and 20.10.2006 by the Centre for (eds.): Material Feminisms. Bloomington and In- Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK), Univer- dianapolis: Indiana University Press. sity of Bergen. Beauvoir, Simone de (1949) 2000: Det Annet Kjønn. Jegerstedt, Kari and Mortensen, Ellen 2008: ”Hva er Oslo: Pax Forlag. Kjønn? Ulike Tilnærmingsmåter”. In: Ellen Mor- Csordas, Thomas J. (ed.) 1994: Bodyment and Expe- tensen, Cathrine Egeland, Randi Gressgård, Cath- rience: The Existential Ground of Nature and Self. rine Holst, Kari Jegerstedt, Sissel Rosland & Kris- New York: Cambridge University Press. tin Sampson (eds.): Kjønnsteori. Oslo: Gyldendal Fermon, Nicole 2006: Sexual Difference and Poli- Akademisk. tics, lecture held at the international graduate Kaufman, Dorothy 1986: “Simone de Beauvoir: Wit- seminar Luce Irigaray and the Future of Sexual ness to a Century”. Yale French Studies (72): Difference, Paris 19.10 and 20.10.2006 by the 121-131. Centre for Women’s and Gender Research Kleinman, Arthur 1988: The Illness Narratives: Suf- (SKOK), University of Bergen. fering, Healing, and the Human Condition. New Foucault, Michel (1971) 1999: Diskursens Orden. York: Basic Books Publishers. Oslo: Spartacus Forlag A/S. Kleinman, Arthur 1995: Writing at the Margin: Dis- 26 Karine Aasgaard Jansen, Defending the Body

course between Anthropology and Medicine. Kari Jegerstedt, Sissel Rosland & Kristin Samp- Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of son (eds.): Kjønnsteori. Oslo: Gyldendal Akade- California Press. misk. Laqueur, Thomas 1992: Destiny is Anatomy, Making Sampson, Kristin 2008 : ”Simone de Beauvoir”. In: Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Ellen Mortensen, Cathrine Egeland Randi Gress- Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: Harvard gård, Cathrine Holst, Kari Jegerstedt, Sissel Ros- University Press. land & Kristin Sampson (eds.): Kjønnsteori . Oslo: Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945) 2002: The Phe- Gyldendal Akademisk. nomenology of Perception. London & New York: Sampson, Kristin 2008: ”Ontologisk Tilnærming”. Routledge Classics. In: Ellen Mortensen, Cathrine Egeland Randi Moi, Toril 1998: Hva er en Kvinne? Kjønn og Kropp Gressgård, Cathrine Holst, Kari Jegerstedt, Sissel i Feministisk Teori. Oslo: Gyldendal. Rosland & Kristin Sampson (eds.): Kjønnsteori . Moore, Henrietta L. 2007: The Subject of Anthropol- Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk. ogy: Gender, Symbolism and Psychoanalysis. Sampson, Kristin 2008: ”Luce Irigaray”. In: Ellen London: Polity Press. Mortensen, Cathrine Egeland Randi Gressgård, Morris, David B. 1991: The Culture of Pain. Berke- Cathrine Holst, Kari Jegerstedt, Sissel Rosland & ley: University of California Press. Kristin Sampson (eds.): Kjønnsteori . Oslo: Gyl- Mortensen, Ellen 2008: ”Psykoanalytisk Tilnær- dendal Akademisk. ming”. In: Ellen Mortensen, Cathrine Egeland Scarry, Elaine 1985: The Body in Pain: The Making Randi Gressgård, Cathrine Holst, Kari Jegerstedt, and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford Sissel Rosland & Kristin Sampson (eds.): Kjønns- University Press. teori. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk. Young, Iris Marion 1980: “Throwing like a Girl: A Sampson, Kristin 2008: ”Eksistensialistisk/Fenome- Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment nologisk Tilnærming”. In: Ellen Mortensen, Cath- Motility and Spatiality”. Human Studies (3) 2: rine Egeland Randi Gressgård, Cathrine Holst, 137–156. Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 27 Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? The Role of the Elderly in the Sami Community By Marianne Liliequist

In my first meeting with Ella, a 30-year- about. “She was so old, maybe it would have oldSami woman, she challenged some of been different if I had met her in her forties thewell-known understandings of elderly or fifties!” people’s position in the Sami society. She This article is about the role of the elderly wouldn’t really agree when, at the end of the Sami in the Swedish Sami community. In interview, I tried to get her into my working what way are the elderly resources for the hypothesis about the high status and central community? What creative strategies of ac- position of the elderly in the Sami family net- tions are possible for the elderly in order to work, the elderly as precursors and ex- achieve quality of life?1 In order to avoid amples, their importance as transmitters of idealistic and excessively harmonious analy- knowledge of the complicated family rela- ses, I have begun this article with Ella questions and as preservers of old traditions. tioning the somewhat stereotypes picture that Kindly but firmly, she pushed me off my is often put forward concerning elderly Sami, hobbyhorse. To my question whether grand- and I also end the article with a discussion of mother Inga told her grandchildren about the these questions. The aim is to make the re- old nomad life and in that way functioned as search process more visible in a reflexive way. a transmitter and preserver of traditions, Ella My questions about elderly Sami were replied that her grandmother wasn’t stuck in aroused by a study of elderly women of ancient times, she usually spoke of the most non-Sami origin in sparsely populated areas topical affairs to her grandchildren. “She was in the countryside (Liliequist 2009). In the in the middle of life!” Even after she retired community of Frostviken, a mountain region she took in new things. Sure, she had her in the north of Sweden, one cannot find the Sami dress, but not to keep everything as it degradation of elderly women which exists was before, just because “it was there”. “Yes on a larger scale elsewhere in society. On the but,” I tried, “she must have had a lot of contrary, they have a high status since they knowledge about the complicated kinship symbolize the values that are highly appreci- connections which are so central in the Sami ated by the people in general in Frostviken. community?” “I don’t know, I think almost The elderly women’s role as managers of the everyone carries on with that, who is related homestead and transmitters of the oral histo- to who, it’s not something specific for the ry of the family and the region means that elderly”, Ella thought. “The Swedes, they they are in the centre of a large social net- only count their first cousins, but we have work which – because of the migration from cousins in all directions, to both the fourth the countryside – reaches far away from the and the fifth degree!” “But your grandmother district. They are co-creators of regional must have been a role model for you, when identity and come across as symbols of “the she was so independent and strong?” I tried spirit of Frostviken”. again. “No, it’s my mother who has been my Does the Sami identity have a similar role role model, she is also a strong woman, I for the elderly Sami’s status and quality of guess she inherited it,” Ella said. The last life as the regional identity has for the question I tried was whether grandmother non-Sami people of Frostviken? Oral narra- Inga had a high status in the family and tive has by tradition been central to the Sami among the relatives. To this Ella replied that community (Cocque 2008), the family net- this wasn’t anything that she had thought work is even more important than among

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 28 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

non-Sami people in sparsely populated areas different perspectives on the role of the eld- (Åhrén 2008) and the traditional knowledge erly I have interviewed persons of different is more appreciated than ever owing to the ages. In the interview group there are people strong political identity movement (Balto representing mountain Sami, forest Sami and 1997). The elderly people of Frostviken are Sami with “regular” jobs living both in important connections for those who have sparsely populated areas and in the cities. In moved to other parts of the country. Are the order to limit the study, I have not included elderly Sami a similar connection to the tra- those who live entirely outside Sami connec- ditional Sami way of life for the Sami who tions. The informants primarily talk about have moved to the cities and are living “like present-day conditions, but also about how Swedes”? Are the elderly important co-crea- things used to be. The interviews took place tors of ethnic identity? in 2008 in the homes of the informants, ex- This study follows a constructivistic re- cept for one person, who were interviewed at search perspective, where instead of describ- the workplace. ing cultures as organic wholes, the aim is to The personal portraits consist of a young observe the changing and sometimes contra- woman, Ella, who describes the everyday life dictory things in culture. I am inspired by the of her elderly mountain Sami relatives, and “new” ethnography and the reflexive way of an elderly woman, Edit, who grew up in a writing ethnography (McGrath 2005:57). I reindeer-herding forest Sami family, but who have performed eight in-depth interviews, has lived the major part of her adult life “like but I have chosen to focus on two persons’ a Swede” and Edit describes her old age and cohesive stories and used the rest of the inter- compares it to that of her parents and grand- views as background material. There are cer- parents. tain negative consequences which arise from These women have been chosen because taking themes from the interview narratives they very clearly describe two separate cre- and life stories out of their context. The pro- ative strategies which are available for elder- cessual and contextual in each individual’s ly Sami in achieving quality of life. One story or narrative can to a certain extent be strategy is practised by many of the elderly lost (Liliequist 1996). Through the personal who still live among their relatives who are portraits you get a picture of the complex and reindeer herders, and another strategy avail- individual nature of the subject. Another risk able to the elderly living in a larger village or which comes with making themes out of nar- in the city. ratives is that you clear out the overgrowth, those things that stand out in different direc- Changing Conditions in Sápmi tions and don’t make a nice and orderly pat- The indigenous Sami people are today a mi- tern (Clifford 1988:146f.). The trick is to de- nority people mainly living in the circumpo- scribe the dominant themes, but at the same lar region of Sweden, Norway, Finland and time let things stand out and give room for Russia. The transformation of the twentieth the individual factors. century meant changed conditions for the I have interviewed Sami of South Sami Swedish Sami and thereby changed living origin, most of them connected to reindeer- conditions for the elderly. At the beginning herding families, but also Sami who are out- of the twentieth century many Sami made a side the reindeer-herding activity. To obtain living out of reindeer herding, they were no- Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 29

mads and lived in a self-subsistent house- ing community, many Sami who in the 1950s hold. The mountain Sami have kept a larger were excluded from the Sami villages chose number of reindeer than the forest Sami and to play down or even hide their Sami origin. their movements have covered a larger area. The 1970s meant an upswing for a political The Sami who did not own reindeer made movement for Sami identity, with the young their living from fishing and hunting, and Sami in the forefront. The issue of who has some of them became settlers. Through time the right to call themselves Sami and have the reindeer herding has been pushed back – the rights of the members of the Sami vil- the herding grounds have been limited by lages has been of growing interest in the dis- wood cutting, water regulations, ore mining, cussions of the Sami Parliament (Åhrén national parks, tourism and so on – and the 2008). Sami have become dependent on the greater Swedish community. The law of reindeer Contextual Ageing grazing regulates the Sami people’s rights The view of ageing and the role of the elderly and decides who is allowed to belong to the in society must be understood in its context. herding district (Sameby). A herding district Elderly Sami’s role as transmitters of tradi- can be described as an economic collective tions and co-creators of ethnic identity varies where the members have the right to reindeer depending on social context and time period. herding, fishing and hunting. During the lat- Christina Åhrén (2008), in her dissertation ter half of the twentieth century the reindeer about Sami working on their identity, has husbandry developed into a mechanized written about a young woman who found out small-scale industry with room for only a by chance that her grandmother was of Sami small part of the Sami population (Nordin origin. The grandmother and the rest of the 2007; Olofsson 2004; Åhrén 2008). Accord- family had always tried to tone down or con- ing to official statistics there are 20,000 Sami ceal their Sami heritage, in an effort to escape in Sweden today, but only 2,000 of them are the racism of the surrounding community. connected to reindeer husbandry. According Another example is a grandmother in a tight- to calculations from the Sami Parliament ly knit reindeer herding family, who rules out there are 60,000 who consider themselves her granddaughter’s spouse-to-be with the Sami and the largest group is in Stockholm, argument that “we have to keep the blood where 1,200 Sami live. This means that the pure!” The conditions are different depend- great majority of Sami in Sweden are not ing on whether you belong to a well-to-do members of any herding district. and influential reindeer-owning family or if The Sami have suffered discrimination by you have a “regular” job, whether you live in the majority community in many different the countryside close to your relatives or in ways through history and they have been Stockholm without the company of other Sa- looked upon as a lower race. At the begin- mi. Reindeer herders in South Sami territory ning of the century the Sami children were feel a greater impact from their non-Sami not allowed to speak their own language in neighbours than the Sami in the northern ter- school, and a long period of forced assimila- ritories, and this can also affect their living tion has for many Sami meant that their lan- conditions. Forest Sami have lived closer to guage and identity have been lost (Olofsson their non-Sami neighbours than the Sami in 2004). Because of the racism in the surround- the mountains, which has resulted in racism 30 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

and demands of assimilation, but also co- mad culture and in the modern Swedish so- operation and a sense of fellowship. ciety (Olofsson 2004). You can find occa- I have used an intersectional research per- sional fragments of knowledge about elderly spective where the emphasis is on the inter- Sami in the academic literature (e.g. Amft action of different power conditions (Kreku- 2000; Balto 1997; Campbell 1982:225–240; la, Närvänen & Näsman 2005). Time, place, Cocq 2008; Beach 1988; Kjellström 2003: social belonging, ethnicity, gender – all of 270; Åhrén 2008:116ff.), but the only aca- these factors combined give a picture of com- demic study that specifically deals with the plicated connections, which creates a space elderly Sami in Sweden is Lena Aléx’s for individual variations within the group. (2007, 2008) research on current elderly Ethnicity implies the social fellowship that is Sami women. Her study has an ethnic and distinguished by an imagined kinship. Eth- gender perspective and is based on qualita- nicity is created through contact between tive in-depth interviews. In folklife literature people who see themselves as a special group (e.g. Johansson 1968:126–133; Sameland i (Eriksen 1993). Ethnicity, age and social be- förändring 1986) and in autobiographies longing are the most prominent factors in my (Thomasson 1994) you can also get insight study, but gender is also important. I assume into the living conditions of elderly Sami a gender perspective which implies that there during the nomad period. is a gender order in society with a male dom- My study applies the “resource perspec- inance, but gender is at the same time tive” within the ageing research, which con- changeable and varied depending on social, siders the elders as active subjects and a re- political and cultural circumstances. There source for the community (Tornstam 1982; are two opposing standpoints in research on Torres & Hammarström 2007). In ageing re- Sami woman; one claims that the Sami search there is often talk about “successful woman – especially the older woman – has ageing”, a term that has been criticized be- had a stronger position in society than in cause the researchers’ definition of quality of other cultures (Haetta 1996; Kvenangen life in old age doesn’t necessarily correspond 1996), while other researchers have de- to what the elderly themselves think. I have scribed the Sami woman as subordinate and used a definition of “successful ageing” dually oppressed through her sex and her eth- taken from “Umeå 85+studien”, a project nicity (Amft 2000; Beach 1993; Olofsson where elderly people from Västerbotten are 2004). Lena Aléx (2007, 2008b) with her in- interviewed about their view of ageing, and tersectional front, assumes a position in the where elderly Sami also are included (von middle in the academic discussion about the Heideken Wågert et al. 2005). This project status of the Sami woman. Aléx claims that approaches a number of criteria for the mean- the older Sami women balance between dif- ing of successful ageing formulated by the ferent discourses. They see themselves as elderly themselves. Above all, there are three equal to the men and as living in the shadow factors which are of major importance: feel- of the male reindeer herders. ing that you are involved in a social network, Research about elderly Sami is a neglect- experiencing connection and meaning (Aléx ed field. There is a lack of knowledge about 2008; von Heideken Wågert 2006); being elderly Sami’s living conditions and their ex- substantiated, feeling valuable (Santamäki perience of ageing, both in the traditional no- Fischer 2007); and being able to be as inde- Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 31

pendent as possible within one’s bounds and participation, community and meaning. The limitations (Nilsson 2006). I have also used elderly don’t have as large herds and they get the term “creative strategy of action” (Hägg- a little help from younger people. It seems as blom Kronlöf 2007) to focus on the power of if the elderly don’t need as many technical invention that the elderly develop to achieve gadgets in the herding, and this means that quality of life. What strategies are used to they don’t have to invest any money, says achieve independence, be substantiated and Ella. They take pride in managing as much as to feel included? possible “in the old way”. The men talk proudly about the time when they used to ski “If They Couldn’t Keep on Herding all night to guard the reindeer herd, and the the Reindeer They Would Probably women talk about how in the winter they Drop Dead!” took lodgings in the farmer’s draughty bak- Ella, whom I mentioned at the beginning of ing cottages – in those days people weren’t the article, grew up in a reindeer-herding so demanding. For Ella’s parents and other family in a southern mountain Sami area. elderly relatives, participating in the reindeer Ella has moved to and from her home and her herding means quality of life. The reindeer place of study for a few years. “I can’t really herding is a way of life and through it the eld- tell when I moved away from home!” she erly feel like a part of the community. says with a laugh. She is now employed in a Both her grandfathers died before Ella cultural project in a town in the north of Swe- was born, so it is her grandmothers who have den. Ella still has close connections with her been present during her childhood. Ella talks family and relatives but at the same time she most about her maternal grandmother Inga, feels at home in the “Swedish” city environ- who died five years ago. “She has been there ment. all along. I have a lot of memories of her.” In the heading above I have quoted Ella, Inga was a strong and temperamental woman when she comments, with some humour, on who wasn’t afraid to assert her will or her how the elderly Sami stubbornly hold on to opinions: “She was on fire,” says Ella. the work of herding the reindeer. She tells me “Grandma was a pretty tough person; she about her parents and relatives who are still could get so angry and tell people off and tending the reindeer in their seventies and things like that.” Ella thinks that her grand- eighties, even though they have cut down a mother’s independence came from the fact bit. Ella says that many of the elderly never that her father died early, and thus she had to retire. Instead they keep on “as long as their learn to manage on her own from an early legs are working… They don’t exactly go on age. Her first husband also died early and left golf trips, at 65!” Some of the younger rein- the reindeer herd to Inga. She remarried a deer herders may think that it is unnecessary man who didn’t have any reindeer of his that the old people insist on participating in own, a man “of simpler origin” who married the hardest work, but Ella thinks that it is bet- up: “Like all men, he must have thought that ter to let them carry on. If they had to stop she he would be in charge, but he was the one is afraid that they would give up totally. who came into her life, so he was almost like Herding the reindeer is their life, not just an a farmhand, you could say,” according to Ella. occupation but a way of life. Working in the Ella’s parents and grandmother were in reindeer forest gives quality of life, a sense of separate places with their reindeer in the 32 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

summer, so it was mostly in the winter time about the situation of the elderly in the Sami that her grandmother came to visit and to community, she said that it was all right, help her mother in the household, baking but: “I am just afraid that I will disappoint bread and watching the children. “She was an you. I have lived in the city and been a active person,” she fished and helped out teacher my whole life.” She thought that it with the summer moves until her knees no was only the situation of the elderly among longer worked and her eyesight got weak. reindeer herders that I was interested in, so When Inga could no longer manage the rein- I explained that I wanted to interview Sami deer herding, she moved to a retirement flat people with different backgrounds. She then in the central village. The youngest son lived told me that she had grown up in a multi- there – “he was her baby, she used to favour generation home with her parents, two her sons!” says Ella. Her family often visited uncles with their families and a grandfather, her, so she didn’t have to feel lonely. But in all of them reindeer- herding forest Sami. the summer she longed for the mountains. Her husband Ingvar had furthermore been a “She longed for it, of course, because it was reindeer herder before they moved to Skel- her life – to live in a cot and to bake bread and lefteå. The family still owns reindeer that go fishing.” She was alert until her last day are herded by herders in the Sami village and she was deeply committed to Sami is- and they have a holiday home in the region, sues. Ella visited her grandmother often: where they spend as much time as possible. “Just because she talked and discussed a lot, Edit has a double cultural view; she can that made it fun to visit her. She was always look at society with both “Swedish” and heated, her heart was in issues of reindeer Sami eyes, but it is the Sami identity that herding and the political issues involved.” she is passionate about. She lives and works ”Even though she had problems she still had for a restoration of the Sami self-esteem and strong opinions on everything. The last time a transmission of the Sami culture to the I and my sister visited her she was discussing younger generation. something and got all het up and didn’t relent until the staff came and tried to calm her Urbanization as an Explanation for down!” the Isolation of the Elderly Ella doesn’t tell me so much about her Edit and Ingvar receive me in their bright and father’s mother Kajsa. She died when Ella homey flat in a block of high-rise buildings. was eleven years old and she was a modest Ingvar, who used to be involved in reindeer woman. “I don’t think she was ever angry, herding – both practically and administra- she was like my father, a very easy-going tively – and in Sami political issues, is nowa- person!” Just like Ella’s other grandmother, days rather sickly and Edit cares for him in she had bad eyes and knees and lived in a their home. Edit turns out to be a very com- house in the central village together with her mitted, well-informed and witty person with daughter and her granddaughter. a lot of things going on. I started the interview by trying to find out Edit – Transmitter of Sami Traditions if she, like Ella, experienced that there is a in the City difference between “the Swedish” and the When I called Edit, 78 years of age, on the Sami way of socializing, a difference which phone to ask her if I could interview her affects the elderly’s sense of community and Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 33

belonging. Ella thought that there is a very herding was to tell grandpa how the day had strong Sami family unit with a lot of socializ- been. “He was included,” Edit says. ing between the different generations, and When Edit’s parents quit the reindeer because of that the elderly were not left out as herding and retired, they moved to a retire- they often are in the city or among non-Sami ment flat in the nearest village. Edit and Ing- people. But Edith said that this is more a dif- var also lived there in those days and they ference between life in sparsely populated used to spend a lot of time with Edit’s par- areas and life in the city; it is urbanization ents. Her parents were always included when that has isolated the elderly from socializing they went to see their friends, regardless of with children and grandchildren and has sep- whether the friends were Sami or not. When arated the generations from each other. The Edit and Ingvar had moved into the city and elderly – both Sami and non-Sami – inhabit- the parents came to visit, they were invited to ants in sparsely populated areas live close to see the Sami friends they had in town, but not their children and grandchildren and partici- the “Swedish” friends. Edit and Ingvar are in pate in social life. But when the children their turn never invited to either their daugh- move to the city, the elderly have to choose ter’s Sami or her “Swedish” friends. So in whether to stay and lose the daily contact Edit’s opinion there is no difference between with their family or to follow their children to Sami and non-Sami in that case. In both cases the city. This also goes for the reindeer herd- the socialization across generation bounda- ers who marry someone with a different oc- ries and the natural inclusion of the elderly cupation; they have to move to where the has been somewhat dissolved with urbaniza- jobs are. The elderly who relocate often be- tion. come isolated, Edit said, because in this modern society their children are busy with work, Stigmatizing of the Sami housework and the children’s leisure activi- To understand the importance of the Sami ties. struggle for identity for Edit in old age, you To give an example of the increasing divi- have to know about her experiences growing sion of the generations, she tells the story of up. Her involvement comes from the stigma her own family. Edit’s grandfather, who was that was attached to everything connected to a forest Sami and had a settlement by a lake Sami culture when she was growing up. The at the beginning of the twentieth century, term stigmatization is taken from Erving lived on the same farm as his three sons and Goffman (1972) and describes the branding their families until his death. When he got that Sami experience. The degrading atti- older he contributed to the management of tudes of “the real Swedes” shape their whole the farm as much as he could, made sure that lives and threaten their self-esteem. That the all the households had wood for the fire, sense of exclusion in society has strength- swept the snow from the front porches and ened the need for ethnic belonging among the attended to all the little things that needed to Sami is clearly visible in life stories of the be done. In the summer he went fishing with elderly Sami. nets and took the children along with him. He Throughout their lives Edit and Ingvar was always there and had close contact with have expended a lot of energy trying to abol- the children. The first thing the men used to ish this stigmatization. The political and cul- do when they came home from the reindeer tural struggle has aimed to get rid of the 34 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

branding, which for Sami children began him a ride or even to ask where he was going. when they started school, and to re-establish “Nobody cared about where the little Lapp the Sami identity. Edit’s parents never spoke kid was going. Can you believe that grown Sami to their children. Sami was for the chil- men… and he was on his way to his mother’s dren “the secret language”, which the adults funeral and that was what he thought was the used when speaking of matters that the chil- worst, that nobody cared. Yes, it was a long dren were not supposed to hear. Through time before he wore Lapp clothes, even school and through the attitudes of the sur- though he was a reindeer herder all his life.” rounding “Swedish” society, Edit’s parents Accordingly this event had far-reaching con- had learnt that the best thing was to be as sequences; he rejected the Sami dress and Swedish as possible, and they wanted to give language, and it wasn’t until he retired that he the children a good start in life. Edit’s mother had an opportunity to be proud of his culture. went to a municipal school and lived in a The only Sami words that were used in so-called working cottage (a boarding home the family were akka, which means grand- where the children were taught to work). mother, and ajja, which means grandfather Edit’s father went to missionary school to- (in both cases paternal or maternal), and the gether with non-Sami children and he board- only one who spoke the Sami language to the ed on a farm in the village where the school children was the paternal grandfather. He was. Speaking the Sami language was not al- never translated the words; instead he insist- lowed in school and the Sami children were ed that they should understand what he said. often teased by the non-Sami children. Both “It was too bad that he didn’t make the chil- her mother and her father had been teased dren speak themselves too!” Edit exclaims. during their school years and in every way The grandfather tried to pass on the Sami lan- experienced that the Sami were considered to guage at a time when the Sami culture was be of less value. Even when Edit went to not highly valued by the surrounding society. school, speaking Sami was not allowed. Edit “Oh, I have thought a lot about how he would was not teased herself in school, but her have felt! We never talked about it, but how brother was: “Oh, how he fought at school!” would he feel about the fact that everything Certain events where the stigmatization he thought was good was bad? What he of the Sami was especially apparent have thought was important we then thought was stayed in the mind forever. These episodes meaningless. I have thought so much about turn into stories which are passed on to the it… I will be faced with that on judgement next generation. Edit’s father described what day!” she says half joking but still upset. In it was like when he was about twelve years later years Edit has experienced a old and his mother had died. The funeral was turn-around in the way that the Sami lan- to take place during the Mikaeli holiday. guage is now highly valued. “Now all the There was no other means of transportation children want to know Sami. Young families than to walk the forty to fifty kilometres to say ‘dinner is ready’ and other everyday the church village, and because of the special phrases in Sami.” occasion he was dressed in the Sami dress. A Edit’s paternal grandparents spoke only lot of horse carriages went by since it was a Sami to each other. The grandmother suf- big holiday and everyone was going to fered from the complications of a stroke. “I church, but not a single one stopped to offer remember her as old even from the begin- Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 35

ning, but she was actually only 67 when she dinary” people. There was a cultural clash in- died. I only remember how she was sitting or side Edit between the “Swedish” perception lying in her bed. Oh, you can imagine – the of normality in school and her Sami home medical care of that time!” That means that environment. In school she had been taught she didn’t receive much care. In the end she that at Christmas the house should be proper- was so sick that she had to be moved to the ly cleaned and decorated. But in her home old people’s home in the central village. The this was not so easy. Christmas was the time grandfather took the bus regularly to visit her when the reindeer herd passed by and her fa- and the children always came along. “He ther together with all the herders had to take wasn’t good at being on time; I remember lodging in the three houses of the farm. This that we always had to go very early when we made it very crowded “with men and dogs had to catch the bus!” Edit tells me that later and kids” in the little cabin, which only con- in life when she went to a school in the cen- sisted of one room and a kitchen. “There tral village and was seeing an old Sami man were rucksacks with food to be cooked on the wearing a Sami dress and a leather rucksack wooden stove and there were dogs to be fed walking in the street, she thought: “that is and there was hay to be dried and we only how it must have looked when we were in the had one room and a kitchen and we children village with grandpa.” The grandfather was had to sleep on the floor, we enjoyed that a always dressed in an everyday frock made of lot!” One Christmas, however, Edit hap- homespun (vadmal), he had a rucksack full pened to say to her mother: “‘I hope the rein- of food for grandma and he had one child in deer herders don’t come this Christmas!’ But each hand. There is a reflection built into this then I was told: ‘They are welcome whenever clear memory, which shows Edit’s position they come!’… When I got older I almost had in between the two cultures. Through her a bad conscience for thinking like that!” higher education she really belongs to a different time and culture; she has in part been Rehabilitating the Sami transformed into a “Swede”. But at the same The political movement for identity in the time as she regards the old Sami at a bit of a 1970s opened up for a process of rehabilitat- distance and from the outside – with a mod- ing Sami identity and culture. Edit’s parents ern “Swedish” urban point of view – she also got to be a part of this. When retired they evokes an intense memory of her childhood worked as guides at the church Lapp cot in inside of her, which brings feelings of identi- the central village during the summers. It was fication and closeness. This split in the out- Ingvar who initiated this activity through the look on the Sami, which she has obtained Tourist Association. Edit’s father told stories through education, is something that she has to the visitors about the life of the forest Sa- processed as an adult through the struggle to mi, and her mother served food in the cot. re-establish the Sami identity. They liked it so much that they kept on until Feeling guilty about denying the Sami her father’s death. “They didn’t want to stop, identity in her youth – even if it was only it was their life!” mentally – is a theme that Edit returns to. Ingvar quit reindeer herding when he was Edit was a good student and her parents paid given a position in the regional administra- so that she could have a higher education, tion, where he was able to work with issues which was uncommon in those days for “or- of reindeer herding in a more general way. 36 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

Edit did not really want to move to the city, with my father, nobody cares!” Edit ex- but “when I had to I thought that I could claims. Edit connects the silence of the make something out of it,” so she started to school with the indifference that her father take classes at the university alongside her encountered as a twelve-year-old Lap child, job as a teacher. Edit and Ingvar were very when he had to walk forty kilometres to his active in a party within the Sami Parliament. mother’s funeral, without being asked where Nowadays Edit is much sought-after as a lec- he was headed by any grown-up person. Still turer and storyteller about forest Sami culture today, Edit claims, society is permeated with in museums, at district celebrations and other an indifferent silence when it comes to Sami similar occasions. history. But the most important task that Edit has taken on in old age is to teach children and The Elderly Reindeer Herder – Central grandchildren not to forget their Sami herit- Figure or One amongst the Others? age, even if they live in the city. Edit often I was a little confused after the first interview helps her grandchildren with their home- with Ella. Would I have to reconsider my work. One of her grandchildren, Maja, was working hypothesis concerning the elderly as very upset that children could not read any- central figures in the Sami community? I had thing in the school books about Sami until an idea of the elderly as symbols in the Sami the eighth grade, and then there was only a community because of their accumulated short statement about the existence of a Sami knowledge with memories of the traditional language. Edit says that it is a shame that, de- Sami life, especially important for the Sami spite many years of demands from the Sami youth connected to the reindeer-herding life. Parliament that education about Sami culture Or was it that Ella was in a particular situa- and history should be mandatory in teacher tion since her parents were in their forties training: “We have only come this far!” when she was born and none of the elderly Edit has compiled a paper where she has participated in the reindeer herding when she gathered information about their family was growing up? background and some more general informa- Next time I saw Ella I tried to get some tion about the forest Sami. She wants her answers to my questions. She told me that grandchildren to have the feeling of a Sami when it came to the oral transmission of the identity: “Oh, and I must say that I have suc- old nomad life, it was her mother who told ceeded!” she says proudly smiling. As an ex- the children, but she didn’t tell the stories on ample she mentions Maja’s attempt at dis- special occasions; saying that they were cussing the Sami history in school. In a re- about to hear about the old times. Instead the view of “The Little House on the Prairie”, stories came spontaneously now and then, in which Maja had as a home assignment in the the middle of ordinary household duties. subject of Swedish, she compared the North When Ella’s father was in his forties he American Indians with the Swedish Sami. taught a 20-year-old male relative all he ”The Sami have also had their land taken!” knew of reindeer herding, at full pace. It is in Edit was somewhat hesitant: “But should you middle age, when the men are active and in really write like that?” She wanted to hear full force, that they teach the young people how the teacher had reacted to it. “‘Well, who will take over, Ella claims. The elderly what did she say?’ ‘Nothing!’ It was like are too old, they can’t manage. Even if they Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 37

participate to some extent in the reindeer ferred with her grandfather on issues of rein- herding, though with smaller herds, they deer herding. Ella’s grandmother was deeply don’t participate, for example, in the long involved and had a lot of inside knowledge of summer move up into the mountains. these issues even when she was disabled, So, in Ella’s opinion, the elderly are not half-blind and living in an old people’s the most important transmitters of knowl- home. The elderly are still asked for advice in edge for the younger generation of reindeer critical situations, since they have knowledge herders. On the other hand, they can be of that goes way back (see also Beach 1988:103). great use if there are problems with the rein- To my repeated question whether the eld- deer herding where one can learn from what erly stood out as symbols for the traditional has happened earlier on and get a broader Sami way, Ella replied that she would never perspective on life. For example, Ella men- call them symbols. “Yes, but maybe central tions that when the reindeer pasture went figures?” I persisted. “No,” Ella objected pa- bad for a while, the younger herders went to tiently but stubbornly. “They are not central the eldest and asked if they had experienced figures; they are just like other people.” They this before. The eldest were then able to participate on equal terms in everyday work calm them down and tell them that the same and socializing. In Sami contexts, Ella told thing had happened earlier, for example in me, there is not the same division between the 1960s: “It can be like that some winters.” generations as among “the Swedes”. “A The motorization of reindeer herding – 15-year-old can spend time with a fifty-plus, the use of trucks, cross-country vehicles, it’s not uncommon”. Since family is so im- snowmobiles and helicopters – means that portant and you also count distant relatives, the knowledge of the elderly is not as rele- the elderly are not forgotten even if they are vant anymore and the younger generations unmarried and have no children of their own. take the lead. In the nomad society knowl- They belong to the family and you look after edge about reindeer herding, hunting, fish- each other. Even if you don’t like everyone, ing, preparation of food, handicraft, child you are still expected to socialize with them care and everything that was needed to sur- because they are related to you. The elderly vive in the age of self-subsistence was trans- belong to the community through the mitted through the generations. The older close-knit family bonds. people’s experience-based knowledge was For Ella, her parents together with her valuable for the survival of the Sami village. aunts and uncles are and will always be her In the area of reindeer herding this knowl- milieu, where she is firmly rooted and to edge consisted, for example, of reindeer pas- which she always returns. They are the trans- ture, moving the reindeer, weather impact mitters of tradition, the central figures and and the occurrence of predatory animals the role models, while at the same time she (Balto 1997; Haetta 1996; Hoem 1987). The has her academic training, works in a typical purely practical education of the younger middle-class profession and lives a modern, Sami as herders was often supplied by their “Swedish”, city life. She feels secure in the parents, but the elderly brought the knowl- large family network: “You never have to be edge accumulated by centuries of experi- alone; you’re always related to someone!” ences of managing the land. Edit describes Her grandmother has made a strong impres- how the reindeer herders continually con- sion, but not because she was the eldest and 38 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

preserved the traditions, but because of her Besides, the elderly stand for a narrative fiery temper and strong personality and her which transmits the unwritten oral history never-ending commitment and insight into about events and places, a person-centred issues of reindeer herding. Ella, who is active geographically based narrative which passes in a feminist association, thinks that she has on the Sami identity. Kajsa grew up with the inherited her grandmother’s, but also her storytelling of the elderly, stories that above mother’s, strong will and independence. Her all are about persons and often about events father and his mother are described as soft at special places; an oral tradition which fills and calm personalities. the geographical places with substance and The young person’s view of the elderly, meaning. Nevertheless, she fears that the however, are dependent on their own life younger generation of Sami, and especially context. Kajsa, a Sami woman of the same those who have moved to the city, will not age as Ella and also living in the city and pass on this oral narrative tradition. It will working in a middle-class profession, has a pass away with the elderly. somewhat different opinion on the elderly’s While the inhabitants of Frostviken con- role. Her parents are no longer alive but in- sider the family farm as the most important stead she has intensive contact with her eld- place for regional identity, it is the land itself, erly reindeer-herding relatives in the moun- the places where reindeer herding is done, tain village where she was brought up. To her that are associated with the history and iden- the elderly are in the centre as transmitters of tity of the Sami. Especially the summer traditions and as role models. In Kajsa’s dwelling is connected with strong emotions opinion the elderly are not afraid to tell the (Åhrén 2008). The summer dwelling of the young what is suitable – they are not afraid to mountain Sami is situated up in the moun- come across as authorities – and this also ap- tains, and for the forest Sami the cots of the plies to the parental generation. The young Sami village are often placed beside a lake. respect the elderly and try to follow their di- The elderly are constantly longing for these rections: places, and they like to tell stories about the life they used to lead there when they were Because I’m used to those small remarks: “You younger. shouldn’t speak like that because you’re younger than me” or “You should wear your shoes over your All the persons I have interviewed talk trousers, otherwise you’ll end up like that.” “ In the about the elderly’s natural presence in the cot you should sit on the right side otherwise skrömta reindeer herding. The wish to remain active [supernatural creatures] will come along. And then in the reindeer herding for as long as poss- you could get a little nervous about that … but that ible is a strong imperative for elderly Sami. also goes for the parental generation. They are quick Either they have a small herd of their own or to give advice. they own a few reindeer that are cared for by The anecdotes and the storytelling of the eld- others and they participate – or are at least erly are intended mainly for entertainment, present – at the work with the reindeer. but often there is a built-in message about Kajsa says that in her mountain Sami home central cultural values. The storytelling has village the elderly are included in a natural traditionally been the main means for passing way: on moral conduct to the younger generation The elderly are such a natural part of the society, they (Balto 1996). are there. They don’t disappear in isolation. They go Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 39

along on trips to the mountains. It’s not an issue that work, he or she can pay a younger herder to you discus, it’s a matter of course. stay in the business (see also Beach 1988: You always meet the elderly in the reindeer 74). The reindeer herding is a strong unifying fields, even the “really old ones”, says Kajsa. symbol for Sami identity and in that way it corresponds to the significance of the family They are always there. Even if they can hardly walk, farm for the settler identity. The farm with its they will be there. There’s never a problem. If somebody says that they want to go to the branding of the assets – for example holiday homes, rights to calves – then you take care of it. It doesn’t feel like a fish and hunt and the symbolic importance big, complicated business. for continuity back in history to the settler culture and for the feeling of roots and be- There is a general understanding that the eld- longing – is central to the ideal of a good life erly want to take part, she says. They always in Frostviken. The elderly inhabitants of participate in butchering since there is a pass- Frostviken stick to the home farm as long as able road to the place of butchering and they possible and the elderly Sami participate in also participate a little in the branding of the reindeer herding as long as they can man- calves. In everyday life, too, it is natural to age. stop by with the elders of the village for a cup The natural participation of the elderly in of coffee and a talk, says Kajsa. Motorization the life of Samebyn, the Sami village, does has meant greater possibilities for the elderly not necessarily mean high status, however. to get to different places. Both men and They are a natural part of everyday life and women participate in the reindeer herding. people scarcely reflect on them. They are The elderly try to manage the reindeer herd- certainly respected, but they are viewed as ing in the “old” way as much as possible and equals rather than central figures. Some of to do without modern equipment. The elderly the younger herders, according to Ella, can women are very familiar with the traditional even let themselves become a little irritated herding of the reindeer, seeing that before with their presence in the most intensive motorization they participated a lot more in spells of the work. As Ella says: “But they the herding than today (Amft 2000; Nordin [the elderly reindeer herders] are actually an 2007). Reindeer herding is more than a pro- important team which is needed – people fession, it is a way of life where the financial sometimes forget that!” enterprise has an indissoluble bond to the family community. This strengthens the soli- Elderly Sami in the City – Creators of darity between the generations and the elder- Sami Identity ly are a natural part of the community. Co- Common to all elderly Sami is that family workers are often either relatives or friends, belonging means that you are always includ- working life blends with family life, leisure ed: you are always somebody – you have a time and social life. Your life is reindeer firm identity and you are always welcome at herding (Nordin 2007; Åhrén 2008). The family events and in different Sami settings. younger often help the elderly with the heav- Even distant relatives are included in the ier work. If an old person can’t manage community; for example, cousins to the third working with the reindeer at all but still and fourth degree: “The Swedes are sur- wants to keep a few animals and thereby prised when they find out how many cousins have a sense of still being included in the you have!” says Ella. “No matter how bad 40 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

you think a person is, you always stand up for school and leisure activates. In the city it is him, because you’re family!” The family be- mostly at different Sami events – for example longing is unconditional and no one can be concerts, during Sami week and in the Sami left out, unless the person has resigned their association – that people socialize over the Sami identity. Åhrén (2008) writes that the generation barrier. first question you ask an unfamiliar Sami is However, there are ways out of the isola- what family he or she comes from and how tion. For the elderly Sami who have children that family is related to your own. “Everyone who are not reindeer herders, the wish to be talks about who’s related to whom – all the a transmitter of tradition is a possible creative time!” Ella says. But it is the elderly who can strategy of action. They struggle to preserve bring order to the very complicated family the Sami identity and to make it survive even relations that go back in time. The family when they are gone. There is a strong need narratives along with the person-centred and among the younger generation to receive geographically based narratives form an oral knowledge from the elderly, since they are history, and the elderly are the experts. In the last link to the old Sami way of life. Like Frostviken the farm or the village is often older non-Sami inhabitants in sparsely popu- used to assign an identity to an older person; lated areas, the elderly are often points of for the Sami it is the kinship relations. The connection for the younger who are outside system of family belonging puts every age the reindeer-herding life. This is especially group into a given pattern, and you are al- important for younger people who do not ways someone who belongs to other people. have any older relatives who can pass on the However, as Edit points out, urbanization traditional knowledge. Kajsa thinks that the has meant a split between the generations elderly should take more responsibility for both inside and outside the Sami community. teaching traditional knowledge to younger In former days the older generation lived people who have no older relative or parent close to the younger generation and the eld- to learn from. She is very upset about the fact erly were important in bringing up their that the Sami handicraft may vanish with the grandchildren. Edit’s grandfather stayed on older generation. But she has noticed that it is the homestead together with his children and sometimes difficult to get the elderly to teach grandchildren until his death, and the grand- the courses. “‘No, I can’t’, they say, but if children had their Sami up-bringing through you talk to them in private they surely can do him. Today, when the reindeer-herding pro- it, they know everything!” fession is mostly a male duty and the women Åhrén (2008) has described how impor- are learning other professions, the rein- tant working with the identity is for Sami deer-herding families often settle where the youth in the post-modern society. A part of women can get work. If the women find work working with one’s identity is to learn Sami in a larger village or in a city, the elderly can cooking and Sami handicraft, for example choose whether to stay in the countryside or preparing reindeer skin and sewing a Sami move with them. If they also move they dress. For the Sami who have relocated, the sometimes discover that they become rather transmission of traditions is especially im- isolated. Perhaps they don’t know anybody portant since they don’t live the everyday in the new place and their children and Sami life; the Sami identity has to be actively grandchildren are occupied with work, and constantly re-established. The elderly Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity? 41

who, like Edit, take on this challenge, feel and the right to take part in resolutions are that they are valuable for the younger gener- not as much in focus when people get old, ation’s Sami identity building. In this way which means that the woman comes on a the elderly in this group are in a more con- more equal footing with the man through her scious way role models and co-creators of a role as creator of identity. For the elderly liv- Sami identity than those who live in the Sami ing in the city, the women have an important village and have their hands full with living role as creators of Sami identity. Today the as a Sami in their everyday work. knowledge passed on by the elderly is no longer important for physical survival, but it Creative Strategies for Successful is still crucial. The elderly as transmitters of Ageing tradition now have a more ideological mean- To sum up, one can find two dominant cre- ing for keeping the Sami group together as a ative strategies among the elderly Sami of to- culturally specific entity. day in my material, strategies which intended to achieve feelings of inclusion and coher- Marianne Liliequist ence in life, to feel substantiated and valuable Professor and to be as independent as possible. One Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper strategy, which is practised by the elderly Avd. Etnologi who still live among their relatives in the Umeå universitet Sami village, is to be as active as possible SE-901 87 Umeå and as long as possible in the reindeer herd- e-mail: [email protected] ing. The reindeer herding is a way of life which symbolizes the good life. Another Note strategy, which is available to the elderly liv- 1 This study is a part of the cross-disciplinary project “Ageing and Living Conditions” at ing in a larger village or in the city, is to take Umeå University. on the role as creator of Sami identity for the younger generation. The re-establishment of References the Sami gives a sense of meaning and con- Åhrén, Christina 2008: Är jag en riktig same? En et- tinuity and creates a common bond to the nologisk studie av unga samers identitetsarbete. younger Sami who are searching for their Umeå: Umeå universitet, Etnologiska skrifter 47. roots. Aléx, Lena 2007: Äldre människors berättelser om att bli och vara gammal tolkade utifrån genus- och Just like Aléx (2007, 2008) I have found etnicitetsperspektiv. Umeå: Umeå University in my material a dual position concerning the Medical Disseratations, New Series 1081. status of the elderly women. In formal terms Aléx, Lena 2008: Att balansera mellan olika diskur- ser – konsten att leva som gammal samisk kvinna. the Sami woman has had a subordinate posi- In: Människor i norr. Samisk forskning på nya vä- tion in the Sameby and in society at large, but gar. Peter Sköld (ed.). Umeå: Vaartoe – Centrum her informal power within the family and in för Samisk forskning, Umeå universitet. Amft, Andrea 2000: Sápmi i förändringens tid. En the Sami community has been considerable. studie av svenska samers levnadsvillkor under The older woman’s status has often been 1900-talet ur ett genus- och etnicitetsperspektiv. strengthened in older days. In the reindeer Umeå: Umeå universitet, Samiska studier. herding which the elderly manage for as long Balto, Asta 1997: Samisk barneoppdragelse i end- ring. Oslo: Ad Notam. as possible, the man and the woman partici- Beach, Hugh 1988: Gäst hos samerna.Stockholm: pate side by side. The ownership of reindeer Carlsson Bokförlag. 42 Marianne Liliequist, Elderly Sami – Symbols of Sami Identity?

Campbell, Åke 1948/1982: Från vildmark till bygd. Oväntat. Aspekter på etnologisk kulturforskning. En etnologisk undersökning av nybyggarkulturen Roger Jacobsson & Britta Lundgren (eds.). Stock- i Lappland före industrialismens genombrott. holm: Carlsson Bokförlag. Umeå: Faksimilutgåva: Norrländska skrifter 10. Liliequist, Marianne 2009: Äldre glesbygdskvinnor, Clifford, James 1988: On Ethnographic Surrealism. bortglömda offer eller centralgestalter i lokalsam- In: The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth-Centu- hället? Kulturella Perspektiv. Svensk etnologisk ry Ethnography, Literature, and Art. James Clif- tidskrift 1. ford (ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University McGrath, Jacqueline L. 2005: Stories of Ruth: An Press. Ethnography of the Dunne Girls. Journal of Ame- Cocq, Coppélie 2008: Revoicing Sámi narratives. rican Folklore 118 (467). North Sámi storytelling at the turn of the 20th cen- Nilsson, Ingeborg 2006: Occupational Engagement tury. Umeå: Samiska studier 5, Umeå universitet. among Older People. Evaluation, repertoire and Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, 1993: Ethnicity and na- Relation to Life Satisfaction. Umeå University tionalism. London: Pluto Press. Medical Dissertations, New Series 1043. Goffman, Erving 1972: Stigma: den avvikandes roll Nordin, Åsa 2007: Relationer i ett samiskt samhälle: och identitet. Stockholm: Norstedts förlag. en studie av skötesrensystemet i Gällivare socken Haetta, Odd Mathis 1996: The Sami. An indigenous under första hälften av 1900-talet. Umeå: Umeå people of the Arctic. Karasjok: Davvi Girji. universitet, Samiska studier. Häggblom Kronlöf, Greta 2007: Participation in Olofsson, Ebba 2004: In Search of a Fulfilling Iden- Everyday Life. Very Old Persons’ Experiences of tity in a Modern World. Narratives of Indigenous Daily Occupation of Interest and Use of Assistive Identities in Sweden and Canada. Uppsala: Upp- Devices. Göteborg: The Sahlgrenska Academy of sala University Department of Cultural Anthro- Göteborg University. pology and Ethnology. von Heideken Wågert, Petra, 2006: Health, physical Sameland i förvandling. Skrifter utgivna av Dialekt-, ability, falls and morale in very old people: the ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Umeå, serie D Umeå 85+Study. Umeå University Medical Dis- meddelanden 4, Umeå. 1986. sertations, New Series No. 1040. Santamäki Fischer, Regina 2007: Living in Consola- Hoem, Anton 1978: Socialisering, en teoretisk og tion While Growing Very Old. Umeå: Umeå Uni- empirisk modellutvikling. Oslo: Universitetsfor- versity Medical Dissertations, New Series 1087. laget. Thomasson, Lars 1994: Förteckning över vad som Johansson, Lisa 1968: Saltlake och blodvälling. Be- publicerats i fråga om samerna. Manuscript in rättelser från nybyggartiden i Lappmarken redi- Umeå University Library. gerade av Sune Jonsson. Stockkholm: LTs förlag. Tornstam, Lars 1982: Resursbegreppet och åldran- Kjellström, Rolf 2000/2003: Samernas liv. Stock- det. In: Äldre i samhället: förr, nu och i framtiden holm: Carlsson Bokförlag. (Del 1: Teorier och forskningsansatser). Lars Krekula, Clary, Närvänen, Anna-Liisa, & Näsman, Tornstam, Birgitta Odén & Alvar Svanborg (eds.). Elisabet 2005: Ålder i intersektionell analys. Kvin- Stockholm: Liber förlag. novetenskaplig tidskrift 2–3. Torres, Sandra & Hammarström, Gunhild, 2007: Kvenangen, Per 1996: Samernas historia. Jokk- Hög ålder som ohälsa och hot: Äldre människors mokk: Sameskolstyrelsen. erfarenheter. In: Åldrandets betydelser. Lars-Eric Liliequist, Marianne 1996: Lappkast och kovänd- Jönsson & Susanne Lundin (eds.). Lund: Stu- ningar. De ständiga omprövningarnas metod. In: dentlitteratur. Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing 43 The Practice of Ageing The Experience of Being Old and the Significance of Bodies, Things and Places By Åsa Alftberg

People in welfare society tend to live longer ploy the ageing body as an analytical angle of than ever and life after retirement is com- approach, emphasizing the relation between monly referred to as the third age. Still, age- the ageing body, the surrounding world and ing and old age are predominantly regarded its objects, and the cultural concept of age- in a negative perspective; growing old is ing. considered to lead to loneliness and isolation The study is part of a research program as well as illness and dependence on others concerning elderly and elderly health care, (Blaakilde 1999; Hepworth 2000; Cruik- conducted by Vårdalinstitutet.1 In creating shank 2003; Jönson 2002). The physical my empirical material, I followed the selec- changes in old age are generally described as tion criteria of the research program: the decay and deterioration, in comparison with interviewees should be living in the same the “normal” young and healthy body, al- district in Gothenburg, be eighty years or though ageing is a continuous process through- older, and not dependent on help in everyday out life. life. Research concerning this age group has The field of elderly research is established often studied levels of dependence and the within a range of scientific disciplines in need of care. Therefore, it is important to which medical, psychological and social look at individuals of this age who is living in meanings and experiences of ageing are ex- their ordinary homes, coping in everyday life amined. To use an ethnological perspective without support, just as the majority of is to emphasize the individual's everyday Swedish elderly actually is doing. practice and the way ageing is “done”, that is During autumn 2008, interviews were how ageing is formed in actions and habits, carried out in the respondents’ homes. They and to explore the practical implications of were six women and four men, born between ageing. People’s experiences and thoughts 1919 and 1928.2 All women except one were about ageing contain a wealth of material widows, while only one of the men was things as well as situations in which things widowed. The others were still married, and and places are of major importance (cf. Mol, their spouses sometimes participated spon- 2002:15). I therefore want to show that the taneously in parts of the conversation. I used cultural construction of ageing and old age is a semi-structured interview method, where also about the concrete and factual; i.e. ac- my questions started a discussion of experi- tions and situations in daily life which eman- ences and perceptions of ageing and health, ate from the material. The aim is to demon- and descriptions of everyday activities. strate the practice of ageing by highlighting older people’s accounts of everyday life. It’s just Old Age Which are the situations when ageing be- Ageing significantly alters the body in differ- comes something tangible and concrete? ent ways, especially our perception and ex- What significance do bodies, objects and en- perience of it. Lilly, one of the interviewees vironment have for how ageing is “done”, by in my study, says: others and by the individuals themselves? Focusing on the material aspect and the prac- I said when I was seventy I knew that I would be like that – I was pretty strong – I would be like that all tice of ageing will contribute to explore how my life. Then I became seventy-five ... there was elderly handle the consequences of growing little difference so it was nothing to bother about. old in everyday praxis. This study will em- Then I turned eighty, then eighty-five, and I’ll be

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 44 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing

darned if I’m the person I was when I was seventy, but the fatigue is due to the diabetes he suf- that’s quite clear. I usually say: one is no exception, fers from. Occasionally he may feel affected but hopefully one may grow old in a healthy way, so of the disease, but generally everything is to speak. Some ailments might come of course. So normal or “as usual”. Harald regards himself far, I’m not taking any medicine or anything like that. neither sick nor old. If illness makes the body – and age – In Lilly’s words, to age in a healthy manner emerge, good health may be defined as not to appears not to be expected; the image of old be aware of the body. This is pointed out by age is clearly associated with illness (cf. Axel in one of the interviews: “Yes, it is Blaakilde 1999). A subject throughout the in- when you are not aware of your body really, terviews is that ailments and illness are but one lives day after day without something something which is assumed when growing unpleasant happening. That’s how I think old. The belief is that something eventually about health.” will happen, and it seems quite natural to re- According to the philosopher Hans Georg gard old age as a condition of illness and dis- Gadamer (2003), health is a state of internal ease. When Karin tells me about her eye dis- balance and consistency between body and ease, she says that “something’s got to come mind. To be healthy is not about feeling a cer- when you get old, you can always count on tain way; it is a basic manner of living in the that.” Ingmar is on the other hand completely world. At times when something feels wrong healthy, but he has fear for the future: “Obvi- or when we feel ill, we become aware of our- ously you are thinking, you might have a selves and our bodies, as opposed to good stroke or something, anything could happen, health when the body is not made conscious. it’s just... And now, living on my own, I feel Gadamer belongs to the phenomenological very vulnerable.” tradition just as the philosopher Maurice Mer- Ageing is often associated with the leau-Ponty (1997), who claims that mind and body’s health and ability. Doris explains that body are intertwined in what he calls the lived she only feels old at times when her back body. We do not think of our body as body, hurts or does not “keep up”. Ruth remarks not until the relationship between the lived that on a bad day, she feels like one hundred body and the outside world for some reason years old. Age is thus a metaphor for the state becomes problematic. In case of illness, the of health, where poor health is described in body is made conscious through discomfort or terms of advanced age. Disease and illness pain. It is not simply illness that makes the can lead to an identification of being old, body appear to us; other situations, for ex- which was not considered until the appear- ample linked to emotions, make the body ance of symptoms. Anthropologist Andrea emerge (cf. Alftberg 2004). Ageing is yet an- Sankar discusses the use of the phrase “it’s other circumstance when the body is seen just old age” in medical diagnosis and in col- from an outside perspective. loquial expressions. Symptoms and ailments are interpreted as something that belongs to The Ageless Self and the Body old age, and thus something that is not poss- Ageing may cause a feeling of alienation ible to treat or cure (Sankar 1984). On the from the body, a description that is some- other hand, Harald says that it is not his ad- times used in experiences of illness or dis- vanced age that makes him tired sometimes, ability (cf. Svenaeus 2003; Jeppsson Grass- Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing 45

man 2005). The body emerges as an object, age, such as the appearance, possibly will be in contrast to the lived body that is perceived experienced as problematic. The importance as a part of the individual. When the body is of looks is mentioned in the interview with perceived as an object, it appears with its Harald when he takes up an ID card with his own agency, distinct from the subject or core photograph on, used at the office he retired that is “me”. Karin talks about this: from fifteen years ago: You don’t think of yourself as that old. If you hear Harald: No, but I’ve changed a lot, if you're thinking about other people who are eighty-five years old, I ... let’s see here. Of course, there’s a big difference think the’re old, but when it comes to me, I don´t (holds up the card for display). bear my age in mind. Obviously one is not what one Åsa: Yes ... although I can see it’s you. has been, one can tell very well: my head is not work- Harald: Really? ing as it should and one is not as keen on doing things Åsa: I think so. and stuff. But still, I never think of myself as Harald: Yes, but it’s understandable, I don´t know if eighty-five, no. (pause) I don’t think of you being old I was grey-haired then? Was I? either (laughs and turns to her husband). Åsa: Yes, yes. Harald: This was before I quit (work). It’s amazing Previous research describes this experience how things can change, it has changed so much. of an ageless self. The body is perceived as While I only see a slight difference, Harald old, but not the self (Kaufman 1986; Aléx seems almost amazed and fascinated by his 2007; Ehn 2007). Ageing affects the body, changed appearances and seems to doubt that but the self is experienced as younger or I can actually recognize him on the photo- simply without age. Being old can be an graph. What looks like an ordinary photo- identity that is alienating, something that is graph to me, appears to remind Harald of attributed to the individual by others. This is who he was at the time and the life he lived exemplified in an article about elderly per- then. The picture also brings notice to the al- sons awaiting a kidney transplant. They, or teration that has happened since then. Photo- rather their bodies, are labeled as old by the graphs, as well as mirrors, are two things that medical clinic, which has consequences for “do” our ageing because they show us the the transplant options available to them. picture of ourselves from the outside; that is Ageing receives a negative meaning which literally from another point of view. It can be old people are forced to deal with and intern- difficult to recognize and grasp oneself when alize (Idvall 2007). Axel protests mildly looks have changed. The significance of ap- against the general negative image of ageing pearances is connected with modernity and by telling me about an elderly relative he the increased importance of reflexive identi- spent much time with as a child: ty formation in the modern society (Giddens You could see very little of it (the ageing), really. He 1997). Looks and exterior are expected to re- was the same when he was eighty as he was when he flect an inner, authentic – and possibly age- was ninety, and because of this, it has probably influ- less – self. This may be difficult when the enced my view of old people as well, I don’t think body alters in different ways. Ethnologist that it is something strange (laughs), or what to say. Beatriz Lindqvist examines older women I believe that a person can be himself right into old age. and how they experience their bodies as a Axel states that one continues to be oneself, shell the self is forced into, rather than being despite the fact that ageing involves different a part of the ego. Ageing means that the body transitions. Nevertheless, altering due to old no longer corresponds to the inner self. Time 46 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing

is an enemy that deprives women the oppor- Nah, I can’t say, when I sit and talk like this I don´t tunity to express themselves and their identi- feel old at all, but to go out and stumble around; I’m ty. It is a struggle to maintain and take re- certainly not running for the tram any longer. sponsibility for appearances and looks, with- Age arises as a meaningful categorization in out seeming desperate and ridiculous. Age- different situations, and therefore can be said ing should be done with dignity (Lindqvist to have significance only in relation to some- 1996). thing; other people, things or places. The rel- Harald continues his thoughts and de- evance of surroundings for the defining of clares that it is a good thing if you do not look ageing and old age is pointed out by Simone all too old. He also claims that his one year de Beauvoir (1976) in her book about old younger brother seems much older than he, age. Our age is revealed to us by other partly because his brother has impaired hear- people; it is in meeting with others that age ing. Comparing with others, particularly may be important. We become self-con- health status and thus implicit the ageing, scious and objectified by other people's looks emerge frequently in the interview material. and comments. Old age is outspoken by Context, situations and other people are im- others and selves, we speak of symptoms, ap- portant in how aging is “done”, which will be pearance, fatigue, etc., and have less to do discussed further below. with chronological age. Beauvoir argues that it is not the body that reveals to us that we are The Telephone Book which Shrank old, but other people. With the aid of Mer- The interviewees have all experiences of leau-Ponty (1997), I would rather say that it spouses, siblings or friends who have suf- is the body’s relationship to its surroundings, fered from illness or have had an accident, as well as other people and objects, which re- often by falling, which of course leads to reveals or rather highlights the ageing. Margit flections. Repeatedly, they make compari- provides a good example: sons with any relatives, friends or acquaint- As long as you have your health, all is well ... you ances whose situation is “worse” in contrast don’t think of being old. It is just when I’m getting to the respondents. Lilly describes and com- up on a chair – then I notice that I’m old (laughs). pares her situation: The habit of using the chair as stairs to reach I can’t cope with the light from above, you see. I see the top shelf in the kitchen cupboard is not nothing then. And then you get a bit, then I get slow when I'm going to cross the street, and I have to running as smoothly as before, and Margit watch the traffic very carefully. So it’s quite hard. is reminded that something has changed. But I have three friends who can’t do anything, for The surrounding world, filled with objects, their yellow spot (in the eye) is completely de- is the foundation of our actions, thoughts stroyed. I'm not in their situation anyway. and emotions. Equally, we affect things and Ageing is measured by comparison with objects in our turn, through the interpreta- others in terms of health, appearance and tion and the significance we give them. The ability. The surroundings and specific situ- perception of things – as a limitation or ex- ations are of great significance in experience tension of the individual – depends on the (any) age, and of being old. I ask Anna if she meaning human beings will connect to feels like eighty-nine years old, and she them. For example, a walker can be experi- answers: enced as a limitation by reminding of the Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing 47

body’s reduced ability, but it can also be twenty-five years, chose to quit when the seen as a help and a chance to actually move pathway to the tram stop was not gritted in around, and even be experienced as an unre- the winter. Anna avoids entirely using the flecting extension or part of the body. Mer- tram: leau-Ponty exemplifies this with the blind I must say, I don’t dare go by tram now. I have a person’s walking stick; the stick is per- walker when I go out, you know, but it’s very diffi- ceived not as an object or device, but imple- cult to take it along the tram. I feel it’s too high. You mented as part of the body to explore the have to lift the walker up on the tram; I can manage world (1997:107). that, though. Nevertheless... Then I’m afraid the tram will jerk when it sets off. Nah... I don’t care anymore. The significance of things is illustrated by Lilly. Her impaired vision makes it difficult Anna concludes by saying that she is no to read the telephone directory. She claims longer able to go to the center of town by however, that it is the telephone book and not tram, but it is not something she longs for her sight that is the problem: either. The alteration of the body leads to a Lilly: Telephone books are useless nowadays! The different perception of well-known places, words and numbers are so small and tiny... and sites previously visited lose their allure. Åsa: You must use a magnifying glass? Lilly: Yes, because the printing is so small and they New Times, New Things use such thin paper. Because it’s cheaper of course... and may contain more. Ageing is generated not only through the changes of the body, but also through new One way to deal with the changing body – things that are introduced in everyday life. but still remain in the lived body and the ex- The modern pop music on the radio, TV pression “I can” (Merleau-Ponty 1997:100), commercials, computers and mobile phones namely the immediate way we are in the may seem alien or uninteresting for those world through our body – is to see the world who have lived most of their adult life with- as changing instead of the individual: it is the out these things, but new objects may also telephone book which has obtained smaller create a feeling that you are not up to date text, the keep-fit exercises suddenly have got (which certainly can happen no matter what too many difficult movements and rotations, age you have). Ingmar says: etc. In a phenomenological perspective, the Nothing is the same, you know, as it was before. And human being is intertwined with the environ- I would like to live in the past. Many times I find it ment; consequently an altered body will af- much better before. I believe all my grandchildren, fect the experience of both self and the world. they’ve no fun now as we had, so much fun we had This is confirmed directly and indirectly dur- then, you know. But they’ve nothing. They sit in ing the interviews; the participants empha- front of this computer, well it’s theirs... They come size the changing significance of the sur- home from school and sit down in front of the computer. roundings. External factors such as weather or season appear to be increasingly important Direct or indirect criticism of contemporary to take into account, and slopes and stairways time by comparison with another time is a are seen as obstacles rather than means of way to preserve dignity and status, claims transportation. The outside world has be- ethnologist Anne Leonora Blaakilde. “Be- come full of risks to be calculated and man- fore”, or times long past, may be used as a aged. Lilly, who went to aquarobics for strategy against the devaluation of old age 48 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing

(Blaakilde 1999). This devaluation includes The mobile phone is an example of how a time dimension; older people are denied the new habits are established, but might as well values associated to modern, contemporary be replaced by other things such as Harald’s time. Ethnologist Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius blood glucose meter, Axel’s hearing aid, or (2005) means that older persons are con- Anna’s walker. These things are also ex- sidered living “in a different time of life, with amples of new objects that must be incorp- a different time, and from another time” (p. orated into everyday activities. Habits and 218, my translation). Old people are sup- routines are keys to how we perceive our- posed to be different because they assuming- selves and our lives. Merleau-Ponty defines ly belong to another time and another gener- habits as our ability to expand our physical ation. For Ingmar though, it seems to be the space and implement an object (or be incorp- grandchildren who are the Other; they are the orated into the object; the interconnectedness ones living in another time, a time which also between human beings and the world makes appears to be quite incomprehensible and both perspectives possible). The habit is not boring. Ingmar is ambivalent to the computer a conscious knowledge, nor is it an automa- as a phenomenon. When we meet he makes tism; it is a knowledge that is in our hands questions about how the Internet works and and present in our body movements (Mer- says he plans to enroll at the library to get an leau-Ponty 1997:107 f.). The habit is the im- introduction to how a computer works and its mediate and unreflecting way we do things. uses. Like most of the interviewees, Ingmar If the ability of the body is changing, and a has had a cell phone for some time, and like habit may no longer be performed as usual, the others he mentions that it is a safety if we are forced to think about new solutions. something would happen. In many cases, it is These reflections contain a creativity that is the children of the interviewees who have ac- essential for the design of the respondents´ quired the mobile phone. The feeling of safe- everyday life, which will be discussed below. ty thus created is probably as much important for the children as their parents. The relatives To Ward Off Evil – Risks and “do” the ageing by stressing that it is time to Strategies start thinking about security; something If the body – or the world – is perceived as an could happen that requires an urgent phone obstacle or everyday situations no longer call. But new technology also leads to new function as usual, the result may be a sense of values and attitudes (see Shove 2003), which powerlessness and lack of control. It is there- will take longer to conquer or accept. Harald fore necessary to form strategies to cope with does not like to talk in his mobile phone on the impact of ageing, which at least generates the tram, in contrast to all the young people, a feeling of control. One way to respond to he points out. Nils talks about how surprised and cope with ageing would be to strive for he was when the phone rang in the shop, and good health, keeping your body in good con- how it took some time to realize that it was dition. During the interviews, my questions his phone that was ringing. Margit, however, about the things supposed to be good to your often drives her grandchildren to various ac- health are politely answered: be active, take tivities and says that she has a mobile phone walks and eat nutritiously. But on a practical for her children being able to reach her if they level, it is more about averting “bad” than to need help, not vice versa. promote “good”. Thoughts and stories are Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing 49

not so much about prevention and health pro- surroundings that change meaning; other motion but rather on how to draw up strate- people are perceived as more threatening gies and adapt, both for what has happened than before. Doris tells me she has bought a and what could happen. Anna reveals: “I al- small handbag that she can carry underneath ways keep a label with my name and address her coat to avoid being robbed, and Lilly de- in my pocket, you know, so they’ll know scribes the same fear: who I am. In case something should happen... Now, I always put my keys in my pocket when I go You never know.” out, and I remove all my cards. I just make sure I Lilly and a neighbor of the same age are have money for a taxi, nothing else. If you lose calling each other every morning just to money, you can put up with it, but think of all the make sure they have gotten out of bed. Anna work if you lose your cards. The police said some- stays in the kitchen until dinner is ready-pre- thing I found very wise: if they want to snatch your bag, drop it right away. It’s better to lose your bag pared in order not to forget and risk burning than to fall and break arms and legs. But you know, the food. For safety reasons, she checks both older people, they don’t want to let go of their bags hot plates and taps every night. Ingmar says: and all the things they carry around. But now I’ve “The stove and the lights, I’m terrified I’ll started to, I hold the handbag on the slant, like this forget, I must make sure they’re off. I always (showing with a gesture how the bag hangs diagonal- check before I go out. One has to check, but ly across one shoulder). Then I have the handbag and a shopping bag there, and I put my hand here (pre- I never used to before.” tending to hold a bag of groceries in one hand and the The home setting with the kitchen range handbag pressed against the body with the other and lights fills with different and more threat- hand). You won’t get me, you won’t get me! (laughs) ening meaning because of Ingmar’s old age. An image or concept that often appears in At the same time the quotation shows Ing- media is the weakened old man or woman mar’s strategy to deal with the situation; he who is defenseless against the criminal ele- simply creates new habits. Lilly too has ments of society. This picture is a risk factor changed some of her cleaning habits; in order to take into account and is sometimes con- to polish the windows without having to firmed by own experiences or friends who stand on chairs or tables, and accordingly run have had something stolen or felt threatened the risk of falling – which unfortunately hap- in other ways. pened to a friend of hers – Lilly has acquired The anthropologist Michael Jackson a window scraper with long handle. She also (2005) argues that human beings are always describes how she goes shopping and how she plans for the future: striving to control and create meaning of the conditions given them. Ageing accounts as When I go to the shop I’ve nothing to carry and it’s such a circumstance, and a very powerful one only downhill. When I go home I’ve to carry and it’s just uphill slopes. But then I say to myself: go twice, since ageing sooner or later leads to our then it won’t be so heavy. When that day comes death, or nonexistence. Ageing can be re- when I won’t be able to do that anymore, I’ll take a garded as a force we cannot master, but yet taxi to the shop. I’ll buy everything I need and I’ll tell struggle against in order to maintain our dig- the taxi driver: wait, I’m going back home again; and nity and sense of control. This struggle con- then I’ll ask him to take my carrier bags inside. tains the creation of strategies, which implies Additionally, there is what might be called a responsibility for the individual’s life and external threats. It is not just the body and the actions; a responsibility that is produced and 50 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing

perceived as normality. In the work Risk So- Older people’s accounts of everyday life are ciety (Risksamhället 1998), the sociologist filled with things, places and bodies – their Ulrich Beck explains how modern society own and others – that shape their ageing in demands the individual to be reflexive and action and practice. planning. A modern citizen needs to formulate a specific position in society, utilizing Åsa Alftberg what can be called creative measures. This PhD student, Division of Ethnology involves a constant preparedness for the risks Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University in everyday life, and the opportunity to re- Biskopsgatan 7 spond to the circumstances that arise. SE-223 62 Lund When ageing alters the body, the relation e-mail: [email protected] between body and world is made aware in different situations. Infirmity, illness or Notes simply changed appearances may lead to dif- 1 Vårdalinstitutet, The Swedish Institute for ferent perceptions and meanings of everyday Health Sciences, is a national environment for routines and habits. Objects and locations research and development in the field of health care and social service in close cooperation with will be interpreted with new eyes: they can, the universities and the health care principals. for example, be perceived as uninteresting, This particular study is part of my current disser- unfamiliar or full of risks. Suddenly, ordi- tation project, which is also connected to Vår- nary everyday situations require planning dalinstitutet. 2 Thanks to all involved in the project “Livslots” – and strategies. Other people, especially other part of the Vårdalinstitute’s intervention project people's health, are something to measure the “Äldre i riskzon” – who made it possible for me ageing against. Ageing is above all associ- to make contact with the interviewees very easi- ated with the body, while the sense of self is ly. The respondents were asked to take part in my interviews during their participation in the seen as constant and without age. intervention study. Those who were regarded as Simone de Beauvoir (1976) argues that reluctant or having difficulties to take part in the age is something abstract; it is a mental con- intervention, were not asked to do interviews. The interviews may have been influenced by the struction that positions people in cultural fact that health and ageing were already dis- categories such as old age. Undoubtedly age cussed and mentioned in the intervention project operates as a classification tool in various – the project aims to improve the health of elder- ways, but in relation to everyday praxis, ly by preventive measures. Since my study focus on people’s perceptions and experiences, bodies, objects and places. My investigation discussions part of the intervention project may shows how old age concerns something have facilitated my interviews by increasing the very material and situation-bound. The re- participants’ reflections on the topic. The interviews lasted between forty-five minutes and spondents speak of everyday situations and three hours, and were digitally recorded. After- depict the different ways ageing is “done” ward they were transcribed verbatim. Files and with places or objects as starting point. Age- transcriptions are at present kept by the writer. ing is about practical things: telephone books, bags, trams, stoves and winter slip- References periness; phenomena that due to body Aléx, Lena 2007: Äldre människors berättelser om changes have been given different mean- att bli och vara gammal tolkade utifrån genus- och etnicitetsperspektiv. Umeå: Umeå universitet. ings. Culture is utilized in the concrete Alftberg, Åsa 2004: ”Gråtens världar. Perspektiv på everyday life with all its habits and routines. mäns tårar.” In: Kulturella perspektiv, nr 4. Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing 51

Beauvoir, Simone de 1976: Ålderdomen. Stockholm: Jeppsson Grassman, Eva 2005: ”Tid, rum, kropp och Almqvist & Wiksell Förlag. livslopp.” In: Eva Jeppsson Grassman, Lars- Beck, Ulrich (1986) 1998: Risksamhället. På väg Christer Hydén (eds.): Kropp, livslopp och mot en annan modernitet. Göteborg: Daidalos. åldrande. Några samhällsvetenskapliga per- Blaakilde, Anne Leonora 1999: Den store fortælling spektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur. om alderdommen. København: Munksgaard. Jönson, Håkan 2002: Ålderdom som samhällspro- Cruikshank, Margaret 2003: Learning to Be Old. blem. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Gender, Culture, and Aging. New York, Oxford: Kaufman, Sharon R. 1986: The Ageless Self. Sources Rowman & Littlefield. of Meaning in Late Life. The University of Wis- Ehn, Billy 2007: ”Hur gammal är du, egentligen? consin Press. Ålder som skenbar bestämning och fantasifull Lindqvist, Beatriz 1996: “Female Ageing, Beauty, upplevelse.” In: Lars-Eric Jönsson, Susanne Lun- and Gender Identity.” In: Susanne Lundin, Lynn din (eds.): Åldrandets betydelser. Lund: Stu- Åkesson (eds.): Bodytime. On the Interaction of dentlitteratur. Body, Identity, and Society. Lund: Studies in Eu- Gadamer, Hans-Georg 2003: Den gåtfulla hälsan. ropean Ethnology 2, Lund University Press. Essäer och föredrag. Ludvika: Dualis. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945) 1997: Kroppens Giddens, Anthony (1991) 1997: Modernitet och fenomenologi. Göteborg: Daidalos. självidentitet. Självet och samhället i den sen- Mol, Annemarie 2002: The Body Multiple. Ontology moderna epoken. Göteborg: Daidalos. in Medical Practice. Durham, London: Duke Uni- Hepworth, Mike 2000: Stories of ageing. Bucking- ham, Philadelphia: Open University Press. versity Press. Hyltén-Cavallius, Sverker 2005: ”Det sinnliga svun- Sankar, Andrea 1984: “‘It´s Just Old Age’: Old Age na. Om ålderdom, kulturell och historisk särart.” as a Diagnosis in American and Chinese Medi- In: Magnus Öhlander (ed.): Bruket av kultur. Hur cine.” In: David I. Kertzer, Jennie Keith (eds.): kultur används och görs socialt verksamt. Lund: Age and Anthropological Theory. London: Cor- Studentlitteratur. nell University Press. Idvall, Markus 2007: ”Att höra till de äldre på vän- Shove, Elisabeth 2003: Comfort, Cleanliness and telistan för njurtransplantation.” In: Lars-Eric Convenience. The Social Organization of Normal- Jönsson, Susanne Lundin (eds.): Åldrandets be- ity. Oxford: Berg. tydelser. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Svenaeus, Fredrik 2003: Sjukdomens mening. Det Jackson, Michael 2005: Existential Anthropology. medicinska mötets fenomenologi och herme- Events, Exigencies and Effects. Methodology and neutik. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. History in Anthropology Volume 11. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. 52 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes An Anthropological Analysis of the Relationship between Danish Homeowners and Their Houses By Mark Vacher

In this article, I will present an analysis of the strongest articulations come from people concept of home as a common way of articu- who have been involved in disasters or acci- lating the house as a valuable aspect of life in dents that left them homeless. Denmark. One such accident happened in the Dan- When asked why their house is important ish suburb Seest, near the small city of Kold- to them, a frequent answer among Danish ing, in Jutland, in 2004. Here, 2 000 persons homeowners is: “Because it is my home”. were forced to evacuate from their homes Even though the terms house and home are when a fireworks warehouse exploded. One frequently used about the same place, they do study of the evacuee’s condition, performed not have an identical meaning. A home is not by two psychologists immediately after the necessarily a house and a house is not neces- accident, found the following: sarily a home. “Many have expressed how surprised The difference between house and home they were over how difficult it was to be is articulated when homeowners are asked to evacuated for an unknown period of time, define the concept of home.1 Apart from an- and be without the secure base of the home. swers like “Home is my house, my apart- Even more have expressed that they were ment, the place I live…,” one can come heavily burdened by ignorance of the condi- across definitions like “Home is where you tion of their house. The residents were nearly can take off your shoes,” “Home is lighting unanimous in expressing how much it meant candles,” “Home is the smell of cookies and to them to come home and determine the fresh baked bread,” “Home is my family.” condition of their house” (Elklit & Molin The definition of home in these latter ex- 2006:2). amples includes activities (taking off shoes/ Not only does the accident in Seest illus- lighting candles), perceptions (smelling trate the importance of the home for residents cookies/bread) and social relations (family), in a Danish suburb, but it was also an event but also material objects which are not nor- through which that importance can be dis- mally thought of as things to inhabit. This cussed. Therefore, Seest is an ideal location raises the paradox that houses can be valued to look for empirical examples of the rela- as homes, but that homes also can be, and of- tionship between houses and homes. ten are, defined by referring to activities re- The central theme of the empirical data lated to uninhabitable objects. from Seest is, as will become clear, the resi- What is it about home that makes it refer dents’ experience of being cut off from, and, not only to things we inhabit but also to ac- in some instances, losing, their home. These tivities, perceptions and social relations? conditions cannot be described as being rep- Based on fieldwork and empirical find- resentative of Danes’ perception of and rela- ings from two different Danish neighbour- tionship to their home because the home, as hoods, the following pages are an attempt to will become evident, is very much associated answer this question. with the unchangeable, the stable and the secure.2 Therefore, the analysis also uses em- Looking for Homes in Broken Houses pirical examples from another field location, and an Architectural Utopia the suburb Tarup which is located on the out- When searching for empirical examples of skirts of Denmark’s third largest city, houses being valued as homes, some of the Odense. In contrast to Seest, this location is

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 53

characterized by a high level of continuity As previously mentioned, the evacuation and stable physical structures.3 of residents began immediately after the fire Before comparing and analysing the two started. A large area was blocked off and locations further let me first present a brief people were denied access. As the fire broke introduction to the chosen sites. out in the afternoon, the consequence was that people at work, in school and in daycare The Accident in Seest were cut off from their homes without warn- Early in the afternoon of 3 November 2004, ing. Many of the affected residents report a fire broke out in a fireworks factory in that the uncertainty of not knowing what was Seest, a suburb of Kolding. After four hours, happening with their house, whether it was the fire culminated in three explosions that burning or collapsing, was especially worri- followed one another, where a total of 800 some. As will be shown in this article, being tons of fireworks exploded. Evacuation of conscious of losing one’s home means that the factory workers and persons residing in the relationship to the home that normally is houses within a radius of one kilometre of the a given, becomes an object of attention. It site began just a few minutes after the fire was with this attention that people returned to broke out. The location of the factory close to their houses after the evacuation, and regard- a residential area meant that the evacuation less of whether the sight that awaited them affected approximately 2,000 people from was an intact house or a crater filled with 740 households. bricks, having experienced the possibility of Because of the quick evacuation, there losing everything had marked their con- were few human injuries. One fire-fighter sciousness, making the residents of Seest died and two were seriously injured. How- particularly well-reflected informants re- ever, there was damage to 355 houses, of garding the meaning of home. which 176 were so heavily damaged that the Another aspect of the fireworks accident, residents could not immediately move back which tragically qualifies the residents of after the evacuation.4 Seest for a study of the meaning of the home, After the accident, there was a consider- is a number of unresolved issues that con- able amount of work concerning insurance tinued to bring the houses into focus in the questions and repair of damage. Insurance time preceding the accident. According to statistics (Insurance companies’ common in- the city of Kolding’s measurements, the ex- formation service) maintain in a statement plosions caused earthquakes with a magni- from 2 November 2005 that the total number tude of 2.2 on the Richter scale (www.kold- of buildings damaged as a result of the explo- ing.dk/brand/0032151.asp?sid=32151). The sions was 2,107. In 87 cases, it was necessary ground under the houses consequently to rebuild the house, and the other cases shifted, causing ongoing cracking in plinths, varied from replacing roofs, masonry, and floors, and walls more than a year after the structural damage to replacing windows.5 accident. This has meant that even newly In what way can an extraordinary event built houses must constantly be repaired, and like a local fireworks accident contribute to that the houses are far from being perceived generating general knowledge about the rela- as substantial and stable. More than a year tionship between house and home in Den- and a half after the accident, damage oc- mark? curred in Seest as a consequence of the acci- 54 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

dent, which is why home owners in Seest tions, was vigilant, thrifty and protected his regularly carry out a detailed inspection of or her investment. their housing.6 Residents have gone from be- The purchasers of the new Koch town- ing typical home owners in a residential area, houses were typically young people, who ei- where many of the houses had stood solidly ther had just started a family or were about for 30–40 years, to being careful observers of to. The houses were inexpensive, 138,000 minute changes. Danish kroner in 1964, and could be purchased for a down payment of 5,000 kroner Tarup’s Townhouses (3% of the total price). While Seest experienced an abrupt break The result was a homogeneous popula- that condensed conditions for analysis, tion. Several interviews show that it was peo- Tarup is an interesting location for the study ple with small children and steady jobs (for of changes through time, not least for the the man at least) that moved to Tarup- massive production of townhouses, 1,356 in Paarup. Furthermore, the low house prices number, of which the vast majority were de- made it possible to own a car and travel dur- signed by the same architect and built during holidays (ibid.:6). ing the 1960s. In other words, it was the working middle The townhouses are not merely standard class, and the district is a historic example of houses in three variations. They are the mani- when this class became wealthy and how and festation of a concept of the good modern with which habitus their capital was invest- life. The advantages of Koch townhouses ed. were expressed in the following way in a Koch townhouses were generally built sales brochure by the architect and politician with an area of less than 100 m2 (between 77 Jens Preben Koch:7 “You are relieved of and 99, depending on the type, with end theCOLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY and houses larger than the houses in the middle of have no financial obligations in partnership the row). For people moving out of the city with others when you live in your OWN centres in the 1960s, this was seen as an ap- HOUSE” (Frandsen & Bertelsen 2002:34). propriate size for a family with two children That the residents lived in their own (in several of the interviews, it was revealed house did not mean that the architect had that the family decided to move into the nothing to say about the life that should be townhouse when they had their second lived in them. Thus, an illustrated poster was child). hung in the built-in closets with directions re- Today, the demographic is still homo- garding cleaning, caring and maintenance, geneous. As a 60-year-old woman expressed which, if followed, ensured “a good house it, it has been important to ensure that the worth owning”. Finally, a special notebook area “did not become a ‘rhubarb’ (Arabic) lay in a drawer in the kitchen of the new district.” A similar view was expressed by a houses to record heat, electricity and water couple in their thirties with children when usage so that the new owner could keep track they were asked to explain the area’s advan- of his or her consumption. In this way, tage: “There are no immigrants here.” though not a collective responsibility, home The townhouse district in Tarup is still ownership implied a moral responsibility. Danish middle class, but today, on top of The clever home owner followed the direc- young couples with children, there are also Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 55

elderly (among them some who moved in as parts in a dichotomy between home and out- young people in the 1960s) and middle- side, and all other fixtures in modern life are aged. There are also some single parents, as included in the category outside (Gullestad the townhouse prices are such that it is pos- 1993:135). Home, she says, “stands for sible to afford one with a single income. Fi- warmth, security, cosiness (and perhaps a nally, the young people who live in the area little boredom),” while outside “stands for are in many cases the children of those who excitement but also some danger” (ibid.). moved in in the 1960s, and in the cases In other words, one goes home after one where the former have children, there is has been outside, and that, according to now a third generation of Koch townhouse Gullestad, means an expectation of homey residents.8 cosiness, warmth and security.9 In this way Another important reason the townhouses home is extremely value-laden, at the same in Tarup are used as an analytical example in time as being a destination and a location. a study of the meaning of the home for Danes The values given a home, according to the is their potential for comparison. They were Swedish ethnologist Orvar Löfgren, are also built as identical houses and conceived as a associated with movement and relationship frame for the good modern life (cf. J.P. to other localities. It is by going out that one Koch). Their present form and appearance meets new people, shows one’s skills and can, in other words, be analysed as variations collects wages for them, but, simultaneously, of the same theme – the architectonic basis of the status of labour as a commodity means the 1960s. that the individual risks being reduced to a quantifiable unit, for example as an em- The Home as a Unique Place ployee who can be fired, or as unemployed After this introductory presentation of the person who cannot sell his or her labour. empirical foundation for the analysis, let me Therefore, Löfgren asserts, the home has be- now direct the focus to the article’s primary come “an antipole to the growing anonymity, problem formulation, namely, a more gener- rationality and effectivity of the outside al analysis of the phenomenon of “home”. world” (Löfgren 2003:144). Besides the rela- The average or typical Danish home is tional, the dichotomy of home/outside in this found neither in the disaster area of Seest nor way also indicates localized and strong in- in Tarup’s townhouses, but as I shall attempt trinsic qualities of the home. As Löfgren im- to show in this article, these localities reveal, plies, these are, among other things, a shelter through their unique characters, conditions from the foreign, cynical and, according to that are found in and affect most Danish Gullestad, sometimes dangerous, outside. In houses valued as homes. One of these condi- this way, the home represents a fortress, the tions is the perception of the home as unique purpose of which is to hold outside outside place in the world. through the owner’s control over who and According to the Norwegian anthropolo- what comes in.10 gist Marianne Gullestad, the home in Scandi- The importance of the element of control navia both refers to and is a place. As a place, was clearly expressed in Seest, where the ac- she maintains, it is so characteristic that it is cident, for a time, upset the established perceived as the antithesis of all other locali- owner relationship. As the owner of one ties. This makes the home one of two defined newly built house in Seest said, after the ac- 56 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

cident, one suddenly doubted whose house it and outside through explicit action. That was really was. After his house was assessed as possible because there had been a theft and being so badly damaged that a new one had therefore someone or something to blame to be built instead, the ownership of the ruins and direct his anger towards. Others were and the contents that were not removed by more powerless. the inhabitants was handed over to the insur- This was related by one woman: ance company, which put it up for sale. It only took one afternoon to remove all the bricks so Then people with trailers came and stripped the that only the cement frame was left. I didn’t think house of everything. They also took the planters in that was very nice. We had lived there since 1964. It the outbuilding that I had put there because I wanted was like being stripped naked. to keep them. In fact, they also took the outbuilding When the family returned after the evacua- and left only the planters that were damaged. But the tion, they were, at first, relieved to find their worst of all was that they took my neighbour’s house almost intact, but the subsequent in- broom and shovel. Right after the accident, I went over and borrowed them to remove the worst of the spection for damage revealed that the roof glass shards. They were expensive ergonomic tools, had been lifted in the explosion, after which and I had put them beside the back door of the house, it had fallen down again and crushed central but they were taken anyway. That made me angry, so elements of the cement frame hidden in the I went outside and complained to some people who walls. Furthermore, a gable wall had been were filling up a trailer. When I came back the next shifted half a metre. The insurance company day, there was an old shovel and worn-out broom standing there, but it was too embarrassing to return assessed that the house could be saved, but them. the consequence was that all bricks on the outer walls, and all tiling, panelling and The matter of the substituted tools had be- wallpaper on the inner walls had to be re- come a matter of principle to this mentioned moved. resident. He reported the case to the insur- At the time of the interview, the family ance company, which agreed to replace the lived in a camper in the back yard, and the neighbour’s shovel and broom. He stated that house I was shown around in was complete- it was with great satisfaction that he was not ly empty except for a couple of plant pots. only able to return what he had borrowed, but “Where do you find this kind of tiles now- also could show who it was that ultimately adays? You can’t get them any more,” asked had control over his property. the wife when she showed me the kitchen. As is evident, ownership and control were “I hope they are careful when they take challenged after the fireworks accident, and them down, but they probably can’t be what had previously been a family’s property saved.” and private domain was trampled and Not only was the house changed beyond changed by strangers. The result for the recognition and irreplaceable objects ruined. owner was a degrading feeling of being ad- It was also invaded by workmen who had ministered. This was partly because it was been hired by a strange employer (the insur- degrading not to have control over his prop- ance company) to repair damage that, in this erty and partly because the theft of the tools case, was invisible to the residents. There undermined his credibility in relation to his was no doubt that the family appreciated both neighbour. His response was to fight for the the workmen’s and the insurance company’s right to define the boundary between home efforts, but regardless, the threshold between Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 57

public and private life (outside and home ac- Das Kapital 1, vol. 1: 190). It is clear from cording to Gullestad) had been violated in the study in Seest that this is not the case with ways that made the inhabitants feel power- a home. The reaction to a burned home was less and insecure – and naked. much greater than regret over a lost invest- What the previous example shows is the ment. For example, many of the residents of importance of the home as a spatially demar- Seest escaped with only broken windows, cated and controlled domain. At first glance cracked tiling and loose shingles, but, despite this confirms Gullestad’s statements regard- this, many were active in self-help groups ing the home as a dichotomous opposite to and continued to be concerned with the acci- the foreign outside, but, as the stories from dent long after the fact.12 Figuring in the ad- Seest show, the home can, in part, be invad- ditional condition that those affected by the ed, ruined or lost, and, just as importantly, it accident were insured and in some instances appears that the home is more than a relation- actually increased the value of their property, al opposite to the foreign outside. It is appar- it becomes clear that the meaning of the ently linked to its inhabitants. Thus, seeing home cannot be reduced to a matter of “hu- one’s house stripped of its bricks gives one mans’ external reality”. the feeling of being stripped naked. In other If the home is not a thing and cannot exist words, when something happens to my without an owner, what sort of property is it? home, something happens to me! In a way, it has much in common with It seems that a comprehensive analysis of Marx’s understanding of labour. Labour, he the phenomenon of the home must reach fur- states, cannot be separated from the work ther than an explanation of taxonomies and carried out (ibid.:286). Nevertheless, it re- opposites. quires a material to be carried out in. In this way, Marx claims, labour is realized only The Home as Property through its results: “it shows itself only in What is the connection between home and in- work carried out” (ibid.). The same, I argue, habitant? can be said about home. As learned from According to Karl Marx, it’s all about Seest, homes on the one hand are not separ- property. Thus, a burned-down house valued able from their owner but on the other a home as home is tantamount to burned property, must be anchored in a thing (e.g., a cardboard which is why something is lost (Marx [1867] box, a tent, a house or a geographical area), 1970, vol. 1:109). This makes immediate to function as a home. sense, and in fact it seems that the home is The question then is: does it make sense more strongly connected to the owner than to state about home as Marx did when he many types of property. For example, bi- wrote of labour that it “shows itself only in cycles, bags and even houses can be outside work carried out”? the category of property and exist without an That is precisely the point made by the owner, while a home without an owner German philosopher Martin Heidegger when simply cannot be imagined.11 he claims, in the lecture “Bauen Wohnen This is because the home is not a thing, Denken” that “bauen” (building) and but rather transcends material commodities. “wohnen” (dwelling) originate from the Things, says Marx, belong to humans’ exter- same reason and same action. To create a nal reality and therefore can be sold (Marx, residence, Heidegger maintains, is to collect 58 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

adjust, transform and assemble materials and this case, it is impossible to separate work, thus make oneself at home (Heidegger 2000: craftsmanship, house and home. All the ac- 52f.). tivities constitute a relationship between hu- Following Heidegger, this means that a man and material which invests the one in home always comprises a practical element, the other. a doing/creating, in that things such as apart- This convergence is, though, an extra- ments or houses must be involved before a ordinary exception. This is partly because home can emerge. Just as labour becomes one does not need to be a professional car- visible in the appearance of the finished penter to build a house or to create a home, product or the completed task, so the home and partly because carpenters build many emerges as a result of the house’s involve- houses that they never come to consider their ment. In this way, home and work belong in own home. the same category, because the home, just as work, is expressed through its product. From Exchange Value to Use Value This is evident in the following interview But if home originates from an investment of with a carpenter who was working on re- activity in material, why then do some things modelling his Koch townhouse: become a home while others do not? In a modern society such as Denmark, la- Interviewer: How do you think it will be when the job is finished? I mean, completely finished. bour is mainly a commodity that, for most Carpenter: Then I will just find something new to people, can be sold. Here, the investment of work on. That’s just how it is. activity in material is working for others. In Interviewer: So you will never be completely other words, when one is a labourer, one finished? gives up the rights to the use of the product Carpenter: There is always something to be done – one produces or the service one provides in you know what they say about craftsmen – no, that’s return for monetary wages. The things the not true, I haven’t compromised with anything, materials or anything, windows or anything, you know. worker produces must be distanced from the One can buy windows that cost half of what these do, worker because it is only through this process but these are super-low energy, soundproofed and so of alienation between the human and the ma- on. teriality that labour and its products can ob- Interviewer: It is important to you to use good mate- tain and attain an exchange value and thereby rials? become a commodity. Alienation does not Carpenter: Yes, it’s important to me. If they’re not change the circumstances of the commodity good, it can cause a lot of extra work. Interviewer: So you have some professional pride in being or being produced by labour, but in the this house? Is your house such that you can say to market the quality alone of the commodity your co-workers, “Look what I've done”? and not the circumstances of its creation form Carpenter: I don’t know. It’s just incredibly impor- the foundation for its value.13 According to tant to me, that the work I do as a craftsman, that I Marx, the commodity’s acquisition of value can vouch for my work a hundred per cent, both at and its appearance of having no creator give home and at work. it the character of a fetish, “full of metaphys- The carpenter uses his time, his energy and ical subtleties and theological caprice” his skills and knowledge of materials in the (Marx 1970, vol. 1:170), in the sense that it remodelling of his townhouse. The home is has a life of its own, while the human pro- created when the carpenter builds, and in ducer is relegated to the background, an- Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 59

onymous and undefined.14 Materiality as tion to commoditization, a product’s trans- commodity is, in other words, torn from its formation to utility product is presented as producer by breaking the relationship be- quite simple in Das Kapital (ibid.). One pur- tween human and material and placing it out- chases a commodity and uses it. side of the realm of production. It is trans- While Marx’s analysis of commoditiza- ferred into the market’s display room, where, tion is both nuanced and detailed, the empir- in the words of the literary theoretician Ro- ical data from Seest and Tarup show that the land Barthes, it is at a distance, detached transformation from exchange value to use from history, and promises change and possi- value is much more complex than that pre- bility in wondering silence. Materiality as sented in Das Kapital. commodity is, in this way, “bien plus ma- How complex it can be can be learned gique que la vie” (Barthes 1957:150). from Family N’s experience. The family’s As a commodity, the house fits easily into house had been so damaged by the explosion Marx’s lens. It is often produced by special- in Seest that the insurance company evalu- ized labourers (masons, carpenters, plumbers ated that a new one must be built to replace and electricians), is bought and sold in a spe- it. Before the accident, the family had lived cific market by a specialized middle-man in the house for five years and had no plans (real estate agent) and, as shelter and protec- to move. After the accident, the house had tion, represents a concrete and fundamental been torn down to make room for a new one, utility product for its inhabitants. which was to be built from the ground up. A Marxist analysis of the house as com- The family had become very involved in the modity reveals how the house, through typol- building of the new house. They had held ogies such as “Skagen house” (Skagen is a meetings with the architect and had, as the small town on the northern tip of Jutland, wife put it, “got just what they wanted.” In known for its distinctive yellow houses), contrast to their old house, the new one, from “Eurodan house” or “master-builder house,” the first brick laid to the number of bath- is alienated from the labour that produced it, rooms, the children’s bedrooms, and the freed from the seller/user by the real estate shape of the garage, was tailored to suit their agent, and takes on the character of a fetish family’s needs.15 They said that they found it through advertising. Thus, housing adver- difficult to adjust to the new house anyway. tisements celebrate the house’s exchangeable “We feel like foreigners, and it’s difficult to qualities, without reference to the subjects fall asleep at night,” Mrs. N said when she that live there. showed me their new home. However, commodities are only com- As stated, Mr. and Mrs. N. have been part modities because their exchange value is ex- of the process of designing their new house pected to be, at some time, removed from the and have been able to ensure that it was ex- market and purchased for use value. This actly as they wanted. They have had an archi- means that, in a modern capitalistic society, tect and interior designer paid by the insur- the process of alienation must have a coun- ance company, and therefore have had no terpart, that being the assimilation of objects limitations as to professional expertise or that are produced by others’ labour. “That their own input in the planning.16 Why, then, triviality (truism) is naturally correct” (ibid., is it so difficult to begin using a new house; vol. 2:271), Marx concedes, but seen in rela- why does one feel like a foreigner in foreign 60 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

surroundings when the residence one has reasons. First, it shifts the ethnographic at- moved into is one’s dream house? tention from Marx’s understanding of consumption as a realization of use value to ex- De-fetishizing Commodities amining consumption as a process towards The answer is to be found in the relationship this realization. Secondly, it indicates a grad- between human and materiality – or, more ual transformation from alienated object to precisely, in the relation-making activity. inalienable condition, which in this case can If an object must be alienated to become a be phrased as a transformation from house to commodity, it must, on the other hand, be- home. fore it can be put into use, be adapted by its To most Danes the house is a commodity consumer who in that process must become before it is a home, which means it is the acquainted with its qualities as a consumable product of alienated labour, and lives its object. This re-establishment takes time and “own life,” according to Marx, as a fetish. includes a mutual adaptation of both human Herein lies the difference between a typical and materiality. One could in fact say that the process of appropriation of a house (e.g. in process is a reversion of the labour process,17 Tarup) and the challenges faced by people in in that the purpose is not alienation but, ra- Seest like family N. ther, assimilation. According to the British anthropologist Appropriating a Townhouse Daniel Miller failing to acknowledge the im- Being a commodity the purchase of the house portance of this process constitutes a prob- ensures the rights to the commodity’s use lematic lack in Karl Marx’s analysis of the value, but that is not the same as its realiza- consequences of the capitalist system (Miller tion. A purchased house requires a transla- 1987:42). The result in Marxist-inspired tion (cf. Miller), that de-fetishizes it, and writings, he argues, is a conjuring up of “a “prepares” it for its consumer. kind of ‘modern human condition’ character- The practice of de-fetishizing differs ized by a sense of loss of authentic or proper from case to case, both individually from identity” (ibid.:44). In order to avoid such buyer to buyer, but also dependent on what alienating consequences of a theory of alien- commodity is being de-fetishized (Pantzar ation, Miller sees studies of consumption as 1997; Löfgren & Wikdahl 1999).18 None- a necessary supplement to Marxist theory. theless, the interviews with owners of town- If we are to understand how a house is (or houses in Tarup showed that there were a is prevented from) being transformed from a number of common de-fetishizing practices commodity into a home, following Miller, involved in the process of setting up a we have to include consumption in our household in one of the townhouses. It is analysis as the opposite process of alienation. normal practice to clean, and often paint and In Miller’s approach consumption is de- wallpaper, a newly purchased or rented resi- fined as “that which translates the object dence before moving in. All traces of the from an alienable to an inalienable condi- former inhabitant are removed in this way, tion” (ibid.:190). In this way consumption is and the first, and often encompassing and not seen as an ultimate state or condition but lasting, personalizing touches are made by rather, as he states, a process of “translation”. the new owner.19 This purification process Making this distinction is crucial for two was fresh in the memories of most of the Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 61

residents of Tarup, regardless of whether “They had two Alsatians out in the front yard. He they had owned their house for a few years was a strange one. He was so damned male chauvin- or since the end of the 1960s. For example, istic, no doubt about it! I can still remember that, even after so many years. He was not at all well liked one father, who had lived in the house for 14 here. He was a member of one of those motorist as- years, said the following: sociations, and he raced up and down all the little It was dark here and the entrance was a path in the streets here at about fifty or sixty [km/h]. No one front yard between some high trees that looked like liked him.” they belonged in a cemetery. That took one morning “Us, on the other hand,” added his wife, “we fitted with a chainsaw, ha ha. in right away.” A single mother who had lived in her house Phasing out the former owners is an important for eight years related the following: practice in the process of establishing a new Interviewer: Do you know who lived here before? home, whether it involves chainsawing, clean- Woman: Yes, there was a family. They had, what ing, or the way one drives one’s car. Moving was it? They had many children – many children. in, de-fetishizing the house, and fitting in are There was only 80 square metres. They lived here all associated with removing traces. with four or five children. Then they tried to sell the place, but couldn’t get rid of it. It wasn’t very well maintained. There were a little, well, they were Facing a New Order slobs. In the case of the residents of Seest, many of Interviewer: What does it mean to be a slob? Woman: The kitchen stove is a good example; if you these de-fetishizing translation practices take the bottom drawer out, there where there are were not available. There were no former baking trays and stuff, there was a couple centi- owners to remove, no dark trees to cut down, metres of sauce that had dripped down there. They and, thanks to cooperation with the architect, had a kitchen carpet that I thought was black – when no walls to move or rooms to redefine. Col- we got the moulding off, it was light grey. We thought the windows were broken, but they just our consultants had been provided by the needed to be cleaned. Everything had to be cleaned. insurance companies, professionals had It was very filthy. painted, installed lighting and shelving, cup- Interviewer: Was it anyone you knew? boards, mirrors, carpeting etc. Woman: No, it wasn’t. They were so filthy that all Furthermore, a great deal of the furnishing the neighbours said, “How did that mother with two little girls dare to move in there?” When I was out in some of the rebuilt houses was also new. looking at the house, I was told that I should look un- The furniture, dishes and decorations of many der the dirt. families (including family N) had been de- 20 One thing that all the households in the study stroyed and the replacements that were pur- in Tarup had in common was that no one had chased were often matched sets. A woman in anything positive to say about the former one new house related the following: residents. Either they were mentioned as One could say that the accident gave us the chance to anonymous entities that had done nothing clean out our things, and now everything matches, as with the house, with disgust and aversion as you can see. For instance, we have bought these new in the previous example, or as downright un- knives because the old ones didn’t match and made it look messy. pleasant. One father, who had lived in his house for In contrast to the majority of household ef- 29 years, had the following description of the fects in their house, the knives were not paid former owner: for by the insurance, but this underscores 62 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

how the house had become a strict taxonomy neither coveted nor comforting. Instead they after the accident, that not only was in oppo- are a source of frustration and a burden to sition to and rejected elements from the old maintain. house, but also dictated new purchases. The An example of this is the coat rack in the new taxonomy originates not from use nor as entrance hall to the house of the same woman a contrast so something previous, but from a who had purchased new knives for the kitch- foreign aesthetic order. This was expressed en. The coat rack was lying on the floor and in several interviews, where home owners had been there for more than two months. confirmed that television programmes, home She explained that this was because, in con- centres, and furniture stores’ advertisements trast to the lighting and curtains, they had to and showrooms had been the major inspira- hang the coat rack themselves. There were tion.21 The fact that the majority of household four screws to be screwed into the wall, but effects were purchased at once, often the neither the woman nor her husband dared do same place and as a set, means a massive it. “Just think if we drilled wrong, or if it number of commodities being taken into use ended up being crooked.” In their previous at once, on such a scale that a context is thus house, they had installed shelving and light- created for the individual items. Thus, the ing and hung pictures. knives were traded in for new ones not be- As a guest, there were two options: either cause they were dull and useless, but because lay one’s coat on the floor in the entryway or they did not match the rest of the household. take it into the kitchen/living room area, In other words, the new knives were not ac- where it could be draped over the back of a quired solely as tools, but as part of a simu- chair or laid on the sofa. In either case, the re- lacrum – a system that has neither place in sult was a conspicuous reminder that one was nor reference to reality.22 a guest disturbing a foreign aesthetic sys- The objects in the new houses in Seest tem.23 have, of course, been purchased for the purpose of being used, the knives must cut, food Home – Producing Relationships by must be prepared on the island in the kitchen, Consuming the World and even the most expensive quarry tiles in Now we approach finding an answer not only the shower must be used for bathing. The to the question of why one can feel like a problem is that use makes a mess, wears stranger in a house that one has actively par- things out and undermines systems of organ- ticipated in designing and decorating, but ization. In this type of aesthetic context, use also why home can refer not only to some- therefore actually harms the system. A mas- thing we inhabit but also to activities, percep- sive acquisition of commodities, then, entails tions and social relations. a risk of a conflict between the residence and The home is a place where use value is residing in the house because the house has brought within reach by the removing its ex- become an object of contemplation. The new change value by pulling, washing, cutting, houses in Seest are in limbo between, on the boiling or screwing it off, etc. (in Tarup, as one hand, the commodity, with its aura of we have seen, this process may even include alienation and allure, and, on the other hand, chainsawing). This reversed and assimilating the home’s realized use value. They are nei- movement from alienated to useful, which ther commodity nor article for everyday use; happens to all commodities whose use value Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 63

is to be realized, can appropriately be de- which practices not only articulate, reflect scribed as leading to internalization. This is and develop, but actually make up the rela- because the ultimate step in the process of tionships to the other inhabitants of the house de-fetishization (or consumption in Miller’s (Douglas 1991:303f.),24 and the house as ma- terms) is, in contrast to alienation, a fusion of teriality. commodity and human. The home grows from these processes, This applies to both things from humans and without examples of these, no home will “external reality” (cf. Marx) and labour. At emerge. The empirical data from Seest illus- home, the result of the cutting of knives, heat trate this very clearly. from the stove and the labour and cooking While others are able to make de-fetishiz- talents of the inhabitants is consumable. The ing and socially establishing manifestations commodity, from being a generalized phe- by lighting candles, de-fetishizing flour, eggs nomenon, for instance in the form of pota- and sugar by merging it into the smell of toes, becomes a concrete feeling of fullness cookies and fresh-baked bread, or taking off in the stomach of a specific subject. the shoes that carry them to market spheres, Internalization is, thus, the opposite of people in Seest are busy maintaining a alienation; it builds relationships instead of fetishized order. breaking them. This is not only the case for This order derives neither from de- the relationship between commodity and the fetishizing activities nor close social rela- individual subject (Miller 2005:44). In the tions, nor does it entail any significant per- process, values and social relationships to ceptions other than experiences of profes- one’s fellow humans, animals and things are sionally defined (fetishized) aesthetics. In articulated, maintained, and developed. This this sense the houses in Seest lack essential is the case, for instance, with preparing food home-making qualities. for the family, which then gathers for the The modern home can, when it occurs, be meal. The meal, through its status as a described as an internalized platform for in- well-prepared everyday meal, favourite dish, ternalization, because it has emerged, in part, or holiday feast, materializes taxonomies, from a de-fetishized and internalized com- aesthetics and values. In other words, along modity (the house), and also, in part, is a the way from alienated commodity to inter- place where a constant stream of commodi- nal condition (e.g., fullness), a series of fel- ties are prepared and consumed. lowships and domains unfold, that, with in- This means that the home is, in most re- ternalization, end in a fusion of very specific gards, the opposite of the commodity and objects and subjects. In this way, one could commoditization. In and of itself, this point say, it is not only potatoes that are consumed has become nearly trivial and has been for- when a meal is ingested, but also markets, mulated in many studies of home and homi- communities, relationships, work practices, ness (Gullestad 1993; Stjernfelt 1996; Löf- tastes, values, etc. gren 2003), but by including de-fetishization This situation not only applies to meals, and internalization as established practices but also to other aspects of adaptation, ad- for the home, the contrast is moved beyond justment and consumption. It is true for gar- being just a stable dichotomy. This is due to dening and yard work, cleaning up, laundry, the focus on the practical, which articulates and a variety of do-it-yourself projects, the intensity as well as the magnitude and 64 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

possible nuances of scale. The home is, in ern Danish home is a practice. Therefore, other words, the result of a series of pro- when one visits houses and apartments in cesses, which according to the preceding Denmark, it is not the homes that can be seen paragraph, constitutes and establishes in- but only the materiality in which they unfold. tense relationships to other people, pets and Understanding home as practice, how- objects (Douglas 1991; Miller 1987, 2001, ever, does not mean that it can be reduced to 2005). mere activity. One can say that home, as re- A home is what is created when consump- ferred to above, is an articulation/representation as translation (de-fetishization) reaches tion of activities and actions made possible its most intense form, internalization, where through engagement with the house (as ma- it reaches its culmination as a state of being.25 terial manifestation). In other words, the When this happens differs, however, from home as a practice occurs in a relationship one individual to another, and the process between a human being and the material can be displaced or endangered. Some can making the latter a constitutive part of the assume ownership of even filthy and home-making process. run-down townhouses and, through cleaning The house is valued and, thus, an object of and decorating, transform them into an inter- attention and activities manifesting it as a nalized home in a relatively short period of home. Valued as a home, it drags and trans- time, while others, despite having dictated forms external (alienated) relations and ob- even the smallest details and having been jects inside its physical boundaries. As such, deeply involved in the process of creation, the house is interconnected to modern Dan- find it difficult to overcome the distance to ish society, not only in opposition to and as a the acquired materiality. refuge from its alienating processes and practices (cf. Gullestad 1993; Löfgren 2003), it is Conclusion also, at the same time, the manifestation of an This article does not portray an ordinary or outreaching and internalizing practice pro- average Danish home. Even if one was to at- ducing – not alienable objects – but the home tempt this, it would be hardly be possible to owner him/herself as a moral and social be- present such a home, as it is a question of ing capable of engagement in relationship qualitative relationships rather than quantifi- making activities. able units. If one were to try anyway, such a portrayal would most likely differ from most Mark Vacher Danes’ experience of a unique connection Ph.D., Dept. of Ethnology, SAXO Institute between themselves and the materiality they Copenhagen University Njalsgade 80 refer to as their home. DK-2300 Copenhagen S What the examples from Seest and Tarup e-mail: [email protected] have been useful for is, as the sociologist Max Weber states, to “point in the direction Notes of a hypothesis” (Weber 2000:199), by pro- 1 The project Housing in Time and Space was car- viding some clear empirical examples that ried out from 2005 to 2006 by the anthropolo- indicate a general and versatile frame of ex- gists Kirsten Marie Raahauge, Inger Sjørslev and Mark Vacher from the Department of An- planation. thropology at Copenhagen University under the The empirical data suggest that the mod- Centre for Housing and Welfare and financed by Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 65

the Realdania Foundation. As a result of the payment, buys the right to lock the door and project’s focus on home ownership, the data col- control access to the home. Nonetheless, owner- lection took place in privately owned single ship signals greater control over the home. Thus family houses, but, in principle, the analysis of it was precisely freedom from the collective that, home and materiality is valid also for apart- according to J.P. Koch, distinguished the town- ments, rented housing or any other physical enti- houses in Tarup. ty inhabitants would refer to as their home. 11 It is striking, for example, that the home cannot 2 That the home is perceived as secure and stable be turned into a commodity. It is not the home is evident in everyday language, expressions and that changes hands in a housing transaction, but metaphors. This is the case not only in Denmark precisely that – the housing. but generally also in Scandinavia (see e.g. 12 According to the psychologists Ask Elklit and Gullestad 1993; Löfgren 2003; Winther 2006). Keld Molin (2006:3), 40% of the residents in the 3 As part of the project Housing in Time and area suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Space, fieldwork and interviews were carried Disorder) or subclinical PTSD. out in six different locations in Denmark. In ad- 13 The exception is if the creation process is in it- dition to Seest and Tarup, also Sønderborg, Fre- self considered a quality, and thereby increases derikssund, Breddal and Copenhagen (Sjørslev the value of the commodity. Examples of this 2007, 2009). While the empirical examples in are products produced with consideration for this article are taken exclusively from the loca- ecology, animal protection, fair trade etc., often tions visited by the author, the analysis is also labelled with information concerning the par- based on data from the other field locations. ticulars. 4 www.kolding.dk/brand/0032151.asp?sid=32151 14 The analysis of this project of mystification is 5 www.forsikringsoplysningen.dk/Gode%20raad/ one of the returning problems considered in Kolding/Skadetal_nov_05.aspx Marx’s most important work, Das Kapital 6 At www.seestnet.dk, which is a website created (Marx [1867–1894] 1970). The problems of ex- by a self-help group, the following can be read change value, fetishism of commodities and under the heading “Keep an eye on the under- alienation between humans and materiality are ground!”: “Advice for everyone who IN ANY extensively discussed in this book. WAY experiences shifting in the ground causing 15 Other families had previously lived in their old damage to foundations, broken bricks, etc.: Re- house, which is why they had adjusted to an port immediately to your insurance company existing shape and layout. and discuss the case here” (capitalization in 16 There has, of course, been a ceiling for the cost original text). of the project, but the family feels that they have 7 Jens Preben Koch (1917–1996) was a conserva- had a great deal of influence, both during the tive member of Dalum city council from 1958– process and in the result, and have received a 1962, but in 1970 founded the Capitalist Peo- great deal of help from the consultants. ple’s Party, one goal of which was that “Every- 17 Not in the sense of destruction, but in the sense one should be able to own their residence. Taxes of the opposite of alienation. should be reduced. We must simplify adminis- 18 As argued by the Finnish researcher Mika Pant- tration” (Frandsen & Bertelsen 2002:34). zar, new objects entering the market sphere as 8 It must be stressed that the houses are not hand- commodities call for new kinds of engagement ed down, but that the children have moved to not only with consumers but also with other ob- other Koch houses. (In interviews with the elder jects. Therefore, he argues, it makes sense to generation, the possibility of taking over the speak of social histories of artefacts since all ar- house is never mentioned. On the contrary, it is tefacts gaining status as commodities enter pre- assumed that the children will sell it when the existing ecologies/regimes of goods and must be parents pass away.) approached, related to and domesticated by their 9 The magnitude and meaning of the cultural tax- consumers (Pantzar 1997). An example of such onomy that accentuates the home is exemplified a social history is given by the Swedish ethnolo- in the strict taboo surrounding domestic vio- gists Orvar Löfgren and Magnus Wikdahl. In lence, incest and other abuse of children in the their article, “Domesticating Cyberdreams – home. Thus, the thought of the home as the op- Technology and Everyday Life” (1999), they posite of cosy, secure and warm is irreconcilable provide an interesting cultural analysis of the with conceptions of the phenomenon. domestication of communication technology in 10 In this context, owner and renter are not distin- Sweden. Although domestication seems like an guished, as the renter, through his or her rent obvious term to use when analysing houses and 66 Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes

homes, it refers to a “domus”, without defining analyses meals and other social activities related the nature of this house/home. Therefore I pre- to consumption within the home as moments of fer, in the present analysis, to use the term potential domination and restrictive socializa- de-fetishization because it refers to Marx’s use tion. This aspect of home is rarely articulated of the term fetish. during interviews or when referring to home as a 19 In both Seest and Tarup, the overriding trend value. Nevertheless, she states, “This is how the was that large renovations – such as layout, home works. Even its most altruistic and suc- changing rooms with other inhabitants and alter- cessful versions exert a tyrannous control over ing the function of a room – generally happen in mind and body” (ibid.). concert with major upheaval in the lives of the 25 That it is actually an inalienable state of being is inhabitants (e.g. death, divorce and when chil- evident from the fact that home is something one dren move out). Simultaneously, the statement, can be, comparable to being full, sad, secure, etc. “when something happens to my home, it happens to me” can be turned around, becoming instead “when something happens to me, it hap- References pens to my home”. This emphasizes again the Barthes, Roland 1957: Mythologies. Paris: Editions fundamental connection between inhabitants du Seuil. and residence – or, in other words, between hu- Baudrillard, Jean 1988: Jean Baudrillard, Selected man and materiality. Writings, ed. Mark Poster. Stanford: Stanford Uni- 20 Even in the houses that had survived the acci- versity Press. dent, the pressure from the explosions had shat- Douglas, Mary 1991: The Idea of a Home. A Kind of tered the windows and destroyed household ef- Space. Social Research 58, 1. fects. Thus, there were 654 reported claims for Elklit, Ask & Molin, Kjeld 2006: De psykosociale personal property and household effects følger af fyrværkeriulykken i Seest. Del 1 – Be- (www.forsikringsoplysningen.dk/upload/ boerne 3 måneder efter. http://66.249.93.104/ seest_nov05.gif). search?q=cache:0oPeXtXUPesJ:www.sitecen- 21 This principle dominated not only interior deter.dk/beredskabspsykologen/nss-folder/katbr/ sign, but also the grounds. Several of the resi- Sammenfatning.Seest.beboer..doc+elklit+mo- dents in Seest had spoken highly of a yard that lin+seest&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&clint=safari. appeared in the television programme Hokus- Frandsen, Johannes Nørregaard & Berthelsen, An- krokus. In this programme, a new garden is de- ders Wedel 2002: Tarup-Paarup bogen. Odense: signed by gardeners while the owners are on va- Forlaget Skulkenborg. cation, without the owners’ knowledge. In the Gullestad, Marianne 1993: The Art of Social Rela- episode from Seest, a new yard was built on tions. Essays on Culture, Thought and Social Ac- grounds that had been destroyed, first by fire tion in Modern Norway. Oslo: Universitetsforla- and later by construction. The changes therefore get. were all-encompassing. An important part of the Heidegger, Martin 2000: Sproget og Ordet. Copen- concept of the show is that the yard must be hagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag. finished when the family returns home. There- Löfgren, Orvar 2003: The Sweetness of Home. fore, sodding and plants are used rather than Class, Culture and Family Life in Sweden. In: The seeds. Thus, the yard, like the houses, was not Anthropology of Space and Place. Locating Cul- the product of a long process but rather a master ture. S.M. Low & D. Lawrence-Zúniga (eds.). plan that has its origins in aesthetics rather than Oxford: Blackwell. use. Löfgren, Orvar & Magnus Wikdahl 1999: Domesti- 22 The philosopher Jean Baudrillard describes simu- cating Cyberdreams – Technology and Everyday lacra as follows: “It is no longer a question of imi- Life. In: Amalgamations – Fusing Technology and tation, nor of duplication, nor even of parody. It is Culture S. Lundin & L. Åkesson (eds.). Lund: a question of substituting signs of the real for the Nordic Academic Press. real itself” (Baudrillard 1988:167). Marx, Karl [1867–1894] 1970: Kapitalen. Copenha- 23 This experience of disorganization was in stark gen: Rhodos. contrast to the inhabitants’ hospitable attitude. Miller, Daniel 1987: Material Culture and Mass Not only was I provided with refreshments, but I Consumption. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. also received a gift “for luck” and was driven to Miller, Daniel 2001: Home Possessions. Material Kolding after the interview. Culture behind Closed Doors. New York: Berg. 24 Under the telling heading” Tyrannies of the Miller, Daniel 2005: Materiality. Durham: Duke Home” the British anthropologist Mary Douglas University Press. Mark Vacher, Looking at Houses, Searching for Homes 67

Pantzar, Mika 1997: Domestication of Everyday Life husets værdier. In Hus og Hjem, Tidsskriftet An- Technology. Dynamic Views on the Social Histo- tropologi 59/60. ries of Artifacts. Design Issues 13, 3. Stjernfelt, Frederik 1996: Sted, gade, plads – en naiv Sjørslev, Inger 2007: The House as Moral Value. teori om byen. In: Byens pladser. M. Zerlang (ed.). Practising Gender and Generation in Danish Copenhagen: Borgen. Single-family Houses. Paper presented at the Weber, Max 2000: Makt og byråkrati. Oslo: Gylden- ENHR Conference, Rotterdam. dal Norsk Forlag. Sjørslev, Inger 2009: Kald og drømmestof – Parcel- 68 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place Diversity and the Concept of Place Inclusion and Exclusion Mechanisms among Norwegian City-dwelling Parents By Hilde Danielsen

Introduction mixed area. This quality, which can be la- How do city-dwelling parents use different belled as diversity, is something they hold as conceptions of diversity as a tool in their a unique and positive benefit of living in the children’s upbringing? Diversity is used as city. Like these parents, the other interview- an expression of the city as a place by the in- ees create bonds between place, childhood terviewees constituting the empirical body and identity. The city is seen as an actor in for this article. Guided by analytical concepts the upbringing of the children. They con- of place, I focus on how the concept of diver- struct the city as open and inclusive towards sity governs both inclusion and exclusion strangers, built upon differences. The inter- mechanisms in parents’ organization of their viewees refer to an understanding of the city children’s everyday life. which resembles what has been labelled a The analysis is based upon a qualitative global sense of place by Doreen Massey interview study among parents with children (1994) and others. The ideals the interview- between six and ten years old. They are liv- ees put forward are also close to the ones de- ing in the city centre of Bergen, the next big- scribed in Iris Marion Young’s (1990) classi- gest city in Norway with its 250,000 inhabit- cal essay on city life, where she puts forward ants. During the last 20 years in Norway it the celebration of difference as a normative has become more popular to live in the inner ideal both for cities and democracies. city with children among groups of people The diversity framework has emerged in with resources to choose where to live (Da- all the western countries as a new and posi- nielsen 2006). This change can be under- tive buzz word, linked with progressive stood as part of processes of gentrification ideals (Ahmed 2007:238). The British social where central working-class areas in cities theorist Sarah Ahmed argues that the spirit of are transformed by the middle class both in diversity in the western world switches be- Norway and in the rest of the western world tween a concern with the formation of toler- (Butler & Robson 2003; Hjorthol & Bjørn- ant and democratic national citizens who can skau 2005; Ley 1996).1 This change is also part work with and through difference, and a of a general urbanization tendency that more more strategic use of diversity for competi- children grow up in cities and central areas. tive advantage in the global marketplace Choosing the place to live when one has (Ahmed 2007). In Norway the diversity rhet- children means choosing their childhood. oric has developed relatively late compared The parents I interviewed wanted their chil- to other western countries. Although Norway dren to be affected by the place they live in. contains a Sami population and some im- This couple explains why they moved from migrants, the public image has been of eth- suburbia to the centre of Bergen. nic Norwegians and unity through same- Oda: It could be prejudices on my part, but I feel that ness (Gullestad 2006:41). The national self- if you grow up in a city, you get a much wider hori- reflection on matters of diversity, multi- zon. culturalism and equality hit Norway first in Octavio: Yes, you are more open. the 1990s and then to a larger extent in the Oda: Regarding both culture and people, yes, every- 2000s. Norway has an image of passion for thing, really. And I do want my boy to get that. equality, with its romantic celebration of the The parents say that their children are lucky free farmer as the builder of the nation and to live in a socially, ethnically and culturally the social democratic welfare state as a sym-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 69

bol and provider of equality and sameness. ing many of the same arguments as in de- The Scandinavian countries characteristical- bates over multiculturalism (Ahmed 2007; ly lack a distinction between sameness and de los Reyes & Martinsson 2005; Hylland equality in their vocabulary and use the word Eriksen 2006). The concepts of diversity and “likhet” to stand for both these words (Gulle- of multiculturalism resemble one another, al- stad 2006:170). In the past 20 years these though multiculturalism refers directly to ideals have been challenged by liberalism ethnicity, while diversity refers to many dif- and individualism. ferentiating dimensions such as age, genera- Diversity is now partly replacing equality tion, gender, sexuality and ethnicity. These as a value in Norwegian society, from differ- two concepts imply many of the same logics, ent positions and within different fields of so- alluding to positive values of inclusion and at ciety (Danielsen 2006:175, 2009:47). The the same time involving processes of exclu- state is promoting diversity as a value sion. Instead of solving issues of difference, through its celebration of the national “diver- the language of diversity offers a reorganiza- sity year” in 2008, through the national peda- tion of sameness and difference, resulting in gogic goals for the schools and diversity is new hierarchies. promoted as a value by all the political par- I will explore how the interviewees’ dif- ties in Norway (Danielsen 2009:47). Some ferent conceptions of diversity create differ- parents, as shown in my qualitative material, ent mechanisms regarding inclusion and ex- understand diversity as an important value to clusion in their everyday life. What does di- introduce to and develop in their children. In- versity do when it is used in specific ways? dividual differences are understood as re- How do parents create diversity connected to sources for both individuals and society, and city life as a desired quality to introduce to should be promoted for the common good. their children? Who and what are the others Ahmed suggests that the turn to diversity in their conceptions of diversity are constructed western countries arrived partly as a result of with and against? I argue that diversity is the failure of other terms, especially equality constructed in basically two different ways; (Ahmed 2007:237). When compared to di- “diversity as us”, and “diversity as them”. versity, equality becomes less attractive, as- These two ways of understanding diversity sociated with narrowness and force, and op- are interconnected, but create different logics posed to open-mindedness and freedom. Di- for inclusion and exclusion. The concept of versity is regarded as a more positive term place is a relevant tool to help understand than difference in describing cultural varia- how these mechanisms work when parents tion. The anthropologist Thomas Hylland create their children’s childhood. Eriksen (2006) describes the arguments in European minority debates where diversity is Methods, Presentation of Informants labelled as good and difference as bad, and and Place of Study argues that this rhetoric contributes to hiding The article is based upon qualitative theme differences regarding class and social in- interviews with 13 couples who have at least equality. one child between six and ten years, living in The language and ideology of diversity the central and gentrified parts of Bergen. has been subject to extensive critique within Bergen is often promoted as a gateway to the a western and Scandinavian context, follow- Norwegian fjords, the city of the seven 70 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

mountains with historical roots caused by its I got in touch with my informants by pre- Hanseatic heritage. The centre of Bergen is senting the project at parents’ meetings at very small, geographically speaking. Parts of schools and by using the snowball method. Bergen are made of old wooden houses with The interviewed couples told me about other small almost Italian style narrow streets with families, and were asked to tip me about steps and corners. The gentrification process families both similar to and different from in Bergen, where middle-class people took themselves. All the informants are anonym- over former working-class areas in central ous. I have given them new names and parts of the city happened first in the 1970s. changed details which could have made them Throughout the 1980s and especially the recognizable. 1990s the central parts of the city were trans- Within the framework of place of resi- formed through both private and public ini- dence and the age of their children I also had tiatives and are now regarded as popular some other criteria when I choose who to in- areas for hipsters, families with children and terview. The Danish psychologist Jette Fog older people. (1996:195) says that diversity in the sample I interviewed the couples together be- related to relevance for the problem formula- cause I wanted to focus on the negotiations tion are important criteria for choosing between them, and how they constructed sources within qualitative methods. Living their “us”. I wanted to study the views, cate- near the city centre can mean quite different gories, ideals and compromises the parents things in Bergen. The physical distances be- positioned themselves within and against in tween people with large or small economic their daily work to create their children’s resources are very short; the socioeconomic childhood in the city centre. Individuals are segregation is low compared to what is com- intertwined in societal discourses and the mon in other western cities (Storbymel- context they refer to points to something big- dingen 2002–2003:58). Children from differ- ger than the individual level. Sometimes ent backgrounds meet through the public their way of speaking shows that the inform- schools, and the different families share the ants think that what they say is legitimate, same area outdoors. other times it seems as if they think it is un- The final sample is a result of my wish to usual or controversial. To look for such dif- interview families who lived differently and ferences in ways of speaking is a tool to un- had different backgrounds. The families had derstand what the informants think are dom- different economic positions and different inating ideals, what they see as typical or un- degrees of choice regarding where and how usual. The British geographer Gill Valentine they lived.2 Some had themselves grown up (1999:69) uses the concept of “imaginative in a village, others in bigger towns in Norway generalizations” to describe the way inform- or cities in Europe. The interviewees be- ants often present an idealized or convention- longed to the ethnic Norwegian majority, but al version of their own or other’s behaviour. three out of 26 came from other European The informants have presented, discussed countries. The couples revealed many differ- and challenged such imaginative generaliza- ent views and premises which had led them tions during the interviews and thus placed to live where they actually lived. Some were themselves in relation to a perceived normal- very satisfied with their apartment or house, ity. others wanted to move. Many of the couples Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 71

had had long discussions about where they that ethnologists have had an unfortunate wanted to live with their children; mostly tendency to understand places as ideological they had discussed many other solutions be- concerns rather than questions of practices, fore they decided to live near the centre of the and that places have been interpreted for city. Parents with schoolchildren have often what they stand for rather than what they are chosen actively where to live because they used as. He therefore suggests a new path of are concerned about what school their chil- analysis: dren are attending (Danielsen 2006). They ethnologists seem to be forced to turn their attention often decide to move somewhere they think away from ideas, history, and cultural constructs to- they can stay for a stable period of time be- wards action, material objects and practice. The fore their children start in school, and those question that remains is not what a region is, but how who were not satisfied may have moved from it happens (Frykman 2003:171). the city before their children reach the age of While I agree with Frykman in his concern to six. develop methodologies to understand how The importance of the value of diversity places are used, I find that he constructs a for the interviewees is underlined by the fact problematic opposite between reflection and that diversity was not something I asked action when he describes how to analyse how them about directly, but it was a frequently places happen. He writes as if ideas, history upcoming topic in 11 of the 13 interviews. and constructions are stable things which This value was particularly often put forward are, while action, material objects and prac- when they were asked open questions about tices represent the mobile, what happens. But what the interviewees liked or disliked in the this divide is not definite. Ideas can happen city, what they wanted to protect or expose and practices may be stable. Frykman hier- the children to, and how they experienced archizes this false opposition and places ac- other people’s reactions to their place of liv- tion over reflection before he describes this ing. as a necessary turn in ethnology (Frykman 2003:188). I do not think that ethnologist Place, Inclusion and Exclusion should neglect ideas, history or social con- The concept of place holds many different structs in favour of action, material objects meanings, both as a conception in everyday and practices. These elements are tied to- life and as a specialized analytical tool within gether and give each other meaning. Places different theoretical traditions. The last 20 and the concept of places include materiality, years we have witnessed a growing interest practices and experiences (Berg & Dale in place and space and conceptions with spa- 2004:45). When we ask how places happen, tial associations in both humanistic and so- how they are made, I think we should be in- cial sciences. Since the mid 1990s Scandina- terested in the contexts, premises and ideals vian ethnologists have also thrown them- that contribute to the specific use, interpreta- selves into this field (Frykman & Gilje 2003; tion and reflection connected to concrete Hjemdahl Mathiesen 2002, 2003; Reksten places. Kapstad 2002, 2009). The Swedish ethnolo- The cultural geographer Tim Cresswell gist Jonas Frykman discusses places as a ma- argues that “Place, at a basic level, is space terial ingredient for dreams and fantasies and invested with meaning in the context of how to do research about places. He states power” (Cresswell 2004:12). This is a good 72 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

definition of place because it couples the pro- The geographer Jon May shows through duction of meaning and power, and focuses an empirical study of Londoners how con- on the different structures – material, social ceptions of place can be both inclusive and and cultural – that are relevant in the making exclusive at once. of places. Places are used to define who and Whilst the neighbourhood’s historical associa- what belongs where and when, and they de- tions can support an image of place built around fine who is deviant and outside “the normal” the iconography of a mythical village England, community (Cresswell 2004:13, 1996:9). those same residents demonstrate a desire for dif- This understanding opens for an investiga- ference that draws them towards a more obviously global sense of place (May 1996:210). tion of how ideas of what is good, fair or appropriate are mediated through places. Just May states that it is important to recognize as places are used to structure the normative the multiple place identities people draw worlds, they are also used to question that upon and to consider more carefully the ways normative world (Cresswell 1996:9). in which such identities are constructed. Like Within postcolonial and feministic writ- May, I think that we need to pay attention to ing many researchers have been interested in the way in which such connections are im- how place and space are used to construct agined, and by whom, before automatically differences. The works of bell hooks (1984), assuming that a global sense of place de- Tim Cresswell (1996, 2004), Zygmunt Bau- scribes a more progressive identity politics man (1993), David Harvey (1996), Doreen (May 1996:210). When doing empirically Massey (1994) and Edward Said (1978) based analyses, it is important to find con- show in different ways how spatial concepts cepts that are able to grasp both inclusion and such as centre and periphery, limits and mar- exclusion mechanisms. While places and gins, understood as both symbolic and mate- identities are fluid and created by bonds and rial entities, can give insight into processes connections to other places and identities, where difference is made. Words like inclu- they are also about drawing boundaries and sion and exclusion give associations to place made by shifting contrasts to what they are and space. Ghassan Hage highlights some not. Whether places are dominated by inclu- important dynamics regarding place, inclusion or exclusion is an issue which has to be sion and exclusion when describing the re- investigated both empirically and analytical- lationship between the tolerant and the toler- ly. ated. this power to tolerate is then the same imagined Different Diversities power we are now familiar with: the power to posi- The city-dwelling parents’ ideals for a good tion the other as an object within a space that one place to live in can be expressed through the considers one’s own, within limits one feels legit- notion they often put forward – of the village imately capable of setting (Hage 1998:90). in the city. As typical as the praise of the Hage here points to the power the tolerant cosmopolitan feel, was the value of city life has in defining what rules should apply and as a safe village. The interviewees said that who belongs by being capable of drawing “Everything is so small and close” and “It and executing boundaries within a specific has a village feeling where everybody knows space. Such drawings of limits happen in everybody”. This is a way of having it all; neighbourhoods, in cities and nations. both the closeness and safety of the social re- Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 73

lations associated with the countryside and too different is visible also in next quotation. the hustle and bustle, the social and cultural I received this reply after asking a couple diversity of the city. The cultural infrastruc- why they held up diversity as a positive value ture is seen as exciting and the social life as in their neighbourhood: safe. These two different views of the city, as Hege: Both for myself and my children I think it is a village with close-knit safe social networks good that they see that people are different, we are and as a cosmopolitan open place, also reso- different. If all our friends and neighbours had been nates with different perspectives of places, as academics, they would have been a bit too similar to either permanent, bounded and excluding or us, they would have a bit too similar norms and rules regarding a couple of things. So I think it is only as including, open and flowing. These two positive that my son is friends with the son of the views of place and of the city are combined handyman in the building, because he is such a pleas- through the concept of “the village in the ant man, so nice. […]. So regarding different norms, city”. Maybe it is this dual sense of identity, rules, activities that different families have, because both the country and the city in one, which we are not able to give them all the diversity. They makes the central city areas attractive to cer- have to meet it other places as well. tain kinds of people. The metaphors of coun- The quotation both refers to the idea that “we try and city are produced and then adapted are different”, including us in the conception and put to use in the service of gentrification. of diversity, and at the same time reveals that It is this dual sense of place that gives gentri- those being labelled as different are them. fication its significance as an element in The differences the interviewees appreciate hegemonic practice (Redfern 2003:2362). are not very wide, all being nice people, with The country is associated with security different education and slightly different or- and bounded identities; the city is associated ganization of their family life. The idea of with adventure, emancipation, insecurity and “we are different” refers to a collective of floating identities. This special combination different people, different within certain of place as both international and local can, boundaries (Danielsen 2006:225). as we will see, be achieved through an aes- Diversity is not a fixed concept, which al- thetic gaze on a fantasy level. The city is used lows the word to signify different values. I as a moral showcase for the children, a place found two basically different ways of con- which makes many choices possible and structing diversity when I analysed the inter- legitimate, expanding the children’s view of views. When diversity is understood as them, the world, as a tool for creating tolerant and it is talked of as a skill, a competence in competent children. Place is used to connect handling the others. When diversity is under- the child to a wider world, but it is also used stood as us, it is constructed as a part of the for making boundaries. individual, as in “We are united through our Some of the parents reflected on their uniqueness”. Diversity in this sense is used preference for “people like us” in their close as a tool to create open individuals searching relations, even though they valued differ- for authenticity. The two versions are inter- ences as an important aspect of their neigh- connected, and some interviewees used both bourhood. “We are very similar, though”, of these understandings, as we saw in the “we dance around in the same workout”. quotation above. For the purpose of analyti- This inherently contradictory rhetoric of di- cal clarity and to highlight the different versity as pointing to being different but not premises for inclusion and exclusion mecha- 74 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

nisms, I think it is fruitful to distinguish these it’s not a problem for the children. If I wear purple two versions of diversity and how they work. trousers or don’t go to work in the middle of the day, it is quite normal for the children. When Diversity Is Us: A Tool for Indi- The message is that being different is normal viduality where they live, and the ability to be different When diversity was constructed as a commu- gives the children a safe environment for nity of us by the interviewees, it was made as making many different choices. When mak- a community of people appreciating individ- ing their present home a place of many op- uality and differences as a resource for them- tions, the interviewees make other places less selves and their children. One mother said: attractive, suggesting polarized versions of “Here we have so many individualists that different places (Danielsen 2009:45). Vera you can become yourself. So I think the chil- and Viggo used to live in suburbia outside dren become safe.” Safe in this sense refers the centre of Bergen, and draw on this ex- to being ontologically safe and free, being perience as an identity contrast when they able to choose who you want to be. As Tho- talk about their present life in the city centre. mas Hylland Eriksen points out, there is a Vera: It is more colourful here, there is more accept- turn from safety to freedom as dominant ance for things… values in neo-liberal societies (Hylland Erik- Viggo: Cosmopolitan people, a bit more different culture in the city, like the cultural centre where the sen 2006). The “we are diversity” position children can learn to dance and play African drums. the interviewees are talking from is not a dangerous, stigmatized or sore one. Speaking This picture of the city as a more open- from the position of being black, Sarah minded and cosmopolitan place than sub- Ahmed points out that “Being diversity feels urbia builds upon the connection they im- like one big scream” (Ahmed 2009:47). agine between place and identity. When Writing about young homosexuals, Tone comparing their present and former neigh- Hellesund (2007:38, 43) describes their ex- bours, this contrasting view of place is experienced identity as different as painful, re- panded to give meaning to how they view sulting in a fear of being extraordinary and a people dwelling in these places. wish for normality. Vera: They were very narrow-minded in relation to The interviewees used comparison as what we experience with people today, those we their strategy when they told about the “di- hang around with now. And they were outside the city, a bit prejudiced, other conceptions. Here you versity advantages” their children had grow- have a wider aspect, more tension, and excitement. ing up in the city centre. They usually com- Viggo: than out in the suburbia, blocks and so on. pared with their own childhood in a village, a Vera: They went to the Mediterranean countries, former family life in suburbia or their images same place. of life in these places. Viggo: Same resort, same place, together, it’s not far from Norway. […]. Ivar: The reason why we live here has a lot to do with Vera: Another type of communication develops here, what I do not want my children to experience. Where than we had there. I grew up (in a village), only a few things were too Viggo: Yes. much before it was said that people were different in Vera: There everything is much more finished, here one way or other. And here I find a totally different it’s active, it’s more ongoing, they are more interest- openness towards diverse ways of living, which ating, they are more observant, more open to new tracts me. […]. No matter what we as grown-ups do, things, and then we have a lot of different offers here. Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 75

We have so many exciting elements here, so it be- well-being of the child, were promoted, ac- comes very different. cording to these parents. Comparing their These parents create an opposition between children’s experiences in schools and kinder- being finished, prejudiced and boring as a garten with the former suburban environ- person, and being active, open, exciting. As ment they lived in, some parents also said an example of how the old neighbours were, that their “children were more seen, and it Vera says that they bought the same stuff to was okay to be different, and everybody did the house; their children went to the same ac- not have to agree, or do the same, but it was tivities; you had to do the same thing as your all right” (Danielsen 2006:207) and “I feel neighbour to be included. that here [in the centre] they see the children in another way, the individual, every single Vera: It is not like that here, I feel I can stand for who one” (ibid.). I am. I am appreciated for who I am, but not for what I wear, or buy, or what education and background These city dwellers seek a safe diversity, either, you are openly accepted. It is totally different based upon considerations of what is impor- from what we experienced in the suburbia. tant and what is not, and the centre represents a place they can call home ontologically, a The similar is talked of as disgusting. The old secure place where they can receive confir- neighbours were seen as inauthentic, more mation of their norms as to how people interested in fitting into the community than should behave. Some of the interviewees in trusting themselves and developing their talked about difference as a premise for com- own taste. While promoting the fact that in munication: “Here everybody has a different the centre people are recognized for who they background and different ambitions, but we are, not what they wear or buy, it is exactly still meet in a common arena, everybody can what the neighbours bought for their chil- talk together.” Diversity is primarily con- dren, where they travelled that is used to nected to how individuals are shaped, less show how narrow-minded, boring and far concerned with the influence by social and from curious they were. Aesthetic expression ethnic variation in the city. and consumer choices were coupled to The “we” created is a collection of people morals, the choice of holiday expressing who who are open, exciting, reflexive and able to you are, and for instance how interested you change. Boundaries are made against those are in transgressing a Norwegian communi- who do not appreciate difference and indi- ty. viduality, those who are fixed, too busy These problems were mainly related to copying their neighbours, those – in short – the grown-ups, so I asked if they thought that who are not authentic enough. The meaning this also affected the children. As when talk- of diversity in this sense is close to the con- ing about the grown-ups, they differentiated cept of sameness: “We are part of a diversity between focusing on inner and outer quali- of different people morally united through a ties. They felt that their old neighbours pri- passion for difference and tolerance.” This is oritized buying very expensive and trendy a safe and homogeneous diversity. The dif- clothes for their children, whereas this is not ferences created by us represent examples of considered important for children at all in the the choices children have, the positive possi- city centre. In the centre inner qualities, such bilities in life. Within this thinking, people as psychological development and the should be different in specific ways, playing 76 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

the rules of difference correctly. The others When Diversity Is Them: A Tool for against whom they mark a distance are not Competence dangerous, but boring and narrow-minded; The diversity of city life was created as a homophobic, racist, prejudiced. Suburbia be- stage-set by some parents, where specific comes a symbol of narrowness, similarity groups of others constituted a diversity and inauthenticity. against which they measured their own nor- The British sociologist Tim Butler con- mality. Mona and Mads live very close to a cludes that his interviewees in London form park where the drug dealing in Bergen takes a metropolitan habitus where diversity, so- place, and their children see drug addicts cial inclusion and integration are important walking by their home on a daily basis. Mads elements in the narrative about the place, but commented: “There is nothing dangerous where social exclusivity is the practice (But- about them. Some you recognize and say ler 2003:2471). Respondents associated al- hello to. They behave in a really exemplary most exclusively with “people like us” and way towards us.” While friends and relatives their children associated almost exclusively living in other places have commented that with other middle-class children (Butler this experience must be horrible for the chil- 2003:2483). This metropolitan habitus dren, the couple thinks that it has a preven- values the presence of others – that much has been tive effect on them. seen from the quotations from the respondents – but Mona: Our daughter once said: “I do not want to be- chooses not to interact with them. They are, as it come like that. Why don’t they work? Where do they were, much valued as a kind of social wallpaper, but get money?” So they get a world of thoughts. Other no more (Butler 2003:2484). children coming from outside the centre, their par- To construct acceptance of differences as a ents are very anxious for them, thinking they will be premise for a community does not necessari- afraid. Our children are not afraid, they just walk on the other sidewalk, and it’s everyday life. ly promote the intended or idealized inclusion, but it can also promote the acceptance The children benefit by handling the situa- of different norms of a good life. The praise tions and learning something as well. Many of diversity can be a way to question and ex- interviewees thought it was important to let pand the borders for what is considered nor- the children get used to drug addicts, alcohol- mality (Danielsen 2006:217). To feel that ics and coloured people. Gunnar underlined one is part of a positive diversity, it seems that “In suburbia you can probably live a that the interviewees needed to experience long without seeing drug addicts, drunken that there was someone they felt similar with, people, retired people, and gay people and who could value their individuality. They there probably aren’t any Negroes either.”3 wanted to share their individuality with The suburbia they distance themselves from, others, resembling themselves, but if the is the successful middle-class conformist community became too similar, it became A4-spaces where they imagine people to be threatening. This version of diversity is cre- very similar, in the same phase of life, and ated along egalitarian lines, but carries a with the same socio-economic status. The paradoxical hierarchy. The interviewees perceived risk such an environment poses to value the cosmopolitan air of the city, mark- the children is to create an artificial safe ing boundaries against those who do not fit bubble. Gunnar preferred “to introduce the into the language of individuality. children not only to the dangers of the city, Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 77

but the dangers of society”. He claimed that as being distant from the families and it is to his children were safe because of their a much lesser degree created as a morally knowledge of city life: “Safe in the sense of committed community. Diversity in this naturally sceptical; knowing what is allowed sense is aesthetically exciting, and at the and what is not. I think that is important, to same time does not threaten the inhabitants’ get it with the mother’s milk, instead of fall- feeling of security. This conception posits ing into it.” Possible dangers are portrayed as difference as something the others bring to inevitable by using metaphors related to na- the community, and as something the com- ture. Many of the parents also talked of drug munity can have through the way it accepts, addicts as a natural part of life which the chil- welcomes and integrates such others (Ahmed dren ought to handle. The metaphors related 2007:235). to nature also point to an unavoidable diver- The city-dwelling parents can be accused sity the parents want to show their children of using others as social wallpaper, as Butler and learn to handle. But this is a diversity (2003) puts it, and living in a bubble. Jon they want their children to observe, not really May, who investigated Londoners, empha- interact with. sizes that one should differentiate between a Gunnar: It is natural that parents want to govern their desire for difference and a progressive iden- children’s social life, if it is small millimetres or vast tity politics. He draws attention to the reflex- cleavages. If we had enormous problems with chil- ive feel that characterizes his informants’ dren of drug addicts or prostitutes, we would have to narratives, which points to progressive avoid that, by all means. Then we would be con- ideals, but he observes that the interest in dif- cerned with that. And even though we only have ferences often represents an instrumental small nuances, we are concerned with it anyhow. cultural capital, construed through a tradi- Boundaries are drawn against those who are tional set of hierarchical dualisms. Such made as others, others against whom normal- dualisms are a product of an objectified aes- ity is constructed, as explained by Edward thetic gaze and characterize the gaze of a new Said (1978). This is a possible unsafe diver- urban flaneur. Life in the city centre is part of sity, which has to be held at a certain distance a lifestyle aesthetic that makes it possible to from the children, in the background of their unite different understandings of place at the lives. The others constituting diversity are fantasy level. These fantasies should be ana- frequently used as a pedagogical project to lysed to understand “the parameters of a teach the children how they should not be- more developed politics of space” (May come, not behave. The others are possibly 1996:211). dangerous or unwanted, but are tolerated as The parents want their children to be tol- long as they keep themselves at a distance or erant and open-minded. At the same time, do not pose a threat to the ontological safety they expose clear-cut borders against what is of us. “We” are constructed as the normal not a positive diversity for the children. and dominant. The future citizens are taught When it comes to close social relations, they how to handle the world. This is a less safe want themselves and their children to spend form of diversity than the version where di- time with people who are like themselves. versity represents the “we”, allowing more However, the city-dwellers’ rhetoric of di- possible challenging dimensions. That is versity and tolerance is not empty rhetoric; possible because the diversity is understood the naming of the ideal of diversity does 78 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

something. It produces the ideal of street- pared with their former place of living in sub- wise and competent children. The passion for urban and rural areas. difference can have consequences in the Diversity is given both a beneficial and an daily life of families. When possible dangers ethical value and works to create the city to children are understood as natural, they centre as a more suitable and better arena for can be accepted as a part of life that has to be a good childhood than other places. Handling dealt with rather than just ignored. The lan- diversity can thus be seen as a necessary skill guage of diversity can make people aware of for citizens in the late-modern society, and their own shortcomings, and many parents developing dynamic and open personalities said that they wished their children to over- can be viewed as a goal. Although many come their own narrowness. When claiming studies of Norwegian society claim the the right to individuality through the lan- strength of strong egalitarian values, I argue guage of diversity, this claim can indicate a that this conception is reshaped by the value lack of sense of equality. of diversity. The good place to live in is framed as a place with a healthy tension be- Place, Diversity and Borders tween diversity and safety, securing the in- The most important premises I draw upon habitants the opportunity and right to choose through this article are that both places and their social belonging. The affinity of the ra- identities are fluid and that they are con- tionality of diversity with the values of structed by identifications and connections to late-modern capitalism and liberalism has other places and identities as well as against also contributed to the popularity of the con- contrasts to what they are not. So, to say that cept. places are in principle open constructions is Diversity has many meanings, and some not the same as saying they are inclusive. of the success of the concept may be due to Both places and identities are about marking the different meanings it holds. Diversity can boundaries, even when they are defined as be seen as safe, exciting, dangerous, consti- open, anti-essential and with no quest for au- tuting a community or contrasting a commu- thenticity. The concept of place, understood nity. As Ahmed has shown, quite contradic- as a relational concept, is thus a good tool to tory logics are used simultaneously connect- analyse categorizations and boundaries be- ed to the word diversity; the business model tween people. and the social justice model are used to- Diversity in city life is held up by city- gether, or there is a strategic switching be- dwelling parents as an important ingredient tween them (Ahmed 2007:242). This switch- in order to create tolerant children with the ing involves attaching the word diversity to confidence and competence to meet the other terms that are valued by the interview- world. Insisting on the diversity of city life is ees, such as forms of safety, competence, a way of making the city a morally good skill and open-mindedness. On a rhetorical place for children, in contrast to what the level the concept of diversity is hard to criti- parents see as a commonly held view of the cize or position oneself against because of its city as a bad place for children. The city positive connotations. dwellers feel that diversity adds something Place and the conceptualization of place extra, which secures the community from be- as diversity are used both to include and ex- coming too similar and unifying when com- clude. The interviewees promote a mobile Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 79

understanding of the individual and at the citizens. The links between childhood and same time create borders against those who place can be understood as a spatialization of are not mobile enough. Identity is more and more general norms about how families with more associated with mobility, so strong that children should live. Applying the concept of mobility defines identity (Cresswell 2004; diversity to childhood in the city is a way for Pratt 1999:153). Mobility is associated with parents to create the centre of the city as a a non-essential identity made through identi- legitimate and superior place to live. The in- fication with different others, in principle terviews show how inclusion and exclusion open to change. But metaphors of mobility happen. Issues of boundaries and connec- regarding identity should be informed by the tions are used in complicated ways by par- knowledge that identities always stabilize ents discussing their children’s place of liv- (Pratt 1999:153). Some identities are more ing. City life is presented as a normative ideal mobile and inclusive than others, but all in- because of its association with diversity. The volve exclusion (ibid.). parents feel that they can offer their children Massey’s concept of a global sense of many choices, and thus freedom and security place – a conceptualization very close to my to develop their own open and mobile per- interviewees’ characterization of the city as sonality. As I have shown, however, this diverse, open to differences and with the identity of the city is constructed against cer- possibility of developing diverse identities – tain limits. Cresswell (2004:39) points out does not necessarily produce a hybrid sense that “place is constantly struggled over and of place among those living there. One can- reimagined in practical ways”. This is true not avoid mechanisms of exclusion even for the use and understanding of place at an though one avoids essential and unifying empirical level, but there is also a struggle identities based upon roots. Floating, anti- over the meaning of place as an analytical essential and inauthentic identities are based tool. I think it is important to keep this upon borders. The limits surrounding hybrid struggle open, and to use concepts that allow identities may be constructed along different for the complexity of how place is made vis- borders than those based upon essence, but as ible. the French philosopher Chantal Mouffe puts Diversity is about a variety among people it: that takes some forms and not others. Diver- Every definition of a “we” implies the delimination sity as an expression of place is used for in- of a “frontier” and the designation of a “them”. That clusion and exclusion in complex ways, both definition of a “we” always takes place, then, in a as intended purposes and as unintended con- context of diversity and conflict (Mouffe 1995:326). sequences. It is used for reinventing both Building a “we” will always also include a sameness and difference. We imagine simi- process of constituting others as “them”. larities with others and we imagine differ- Identities are given meaning in contrast to ences. This can happen in progressive and something else, white compared to black, open ways or with prejudice and in cannibal- man in relation to woman, and such identities istic ways (Valentine 1999:58). It may there- are a part of bigger hierarchies. fore be a goal to keep conflicts over limits My aim has been to shed light on reflec- open to discussion (Pratt 1999:156). The re- tions and debates on both the concept of searcher’s job is to make trouble, make vis- place and ideals for the formation of new ible how bonds and limits are constructed, 80 Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place

how sameness and difference are made and Berg, Nina Gunnerud & Dale, Britt 2004: Sted – be- to investigate who and what is excluded in greper og teorier. In: Mennesker, steder og regio- nale endringer, Nina Gunnerud Berg, Britt Dale, specific identity constructions. Hans Kjetil Lysgård & Anders Løfgren (eds.). Trondheim: Tapir akademisk forlag. Hilde Danielsen Butler, Tim 2003: Living in the Bubble. Gentrifica- Senior researcher in ethnology tion and its “Others” in North London. Urban Uni Rokkansenteret Studies 40, 12. Nygårdsgaten 7 Butler, Tim & Robson, Garry 2003: London Calling. The Middle Classes and the Re-making of Inner NO-5015 Bergen London. Oxford: Berg. E-mail: [email protected] Castree, Noel 2003: Place. Connections and boundaries in an interdependent world. In Key Concepts Notes in Geography. Sarah. L. Holloway, Stephen. P. 1 The goal of my PhD With Children in the City: Rice, & Gil Valentine (eds.). London: Sage. Parenthood, Place and Identity, on which this Cresswell, Tim 1996: In Place. Out of Place. Geo- article is partly based, was to analyse how the graphy, Ideology, and Transgression. Minnea- city was shaped and mobilized as a place for polis: University of Minnesota Press. childhood and family life by parents living in the Cresswell, Tim 2004: Place. A Short Introduction. inner city of Bergen. The themes of the PhD are Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. more broadly how the parents organize their Danielsen, Hilde 2006: Med barn i byen. Forel- children’s childhood in time and space, regard- dreskap, plass og identitet. Diss. Bergen: IKK, ing social relations in home and neighbourhood UiB. and how they protect and expose their children Danielsen, Hilde 2009. Byen som oppdragar. Mang- to different aspects of city life. fald, individualitet og kompetanse. In: Barn 1:45– 2 Six of the couples lived in a house (old wooden 69. Norsk Senter for barneforskning. houses in a row), seven lived in flats of different Danielsen, Hilde & Lundberg, Kjetil 2010: Nærmiljø sizes from about 50 m2 to 200 m2, most of them i by. Mellom mangfald og tryggleik. In: Sosiolo- had round 100 m2. Only one of the couples gisk tidskrift 18, 2. rented their flat. Some of them had a long educa- de los Reyes, Paulina & Martinsson, Lena 2005: tion; others had almost no education at all except Olikhetens paradigm och några följdfrågor. In for elementary school. Most of them had some Olikhetens paradigm. Intersektionella perspektiv education, between three and six years of educa- på o(jäm)likhetsskapande, Paulina de los Reyes & tion after high school. Only two of the families Lena Martinsson (eds.). Lund: Studentlitteratur. had a garden, seven of them had a public area Eriksen, Thomas Hylland 2006: Diversity verses outdoors, a park or a public space they could use Difference. Neo-Liberalism in the Minority De- together with their neighbours. Nine of the fami- bate. In: The Making and Unmaking of Differ- lies had a car, none had two cars and four fami- ence. Richard Rottenburg, Burkhard Schnepel, lies did not have a car. Shingo Shimada (eds.), pp. 13–36. Bielefeld: 3 The paradoxical use of the word Negro in a con- Transaction. text where the informant posits himself as toler- Fog, Jette 1996:Begrundelernes koreografi. Om ant is probably the result of an insistence on the kvalitativ ikke-statistisk repræsentativitet. In: right to use this word related to the broad public Kvalitative metoder i samfunnsforskning. Holter, debate about this word at that period of time. Harriet & Kalleberg, Roald (eds.). Oslo: Univer- sitetsforlaget. Frykman, Jonas 2003: Between History and Material References Culture. In Being There. New Perspectives on Ahmed, Sarah 2004: The Cultural Politics of Emo- Phenomenology and the Analysis of Culture. Jo- tion. New York: Routledge. nas Frykman & Nils Gilje (eds.). Lund: Nordic Ahmed, Sarah 2007: The Language of Diversity. Academic Press. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30, 2:235–256. Frykman, Jonas & Gilje, Nils 2003: Being There. An Ahmed, Sara 2009: Embodying Diversity: Problems introduction. In: Being There. New Perspectives and Paradoxes for Black Feminists. In: Race, Eth- on Phenomenology and the Analysis of Culture. nicity and Education. London: Routledge. Jonas Frykman & Nils Gilje (eds.). Lund: Nordic Bauman, Zygmunt 1993: Postmodern Ethics. Ox- Academic Press. ford: Blackwell. Gullestad, Marianne 2006: Plausible Prejudice. Eve- Hilde Danielsen, Diversity and the Concept of Place 81

ryday Experiences and Social Images of Nation, Massey, Doreen 1994: Space, Place and Gender. Culture and Race. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hage, Ghassan 1998: White Nation. Fantasies of May, Jon 1996: Globalization and the Politics of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. An- Place. Place and Identity in an Inner London nandale: Pluto Press. Neighbourhood. In: Transactions of the Institute Harvey, David 1996: Justice, Nature and the Geo- of British Geographers, New Series 21, 1. graphy of Difference. Cambridge: Blackwell Pub- Mouffe, Chantal 1995: Feminism, Citizenship, and lishers. Radical Democratic Politics. In Social Post- Hellesund, Tone 2007: Deadly Identities. Homo- modernism. Beyond Identity Politics, Linda Ni- sexuality, Adolescence and Parasuicide. In: Eth- cholson & Steven Seidman (eds). Cambridge: nologia Scandinavica 38. Cambridge University Press. Hjemdahl, Kirsti Mathiesen 2002: Tur/retur tema- Pratt, Geraldine 1999: Geographies of identity and park. Oppdragelse, opplevelse, kommers. Diss. difference. In: Human Geography Today. Massey, Det historisk-filosofiske fakultetet, Universitetet i Doreen, Allen, John and Sarre, Phil (eds.). Cam- Bergen. brigde: Polity Press Hjorthol, Randi & Bjørnskau, Torkel 2005: In: Stor- Redfern, P. A. 2003: What Makes Gentrification byens boligmarked – drivkrefter, rammebetingel- “Gentrification”? In: Urban Studies 40, 12. ser og handlingsvalg, R. Barlindhaug (ed.). Oslo: Said, Edward W. 1978: Orientalism. New York: Scandinavian Academic Press. Vintage Books. Hooks, Bell 1984: Feminist Theory. From Margin to Valentine, Gill 1999: Doing Household Research. Center. Boston: South End Press. Interviewing Couples Together and Apart. In: Ley, David 2004: Transnational Spaces and Every- Area 1. Royal Geographical Society. day Lives. Transactions of the Institute of British Young, Iris Marion 1990: Justice and the Politics of Geographers, New Series. The Royal Geographi- Difference. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Uni- cal Society. versity Press. 82 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility By Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala

Studies of material culture, the trump card in larger and more complex ethical and moral the discipline of ethnology, became problem- responsibility, partially as a result of the po- atic when the perspective was moved to- litical power shift from the classical politi- wards the contemporary.1 According to Knut cal institutions to new arenas (Asdal and Kolsrud’s (1973) pointed statement, the dis- Jacobsen 2009). We will approach one such cipline would end up being about pure con- arena: the international standardisation. In sumer surveys. But perhaps consumer re- this article we will discuss the relationship search offers the opportunity to bring the between standardisation and the consumer’s most important objective of the Norwegian ability to influence and to make choices, Ethnology research program (Reme 1994) and thus the ability to take responsibility. into the current times? Namely: “The mate- Do consumers have a real opportunity to in- rials as an integral and functional part of the fluence the design of goods through the cultural system” (Kolsrud 1963). standardisation process? To what extent A new interest in these perspectives should considerations of security be priori- raised in 1980s from other disciplines and tised ahead of freedom of choice? What traditions. Anthropologists such as Tim In- happens when standards are not good gold, Igor Kopytoff and Arjun Appadurai enough, or not considered? The examples contributed by understanding biographies are from standardisation in the textile- and the product aspects of things. The new sector. Both examples show that the mass- interest for the materiality had an important produced goods can be used as sources of fertile ground in consumer research. Books knowledge. This knowledge gives a picture like Campbell 1987, Isherwood and Doug- of consumption in several dimensions and las 1979, Miller 1987, and Slater in 1997 makes it possible to relate the linguistic de- gave important rudiments for understanding scriptions such as used in regulatory legisla- the relationship between the social and mation or qualitative interviews to the material terial sides of consumption. Not least, this objects they discuss. applies within clothing research with con- The article is based on two research cepts like lived garments (Miller and Küch- projects that both connect consumers’ expe- ler 2005; Andrews 2005; Klepp 2009). Con- riences, knowledge and practices together sumer researchers Elizabeth Shove and with technical studies of clothes.2 The goal Mika Pantzar are among the researchers that was to get information of how standards point out that all practices have a material could contribute to products that are benefi- side, but this is still an underdeveloped field cial for the consumers. Therefore it was nec- (2005). Some of the problems lie in the fact essary to gain knowledge of practices and at- that the theoretical development has not titudes, as well as the products. Respectively been followed up by similar methodological ethnologist and textile engineering, we have progress. The result is thus that the material combined methods that cover this broad is studied through how the things are spoken field. The projects can be characterized as of. We will here show how methods based truly interdisciplinary. Is it possible that eth- on natural sciences can be used in projects nology tradition of seeing the material cul- that seek to understand such material prac- ture as an integral and valuable part of the tices. culture makes us better able to cooperate Consumers are increasingly given a with engineers?

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 83

Open, Bureaucratic and Time- largest is the International Organization for consuming Standardisation (ISO) with 162 countries By moving from raw materials through represented (ISO 2009). Standardisation processing and then to the finished article, projects are either working towards a new products cross a number of countries, legisla- standard based on a new idea or a proposal, tions and different ways to use and under- or to revise an existing standard. These stand goods. Standardisation is one of the projects are governed by technical commit- most important instruments that enable the tees (TC) at a national, European and global involved parties within the global environ- level. The standards are developed in work- ment to arrive at an agreement. Standardisa- ing groups (WG). The technical committees tion contributes so that bank cards work in and working groups may consist of partici- remote corners of the world, and makes sure pants from business, government, research, light bulbs fit in lamps, even though they NGOs, consumers and labour organizations. were not produced in the same place of the Standardisation work is based on the fol- world. The annoyance that all mobiles have lowing three main principles: Transparency, different chargers will soon be history. A consensus and being voluntary. Some of the new standard is on its way. Standardisation EU-directives are based on what is called helps to make it easier to find safe products “The New Approach”. These will form the which suit their purposes. But in order to basis for the framework-directives in select- achieve this goal, some things must be dis- ed product areas. The Commission of the EU carded. There is great disagreement about gives a mandate that includes guidelines for what constitutes good and safe products, as the standard to be made, and the directives well as how important information should be will then be incorporated into each country’s communicated across language and cultural national legislation. boundaries. The standards are determined in the com- According to The Norwegian Standardi- mittees and not through the political process. sation Agency (Standards Norway 2009; On one hand, the work is open to participa- Throne-Holst 2008), standards are public re- tion. But on the other hand, it is closed. Both sources which contribute to the systematisa- because it is surrounded by a vast bureaucra- tion. They will increase efficiency and simp- cy that requires time to penetrate, but also be- lify. Standards provide guidelines for which cause what goes on is only to a small degree requirements will be set for goods and a subject of public debate. Considering how services, and how the testing or certification influential the standardisation work has been, will be implemented. Most standards are it gets remarkably little attention in the me- voluntary, but some form the basis of EU- dia. directives or national laws and regulations. Standardisation work is done mainly in In Norway, the standardisation work is committees that are trying to reach a consen- organised by Standard Norway, Norwegian sus, avoiding persistent disagreement on im- Electro Technical Committee, and the Nor- portant points. The proposal is sent to all wegian Post- and Telecommunications Au- Member States for comment, and at this thority. National organisations are also mem- point the document is available to the public. bers of international standardisation bodies Then the changes are incorporated, before both at the European and global level. The the proposal is sent to member nations for 84 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility

voting. National votes are weighted based on National Institute for Consumer Research size of population. According to the Euro- (SIFO) has been actively involved in stand- pean voting system, the four largest countries ardization work since 1960s within the field together can have a veto, even if all the other of white goods, kitchen equipments, deter- 25 member states are in favour. gents and textiles. We will now look at two Participation is voluntary and open to all, examples of standardisation processes within but at their own expense. Practically, this textiles, to highlight the relationship between means that participants must have a strong the standardisation work, consumer interests self-interest. Participants are often there to and representation. Both processes have been ensure that their business fulfils the latest re- going on for years without coming up with a quirements for the product or service they definitive result. Kirsi Laitala (SIFO) was ac- provide. However, participants may also tive participant in these groups and initiated wish to influence the standards for the benefit two research projects in order to get new of their own business, or to prevent the devel- knowledge on the areas where the informa- opment of new standards. In principle, con- tion was not available. sumers have the right to have their views put forward and participate during the work When Cotton Nightwear was Nearly process towards standardisation, but most Prohibited consumers lack the knowledge, interest and A new standard for flammability of chil- finance to do so. dren’s nightwear came into force in 2007 ANEC is the interest group for consumers (EN 14878 2007). Behind the standard was regarding European standardisation. The almost ten years of work that was started ANEC coordinates consumer representation, when the Dutch authorities suggested a new, and pays travel expenses for consumer repre- harmonized standard in the field. The Euro- sentatives when certain priority standardisa- pean countries had very different regulations tion issues are up for debate. One problem is for how flammable clothing is allowed in the that few have the technical expertise, and at market. Most countries did not have any spe- the same time hold a position where they rep- cific requirements and the variations be- resent consumer interests. Another problem tween the countries that had regulations were is that consumers do not necessarily have great, both when it comes to the types of common interests. According to the ISO, clothing, test method and limit values. In consumer representatives should ensure that Norway it was prohibited to sell clothing for consumer-related issues such as health, safe- children that ignited very easily and burned ty, construction, ergonomics, quality, reli- fast. In the UK the prohibition applied for ability, comfort, safety aspects, usability, nightwear for both children and adults, and compatibility and interoperability are con- the requirements were one the strictest in Eu- sidered. ISO also points out that the national rope. At first, it sounds positive to have a bit delegates should represent the entire nation’s stronger requirements and not least a com- interests, including consumers. To push con- mon legislation. Reduction in burn injuries, sumer interests further forward on the agen- less national requirements and freer flow of da, more knowledge about what consumers products between national borders are re- think, how they use the products, how they garded as advantages. But when the stand- perceive the information etc. is needed. ardisation group started its work it became Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 85

obvious that it would be hard to reach a con- had most accidents caused by night wear sensus. Some participants thought that re- catching fire. An explanation to this was a quirements were unnecessary, whereas combination of clothing habits and use of gas others wanted them very stringent. Several kitchen stoves with exposed flame. In the UK were questioning whether the number of ac- it is more common to wear dressing gowns cidents could justify such strict requirements, and other night wear as leisure clothing at and what the consequences of these restric- home compared to the Nordic countries. In tions would be. Norway and the other Nordic countries there In order to get more knowledge of the are only few accidents caused by clothing theme SIFO initiated a project ”Fire Hazards catching fire. When it happens, it is often of Clothing Related to Accidents and Con- combined with outdoor activities. The igni- sumer Habits”. In this project clothing re- tion source is then barbecues, fireworks or lated fire accidents were studied in three Eu- bonfire and is often combined with use of ropean countries, combined with representa- flammable liquids. Therefore, more stringent tive consumer survey and flammability test- requirements for nightwear would not have ing of garments (Laitala et al. 2004). effect on the types of accidents we have. Garments for flammability testing were pur- Smoking is another common cause of fire chased in six European countries and tested accidents around the whole Europe. For the according to standard EN 1103 (1995). The nightwear to be especially exposed, the fact results were compared with the suggested of whether it is common to smoke in bed or limits, and showed that the requirements not is decisive. There is no reason to believe would prohibit among other things most cot- that these types of accidents will increase in ton nightwear sold in Nordic Countries. The the Nordic countries where the regulations survey results showed that the knowledge the for smoking indoors are constantly getting consumers had concerning flammability of stricter. textiles was particularly low, and often what A European standard draft with similar they thought they knew was directly wrong. limits as the British standard was submitted The most common incorrect comprehension to comments in 2004. It gave limits for how was that natural materials such as cotton fast the nightwear could burn. However, only were the safest ones and synthetics most people with knowledge of textiles’ flamma- dangerous, when in fact cotton ignites and bility properties could interpret that the limits burns easily, and there is a great variation in would in reality prohibit untreated cotton the flammability of different synthetic mate- nightwear. In Scandinavia it is widespread rials. way of thinking that natural materials are The risk evaluations that the standardisa- good and safe choices. We don’t know how tion group had access to in the beginning the consumers would have reacted to the lim- were mainly based on British data, because ited clothing selection. One option would be the Great Britain is one of the countries with to increase the use of synthetic nightwear; most comprehensive registrations system for another is to use wool, which is a less flam- accidents. A review of accidents related to mable natural material. But because wool is fire showed great differences between Nor- often thought to be itchy and too warm for way, Great Britain and Spain. Surprisingly, this purpose, it would probably not have be- Great Britain with its stringent regulations come a success. The third and most probable 86 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility

alternative is the use of flame retarded cot- tion work is insufficient and is not followed, ton. It would satisfy the regulations, as well and what the consequences of this are for the as consumer’s expectations for nightwear. consumers. The problem is that this solution implies use of heavily degradable chemicals, which is New Standard for Clothes Size Label- negative both for the health and the environ- ling ment. Consumers may also have selected to The next example is from ongoing standard- use other day-wear such as t-shirts instead of isation work where the goal is to reach a the nightwear available at the market, thus common European size labelling system for circumventing the regulations. clothing. Today, several different size desig- The suggestion was voted down, and a nation systems are used in parallel, and the new draft was written, which was based grading systems are based on size tables that among other things to the SIFO report. The are not representative for bodies of today new limits were on lower level, so that only (Schofield and LaBat 2005). the most flammable nightwear for children Size labelling is a voluntary system that is was prohibited. The EU countries have a used to make it easier for the customers to right to keep their own legislation in case it find clothing that fits. As size labelling is not is more stringent than the new EU regula- obligatory, there are no regulations connect- tions. Therefore, in the UK and Norway the ed to it. Size designations systems are the so- old flammability regulations still apply in lution to the challenge of mass produced addition to the new ones. Some countries, ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing. Before the such as Sweden, have drawn back their old industrial revolution and mass production of own regulations and follow only the EU RTW garments the clothes were made to fit criteria. each individual, as it still is done with tai- This is an example of failed standardisa- lored clothing. The need for mass produced tion work, if the goal is considered to be clothing came with the great wars of the common European legislation. Very few are eighteenth century and a lot of the history of satisfied with the new standard, and it did not clothing is closely associated with military receive status as harmonised regulation. At history. The first large-scale scientific stu- present it is uncertain of what will happen to dies of women's body measurements were it in the future, but most likely is that it will conducted in Australia 1926 (Kennedy 2009) be revised (EN 14878 2007). At the same and in the US between 1939 and 1940 time this was a success for the Nordic con- (O'Brien and Sheldon 1941). Men’s meas- sumers’ interests. Our right to select night- urements were already available from the wear would have been essentially worse if military (Aldrich 2007). Development of an only flame retarded cotton was allowed to be international sizing system for clothing start- sold. The freedom of choice is more impor- ed in 1969 and the first international standard tant in this case, as the number of accidents is ISO 3635 for clothes size designations was as low as it is in this case. It cannot be con- finally published in 1977, but it was never sidered that the goal itself is to have safest taken widely in use. The European commit- possible products, but to have products that tee for standardization has adopted a modi- are safe enough. In the next example, we fied version of this standard in to their work shall look into a case where the standardisa- (EN 13402-1 2001), and is now working on Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 87

further to develop a new size designation sys- opens up to label the clothes with various tem (prEN 13402-4). combinations of body measurements, and Today, there are many different ways to the need for an easily understandable and label sizes, and there is great variation be- simple system. tween the different countries. Chun-Yoon To contribute knowledge in this work, and Jasper (1993) and Ujevic et al. (2005) SIFO initiated a Nordic research project on compared size tables from several countries clothes sizes, financed by the Nordic Council and found that there were significant differ- of Ministers. It provides knowledge about ences, even though the clothing would have the relationship between the size designa- the same size designation. tions and clothes’ actual sizes, as well as how There is also a notion of two contradicto- consumers perceive this relationship. The ry forms for deliberate size labelling dispari- project is based on in-store measurements of ties. One is that the fashion industry marks trousers in Norway, Sweden and Finland as the clothes with a little too large size while well as quantitative and qualitative data on they only make clothes in small sizes. The consumers’ experiences of labelling and clothes are small compared to what they are clothing sizes (Laitala et al. 2009, 2010). labelled with and suitable only for thin Also in this project, we used clothes as “trendy” bodies.3 The other, opposite myth is sources in combination with other ap- called “vanity labelling”, which means that proaches. In total 152 different trouser the garments are labelled smaller than they models were measured in two sizes, S and L, actually are in order to flatter the customers giving a total of 304 trousers that were meas- as they fit into a smaller size than their “real” ured in 59 stores. size (Kinley 2003; Ennis 2006; Kennedy Measurement results showed surprisingly 2009). This incorrect labelling will make it large differences in the use of the size labels. possible to continue to use the size the cus- One pair of trousers labelled L could be tomers are used to, even if the weight in- smaller than another labelled S. The varia- creases, or even “go down” a few sizes in tions are greater in clothing for women than some stores. In both of these myths there is for men. Supply of clothing in various sizes embedded an idea that the symbols used in also varies between stores and it is more dif- the labelling have a meaning in itself and ficult to find large clothes for women and thus may have an effect in influencing con- small clothes for men. Consumer survey sumers. showed that there are great problems with the A labelling system can be made as series existing size designation systems. Over 98 % of fixed sizes, where correlation between of respondents said that they experience the various body measurements is given. variations. Less than one percent said that But many people have different combina- they can always use the same sizes. These tions of measures. A system based on for numbers can be interpreted as a clear criti- example small, medium and large is simple, cism of the way existing labelling systems but insufficient for labelling clothes for peo- are used today. ple with body measurements beyond the There is a clear correlation between what most common. The standardisation work consumers say and what measurements of has faced problems with integrating the trousers showed. Women were less satisfied need for a flexible and accurate system that than men and large women were more dis- 88 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility

content than small women. The overweight the body, that is to say a label as a connection respondents had the greatest difficulties in between the body and the body ideals. In or- finding clothes and the clothes that were der to for the new labelling system to work available for them had most disparities in better, it has to take into account these chal- size labelling. Women with normal weight or lenges. weight below normal were more satisfied, The point of departure for the standardisa- had greater range of clothes and these clothes tion work was the industry’s need for a com- were labelled more correctly. mon labelling system, but the research Consumers were discontent with the way showed that this was not that important for the labels were used and the absence of large the Nordic consumers. It was considered to clothes, but not the labelling system itself. be a greater problem that the clothes were not Many felt that it did not matter which label- produced in sizes that fit, and that the exist- ling system was used as long as it was used ing sizing systems were not followed. The re- consistently. The majority (83 %) agreed that search also showed that changing the label- it would be positive to have a common labelling system itself can have positive effect, ling system in all European countries, while because the symbols that are used today are below 10 % preferred the existing systems. connected to associations beyond the com- The study revealed also that clothing sizes munication of clothes’ actual sizes. A new, are not used only as a system to find clothes common European system was welcomed, that fit. The different size codes refer to the but the reasons for the great discontent with clothes that fit bodies with different meas- the existing system were other than the prior- ures. The codes are thus associated with body ity the industry had. types more or less in accordance with current The work with the new standard started in ideals of beauty. 1996 was divided in four parts. The three first Contrary to the myths, we did not find parts were about definitions, body measure- intended systematic inaccurate labelling. ments and measuring methods, and they There was no clear connection between were finished between 2001 and 2004 (EN clothing chains, or stores that market them- 13402-1 2001; EN 13402-2 2002; EN selves for different customer groups, be- 13402-3 2004). The fourth part is going to be sides slightly smaller clothing at youth about the actual sizes and the labelling of stores. The lack of systematic inaccuracy them (prEN 13402-4). It was sent to hearing was the only area where the measurements in 2005, but was not accepted as it was con- showed different results from what the considered to be to difficult for the consumers to sumers told about. understand. The work is still ongoing, and The labelling system is a method of com- the anthropometric studies that are under- munication between the producers and the taken in several countries are important in- consumers. The goal is to find clothes that fit. put. Results from SIFO research were de- This presupposes that the system is based on livered to the working group in the beginning knowledge of consumers’ bodies, and that of 2009. the consumers trust the system. The research shows that none of these conditions exist. In Consumer Representation addition to that, the symbols are connected The two examples have shown that bringing with other values than finding clothes that fit consumer interests into process of standard- Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 89

isation can be problematic. The first prob- sumers had. A common system for labelling lem is that consumers do not necessarily would facilitate trade across national bor- have congruent interests. This was most ders, but to the consumers, this wasn’t seen clearly reflected in the example with flam- as very important. They were more con- mable fabrics. Relatively similar countries cerned about the clothes being made in sizes like UK and Norway had major differences that fit their bodies and that the clothes are in how products are used. What is seen as an properly tagged regardless of the system important provision to prevent serious acci- used. Ensuring that new standards are not dents in one country, is seen a meaningless only more uniform, but are also actually fol- limitation to the freedom of choice in an- lowed, is not within the mandate of the stand- other. Only in Europe there are 731 million ardisation group's work. The example of consumers. The dividing line is not only be- clothing flammability showed that a new tween countries but also between age, gen- common European standard would result in der, class, religion, cultural orientation, etc. substantial inconvenience to consumers, ei- In addition there are challenges that differ- ther in the form of more fire accidents in ent kinds of disability create. When voicing England, or unnecessary use of hazardous consumer interests, knowledge of such lines chemicals in a number of other countries. is important. ANEC finances between 2 and The desire for a common European standard, 6 investigation projects per year, a small put forward by the Governments and busi- amount considering the scope of standard- nesses, was thus in conflict with the interests isation. of consumers. The next issue is who should represent A final concern regarding consumer rep- consumer interests. In addition to organiz- resentation is that it raises very complicated ing and funding, one challenge is that those and complex issues. In both examples, we who represent consumers not necessarily saw that the purely technical problems were have sufficient knowledge required for the the easiest and quickest to solve. When the job. Only people with good knowledge of consumer's interests and ability to under- the flammability properties of textiles stand and interpret information was brought would pick up that the proposed standard into the equation that complicated matters. would practically lead to a cotton nightwear Here the level of knowledge was basically becoming prohibited. Technical knowledge lower than in the standardisation group. alone is obviously not enough, and must be Working on the flammability issue had combined with an understanding of the con- showed that when the knowledge about consumer perspectives that different technolo- sumers' various practices were considered, it gies bring. was impossible to achieve consensus. The Consumers’ interests do not always co- problems relating to size marking are not incide with the interests of other key stake- problems developing a new system, but to holders. The industry, government and con- develop a system that will be both flexible sumers all want a new standard for size label- and accurate, while at the same time easy for ling, but the motives for this were different. consumers to use. The challenges that the new standard was try- In many fields the lack of standards can ing to find solutions for, were only partially be a hindrance to consumer interests. In other in accordance with the actual problems con- fields, new requirements, or too strict re- 90 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility

quirements, could limit the freedom of believe that natural materials are “good” and choice unnecessary. The standards will not harmless, while synthetic fabrics are unfortu- only ensure safe products, but to a large ex- nate and “dangerous”. This fits poorly with tent also the ways manufacturers can com- reality. Among the substances that can easily municate with consumers. A broader discus- catch fire are both natural materials like cot- sion and understanding of the meaning of the ton, and the synthetic material acrylic, while work with standardisation would ensure that fibers such as wool and polyester are more different consumer interests got more atten- fire-resistant5 (Laitala 2005). Preventing action and that the consumers got increased cidents will thus be as much dependent on knowledge about the products and the pro- raising the awareness as stricter rules of sale. cesses behind their design. The example concerning the flammability of nightwear showed how big consequences Knowledge and Responsibility standardisation can have for consumer choice. Consumers should not be imposed with the There is a widespread notion that con- responsibility of ethics and environmental is- sumers have power through their wallets. sues without at the same time being given in- This implies that consumers influence the formation that enable them to take this re- market through what they choose to buy. In sponsibility. The knowledge levels about ap- such an argument, it is easily forgotten that parel and textiles are generally poor among the consumer only choose between what is consumers. The information they are entitled already on the market. They may not choose to is limited to fibre-content and washing in- to buy something that is not offered up for structions. Which chemicals the textiles con- sale. One characteristic of our current pro- tain, what they are made of (apart from fibre) duction system is precisely the strong em- and which measures they have, does not fall phasis on ready-made goods, goods that are into the categories of information that the not adapted to the individual user's needs and manufacturers have to provide. The example desires. This system has made goods cheap about size labelling shows that voluntary la- and readily available, but it has also weak- belling schemes may perform poorly and in ened the consumer's knowledge, influence many cases mislead as much as to guide con- and association with the products. The ex- 4 sumers. Both the cotton itself, and flame re- ample about clothes’ sizes showed that there tardants are products which cause a high de- are great differences between different con- gree of environmental strain. As long as the sumer groups regarding the supply of goods, knowledge about their environmental impact and thus the freedom of choice. Standardisa- is low, and the clothes do not have a content tion work is one of the few arenas where in- declaration, it is very difficult for consumers dustry and consumer interests have the op- to opt out of environmentally harmful prod- portunity to meet. A strengthening of the ucts. consumer interests in relation to this work – The risk of clothes taking fire is not only and commitment to developing other venues dependent on how easily the fabric catches of interaction and contact will be important fire, but to an even greater extent relies on to provide consumers with genuine freedom how careful those who use them are. It is of choice – and thus the ability to take re- common among Norwegian consumers to sponsibility. Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 91

The two examples show that the coopera- its place in the cultural is well worth develop- tion with other disciplines makes it possible ing. to study the artefacts of the industrial society, both as “Result of a stage and in action” Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Kolsrud 1963), and that industrial products Head of Research may also be important sources in themselves, National Institute for Consumer Research if we have the methodologies to interpret Sandakerveien 24 c, Box 4682, Nydalen them. The methods are picked up from inter- N-0405 Oslo national standards for the testing of textiles. e-mail: [email protected] Cooperation between an ethnologist and a textile engineer opens up various perspec- Kirsi Laitala tives where the material aspects themselves PhD Student are given more attention. Compared to pure National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO) ethnological study, the strength here is that and Dept. of Product Design Norwegian University of Science and Technology the clothes are actively taking part as source, (NTNU) here in form of flammability properties and e-mail: [email protected] sizes. On the other side, ethnology has contributed with methods and perspectives Notes where the users’ utilisation and attitudes to- 1 Klepp 1991; Reme 1994; Nord-Nytt 1973:1/2. wards the products are given a voice. Re- 2 The first project was “Fire hazards of Clothing gardless of many big words, practical inter- Related to Accidents and Consumer Habits” financed by EU Directorate General for Health disciplinary research is not a solved problem. and Consumer Protection (Laitala et al. 2004), However, our experiences are very positive. and the second project “Large? Clothing sizes One possible reason for this is that the eth- and size labelling” financed by Nordic Council of Ministers (Laitala et al. 2009). nology’s tradition of incorporating the mate- 3 See discussion of thin, trendy bodies in Neu- rial gives an opening towards the technolog- mann ( 2010) and Rysst (2010). ical disciplines. 4 We refer to conventionally grown cotton, since Ethnology has gained much by drawing organic cotton constitutes only about 1 % of world cotton production. inspiration from subjects with a greater 5 Polyester and polyamide (nylon) have low melt- knowledge about the intangible. Perhaps we ing temperature compared with the ignition tem- have unexplored opportunities for collabora- perature, which means that they often melt and shrink away from the ignition source without tion with those who can truly measure and catching fire. On the negative side, the tem- weigh? This is a research strategy which is perature of the molten material is usually over not only relevant for gaining more knowl- 250ºC which can cause deep burns. edge of consumers in standardisation process or how the results of standardisation are met References by the society, but particularly relevant to the Aldrich, W. 2007: History of sizing systems and ready-to-wear garments. In: Sizing in clothing: environmental impacts which today's ma- Developing effective sizing systems for ready-to- terial culture entails. In a world flowing over wear clothing. S. P. Ashdown (ed.). Cambridge: with goods and the consequences of produc- Woodhead Publishing Limited. Andrews, Janet 2005: Bodywork: Dress As Cultural ing them, all the knowledge and experience Tool: Dress And Demeanour In The South Of that has been gathered about the material and Senegal. Leiden Brill. 92 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility

Asdal, Kristin & Eivind Jacobsen 2009: Å bære for- folkemindeforskermøde, 12.–16. september 1961, brukeransvar. In: Forbrukernes ansvar. Kristin at Ålborg. Asdal & Eivind Jacobsen (eds.). Oslo: Cappelen Kolsrud, Knut 1973: Etnologerna och den materiella akademisk forlag. kulturen – Kommentarer till Karl Olov Arnstbergs Campbell, Colin 1987: The Romantic Ethic and the inlägg. Nord Nytt 1/2:28–32. Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Black- Laitala, Kirsi 2005: Råd om klær og sikkerhet In: well Publishers. Oppdragsrapport nr. 2-2005. Oslo: SIFO. Chun-Yoon, Jongsuk & Cynthia R. Jasper 1993: Laitala, Kirsi, Benedicte Hauge & Ingun Grimstad Garment-sizing Systems: An International Com- Klepp 2009: Large? Clothing size and size label- parison. International Journal of Clothing ing. In: TemaNord 2009:503. Copenhagen: Nordic Science and Technology 5 (5):28–37. Council of Ministers. EN 1103 1995: Textiles – Burning behaviour – Fab- Laitala, Kirsi, Benedicte Hauge & Ingun Grimstad rics for apparel – Detailed procedure to determine Klepp 2010: A study of the relationship between the burning behaviour of fabrics for apparel. By size labeling and actual clothing sizes. In: Nordic European Committee for Standardization. Fashion Workshop Anthology. EN 13402-1 2001: Size designation of clothes – Part Laitala, Kirsi, Rolf Stämpfli, Tiia Ryynänen & 1: Terms, definitions and body measurement pro- Anette Drøjdahl 2004: Fire Hazards of Clothing cedure (ISO 3635:1981 modified). By European Related to Accidents and Consumer Habits. In: Committee for Standardization. Professional Report. Oslo: National Institute for EN 13402-2 2002: Size designation of clothes – Part Consumer Research (SIFO). 2: Primary and secondary dimensions. By Euro- Miller, Daniel 1987: Material Culture and Mass pean Committee for Standardization. Consumption. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. EN 13402-3 2004: Size designation of clothes – Part Miller, Daniel & Susanne Küchler (eds.) 2005: 3: Measurements and intervals. By European Clothing as Material Culture. Oxford: Berg. Committee for Standardization. Neumann, Cecilie Basberg 2010: Fear of fatness: EN 14878 2007: Textiles – Burning behaviour of Eugenics and the body of the fashion model. In: children's nightwear – Specification. By European Aesthetic Ideals and Big Bodies – Collection of Committee for Standardization. Papers presented in Moscow, September 2009, Ennis, Holly 2006: Vanity sizing: The Manufactur- Mari Rysst (ed.). Oslo: SIFO. ing of self esteem. Dialogues@RU: Journal of un- Nord-Nytt 1973: Nordisk etnologisk orienterings- dergraduate research 5:26–37. tidsskrift. Hellerup, Denmark. Isherwood, Baron & Mary Douglas 1979: The world O'Brien, R. & W.C. Sheldon 1941: Women’s Meas- of goods. New York: Basic Books. urements for Garment and Pattern Constructions. ISO 3635 1977: Size designation of clothes – Defini- Washington DC: US Department of Agriculture. tions and body measurement procedure. By Inter- prEN 13402-4 Size designation of clothes – Part 4: national Organization for Standardization. Coding system. By European Committee for ISO 2009: About ISO 2009 [cited 18.12.2009 Standardization. Forthcoming. 2009]. Available from http://www.iso.org/iso/ Reme, Eva 1994: Material Culture as Local Research about.htm. Programme. Ethnologia Scandinavica. A Journal Kennedy, Kate 2009: What Size Am I? Decoding for Nordic ethnology 24:22–37. Women's Clothing Standards. Fashion Theory 13 Rysst, Mari 2010: Looking good and big bodies: (4):511–530. How Norwegians conceptualize body ideals, the Kinley, Tammy R. 2003: Size Variation in Women's big body and suitable clothes. In: Aesthetic Ideals Pants. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 21 and Big Bodies – Collection of Papers presented in (1):19–31. Moscow, September 2009, Mari Rysst (ed.). Oslo: Klepp, Ingun Grimstad 1991: Materiell kultur: SIFO. Selvsagt forutsetning i etnologiens fagforståelse, Schofield, Nancy A. & Karen L. LaBat 2005: Defin- eller uløst problem? Dugnad – Tidskrift for etnolo- ing and Testing the Assumptions Used in Current gi 17 (2/3):103–115. Apparel Grading Practice. Clothing and Textiles Klepp, Ingun Grimstad 2009: Klær, kropp og Research Journal 23 (3):135–150. velvære, hva vil det si å føle seg velkledd? In: Mo- Shove, Elizabeth & Mika Pantzar 2005: Consumers, dets metamorfoser. Lizette Gradén & Magdalena Producers and Practices. Understanding the inven- Petersson McIntyre (eds.). Stockholm: Carlsson tion and reinvention of Nordic walking. Journal of Bokförlag. Consumer Culture 5 (1):43–64. Kolsrud, Knut 1963: Kulturbegrep og arbeidsmåte Slater, Don 1997: Consumer Culture and Modernity. Paper read at I: det 15. nordiske folkelivs- og Cambridge: Polity Press. Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala, Standardisation and Consumer Responsibility 93

Standards Norway 2009: Standardisering 2009 Ujevic, Darko, Lajos Szirovicza & Isak Karabegovic [cited 18.05.2009 2009]. Available from 2005: Anthropometry and the Comparison of Gar- http://www.standard.no/no/Standardisering. ment Size Systems in Some European Countries. Throne-Holst, Harald 2008: Standardisation: Evalu- Collegium antropologicum 29 (1):71–78. ation of deliberative process. NANOplat project deliverable 11. 94 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal Building a National Identity on a Blend of Existing Festive Food Elements By Richard Tellström

Introduction and Background Swedes for use as national symbols in order The Swedish National Day (6th June) was of- to celebrate the recently adopted National ficially adopted in 1983. However, the day Day, and how a sense of national belonging plays a significant role in Sweden’s history. is expressed through food at home or out. In 1523, King Gustav I was elected king on Food is a tool for individuals to create an this day, and the date marks a starting point identity and a relationship to other people, in the process of creating a free and modern which makes it, as Claude Lévi-Strauss put Swedish state. In 1809, the new constitution it, not only something to eat but also some- was signed on this day, and a revised consti- thing good to think with, and importantly: tution was adopted by Parliament in 1973, food can be used as a mediator for meanings again on this very day. Earlier in the 20th (Lévi-Strauss 1966). The accessible values century, the sixth of June had a function as an concerning food expressions to use in this official flag day, but it was also an ordinary process are acquired from a social context, working day. The celebrations have been e.g. family, friends, work colleagues, socie- rather introverted in recent decades, but in ty, and so on, but they can also be introduced 2004 the Social Democratic government pro- from a power level, e.g. government, media, posed that the National Day should be made public persons, and so on (see Bourdieu a public holiday (Government Bill 2004). 1986; Tellström 2006). Recipe books have The purpose of making it a non-working day been used in this process (Appadurai 1988; was to make Sweden more like other Euro- Gold 2007), emphasizing that certain adjust- pean states where the national day is a public ed dishes reflect a particular country’s na- holiday, and also to create a day on which tional identity very well (Bishop 1991; Pil- people can celebrate being (a citizen of) a cher 1996; Higman 1998). free nation. The decision to study food choices, in- The official flag day was originally cele- stead of simply asking people “Do you brated by many local councils. However, celebrate National Day?”, was aimed at around the turn of the millennium the day be- avoiding the political implications of the came an opportunity to hold official welcom- question. In Sweden, admitting in front of ing ceremonies for new Swedes (immigrants other people that you celebrate your nation and refugees) who had acquired Swedish is a complicated matter (see Billig 1995:8). citizenship during the previous year. The po- You are supposed to be proud of being a litical debate about making the National Day Swede, but you should not mention the na- into a non-working day mostly revolved tion. As Giddens (1991) has discussed, the around economic considerations, due to the post-modern identity construction is in con- excessive costs that would be incurred by stant need of new expressions, and food can Swedish businesses. It was decided that Whit be the answer to this constant search. Food Monday should no longer be a public holi- choices are therefore a way of revealing day. The transition in 2005 proceeded how we define an aspect, because different smoothly, as the first non-working National food items and drinks are valued differently, Day was on the same day as Whit Monday. as many researchers have concluded (e.g. Bourdieu 1986; Wilk 1995; Douglas 1997). Aim and Theoretical Approach Investigating food served on the National The purpose of this study is to explore how Day in the context of the family is also one food elements are chosen by ordinary way of studying a familial nationalistic

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 95

identity or what Billig (1995:6–8) calls 2005 and 2007).1 The e-mail sample group “banal nationalism”, and a national unity was chosen with the initial aim of carrying often grows from daily practice, discourse out a fast exploratory study simply for the and the story about the national identity author’s own private interest, as the govern- (Ehn et al. 1993). It is often the food, rather ment’s decision to make the National Day a than the calendar, that defines whether, for public holiday was taken just six months be- example, a day is an ordinary working fore the day actually became a public holi- Wednesday or a non-working festive day. However, the e-mail sample group ex- Wednesday. The food choices indicate pressed such a strong interest in the ques- whether festivities are focused inwards (e.g. tions that the author decided to follow up towards family or friends) or outwards (e.g. the group by expanding the study, and look- on neighbours or, as in this case, on the na- ing further at how celebratory behaviour on tion and the state). Food choices are filled National Day has developed. with national values as Bell & Valentine The author’s own network consists of re- have concluded: “The history of any na- search colleagues, students and friends in tion’s diet is the history of the nation itself” the age group 25–65. The group of respond- (1997:168). Anderson (2006 [1991]) has ents can be generally characterized as a also discussed nationality as a cultural arte- well-educated and relatively affluent group fact of an imaginary political community, with urban academic bourgeoisie meal and food and meals can be understood as ideals (cf. Bourdieu 1986). In this group, cultural artefacts that carry certain values food and drink play an important role in the (Tellström 2006). After Andersson, Lien individual’s own identity, and the respond- has developed the concept of imagined cui- ents are used to reflecting on the taste of sines, with the aim of describing how close- food and restaurant meals and their value in ly nationality and food are linked to each terms of distinction (Finkelstein 1989; other (Lien 2000). The beatification of the Warde & Martens 2000). Using a separate National Day, from flag day to public holi- network of respondents familiar with the re- day, transfers all behaviour during the day searchers’ academic work stimulated the re- to a new reference point in a more important spondents into being (over-)precise in their category (Oliven 1996:15), and in order to reports and this group therefore worked as relate to the day, behaviours and expres- partners of an extensive research team to sions taken from other contexts are reused some extent. and reshaped as a creative invention, which The radio sample group is a more diverse after some years have passed can be called group, being selected from amongst listeners “a tradition” (Hobsbawm 1983). to a food radio programme broadcast on Swedish Radio’s Channel 1, which mostly Empirical Study: Method and Material broadcasts speech programmes. On average, A three-year exploratory study has been Channel 1 is listened to by 11% (approxi- carried out using a questionnaire distributed mately 873,000 people) of Swedish radio by e-mail amongst people in the author’s listeners, mostly aged over 40 (SIFO 2007). own network (e-mail sample group, 2005– An invitation to participate in the study was 2007) and amongst listeners to the Swedish broadcast both before and after the National Radio Broadcasting Corporation’s food Days in 2005 and 2007, but listeners were programme “Menu” (radio sample group, asked to reveal what they actually ate on Na- 96 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal

tional Day, rather than what they would like “festive” is a fluid one, and relates to the re- to have eaten or planned to eat. spondents’ definitions. To ensure that the respondents remem- The respondents’ answers are presented bered what they actually ate, rather than just statistically in the tables below. However, summarizing what they usually eat (Kjærnes percentages are not statistically significant, et al. 2001), the questionnaire was sent out to as the response group is not a random sample the e-mail sample group at eight o’clock the and no research has been conducted amongst morning after the National Day (7th June). those who did not answer concerning their The first responses were received after a few reasons for not participating in the study. The hours, and the rest within one to three days. percentages should therefore be understood The questionnaire consisted of eight ques- as indicative, not absolute. tions concerning what meals the respondents had eaten on the previous day, e.g. what Long Weekend or a Single Day Off dishes and other foods did you eat and was Results in Different Celebrations the food specially prepared or chosen in rela- The National Day’s position in the week tion to the National Day? Many of the e-mail changed during the research period (Table answers contained precise information about 1). The first National Day fell on a Monday what they had eaten, but respondents also de- and was therefore attached to the weekend. scribed in varying detail aspects such as situ- Relatively few respondents made any effort ations that arose during the day, how the to celebrate at all. During the second year table was laid, discussions amongst the (2006), most respondents had the day before guests concerning how to relate to the Na- National Day off, as a day before a public tional Day, and so on. The questions put to holiday is usually a half-working day, or for the radio sample group were shorter: what many people, a full holiday that is regulated did you eat on the National Day and did it rein union agreements. The first occasion on late to the values of National Day in any which the National Day was not actually part way? of a long weekend was in 2007, when it fell A total of 262 Swedes answered the ques- on a Wednesday. The answers indicate an in- tionnaire and the respondents were distribut- crease in celebrations over time, albeit partly ed throughout Sweden, but mostly concen- linked to the position of the National Day in trated in urban areas. The respondents con- the week. The weather conditions also seem sisted of a varied group of people who have to affect the type of festivities (e.g. outdoor cooked for themselves or others and/or been picnic or indoor restaurant) and the dishes guests at meals or dinner parties. The re- that people eat (more cold food on hot days spondents defined the concept of celebrating and more hot food on cold days). National Day in a wide variety of ways, rang- Table 1 shows a group which in marketing from the organization of a major festive ing literature is usually referred to as “early meal with many guests for no reason other adopters”. In 2005, this group was the first to than to meet friends that they haven’t seen in express a new behaviour. However some of a long time, to a small family dinner with the respondents said that they refused to cel- carefully selected food products and table ebrate the day as a National Day, but saw it decorations which emphasize what, in their as a good excuse to organize some festivities opinion, the nation stands for. The concept of with family and friends. In 2007 one re- Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 97

Table 1: The National Day’s weekday and celebrants 2005 2006 2007 Weekday on which National Monday Tuesday Wednesday Day fell (a three-day (a long four-day (just a single weekend) weekend for most day off) people)

Percentage who say they celebrated the National Day 14% 30% 36% in any way (all respondents) spondent commented on the celebrations that Table 2: Celebrating at home or at a restaur- she attended as follows: ant? I was invited to dinner by some friends, “as it’s Na- 2005 2006 2007 tional Day,” they said. A Chinese guest researcher * ** *** was therefore invited and had cooked an excellent Celebrating the nation with Chinese meal together with the hostess. We were all a meal in a private setting, 100% 55% 75% joking about Swedish traditions and this peculiar e.g. at home (National Day new National Day (2007). celebrants) Celebrating the nation with Another respondent tells a similar story: a meal in a public setting at a 0% 10% 20% restaurant (National Day I was at home. Everyone I know sent sarcastic text celebrants) messages saying how “intensely they had celebrated Visiting a restaurant (all 5% 11% 20% the day”. My younger sister saw the day as a good respondents) excuse to eat marinated herring. It was rather chaotic Holding festivities in a in the centre of Stockholm, with many different public setting, e.g. a picnic, 2% 8% 57% neighbourhood party, etc. events that you could go to. Many people where wav- (not restaurant) (all ing small paper flags, which were probably being respondents) handed out somewhere (2007). * Monday. ** Tuesday. *** Wednesday. Celebrating the National Day in Some municipalities organize official wel- Public coming ceremonies on National Day for new When National Day falls on a day that is citizens (e.g. refugees and immigrants) who close to a weekend, it is more likely that the have acquired Swedish citizenship during the celebrations will take place at home. A Na- year. These ceremonies include festive ele- tional Day in the middle of the week leads to ments (e.g. speeches and music), and interna- a tendency for people to go to a public park tional-style buffets are often served with or visit a restaurant (see table 2). types of dishes that can be found throughout A majority of National Day celebrants Sweden all year around in any context. A hold their festivities at home. This is an inter- person attending a ceremony reports: esting mix of people bringing the official Na- tional Day indoors to a private setting and In the City Hall, I ate the food that was served to the new citizens. There were three menu alternatives: then expressing their citizenship and what “regular”, vegetarian and a children’s menu. The the nation stands for in front of their friends menus were written in English. On my plate were and family. “Nation” is a collectively ex- various things such as cheesecake with smoked pressed concept. salmon, baked sweet red pepper with Chèvre cheese, 98 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal

fillet of lamb and salad, blue cheese on dark bread with friends or family on this day, making it with pear chutney, Swedish light bread stuffed with convenient to eat at a restaurant. However, mousse of chick pea, as well as another type of bread. eating food at a restaurant also adds value to The children’s menu was meatballs, chicken shish the meal and gives the day an emphasized or kebab, spaghetti and rice (2007). festive value. When National Day falls in the For some respondents, the National Day cel- middle of the week, going to a restaurant can ebrations have taken place on so many occa- also be a suitable form of entertainment, es- sions (over a period of three years) that they pecially if you do not have much else to do. now consider them to be a tradition, and in However, not everyone has the day off. some neighbourhoods residents gather for People who are on holiday need services and some sort of semi-official celebrations. This food, so this is a business day for many indicates that National Day traditions can de- shop-owners and restaurants. One respond- velop faster in private circles than official ent working as a fisherwoman in central public celebrations. One respondent de- Sweden explains: scribes the celebrations in her own local Sad to say, I didn’t have time to celebrate National community, celebrations that have been or- Day. On the day, we were busy serving our guests ganized in the same way three years in a row, smoked fish and other dishes. I ate a microwaved as follows: ham-and-cheese pie. I didn’t expect to have so many guests on this day; it will probably be one of our “big We had a special 6th June gathering, which consisted days” during the year. It was almost as good as Mid- of newly baked sponge cake, chocolate squares [a summer’s Day (2007). cake], raspberry grottos [a cake], strawberries with whipped cream and coffee. We also had a picnic in The new National Day is of considerable in- the backyard which we shared with other houses, and terest for both the mass media and supermar- we flew the flag on the new flagpole which we erect- kets. The media publish articles on how the ed in 2005, the first year that the National Day was a public holiday (2007). National Day can be celebrated as well as recipes for suitable National Day dishes, However, celebrating a new public holiday while supermarkets publish advertisements in public amongst people you perhaps only for suitable food products and beverages for know as neighbours can create a feeling of consumption during the festivities. The prod- uncertainty. From 2006, one respondent told ucts and beverages promoted are the same as us that she spent the day at a boatyard repair- for other feasts and holidays, e.g. beef, ham, ing the family’s private boat. She had beer, marinated herring, strawberries, etc. brought some sandwiches with her to have There is particular interest in food and bever- for lunch, when another boat owner went ages that can be used for social gatherings shopping for some biscuits and coffee for with friends and family, e.g. picnics or barbe- everyone “because it was National Day”. She cue food in the backyard. continues her story: On an old shed, a Swedish flag from someone’s boat Meals and Dishes on a National Day was raised and we sang the national anthem, but only The food products and dishes chosen by the a few lines because we became too embarrassed in respondents had a celebratory function, but front of each other (2006). were seldom linked to a marked national Many of the restaurant visitors were at the theme. Instead, the food had a festive value same time involved in recreational activities as such through its rarity compared with Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 99

everyday food (e.g. grilled beef instead of were not unusual (i.e., pizza, kebab or ham- minced meat, grilled chicken instead of burgers). chicken pieces or whole salmon instead of Baltic herring is a highly valued festive fish-fingers), or through its being expensive food. It is not particularly expensive and it (more expensive meat instead of cheaper can be eaten all year around, but served as a sausages), or festive food products that can starter at a meal and accompanied by aquavit be found throughout the Western world (e.g. it has been a festive signal since the seven- Italian antipasto dishes, international wines teenth century and still plays a central role in and Norwegian salmon). The choice of dish Swedish festivities. indicates that the respondents emphasize the Even though some of the respondents de- National Day by selecting food from any cided not to celebrate the nation specifically, Western international festive context, not by they used some festive elements that are de- selecting domestic, regional or local food fined as nationally festive food (e.g. herring, products, or festive food that was eaten dur- whole meat and strawberries). A day off ing their own childhood or by their own class work is transformed into a festive day with thirty, forty or fifty years ago. the help of festive food, and the festive food The style of cooking is contemporary is chosen on the basis of a national scale of Scandinavian, based on a French-German festive definitions. tradition and presented in the form of “a The beverages drunk on National Day are proper meal” (Douglas 1997), usually meat, the same as on other festive days. Respond- potatoes, at least one additional vegetable, ents say they drink water, soda, beer, wine or and gravy. The entire meal is served in aquavit. The drinking of aquavit has increased French-style courses with a starter, main and follows the trend to eat more Baltic her- course and dessert. This festive form is one ring when the National Day falls in the middle of two common festive forms in Sweden. of the week (see table 3). Non-celebrants Three-course dinners are served at dinner drink the same beverages as celebrants, but parties, e.g. New Year’s Eve, Weddings, etc. largely tend to avoid wine and aquavit. Otherwise, the buffet-style meal, or a variant of the smorgasbord, is more common and Table 3: The increased popularity of Baltic served at the religious holidays during herring and its companion aquavit as a Christmas, Easter, Midsummer (St John’s) or National Day festive element at larger family parties celebrating birthdays, 2005 2006 2007 christenings, and so on. * ** *** There are three commonly selected fes- Eating Baltic herring, tive food products that occur more frequently marinated or fermented, as a 9% 9% 17% starter or main dish (all in the menus: Baltic herring (marinated, or respondents) occasionally fermented), new potatoes and Drinking aquavit (all strawberries. In 2007, the new potato harvest respondents) 2% 2% 9% was early due to a warm spring, so several re- * Monday. ** Tuesday. *** Wednesday. spondents said that they ate a lot of the first new potatoes because they were rather cheap. As the celebrations amongst all respondents Amongst those who went to a restaurant, tend to have increased during the period under other dishes such as global ethnic fast-food study (see Table 1 above), the respondents 100 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal

have also made use of more distinctive and Table 4: Desserts that hold national values visible emphasizing festive markers. The eat- 2005 2006 2007 ing of Baltic herring, along with aquavit, was * ** *** more popular when National Day fell in the Eating fresh strawberries middle of the week. The drinking of aquavit is with whipped cream or ice 7% 13% 19% cream (all respondents) associated with a more formal etiquette than Eating rhubarb, e.g. as other beverages, as regards both when and rhubarb pie with whipped 5% 9% 7% how to drink it. The etiquette is that a toast cream or ice cream (all respondents) must usually be proposed before the aquavit can be drunk, and sometimes a drinking song * Monday. ** Tuesday. *** Wednesday. is sung by all the guests. The increased consumption of aquavit is in itself an indication of We had one guest and served barbecue food, new po- a more formal celebratory pattern on National tatoes and strawberries. We wanted to have some- Day, emphasizing the day as a festive day. thing with a summer style (it was really hot, so the The most frequently served dessert on weather was very important) and a festive profile. The strawberries were really hard to get in the shops National Day was strawberries (Table 4). – everyone wanted them (2007). Strawberries are valued as a festive summer berry but are more closely linked to Midsum- It is also possible to buy readymade Nation- mer (St John’s) parties in late June. They al Day pastries. A special National Day have now been transferred to the early June pastry was created in 1994 by a commercial celebrations, even though the Swedish sea- promotion organization in an attempt to get son for strawberries has not really started yet, Swedes to eat more fruit. This pastry con- and imported berries (usually Belgian) dom- tains strawberries and oranges, usually dec- inate the market. Rhubarb is another popular orated with a small Swedish paper flag. A dessert, usually served as a pie with custard few of the respondents said that they ate this or ice cream. Swedish cheesecake has histor- pastry, but all bought it readymade from a ically been a popular festive dessert, but is bakery. now regarded as an everyday dessert or Festive dinners at home often lead to snack. A Member of Parliament has put for- left-over food. Making use of leftovers is ward the case for making Swedish cheese- one way of managing the household’s re- cake into a national dish (Andersson 2004). sources economically, but it is also a way of However, the Parliament rejected the argu- making cooking easier in order to focus on ment, as there are no laws governing how di- other things with more value. The use of verse national symbols should be expressed leftovers on a celebratory day gives an indi- (Parliament 2006). cation of how individuals value the day as a Making a rhubarb dessert is more la- normal or festive day. And this pattern can bour-intensive and requires more culinary be followed in Sweden, for example, in skill than strawberries, which are ready to eat 2005 (when National Day fell on a Mon- and may only need rinsing in water. Of those day), one in five served leftovers; the fol- who went to a restaurant, none ate a rhubarb lowing year when it fell on a Tuesday, the dessert, indicating that it is a dish served at figure was one in ten and the same propor- home. One respondent describes their family tion did so in 2007 when National Day fell dinner on National Day: on a Wednesday. The study’s results can be Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 101

interpreted in two ways: firstly, as the day A group of thirteen respondents respond- on which National Day falls gets further ed to the questionnaire in all three years in away from a weekend, the use of leftovers which the study was carried out. This group decreases, and secondly leftovers have too shows much the same festive pattern as the low a festive value to fit in with the in- rest of the group, but perhaps has a stronger creased celebrations. You cannot serve left- interest in celebrating the day, suggesting overs to guests you have invited for a cele- that the study itself might have encouraged bratory meal, as the value of leftovers is too the respondents to celebrate the day. low for such an occasion. One respondent told us about her day (the National Day con- Pre-celebrations cerned fell on a Tuesday): The evening before a public holiday (e.g. We [the family] had food left over from the weekend, Midsummer (St John’s) Eve, Christmas Eve) as we had spent the weekend at our summer house. is important in Swedish festive patterns and As we had to travel home on National Day, we spent is often more festive than the public holiday half the day cleaning the house and the other half (e.g. Midsummer (St John’s) Day, Christmas driving the 400 km back to town. In between, we ate Day) itself. The respondents were therefore leftovers, which consisted of cold smoked salmon, hamburgers, vegetables and pasta (a horrible mixture asked whether they celebrated at all on the but it tasted unbelievably good). We drank milk and day/evening before the National Day. Sever- finished off the meal with what was left of the rhu- al of the respondents said that, when National barb pie (2006). Day fell in the middle of the week, they or- The respondents also stated that, although ganize the same festive celebrations on the the meal was simple and perhaps not as un- day before as they do on a Friday night be- usual as that served on other weekends, they fore the weekend (with some snacks, drinks laid the table with china that has a slightly and more festive food). The festivities were higher value. They also used crystal glass- therefore intended as a celebration of the im- ware, and for several meals the tables were pending public holiday or weekend, rather decorated with a small wooden Swedish flag than as pre-National Day celebrations. or napkins printed with the Swedish flag. One respondent told us about her table-set- Discussion ting when she invited her parents to coffee: Food culture can be understood as the result With the finest coffee service bought in St Peters- of the individual selection of food and drink burg, a flower pot and a little Swedish flag which my products that best carry desired values which parents had brought with them, plus an inherited cof- are to be used in a collective context for the fee-table cloth with embroidery which one of my expression of a self-identity and a sense of aunts made at least fifty years ago and which is used belonging to a society (in a broad sense), but only on special occasions (2007). also to establish boundaries with respect to However, some respondents said that they “the others” (cf. Lévi-Strauss 1966, and Gid- only laid the table with their ordinary every- dens 1991). day plates and glasses. Some even ate their Making the National Day an official pub- evening tea or dinner as a TV dinner, after lic holiday forces most Swedes to take the the official National Day celebrations that day off and makes them part of a national were broadcast on television. “we” (Frykman & Löfgren 1991:30). As a 102 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal

consequence, they must relate to the National The respondents may have answered that Day and act in some way (i.e. celebrate it, ig- they ate certain dishes on National Day to nore it or do something else), but they might emphasize that they had the day off, but they also have to answer simple everyday ques- did not highlight the day’s political meaning. tions from colleagues such as: “What are you A marinated herring was perhaps just a going to do/what did you do on National symbol for the day off rather than a national Day, when we have/had the day off?” The celebratory act, as a marinated herring is answer is not straightforward. All actions sometimes just a marinated herring – a fes- and opinions can be considered as a state- tive sign that can be moved from one festival ment of the individual’s attitude and political meal setting to another with no underlying ideas concerning the state, the nation or his or political national subtext. her own individual national identity, but by In 2005, the first year of the National Day referring to food products, dishes or meals, as an official public holiday, the respondents the individual can avoid an outright political began to take various highly festive valued statement, and instead the colleagues can in- food and drink expressions from their exist- terpret the values behind the meals that the ing contexts and use them in the newly in- individual eats and through them reflect on vented festive context of the National Day. whether or not the person has manifested the The government did not give any instructions day off. Food choices reveal how we define on how to celebrate the National Day, so the an event or an activity, as different food food and drink that the respondents had products, dishes and drinks are valued differ- transferred were re-used in order to resolve ently, as many researchers have concluded. the private festive situation at home as re- The choice between a festive meal and an or- gards how this new social gathering should dinary meal is a signal from the individual as be culturally expressed and understood to what he or she wishes to communicate to amongst the celebrative participants. From others (Douglas 1997; Bourdieu 1986) and as an individual’s perspective, the celebratory a research method, studying the individuals’ discourse of the National Day was resolved practices on a certain day can uncover atti- through a form of everyday practice (Ehn et tudes towards national unity (Ehn et al. al. 1993), and the food and drink that were 1993). Food dishes and drinks are often consumed became “national dishes”, “na- valued from a national perspective and are tional festive food” or “nationally associated well-used expressions of national identity food and drinks” when the people participat- (Appadurai 1988; Pilcher 1996; Higman ing in the National Day meals wanted this 1998), and the national values they carry can particular meal to express their common def- therefore be interpreted. inition of the new public and official holiday. More and more respondents are arranging This indicates that the process of creating the and participating in festive meals on National actual National Day festivities is the result of Day, from one in ten in 2005 to one in three activities in an imaginary framework (An- in 2007. It is important to realize that food derson 2006), as well as the result of a dia- and drink that are defined by the respondents logue and an agreement. It is essential that as festive signs on National Day should not the celebrating participants in a food culture be over-interpreted as also being national setting are of the same opinion as regards celebratory signs in a nationalistic context. which side of the dichotomy the meal falls Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 103

on, for example, whether it is a festive or an and uses the flexibility of the “chameleonic everyday meal, whether it is a celebration nature of the national” (Ehn et al. 1993:271). and a formal event or not, and so on (Douglas Three varieties of National Day food 1997). If the participants do not agree, the in- could be identified; food served at official tention behind the meal cannot be performed. welcoming ceremonies organized by local By acting with certain food and drinks on the councils for new Swedes (official National National Day, the respondents associate Day food), food served at a restaurant themselves with a place and with a legal, so- (semi-official National Day food) and pri- cial and emotional context. Collectively, all vate National Day food, dishes served in a these relations express a national identity private context. The official National Day (Billig 1995). The use of traditional national food consists of dishes served at inter- symbols during the meal is otherwise under- national buffets, and some common, tradi- stated in the private circles amongst family tional festive dishes (e.g. marinated herring, and friends, perhaps being expressed through steak and strawberries). The semi-official the use of napkins printed with the Swedish National Day food consists of restaurant flag or a small Swedish wooden flag placed dishes, i.e. more elaborate servings which on the table. National identity is expressed signal festivity in themselves or restaurant- along with what Billig (1995) has called “ba- style dishes. The private National Day food nal nationalism”. consisted of the same types of dishes served The respondents stated that their festivi- at annual family festivities or on religious or ties had been organized collectively, which public holidays. The difference between the makes the celebrations a point of discussion food served at official welcoming ceremo- as regards how they should relate to the day nies organized by councils (international and guests, friends, family, neighbours, buffet style) and the more common festive working colleagues or simply the individ- food served at home can be understood as ual’s relationship to society. However, indi- indicating that the councils are as cautious viduals do not have to say: “I want to cele- about communicating nationalistic food brate the nation.” Instead, they can simply values as they are about what they do with say: “It’s National Day and we have the day taxpayers’ money; international buffets are off, let’s go and have a picnic.” The National cheaper than common festive food and yet Day as a public holiday therefore supports an still carry festive values appropriate for the identity of doing things together with family National Day. and friends in public in a social setting rather National Day is to a greater extent a rea- than supporting the expression of individual son to go to a restaurant. The increase in values in a closed setting. People are making popularity can be interpreted in two ways: the National Day into a celebration where the celebrating National Day in public has be- value of bringing together family and friends come popular when the National Day falls in is both supported and emphasized by the the middle of the week, people have little else government. In this social gathering, the in- to do and going to a restaurant makes the day dividual borrows nationally associated ex- more interesting. pressions and objects, adjusts them to fit the Many of the respondents served leftovers occasion in which they are to be used, to their family on National Day, but no one presents them to family, friends and guests, served them as a festive dish, to either family 104 Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal

or friends. The reduced use of leftovers be- food and the organization of festive activities tween 2005 and 2007 can be interpreted as indicate an increase in the use of the meal as the development of a more festive and social- a platform for the expression of national izing food pattern and a sign of higher cele- identity, and here an invention, or the con- bratory ideals on National Day amongst ception of a tradition, must sometimes take Swedes. place (Hobsbawm 1983). Through the politi- The study has not clearly demonstrated cal decision to make the National Day a pub- whether an individual’s non-celebratory be- lic official holiday, the respondents have haviour could also be an expression of a na- been incorporated into a contemporary glo- tional and collective standpoint, accepted bal context, and in this context expressed and sometimes promoted by society at large, their individuality (Ehn et al. 1993). They but the ironic tone of some of the respond- have in many respects acted in the way the ents’ answers implies that a national trait government wanted them to when the Na- could actually be that an individual can open- tional Day was made an official and public ly reject the nation without being treated as a holiday in 2005, tending towards activities sort of “national traitor” yet at the same time that Swedes express when they are not work- attend a National Day party. An individual ing, in order to identify themselves with ob- can therefore express both a private relation- jects closer than the distant outside world or ship towards society (family, friends, col- Europe (Oliven 1996:116), for example, leagues) and a public relationship as a citizen through festive patterns, festive dishes and towards the state (nation). These two can be drinks associated with Swedish festivals and very different, sometimes even contradicto- food that the respondents define as “proper” ry, from an outside perspective, but they are National Day food. not different from an individual’s point of view or in a societal context. Richard Tellström A post-modern self-reflexive identity per- Ph.D. spective is apparent when the individual has Department of Restaurant and Culinary Arts to choose how the identity of the day should Örebro University be expressed; at home or amongst friends in P.O. Box 1, public (see Giddens 1991). The food and SE-712 02 Grythyttan drink that are chosen indicate that societal E-mail: [email protected] and friendship relations are emphasized in a more public-oriented perspective, but per- Note formed in a family context rather than in an 1 The e-mail sample group consists of 229 people and the radio sample group of 33 people. In official form. These celebratory expressions 2005, 58 people participated in the study, 53 are an example of a post-modern idiom people in 2006 and 151 people in 2007. In total, where the public and official are privatized, 262 people participated. A small number (13) of and the use of history is made into a practice the initial group of 58 people answered the questionnaire in all three years. at home. The celebratory patterns are still emerg- References ing, and Swedes are exploring what to put Anderson, B. 2006: Imagined Communities. Reflec- into the National Day framework and on the tions on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism National Day festive table. The selection of (rev. ed.). London: Verso. Richard Tellström, The Conception of the Swedish National Day Meal 105

Andersson, M. 2004: Cheesecake as a Swedish Na- bawm, & T. Ranger (eds.). Cambridge: Cam- tional Dish. Bill 2004/05:K378, Swedish Parlia- bridge University Press. ment, Stockholm. Kjærnes, U., Ekström M. P., Gronow, J., Holm L. & Appadurai, Arjun 1988: How to Make a National Mäkelä J. 2001: Eating Patterns. A Day in the Cuisine. Cookbooks in Contemporary India. Lives of Nordic People. SIFO-report no. 7. Oslo: Comparative Studies in Society and History 30: National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO). 3–24. Lévi-Strauss, C.1966: The Culinary Triangle. New Bell, D. & Valentine, G. 1997: Consuming Geogra- Society 22, pp. 937–940. phies. We Are Where We Eat. London: Routledge. Lien, M. 2000: Imagined Cuisines. “Nation” and Billig, M. 1995: Banal Nationalism. London: Sage “Market” as Organising Structures in Norwegian Publications. Food Marketing. In: Commercial Cultures. Econ- Bishop, P. 1991: Constable Country. Diet, Land- omies, Practices, Spaces. Peter M. Jackson, scape and National Identity. Landscape Research Michelle Lowe & Daniel Miller (eds.), pp. 153– 16(2):31–36. 173. Oxford: Berg. Bourdieu, P. 1986: Distinction. A Social Critique of Oliven, R. 1996: Tradition Matters. Modern Gaúcho the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. Identity in Brazil. New York: Columbia Universi- Douglas, M. 1997: Deciphering a Meal. In: Food and ty Press. Culture, a Reader. C. Counihan and P.V. Esterik Parliament 2006: Report 2005/2006:KU24 on Public (eds.), pp. 36–54. New York and London: Rout- Holidays, etc. Swedish Parliament, Stockholm. ledge. Pilcher, J. M. 1996: Tamales or timbales. Cuisine Ehn, B., Frykman, J. & Löfgren, O. 1993: För- and the Formation of Mexican National Identity svenskningen av Sverige. Det nationellas förvand- 1821–1911. The Americas 53:2, pp. 193–216. lingar. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. SIFO 2007: Survey of Swedish radio broadcasting Finkelstein, J. 1989: Dining Out. A Sociology of listeners by SIFO Research International (in Modern Manners. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Swedish): SIFO Radioundersökningar 2007 IV. Frykman, J. & Löfgren, O. 1991: Svenska vanor och Available June 10 ht, 2008 at URL: http://www.si- ovanor. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. fomedia.se/Public/ReportsPdf/2007/ Giddens, A. 1991: Modernity and Self-identity. Self Radiorapport_IV_2007.pdf. and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge, Tellström, R. 2006: The Construction of Food and UK: Polity Press. Meal Culture for Political and Commercial Ends. Gold, C. 2007: Danish Cookbooks. Domesticity and EU-summits, Rural Businesses and World Exhibi- National Identity 1616–1901. Seattle: University tions (Diss.). Örebro Studies in Culinary Arts and of Washington Press. Meal Science, Örebro University. Government Bill 2004: Swedish Government Bill on Warde, A. & Martens, L. 2000: Eating Out. Social the National Day – A New Public Holiday, 2004/ Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure. Cam- 05:23. Stockholm. bridge: Cambridge University Press. Higman, B. W. 1998: Cookbooks and Caribbean Cul- Wilk R., R. 1995: Real Belizean Food. Global Power tural Identity. An English-Language Hors D’oeu- and Local Cooking. Proceedings of the Second In- vre, New West Indian Guide, vol. 72, no. 1 and 2. ternational Conference on the Cultural Dimension Hobsbawm, E. 1983: Introduction: Inventing Tradi- of International Marketing, pp. 240–266. Univer- tions. In: The Invention of Tradition. E. Hobs- sity of Odense. 106 Biographical Notes

Holger Rasmussen 1915–2009 population, especially fishery, became his favourite research field. For his doctorate he studied the rich and varied fishery of Limfjorden, the fiord that cuts through northern Jutland. In the 1940s he travelled around the fiord and acquired first-hand knowledge of the fishermen. Yet it was their predecessors in the time up to 1825 – the year when the fiord was opened towards the North Sea, that was the main topic of the dissertation, as there proved to be a veritable gold mine of information in the archives. It was characteristic of “Ras” that he was equally at home in the archives as out in the field, emphasizing the combination of the two methods. Holger Rasmussen’s studies of peasant society were not confined to Denmark. In 1947 and 1949 he did pioneering ethnological fieldwork in the Faroes. In 1953 and 1955 he was in southern Italy, studying old-fashioned farming methods in Calabria. He had personal experience of peasant culture in Eastern Europe and the Balkans from countless study trips with local colleagues. His broad interests, however, led him to write on many different topics. His list of publications was long Holger Rasmussen, Ph.D., former chief curator, died and his productivity was undiminished after he retired on 6 January 2009 at the age of 93, after a long and ac- in 1985. His great interest in museum history grew tive life in the service of ethnology and museums. naturally out of his practical and administrative mu- Holger Rasmussen took his first degree in 1942 and in seum work. “Ras” participated actively in the nation- the same year joined the Third Department of the Na- wide cooperation between museums of cultural histo- tional Museum, the former Danish Folk Museum, now ry, so it was natural for him to undertake to write the National Museum’s Department of Modern Danish Dansk Museumshistorie, the history with which the History. The National Museum remained his work- museum association marked its 50th anniversary in place for the rest of his life, apart from a break in 1957 1979. In the same year he published a large monograph when he was curator of Odense City Museums, but he about the founder of the Danish Folk Museum, Bern- returned two years later as head of the Third Depart- hard Olsen, who was very close to his heart, and he re- ment, when Axel Steensberg became professor at Co- turned to him in two small books for the centennial of penhagen University. the Open Air Museum in 1997. Bernhard Olsen and “Ras”, as he was always known among Danish col- Holger Rasmussen were similar in many respects. leagues and friends, belonged to the generation of eth- They were exuberant and cheerful people with pro- nologists who came to the subject from a rural back- found knowledge, and both men found museum work ground. He was born on the small peninsula of Reersø and the study of cultural history a fascinating and en- in western Sjælland in 1915, growing up among joyable pursuit. farmers and fishermen. The cultural history of the rural Bjarne Stoklund, Copenhagen

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Reviews 107 Reviews

New Dissertations She writes: “The aim of this book is to examine, in a comprehensive way, the implications the Rockefel- ler Foundation’s activities had in Denmark from ca. 1920 to ca. 1970 and how this led to the develop- The Rockefeller Foundation and the ment of the Danish welfare state and the Danish un- Danish Welfare State derstanding of the Danish welfare states principles” (p. 16). It is an aim that takes its starting point in Henriette Buus, Indretning og efterretning. Rocke- state- and life-mode analysis, focusing on how the feller Foundations indflydelse på den danske vel- social problems in the inter-war period were ack- færdsstat 1920–1970. Museum Tusculanum Press, nowledged as important parameters for the states in Copenhagen 2008. 384 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-635- the Western world. In this perspective the Rockefel- 0582-6. ler Foundation is analysed as a way for the Ameri- can state to try to secure the population in Denmark n The ethnologist Henriette Buus focuses in this for a liberal democracy, at a time when Nazism and book on the influence that the Rockefeller Founda- communism were a real threat in Europe. Buus tion had on the Danish welfare state. The welfare so- raises three important issues for this aim: (1) How ciety began to take shape in the inter-war period was the Rockefeller Foundation’s involvement in- around the Western world, and the Rockefeller cluded in Denmark in the USA and the Danish gov- Foundation, based in the USA, was central for this formation. From the beginning of the 1920s the ernment’s foreign policy in the period from 1920 to Foundation supported many different activities in 1970? (2) What welfare strategies and concepts Denmark that later became crucial for how the wel- were built into the Rockefeller Foundations activi- fare society developed. More specifically, Buus is ties? (3) What significance did these welfare strate- interested in how the Rockefeller Foundation influ- gies have for the development of the Danish welfare enced the expansion of the welfare society in Den- state? mark, with a focus on preventive health care and so- The Rockefeller Foundation had a great many cial research. She does this by analysing both the es- different activities in Denmark, from the beginning tablishment of the Health Visitor Institution (Sund- of the 1920s to the 1960s and overall Denmark hedsplejerskeinstitutionen) and the establishment of hade twenty-five fellowships from the Rockefeller empirical inductive sociology at the Institute of His- Foundation. From these different activities Buus tory and Socio-Economics (Institutet for Historie og has chosen the Institute of History and Socio- Samfundsøkonomi) in Copenhagen. These two in- Economics because this institution had an impor- stitutions are analysed with material that stretches tant role in introducing empirical inductive sociol- from the 1920s to the 1970s. ogy in Denmark. This was a science that was pro- The book is a result of the Danish project “Livs- moted by the Rockefeller Foundation as a realistic former og velfærdsstat ved en korsvej? En kultur- anchor in the political process for planning and teoretisk og kulturhistorisk bidrag” (Life-mode and forecasting. The Health Visitor Institution was pro- welfare state at a crossroads? A culture-theoretical moted by the Rockefeller Foundation to establish and culture-historical contribution), which ran principles for prevention in public health in Den- 1999–2002 and is summarized in a book by Thomas mark. The two cases are presented and analysed in Højrup (2003). Central for Buus, and for the whole chapters 3 and 4. project, is the state- and life-mode analysis. In the In chapter 2 – “From Breeding of Bees to the Ad- book Buus points out that the ethnological state- and ministration of an Empire” – Buus gives a brief his- life-mode analysis has developed from the 1970s in tory of the Rockefeller Foundation and its role in opposition to the empirical inductive sociology that American foreign policy. In the chapter the founda- is a part of the social sciences in Denmark. The tion’s different activities in Denmark and the or- book could in this way be read as a contrary discus- ganization and strategies of the foundation are ana- sion in relation to the dominant perspective repre- lysed. The Rockefeller Foundation was a part of the sented then, and now, by social science. American philanthropic idea to help other countries, The book has five chapters, in the first of which as expressed in their motto: “The Promotion of the Buus presents the aim of the book and its structure. Well-being of Mankind throughout the World, the

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 108 Reviews

Advancement of Knowledge and Science of Man”. lems went from a collective responsibility to a The Foundation became a silent, but important, part- mandate for the individual family to take care of ner in American foreign policy and came to exert an themselves and those closest to them. This was a influence on the development of the European coun- part of the modernization of Denmark but also, tries. In this way it was not a neutral philanthropy Buus points out, an American way of dealing with the Rockefeller Foundation was promoting, but a health problems. The people were to establish way to influence the European countries to move in themselves as healthy, useful in their working life a more liberal direction. and responsible citizens. It was also central that the Chapter 3 – “Social Science in Denmark” – is the state should gather information about people’s first empirical chapter in the book, and here Buus lives so that the information provided to them studies the Rockefeller Foundation’s support to the could be developed and improved. This was a sys- Institute of History and Socio-Economics in Copen- tem using intervention and control of the popula- hagen, a support that started in 1928 and ended tion, but at the same time the principle of the around the 1950s. There were two main goals, ac- Rockefeller Foundation was not to provoke the cording to Buus, for the Foundation’s support of the ideal of personal freedom and the privacy of peo- institute. First, the Foundation wanted to establish ple. It was science that was supposed to legitimize and broaden standardized science in Denmark as re- this public health. In this way the principles of the gards how social problem should be investigated. Rockefeller Foundation were about equality and Second, the Foundation also wanted a partner that every individual having the opportunity to attain could deliver objective and standardized knowledge good health. At the same time, Buus points out, it about social conditions in Europe to America, data was a principle that said nothing about economic that could be used for international comparative equalization, central for the Nordic welfare model. studies. In chapter 5 – “Alignment and Enlightenment” – The historian P. Munch founded the Institute of Buus has a discussion about the welfare-state model History and Socio-Economics in the 1920s. For that the Rockefeller Foundation promoted and Buus Munch it was important that the institution should points out that this model had the constituent fea- perform studies that could match those in science tures of alignment and enlightenment. Empirical in- and that the studies should also have a direct rele- ductive science was central to the enlightenment of vance for the political process. The institution also those conditions that the state needed to develop trained scientists, managers and politicians who knowledge about and change through an alignment later came to have an influence on the progress of of information to the population. The social prob- welfare in Denmark. The institute’s results were lems were translated into a question of public health. also distributed in society through publications, ra- The Rockefeller Foundation’s project introduced a dio programmes and so forth, and Buus points out new principle for the Danish welfare state, a liberal- that the many different activities were an important istic alternative that dominates the world today. part in the establishment of social science in Den- Buus points out how this principle was introduced in mark. the inter-war period and how it was able to develop In chapter 4 – “Public Health in Denmark” – into the Danish welfare state after the Second World Buus describes how the Rockefeller Foundation War. Positivistic social science thus replaced the ex- supported the establishment of public health in perience of generations with science performed by Denmark between the 1920s and the 1950s, and professionals. However, there is a difference, and how public health became institutionalized in Den- that is that the Danish welfare system came to be mark as a part of the Danish welfare state. But controlled and financed by the public. The Rocke- what was the reason, Buus asks, for supporting the feller Foundation’s idea was that the welfare system welfare system of another state? The answer we would be controlled by the state but funded on a find in the Foundation’s motto, to establish public more private level. This is an important point in health as a form of prevention for deadly diseases. Buus’s argument that the Rockefeller Foundation People around the world should have tools so that project did not claim public financing, but the his- they could prevent or resolve diseases that debili- toric situation created this financial form. Today tated them. In this way the views on social prob- many Western countries are decreasing the public Reviews 109

financing to the welfare state, and the question is field work at the “Lyran” health care centre in raised whether the welfare state is shrinking. Buus’s Malmö. The health care centre is understood to em- answer to this is no. The public financing is perhaps body values innate in Swedish culture and ideals. It shrinking, but instead the liberalistic welfare state is is located in a residential area which is described by expanding. In this change there has been a change the author as neither resourceful nor deprived, but from the concept of equality that focuses on level- more of a peripheral, grey area. The suburb served ling differences between different groups in society by Lyran is undergoing a process of change: those – rich/poor, ill/healthy, young/old – to an equality who can, are moving away while lower income concept that ideologically accepts differences in so- groups are moving in. ciety, but focuses on everyone having the same pos- The patients who make use of Lyran’s medical sibilities to exceed their social heritage. services range from the wealthy to the less resource- It is refreshing to read a book about the welfare ful, and their diagnoses range from clear unambigu- society without having to go through the collected ous ailments such as ear-ache or fractured limbs to works of Michel Foucault. State- and life-mode less distinct complaints such as stress, tiredness, fear analysis is a strong theory that manages to stand on and anxiety. The thesis focuses on the staff at Lyran its own. But at the same time, one cannot help won- and their encounters with patients in the latter cat- dering what interesting analysis Buus could perform egory. Through the author’s field work notes of ob- with, say, Foucault’s term governmentality and how servations made at the health care centre, we are different techniques are used to govern subjects in given an insight into the varying degrees of awk- the welfare model that was promoted by the Rocke- wardness experienced during encounters between feller Foundation. There are also some discussions returning patients and the health service. Interviews that are repeated in the book and that could be re- with a number of health workers form part of the removed, especially since the book is already very search material on which the thesis is based, as do long. This is also a book with many photographs but media cuttings. with captions that more or less repeat what is in the The research for the thesis was conducted within text. I would appreciate an ethnology that dared to the framework of a liberal society’s emphasis on in- write a more independent text to the photographs, dividualism, the individual’s responsibility for his/ which can stand on their own and in this way be a her own situation, and current demands on individ- complement to the main text. uals to be mobile, reflective, flexible, and capable of Buus’s book gives us an important and autono- exerting self control: How do people fare if they are mous analysis of the emergence of the welfare so- unable to live up to these expectations? The thesis ciety in Denmark and the changes it has undergone. seeks to investigate the ways in which staff at Lyran In this way it is also a book that gives new perspec- negotiate and understand the bodily consequences tives on how we can analyse and understand today’s of what sociologist Manuel Castells refer to as the welfare societies in the Nordic countries. Buus’s new geography of social exclusion. One of the prin- book is an important step for an ethnology that cipal problems is: what strategies are drawn up to needs to be more concerned with political processes handle encounters with complex patients, the fre- over time. quently callers, the “household patients”? The bur- Kristofer Hansson, Lund densome patients, those who the medical profession fails to help, are not defined on the basis of ethnicity or culture, but rather based on the various ways in which they challenge the services provided at the Encounters with Resistance health care centre and the medical staff’s self-under- Ingrid Fioretos, Möten med motstånd. Kultur, klass, standing. Complex patients are those who fail to live kropp på vårdcentralen. Institutionen för kulturve- up to the health workers’ perception of the good life. tenskaper/Etnologi, Lund 2009. 200 pp. English The field work was conducted over two periods summary. Diss. ISBN 978-91-6287-901-3. of time, the first in 2001, the last in 2006; the author compares her findings from the two periods. The n Ingrid Fioretos’ doctoral thesis in ethnology from chapter entitled “Mellan kaos och kontroll” (Eng.: Lund University is based on an extended period of Between Chaos and Control), focuses on the general 110 Reviews

practice. In 2001, Lyran was a chaotic place, with anything else. A holistic view on disease and symp- staff describing their work situation as disorganised toms is hardly an alternative, unless the medical and frustrating, particularly with regard to complex staff is in a position to find jobs for their complex patients. Five years later Lyran has become a much patients and to write off their debt. Ingrid Fioretos’ calmer place to work, with staff having learnt how doctoral thesis raises an important social issue and to distinguish between the help they are able to give should be read by anyone working in the health and the assistance they cannot provide. They can en- service, particularly bureaucrats and medical per- courage the complex patients to go for walks, take sonnel. exercise, have a healthier diet – but they cannot help Tove Ingebjørg Fjell, Bergen them with their financial problems or their unemployment, which may well be at the root of their fear and anxieties. In 2006 the complex patients are no longer clogging up the waiting room, they are more Sisterhood and Fanzines often found engaged in so-called “talk-walks” ac- Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Systerskapets logiker. En companied by a health worker. This means that they etnologisk studie av feministiska fanzines. Institu- have become invisible as a group and that their situ- tionen för kultur och media, Umeå Universitet 2006. ation has also been obscured. In the course of the 200 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. ISBN 91-7264- five years, Lyran has become a better place to work, 120-7. but hardly a better place for the patients. The chapter entitled “Synen på kroppen” (Eng. Views of the n How is sisterhood defined? How can the percep- Body) gives us, not unexpectedly, an insight into the tion of sisterhood be understood in relation to a health workers’ categorisation of patients based on wider feminist movement? How does one deal with the various parts of the body, and we see that medi- multitude in a movement where one emphasizes a cal examination is only afforded the parts of com- collective political mobilization? Who is included in plex patients in which they report to be feeling pain. this sisterhood, as articulated within the fanzine At the same time, the health workers’ job includes community, and who is excluded? How is “the sub- giving patients a set of “tools” to enable them to be- ject of feminism” defined within fanzines? Is this come well enough to look for work, thereby break- subject represented by a woman, or are there addi- ing the vicious circle. The chapter entitled “Ansvar tional identities that represent this sisterhood? How genom upplysning” (Eng. Responibility through is sex and gender defined in these fanzines? How is Education) gives us a closer look at how responsi- the emancipated subject articulated? bility for patient’s health is shifted away from the These are some of the questions that ethnologist medical profession and onto the patients themselves, Jenny Gunnarsson Payne asks in her doctoral disser- in keeping with liberal ideas about health. Through tation Systerskapets logiker. En etnologisk studie av education and information the patients should be feministiska fanzines (title in English: The logics of given an opportunity to educate themselves into sisterhood: an ethnological study of feminist fan- healthy, competent people. However, the problem is zines). In her doctoral dissertation she studies Swe- that these “tools”, e.g. advice about a healthier diet, dish fanzines. A fanzine is a smaller non-commer- are rarely able to connect with the patients’ every- cial publication, which is generally spread through day reality and challenges, double work or financial other distribution channels than mainstream media. problems. An individualistic society excludes indi- The fanzines that are included in Gunnarsson viduals who are not attractive to the labour market, Payne’s study are all defining themselves as femi- and Lyran’s medical personnel make an attempt to nistic and are produced in Sweden with a strong teach the complex patients how to become well-in- ideal of “do it yourself”. To complement and con- formed, rational, flexible people who are able to ex- textualize the fanzines Gunnarsson Payne has inter- ert self control – i.e. everything a neo-liberal society viewed some creators of fanzine. wants. The staff clearly fails in their mission, as evi- The first two chapters of the dissertation lay the denced by the fact that the complex patients keep re- foundation for the study in terms of purpose, prob- turning to the health care centre. The question is lems, historical background, research context, theor- whether Lyran’s medical personnel could have done etical starting points, strategies for analysis and a Reviews 111

presentation of the empirical material. In the follow- even if this very name comes to be articulated in, ing chapters different particular problems and theor- sometimes radically, different forms. etical concepts in connection to the material is dis- The book Systerskapets logiker. En etnologisk cussed and analyzed. These consist of discussions studie av feministiska fanzines is interesting in sev- about creating a room of one’s own, objectification, eral ways. During the 1990s and 2000s feminist fan- oppression, feministic strategies for resistance, re- zines in Sweden have undergone a substantional up- flexivity and the feministic research position, all of swing. The material and research topic is contem- them in relation to the concept sisterhood. Central in porary and it keeps being of current interest several the whole book is feminism, theories about gender years after the doctoral dissertation was completed and reflexivity. Theoretically, Jenny Gunnarsson and published. The dissertation can also be seen as Payne leans heavily towards the post-Marxist dis- an interdisciplinary study and interesting for ethnol- course theory of Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto La- ogists, gender researchers and sociologists, to name clau. On the basis of post-Marxist discourse theory a few. The dissertation is particularly of interest behave the other perspectives been integrated and ad- cause of Gunnarsson Payne’s reflexive perspective justed to the dissertation’s problem formulation and throughout the dissertation. The dissertation is a empirical material. Gunnarsson Payne writes: the meta-analysis of the conduct of one’s own research study is fundamentally an experiment in the applica- process. A feminist researcher studies a feminist tion of discourse theory. And it really is. The author movement that the researcher has been or is a part does not merely present the fanzines as numerous of, for example several informants address the re- interlocking discourses, but try to reveal the more searcher as ‘Sister’. Gunnarsson Payne discusses general. Most central in the doctoral dissertation is how the feminist researcher cannot stay away from ‘sisterhood’, which is both used by the creators of being a part of the same hegemonic struggle she or fanzines in the interviews and used by Gunnarsson he studies. In regard of the discussion about reflex- Payne as an analytical instrument. Connected to the ivity the author suggests two conceptual definitions. theoretical concept ‘sisterhood’ she uses the concept She contend that representation is commonly under- ‘communitas’, to illustrate a sense of community stood as a matter of Vertretung (German for ‘acting that the feminist fanzines make. Within the process on behalf of somebody’) and Darstellung (German of constituting communitas, Gunnarsson Payne for ‘putting on show an object or a symbol’ or pro- identifies three different feminist logics that are ar- ducing, constructing, depicting something). As a ticulated in the fanzines: the radical feminist, the lib- conclusion Gunnarsson Payne suggests that reflex- eral feminist, and the post-feminist logic. ivity in feminist research should be guided by the In her doctoral dissertation Gunnarsson Payne philosophical ethos of what Michel Foucault calls a demonstrates that the feminist fanzines, although they differ on significant issues, manage to hold to- “limit-attitude”, of interrogating what Foucault was gether through a common understanding of the im- to call the “contemporary limits of necessity”. portance of ‘sisterhood’. This idea serves as one The book has numerous pictures of the fanzines kind of cohesive putty for the fanzine, although in the study, quotes from interviews and excerpts opinions about what this sisterhood is or should be, from texts in the fanzines. Jenny Gunnarsson paradoxically, often differ. Fanzines together form a Payne’s doctoral dissertation is an ambitious work. common political platform where an assortment of The dissertation is both broad and deep, much be- feminist issues is discussed. Despite the various fan- cause of the discussion about reflexivity. At the zines share some basic feminist views, this platform same time the study is highly demanding in terms of works at least as often as a place where radically op- theoretical discussion on sisterhood. That said I posing views can come together. That ‘sisterhood’ is would highly recommend the book to ethnologists, necessary for a feminist politics is, according to the researchers in the field of history of ideas and gen- vast majority of the fanzines studied, obvious. der researchers, but not as course literature for an Nevertheless the issue of what sisterhood ‘is’ or under-graduate. what it ‘ought to be’ is constantly under negotiation. Ann-Charlotte Palmgren, Turku In this thesis the author studies how the name sisterhood works to create a collective feminist identity – 112 Reviews

Living with Burnout on ethnographic fieldwork in three different net- Mia-Marie Hammarlin, Att leva som utbränd. En et- works for burnout sufferers and persons on long- nologisk studie av långtidssjukskrivna. Symposion, term sick leave. The ways in which these networks Stockholm/Stehag 2008. 255 pp. Ill. English sum- approach the burnout syndrome corresponds to the mary. Diss. ISBN 978-91-7139-809-3. media representations – these networks likewise understand burnout as a female syndrome. The net- n Mia-Maria Hammarlin has written her disserta- work meetings are arenas where the burnout suffer- tion on the phenomenon of burnout. Research on ers themselves can raise questions about their rights this topic is dominated today by questions concern- and about social respect for their situation. Various ing the causes of the high rate of long-term sick political and therapeutic aspects of being burned-out leave and how to deal with these high rates. Ham- are thus discussed at the meetings. By analysing marlin’s ethnological study is thus a welcome hu- these network meetings Hammarlin shows how the manistic counter-voice to the dominating quantita- burnout syndrome is filled with rather different tive and economic research on the topic. In contrast kinds of meaning. She argues that the burnout syn- to causal approaches to the phenomenon, Hammar- drome today works as a key symbol for a number of lin’s dissertation focuses on how the burnout suffer- structural and social problems in late modern socie- ers themselves experience and organize their lives ty. on sick leave. After discussing the networks Hammarlin leads Like many other young ethnologists during the us to the hobby rooms of her informants. She shows last decade, Hammarlin has chosen a phenomeno- how everyday life with burnout also can turn out to logical approach. Her dissertation examines how be a situation that allows possibilities for creative everyday life as a burnout sufferer is formed, how work. Some of her informants find contemplative the life of the sufferers is shaped and given mean- and therapeutic meaning in painting pictures, while ing. Instead of asking how the syndrome limits the others write poems. individuals, she asks what kind of possibilities the The idea of the healing potential of nature is both diagnosis opens for the burnout sufferer. Hammarlin a significant part of the networks’ understandings of has based her analysis on a wide range of material, therapy and a central motif in the artistic works of mainly newspaper articles, interviews and field Hammarlin’s informants. In chapter four the author notes, but she also uses autobiographical books, focuses on how the informants use nature as a con- poems and even watercolours produced by her in- templative arena. Hammarlin uses the term nature to formants. describe rather different sorts of landscapes, and the The book contains an introduction followed by term includes both the garden and the woods. The five numbered chapters. In her analysis Hammarlin ethnographic descriptions illustrate how work in the guides the reader into different rooms where the ex- garden or just sitting and listening to the silence of perience of being burned-out takes place. The first the woods has a contemplative effect on the inform- room she introduces to the reader is the press room. ants. She discusses the informants’ use of nature in This first analytic chapter investigates the media relation to the cultural history of the idea of the heal- representations of burnout experiences. By analysing power of nature and also analyses it in a more ing a number of Swedish newspaper articles Ham- phenomenological way, drawing on Martin Heid- marlin shows how the media language for describ- egger’s philosophical works. ing the experience of being burned-out is gendered. I consider Hammarlin’s dissertation to be more The mass media representations of the illness are like a collection of essays than a traditional mono- dominated by the female experience. The newspaper graph. The last chapter is thus not a traditional con- articles describe the femininity of the burnout expe- clusion. It is instead split into two different discus- rience in depreciatory terms, and the female burnout sions. The first part of the chapter is a metareflec- sufferers are framed as victims. In contrast, the mas- tion where the author discusses how she experi- culinity of the male experience is expressed by an enced the difficulties doing fieldwork. In the second extensive use of machine-related metaphors. part of the chapter she discusses whether burnout as In the second chapter Hammarlin takes the reader a gendered syndrome may obstruct the possibilities into the group therapy room. The chapter is based for realization of the female self or whether it can Reviews 113

work instead as a transcendental tool for the female ferent from more traditional empirical ethnological individual. studies. After reading Mia-Marie Hammarlin’s dis- In my opinion the reflexive text on fieldwork in sertation I still wonder how phenomenology used as the last chapter is the best part of the book. Most an ethnological analytic strategy differs from the discussions of this kind focus on the ethics of doing emic perspective that dominated Nordic ethnology fieldwork. This is also the case here, but Hammar- and folkloristics in the 1980s and 1990s. lin’s starting point for the discussion is new. She Kyrre Kverndokk, Oslo discusses the parts of the fieldwork that failed, when she felt that she was an intruder into other people’s lives, when she said the wrong words, asked the wrong questions and deeply insulted her informants. Snake Charms as Secret Female Knowl- Her reflections on fieldwork are truly honest and edge personal. She describes experiences that probably Ritwa Herjulfsdotter, Jungfru Maria möter ormen – every fieldworker has had, but not everybody has om formlers tolkningar. Ask & Embla hb, Göteborg the nerve to discuss this in a dissertation. Hammar- 2008. 292 pp. English summary. Diss. ISBN lin’s reflexive discussion is exemplary. 978-91-974191-3-0. The book is well written. The literary qualities make this academic dissertation on illness into a n The covert functions of Swedish snake charms, page-turner. But still, one major problem of the particularly those featuring the Virgin Mary, consti- study is that Hammarlin formulates her research tutes the fascinating topic of Ritwa Herjulfsdotter’s questions vaguely. The chapters are organized dissertation. In chapter one, the introduction, she around a number of well-written ethnographic de- stresses the multifunctionality of charms, and ac- scriptions. The accounts of how, for instance, her in- counts for her choice to examine the contents of formant Olov uses the woods as a contemplative these snake charms and the contexts in which they place and the portrayal of the meeting in “Långtids- were used. The aim is to uncover the associative sjukskrivnas förening” (an association of people on links between these charms and a female reproduc- long-term sick-listing) in Visby are written with tive sphere. In reading the records of snake charms presence and in emotional language, and have un- from the Swedish tradition archives, Herjulfsdotter doubted literary qualities. The descriptions bring the noted the recurrence of certain words and expres- reader close to the everyday life of the people with sions across genres, often in the form of sexual burnout. But I miss distinctly formulated analytical double-entendres. Within the corpus of snake questions explicitly asked about these excellent eth- charms itself, she also noticed that some locutions nographic descriptions. occurred more often than others and in specific The analysis is rooted in the philosophical tradi- combinations, and drew the conclusion that their tion of phenomenology, and the works of Martin meanings could therefore have been different. The Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are the main purpose of the dissertation is thus to attempt to un- theoretical references. As a cultural analyst in the derstand how and why snake charms containing the Swedish ethnological tradition, Hammarlin, in addi- figure of the Virgin Mary were formulated and used, tion to the philosophical literature, draws on cultural and to view them as part of an overarching cultural theory in an impressionistic way. The use of Sherry system of thought. The author poses a series of in- Ortner’s concept of key symbols to analyse the sym- terrelated questions: whose metaphors and symbolic bolism of burnout both as a concept and as a phe- language do we encounter in the charms? By whom nomenon is for instance creative and thought-pro- were they employed, for whose benefit and why? voking. The question then is whether this study The second chapter, “Formler som utgångspunkt” might perhaps have been just as interesting as a cul- (Charms as a Point of Departure) presents basic tural analysis of the burnout syndrome without the definitions, trends in prior research on charms, references to phenomenological philosophy. If we source-critical problems, and the methods utilised. It look beyond the references to phenomenological lit- also outlines the author’s work on cataloguing snake erature, I am not quite convinced that Hammarlin’s charms relating to the Virgin Mary, the result of perspective and analytic approach are radically dif- which is added to the dissertation in the form of an 114 Reviews

appendix. Herjulfsdotter gives a thoughtful and thor- the part of the healer, and sometimes it is difficult to ough account of her procedures. Her description of a determine whether the healer or the Virgin Mary is threefold methodology consisting of a source-plural- the one uttering the healing words of the charm. The ist method, a search for circumstantial evidence and image of the Virgin Mary in the charms is thus a clues in other types of traditional material, and hunt- malleable one, and she can be replaced by other Bib- ing for scattered evidence in large bodies of material lical characters, such as Eve, Mary Magdalene and (what she calls “the requirements of rare evidence”) St. Peter. The image of the snake in the charms is seems to be especially rewarding, and is quite akin in similarly explored, and Herjulfsdotter emphasises spirit to work done by representatives of the Finnish that the use of the snake in medicines and in the per- “school” of cultural thought such as Satu Apo and formance of fertility rites for domestic animals Laura Stark. This affinity is explicitly acknowledged paved the way for a multifarious popular conception elsewhere in Herjulfsdotter’s text. of it not limited to its Biblical role as a symbol of The third chapter, “Föreställningar om ormar och pure evil. ormbett” (Conceptions of Snakes and Snakebite) A study of the symbolic language of the charms gives a general overview of popular conceptions of constitutes chapter five, “Formlernas symbol- snakes, their role in traditional medicine and in ideas språk”, which comprises roughly a third of the book, of fertility and luck, as well as of the traditionally excluding the catalogue. The fact that binding magic recognised symptoms of snakebite. Chapter four, was primarily linked to Virgin Mary snake charms “Ledtrådar till ett sammanhang” (Clues to a Con- warrants a discussion of its use in this context. The text), begins by discussing the means and methods author proposes that the binding of the “snake” per- utilised in connection with snake charms, and Her- formed by the Virgin Mary could have referred to julfsdotter demonstrates that the majority of these magical methods of abortion, since an unwanted are associated with the female sphere, in the form of foetus was sometimes called a “snake”, or to a tem- textiles, foodstuff, items used in cattle-tending and porary reduction of male fertility in order to avoid substances deriving from the female body. An ex- pregnancy, as the “snake” could be magically bound amination of the known users of the charms and of and released. Why anyone would want to release a transmission patterns ensues, and here the author snake in order to allow it to “sting” is, as Herjulfs- notes that both men and women employed the dotter observes, inexplicable considering how charms, but women did so both within the family feared the snake was, if the words of the charm are circle and as healers, whereas men used them within taken literally. the family only. When handing over this knowledge A number of motifs, terms and expressions ap- to others, women transmitted the charms to both pearing in the charms are then scrutinised. Many of men and women, but men usually restricted them- them turn out to be euphemisms for the male and fe- selves to instructing other men. male genitalia, as well as pregnancy, childbirth and Chapter four, “Formlernas jungfru Maria” (The fertility control. In addition to this, some of these Virgin Mary of the Charms) focuses on the Virgin same terms have been used as plant names, render- Mary’s role in popular religion, where she was ing the wording of the charms fundamentally chiefly perceived as a birthgiver and the helper of polysemic. Other motifs can be linked to the female women in labour rather than immaculate, and on the work sphere, such as spinning and cattle-tending. motifs, expressions and attributes associated with On a more general level, Herjulfsdotter remarks, the her in the snake charms. Phrases such as “walking in charms often contain binary oppositions related to the green grove”, “picking roses” and “going to a male and female. garden to enjoy herself” point towards sensuality, Chapter six, “På jakt efter ett sammanhang” sexuality and fertility, as they have been used as eu- (Hunting for a Context), summarises and discusses phemisms for sexual activity. Conversely, the mo- the findings of the previous chapters. The author tifs of the Virgin Mary being bloody and being posits the existence of a certain gender-based divi- stung by a snake might have functioned as meta- sion of labour in the sphere of magic, verbal magic phorical ways of speaking of unpleasant events and being a speciality of women. Women’s magic also sexually charged relations. Many of the charms extended to concern existential situations in life: birth, hibit strong identification with the Virgin Mary on sickness, death, and the care and protection of cattle. Reviews 115

By combining information and clues from many dif- Checking Up On Children ferent types of sources, Herjulfsdotter argues, it is Helena Hörnfeldt, Prima barn, helt u.a. Normalise- possible to produce new insights into potential ring och utvecklingstänkande i svensk barnhälso- secret women’s knowledge of matters of reproduc- vård 1923–2007. Makadam förlag, Göteborg/Stock- tion in preindustrial Swedish society. In line with re- holm 2009. 293 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. cent developments in folkloristic scholarship, she ISBN 978-91-7061-067-7. also stresses the necessity of studying religion and folk belief as a composite whole, and deplores the n This book, the title of which means “First-class tendency in prior research to strip the snake charms child: No abnormality detected. Normalization and of their religious character. She characterises the developmental thinking in Swedish child health care charms as a form of popular religion practised for 1923–2007”, is Helena Hörnfeldt’s doctoral disser- healing purposes. tation in ethnology at Stockholm University. In it The final chapter, “Fortsatt fokus på formler” (A she focuses on the view of normality as regards chil- Continued Focus on Charms), is a kind of epilogue dren’s physical and mental development based on to the dissertation, but it also constitutes a promise the four-year check-up. Her aim is to show how of renewed scholarly efforts. Here the author analy- these check-ups constitute children as normal or ab- ses four snake charms not containing the figure of normal, and the cognitive and societal grounds on the Virgin Mary, but exhibiting a similar thrust as which they are categorized. The dissertation applies many of those which do, i.e., the implicit link to both a contemporary perspective, with the focus on methods of contraception and abortion. Then fol- participant observation at child health care centres, lows an English summary, and a catalogue of 246 and a historical perspective in order to understand Virgin Mary snake charms, sorted thematically, the conditions in the past which laid the foundation geographically and chronologically. for the way in which children’s development is as- Herjulfsdotter has applied herself to a material sessed today. Her study covers the period from 1923 that is notoriously difficult to interpret, and she suc- to the present day, during which time the child ceeds in imbuing it with rich meanings. The covert health care centre became a familiar concept and a associations with a female sphere of sexuality and central institution. The material for the study con- reproduction seem perfectly plausible once they sists of documents on child health care, medical have been pointed out to you. It is easy to follow the records, interviews, and observations. Hörnfeldt stages of her argument, and the presentation is gen- also reflects on the ethical issues raised by material erally clear, reasoned and well-structured. The sole of this kind. exceptions can be found in chapter five, where some Hörnfeldt’s aim is thus extremely ambitious: to arguments – expressed in virtually identical terms – show, within the framework of a dissertation, the so- tend to recur somewhat too often within the space of cietal project that led to the emergence of child a few pages. At times I also felt that the author re- health care centres, and to study how the normality frained from stating her conclusions as fully and discourse as regards children’s development is pre- strongly as she might have done; on a few occasions sented today. I may begin by saying that Hörnfeldt she presents the elements of a conclusion without has succeeded in her ambition, since the dissertation actually arriving at one. While this might be an en- is well-wrought and coherent. The topic is an impor- tirely legitimate effect of scholarly prudence, I tant one which has not previously been researched nevertheless felt defrauded of a denouement; it’s from an ethnological point of view. It is rather a pity like reading a mystery novel and never quite getting that the author almost exclusively uses Swedish and to know who the culprit was. These minor remarks Anglo-American research findings. Here the out- aside, I am impressed with the ingenuity of Herjulfs- look could have been broadened by drawing on dotter’s analysis and the diligence with which she works such as Sirpa Wrede’s Decentering Care for has tracked relevant clues in a wide-ranging body of Mothers: The Politics of Midwifery and the Design material. Her dissertation is a valuable contribution of Finnish Maternity Services (2001) or other Nor- to the understanding of charms, and deserves recog- dic research. nition as such. A crucial point of departure for the dissertation is Camilla Asplund Ingemark, Lund/Åbo the concept of normality in everyday practice, as de- 116 Reviews

fined by the check-ups on children’s development at century of the child (Ellen Key, 1849–1926, Swe- child health care centres. By normality the author, dish feminist writer on family life, ethics and educa- following Ian Hacking, means the statistically nor- tion) after the discovery of the intrinsic value of the mal distribution, the absence of abnormality, and the child. This was made concrete with the establish- ideal. Applying this rational outlook has the effect ment of Mjölkdroppeverksamheten at the start of the that a relatively large group of children find them- twentieth century, the aim of which was to help selves outside normality. Hörnfeldt’s ambition is to mothers in need to provide milk for their children. focus on the norms that produce the abnormal child. This can be viewed as a predecessor of the child Another central concept is governmentality, an ana- health care centres which started to appear in the lytical term used in order to understand the develop- 1920s, with the focus on observations of the child’s ment of forms for the exercise of power since the physical health. Ill health was to be combated 1940s. The method of government, according to through public control of families’ private lives. The Nikolas Rose, is advanced liberal power, which four-year check-up was introduced in the 1960s as a means a reluctance to govern through society, with a way to monitor the health of slightly older children focus instead on the choices of the individual citi- as well. This chapter is interesting as cultural histo- zen. The exercise of power thus becomes more com- ry, and in my opinion the questions asked here could plex. Other central concepts considered by the au- have been enough for a dissertation. thor are materialization as well as differences and Chapter four is about the different epistemologi- cultural dominance. cal regimes concerning the normal child that can be A third aim of the dissertation is to study what is traced in the material. At the same time, the author taken for granted in the present by making com- moves from the emergence of the child health care parisons with points in history, rather like Mi- centres to the 1950s, when normality was no longer chelFoucault’s archaeological and genealogical considered to be solely a matter of the child’s physi- methods. This means that the author starts in the cal health. One reason why mental health became present and works backwards in time. She imple- interesting as well is that the physical health of chil- ments this approach in such a way that it shapes the dren and families improved considerably. Now outline of the dissertation, a device that feels both mental hygiene and later psychopathology became fascinating and innovative. She begins with a rela- part of the social-policy programme. This was also tively detailed account of what a four-year check-up the time when intelligence was measured. Children is like today. Here she has used participant observa- simultaneously became a more distinct category in tion as her method, bringing the reader into the child relation to adults. The presentation of epistemologi- health care centre through thick description. The cal regimes and ideas about normality includes a visit to the health centre is viewed in relation to the consideration of Michel Foucault’s view of the sta- “method book” which states the official medical tus of medicine and the understanding of medical guidelines for assessing the child’s development. knowledge concerning the conceptual pairs of This participant observation is supplemented video healthy/sick and normal/pathological. The four-year recordings of the four-year check-up, with transcrip- check-up can thus be regarded as a tool used by so- tions of these to show how the normal child is mate- ciety to satisfy its need for control and categoriza- rialized and constituted in the situation. The child, tion. by cooperating and behaving in the expected way, In the last chapter before the concluding discus- embodies the norm for what a normal four-year-old sion, the author is once again in the present, with is expected to be. some retrospective looks at the 1960s and 1970s. In the next chapter Hörnfeldt moves back in time Now the focus is on the examinations that generate to try to understand the society that produced the the assessment of a child as “no abnormality detect- four-year check-up, where medical knowledge is ed”. The material for this long chapter consists of linked to social issues. The emergence of today’s interviews with nurses, concentrating on questions child heath care centres is considered in relation to of deviations from the norm and how they are as- falling birth rates, high infant mortality, and the sessed. The life situation of the family and the child view of public health and hygiene. We see here how is central here, along with questions about whether the twentieth century came to be regarded as the the mothers are nervous and the parents competent. Reviews 117

A discourse on risk also emerges, with a specific fo- very informative. A complex relationship, i.e., the cus on mothers’ abuse of intoxicants, premature one between men and women actively leading their children, children with an immigrant background, lives in an even more complex and complicated en- and children with disabilities. From physical and vironment, the metropolis, lies before the reader of later mental control, attention is now switched to so- Holst Kjær’s book for consideration and recogni- cial control. Normality is shaped according to cate- tion. gories such as gender, class, and ethnicity. In the Holst Kjær uses the theoretical concepts that she search for normality, Swedishness becomes a sym- picked in a consistent way, but not at all ad nau- bol of the ordinary and the normal, while immi- seam. She is skilful in choosing the situations in grants are associated with problems. One of her which a reference to Butler or Skeggs is fruitful and most crucial findings is that normality is produced necessary. She merely takes these two scholars as on the basis of a national project in which a Swedish her starting point in searching for relevant concepts middle class has generated the leading cultural with the aid of which she analyses her interviews models. and other material. In this way she is able to com- The dissertation feels important, which perhaps bine several other theories with each other, which to explains why I have presented so much of the con- my mind is much more rewarding than testing the tent in this review. It is important as a study of cul- thoughts of Skeggs and Butler only. tural history, but also because it seizes on things that The author explains her method very clearly. might seem self-evident. It is interesting to focus on Consequently she makes a distinction between the a concept like normality and how it has been under- facts that her interviewees presented to her and the stood and legitimized at different times. The disser- general category that they were speaking about. So, tation is a solid piece of work, but it could have man and woman is something other than Man and benefited from a sharper demarcation. Yet I cannot Woman, everyday life is something other than say what ought to have been omitted, since every- Everyday Life, the categories written with capitals thing is worth considering and is needed for an un- being the general conception of each phenomenon. derstanding of the topic. The dissertation is some- In each section she describes how she is going to what chatty in character, but the text is accessible. conduct her analysis and what concepts she will Lena Marander-Eklund, Åbo concentrate on when considering the messages in her interviews. Her choice of those concepts is based upon cultural-historical description of those concepts. In this way, Holst Kjær contextualizes her What Couples Are Like research not only in the contemporary way of living Sarah Holst Kjær, Sådan er det at elske. En kultur- as a couple, but also in a much broader, historically analyse af parforhold. Museum Tusculanums For- anchored world of thoughts that without doubt, al- lag, København 2009. 187 pp. Diss. ISBN 978-87- though not necessarily deliberately, was and is a 635-1092-9. kind of cultural heritage in our minds. For instance, in her chapter on Home as a metaphor for a common n How does an ideal couple function? How do the goal of efforts in the everyday life of a Couple, the partners cooperate, balance as individuals? How do sofa turns out to be central. That chapters start with they dream and realize their everyday relationship in a short but thorough introduction about the way a modern urban culture? These questions are in the taken by the sofa from the Orient to Denmark, the background of Sarah Holst Kjær’s dissertation on different functions and meanings connected with the love. Her theoretical inspiration stems from Beverly sofa in different eras and the symbolic value of the Skeggs and Judith Butler. Her main empirical mate- sofa in today’s Danish homes. That piece of furni- rial consists of interviews with five couples aged ture turns out to be a many-faceted metaphor for the 23–50. She took the recordings in 2005 in Copenha- living room as the peaceful heart of family life, the gen, Denmark. She also used other relevant mate- place of negotiation, sorting out, planning and being rial, such as her personal field notes, different kinds together, ideally being a place for personal relaxa- of documents from popular culture, and films. The tion. Holst Kjær is able to demonstrate how her in- book comprises only some 180 pages, but it is still terviewees are able to regard and speak about all 118 Reviews

these processes in different ways depending on who couples’ relevant opinions. She is always very well is speaking: the male or the female partner in the aware that their formulations are situated in time couples. This is just one example, but all chapters of and place. Where many other investigations prompt- the book are well written and informative. A reader ly generalize their findings, Holst Kjær is very care- just wonders how people really get on together, for ful. man and woman mostly regard their relationship One question arose from the reading: How did from completely different perspectives. Things that Holst Kjær succeed in creating such a feeling of he regards as positive very often annoy her. Things trust that the interviewees really did tell her about that he blames are desirable to her. It remains an their internal problems? I think that we would have enigma how a couple can survive on these terms! gained even more from the book had there been a However, and this is one of the merits of this more detailed description of the fieldwork and its book, the divergent perspectives of the partners do components of planning, accomplishment, and ethi- not match the different sexes. It turns out that the cal problems. cultural patterns and cultural expectations of life as This book demonstrates what it is like to live as a a couple do not necessarily have the stereotypical couple. It shows us how difficult it is both to have form one generally expects from books about gen- power and to be equal. This puzzle is Reality for any der relationships, i.e., the Man is a scoundrel, and couple living together. I suppose that people who the Woman is suppressed. This might be one of the have stayed together for many years smile in recog- reasons, apart from the clarity and the beautiful nition at all those frank and sometimes even com- Danish language, why I find the book so refresh- pletely illogical and inconsistent utterances that ing. Holst Kjær nevertheless analyses seriously. I hope In her vivid and exact formulations Holst Kjær that a young person who thinks that his or her part- presents the interviews together with her explana- ner is careless, or the most domineering or untidy tions of what was said during them. This is impor- person in the world, will realize that this is not so. tant as a contrast to many other folklorists’ analyses Love is an ongoing negotiation. The difficult thing that tend to be reproductions of the content of an in- seems to be to keep the negotiation going and to do terview instead of an explanation of what was said. it in a form that both partners can accept. However, she also takes her reader to high levels of Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo (Turku) abstraction without really making any fuss about it. A trivial passage in an interview makes her connect to most complex theoretical reasoning which I would never have thought of. This is also one of the Negotiating Urban Spatiality characteristics of this book that makes it worth read- Tiina-Riitta Lappi, Neuvottelu tilan tulkinnoista. Et- ing. It thrills my intellectual capacity. An example nologinen tutkimus sosiaalisen ja materiaalisen ym- of this is her chapter about the Life of a Couple as an päristön vuorovaikutuksesta jyväskyläläisissä kau- alchemistic process of experiments. punkipuhunnoissa. (Negotiating urban spatiality. An Generally, I have the feeling that Holst Kjær was Ethnological study on the interplay of social and very exact in her choice of terminology. This comes material environment in urban narrations on Jy- to the fore because she does not force her analytical väskylä.) Jyväskylän yliopisto, Jyväskylä 2007. Stu- tools into any specific or expected frame. For indies in Humanities no. 80. 231 pp. Ill. Diss. ISBN stance, when she analyses what meanings their 978-951-39-3017-2. homes have for the interviewees, she concentrates on perspectives that arise with the aid of the con- n The subject of Tiina-Ritta Lappi’s topical disser- cepts of power, nostalgia, and emotions which are tation is the city of Jyväskylä as a built, lived and fine analytical tools, but she takes the sofa and the social space. Lappi analyses spatial meanings and bed, which are nicely concrete objects, as her start- practices in the context of Jyväskylä, a middle-sized ing points. It is worth mentioning that the sofa is far Finnish city. She asks how writing about a city, more important than the bed in what the couples say speaking about it, or using it produce the city’s about their homes. Yet another example of Holst meanings and spatiality. Furthermore, she explores Kjær’s polished formulations is her dating of the how urban areas can be approached from an ethno- Reviews 119

logical point of view and investigates what kind of teraction and negotiations between built space and knowledge of cities ethnological research uses and users, Lappi shows that this open-endedness is evi- produces. As Lappi argues, Finnish ethnological re- dent in city space. Her research is based on vast search has usually concentrated on rural areas and newspaper discussions, the various written docu- traditions, while urban areas have not been a key in- ments of town planning, and interviews of the resi- terest in Finnish research. dents of Jyväskylä made in 1994 and 1995 (20 inter- Although centred on Jyväskylä, Lappi’s research views) and between 1999 and 2001 (21 interviews). does not primarily focus on the material and physi- In the first chapter of her book “Kaupunki ja tilal- cal environment of Jyväskylä but explores a discur- lisuuden tulkinnat” (City and the Interpretations of sive level: the conceptions and interpretations of Jy- Spatiality) Lappi offers a detailed introduction of väskylä created in the public media and in the inter- her research topic and key concepts. Lappi discusses views of city residents. Lappi approaches the city as thoroughly about ethnological research on cities in a multilayered and multidimensional space. She the second chapter of her book “Etnologiaa kau- aims to go beyond the dichotomy between physical pungissa, kaupunki etnologiassa” (Ethnology in or visual and social or mental space, which has gov- City, City in Ethnology). The central chapters of her erned the research on built environment. In her am- study “Julkisten puhuntojen kaupunkikertomus” bitious approach Lappi moves across disciplines in (The Public Narrations of City) and “Elettyjä ja the broad area of urban and spatial studies. In addi- esitettyjä tilallisuuksia” (Lived and Represented tion to an ethnological toolbox and the current spa- Spatialities) analyse the interaction between mate- tial approaches, she employs the approaches and rial and social environments. The first of these chap- questions of human geography, art history and urban ters concentrates on the public city spaces and pub- studies. lic narrations analysing the image of the city con- Lappi’s research is deeply indebted to the so- structed in these discussions. The following chapter called spatial turn in the humanities and social is based on the interviews of inhabitants and analy- sciences. Instead of understanding built environ- sis of the lived space in Jyväskylä. The image of Jy- ments as static, physical and visual wholes created väskylä in public discourses seems to be coherent by planners, cities and buildings are increasingly ap- and homogenous, while the urban space experienced proached as dynamic, multilayered and multi-senso- and lived by inhabitants is fragmented and stratified ry spaces. They are processes instead of completed with multiple meanings. According to Lappi the structures. The analysis of the social formation of public discourse creates a coherent narrative orient- space and spatial meanings (Henri Lefebvre), the ed to the questions of town planning. In this dis- poetics of space (Gaston Bachelard), spatial prac- course the city is approached as something to be tices and ways of using space (Michel de Certeau), seen from above and always from the same distance. spatial order as a network of power (Michel Meanwhile, the lived space of inhabitants is multi- Foucault) as well as spatiality and corporeality as a layered and heterogeneous and includes contradicto- human mode of being (Maurice Merleau-Ponty) ry meanings. The lived space is located in the per- have been crucial to a more nuanced understanding sonal housing histories of the residents and spreads of buildings and built environment in spatial terms. into a wider area of Jyväskylä than the public dis- In her research, Lappi makes use of Lefebvre’s cussions, which concentrate mainly on the public and de Certeau’s ideas in particular. Built space is spaces of the city centre. not a static backdrop or an image spread before the In her analysis of the public and private narrations users as spectators. Instead, the relationship between and negotiations about the city, Lappi relies on buildings and those who use them is reciprocal: Lefebvre’s tripartite distinction between the per- users shape space by their actions, movements and ceived, conceived and lived dimensions of social gestures while spatial arrangements shape the possi- space – one of his most well-known and influential bilities for action. The built environment, such as a ideas (La production de l’espace 1974; translated city, thus appears in a continuous process of the into English in 1991, The Production of Space). emergence of meanings. The formation of space Lefebvre connects these dimensions further with continues after its planning and construction; the spatial practices (perceived spaces), representations process is open-ended. By paying attention to the in- of space (conceived or represented spaces) and 120 Reviews

spaces of representation (lived spaces). According become visible now are more the end results of re- to Lefebvre, social space is constantly produced and search, while the path to them remains invisible. re-produced and three dimensions of space constant- The multiplicity of spatial meanings is often dealt ly interact and intermingle with each other. Follow- with within the context of exceptional or at least ing Lefebvre, Lappi connects conceived spaces with seemingly heterogeneous spaces, such as border- public discussions and lived spaces with the inter- lands or historically stratified cities. Even though views of the inhabitants. Although she leaves per- Lappi’s research deals with the historically stratified ceived spaces and spatial practices mainly outside centre of Jyväskylä, it doesn’t limit itself to the city her exploration, the application of Lefebvre’s ideas centre but deals also with the more mundane spaces helps to examine and describe the multiple dimen- of everyday urban life. In addition to the city centre, sions of city space. Lappi claims that in the public Lappi discusses the multiple meanings of a city par- discourses visual and physical features of Jyväskylä ticularly within the context of ordinary spaces, such were crucial, while in the interviews of the inhabit- as suburbs. As a whole the study is rich and cannot ants other dimensions of city space are also impor- be grasped fully in one reading. Lappi offers plenty tant. For me, the chapter analysing the point of view of ideas for further discussions and future research of the inhabitants and the lived and represented di- on cities. mensions of urban space is the most interesting and Kirsi Saarikangas, Helsinki successful in the book. One of the crucial meanings of lived urban spaces is the relation and interaction of built environment and nature instead of their separation, Lappi says. Stories Told by Museum Objects She explores the importance of woods areas in the Camilla Mordhorst, Genstandsfortællinger. Fra Mu- narratives of inhabitants, as well as the new subur- seum Wormianum til de moderne museer. Museum ban space, which is neither traditional city space nor Tusculanum Forlag, Københavns universitet 2009. countryside but something else and beyond this dis- 312 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-635-0454-6. tinction. Lappi explores different urban spaces from the city centre and public buildings to forests, sub- n It was in the 1620s that the learned physician Ole urbs and areas in the fringes of the city. Her study Worm began collecting objects for what was to be offers numerous possibilities for the further explora- one of Europe’s first and most famous museums, the tion of the urban space of Jyväskylä, for example Museum Wormianum in Copenhagen. About forty from the point of view of spatial practices of resi- of these objects still survive, mainly in the collec- dents. Her point of departure is both innovative and tions of the National Museum. The collection is a challenging. Roughly speaking, until the 1990s re- motley group of items. It includes magnificent arte- search on cities put more emphasis on the visual fea- facts such as a reliquary of rock crystal, alongside tures of environment, such as buildings and their more ordinary museum pieces such as a small use, while less attention was paid to experiences and Bronze Age knife, or things that we today would re- meaning production of city space. These different gard as curiosities, such as the little shoe carved aspects have been rarely analysed in one study, as from a cherry pip, or a horse’s jaw around which a Lappi does. Moreover, Lappi offers a fascinating tree root has grown. Camilla Mordhorst’s focus in story of the transformations of Jyväskylä. Her re- this study is on how views and interpretations of search challenges readers to ask where town plan- museum objects have changed over the years. The ning takes place and who is allowed to participate in book is a reworking of the doctoral dissertation that town planning and related discussions. she defended in 2004. She is now at the Museum of Lappi’s research is a kind of mosaic or a patch- Copenhagen, where she is in charge of exhibitions work where different pieces are joined together. and communication. Mordhorst’s research has con- This quality is both the book’s strength and its cerned the exhibition medium as representation, the weakness. I would have liked to be able to distin- history of museums, and the interpretation of ob- guish more clearly between the voices of different jects. agents, including the writer’s own voice, and to read Unlike a common genre of museum literature, more about the actual processes of analysis. What dealing with a particular historical period or one Reviews 121

type of museum institution, Mordhorst provides us of Curiosities it became a prestigious objet d’art. with a long historical exposé from the seventeenth When it comes to the modern museums, the material century and Denmark’s first museum institution, the of the objects ended up more in the background. Museum Wormianum, down to the present day. She Here it was regarded instead as an aid to the great is thereby able to see and show how basic changes project of charting the history of civilization, and as have taken place in the museum system and how in- that view gained ground, the significance of material terpretations of objects have changed over time. vanished from the descriptions. She follows a group of objects which are known In a third story, “The Fall of the Hybrids”, Mord- to come from Ole Worm’s collection, and she shows horst shows how the world of nature and the world how they have travelled through the Danish mu- of art are separated. In Worm’s time nature was re- seum world. Mordhorst tells three stories about the garded as autonomous and capable of creating great objects and the varying interpretations they have un- art by itself; this is clear from many of the collected dergone, depending on where they have been, from objects that reflect his interest in exploring the the 1620s in Worm’s museum, then in the Royal power and limits of nature. There was thus a fluid Cabinet of Curiosities (the Kunstkammer), or in the boundary between nature and art. When the collec- modern museums founded at the start of the twenti- tion later ended up in the Cabinet of Curiosities, al- eth century. But she is not interested in presenting though there was still an interest in the power of na- the “right” interpretation of the objects – as if there ture, a distinction was made (one which did not exist ever was one; her idea is to follow the objects and in the Wormianum) between the kingdom of nature see how they have been interpreted and reinterpret- and art, which were exhibited in different rooms. ed within the framework of the museum institutions. This meant that there was no longer a spatial possi- It is interesting here to see what has been added, but bility to explore the encounter between nature and just as interesting to see what has disappeared, that art in the same way as before. When the Cabinet of is, what was no longer found interesting in interpre- Curiosities was broken up at the start of the twenti- tations and descriptions, or what has lost in scien- eth century, the difference between nature and art tific value. was further accentuated in that the collections were The three stories can be read in several ways, as a divided among separate institutions; on the one hand number of historical narratives about changed inter- the museums of natural history and on the other pretations of some selected museum objects, but hand the museums of art, cultural history, and tech- they also indicate fundamental changes in the out- nology. The view of nature at the start of the twenti- look on museum artefacts, revealing that what we eth century had changed, and the links that had for- take for granted today has not always been viewed merly been seen were now regarded as random and the same way. For Worm and his contemporaries, unscientific. Where there had once been an encoun- the objects were not called artefacts but curiosities. ter between nature and art, a vacuum now arose in One of Mordhorst’s stories is called “The Trans- which the “hybrid objects” disappeared. formation of Curiosity”, where she discusses how The three narratives are the core of the book, but and why the term curiosity (raritet) has changed Mordhorst emphasizes that there is no hierarchy or through time into something that is considered un- movement between them. The idea is that they can scientific and unsuitable for a professional museum. be read separately, that they occur simultaneously “Material Disintegration” is the title she gives to and in parallel. Each narrative is also its own uni- another one of her stories. Whereas the material of verse with its own course of events and changes. the objects was very important to Worm and his Despite all the dissimilarities, there are also similar- manner of categorizing, ordering, and interpreting, ities in the narratives, and if one thinks of them to- the significance of the material for the Royal Cabi- gether one can discover points of intersection, and, net of Curiosities lay in its economic value, how as the author says, when combined they can add nu- precious it was, and how it displayed the power of ance to our understanding of the change in the view the king. The rock crystal mentioned above was ma- of museum objects that can be noted from the seven- terial both for Worm and for the Royal Cabinet of teenth century to the present day. Curiosities, but whereas in the seventeenth century The outlook on museum objects at the start of the it was an object for scientific study, in the Cabinet eighteenth century was completely different from 122 Reviews

what we know today. Back then the focus was on stories creates a new form of history of museums the object itself, and many of the questions that were and ideas which ramifies in a network of narratives asked could be answered by examining the specific about the view of artefacts and museum culture over item. Later on, the provenance of the object became a long period, as she demonstrates how traditions more important than the object itself, and research are created and live on, and also how they change, was concentrated on its context. decay, and mutate. The book is an important starting Another interesting shared feature that can be point for a discussion of the potential of museums. read from the stories about the history of the inter- Birgitta Svensson, Stockholm pretation of the objects is that they seem to be narratives of decay. From having been significant material for scientific investigation, they have become mere curiosities, unimportant for research except When Older Workers Stay On perhaps as museum history. Moreover, one can de- Björn Ohlsson, Vi som stannade på Volvo – en et- tect another change, namely, that the older principle nologisk studie om äldre bilindustriarbetares arbets- of different complementary categories in the first liv och framtidsplaner. Arkipelag, Göteborg 2008. half of the twentieth century was replaced with a 352 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. ISBN 978-91- more unambiguous perception and categorization of 85838-75-2. artefacts. Mordhorst reminds us that, despite the great n Vi som stannade på Volvo is an ethnological changes that occurred in the museum system in the study of one of the large corporations in Sweden: early twentieth century, the descriptions of the ob- the Volvo automobile factory. The investigation is jects were already there, and the twentieth-century thorough and sensitive, but not in the way that has curators thus did not have to start from scratch. been common through the 1990s where the reader – They did not create a museum system; they took in the wake of the debate on reflection and represen- over one and reshaped it from the old one. Through- tation – hears more about the emotions, considera- out this process, the interpretation of objects under- tions and troubles of the researcher than about the went mutations. The three stories also show that issues being studied. We get some interesting in- there was no fixed core in the interpretation; it sights into the world of labourers at Volvo based changed according to the prevailing circumstances. primarily on interview material. Sixteen workers Views are created by a specific practice, and it is the have been interviewed in depth together with people development or change of this practice that affects from the trade union and white-collar employees. how the objects are viewed. Ohlsson’s main interest originates from the de- Mordhorst’s book is full of thought-provoking bate well-known in most Western countries on how ideas and discussions. Besides being a history of the to keep the elderly part of the population on the la- interpretation of museum objects, the book takes us bour market as long as possible due to the declining on a wonderful journey through history. It is an birth rates. Ohlsson wants to get into the implica- insightful, exciting, and informative account of tions in relation to the managerial and political ef- Danish museum history, but it is also a fascinating forts to confront the situation. How do these fit into description of the development of society. By fol- the labour situation in contemporary society where lowing the little collection from Worm’s seven- production is under severe pressure from competi- teenth-century museum through four hundred years, tion and constantly faced with the possibility to Mordhorst is able to show how the museum system move to low-wage countries? arose, grew, and changed, and how the objects in its By choosing Volvo as research field there is a care were transformed from valuable material to his- possibility to investigate the way of handling the torical sources, from remarkable hybrids to uninter- employees – and especially the senior part of them – esting curiosities, and from rare objects to common in a large market-dependent industrial unit through representations. shifting economic cycles. Hereby senior policy can The fantastic illustrations also deserve special be investigated in different contexts connected to mention. different periods. Camilla Mordhorst’s way of writing and telling The main focus is on the period of the project – Reviews 123

2005 – but especially the years around 1990 are ing day has become more demanding and stressful. given a thorough examination of the production unit Ohlsson here makes a reference to the vision from and its employee policy. In the first half of the 1985 of the Swedish Metal Workers’ Union of “the 1990s Volvo – just like a large proportion of West- good work” as a way of relating to the huge chal- ern industry – introduced the Japanese-inspired lean lenges faced by workers and unions in this period. It principle. This did not necessarily mark a turnover is peculiar that Ohlsson does not have a more ana- of the formerly Tayloristically based production lytical – or even critical – approach to this vision. processes but it implied an increased employee in- As an ethnologist he has pointed out a great diversi- volvement in the work. Other features of lean pro- ty in opinions and attitudes towards work and a duction are more emphasis on teamwork and a con- statement of “good” – designated in singular defi- stant effort to minimize the workforce, buffers and nite form – does not seem to be adequate to grasp stocks. One fine thing about the study is that it takes this cultural heterogeneity. It is not seldom that peo- specific work tasks into consideration and makes a ple pursuing a career within the union have another general division into three main production areas: picture of what good work is compared to people on bodywork (karrosseri), painting and assembling – the shop floor. At least a discussion of this would with different demands and possibilities for the have been appropriate for a study that otherwise workforce. The introduction of the lean system aims to go deep in its analyses. meant a diminishing of tasks suited for the elderly Niels Jul Nielsen, Copenhagen due to production changes and outsourcing. How- ever, since the altering of processes were done partly with contributions from the Swedish state, Volvo were obliged to take care of the more fragile share Ethnologists in the Wartime Occupation of the labourers as well, and a new service unit with of East Karelia tasks specially fitted for this segment was estab- Tenho Pimiä, Tähtäin idässä. Suomalainen sukukan- lished. In the same period a venture was introduced sojen tutkimus toisessa maailmansodassa (The Tar- at the assembly plant where elderly workers were get in the East: Finnish Research into Kinfolks dur- accepted as long that they performed at 75% of the ing the Second World War). Jyväskylän yliopisto, normal rate. Jyväskylä 2009. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities Since 1999, when the Ford company took over 124. 275 pp. Ill. Diss. ISBN 978-951-39-3670-9. the car division of Volvo as a part of the general development within the industrial world, conditions n In the summer of 1941, a war broke out between for the elderly staff have worsened – without it be- Finland and the Soviet Union, and together with ing quite clear from the study whether this is part of Nazi German troops, the Finnish army soon re-occu- a common pattern or rather a result of new personal- pied the territories that had been ceded over to the ities in the management. On this point it does not Soviet Union as a result of the 1939–40 Winter War. seem sufficient to have only the interview-based in- Instead of stopping at the old border, however, the formation basically stemming from one prominent Finnish troops continued their move forward and, older manager who has been the head of senior poli- for three years (1941–44), they occupied large areas cy for a long period of time. of East Karelia, also known as Russian Karelia. The Along with the focus on senior questions, the motivations for this military operation were many. book contains an insight into what it is like to be a One of them was regarded as a defensive one, aim- labourer in a place like this, and the different ways ing at extending the Finnish Lebensraum and the of seeing one’s work, and relating to the colleagues new state border to particular natural environments and managers etc. Many features can be recog- in which it would be easier to defend Finland nized from other industrial settings, such as the against the Eastern Empire. Another one had to do close connection to the workplace (which is not with the linking of history, language and ethnic rela- that surprising considering the selection criteria for tions, aiming at establishing a Greater Finland that the informants), and a sense that the last 30 years would encompass large groups of linguistically re- have meant huge alterations: work has become lated populations that were regarded as historically physically less heavy but at the same time the work- and culturally belonging together. Underneath these 124 Reviews

explicated and propagated motivations lay the com- the accessing of ethnographic data that would legiti- mercial and industrial interests in East Karelian mate the national and historical kinship of the occu- natural resources. pied areas with the rest of Finland. Tenho Pimiä of the Department of History and When answering his research questions, Pimiä Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä has written mainly depicts the activities and experiences of se- his doctoral dissertation on the occupation of East lected individual researchers and collectors. These Karelia by Finnish troops, focusing on the question are Helmi Helminen, Hilkka Vilppula, and Sirkka of how Finnish scholars in the humanities participat- Valjakka, and to some extent also Tyyni Vahter, ed in the military venture through their professional Toini-Inkeri Kaukonen and Sylvi Sääski. In addition activities in the documentation of folk culture. The to drawing on public and personal archival materials, title of the book is in English translation “The Tar- he contextualizes their activities and interests with re- get in the East: Finnish Research into Kinfolks dur- search history in both ethnology and folklore studies. ing the Second World War”. The major part of Pi- This has not, however, been a major focus in the miä’s work concerns ethnological research and col- study. The main target of Pimiä’s research is to shed lecting expeditions in East Karelia during the occu- light on the relationship between the individual ex- pation period as well as the selection, removal, periences, political kin-folk activity, and the military confiscation and even plundering of material objects operations that aimed at extending the borders of Fin- for both private and museum purposes. The objects land. He has therefore placed the personal experi- included both household gear and religious items, ences of and the subjective narration by the afore- such as Eastern Orthodox church art and icons. In mentioned individual scholars in direct relationship addition to the collecting activities in East Karelia, with the circumstances created by certain state insti- Pimiä’s work also covers the wartime interviewing tutions that had been established for the cultural and and interrogation of those refugees and prisoners of scholarly administration of the occupied Eastern war who were members of the ethnic minorities that Karelia. The main institution for this purpose was the were linguistically and/or culturally kin-related to Scientific State Committee on East Karelia, founded the Finnish speakers of Finland, and were therefore by the Ministry of Education in 1941. of ethnographic interest to the Finnish ethnologists Pimiä is very thorough in his use of archival ma- and linguists. terials and he demonstrates good skills in organizing Pimiä aligns his work with international research them into thematic entities. His work has obvious on Second World War scholarly activity, which ac- narrative merits, as it can be regarded as a series of cording to him has not been established in Finland stories dealing with a variety of actors on a variety as a research tradition. Accordingly, ethnological re- of stages within the occupation framework. It is not, search and collecting in East Karelia during the war- however, a mere story collection without analytical time is contextualized with nationalistically oriented substance. On the contrary, the close relationship scholarly activism in other Western European coun- between warfare and the ethnological collecting of tries in the same time period. Pimiä sees parallels objects and information is well presented. The argu- between Finnish scholars and the practices adopted mentative goal of ethnological research in battles by the German scholarly community in their Nation- over time and space, the past and cross-border terri- al Socialism, but he refrains from calling the Finnish tories, is dealt with carefully, and the politics of eth- scholars Nazis. nographic cartography are also discussed. In an in- The main research questions are as follows: What teresting detail, a military leader produces a village did the researchers and collectors of folk culture do in description not unlike those made by professional East Karelia? What were the circumstances in which ethnologists. They do not only share the manners of they studied and collected folk culture? What was the description but also their politico-military meanings. military administration’s attitude towards their activi- War and kin-folk cultural heritage legitimate each ties? Pimiä especially asks how the ethnologists and other. On the other hand, for the local informants of other scholars of folk culture, collaborating with the the ethnologists and folklorists, the scholars and the military administration, attempted at “proving” that occupational forces were one and the same army. East Karelia belonged to Finland for so-called cul- When discussing the character of ethnological ac- tural reasons. In other words, his major interest lies in tivity during the East Karelian occupation, Pimiä is Reviews 125

not very systematic in his approach or conclusions. movement. A new addition to this series of studies He does, however, emphasize the ethnologists’ examining handicraft from different angles of cul- ideological orientation as well as the tendency to au- ture theory and gender theory is Johanna Rosen- thenticate a given historical period in the often un- qvist’s dissertation, the title of which means “The specified past as an embodiment of “true” elements Aesthetic of Gender Difference? On Art and Artistic of Finnish and kin-folk culture. It is the presence of Creativity in Swedish Handicraft in the 1920s and these cultural traits that are employed by the studied 1990s”. ethnological agents and the relevant state institu- Rosenqvist has previously contributed to Den tions to legitimate the linking of occupied territories feminina textilen: Makt och mönster (Stockholm, with Finnish administration and the rest of Finland. 2005), a collection of articles edited by Birgitta At the same time, the search for authentic origins Svensson and Louise Waldén, where the question of entailed the drawing of clear distinctions between textiles as both a reserve and an arena for women is the categories of Finnish, Karelian and Russian, eth- discussed from a variety of angles. Under the head- nically and politically. When all Russian influences ing “Handicraft as a Feminist Strategy” Rosenqvist in East Karelian culture were from the Finnish per- writes there about how the role of artist in the handi- spective seen as signs of degeneration and destruc- craft movement in the 1990s is presented in the as- tion, Finnish ethnographic activity in East Karelia sociation’s journal Hemslöjden. was regarded as a project of salvation. In practice, The many research projects that have dealt with however, salvation was not always easily distin- the handicraft movement show that crafts, in differ- guishable from plundering. ent ways, played a part in the construction of mod- Pimiä’s work has both merits and demerits. The ern Sweden. And all these studies, moreover, con- main demerit is the lack of a systematic analysis of sider not only the past but also often the place of what ethnological research was like during the occu- handicraft in today’s society. pation years. Pimiä aligns his work with interna- Earlier research, such as Anna-Maja Nylén’s tional research on Second World War scholarly ac- Hemslöjd (Lund, 1969, in English as Swedish Han- tivity, but he does not link his own work with recent dicraft, 1976) have concentrated on manufacturing study into the politics of scholarship in ethnology techniques and materials, and on the role of handi- and folklore in Finland. Yet, his work can be lauded craft products in peasant society. In the twentieth for dealing with a topic that has been mostly si- century, however, handicraft came to be increasing- lenced in research history, and for drawing on archi- ly associated with the many craft associations that val materials that have not been employed, at least were founded with the aim of preserving and pro- to this extent, before. The relationship between war moting traditional peasant craft. These institutions, and scholarship is truly important, and by focusing with their own ideology, aesthetic, and educational on relevant aspects in Finnish research history, Ten- ambitions, were dominated by women, and textile ho Pimiä has made an important contribution to the crafts in particular occupied a leading position. The scrutinization of this relationship. This path must be furtherance of handicraft became a kind of feminist followed. strategy and a part of a female bourgeois public Pertti Anttonen, Helsinki sphere. Sofia Danielsson, with her dissertation Den goda smaken och samhällsnyttan (Stockholm, 1991), was one of the first to study handicraft with the focus on this development. She also established Between Art and Handicraft the now widespread practice among researchers of Johanna Rosenqvist, Könsskillnadens estetik? Om making a conceptual distinction between the two di- konst och konstskapande i svensk hemslöjd på mensions of handicraft: handicraft as the products 1920- och 1990-talen. Nordiska museets förlag, and their manufacture, and Handicraft (Hemslöjden, Stockholm 2007. 268 pp. Ill. English summary. literally “home craft”) as an organization, by writing Diss. ISBN 978-91-7108-516-0. about handicraft in the first sense with a small h and in the latter sense with a capital H. n In recent years there has been a great deal of re- As a continuation of this process of establishing search and writing about the Swedish handicraft scholarly ways to discuss handicraft, I find that 126 Reviews

Rosenqvist now wishes to start building up some- ambiguously located between handicraft and art, thing new, a terminology for discussing “handicraft which could (almost, at least) be either – or both. artworks” from an art historian’s point of view. In In her dissertation Rosenqvist wants to study both the past handicraft has often been studied within the the handicraft producers themselves and the activi- subject of ethnology, and often by women linked to ties of the handicraft organizations as institutions in the organized handicraft movement, and Rosen- relation to the surrounding society. In addition to qvist’s dissertation combines, in a new way, an in- that she wants to try to focus on the craft-making interest in textile art and women’s history with an dividual in a new way. She has examined two pe- art-history perspective. riods, the 1920s and the 1990s, and conducted case Rosenqvist calls her dissertation “The Aesthetic studies of two local associations in Sweden, in the of Gender Difference” and follows that title with a first case Malmöhus läns hemslöjdsförening and in question mark, to stress that she considers it impor- the latter Hemslöjden i Östergötland. The archives tant to question and discuss the concepts of aesthetic of these associations provide the main source mate- and gender difference. She states as her aim to study rial, and Rosenqvist has selected textiles and other how handicraft in the twentieth century was created objects, sketches, photographs, catalogues, annual in relation to art and how views of the concepts of reports, inventories, and sales lists to study. Besides art and handicraft changed during the century. To this she has used newspaper articles and interviews ask a seemingly simple question, she writes, one can with some key people. In her dissertation she then wonder when textile works are craft and when they tries to show how Handicraft positioned itself, partly are art, and what it is that makes the difference. That by studying how it was presented at the exhibitions difference, she points out, is not self-evident or un- that played an important part in both the 1920s and changing. the 1990s. She also observes how handicraft is ex- How one perceives a product, in Rosenqvist’s hibited and what people have tried to communicate opinion, has to do with who made it and in what through the fixed institutions of the handicraft shops context. Handicraft, according to her, is interesting and through other club activities and courses. to examine in relation to the male-dominated art Rosenqvist sees her two selected decades as dy- world because the handicraft movement has close namic and interesting periods. The 1920s was a time links to textile production and to women as active of change when handicraft played a part as the func- association members, and the actual manufacture tionalist style was emerging against the background has had the character of an amateur domestic pur- of regional and local traditions. And in the 1990s, suit. The art world, on the other hand, has had a according to Rosenqvist, there were similar innova- more professional character. Rosenqvist believes tive mergers. Artists, both inside and outside Handi- that, on both the individual level and the organiza- craft, then approached what had been perceived as tional level, one can see a gender system through traditional handicraft techniques and materials in which these activities have been kept apart and new ways. men’s activity has been superior and has set the To be better able to interpret what happens in norm. Handicraft, Rosenqvist seeks to relate, in a new Moreover, Rosenqvist points out, our perceptions way, what happens within the movement to other of handicraft are affected by the names that are ap- adjacent phenomena and to the aesthetic debate of plied to it. She discusses, for example, how one the time. The categorizations that handicraft and could view products such as rag rugs, rya rugs, wall textile art at different times have been expected to hangings, or even handicraft patterns in general, satisfy, she thinks, develop parallel to the transfor- from the perspective of art history and talk about mation of gender roles that has constantly taken them in the terms that are customary in the art place in society. And the different circumstances of world. Talking about handicraft objects as works, the actors have also been dependent on factors such not products as they are often called, or stressing the as concrete laws, habits, and conventions in society. process of composition or creation that leads to new In the 1920s, in the case of the Malmöhus associ- craft objects, can serve as a way to make the ob- ation, the path from the traditional models to the server regard them in a completely new way. Not all finished craft products was through the “pattern craft objects are art, but there are objects that are drawers”, women at the test-weaving institutions. Reviews 127

Those who designed craft products then had artistic between art and handicraft, Rosenqvist says, has training, yet it was still common that their names been maintained or strengthened by the failure to were not mentioned at all in connection with exhibi- discuss and write about artistically produced handi- tions. They were viewed more as representatives of craft products as individually created works (of art). a collective tradition and therefore their craft prod- Rosenqvist joins those who claim that handicraft ucts were not automatically signed in the same way and art have a shared history and that they should as artists sign their works. Later, however, it became not be separated as much as has been done. She ar- less controversial to conceive of a craft product as gues that Handicraft has played a much greater part having a creator. When the Handicraft movement in Swedish design than has hitherto been acknowl- embarked on product improvement in the 1990s, by edged and therefore deserves to be put in its context commissioning outside designers, Rosenqvist finds in the history of art. With her dissertation, Johanna several examples of increasing attention being paid Rosenqvist seek to contribute both to our knowledge to naming the people who contributed in different of handicraft as such and to a discussion of the ques- ways to producing the objects that were to be in- tions and phenomena – besides those which have cluded. been established and taken for granted – which Several artists and critics in the 1990s worked should be considered relevant to art historians with both inside and outside Handicraft, and in both the an interest in the twentieth century. art world and Handicraft people challenged the Maria Ekqvist, Åbo boundaries for the kind of products or works that “could” be made. Apart from that, Rosenqvist draws attention to a tendency in the 1990s to a change in the use of terms. The element hem mean- Lifestyle Hotels ing “home” in hemslöjd was dropped, and there Maria Strannegård, Hotell Speciell: livsstilskon- was more talk of just slöjd meaning “craft”, with sumtion på känslornas marknad. Liber, Malmö both a small and a big S. In Rosenqvist’s opinion, 2009. 263 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. ISBN this has to do both with the fact that “male” craft, 978-91-47-08836-2. which was beginning to come in more, was felt to be better suited to a concept that was less focused n What does the cultural economy smell like? How on the home, and more on the doing than on the is it materialized, narrated, and marketed? And what finished products. Rosenqvist draws attention to does it look like? These are some of the questions phenomena such as the reorganization of textile posed by Maria Strannegård when she considers the education and the new focus on terms such as cultural economy in its most concrete forms. Stran- workshops and showing off the creative process in negård’s dissertation Hotell Speciell proceeds from the making of art. She also considers examples of the emergence of a new type of hotel in the last how more room was made for a playful relation to twenty years, a genre that has many names, but the tradition in Handicraft, and she shows how people author calls it a lifestyle hotel. started to emphasize craft teaching and self-fulfil- An important part of the cultural economy is the ment through craft, along with reuse and steward- economic potential and the interests to be found in ship of resources. Recycling craft could now use emotions, what Strannegård calls the emotional things like discarded plastic products, not just economy. The dissertation sheds light on the signifi- more traditional natural materials. cance of feelings for the economy, with the lifestyle Handicraft, as Rosenqvist observes, has not been hotels as an example. Strannegård sets the emotional isolated during the century or more when it has been experiences in an economic context in which active. Artists have used similar traditional tech- ephemeral qualities such as atmosphere, aura, sen- niques, materials, and processes as if they had been suality, and emotions are important parts of today’s working within Handicraft. Yet although the handi- management strategies and production cycles. In the craft aesthetic can justifiably be said to have been in age of the emotional economy, emotional values are harmony with the aesthetic of the art world in both hard currency, an infinite resource which can give the 1990s and the 1920s, art historians have general- added energy to the hotel business. The author be- ly ignored it. The great difference that is perceived lieves that lifestyle hotels can be a key to under- 128 Reviews

standing some of the economic and cultural pro- One of the most important elements in the flour- cesses affecting our society. ishing hotel genre has been the stress on novelty and Strannegård describes the dissertation as a cul- innovation in the concept with the aid of strategies tural-historical study of a formation process – how for renewal, constant transformations, and quick the ideals of the emotional economy entered the ho- changes of scenery. Another feature in the rhetoric tel and started to dictate the tone for the way hotels of the hotel genre that Strannegård emphasizes is the are designed and communicate. Her intention has cult of individualism and anti-conformism. The au- been to study the conceptions, ideals, values, and thor introduces us to a number of operators on the norms that surround the lifestyle hotels, using cul- market and guests who regularly visit these life- tural analysis as a methodological tool. In that re- style-oriented and studiedly designed hotels. The spect the dissertation is placed in the research tradi- guests use their hotel visit to express their personali- tion in ethnology that investigates meaning-making ty and to signal their intentions and preferences, so cultural processes. that they can differentiate themselves as persons and Objects play a central part in the analysis, that is consumers. Like Scott Lash and John Urry, Stran- to say, the way things speak and the way people talk negård calls this expressive hotel consumption “aes- through things. The materiality of the lifestyle hotels thetic reflexivity”, a way for individuals to mirror is analysed in the light of a theoretical foursome, themselves both externally and internally. consisting of picture semiotics, identity theory, phe- The author also describes how the characteristics nomenology, and discourse theory; of these it is the of the hotel genre were soon adopted by the big latter that is given most place and perhaps also func- chains and adapted to large-scale operations. In this tions best. Strannegård has thus chosen to work with process, the definitions became an important tool for different theoretical approaches in order to obtain a the hotel actors to position themselves in the seg- “kaleidoscopic perspective” on her material, rather ment, which in itself can be described as a discur- than allowing a single theoretical angle to dominate sive field. Strannegård shows how the talk about the the dissertation. hotels – who defines a hotel as “lifestyle” and how it The arrangement of the dissertation follows a is said – decides who qualifies. She also observes straight and consistent narrative form, as Stran- that many of the properties and strategies that occur negård invites the reader on a walk through the dif- in the hotel segment are not new but, as she writes, ferent parts of the hotel, from the lobby to the bed- old wine in new bottles. room via the corridor and the bar. Each category of One quality of the dissertation is the rich descrip- space is the theme of a chapter. On this walk we are tions of milieus. These are relevant for understand- shown all sides of the hotel, front and back – both ing the hotel settings with their overload of signs. metaphorically and literally. Evocative sound and lighting, extravagant and un- In the second chapter the author paints a backdrop usual interior design meet visitors as soon as they to the rise of the hotel genre in its time. She analyses step inside. The hotels in the lifestyle segment make the cultural construction and self-representations of great efforts to communicate with visitors. Stran- the lifestyle hotel, and also of the pioneers and the negård points out that the scenographic hotel mi- hotel rebels’ struggle against the establishment of lieus often signal collisions of taste and conflicting chain hotels. This chapter describes not just how the combinations of signs in order to create a semiotic seasoned nightclub entrepreneurs Ian Schrager and friction between the hotel and its guests, for in- Steve Rubell transferred ideas from club culture to stance, the surrealistically disproportionate pots that the hotel business by inventing a new hotel genre adorn the entrance to the St Martin’s Lane Hotel in closely linked to urban lifestyle – the boutique hotel London, together with garden gnomes and gigantic – but also how they fondly emphasized their own gold teeth that function as seats. success story. All through the dissertation there are Strannegård states at the same time that the hotels frequent references to Schrager. This bias towards convey a promise of belonging. Staying here is an Schrager could have been problematic for the dis- expression of affinity that simultaneously creates as- sertation if Strannegård had not also examined sociations and expressive effects. The design em- Schrager’s self-representation and hotel concept, bodies the “subculture” to which the guests wish to which she explicitly does. belong. The hotels thus have a great identification Reviews 129

potential, according to the author. The trends help dissertation genre or are in a zone bordering on the consumer to make choices, and through the other literary genres. choice the individual can be incorporated in differ- I personally see the narrative style – the walk ent communities. Their hotel consumption functions through the hotel that becomes increasingly depress- not only as a status marker but also as an object of ing the deeper into the labyrinth one progresses – as identification; the attributes that an individual adds a good rhetorical device for revealing the other side to his or her person are regarded as being important of the coin. However, some chapter themes feel not just for self-profiling but also for self-percep- more justified than others. In chapter six – “The tion. The aesthetic reflection is, so to speak, directed Corridor: Hotel Emotional” – the author highlights both outwards and inwards in the wordless commu- the corridor and its labyrinthine structure as an ex- nication. ample of one of several spatialities that stimulate the Many hotel operators compare the hotel settings imagination and arouse emotions. The question is to dream worlds that encourage people to escape what part the corridor plays in the endeavour to from reality. Provoking emotions is as important a create emotional experiences in lifestyle hotels. The strategy for the hotel concept as arousing attention link between “hotel corridor” and “emotional” in and communicating a message. A tactic commonly this chapter, unfortunately, feels somewhat forced. used by the lifestyle hotels, according to the author, In my view, perhaps the strongest chapter in the is to anthropomorphize, to animate the hotels. The dissertation is chapter eight, where Strannegård aesthetic arrangements have no value if they do not seeks out the back yards of the emotional economy: have a soul, that is, a sense of care and a distinct “Behind The Scenes: The Hotel as Theatre”. Here idea that pervades the composition. Both the visitors the author plays out the theatre metaphor to the full and the staff are a part of this work of art, Stran- by talking about a front stage and a back stage. With negård notes. The people are regarded as things and great social passion, Strannegård describes the ma- the hotels as living beings. Strannegård also de- chinery of the lifestyle hotels, the everyday life of scribes how the hotel companies work with careful- the emotion workers, and what impression manage- ly balanced emotionalization tools – formulae, de- ment can contribute in practice if it is taken to its ex- sign programmes, models, and measurement instru- treme. ments – in order to master and articulate the elusive In a room at the Hudson Hotel we witness a con- values that lie behind the visitors’ emotional regis- flict between the reality and the ideal state. The ho- ter. tel must get rid of all signs of age – not just erase the But the further into the dissertation one comes, traces of earlier hotel residents and other uninvited the more the paint on the walls of the hotel rooms guests such as bedbugs and cockroaches, so that starts to flake, and the more pubic hairs we find in new arrivals have the sense of being the first. Fur- the bathroom drain. In short, the reader becomes in- thermore, the hotel has to maintain the magic and creasingly attentive to the negative sides of the life- constantly reappear as new. But this takes place style hotels. This is a deliberate stylistic device on through systematic and rational measures. The ra- the part of the author, creating effective narration in tionality is essential for the magic rather than in op- the text. position to it, Strannegård claims. The whole of this There is, however, a general risk in dissertations hotel machinery also requires an army of underpaid with such a pronounced style that they arouse sus- supply troops in the form of cleaners, janitors, res- picion, as if the author overlooks problems in the taurant staff, and masseurs acting in the wings. They study behind a stylish varnish. On the one hand, have to deliver without being seen. style, well-found thematization, elegant wordplay, One strength of the dissertation is that the author peripeteias and crescendos get the reader involved has not only had the ambition to regard the lifestyle and make the content accessible. On the other hand, hotels as a cultural phenomenon but has also tried to the stylistic devices can reduce the friction between scrutinize, demystify, and problematize them with- the reader and the content so much that they risk re- out ending up categorically condemning them. The ducing the sense of scholarship, which means that verbal paradox in this context is that Strannegård, on the content loses credibility. This is a recurrent the one hand, uses the terms power (5 times), power problem when authors try to take liberties within the holder (2 times) and ideology (4 times) very seldom 130 Reviews

in the dissertation (compared with Schrager, who is ambitions and processes that drive the lifestyle hotel mentioned 180 times). On the other hand, she man- and its guests, namely, the will to seem as select and ages to problematize the ideology of the lifestyle ho- unique as possible. The hotels stick out on the mar- tels and to describe the pronounced power relations ket, and the guests stick out with the aid of the ho- that operate there. tels. The “special-ization” is based in large measure However, when I read about Hotel W’s phrase- on the production of emotion, on conjuring up the book for its employees (an employee has to be sense of being special, through the materiality of the called a talent; an employment interview is an audi- hotels and evocative images of them as emotional tion) and about the lifestyle hotels’ fetish hunt for experiences. emotional atmospheres and personality, about the My overall impression of Hotell Speciell is posi- unequal gender distribution and the ethnic homo- tive. Maria Strannegård manages to discuss elusive geneity among the lowest-paid service staff, about concepts on a concrete level and to give the new the distance between the actors in the production economy a more balanced meaning by pointing out chain, from the manager down to those who clean the conditions on which it is based. At the same the rooms, about the watertight divisions between time, she reveals the significance of emotions in to- the guest areas and the maintenance machinery, and day’s consumer society. By demystifying and scruti- about the deliberate filtering of customers – what nizing the hotel concept, she shows how the emo- the author calls the aesthetic imperative – I get asso- tional economy operates symmetrically and asym- ciations with concepts such as alienation and com- metrically between hotel operators, guests, and em- modity fetishism. These classical concepts were in- ployees. Finally, without irony and with social troduced by Karl Marx in the 1860s and have wan- commitment, the author contributes to a deeper un- dered around in academic dissertations ever since. derstanding of humans as consuming beings, and of Yet I think they are still valid today. Above all, they our longing to feel – special. are useful concepts for describing social and cultural Per Strömberg, BI Kristiansand power relations in the consumer society. The concepts are in the subtext of the dissertation, not explicitly formulated. One point that I think Strannegård could have The Gendered Forest made more of is to discuss the emotional commodi- Tiina Suopajärvi, Sukupuoli meni metsään: Luon- fication process on a general and theoretical level. non ja sukupuolen polkuja metsäammattilaisuudessa The author could have shed new light on concepts [Gendered forest: The paths of nature and gender in such as alienation and commodity fetishism in rela- Finnish forestry professionalism]. Suomalaisen Kir- tion to today’s emotional economy. What happens jallisuuden Seura, Helsinki 2009. 387 pp. English to human value when feelings, “EQ”, and distinctive summary. Diss. ISBN 978-951-22-2159-9. personality features become fetishes with an economic value? What happens when the human register n Tiina Suopajärvi’s doctoral dissertation offers an of emotions is boiled down to the idea of experi- insightful and thorough analysis of gendered and ences in the conceptualization processes of the life- professionalized environmental conceptions and style hotels? Where do we find the power and the forest relationships among Finnish forestry engin- counter-power in the emotional economy? I think eers. The topic of Suopajärvi’s dissertation does not that these terms from the research tradition of histor- belong to the conventional research themes within ical materialism, from which both Bourdieu and anthropology. As Suopajärvi herself also notes, gen- Baudrillard proceed, could have given the work an dered forest relationships among Finnish forestry extra dimension without seeming antiquated. professionals is a relatively scarcely investigated re- In the final chapter, “Hotel Special”, Strannegård search field. In this respect, Suopajärvi’s work has sums up some of the most important points and con- ambitious and challenging research aims. clusions in the dissertation. She introduces a new Suopajärvi defines her research objectives care- concept – speciellisering (a new variant of the fully and the research questions are relevant for both Swedish word specialisering, based on the adjective academic research and public policy. The main con- speciell in its sense of “distinctive”) – to capture the cepts related to gender issues are clearly defined, but Reviews 131

the concepts concerning forest perceptions and na- turalist political ecology or feminist anthropology ture relationships receive annoyingly scarce atten- (Garrier 2005, Mohanty 2003, Paulson and Gezon tion. It would have been highly recommendable to 2005, Peet and Watts 2004). The conventional better consider how nature and the environment ecofeministic arguments, according to which nature have been conceptualized in recent years’ anthro- is intrinsically subordinate to culture and women to pology. A rich body of literature has been published men in Western ideologies, have been widely ques- on socially constructed and institutionally estab- tioned, especially in poststructuralist political ecolo- lished environmental knowledge and forest relation- gy (Sletto 2002, Zimmerer and Bassett 2003). Cor- ships among different kinds of nature conservation- respondingly, essentialist ecofeministic arguments ists, environmental activists and forestry profession- about the harmonious relationship with nature and als in contemporary environmental anthropology sustainable resource use among traditional indig- and political ecology. The same concerns certain enous societies have received considerable criti- fields of the sociology of science, where the con- cism. Instead political ecologists have emphasized struction of scientific knowledge and professional how concepts such as nature, culture, femininity, expertise among forestry experts and environmental masculinity, and globality and locality receive high- activists has been widely discussed. Better consider- ly diverse and in themselves hybrid meanings in ation of these studies could have perhaps enriched every society and culture. Suopajärvi’s analysis, especially concerning the am- Concerning the Finnish forestry engineers’ forest- biguity of the gendered and institutionalized forest related professional knowledge and the social mean- perceptions among Finnish forestry professionals. ings they give to forest environments and to their own The theoretical framework presented in Suopa- forestry expertise, Suopajärvi’s work provides highly järvi’s work is highly ambitious, although a little un- inspiring and sophisticated analyses. The exploration differentiated. In the Introduction, Suopajärvi states of the collective meanings the forestry professionals that her study draws especially upon the theoretical give to Finnish forests are convincing, and the analy- approaches of ecofeminism and anthropologically- sis of the structural conditions and symbolic discourses oriented political ecology. In some parts of the disser- prevalent in the Finnish forestry sector are insightful. tation, the theoretical discussion, however, goes fairly We are given thought-provoking perspectives in the close to the 1970s structuralism and functionalism. analyses of the forestry professionals’ spirit of wood- What I consider problematic is that there is relatively mankind and the lumberjack culture, of their cyclic scant discussion of how these theoretically diverse, time-conceptions and their overemphasis of the phys- and in many senses contradictory, frameworks can be ical demands of their work, of the forestry-related linked together. Even between ecofeminism and discourses of symbolic female quotas and gender (feminist) political ecology, many theoretical formu- neutralization, and of the forestry professionals’ con- lations concerning the interplay of gendered knowl- ceptions of forest resources as material and mental edge, cultural practices, and struggles over control backbones of Finnish culture and society. The decon- and authority are so different from each other that it struction of forestry professionals’ institutional au- may be difficult to sophistically link these in them- thority and privileged expertise as a result of the selves heterogeneous theoretical frameworks to- emergence of new forms of counter-expertise and gether, without a careful consideration of the difficul- alternative schemes of lay knowledge has also been ties and challenges involved. analysed in a highly interesting way. I would have highly appreciated it if Suopajärvi Suopajärvi’s arguments about nature as an actor had somehow revised the conventional ecofeminis- among the other stakeholders are challenging. Ac- tic theoretical approaches on the basis of recent cording to Suopajärvi, statements about nature as an theoretical formulations within the poststructuralist actor are characteristic especially of political ecolo- political ecology and postcolonialist environmental gy. In this respect, it seems that Suopajärvi has anthropology. Vandana Shiva’s (1989) and Carolyn somehow misinterpreted the political-ecological Merchant’s (1992) ecofeministic and deep-ecologi- discussions on actors. Although nature is considered cal concepts of patriarchal Western nature relation- an active force or an active process in much of the ships seem, in fact, to have limited connections to political-ecological literature, for a non-human or- theoretical visions within the 21st-century poststruc- ganism to behave as an actor would require a certain 132 Reviews

kind of consciousness of one’s own actions and abil- conflicts over forest protection and forest manage- ity to reflect upon the social representations made ment. Arguments concerning the forestry profes- by other stakeholders on one’s actions. In this sense, sionals’ views of forests as valuable resources to be it seems difficult to consider that a stone or a light wisely managed are also insightful and well-ground- would be capable of reflecting on circumstances and ed. An issue that may have been important to con- consciously changing its behaviour according to the sider more carefully is the fact that most of the for- social rules in a way similar to what human beings estry professionals’ work largely concentrates on do (e.g. Nygren and Rikoon 2008, Walker 2005, productive forests. In all probability the informants Zimmerer and Bassett 2003). In environmental so- thus speak of their relationships to productive for- cial sciences, the argument that nature has some ests and private forests in the interviews, which do intrinsic values has also been widely questioned. not necessarily coincide with their views of protect- Values and rights are always socially constructed ed forests or state-owned forests. Concerning the and thus nature in itself is unable to formulate them. analysis of forest certification, Suopajärvi’s concep- Suopajärvi’s research material is extensive and tion that the certification has increased the authority highly qualified. The majority of the primary data of governmental forestry officials is a little confus- was gathered within the wider oral history data col- ing. Taking into account that certification schemes lection project organized by the Society for Forest are based on market-based mechanisms of forest History, University of Helsinki, and the Finnish governance, where non-governmental actors have a Forest Museum Lusto, in 1999–2002. Suopajärvi crucial role, forest certifications have most probably herself conducted only a small part of the inter- rather decreased the authority of the governmental views. What I consider laudable is that Suopajärvi forest officials. Concerning the political-economic shows clear awareness of the risks and challenges context, it would have been interesting if Suopajärvi included in such kinds of data collection projects, had analysed the research material from the perspec- and she admirably takes these constraints into active of recent years’ globalization as well, since this count in the data analysis. process has considerably changed the Finnish for- Suopajärvi’s data analysis is solid and well- estry sector and the Finnish forestry professionals’ grounded. Qualitative data analysis is a highly suit- views of forest management. able method for analysing such kinds of interview Interestingly, significant theoretical widening can data. Suopajärvi has carefully demonstrated when be noted in the last part of Suopajärvi’s dissertation. the argumentation is based on the informants’ own In the Conclusions, Suopajärvi even presents many conceptions and when on the researchers’ interpre- fairly post-structuralist arguments, pointing out the tations and reflections upon the data. Authentic quo- complexity and situational heterogeneity of the tations of informants’ speeches give the work ethno- Finnish forestry professionals’ environmental per- graphic richness and social credibility. In certain ceptions. This is a laudable indicator, as it clearly places, Suopajärvi’s data analysis may perhaps fo- shows a remarkable theoretical sharpening in cus too categorically on the biographical analysis Suopajärvi’s thinking and argumentation during the due to the fact that the original interviews in the research and writing process. wider collection project were based on a biographi- Altogether, Tiina Suopajärvi’s work offers a cal scheme. Biographical analysis may be too wide highly sophisticated picture of the Finnish forestry for the research objectives of Suopajärvi’s work, professionals’ gendered environmental conceptions where the idea is to understand the Finnish forestry and institutionalized forest relationships. The re- experts’ professional knowledge and gendered rela- search questions and the research methods utilized tionships to forests and forestry. are relevant and well grounded. The theoretical ar- Suopajärvi’s research results are logically pre- guments and the empirical research results have sented and well-grounded, with convincing ex- been laudably integrated. Suopajärvi’s work will amples which clearly indicate that the author has certainly attract much attention among different aimed to analyse the research data sincerely and scholars within many disciplines. Especially con- fairly. Suopajärvi provides profound analysis of the cerning the analysis of the meanings attached by historical changes in the Finnish forestry sector and forestry professionals’ to their forestry expertise and institutional structures, especially concerning the to their gendered nature relationships, Suopajärvi’s Reviews 133

work provides highly interesting and challenging radicalisation of the lesbian and gay movement, horizons. which grew out of the frustration with the indiffer- Anja Nygren, Helsinki ent, even hostile, public response to the AIDS crisis, seems to have become the almost inevitable approach in humanities and social sciences to the study of issues pertaining same sex desire and sexu- Who(se) Is the Corpse in the Coffin? ality. In this study, it provides a critical perspective Ingeborg Svensson, Liket i garderoben: En studie av to the social maintenance of the heteronormative or- sexualitet, livsstil och begravning. Normal förlag, der. While Svensson refrains from the usual queer Stockholm 2007. 262 pp. English summary. Diss. renunciation of gay identity politics, she utilizes ISBN 978-91-85505-28-9. constructionist elements of the queer-theoretical perspective and discusses the roles of a) sexuality n The hiv/AIDS crisis devastated communities of (following Michel Foucault), b) loss, grief and gay men particularly in the 1980s. Even though pros- melancholy that arises from unacknowledged loss pects of individuals infected with the virus have that cannot be grieved (in accordance with queer- changed for the better in rich countries where effec- theoretical readings of psychoanalysis) and c) per- tive treatments are available, thus calming the public formativity (as theorised by Judith Butler) in the alarm considerably and while AIDS is no longer so processes through which a subject/subjectivity or obviously considered a gay curse, the stigma of the identities are constituted. The concept of performa- decease has still not vanished and the harsh social tivity puts performance in the centre of these pro- situation that it created in the 1980s has ever since put cesses of socio-cultural construction and production its mark on gay (and lesbian) politics, queer scholar- by merging the two colloquial meanings of the word ship and public perceptions of this demographic as both stage performance and deed or achievement. group. Ingeborg Svensson’s dissertation study on Svensson then easily links performativity to the funerals of urban, white middle class gay-identified study of rituals as particular kinds of performances men deceased in aids, in Sweden, deals with this lega- that have certain social functions and define people cy. In principle, her study spans a quarter of a century in relation to each other and (as different kinds of) from the outbreak of the epidemic in the early 1980s members of society. Funerals have traditionally to the 2000s, but she focuses on the 1980s and early been analysed as rites de passage, in which the indi- 1990s when the deaths were many and the public atti- viduals new status among the dead is confirmed. tudes most unforgiving along with (active) ignorance However, Svensson also takes up the discussion of about the decease. Logically, Svensson frames her their social functions in dealing with the challenge topic by using theory and scholarship pertaining rit- to the cohesion of society posed by the knowledge ual, death and sexuality, and she weaves these threads of the unavoidable annihilation of the individual in skilfully into a tight and coherent narrative. She in- death and to making the thought of mortality bear- vestigates the funerals comprehensively as a process able. This is achieved by creating and upholding dis- from planning, preparations and the customary an- courses of religious, spiritual or social transcend- nouncement of death in a paper, through the actual ence, which grant each individual life meaning be- memorial services to burial of the body and (often yond its own limits but they also come to define the lack of) memorial monuments. Using accounts of the individual in different ways. funerals acquired in interviews with participants, offi- Svensson’s theoretical frame of reference thus al- ciating clergy and funeral home staff as her main ma- lows her to ask who the gay corps in the coffin is terial the author is able to include the meanings at- and she demonstrates how that question often poign- tached to the different features of the funerals in her antly becomes an issue of whom the corps belongs analysis. The interview material is complemented to as present manifestations of all three forms of with an array of pertinent documents, publications, transcendence may become problematic from a gay ethnographic observation of a few funerals and even perspective. The traditional Christian doctrine, the a contemporary play that deals with the topic. dominant religious framework in Sweden where a The poststructuralist queer theory that first large majority of the population are members of the emerged in the U.S. as the academic branch of the Lutheran church, which would grant transcendence 134 Reviews

through the belief in resurrection on judgement day, vance by the deceased themselves. A particular cul- is in many interpretations tainted by condemnation ture of funeral planning emerged as those who de- of homosexuality. The popular spiritual idea of the veloped AIDS during the most devastating phase of continuation of the existence of a person’s spirit as the epidemic were well aware of approaching death part of some relatively undefined divinity or univer- and may have also had plenty of experience of gay sal life force has few institutionalised ritual manifes- funerals in their social circle. tations of its own in present-day Sweden but often Nonetheless, Svensson shows that the characteris- takes place as a (sometimes merely implicit) reinter- tics of gay funerals actually were more like intensi- pretation of religious ceremonies instead. The social fied manifestations of new trends in contemporary transcendence that relies on the continuation of a Swedish funeral practice in general rather than defi- human community, then, has generally been con- nite deviations from it. Indeed, undertakers could structed with reference to blood relations and sometimes see gay funerals even as forerunners that heterosexual reproduction. Discourses of religious introduced innovations, which could put in broader and social transcendence are expressed, and the use. At the time, a critique of the alienation from spiritual ones are often in participant’s minds as tra- death, which was considered characteristic of mo- ditional religious doctrine plays a decreasingly im- dernity, was often expressed in public discourse. portant role in the lives of the general public, in the This alienation was manifested in the way the cor- standard Swedish majority funeral, which is rela- poreal reality of death was concealed and detached tively uniformed because of the Lutheran domi- from the everyday lives of ordinary people and in nance. the anonymity of the standard funeral. Increasing Consequently, acknowledging a person’s homo- expressions of individualism and intimacy in fu- sexuality in a funeral may pose problems beyond nerals could be welcomed as something that re- concerns with stigma and breach of traditional con- naturalised death as a part of everyday life. Still, fo- ventions as the available institutionalised discourses cus on aesthetics and the individual’s life, when of transcendence may either not support or even ex- deemed excessive, could also be criticised as a dis- clude homosexuality. The author describes various traction from the existential reality of death. How- approaches to this dilemma in the AIDS-related fu- ever, Svensson counters this routine association of nerals of gay men, ranging from denial to celebra- the aesthetic with the shallow by bringing forth the tion of gay lifestyles. The funerals could be Foucauldian concept of an aesthetic ethics of exist- squeezed into the standard formula by emphasising ence (life lead and regarded through aesthetically the role of the deceased as a member of the family defined principles). Furthermore, Svensson de- of origin, as the son, and concealing the stigmatising scribes how transcendence is constructed in the gay cause of death, toning down the homosexuality of funerals through a discourse of love that confirms the deceased and negating personal and social rela- relations of the deceased to lovers and others in the tions that had been created in a life as a gay man. gay community, and represents homosexuality as Alternatively, they could become “gay funerals”, something productive and the death of a gay man as lifestyle funerals celebrating the life passed. In fu- a loss to be grieved. The meaning of life becomes nerals of activists, gay identity could be manifested life itself, enjoyment of it and contributing to the life through symbols used by the political gay and les- of others. bian movement. Otherwise, there were cultural The author rounds her thesis up by demonstrating signs associated more loosely with homosexuality one of the strengths of queer theory. It is about re- such as a camp aesthetics, which involves a defiant vealing the naturalised norms of gender and sexuali- adoption of devalued stereotypes as a form of culty and their effects, not only in the lives of those tural resistance. In addition to such collective gay who break them. She uses her observations to argue symbols the funerals could also involve more per- against the thesis of atomising individualisation in sonalised imagery derived from either particular gay contemporary society, stating that if one looks at the subcultures such as leather fetishism or the individu- standard funerals, it is obvious that the individual is al hobbies and interests of the deceased. The indi- still generally ultimately defined as a member of his viduality of the funerals was heightened by the fact or her nuclear family. This is easily neglected in re- that they had often been planned and designed in ad- search that overlooks heteronormativity as it is Reviews 135

taken for granted to the point of naturalisation. In demonstrates the significance of sexuality in con- general, Svensson’s study must be seen as a valu- texts where it is not commonly expected. able contribution to the body of scholarship that Jan Wickman, Turku 136 Reviews

Book Reviews the mid-eighteenth century. After 1700 there were only 18 witchcraft trials in Norway, the last in 1754. During the eighteenth century the belief in witches and their ability to cause harm through magic was Magic and Witchcraft gradually redefined as superstitions, the form of belief that people never ascribe to themselves, accord- Bente Gullveig Alver, Mellem mennesker og mag- ing to Alver. ter. Magi i hekseforfølgelsernes tid. Scandinavian Academic Press/Spartacus Forlag AS, Oslo 2008. The witchcraft trials analysed in the book were 305 pp. ISBN 978-82-304-0030-2. held in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Norway. The bulk of the book, however, is not occupied by the court cases themselves but by the chapters that n Bente Gullveig Alver is professor of folklore studies at the University of Bergen. Her research paint a broader background, with detailed presenta- focuses on magic and witchcraft, folk religiosity, tions of research. The world of folk magic is de- and cultural perspectives on illness and health. In scribed on the basis of ideas about white magic and the book Mellem mennesker og magter (“Between malicious magic, the mind, folk understandings of People and Powers”) Alver provides an in-depth sickness, rumour and gossip as the voice of the col- account of the magical world of early modern lective, and the attitude of the church and the clergy times, and the tension that arose between tradition- to magic. The focus is thus on folk magic, and the al folk ideas about magic and the Reformation with author’s main task is to convey the early modern its demonization of folk magic and its practition- magical world-view to the reader. Magic occupied a ers. central place in ordinary people’s minds, influenc- The subject of the book is thus the conceptual ing the way they interpreted the world, according to world of magic and the place of magic in early Alver. Magic concerned general, everyday aspects modern society. Alver believes that magic was not of life such as the perception of happiness and suc- reserved for marginal groups; the ideas were gen- cess or misfortune and illness. erally embraced and familiar to everyone. The ten- Alver highlights a distinct gender aspect in the sion between the elite culture’s interpretations of witchcraft trials. Two thirds of the accused in magic and the folk comprehension and evaluation Norway were women. Alver asks whether there of magic led to extensive persecution – but not to were words of power to which women had easier the destruction of magic. Alver points out that the access than men, for example, healing spells, since witch craze did not cause magic to disappear from the field of care in particular was the woman’s the world-view of the broad masses. On the contra- sphere of competence. Alver finds that spells of ry, ideas about the efficacy of magic lived on into this kind were of great significance in the Norwe- modern times. gian trials. In the cases she has studied, moreover, Alver begins by pointing out that witch trials and the women revealed that they had learned their accusations of magic were not residual phenomena spells from other women. The magical world that from the dark, unenlightened Middle Ages, but that Alver exposes thus seems to have been female- the witch persecutions gained momentum and at- dominated. At any rate, women occupied an impor- tained a new level of attention and a wider spread tant place in this arena, and magical knowledge with the Renaissance world-view. They culminated gave status and power to the women who practised in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Western Eu- it. Alver also shows how poor women could use rope, in what historians call the early modern magic to earn a living and gain respect. Women period. In Norway the witch craze started after the who lived by begging could profit from their sup- Reformation, and the towns of Stavanger and posed magical knowledge and obtain gifts by Bergen, the cradle of the Norwegian Reformation, threats. The women sometimes seemed challeng- imposed Europe’s most stringent legislation against ing and dangerous in other people’s eyes when witchcraft in 1584. Norway experienced peaks in they asked for gifts from those who could ill afford the witch hunts in the 1620s and 1660s. Around it. Anyone who refused to give and was later af- 1700 the witchcraft trials became less frequent in flicted by misfortune or disease could easily see a Scandinavia, although they continued to occur until link between the events. At several places in the

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 40, 2010 Reviews 137

Rogaland trials, Alver also finds a pattern of fe- of the church and the courts. The majority of the male networks whose members exchanged magical people made a distinction between magic intended knowledge with each other. to harm and magic intended to do good. When mis- Alver’s interest as a folklorist is in the world of fortune in the form of illness or other accident af- popular beliefs, a world that she delineates with flicted the household, people could pin their hopes acuity and detail. The world-view embraced by the on someone who knew magic, who had the right broad masses in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- spells and rituals. Ordinary people felt no qualms turies was magical, Alver says. A power existed in about warding off illness and misfortune with specific places, which people could use in specific white magic, even if the actual magical knowledge situations and actions. Whether this use was regard- was not something that everyone possessed. On the ed as evil or good depended on the situation and the other hand, the majority of the people wanted observer. Alver adopts Nils Gilje’s opinion that the black magic to be combated. Magic that caused folk interpretations were neither private nor subjec- misfortune, sickness, and destruction was per- tive – the same interpretative keys can be found all ceived as a real threat. And most people found it over Europe at this time. Magical thinking included morally acceptable to use magic to counter black the idea that a person could incur injury through his magic. People did not think that magic in general or her hug, that is, through the mind. If the mind was was witchcraft or unchristian, but this became the strong, it could cause illness and even death. The standpoint of the church, according to Alver. The mind of a person who knew magic was particularly ideas that nourished the witch hunts were magic dangerous, because it was so strong that it could be and magical acts. And this was where the church deliberately used for evil purposes. A great deal of derived inspiration for the formation of a new con- space in the book is occupied by the folk under- cept of witch. It was popular magical practice that standing of sickness, which could be perceived as was the springboard for new ordinances against having been sent by God just as easily as it could witchcraft, Alver writes, and the sixteenth and have been caused by witchcraft. If the illness came seventeenth centuries saw stricter legislation in the unexpectedly, if the symptoms were unusual or un- field. Both the Catholic and the Protestant church pleasant, it was taken as a sign that the illness was should be regarded as creators of the witch ideolo- caused by magic. Blessing and reading were be- gy. The church was obsessed with the religious as- lieved to be efficacious cures against illness, so it pect of magic, the nature of evil and the apostasy was a logical move to turn to “wise” (magically from God, which the church saw as a growing skilled) people to cure sickness. A special tension problem in the early modern period. Magical activ- developed between the clergy and the “wise” ities were regarded as the proof of deviation from people. the proper belief in God, of the suspect’s relation- At the same time, Alver cites examples showing ship with the devil and contempt for participation that even local priests could turn to “wise” people in the Christian community. The witch became the for help and treatment for illness. There were no negation of the good person. The new church’s guarantees that individual priests distanced them- construction of the concept of witch that took selves from magic. And it was not because magic shape in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was considered ineffective that it was persecuted by equated magical knowledge and practice with the church and the courts, but because people be- black magic and diabolism. This view was opposed lieved in its power. Through the witchcraft trials, the to the more nuanced folk perception of magic and authorities actually confirmed the existence and ef- its main actors. But the persecution should not be ficacy of magic. regarded solely as the result of power exercised Magic is often divided into three categories: first from above; it was also a result of the people’s fear there is harmful magic/black magic (maleficicum), of black magic and the power of gossip. Neigh- secondly there is magic intended to heal and bene- bours, close friends and the local collective be- fit (blessing, reading, or white magic), and thirdly came important actors in the witch hunts. there are pacts with the devil and journeys to the In the book Mellem mennesker og magter the witches’ sabbath (diabolism). According to Alver, conceptual world of magic is vividly and plausibly the folk view of magic was more nuanced than that depicted, and the phenomenon of witchcraft trials 138 Reviews

and witch burning is made comprehensible within a knowledge do observations provide and how does it specific context. Through Alver’s account of the collaborate with other methods and materials? How strong position of magic (as belief) in folk culture important is basic understanding, the choice of is- and the reaction the magic provoked from the think- sues, positions and perspectives? These are some of ers and religious innovators of the Reformation, the the issues raised and discussed in this book along witch trials became more than mere curiosities. with questions regarding how the process of trans- With this book, Alver shows herself to be not only a forming observations from scribbles and notes to proficient scholar but also a skilled communicator scientific descriptions and knowledge is carried out. and narrator. One of the stated purposes of this volume is to Marie Lindstedt Cronberg, Lund clarify that our seeing and perceiving are moulded by cultural circumstances. Another is to develop the observation methods in more pensive and effective ways. In other words, this is a book concerning eth- Ethnographic Observations nological observations as a set of methods and ap- Etnografiska observationer. Gösta Arvastson & proaches in the process of gathering empirical mate- Billy Ehn (eds.). Studentlitteratur, Lund 2009. 227 rial in the field. The testing of these techniques has pp. ISBN 978-91-44-05748-4. been practised in the same locality – London – but from different angles, themes, procedures and per- n What is an ethnographical observation and what spectives. Through a glorious mix of methods and makes an observation ethnographic? These ques- perspectives such as walk-a-longs inspired by Mar- tions are activated in these “Ethnographic Observa- garethe Kusenbach (2003) (Bäckman), the systemat- tions”, a volume of texts written by some Swedish ic check-list method proposed by Patty Sotirin researchers and doctoral students based on experi- (1999) and a theory of materialized discourse ences from a field trip to London in 2008. As the (Lundgren), mental maps (Lundstedt), materiality editors Gösta Arvastson and Billy Ehn state in their (Johansson), neutrality and valuation (Högdahl), so- introduction, observations can be considered some- cial categories (Jönsson), rhythm and flow (Arvast- what laboratory-like. On the other hand, as a place son), waiting (Ehn) and the odd practice of simply for practising fieldwork methods such as observa- getting lost (Ottoson), we get to know London from tion, testing hypotheses and raising questions about several perspectives. As the examples from these the human ability to perceive and describe the exercises show, observation tools such as theory and world, a public space can in fact also be regarded as methodological perspective produce different re- a kind of cultural laboratory. sults and conclusions along with the personal and The point of departure for the examinations is re- cultural preconceived assumptions of the observer. flexivity. Everyone observes and takes notice of the So, is it possible to go beyond the limits and pre- world around them, but as a scientific method the sumed assumptions? This is at any rate what the ar- ethnographic observation goes beyond mere looking ticle writers try to do when they examine observa- and experiencing. The will and ability to question tions as a source of cultural knowledge. and critically analyse the circumstances of one’s They also take the tricky question about the possi- own view as a researcher are central in finding out bility to make genuine and correct observations into how the world is constituted. Observations are al- consideration, though correct and flawless are per- ways subjective and influenced by memories, emo- haps somehow irrelevant values and principles to tions, previous experiences and our own cultural vi- strive for because of the subjectivity that character- sion. These issues, along with the chosen theories izes ethnographic observations. They are always and educational targets, make it possible for two in- made from someone’s point of view. It is more rele- dividuals to perceive a specific situation in totally vant to discuss the distinguishing traits of well-per- different ways. Can the personal view or outlook be formed ethnographical observation. In my opinion considered as a problem, and how does it affect the this takes us back to the intriguing question of re- results? What is, in fact, possible to see and how do flexivity. As the editors emphasize here – well-per- we arrive at conclusions by making observations in formed observations are based on experience, different environments? Furthermore, what kind of self-knowledge and critical awareness. These con- Reviews 139

ceptions are brought to the fore along with the im- Music and Politics portant question of ethics. When do we become too Alf Arvidsson, Musik och politik hör ihop. Diskus- intrusive as observers and how do we handle a situa- sioner, ställningstaganden och musikskapande tion if someone gets offended? When we are making 1965–1980. Gidlunds förlag, Hedemora 2008. 436 observations in public spaces there is always a risk pp. ISBN 91-7844-732-2. involved, our behaviour might be regarded as if we were doing something suspect, perhaps even crimi- n This book is about the drastic politicization of nal. I don’t think there is any need for exaggerations Swedish youth which took place – with the music in this matter, but some kind of advanced planning movement as an important fulcrum – in the 1970s, es- for handling crisis could be considered. That is not pecially the first half. The basic thesis of the book is an issue discussed in this volume, however. that this politicization was not due to any overall mas- Another issue that needs to be discussed from an ter plan, but rather that it “just happened” and devel- ethical perspective is the “ethnological gaze”, often oped organically, step by step, as one song led to an- presented as an art form and a special competence other, and the actual activity – in today’s ethnology- within cultural research. Would it be reasonable to speak we would say performativity – created the po- consider ethnographic observations as a discriminat- liticization, without the word “politics” necessarily ing research method because of its dense focus on having been inscribed above the doorway. The study eyes, sight and vision? Billy Ehn tells us that it thus joins the long series of Swedish monographs, would not. On some occasions visually handicapped edited volumes, and doctoral dissertations that ex- students have participated in observation exercises, amine the significance of activity itself in furthering and what they lacked in ability to see, they gained in politicization and history-making. In this light, there perception through other senses such as hearing, is a straight line from Arvidsson’s book back to feeling and smelling. Sometimes they also paid at- works like those of Jonas Frykman, Billy Ehn, and tention to things that totally passed their seeing Orvar Löfgren from the early 1990s, such as the clas- classmates’ notice, according to Ehn. With this in sic Försvenskningen av Sverige, and right up to the mind, it is important to underline that ethnographic present-day interest in material-semiotic, performa- observation contains something more than visual tive actor-network theories (ANT), represented by impressions; it is a motley combination of eyesight people like John Law and Annemarie Mol. and auditory impressions, smells and sensations, For those of us who had our politically formative thoughts, interpretations, summarized generaliza- years in Sweden in the first half of the 1970s, this book is a gold mine. It is rare to read a scholarly book tions and the first attempts at theorizing. that functions to such an extent as a mirror and as a From my personal point of view, Etnografiska piece of memory politics, that offers so many possi- observationer is an excellent guide and source of in- bilities for identification. It deals with all the dear old spiration for students in ethnology, anthropology, groups and artistes I listened to alone or with pals and sociology and other cultural studies. As a Ph.D. stu- girlfriends, in the hall of residence, at the student dent in ethnology I consider this experimental ap- union, or in the basements of the Vietnam movement. proach appealing in relation to the subject, and I They are all here: Träd, Gräs och Stenar from the also find it applicable to my own research even more psychedelic wing, the folk music group though it does not encounter the same circum- Skäggmanslaget from Hälsingland, Nynningen who stances. It provides general insights about observa- put Mayakovsky to music, Hoola Bandoola Band tion as a research method – seeing, understanding from Skåne, and Knutna Nävar from what was the and describing – and the suggestions concerning most serious and fundamentalist part of the left-wing techniques and possible perspectives are substantial. politicization of the young, KFLM (r), with its ro- There is also a consistent discussion about what mantic view of revolution and with its twin bastions kind of knowledge ethnological observations pro- among the students of Umeå and the dockers of vide and why it is beneficial as a fieldwork method. Gothenburg. And then there were the older perform- At the end of the book there are some suggestions ers such as the jazz singer Monica Zetterlund and her for different exercises, useful for teachers and stu- involvement in the social democratic movement, dents out in the field. I recommend a trial. which was in power. We did not think much of the Helena Larsson, Lund party then, but we loved Monica Zetterlund. And as 140 Reviews

an artiste she was – as we must admit today – much elitist art music now found its way to the centre of greater than most of those on the left wing. power in music and set the agenda for most of a dec- The pleasure of this book, however, will not be ade. There are some interesting points, for example, restricted to this circle, for anyone who appreciates that folk music, from having been a national sym- solid scholarly work that combines careful empirical bol, was now viewed as a socially and emotionally detail with theoretical and methodological breadth authentic expression of the people. Chapter 7 is de- will enjoy this magnificent work, which tells the voted to a thematic analysis of lyrics, while chapter story of how music and politics established a power- 8 is about the special positions of women, ethnic ful interface in Sweden in the 1970s. groups, and the like. Chapter 9 has a discourse-ori- The book has a wide span, and this is one of its ented discussion of what the political aspect actually strengths, that it considers not only the popular gen- consisted in: the content, the function, the origin, or res, with the politicization of pop, beat, and the intention. The book is summed up with crystal folk-rock especially, but that it also deals with jazz, clarity and precision in chapter 10. The main con- traditional accordion music, the development of clusion is that the political wave in Swedish music modern classical music, and the music policy of the was not unique, but the scope and influence of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and the Swedish politicization was far greater in Sweden than in government in the service of public education. Just other countries in Western Europe. from this very brief list of topics in the book one can Musical history, however, is one thing. Ethnology gain the impression that this is the most detailed is something quite different. One of the merits of the work yet about Swedish music in 1970s. This is the book is that it shows how music was not just one im- ultimate monograph about the progressive and polit- pression made by the ideological convictions and ical Swedish music movement in this period that political stances of certain groups. We are very far was so important for Swedish popular music. The here from a materialistic-idealistic reflection theory, book will undoubtedly remain a central work in in which one first, ante rem, conceives a strategy Swedish musical history as a whole. and then goes out into the world to implement it. The first chapter gives an account of the state of But we are also far from an excessively “culturalist” research, sources, theoretical and methodological approach, where it is intention and meaning and problems, and the disposition of the book. This is everything that happens in people’s heads that is supplemented in chapter 2 with a portrait of the gen- crucial. What was crucial was the deeds, the action, eral social and political background to the study, the performativity, as Arvidsson shows. Many where one of the essential points is that the music young people in Sweden at the time were extremely brought young people, the working class, and col- political and politicized without realizing that they lectives together in a self-run activity and a bottom- were. They just tagged along. One of the strengths up organization that is connected to the interest in of Arvidsson’s book is that he is so observant when the history of the people, oral history, the “dig it comes to this problem. It is wise of the author to where you are” movement in Sweden in those years. stress the performative element, precisely because In chapter 3 the author looks at the debates about the we are dealing with music. Whether it is as a listener politics of music and technological advances of the or a performer, it is always an inclusive movement, time, in both cases imbued with optimism and vi- whereby one is drawn into a community of action, sions of a better future society. We see that the ex- and although it can be said to have meaning, it is pansion of the record market gave young people an primarily something that happens and takes place. opportunity to have the music scene as a context for To put it differently, there is a fine interaction in the self-understanding and a forum for expressing iden- book between the nature of the analysed objects and tity. Chapter 4 provides a survey of the music that the chosen theoretical-methodological approach. It dominated in the different movements and parties. is right of the author to maintain that the politiciza- This leads to chapters 5 and 6, which are the core of tion was in constant movement and took place the book. They examine the growing political through the practitioners’ performative interaction awareness, and the author demonstrates with solid with it. The main idea is that politics is not some- argumentation how what appeared in the 1960s to thing that is in an absolute and essentialist sense, but be an alternative to both commercial pop music and something that is practised. The interaction with Reviews 141

politics – under the auspices of music – took place logical food research, Nils-Arvid Bringéus. This as part of a general cultural process, a pattern that book is published in the series of the Scanian Gas- people exercised performatively. In other words, it tronomical Academy, and the title does not mean took place as part of an ongoing process with a “Food Culture in Skåne” (he published a book with character of multiplicity, in which people moved out that title in 1981), but “Scanian Taste”, Den skånska and in with differing degrees of attention and smaken. Does it happen now? Is this the superstruc- indifference. In plain terms this means that people in ture erected on top of all the studies of detail? Does certain situations are seriously concerned with he reach what it is all about: taste and the culinary politicization while in other situations they ignore it. art? Unfortunately not. But less than that can be This could be called a “negotiation situation”. The good enough. multiplicity of the politicization of music consists of One half of the book consists of articles that have a continuous “flow” of stabilization and destabil- previously been published elsewhere; these are ization performed by fluid, heterogeneous networks about fat eels, broad beans, stewed kale, pancakes of connection between coexisting socio-material (stenkakor or “stone cakes”), doughnuts (munkar), groups and movements. preserved sheep’s milk (syltemjölk), small beer In a more concrete sense this means, according to mixed with milk, and feast food. These are solid and Arvidsson, that one must operate with the politi- well-documented texts which show the weight of cization of music as “situations”, which are per- Swedish ethnology. While it is an advantage to have formed with other people in different ways, with all these scattered texts assembled in one book, it is different kinds of aims. It is also important to view a shame that sources and references have been omit- the boundary “relationally” because the practice al- ted in this edition, which means that researchers ways has social considerations and stagings as have to go back to the original editions in any case. fellow players. The performative aspect of the pol- If this omission is out of consideration for “a general iticization of music is never practised in a social and audience with an interest in food”, which the preface cultural vacuum by solitary individuals. mentions as one target group, then it fails the other It should be clear by now that Alf Arvidsson has group, “ethno-gastronomic tuition” and research. written an exceedingly good book. The general The book begins with an account of the province strength is that it combines a refined ethnological of Skåne (Scania) as a food producer through the approach with a broad picture of a period’s social ages, and it is based on a rich corpus of source mate- and cultural history. It is a huge project to complete rial, with Carl Linnaeus’s Skånska Resa as the high successfully, but the author manages it in the best point; imagine having at our disposal such thorough possible way. The conclusion is that the book will and precise fieldwork from the 1740s! Bringéus also occupy a powerful position in future studies, not draws on the rich collections of the Folklife Archive only in ethnology but also in the study of political in Lund, and there is great wealth of detail. It is movements and politicization movements. On the therefore regrettable that the book does not have an basis of my own life history and love of music, I index. Some of the articles are exhaustive while warmly recommend this book. others are more reminiscent of a printed card index; Niels Kayser Nielsen, Aarhus the chapters about vegetables and fruit are particularly spare. Here the author could have used Flora Danica from 1648 for the early period, rather than the oldest Danish cook book from 1616, which is a A Taste of Skåne translation of a German book published in Kuml/ Nils-Arvid Bringéus, Den skånska smaken. En bok Colmar in 1597. om gångna tiders matvanor i Skåne. Skåneländska The author has chosen not to use cook books as a Gastronomiska Akademiens Skriftserie 4, Carlsson source, a decision that is understandable when it Bokförlag, Stockholm 2009. 247 pp. Ill. ISBN comes to the older material, but it is problematic 978-91-73331-213-4. when the studies reach the second half of the nineteenth century and the whole of the subsequent cen- n It is with great expectations that one picks up a tury. A considerable proportion of the source mate- new book by the grand old man of Swedish ethno- rial was collected through questionnaires and cam- 142 Reviews

paigns in newspapers and radio programmes as late local plants producing direct current. In 1922 a co- as the 1970s, that is, at a time when cook books had operative company was founded, “Andelssellskabet become so widespread that their effect on oral tradi- Sønderjyllands Højspændingsværk”, jointly owned tion cannot be ruled out. When it comes to the histo- by the small cooperative societies. They would buy ry of individual dishes, it could have been useful to their electricity from the jointly owned power sta- bring in the cook book material too, as in the section tion that was planned in Åbenrå. In October 1924 on pp. 39 ff. about porridge cooked in a bag (pose- the power station started delivering electricity. In grød). This is found in Danish cook books from the the following twenty years Southern Jutland ac- start of the eighteenth century in the form of bud- quired a wider electricity network, consumption in- ding, a direct translation of the English pudding. Or creased, and prices were lower than in the rest of the question of when stewed kale is done in a cream Denmark. sauce, which can be followed in Danish cook books Memorial publications to leading businessmen – and probably in Swedish ones as well – from the used to emphasize the man’s personality and quali- mid-nineteenth century, and it caught on at the end ties, and how he set his stamp on the business. This of the century as milk became basic food. is the case here too, but the praise comes in a more It is a bad habit to review the book that one would nuanced form. Some of the director’s leadership have liked to see rather than the actual book as pub- qualities were typical of the time in which he lished. Let me therefore sum up: Den skånska sma- worked. ken is a very uneven book, but it has some thorough An important factor for the development of the and solid chapters which show the ethnological electricity company was the political situation in method at its best, and readers who know no Swe- Southern Jutland, which was reunited with Denmark dish are referred to Nils-Arvid Bringéus: Man, Food after the First World War. The owners and manage- and Milieu: A Swedish Approach to Food Ethnolo- ment of the power company wanted to give the un- gy, Tuckwell Press, 2001. derdeveloped Southern Jutland a leading position in Else-Marie Boyhus, Maribo the modern Danish industrial society. The power station was not the end but the means in this modernization process. Jes Christiansen claimed that the best thing for the nation was flourishing business The Spirit of the Works and good economic conditions for the whole popu- Kirsten H. Clausen & Torben A. Vestergaard, lation. Ånden på værket. Virksomheds kultur på Jes Chris- When the threat of another adjustment of the bor- tiansens sønderjyske højspændingsværk. Museum der between Germany and Denmark arose after Hit- Sønderjylland, Cathrinesminde Teglværk, Broager. ler came to power in 1933, Jes Christiansen once 2009. 100 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-89984-26-1. again became involved in the pro-Danish struggle. When peace came it was important again not to n This book, whose title means roughly “The Spirit make any distinction between pro-Danish and of the Works”, is about the workplace culture of a pro-German entrepreneurs. power station in Southern Jutland during the years Jes Christiansen was a director who had control 1924–61 when Jes Christiansen was director. A over matters large and small. His management style group of retired employees often talked about their was like that of the master of a household in the old workplace, lamenting the fact that their stories patriarchal rural community where he had grown up, would disappear with them. They therefore contact- as for example when he happened to see from the ed Museum Sønderjylland to suggest an interview window of his office how an employee was driving project with people who had worked at the power away a stock of surplus iron sections; he pointed out station in the 1950s. The present owner of the power that they should be kept because they might come in station supported the project, which resulted in handy some time in the future. Until 1951 he him- in-depth interviews with twelve former employees. self and the managing engineer each had an apart- Around 1920 the only large power stations for al- ment in the office house at the power station, so that ternating current were in Sjælland and eastern Jut- they were always available. As master it was his land. In the rest of Denmark there were only small duty to organize a summer excursion every year for Reviews 143

the employees and their wives who were invited to Today’s environmental considerations were un- dance with the director. To avoid accidents he ruled known in Jes Christiansen’s time, but the inhabitants that the staff canteen should not serve beer, although of Åbenrå complained about the smoke and the coal this was regarded as a national drink. dust that enveloped the town. One of the engineers Wages were a private matter that could not be dis- at the power station says that he found it difficult to cussed. The employees would never ask for a raise; understand the director’s indifference to the prob- pay was decided unilaterally by the director. Jes lems. It was unpleasant for him to meet people in Christiansen’s patriarchal management style made the town because everyone knew that he worked at itself felt when he raised the pay of one employee the power station. Low operating expenses were who had got married and another who had bought a more important than clean air, and the power station house. The electricity company rain its own bank was often run on bad fuel. where employees received help in planning their The time after Jes Christiansen witnessed major economy, paying bills, and saving money. Although changes. He died before the critique of authority and the data were confidential, the director was in- of modern technology began in the 1960s. A new formed when any employee ran into financial power station was opened in 1973; it was planned to trouble. He then made personal contact with the per- run on oil, but the oil crisis in the same year re- son in question and ensured with his paternal con- vealed the weaknesses in energy supply and had the cern that the problems were dealt with. result that the power station was built for both oil The temperamental director easily became agitat- and coal. Environmental interests had grown strong- ed when it came to expenses. It is said that the hairs er, leading to mistrust in both coal power and the on his neck stood on end. It is almost to be expected nuclear power that had also been suggested. The that directors of the time should have been choleric, electricity company later became involved in like Dithers in the American comic strip Blondie. projects for environment-friendly technology and The whole time that Jes Christiansen was director became part-owner of a wind turbine factory. One was characterized by periods of economic crisis power station was rebuilt so that it could be fired which required thrift, creativity, and inventiveness. with straw. These qualities were also developed into a virtue by The trend in business nowadays is to merge in or- most of the employees. It was always difficult to get der to form larger units. “Andelssellskabet Sønder- good fuel, difficult or impossible to buy machines jyllands Højspændingsværk” has been owned since and spare parts. The director and his staff always 2006 by “DONG Energy”, a large Danish interna- found it best to think up a solution of their own or to tional company with operations in several fields of produce a design that the business’s own workshop energy. The cooperative society was a cross be- could implement. The workshop was a sore point for tween a traditional form of business with social obli- the ambition to develop local industry, since exter- gations and a modern, market-controlled enterprise. nal suppliers complained that they could not com- The power station served its part-owners, and they pete with the same low prices. were in turn loyal customers. Now government poli- The director Jes Christiansen enjoyed great trust, cy and the power station’s aims have been combined but he was not the only one who had the Zeitgeist on in an uncompromising demand for free competition. his side. There was an almost magical faith in the role of the various engineers, who were expected to It is easy for the description of the director Jes be able to solve all kinds of problems with machin- Christiansen to become too favourable, since the ery, electricity, and buildings. electricity company was successful in many respects Electricity was important for the whole of society. despite the difficulties. The people who shared their In the event of a power cut, the repair men had to memories of the director tended to tell a positive step in at short notice any time of day. The work story. This may be because certain events, in retro- made strict demands of loyalty and a sense of duty. spect, are transformed into entertaining stories of a The same has been reported from other electricity bygone time. When the employees were in the midst companies. “It was the famous Sydkraft spirit,” as of these events, however, they could probably find an employee of the southern Swedish company once his attitudes and actions troublesome. The book has said. many good quotations from the interviews, which 144 Reviews

also reveal that the employees sometimes found his style. Reading along and between the lines reveals a management style pushy and domineering. His habit sober-minded approach to and respect for materiali- of trying to control everything, whether large or ty that is seldom seen. At the same time, the authors small, and even private matters, could be irritating do not make the mistake, so common otherwise in and sometimes downright humiliating. recent years, of throwing out the concept of meaning For a reader interested in technology, the authors with the bathwater. They make no bones about the have a long chapter about how the engineers solved fact that the world has to go through a feeling and problems and devised their own solutions when thinking subject in order to be perceived and ac- building steam boiler number 9 in 1946–49. The knowledged. The tone is set on the very first pages quotations and pictures in this account are a good il- of the book, with the analysis of what can happen lustration of “The Spirit of the Works”. when you stand in a supermarket queue and start Göran Sjögård, Lund fighting off the boredom. Throughout the book there is a fine balance between the trivial and the unique, which in turn raises the question whether it is in fact banality that stimulates the extraordinary and imagi- Habits, Waiting, and Fantasy native, resulting in what could be called a “differen- Billy Ehn & Orvar Löfgren, När ingenting särskilt tiated hybrid”. That is one side of the matter. händer. Nya kulturanalyser. Brutus Östling Bokför- The other side of the matter is that the book can lag Symposion, Stockholm/Stehag 2007. 265 pp. also be said to contribute a memento to the all-per- ISBN 978-91-7139-797-3. vasive “event culture” – and the often uncritical research about it. In all the Nordic countries there has n This is a highly relevant and very brave book. It recently been a great interest in the phenomenon of ought to have been written many years ago because the experience economy. The time is past when the it fills a huge gap in cultural studies. It deals with wine in the supermarket was described as being what most of our lives are filled with, namely, hum- “easy to drink”, and was moreover easy to get hold drum daily routines. These are dominated by habits of; there was a wealth of choice on the supermarket without which we could hardly control our lives. It shelves. This has been superseded today by other is one of the mantras of modernism to criticize ways to launch products: they are now supposed to everyday life for being far too banal, with too much put up a challenge. Pure consumption alone means of the character of a Thursday evening. It has been getting away too easily. Now there are demands for particularly difficult for modernist critics of culture something more than immediacy and ease. Consum- to accept that everything does not need to be trans- ing is supposed to require an effort, either an econ- formed all the time. The frenzy for permanent re- omic investment, or an investment of care, or doing newal and variation has left deep tracks. In today’s something special in order to consume. The experi- world of medialized clichés we are told that we have ence economy aims at committed involvement well to “move on in life”. above the level of merely receiving culture, and it This is not the case with Ehn and Löfgren. They asks for so much participation by the recipient that take everyday life seriously and do not condemn it. the result is active joint creation of culture – if only This takes courage and simultaneously calls for eth- for a moment or a few hours. When the involvement nology’s twin tools of empathy and distance. Their has to be longer than that, the experience economy approach is a combination of refined analyses and runs into difficulty. worldly-wise observations of life, which only re- At the same time, this must not be too radical or searchers with experience, a broad outlook, and an too strenuous. The aim is a balance between comfort ability to see through things can permit themselves. and challenge, and between interaction, consumer This is not done by blasé or grumpy old men, but by participation, and accessibility. Being constantly two frisky youths eager to be amazed, to analyse, challenged would be too much bother, which is why and put things in perspective. It is a challenge for the challenge is usually left to a weekend or some them to maintain the inquisitive and alert gaze when other free day. Otherwise the experience would be- they direct it at mundane, repetitive things. One come habitual, and habit and experience are like wa- should not be misled by the low-key, laid-back ter and fire, according to the “experience entrepre- Reviews 145

neurs”. Ehn and Löfgren do not agree. The point of structure. It consists of four major chapters, each on their book is to problematize this opposition. Once a separate theme. Chapter 1 is devoted to waiting. A again they claim that habit and routine stimulate crucial point here is that waiting is an acquired be- people to fantasy and creativity; pre-arranged fanta- haviour that varies in time and place and in different sy is an impossibility. cultural settings. A central question here is to ex- But wine and supermarkets are not enough. All amine who has the right to decide what is the right over Europe nowadays, people go on pilgrimage to way of waiting. Chapter 2 is about routines, empha- medieval festivals and tourist sites to enjoy experi- sizing that routines are also effective, time-saving, ences. But only for a while, never permanently – and bring the joy of recognition. Conversely, they and as a rule also forgettably. The experience should can also function as straitjackets that choke im- preferably be unique. If one looks at experiences provisation, creativity, and inventiveness. In chapter from the perspective of the experience economy, 3 the authors deal with our daydreams in certain one could say that people are not willing to pay for places – railway stations and window seats. This repetition and triviality. Against this Ehn and Löf- chapter is more theoretical than the preceding ones, gren point out the cultural dynamism of habits, and here people like Gaston Bachelard and Walter which can be an unpredictable undercurrent that can Benjamin are put into new and surprising contexts. turn life in different directions. Chapter 4 analyses what happens when something In the light of this, the book provokes the ques- disappears. A central point is that the disciplines of tion of what happens when inflation hits the many history and cultural studies have always been more experiences, when one tires of living like a viking interested in origins, breakthroughs, and innovations on the west coast of Norway, like a medieval monk than in cultural wear-and-tear, outmodedness, and in Horsens on the east coast of Jutland, like a lum- extinction. Modernity and modernism feed on the berjack in a log cabin in the north of Finland, like a new – only rarely on the old. tourist pilgrim on the road to the cathedral of Ni- There is no reason to believe that this book will daros, or wandering around for the umpteenth time reach the same classic status as the author’s book on on the trail of Inspector Wallander in Ystad or a cultural analysis, Kulturanalys, which, since it ap- whore in St. Pauli. One begins to feel bored and peared in 1981, has been used as a textbook in eth- reaches that stage where nothing special happens. nology, cultural studies, anthropology, and cultural And there’s nothing wrong with that, the authors history. But less can still be good enough. This book seem to think. This means that we ourselves start to will no doubt prove to be as durable. Behind the ele- fantasize, instead of letting our dreams be domesti- gant style there is a veritable bombardment of analy- cated. Very few of us make pilgrimages around the ses that take the reader by surprise and force a re- world on well-travelled routes, as global nomads – think. Could one ask for more? As a researcher and both at work and in leisure time – reflecting our- teacher I know that one of the hardest things is to selves in each other and casting scornful looks on teach students to become aware of problems. This the poor souls who never get out on adventures, and book, precisely because it superficially seems so who are forced to ride on the metro instead of flying. easy and innocent, will help them on the way. It be- Ehn and Löfgren’s book can thus be read as a si- longs to that rare category of books where the reader lent problematization of the mainstreamed modern- says, “more, more, more, don’t let it end.” In short: ist and utterly conformist economy of experiences you will not be bored by it. and pilgrimages, in that they show how triviality This review has been written with the experience gives occasions for unique fantasies and daydreams, of having used the book frequently in both research how the imagination of the “event menageries” – and teaching, for instance in the subject of Historical quite opposite to the creative class’s and the cultural Consciousness in the education of historians at entrepreneurs’ ideas of constantly delivering the lat- Aarhus University. It has proved highly useful and a est innovation – in the long run can easily give rise great stimulus for discussions. For that reason too, it to banality and boredom. It is here that the book dis- deserves top marks. At the same time, it is a good plays its silent solidarity with average Swedes and example of how porous the boundary is between their lives on an ordinary Thursday. history and ethnology. In terms of content, the book has a strict and clear Niels Kayser Nielsen, Aarhus 146 Reviews

Honour Killings and Words Critique, and Difference”. He calls these people Simon Ekström, Hedersmorden och orden. Berättel- “culture critics”. Ekström does not count himself ser om kultur, kritik och skillnad. Makadam, Göte- among them. His view is that culture, defined in a borg/Stockholm 2009. 251 pp. ISBN 978-91-7061- special way, definitely has something to do with it. 069-1. He himself did not take part in the debate, but his views coincide on the most significant points with n The issue of honour-related violence has scarcely those of another person who did participate: the an- lost its relevance. It was in connection with the mur- thropologist Mikael Kurkiala (whose book I varje der of the fifteen-year-old “Sara” in 1997 that it be- trumslag jordens puls (2005) presumably – it is gan to be discussed in earnest. When Pela Atoshi never stated explicitly – plays a very important part was shot dead two years later, the debate intensified, for Ekström’s understanding of the problem). In reaching its peak when Fadime Sahindal died in their attitude Ekström and Kurkiala find themselves 2002 as a result of a pistol bullet fired by her father. in the company of a number of female debaters with The discussion may not be as intense now as it was an ethnic background similar to that of Sara, Pela immediately after the murder of Fadime, but it has Atoshi, and Fadime Sahindal. Their message, based developed through new ways of approaching the ison experience from within, was clear: culture is the sue – for example, the attempts to understand the most important explanatory context for anyone killers in the book Varför mördar man sin dotter? seeking to understand the violence that some young (Why Murder One’s Daughter?) by Emre Güngör immigrant women are exposed to. and Nima Dervish (2009), and through the efforts to Yet such explanations were dismissed in the establish institutional forms of support for the vic- opening phase of the discussion. It was started by tims. Jan Guillou in 1997. His stance presumably did not On one fundamental and general human level, it reject culture per se. On the other hand, he sought to is very easy to take a stance on the issue: events like prevent generalizations about honour culture and those which lay behind the three murders are pro- linkages between this and specific ethnic groups, foundly tragic. There can be no disagreement about such as Kurds or Muslims. that. On another level the matter is far more compli- The dismissal of culture as an explanatory vari- cated. The three murders are an expression of some- able, however, was quickly taken to radical ex- thing, they symbolize something, but the question is tremes, especially when debaters like Kurkiala as- what. There are quite a lot of suggestions about this. serted what others rejected. Stieg Larsson, the jour- Their very number ought to be a hint that the issue is nalist and thriller writer, went further than anyone hard to grasp in the current state of knowledge and else. In an article that Ekström cites several times, discussion. This should urge us to humility, yet the Larsson claimed that anyone who would associate suggestions have often been put forward with exag- honour killings with, say, Kurdish culture also gerated certainty. The diversity and disagreement wished, “in the name of logic”, to combat this cul- are surely also a reflection of this simple fact: the ture and was therefore in the same camp as advo- problem is historically new in Sweden, having ar- cates of fascism, war criminals, and organizers of rived here as an effect of globalization and modern ethnic cleansing. migration. The argument is a textbook example of the But there is not even agreement about that. On the guilt-by-association type, but it also has distinct ele- contrary, many debaters, presumably the majority of ments of desperation. What was the cause of this? It them, have claimed that the mechanisms leading to was presumably something that was actually re- the murders are here in this country, irrespective of spectable. There was a fear that cultural explanatory the victims and the perpetrators. To put it different- models would encourage cultural racism. That had ly: the murders have nothing, or very little, to do to be avoided at any price. In a political struggle the with these people’s culture. The background to the strategy is comprehensible, but it presupposes that murders should be sought elsewhere. the culture that some people want to use as an expla- Those who assert this are the main subject of Si- nation has a specific appearance. Otherwise it can- mon Ekström’s book, the title of which means not become cultural racism. It must be understood as “Honour Killings and Words: Narratives of Culture, static, determinative, and well-demarcated. Reviews 147

The problem was that no one advocated any such pain. For the analysis exposes an undergrowth of review of culture. Perspectives like that are stone-dead fusal to understand what the opponent is really try- in cultural studies today. The culture that ethnolo- ing to say, a desire to put ideological passion before gists, anthropologists, and the like find it meaning- objectivity, and quotation techniques that are often ful to work with is diametrically opposed to the idea dubious and sometimes downright fraudulent. Of of culture that gives rise to cultural racism. Culture those who are guilty of this there are several schol- is viewed as dynamic, composite, subject to influ- ars who ought to know better, but still do it. ence from different quarters, and the people who It is also painful to read Ekström’s analysis of “belong” to a culture are perfectly capable of re- the methods used to knock opponents out of the de- flecting on it. This means, among other things, that bate by challenging their competence. One persons thinking in terms of honour, even within an “honour claims that anyone who is not a woman with a culture”, can be highly controversial. Kurdish, or at least an immigrant, background is The enemy that the culture critics denigrated was scarcely worth listening to. Another declares that thus a chimera. A debating technique like this – and this is the kind of person – and not, say, an aca- it was practised by many more people than just Stieg demic – that ought not to be taken seriously. Some Larsson – offers great freedom; it gives impact to people are disqualified because they lack expertise the messages you want to put forward yourself. in research on violence or on ethnicity. When all These consisted of other explanations for the these limitations are placed side by side, it be- (non-)honour-related violence, seeking a reason for comes uncertain whether anyone at all is entitled to the murders in factors existing here in Sweden, inde- say anything. pendent of the presence of people with their roots in The body of material that Ekström tries to grasp is cultural contexts where honour violence is incorp- large and diverse. It is also full of strong emotions orated in a cultural logic that is controversial, chal- and wills, which hardly makes it easier to arrange it lenged, ambivalent, changing. according to sober principles. But as far as is poss- Among these explanations, two were more com- ible to judge, Ekström sorts it with a sure hand and mon than the others: the murders were regarded as creates categories and demarcations that seem rea- expressions of a universal and aggressive patriar- sonable. And what is more: he retains his calm as he chate or a racifying and segregating social structure. does so. His tone is matter-of-fact throughout, test- These factors undoubtedly had something to do with ing, thoughtful. He passes in silence over the the matter, but they were put forward by people who simple, populist points. He has the language it takes rejected the cultural component. It was with the aid to do this: he has a well-developed arsenal that en- of this antagonism that these debaters were able to ables him to keep his cool and carry on his argument pave the way for their understandings of the funda- in detail, without the reader’s commitment flagging mental defects in society. But these messages were or longing for a simpler and more pleasurable world. only geared fictitiously to the opponent that was On the contrary, the reader’s involvement is gradu- constructed for the purpose. The real addressee, as ally heightened. Ekström shows, was the general public, who had to But this is not only to do with the language. This be won over to the perspective espoused by the calm must also derive from a mentality for which it spokesman himself, and sometimes also had to be is more important to look for clarity than to adopt a rescued from cultural racism. When this ambition pose and win political triumphs at any price in the was accentuated, the murders that had provoked the currency of intellectual decency. In the minds of debate ended up in the background. So too did the many of the debaters, the balance seems to be the re- serious discussion of the concept of culture. verse. In those cases people are often quick to seek Simon Ekström devotes much attention to the respect by announcing their thorough familiarity techniques that are used to construct the holder of a with advanced theoretical worlds. This is almost al- contrary opinion. This makes for reading that is at ways done in an empty and mechanical way, as if once enjoyable and painful. It is enjoyable because the very invocation were a crucial argument that one of the triumphs the author celebrates by pursuing is right. good old honest source criticism in an alert and ob- But Ekström, who relates to these worlds – they jective manner. But this is also when the reader feels are prestigious entities such as gender theory, 148 Reviews

post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and critique of A Cultural History of Museums orientalism – with approval, sound familiarity, re- Anne Eriksen, Museum. En kulturhistorie. Pax for- spect and criticism in a good sense, shows that they lag, Oslo 2009. 251 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-82-530- can never take the place of the basic requirements of 3225-2. scholarly work: meticulous source criticism, the ability to understand and do justice to other re- n A museum is a concept that can be defined in searchers’ findings, absence of friction between em- different ways, and there are museums for almost pirical facts and theoretical conclusions, the un- everything from milk cartons to objects of art and glamorous stubbornness of sticking to the matter in from Viking ships to toys. New museums are intro- hand. Simon Ekström is not in such a hurry, show- duced almost every day. ing that in these respects he is a highly skilful re- The “certified” definition has been produced by searcher. ICOM (the International Council of Museums). Ac- But it is on this point that one of my two criti- cording to that definition, a museum is a non-com- cisms against the book can be put forward. (The mercial, permanent institution serving the civic so- other is quickly dealt with: I cannot remember ever ciety. It is open to the public and it should provide op- missing an index of persons as intensively as in portunities for study, education and enjoyment. Its reading this book.) Ekström never expresses any ex- task is to acquire, conserve, research and exhibit ma- plicit understanding for the rules of debate. In the terial testimony about people and their environment. name of fairness it should be said that participation The definition thus underlines the fact that the in a debate requires putting across a clear opinion museum is a public institution and a part of the civic quickly, in a limited space, and in an eye-catching society for the benefit and pleasure of the citizens. way. Those are the terms of the genre. Writing a de- The museum shares these tasks with other, closely bate article is therefore not the same thing as author- related social institutions such as schools, universi- ing a book like this. This, of course, is no excuse for ties, archives and libraries. But a museum solves its defective source criticism, for vague chains of argu- tasks in its own way through the four activities of collecting, conserving, research and communica- mentation and insinuations, or for the ill-concealed tion. This combination of tasks is crucial for mu- delight in abusing one’s opponent, all of which Si- seums. It is precisely the totality of activities that mon Ekström’s analysis exposes. distinguishes the museum field from its related insti- I cannot claim, of course, to know all the ethno- tutions. The activities of the museums are also con- logical works that are written in Sweden, but from nected to what the ICOM definition describes as what I do know I can say that Ekström’s study “material evidence of people and their environ- seems to be the most important and most skilfully ment”, that is, to objects, artefacts, things. There are executed for many years. It demonstrates with per- also other parts of the ICOM definition such as the fect acuity what is involved in scholarly thinking historical dimension, a museum is an ongoing and acting. It is not wholly a pleasure to read – for project. A museum should also, for instance, have that it is far too merciless in revealing the weak- trained staff. nesses and abuses in the public debate that also in- This is the starting point for Anne Eriksen, pro- volves scholars. But some of it is encouraging, as fessor of cultural history at the University of Oslo, for example when Simon Ekström convinces us of in her exciting and fascinating description of the the usefulness and development potential of the con- museum as a cultural-historical phenomenon. This cept of culture, even though it has been declared is a modern follow-up to Haakon Shetelig’s survey dead. And we realize – having considered how some of the history of Norwegian museums, Norske mu- debaters relate to each other and to themselves – that seers historie, from 1944. the Swedish intelligentsia who do not believe in cul- The book consists of three parts: the history of tures of honour are sunk deep in their own, not very museums, activities in museums and a final part in- honourable, honour problems. cluding an interesting discussion of museums, the Magnus Berg, Gothenburg/Norrköping nation and the public sphere. Part one starts with knowledge from all over the world, a journey to different museums of Europe, Reviews 149

also including a visit to Tycho Brahe’s place on the The book has four sections. In the first part the in- little island of Ven in Öresund. terview and the voice are studied mainly within the The history of museums is very much a history of context of fieldwork and the research field; in the nationalistic movements in Norway and elsewhere. second as part of the creation and interpretation of Eriksen discusses patriotic museums, national mu- material; in the third as a unit in the research pro- seums of cultural history and also the landscape of cess; and in the fourth as archival material. Norwegian museums as a whole. The classification of significant and insignificant In the second part the author discusses and prob- voices has varied through time. Sometimes what the lematizes the main activities of museums: collect- original fieldworkers in their time dismissed as ing, preserving, research and communication. “noise” can later obtain the status of what seems to Eriksen makes us aware of a process from the ear- be the most interesting part of traditional material. ly days when museums told simple, collected stories In the older traditional material, a rural popula- about the nation, the people and the course of histo- tion’s collective voice is heard. Individual narrators ry, to the present day, when the museum is a part of appear with new field ideologies in the 1960s. Only a comprehensive cultural industry, with the media then do urban narrators representing different social and many actors competing for attention. She ad- groups became objects of interest. In the 1970s dis- dresses crucial questions such as what it is important cussion about ethnographic field methods intensi- to collect and preserve. Why? And for whom? What fied. kind of stories do today’s museums tell? Varying technical equipment naturally influenced Anne Eriksen shows that museums do not only the structure of the material. Today, digitizing the reflect on their own history; in a wider perspective archival materials has raised an intensified discus- the museums want to be a part of a larger history of sion about copyright law and personal data secrecy. knowledge. They mirror society’s values and modes The first part of the book, “The interview and the of thought, and also how ideals for knowledge and voices in the field”, begins with Helena Saarikoski’s the organization of knowledge have changed over article, which focuses on the interview method and time. the danger of voices disappearing during the re- Göran Hedlund, Lund search process. She has previously noted the importance of the voice and sounds both in her study of the noisy school feast culture and in her interviews with Spice Girls fans. Voices from the Archive Saarikoski discusses what is lost when a recorded Ääniä arkistosta. Haastattelut ja tulkinta. Outi Fin- interview is transcribed. As a field researcher one is gerroos & Tuulikki Kurki (eds.) Suomalaisen Kirjal- familiar with the dilemma: a successful interview lisuuden Seuran Toimituksia 1194. Helsinki 2008. can loose all its radiance when transformed into 297 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-952-222-028-8. written text. The written language never reflects speech automatically and transcribing must be con- n The collection of articles, “Voices from the Ar- sidered a research method unto itself, one that chive – Interviews and Interpretation”, examines the should by no means be dismissed as an unproblem- creation of ethnographic interview material and atic task. studies questions connected to the use and interpre- Karina Lukin examines the conceptions of suc- tation of field material. The articles reflect the multi- cessful and unsuccessful interviews, telling about plicity of voices connected with the field of culture her own field experiences among the Nenets people and the study of tradition: the concrete voices in the in Northern Russia. She describes how her own in- field, the voices in recordings and transcribed texts experience, linguistic problems and ignorance in in the archives and, finally, the researcher’s own considering codes of cultural communication con- voice interpreting the material. Another perspective tributed to creating an interview result that did not is the voice in a metaphorical sense, the unheard or correspond to the real situation in the field. The only partly perceived voice that affects the audibili- so-called “good informant” that minimizes the culty of other voices in the research, and even that of tural differences between himself or herself and the the researcher. interviewer can in reality be doing the researcher a 150 Reviews

disservice. Lukin concludes that both successful and her study, the same woman was repeatedly inter- unsuccessful interviews and the informant’s meta- viewed in a project studying the information society, communication all combine to function as important a topic otherwise often described in rhetorical or sta- keys of interpretation for the researcher. tistical terms. The stories told by the informant Oili Airi Markkanen examines her own voice as a reflected experience and an ability to interpret long-time researcher of the Romany culture. She things. But a long-standing relater also learns the stresses the importance of ethnographic description role of being an informant and adjusts her state- and notes the importance of establishing contact by ments to her role as a representative for the project also introducing the interviewer’s own life experi- that is being researched. ence into the field situation. In the section “Voices in the archive”, Päivi Ran- The other part of the book, “To reach the voices”, tala studies material about a local character called begins with Kaisu Kortelainen’s article about using “the preacher of Kalkkimaa”, collected by two dif- photographs as inspiration when raising memories ferent researchers. Rantala raises the question of in an interview situation. By looking at the pictures who finally decides what stories will be the ones she found that her informants were transferred from that make up history. Every researcher creates her or present to past. But the picture collection, compiled his historical picture based on her or his own mate- by the researcher, could also be provoking when rial. Rantala describes the interviewers and narrators some picture that one of the informants had pre- as gatekeepers to the past. served in their heads seemed to be missing from the Kati Heinonen has studied recorded laments. She photo collection finds that a researcher when listening to recordings Kortelainen also stresses that a recording featur- is confronted with a sound landscape where the re- ing significant pauses and silences important to the actions and emotions of both singer and interviewer researcher can be difficult to preserve as archival are registered. The most accurate interpretation of material. The researcher’s comments about the in- the interview is made when the person is present at terview are crucial for future understanding and in- the session and the transcribed version only trans- terpretation of the material. mits a shallow picture of the performance. Johanna Uotinen describes analysing a large tra- Lauri Harvilahti concludes the book with an dition material with the data program Atlas/ti com- article looking at the sound and voice material in the pared to traditional ethnographic analysis. She archives in a historic perspective. He describes how writes in detail about difficulties coding the material changing technical innovations and varying field and about the consequences of incorrect choices strategies have resulted in today’s archive material, during the work process. defined by functional analysis, traditional ecology In Uotinen’s experience, the data program’s me- and concentration on the context. chanical treatment of the material smoothed out nu- Harvilahti relates discussions in the 1980s about ances and differences in the material. The data pro- worthless archive material that lacked any context, gram made the systematic survey more effective, and mentions many new studies in which the re- but in this process the individual voices were dis- searcher has been able to give the old material a solved, thus making a deeper analysis difficult. context by using new methodological tools. The third section, “Voices in the process”, begins Finally, Harvilahti mentions a crucial problem to- with Elina Makkonen’s description of the project for day’s archives have to face: the challenge of pre- writing the oral history of Joensuu University to serving the recorded traditional material in a world mark the university’s 30th anniversary. of constantly changing technology. The threatening Oral history is fragmentary and kaleidoscopic. picture of loosing it all continuously requires new Makkonen describes her task like this: in order to solutions and strategies in the field of long-term create a commonly approved history you have to ne- preservation. gotiate the interpretations and try to create a picture “Voices from the Archive” is fascinating reading. of the past that is both diversified, but at the same The writers are experienced field workers, basing time at some level mutual (p. 153). their articles on numerous materials collected in Sari Tuuva-Hongisto studies how a key-inform- challenging circumstances. The book gives many ant can change the direction of a research project. In personal and detailed insights into how strategies in Reviews 151

the field affect shaping the voices that will eventual- creasing. Tove Fjell has conducted interviews with ly form “the archived truth”. It strikes you what a younger women and with women who became complex arena creating ethnographic-folkloristic adults when free birth control became available in source material is. There are no shortcuts to be taken the 1960s and 1970s. A questionnaire on the theme on this meandering path! of “voluntarily infertility” has also been distributed For an archivist like myself the anthology provid- in Norway. As a final category of material, Fjell ed many insights and it will certainly serve as a has used the Internet and studied how international helpful and inspiring textbook for students attempt- organizations for childfree people present them- ing to use the “voices from the archive” as research selves and discuss this theme. material – or indeed create new archive material In the second chapter the analysis focuses on how themselves. the discussion about childfree life is also a discus- Carola Ekrem, Helsinki sion about what the normal family is and what it is not. Fjell points out that new reproduction technology creates possibilities for more couples to have children but, at the same time, put more pressure on Analysis of a Childfree Life couples who have decided to live a childfree life. Tove Ingebjørg Fjell, Å si nei til meningen med li- Having two to four children is something that is vet? En kulturvitenskapelig analyse av barnfrihet. seen as something normal and natural, and some- Tapir Akademisk Forlag, Trondheim 2008. 110 pp. thing that all couples should strive for, with or with- Ill. ISBN 978-82-519-2352-1. out reproduction technology. At the same time there are groups that the society accepts choosing a child- n In the preface to the book “Saying No to the free life. In the third chapter the discussion of a Meaning of Life? A Culture Analysis of Childfree childfree life is given a new perspective through me- Life”, Tove Ingebjørg Fjell points out why she be- dia and how books and forums on the Internet bring came interested in studying women who had decid- together people who are interested in topics con- ed not to become mothers. In her previous work she cerning a childfree life. Here Fjell looks at both a had studied reproduction and interviewed women European and an American context. This interna- who were involuntarily childless. Many of them told tional perspective is fruitful and gives the analysis her that they did not understand why other women new insights on childfree life. It also puts the Nordic could choose not to have children of their own. This context in perspective. made Fjell interested in women who had decided After the third chapter we meet the older women not to have children. In her new book she has now who obtained free birth control in the sixties and focused on the childfree life in general and, more seventies and could control their reproduction on specifically, Norwegian women’s experience of their own with legal contraceptives. This gave the choosing a childfree life. This very interesting topic opportunity to choose not to have children. The can say something about contemporary views of women’s different reasons for making this choice both heteronormativity and the cultural meaning of and deciding not to get pregnant are discussed. One having children. reason was the debate about overpopulation, which In the first chapter the issue of the study is pre- was a hot issue at that time. One woman thought sented and discussed. What ideas of childfree life that one should help the children in the world in- are presented among ordinary people and in the stead of having children of one’s own. Another rea- media? What reasons are given for choosing a life son was that the woman felt that she did not have the that is childfree? How are the childfree women capacity to become a mother. The women felt some perceived by other people? Does a childfree life pressure from people around them when they an- challenge the conventional understanding of gen- nounced that they had decided to live a life without der? A childfree life is then taken as an empirical children. ground for studying questions about gender and the In the fifth chapter the focus is on women who cultural meaning of the nuclear family. The ques- have taken the decision not to have children in the tions of the study are discussed in relation to the twenty-first century. Having children today, Tove situation that fertility in Norway and Europe is de- Fjell points out, is more of a project through which 152 Reviews

the family can constitute itself. In this way the chil- also positive that the book is short, well written dren have a new status in the family, where they are and quickly comes to the point of the study. The an emotional resource and not so much an economic material that Tove Fjell uses gives new and inter- resource. The chapter begins with a discussion of esting perspectives on heteronormativity. What is how the women reason about why they don’t want heteronormativity in our society today? How do to have children. The reasons are that the women people relate to heteronormativity? And how do want to have their individual freedom or that they they use heteronormativity to define themselves as have not found the right man. The author also dis- “normal”? These are important questions that are cusses the comments these women get from other discussed in a clear and instructive way in the people when they say that they have chosen a child- book. free life. One of the women has noticed that her Kristofer Hansson, Lund male colleagues who have also decided not to have children do not get comments about their choice. The chapter also examines how the women create different techniques to disguise their decision for Local Cultural Patterns of Ill Health other people. The chapter ends with a discussion Jonas Frykman & Kjell Hansen, I ohälsans tid. about the difference between the two generations, Sjukskrivningar och kulturmönster i det samtida focusing on how the women of the younger genera- Sverige. Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm 2009. 235 tion experience greater pressure from other people. pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7331-217-2. Tove Fjell’s conclusion is: “It seems that the new reproductive technologies and the child’s new status n At the beginning of the second millennium, Swe- in the last few decades have pushed the childfree den had the highest rate of ill health in Europe in the women further to the margin of the nuclear family age group 15–65. Thanks to their welfare state, ideal, and further out into the periphery of hetero- Swedes are entitled to sickness benefit when they normativity” (p. 84). are too ill to work, but this national insurance can be In the last empirical chapter the focus changes very costly when the nation is Number 1 in ill and Fjell discusses how the childfree women hit health. back and respond to the ideal of the nuclear family. The health insurance is nationwide, but the prac- The interviewed women discuss pregnancy as some- tice of granting sickness benefit is determined local- thing normal and natural but, at the same time, they ly by doctors and social secretaries, a fact which think that they have the possibility to let culture seemed to have a certain impact on the number of overcome nature. In this perspective the women see sick-listed people, since the rates of sickness ab- the childfree life as something positive; they can fo- sence were very different in different parts of Swe- cus on work and a good relationship to a man. In- den. In order to study local variation and the mean- stead the women talk about mothers and think that ing attached to the impact of being too ill to work, these women are worn out and stressed from having ethnologists went out into the field. Their aim was both a career and children to take care of. At the to find the ethos of the local communities, which – same time, Fjell points out that the childfree women inspired by Gregory Bateson – connotes the per- include themselves in normality and identify them- ceived and practised community. selves out of the role of deviant. In this way they use The two authors chose five different localities in the culture of heteronormativity to categorize the Sweden, three of them with a lower percentage of childfree life as something positive for the women. sick persons than the Swedish average, the other two In the last chapter this perspective is very precisely with a very high percentage. summed up: “The childfree women have risked their The methodology and interpretations in this study femininity, but have managed to create new forms are impressive, inspiring, and creative. The collect- of femininity by being aware of a core femininity ed material consists of field notes from observa- and also being a part of traditional heterosexual relations, photographs, interviews, policy statements tionships” (p. 101). and local area presentations, tourist brochures, This is a book that succeeds very well in captur- sculptures, architecture and town plans. According ing a contemporary cultural phenomenon. It is to the presentation of the methodology, the people Reviews 153

interviewed are what I would term superinformants, sis reveals a local ethos with a keen interest in free- people in central positions related to the topic, i.e. dom and independence connected to hunting, fish- general practitioners, heads of social security and ing, agriculture and so on, and a high dependency social services, or local politicians. The ill persons on economic support both from the state to the themselves comprise a very large group who have community as a peripheral area, and to individuals nothing much but their absence from the labour who often need to supplement their incomes with market in common; for this reason the authors find it social security due to either unemployment or ill- useless to focus on their perspective in this study. ness. The rough life in the countryside seems to Copious fieldwork notes, interview extracts and provide for a “naturalization” of bodily decay. This photographs serve as documentation and illustration local culture leads the ethnologists to draw conclu- in the interesting analyses, which also interpret sions about life in the natural environment, which buildings, marketplaces, church-bell melodies, does not sustain itself, leading to medicalization bodies and their postures in the streets, conversation and dependency on support. It is reported to be a standards, industrial artefacts on display, and so on. paradoxical culture, valuing independence but The creativity invested in these analyses gives the practising dependence. texts a poetic touch. In studies like this, ethnologists can encounter The analyses are informed by theories of govern- angry responses, as happened to the authors of this mentality (self-control), social trust and hope, medi- book, because people in the northern region felt mis- calization and everyday life in a phenomenological represented. In this case, some of the problems perspective. could derive from the fact that the five communities In the three communities with lower disease rates are intentionally presented as homogeneous entities than average, the cultural patterns value inhabitants in order to reveal their societal ethos. This might who want to work and to find paid work, even in cause a levelling of local varieties and disputes, for tough times of industrial crisis. Another shared fea- example, in the case of Östersund, where the key is- ture of these three communities is a high rate of par- sue is that the community is divided into two ticipation in local communal life in various organi- groups, the heritage people and the newcomers, and zations, whether social, cultural or sports activities. the latter have higher education and hence occupy These communities are reported to represent hope the chief positions. Since the reported methodology and trust. of the research is to interview primarily superin- Nässjö is presented as an old social democratic formants, newcomers probably had a great say in base where people are willing to work, ensuring the this local study. This could easily have biased the ideals of the welfare state and its rights and duties. interpretation of the negative influences of the Gislaved is presented in positive terms as the au- old-fashioned hereditary culture. thors’ favourite place, where the local culture is dy- From a general point of view, the study finds that namic and shows a high degree of involvement, be- ill health seems to be produced under circumstances sides being a multicultural area with migrants from involving other kinds of problems, such as the diffi- many countries. The idea of being different as a culty of sustaining a society on the periphery, or the positive experience is mentioned here as a possible women’s role in society as double workers. Hence explanation for the dynamism. The third locality the illness is not so much a phenomenon in the with the lowest illness frequency of them all, Mull- population as in the cultural and political patterns of sjö, is a fairly standardized community consisting of the society at large. This is a good point. However, many commuters. However, worry is reported to these issues are not elaborated further in the book. dominate the local culture in contrast to trust, and The subject involves politically determined strate- care combined with control is an important local gies for managing health problems in a social con- phenomenon as well, performed in an effective text, but outright political comment is absent in the care-control service for inhabitants with long pe- book. In an indirect way, however, the authors riods of illness. The impact of the worrying is not present a modernist, liberal stance, praising the local further explored in the analysis. governmentality and standardization of modern liv- In the diagnoses of Östersund and Strömsund, ing, especially in Gislaved and Mullsjö. The prob- with high rates of ill health, the ethnological analy- lems of peripheral living in areas where nature is 154 Reviews

more prevalent than industry, especially in nations brought scope for animal welfare too. The English valuing modernity and industriousness, is not taken upper-class fox hunt, with packs of frenzied hounds, into consideration from a more general perspective. was not banned until 2004. Ethics committees were Anne Leonora Blaakilde, Copenhagen set up to minimize the suffering of laboratory animals. The number of laboratory animals in the EU’s pharmaceutical industry has increased significantly and has now reached 10 million animals per year. Humans and Animals in History When hens were packed into cramped cages to Anne Katrine Gjerløff, Jette Møllerhøj & Bo Poul- lay eggs on conveyor belts, and when pigs were tied sen (eds.). “Folk og fæ – mennesker og dyr i histo- so that they could be force-fed, ecological labels rien”, Den jyske Historiker 123, Århus 2009. 136 were put on food that came from farms where the pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-91261-21-3. animals still live a free life, which is supposed to give better-quality food – at a slightly higher price. n The Danish journal Den jyske Historiker has pre- It would have been interesting to find out to what sented a highly interesting theme issue on the histo- extent this eco-labelling gives the desired result. ry of animals. The racy introduction by Anne The authors point out that certain vermin, when Katrine Gjerløff and Jette Møllerhøj stimulates the driven to the point of extinction, became an object reader’s appetite. Gjerløff and Møllerhøj combine of fascination and concern. A Danish pamphlet from surveys of international literature with breakneck the 1940s, with a call to “Had Rotterne” (hate rats) associations. They show that the history of animals and a portrait of a fierce rat, gives the reader pause includes Swedish sodomites, Alsatian breeders in for thought. No one in Scandinavia cares about the Japan, German butchers, American nature writers, extremely rare black rat. The widespread hatred of and English suffragettes alongside the animals. We wolves in Sweden at the start of the nineteenth cen- find here technology and theology, sentimentality tury was replaced later in the next century by a de- and sickness, philosophy and sodomy. sire to protect wolves, which were now threatened In one chapter Peter Sandøe and Stine B. Chris- with extinction. When the small inbred stock of tiansen serve us facts about the growth of the move- wolves had recovered somewhat, however, regulat- ment to prevent cruelty to animals in the last 200 ed wolf hunting was permitted. years. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Jeremy Liv Emma Thorsen, in her chapter, tells of how Bentham (1748–1832) are the pioneer philosophers the 1700s were the century of the pug dog for the of animal welfare. A person who is thoughtless and upper classes. She writes that the author Ludvig cruel towards animals destroys his morals, Kant de- Holberg (1684–1754) was fond of cats but detested clared. Bentham wrote that, just as we should not dogs. Wild dogs roved around in the eighteenth cen- discriminate against people because of the colour of tury in such quantities that they even entered the their skin, we should not discriminate against ani- churches, to the horror of the congregation. Associ- mals because they have four legs and fur. Bentham ating with animals could also be intimate. As an ex- argued that the important questions about animals is ample Thorsen mentions that the Swedish warrior not whether they can think and talk but whether they king, Karl XII, had a tame alcoholic bear running can feel pain. around loose. The hunting dogs Snushane and The world’s first animal welfare act, from 1822, Pompe slept in the king’s bed, where Pompe died in ruled that animals must be protected against wanton the early hours of 3 November 1703. Small dogs cruelty. Richard Martin M.P. (1754–1834) and Lord were used as bed warmers. Erskine (1750–1823) cunningly steered the bill Anecdotal narratives from questionnaire surveys through the British parliament, giving animal own- are interleaved with theoretical references and inter- ers the right to be masters of their animals, but nationally current technical terms. Dog urine which meaningless cruelty was to be prosecuted. The im- ends up on pillows hung out to air, and plastic bags portant thing was to pass a law preventing wanton of dog excrement thrown into other people’s hedges, cruelty, an idea that was pervade all subsequent is referred to as “matter out of place”, using the North European legislation. English expression. Some dog owners let their dogs Increased welfare after the Second World War lick the plates before they are put in the dishwasher, Reviews 155

while other dog owners find this way of using re- Denmark concentrated more exclusively on high- sources disgusting. Candidly expressed opinions are productive dairy farming. described by Thorsen as “foregrounding”, while Gjerløff describes the development through old more implicit views are called “backgrounding”. periodicals where farmers expressed themselves. In Folk og fæ there is a chapter entitled “Ordinary They regarded heifers, cows and pigs as production Animals and Ordinary People, 1860–1980”, where machines which needed a heavy input if there was to Niklas Cserhalmi refutes widely disseminated be a good output. Hay as fodder was replaced with Anglo-Saxon research findings about the treatment root crops, barley, and concentrated fodder, which of animals in the past. In Anglo-Saxon literature it resulted in good meat and dairy products. The has been claimed that people in bygone times had well-being of the cows was an important production their animals so close to them that they wanted to factor, and was perhaps the reason why the Danish mark their distinctiveness and superiority over the animal protection movement in the 1870s confined animals through cruelty. Cserhalmi overturns this itself to monitoring the slaughter and the animal stereotyped view by studying judgement books from transports. The high-yield breeds of cow took on a the time when the Swedish Cruelty to Animals Act special appearance. They had large udders and were was passed in 1857 and subsequently. The court so lean that every vertebra in the spine was visible, records show, in complete contrast to Anglo-Saxon since all the energy went to milk production. These findings, that people in the old days had a more hu- cows were considered beautiful, since they gave a mane view of animals, since living so close to them lot of milk and were thus unusually profitable. led to greater concern for the animals’ needs. If the Sometimes their supposed beauty was more impor- animals were happy, they were better able to serve tant than the amount of milk they produced. These humans. In the past there was greater empathy for dedicated dairy cows were specially bred, in con- animals’ suffering. The slightest sore left by the trast to the now extinct aurochs, which evolved at harness was tended to. Most of the convictions for the same pace as nature. The old native breeds were cruelty to animals were for offences that were much an intermediate form which adapted relatively freely milder than the cruelty to animals that is permitted to the surrounding nature and culture. today. Cserhalmi convinces the reader through his In agricultural journals there were discussions of solid empirical evidence and logical reasoning. He whether artificial breeds should be crossed with old also gives an account of the emergence of the ani- native breeds or whether they should be kept pure. mal rights movement. The red Danish dairy cow was preferably not sup- The year 1990 saw the start of the modern animal posed to have any white markings. Indigenous rights movement on a broad front, with the publica- breeds were given priority. After initial resistance, tion of Animal Liberation, the book in which the the Jersey cow was nevertheless imported, produc- Australian-American philosopher Peter Singer de- ing fat milk, especially suitable for making butter. scribes the horrors of the animal factories, with de- Darwin’s theory of evolution from 1859 extended tails such as that hens’ beaks are cut off to prevent the debate about breeds, when natural selection cannibalism! There have been attempts, as we have among wild animals was contrasted to the artificial seen, to curb the worst abuses through eco-labelling. products of human breeders. The way in which economics governs animal hus- Anders Lundt Hansen shows in his chapter how bandry is shown by Anne Katrine Gjerløff in the zoological gardens have been adapted to changing chapter “The Battle of the Red Cow”. In bygone eras in human culture. Cabinets of curiosities and days heifers could be regarded as a necessary evil princely menageries were favoured in the sixteenth, for transforming hay into manure, to be used for the seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The men- widespread barley cultivation. In the 1870s Den- ageries disappeared with the concentration of power mark abandoned its crop-based farming to concen- under absolutism. It became impossible to give food trate on animal production, with beef cattle and to exotic animals while the people were starving. fatted pigs, heifers and dairy cows. Denmark there- The animals from the Versailles menagerie were by became world-famous for its exports of meat and turned into fur and the buildings were demolished. butter. At the end of the nineteenth century agricul- Europe’s first zoological gardens were opened in ture in Jutland was diversified, while the rest of London in 1828. Rules for the visitors and cages for 156 Reviews

the animals have subsequently been regarded as authors can find no arguments for criminalizing symbols of the dominance of the bourgeoisie and bestiality once again. Many people have a contrary the colonization of distant continents. In Vienna the opinion, however. emperor’s menagerie did not disappear until he ab- Folk og fæ calls for an attentive reader. The chap- dicated after the First World War. The menagerie ters are studded with valuable facts and provided was closed, replaced by the zoos of democracy. with detailed bibliographies. The reader can put the The animal importer Carl Hagenbeck in Hamburg pearls together in personally chosen patterns on a provided zoological gardens and circuses with ex- base of solid data, hundreds of facts that provoke otic animals. For Hagenbeck the world was a stage. thousands of questions; a fireworks of facts, explod- In 1896 he patented the “scientific panorama”, in ing in associations that go in all directions. which living animals appeared against a backdrop Nils-Erik Landell, Årsta resembling their natural environment. He established a zoo just outside Hamburg, with mountains designed by landscape architects and cast in cement. Hagenbeck’s zoo gave the illusion of arctic ex- History and Nationalism a Century Ago panses and African savannas. Visitors were en- Den dubbla blicken: Historia i de nordiska samhäl- thralled, and Hagenbeck’s zoological gardens at- lena kring sekelskiftet 1900. Harald Gustafsson, tracted millions of visitors, at the expense of the ani- Fredrik Persson, Charlotte Tornbjer & Anna Wal- mals. Many animals died when being captured and lette (eds). Sekel Bokförlag, Lund 2007. 196 pp. in transport. The animals that did reach the zoos of- ISBN 978-91-85767-00-7. ten died after just a few days. The first gorilla to arrive at Copenhagen zoo, in 1907, died after a week n In 1905 the historians in Lund arranged the first and a half. Apes were especially sensitive to tuber- Nordic Historians’ Congress. The event was boy- culosis bacteria and viruses that brought cold symp- cotted by the invited Norwegian delegates, and a toms and bronchitis. A pack of apes that came to the large share of their Danish colleagues stayed away zoo in 1916 from South-East Asia caught dysentery out of sympathy. This was undoubtedly a fragile and infected an orang-utan and all the chimpanzees, start to the series of Nordic conferences; fifteen causing their death. The zookeeper was also infect- years were to pass before the next one was held, and ed; although he survived, his wife caught the germs a few more decades before stability was achieved. and died. The volume Den dubbla blicken (The Double In 1975 the Convention on International Trade in Gaze) is a report from a Nordic historians’ confer- Endangered Species (CITES) came into force, and ence in Lund 2005, to mark the hundredth anniver- virtually every government in the world has pledged sary of the first congress. It contains ten articles, all to stop all trade in more than 30,000 endangered based on lectures delivered to the centennial con- animal and plant species. Zoos now have fewer ani- gress. The discussions at the conference, according mal species and more space for each animal. to the introduction, centred around “the place and Now that the polar ice is melting and the rain role that history had in the Nordic societies around forest is being turned into patio furniture, zoos are the last turn of the century” (p. 9). The ten published booming as never before, as Hansen accurately and papers, according to the same introduction, have “a drastically sums up the situation. pronounced focus on concrete expressions of differ- The final chapter in this thought-provoking theme ent uses of history in different contexts” (p. 12). issue, by Stine B. Christiansen, Vagn Greve, and What is a pronounced focus? And what does it mean Peter Sandøe, is entitled “Should It Be Punishable to that the word “different” is repeated in the second Have Sex with Animals?” In the seventeenth and half of the sentence? For me the wording gives an eighteenth centuries bestiality was forbidden in unmistakable sense of underlining the differences – many countries, carrying a death sentence. Since the or, in other words, stressing the dissimilarities be- twentieth century sex with animals has been legal in tween the things being discussed, rather than their Sweden and Denmark! If sexual intercourse with potential common denominators. Against that back- animals causes suffering or injury, it can be prose- ground, it is tempting to understand the formulation cuted pursuant to the Animal Welfare Act. The as suggesting that each phenomenon discussed in Reviews 157

the book is examined on its own terms, within its contexts, as the introduction promises. On the con- own framework, with a minimal amount of sideward trary, the use of history seems to be a rather peri- glances or comparisons. pheral model in most of the articles, and it is very That is how one can actually describe the overall seldom that the concept is mentioned or discussed impression of the ten articles. They deal in turn explicitly in the texts (Eriksson’s article is a positive with: Scandinavianism, nationalism and the histor- exception to this). Far more prominent as a common ian’s congress in Lund in 1905 (Ulf Zander); the de- denominator is the nationalistic complex of ideas, in velopment of Norwegian historiography before and different aspects and with changing relations to his- after the dissolution of the union with Sweden in torical references and resources. The editors are evi- 1905 (Narve Fulsås); the German school of Kultur- dently aware of this, but in the introduction (pp. 12– geschichte as it was adopted in historiography in 15) they treat the different variants of nationalistic Finland (Pertti Haapala); the discovery and con- ideology and practised nationalism in the Nordic struction of the local district (hembygd) in relation countries as a context for the reasoning rather than to the understanding of history and the teaching of as an object of study in itself. I think this was a mis- history in Sweden (Bosse Sundin); history in Green- taken approach, and that the book would have ap- land at the start of the twentieth century (Daniel peared far more focused and integrated if its explicit Thorleifsen); the significance of gender in relation theme had been “nationalism and history”. Another to ideas about freedom in Norwegian historical re- factor contributing to the lack of coordination is the search around the last turn of the century (Ida fact that the articles lack any references to each Blom); gender, nationalism, and the issue of female other, even though there are obvious parallels and emancipation in Iceland at the same time (Sigríður intellectual overlaps between them. Matthíasdóttir); gender analysis of royals and na- Barbro Blehr, Stockholm tionalism in Sweden, also at the same time (Char- lotte Tornbjer); the use of history in architecture (Eva Eriksson); and the consequences of the break-up of the unions for Swedish national revitali- Food in Nineteenth-Century Denmark zation (Niels Kayser Nielsen). Kost og spisevaner i 1800-tallet. Ole Hyldtoft (ed.). How much the papers will appeal to different Museum Tusculanum Forlag, Copenhagen 2009. readers depends, of course, on the readers’ interests 403 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-635-1098-1. and prior knowledge. For my part I would single out, for example, the articles by Blom, Matthíasdót- n Food is a basic feature of all cultural communi- tir, and Tornbjer, which together provide valuable ties. From the beginnings of humanity, food has de- perspectives on the relations between gender, na- fined who belongs to a cultural community and who tionalism, and history, Sundin’s highlighting of the is outside it. With food we start and finish social re- concept of hembygd as a pedagogical instrument in lations, and as individuals it lets us say who we are, the service of nationalization, and Haapala’s analy- where we come from, and who we want to be. sis of why German cultural history became so influ- Despite this, food has not been at the centre of re- ential in Finland a hundred years ago. I was particu- search in cultural history. On the contrary; in food larly impressed by Eriksson’s article about the reuse and meals have had a minor role in Scandinavian re- of architectural ideals and expressions from differ- search compared to matters such as cultural herit- ent eras, both for its insightful analyses of varying age, buildings, narrative, and in recent years issues relations between form and meanings, and for its such as class, gender, ethnicity, consumption, and comparative ambitions. The concluding article by health. It is true that pioneering work has been car- Kayser Nielsen also presents very insightful and ried out, some of it by established researchers, but it readable results, in this case concerning the transfor- is striking how often this research has been done as mation of the national in Sweden after the loss of sideline projects, pursued in a scholar’s spare time. Norway. Major research grants to study the cultural signifi- What this collection of articles can be criticized cance of food have been rare. It is therefore gratify- for is the lack of cohesion. I find it hard to see that ing to note the investment in the project “Food, the papers deal with the use of history in different Drink, and Tobacco in the Nineteenth Century: Con- 158 Reviews

sumption Patterns, Culture, and Discourses”, led by best to avoid eating potatoes before September, and Ole Hyldtoft and Arne Astrup at Copenhagen Uni- they tasted best at Christmas. versity. This volume on “Diet and Eating Habits in Traditional and local food are more popular today the Nineteenth Century” is the first of four planned than ever. A closer look reveals that food which is publications from the project. now presented as local and traditional has very rare- Bodil Møller Knudsen opens with an article about ly ever been eaten locally to any great extent. This food purchases at the Russian court in Horsens was noted by Erving Goffman; it was the discrepan- 1780–1807. Based on the extant accounts, Møller cy between the food that was served as local at a Knudsen shows how the established notions about Shetland hotel and the food actually eaten by the lo- short Nordic seasons is partly a late phenomenon. cal people that was the foundation for his epoch- Eggs were available the whole year round, although making work The Presentation of Self in Everyday the supply was lower in the winter months. Aspara- Life. Bjarne Stoklund notes comparable differences gus could be bought as early as February, sorrel, in his article about food habits on the island of Læsø leek, and spinach in March, and parsley and cress in the nineteenth century. Chanterelles and lobster, were available the whole year round. Although these present-day “traditional” Læsø specialities, were not plants had to be grown in special conditions and also eaten at all, since these “toadstools” and nasty crus- cost more than an ordinary household could afford taceans were not considered edible. The same aver- when they were out of season, it shows how cultiva- sion to mushrooms and shellfish is also noted tion techniques and the range of varieties on offer among the peasantry in other Nordic countries. And were well developed for the climate. Exotic fruits fresh food was avoided if possible. As in all storage such as figs and melons were bought from a market economies, people ate backwards; the oldest food gardener in Horsens, while pineapple was imported always had to be eaten first. Through time, strong from Hamburg. preferences arose for preserved food: salted, From the wealthy Russian court we then go to the smoked, and soured. opposite extreme: the common people and their So what did people really eat on Læsø? Above staple food, the potato. In a long article by Christina all, rye bread and dried fish. Cabbage, peas, gruel, Folke Ax we learn how the potato became a basic and porridge, made with milk in the summer, other- foodstuff. A little way into the nineteenth century it wise with water. And to drink there was beer or was still mostly priests who grew potatoes, a crop small beer, and spirits for the men. Most food was that was viewed with great scepticism by the peas- eaten cold, even on festive occasions; serving hot antry. Then things happened quickly, and by the food did not become common until the twentieth middle of the nineteenth century, potatoes could be century. Another myth debunked by empirical stu- found on every man’s table. And every woman’s dies is that of local self-sufficiency, that all food too, for the introduction of the potato was in no came from nearby. The people of Læsø were de- small measure due to women, and the potato became pendent on deliveries from outside from an early a part of the female domain in rural households, of- stage. They bought barley and used it to make bread ten coming via women who had learned about pota- which was exported to Bohuslän and Norway. This toes while serving in bourgeois homes. The conno- happened back in the seventeenth century, when the tations of the potato were soon changed when it be- diet on Læsø was part of an international flow of came poor people’s food. Although it was common food. Christina Folke Ax focuses on coastal socie- in all classes of society, it was only poor people who ties and observes a higher element of fresh fish than had potatoes for breakfast, spuds for dinner, and among the people of Læsø. This, however, was taters for supper. From having been praised by nutri- chiefly due to the poverty of the fishermen. Fishing tion experts, the downwardly mobile potato was in- communities have not always been the picturesque creasingly questioned as it became more and more sites they are today with their exorbitant house common. It is not just the opinion of the nutritional prices. Most things were in short supply, including value that has changed through history. Perceptions grain and milk. Sometimes dried fish had to take the of its taste have also changed. In an early note about place of bread. the use of the potato we read that new potatoes are There were plenty of poor people in the towns as watery and tasteless and hazardous to health. It was well. Lykke L. Pedersen writes about philanthropy Reviews 159

and paupers’ food in nineteenth-century Copenha- of the introduction of the stove. This revolutionized gen. Philanthropy was based on an ideology of help- cooking in that it enabled frying in a pan instead of ing people to help themselves, bringing paupers out boiling over an open fire. From the 1870s stoves of the dirt so that they could contribute to progress also generally had ovens, now making it possible to in society. Given housing with strict rules for order bake bread and cakes in small quantities. As Benno and hygiene, soup kitchens, community associa- Blæsild points out, these stoves allowed Danish tions, and day nurseries, poor people were to be af- coffee-party culture to arise, with currant buns and forded the chance of a bearable life. But they were Danish pastry. expected to do something in return; even the poorest No book about Danish food culture would be people had to pay a small sum for child care. On complete without beer. Bettina Buhl takes care of special occasions, however, this principle was this with an article about rural brewing in the nine- waived, and upper-class ladies appeared in public to teenth century. As she rightly points out, beer was serve food to the poor, as on Shrove Monday in not primarily a drink; it was food, providing a large 1866, when the Dowager Queen Caroline Amalie share of the daily calories. It was also a way to pre- distributed buns to the children from her splendid serve grain, and it played an important part in cook- carriage with its red-liveried coachman. ery, often replacing both milk and water. Everyday It was very different at Admiral Holsteen’s dinner dishes included porridge with warm beer and bread on 8 February 1840, where the courses included as- soaked in beer, and a festive dish was “egg soup”: paragus soup and fish balls, oysters, sweetbreads, boiled beer with eggs and sugar. brill with caper sauce and potatoes, wild boar head Beer belonged to the female domain, at least as with truffles and a cold port sauce, roast partridge, regards the brewing. It was surrounded by an almost etc., all washed down with Cantenac, Sauternes, and magical aura. A housewife who made good beer en- Château Margaux, besides the champagne that was sured that that her husband came home instead of served throughout the meal. And of course there was going to the tavern. And when a daughter was born, old Madeira and Tokay with the desserts. Eighteen a barrel of beer had to be put away, not to be drunk guests dined on eighteen courses, not counting the until her confirmation. It was not until after industri- fruit and sweets. It was served à la française, with alization that brewing became man’s work. It was a several dishes on the table, so that the guests could process that required know-how, as many things choose what they wished to eat. We learn all this could go wrong. If the beer turned out sour they had from Else-Marie Boyhus, who also includes recipes to grind salt and lime, boil it and pour it into the for the majority of the dishes, taken from contem- beer, which could then be strained the next day; pot- porary cookery books. Admiral Holsteen’s dinner ash could also be used. Beer was not a health prob- has its roots in the medieval feasts of the nobility, lem. On the contrary, it was thought to be highly nu- but is also clearly influenced by the French cuisine tritional, and children and adults alike could con- of the nouveau riche bourgeoisie, as it was served at sume large quantities. Experts found this good, the French-style restaurants that conquered the since it meant that people drank less milk, which world in the nineteenth century. could be used for better things than quenching thirst. Food is not only eaten; it has to be cooked too. Yet everything comes to an end. Towards the end of This needs utensils, vessels, and things to serve food the nineteenth century most home brewing stopped. and drink in. As Martin Bork points out in his article Commercial breweries took over, and the products about food-related artefacts among the peasantry of the cooperative dairies won the battle as regards 1750–1850, the objects with which we surround which drink was considered healthier. ourselves not only have a practical function; they The volume is rounded off by Maria Thode also carry symbols and mark social status. This is Jensen, who writes about how chocolate entered true of today’s induction cookers and carbon steel Danish food culture. For a long time it was some- knives, just as it applies to what prosperous peasants thing that people drank, but it later came to be used could show off in the nineteenth century: porcelain, in baking. This is yet another example of the early copper dishes, coffee pots, jugs, and candlesticks. internationalization of food habits, and of how food The most important change to food in the nine- tends to move from one class to another. From hav- teenth century can be ascribed to the consequences ing been an aristocratic delicacy, it was sold in phar- 160 Reviews

macies and later became a drink and a sweetmeat for linked to symbols and images in one way or the special occasions among the working people. In our other but are otherwise rather diverse. Johannes- days it has risen again, as 87% cocoa from Mada- son’s contributions are on the graphical language in gascar beans takes pride of place in the designer the functionalistic approach primarily in the 1930s kitchens of the gastronomically interested upper and 1940s, on the formula of the “big figure” (Den class. But that is a later story. store gestalt) in sculpture and illustrations, and If we call to mind what the research project was finally on the cartoons in the labour union press. supposed to be about, we see that it is the first third, Kjellman’s contribution is about the portraying and consumption patterns, that is at the centre in this imaging of two former heads of the Social Demo- book. Analyses of culture and discourses, on the cratic party in the right-wing Swedish weekly press other hand, are not so well developed. This is a pity, in the period 1910–1946 and Frykman’s is on because there is so much in the material that invites changing traditions in burials. deeper discussions of the way different foods affect Since I am rooted in the ethnological tradition I patterns of socializing, social stratification, and – will mainly concentrate on Frykman’s contribution not least of all – the constant struggle to define what in this review. The article “Sista ordet” (“The last a healthy meal should consist of. But we may hope word”) offers interesting insight into funeral tradi- that this will come in future publications. Until then, tions over a couple of centuries. Frykman’s findings I shall often return to this book, as the fullest analy- bear on archive studies together with other disserta- sis hitherto of a large number of central elements in tions (such as those by Bringéus) on the topic. Inter- the Danish diet. And I hope that Swedish research views are used in relation to the period after the Sec- councils will also grant funding for a similar sys- ond World War. tematic and ambitious study of the history of Swe- Since the article covers such a long time span it dish food culture. not only relates to workers but generally takes up Håkan Jönsson, Lund funerals of ordinary people in contrast to upper social levels. Frykman argues that there have been huge changes in the way of burying people from pre-industrial times till today, but perhaps the larg- Labour Movement and Workers’ Culture est shift has been apparent in the last five decades. Lena Johannesson, Ulrika Kjellman, Birgitta Skarin In this period funerals have become intimate, per- Frykman, Arbetarrörelse och arbetarkultur. Bild och sonal and private, in contrast to hundreds of years självbild [Labour movement and workers’ culture. with public funerals including a clear marking of the Image and self-image], Carlsson Bokförlag, Stock- position on the social scale. However, one feature holm 2007. 422 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7331-098-7. has been connected to the burial traditions irrespective of the period: a distinction between an honour- n It is a somewhat unusual approach to workers’ able and a dishonourable funeral. culture that we meet in this book. After many years In pre-industrial society social segregation be- of declining interest in workers, this extensive vol- came apparent partly through the necessity to buy ume brings new insights, but neither about structural certain services from the church (such as coffins of or large-scale development, nor about everyday oak and funeral sermons) partly because of a speci- practices as became common from 1980 onwards. fication about certain rituals for certain groups (such Instead, the focus of the book is on symbols, signs as differences in bell ringing depending on social and images, a rather neglected theme as a separate status of the deceased). In addition to the socially field of study. segregated traditions – which were all considered The internal relationship between the five articles honourable – there were the funerals for groups which make up this book is not as consistent as the without any right to an honourable funeral. These title might indicate. The art historian Lena Johan- included executioners, thieves, murderers, suicides, nesson has written three of the articles and the intro- just as certain sections of the population such as duction in addition, while art historian Ulrika Kjell- gypsies were disqualified from having an honour- man and the ethnologist Birgitta Skarin Frykman are able funeral. the authors of one article each. The topics are all With the Enlightenment certain characteristics Reviews 161

changed – the groups excluded from ordinary fu- in the history of sculpture and art. Since the 1920s nerals were more or less the same but the corpses we are mostly familiar with this image in large com- now in large numbers were used for science in ana- munist and fascist sculptures of the human body as a tomical institutions. In the course of the nineteenth symbol of the ideology of the state. However, Jo- century the status of pauper as poor became an im- hannesson shows how basic elements in this formu- portant criterion for exclusion from an ordinary fu- la can be traced back in art history at least to ancient neral, a change connected to liberalism’s view of times. Of course, continuity in elements is some- poverty as something self-imposed. thing other than an unchanged content, and Johan- In this period, workers began to gain a foothold in nesson shows how new historical contexts use the society, and in line with this they also created new elements in different ways and with an altered ways of having members of the labour community meaning; for instance, in the revolutionary years at buried. Sickness benefit associations and burial the end of the eighteenth century when the figure clubs were among the first labour institutions to be came to represent both ideological unification and established, more or less as a continuation (and re- political struggle. Throughout the nineteenth centu- placement) of the guild institutions. Workers took ry the figure – male as well as female – was used in over the tradition of a publicly held honourable fu- the still more labour-related political struggles and neral (published through a death notice in the pa- campaigns. By the start of the twentieth century the per), not only, Frykman argues, as a way of parallel- clenched fist – in an altered, more “labour-like” ing the bourgeoisie but also as a way of marking a form has become an icon of freedom and a represen- limit to people – often labourers of some kind – not tation of labour power. Johannesson also illustrates wealthy enough to get a decent burial. how the changes are related to technical develop- Generally speaking, workers came to copy fea- ment, not least to the expanding mass production. tures of the burials in upper middle class and the Most important, though, is how the different histori- bourgeoisie, a development more or less fulfilled in cal contexts are included in the analysis – such as the 1930s. Frykman argues that this democratiza- the more aggressive imagery in the 1920s related to tion, for the two latter groups, threatened the status the increasingly vigorous attempts by right-wing codes connected to funerals. Hence these groups be- politicians to fight the political labour movement gin to introduce funerals “in silence” – which had (and the potential revolutionary threat it represent- previously been related to the dishonourable funeral ed). In line with this, it would have been interesting of excluded groups! if the split of workers into social democrats and After the Second World War this funeral in si- communists were paralleled by differences in the lence has become the overall norm. Funerals are way of using the big figure in the Swedish context. held on working days, there is no funeral march in However, the most important change came when the the streets, special clothes are not mandatory. Fu- figure was taken over by the Fascist and Nazi re- nerals have become institutionalized and profes- gimes and the clenched fist was replaced by the out- sionalized within institutions of the welfare society stretched (arm and) hand. It was in the thirties and (for instance, most people die in hospitals today). during the war years that the figure was most exten- An important outcome of this development is that sively spread. During the war it was furthermore funerals today are not marked by expressions of constructed by the different regimes to recruit sol- social segregation; they are more or less a private diers. matter. An interesting discussion in relation to this Through Johannesson’s article we become famil- could have been whether it is to be understood as a iar with an image that most people have probably specific feature of the Social Democratic ideal of experienced in a rather alienated way. And that goes equality, which Sweden and other Scandinavian for the other articles, too. countries have been strongly influenced by, or if it So, although this reviewer is sorry that the articles is a commonly shared development in the (West- do not make up a more internally coherent collec- ern?) world. tion of contributions within an overall historical Of the other articles in this collection I will high- framework, it is commendable that the volume light Johannesson’s contribution about the formula sheds new light on images and self-imaging in dif- of the so-called “big figure” and of the clenched fist ferent parts of the labour movement (as well as in la- 162 Reviews

bour culture in general), for which reason I can only organizations: a chamber music association, a music recommend the book to everyone interested in the café and a rock club for young people. The focus on topic. only three case studies can, of course, be criticized Niels Jul Nielsen, Copenhagen for giving a narrow or distorted picture of the totality, especially as none of the chosen organizations is a commercial entrepreneur. Moreover, both the national policies and the local phenomena observed Concert Arrangers in Sweden are inevitably outdated by the time the fieldwork is Lars Kaijser, Musikens ögonblick. En studie av brought to a close, as Kaijser also mentions in his fi- konsertarrangörer. Gidlunds förlag, Hedemora nal text. However, following the qualitative analysis 2007. 157 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7844-746-6. tradition, he also emphasizes that these case studies are not all-embracing, but rather offer a keyhole n This book, about concert arrangements in Gävle- through which it is possible to study trends in the borg County in Sweden, is small but nevertheless in general cultural policy in Sweden. Thus, by study- many ways informative. The instructiveness is a re- ing the norms and practices of these three organiza- sult of the aim, method and general approach chosen tions and how they negotiate questions of, for ex- by the author Lars Kaijser. Traditionally most ample, idealism and professionalism, commercial- studies on music mediation have focused on the ism and institutionalization, or the value of musical large-scale music industry, in practice equating mu- aims “as such” and wider sociopolitical aims, he de- sic industry with the functions of the major interna- scribes the consequences the national and regional tional record companies. A second research tradition policies have, or do not have, in a local context. has focused, with similar narrowness, on the con- The book is divided into three main chapters. The sumption of the products disseminated by the trans- first describes the case studies and the motives for national industry. What usually falls outside these arranging concerts. The different backgrounds of the studies is the large grey area where different small- organizations inevitably also mean that they have scale entrepreneurial activities, public funding, the different ideals and definitions of quality in their third sector and fandom meet, not least in musical work. Kaijser introduces the concept of modus to sectors outside the recording industry. It is within describe these variations, which not only comprise these under-researched areas of interest that Kaijser organizational structure, but also the mode, sound or operates, thus making his study valuable not only feeling that characterizes the work of the arrangers for ethnology but for music research and cultural and their comprehension of success. studies altogether. The second main chapter describes the political The book is based on a research project commis- and institutional configurations that frame the func- sioned by the County Music Organization of Gävle- tions of the concert arrangers. Cultural policies form borg County. The study aims at describing the work a more or less self-evident part of the daily activities of the concert arrangers and in particular how the ar- of each of the organizations, but it would be errone- rangers’ work is constituted in a social context, ous to believe that formal principles unambiguously where ideas of right and wrong or good and bad lead to clear-cut implementation, or rejection for create a space where the arrangers carry out their that matter, of general cultural politics. Instead daily activities. Attendant questions include: What Kaijser emphasizes the negotiations that the organ- motivates the arrangers? How is quality defined by izers carry out in their daily activities. On a general the arrangers? What is a successful arrangement level, a certain strategy, which is based on munici- from a social point of view? What kind of connec- pal and national rules, cultural policies, distribution tions can be found between local and outside cul- of financial support etc., forms an institutional tural influences? How do the arrangers comprehend framework for the actions of the individual organi- their audiences? zation. The rules and routines of this strategy are Kaijser has used his substantial knowledge in and then carried out in various ways, depending on the experience of ethnological fieldwork to answer the tactics chosen by the organization in its daily work. questions he poses. For 18 months he observed the The specific characters of the case studies lead practicalities of concert arrangements within three Kaijser to ponder on the importance of musical gen- Reviews 163

re in the third main chapter of the book. Following ing book. The general approach alone makes it inter- Franco Fabbri’s (misspelled Fabri in the book) cate- esting. Questions of cultural activities and adminis- gorization, the author describes the differences be- tration are far too important to be left solely to econ- tween the genres as socially and historically sanc- omic or administrative sciences. Instead we need tioned conventions. These conventions are made up more researchers who aim at “giving a cultural com- of formal, semiotic, performance-related, ideologi- prehension of culture”, as Kaijser describes his ap- cal and commercial principles that structure the ex- proach. Music is, after all, not only art or business, pectations of those involved. Successful concerts – but also culture in the broad sense of the word. whether in classical, jazz or rock music – imply a Johannes Brusila, Åbo certain congruence between the execution of the arrangements and the conventions of the genre. One of the outcomes of the study is that the genre conventions and modus descriptive of each Reading Public Sculpture: Contextualiz- organizer seem to guide the activities and, conse- ing and Recontextualizing Art in Profane quently, also the social life in a far-reaching way. and Sacred Space The organizations (and the larger networks each Harri Kalha, Tapaus Havis Amanda. Siveellisyys ja organization belongs to) are held apart from each sukupuoli vuoden 1908 suihkulähdekiistassa. Finn- other by differences in ideas of music and cultural ish Literature Society, Helsinki 2008. Historiallisia competence, and the arrangements do not give op- tutkimuksia 238. 246 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-952-222- portunities for meetings between different attitudes 045-5. and approaches. In this way, the national ambitions Liisa Lindgren, Memoria. Hautakuvanveisto ja of the state policy contribute to diversifying local muistojen kulttuuri. Finnish Literature Society, Hel- concert life and supplementing the media output, sinki 2009. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran but also to a continuing social stratification on a re- toimituksia 1211, Tiede. 312 pp. Ill. ISBN 978- gional level. 952-222-068-4. Musikens ögonblick, meaning “Moments of Mu- sic”, is in many ways a fascinating description of the n During last year, two profoundly different books ideologies and grassroots activities within the live about public sculpture were published in Finland. In scene, but in some respects it leaves the reader both books, the research interest was focused on the slightly puzzled. The book is easily accessible. The various meanings of public sculpture in their cul- text has been tidied of references and many theoreti- tural and social surroundings and in the context of cal details, which are briefly described in the foot- the sculptures’ erection period. However, the theor- notes, and many photographs visualize the differ- etical and methodological approaches in the books ences between the case studies in a telling way. vary greatly from one another and, consequently, However, at times, the research report would prob- the books indicate how the same object – a sculpture ably have gained from a stricter academic approach. in a public space – can, in contemporary research, For example, important background information be analysed from profoundly different viewpoints about the relationship between the commissioner of and theoretical orientations. the study and the researcher is “hidden” in an appen- In contemporary art research, language is often a dix. Following the general trends of cultural studies, research object in itself and is intertwined with the a recurring self-reflexive discussion on the position meaning-making processes of visuality. Language of the researcher throughout the text would have felt plays this kind of fundamental role in Harri Kalha’s more natural, not least as the commissioner, the book Tapaus Havis Amanda. Siveellisyys ja suku- County Music Organization of Gävleborg County, is puoli vuoden 1908 suihkulähdekiistassa (Case also a key research object in the study. On the Havis Amanda. Chastity and Gender in a Fountain whole, the solid ethnography would maybe have Debate in 1908), which focuses on the various gained from a more thorough theoretical discussion, meanings of the famous sculpture, erected in Helsin- which not only would have given the text more aca- ki in 1908. The Finnish artist Ville Vallgren sculp- demic depth, but also universal applicability. ted the work in Paris using local models and follow- Despite the criticism, this clearly is an enlightening the Parisian ideals of modern fountain sculp- 164 Reviews

tures. The sculpture, called Havis Amanda, depicts a pers of different political parties, newspapers pub- nude female figure placed on a high pedestal in the lished in Finnish and Swedish, cultural periodicals, middle of a fountain pool, in which water spurts out women’s movement periodicals as well as humour from the mouths of fishes and sea lions. The sculp- magazines of the day. Because of this, the texts ture immediately caused an intensive public discus- cover a wide range of genres and the status and role sion in Helsinki-centred newspapers and periodi- of the writers vary greatly. In addition, the texts cals, in which it was either defended or objected, de- were published in forums which had very different pending on the writer’s standpoint. Kalha’s aim is to publishing policies and aims. However, Kalha does analyse the discussion and illustrate the ideological not analyse how the writer’s status and role or genre aspects regarding the questions of chastity, morality, conventions and publishing policies influenced the virtue and gender, which collided in the debate. The texts or the rhetoric and meaning-making in them. nude female figure, located in the lively public Discourse theorist Norman Fairclough calls this di- space on Helsinki’s Market Square, brought up such mension of discourse a discourse practice. The then-current topics as womanhood, female body, writer’s status and role, the genre conventions and sexuality, moral codes and related notions. Conse- publishing policies set boundaries to how and what quently, the sculpture offered a public forum for the kind of views are suitable to be expressed in differ- “hot” topics of the day, channelled through the nude ent literary forums. Furthermore, these factors have body of Havis Amanda. an effect on how the texts were supposed to be re- Kalha approaches his topic through discourse ceived. analytic reading. He dissects interestingly various Kalha explores his data by setting the topics in a kinds of texts – art criticism, opinion writings, let- broader literary climate of the period. He illustrates ters to editors, articles, causeries, caricatures – in the image of Paris, which was discursively produced which Havis Amanda (or opinions of other writers) in literature at the time of Havis Amanda’s erection. were criticised, supported or analysed. In the texts, Furthermore, Kalha connects the sculpture to vari- various ideological approaches criss-cross and col- ous literary debates and texts on chastity, nudity and lide. Even though the debate at first seems to show sexual morals, which were current at the end of the a division between male writers defending the aes- first decade of the 20th century. In his analysis, Kal- thetic modernism of the sculpture and female suf- ha uses some contemporary concepts of gender fragettes objecting to the obscene nudity of the fe- studies in order to illuminate the problematics of the male figure, a deeper analysis uncovers more di- debate. The choice is rewarding. By presenting what verse and heterogeneous approaches to the issues kind of concepts were not possible to use in the dis- of chastity, sexuality and gender. Some writers cussion, Kalha indicates the focal points of the de- stressed nationalistic standpoints, according to bate. The writers at the time could not use the con- which the aim of art was to foster national im- cepts of sexism, chauvinism, masculinism, phallus, ageries and communality. The nationalistic ideolo- objectifying, gendering, hegemony or patriarchate gy of art clashed with the ideology of aesthetic to analyse and justify their opinions. Neither could modernism and, in a broader sense, with the rising they conceptualise the sculpture, which was objecti- social and cultural modernity and its new moral fying, erotically charged, hierarchical, normative codes. In addition, the debate reflected the current and satiated by heterosexual male gaze. Towards the discussions of daily politics, such as the aims of end of the book, Kalha frees himself from the strict the women's movement. However, the views of the text analysis and ponders more intuitively on the female writers taking part in the debate did not psycho-sexual motives of some female writers. Kal- form a unified front – female views were also ex- ha ends his book with a meta-level discussion on the pressed in various discourses. Consequently, the research process. In particular, the discussion on the debate provided a forum for several colliding documentation of the debate in the Central Art Ar- standpoints: Finnishness vs. internationality (or chives of the Finnish National Gallery is interesting otherness), tradition vs. modernity, social morality and indicates how the history of documentation has vs. aesthetics, private sphere vs. public sphere etc. been (and, inevitably, still is) profoundly selective The examined texts were first published in sev- and interlocked with the discursive meaning-making eral newspapers and periodicals, including newspa- of cultural phenomena. Reviews 165

Kalha’s book on Havis Amanda is, in a sense, a picted being in communion with higher powers, be- companion to his previous book, which discussed came popular due to the influence of the Theosophic the Finnish artist Magnus Enckell – both are movement at the end of the 19th century. “cases”. This series of case studies focused on gen- The book broadens Lindgren’s vast work on der and sexuality will be continued in his next book. Finnish monument sculpture. As in her previous books, the approach is in a historical perspective. Havis Amanda and the debate it caused have previ- The contents of the book are based on extensive ar- ously been studied by Marja Jalava and Liisa Lind- chive work and the conclusions are drawn from his- gren. Lindgren’s latest book Memoria. Hautakuvan- torical, iconographic and iconological analyses. The veisto ja muistojen kulttuuri (Memoria. Sepulchral illustrations show a great number of well-known but Sculpture and the Culture of Memories) introduces also more rarely seen cemetery sculptures. The re- and analyses sculptures in Finnish Lutheran ceme- search is focused on the period when monument teries from the second half of the 19th century to the sculpture, including sepulchral sculpture, was close- first decades of the 20th century. Sepulchral sculp- ly connected with the heroic nationalistic ethos. The ture has not been in the focus of art historical re- cemetery sculptures portraying the cultic Great Men search for decades. Art historians have often been are analysed in detail. In addition, the author focuses more interested in public memorials and non-com- her interest on the sculptures made by the estab- missioned productions by sculptors and, conse- lished and well-known sculptors of the Golden Age quently, focusing on this area is very welcome in of Finnish art. The modernist upheavals in the me- Finnish art history. Lindgren’s book indicates how morial culture and the tradition of monument sculp- vast and manifold a phenomenon sepulchral sculpture, which inevitably had an effect on sepulchral ture is: cemetery sculptures do not only express the sculpture, are left outside from the focus of the changes of styles and notions in art, but also book. The analysis of these changes would form an changes of practices in communal and collective interesting and natural continuation to the topic of mourning and memorial. Besides the notions of reli- the book. gion, cemetery sculpture manifests profoundly secu- Because of the different functions of the sculp- lar values and hierarchies as well as the cultural and tures explored in these books, the conceptual frames social power relations both among the deceased and of the studies differ from one another. Sepulchral the mourners. The visuality of cemetery sculpture sculptures are intertwined with contexts of grief, manifests family background and prosperity, social mourning, memorial, piety and religion. Unlike group and cultural ties. The form and symbols of the sepulchral sculptures, Havis Amanda was erected sculptures vary according to profession and the so- for the purpose of modernising the city and making cial position of the deceased. public spaces more aesthetic. At the turn of the cen- In her book, Lindgren explores how the mourning tury, the intent of the capital city was to lift the im- tradition has changed and how the imageries in the age of Helsinki to the ‘European level’, and erecting cemetery sculptures have reflected these changes. public sculptures was one way of promoting the Besides the visuality of sculpture, Lindgren also dis- aim. In spite of the differing functions of the sculp- cusses books about cemetery sculpture, purchase tures, both books analyse and explain the change in processes of sculptures as well as memorial events the meanings of the visuality of sculpture along the organised on graves and the social positions of the passage of time. They illustrate how the interpreta- deceased. In the end of the book, Lindgren discusses tion of sculpture is context-based, depending on cul- more in detail the iconography of the common fig- tural, social and political dialogue of the communi- ures used in cemetery sculpture. She describes inter- ty. Both books indicate how visuality is related with estingly how these figures have their origins in both identity processing – either on national, communal Christian imageries (various types of angels), in or individual levels. The books contribute to the re- classicist motives (e.g. Thanatos) and in non-reli- search of Finnish public sculpture and provide wel- gious themes (different types of mourner figures). come perspectives on the research of meanings and The sepulchral figures may also refer to a broader meaning-making processes of sculptures in public understanding of spirituality. For example, the spaces. theme of semper excelsior, in which a figure is de- Tuuli Lähdesmäki, Jyväskylä 166 Reviews

Two Centuries of Danish Traditions A study of traditions must start by examining the rit- Else Marie Kofod, Traditionen tro? Hverdag og fest uals that are the very core of traditions. Rituals are de- igjennem 200 år. Folkemindesamlingens kulturstu- limited in time and space and create a connection be- dier 9. Syddansk universitetsforlag, Odense 2008. tween the individual and the collective. Basic values 492 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-7674-291-1. can be expressed in a ritual; a ritual creates order and can disguise cultural disorder. It can also be regarded n Else Marie Kofod begins her huge book about as a practice that sets boundaries when announcing Danish traditions, manners and customs by stating social positions or strategies. Social class and living that we tend to ignore and not notice rituals and tra- circumstances influence the festivities, and so do ditions encapsulated in our own everyday life. The other factors such as leisure time, space, distance, study of rituals can even be considered a useless communications, the media and working life. task. As Kofod claims and proves, analysing human In the first chapter Kofod discusses the manifesta- behaviour in its ritual form is by no means meaning- tions of “prestige and status symbols”, for example less work. in meal habits in the old peasant society, how The aim of Else Marie Kofod’s book is to study self-control and good taste were the slogans in bour- changes in the Danish life cycle rituals during two geois circles in the nineteenth century and how hundred years, focusing on the time of revitalized polishing one’s manners and renewing entertain- rituals during the last few decades. Kofod originally ments marked the lifestyle in rural circles during the planned to use archive material in her study and also period 1870–1970. The lifestyle milieus of the to do new fieldwork. However, the archive material period 1970–2000 finally threw away many status proved to give information only about the old rural symbols older generations had painstakingly ac- society. Material about the bourgeois classes and ur- quired, and in the late twentieth century the urge to ban society was scarce. This was a problem, as pre- create visibility and uniqueness set the tone. cisely these social classes are crucial when describ- The chapter dealing with “family and home” ex- ing the processes of change in ritual life. amines the importance of family authority and the With the help of contacts in the field (priests, per- significance of home. A whole chapter is dedicated sonnel at bridal fairs, local museums) Kofod man- to the communication system of giving gifts. Three aged to compile interview material that formed a large chapters of the book deal with wedding tradi- complement to the archive sources in Dansk Folke- tions, texts containing an enormous amount of infor- mindesamling. Her material includes web question- mation. In most societies the wedding has been con- naires, an opinion poll conducted by telephone sidered the most important feast in the life circle. covering the whole country, and material collected We learn about the history of the bridal waltz, from the media: newspaper clippings and television kissing rituals, and other superstitious practices in- programmes dealing with traditions and feasts. Ko- tended to give the bridal couple luck. Many of these fod states that all her different types of material are “traditions” are not as old as is generally thought. mediators and creators of social experience. All When speaking of traditions we tend to construct available field methods have been used when continuity with the old “genuine” customs, a con- putting together a solid base for research. tinuity that often has no historic foundation. Kofod The analyses of this rich material are systemati- also devotes a chapter to the mass media as a dis- cally presented. Kofod has chosen to arrange each tributor of traditions. chapter chronologically, dealing first with the rural Throughout the book I marvelled at the quantity and the bourgeois societies in the nineteenth centu- of information and wondered about its origin. The ry, moving on to different social groups in the source material is presented in the last part of the period 1870–1970 and finally describing the period book, under the heading “Appendix”. This exciting 1970–2000. This arrangement seems a bit mechani- chapter that describes the laborious work of compil- cal, but I can see the need of some sort of structure ing the source material also gives a background to when describing such a diversity of themes in many of Kofod’s editorial decisions. It could well chronological order. have been placed at the beginning of the book. Kofod starts by defining the necessary terminolo- An index would have been useful – but I can see gy, feasts, rituals and traditions versus everyday life. that making one would have been a challenging Reviews 167

task. Finally, I have to praise the excellent illustra- reindeer fences and separations. In addition to sepa- tions. The informative and detailed texts gave every ration, the marking of reindeer calves is also done picture an added value. within these – often the same – fences. This stage of Else Marie Kofod concludes her book by stating reindeer herding has been discussed in other publi- that rituals and customs are both meaningful and cations. useful. The same adjectives can be used when de- Before Korhonen focuses on how the reindeer scribing her solid study of everyday life and festivi- herder transports the reindeer to the fence, he intro- ties through 200 years. duces the history of reindeer herding and the stage Carola Ekrem, Helsingfors before separations. The author describes thoroughly the history and structure of the fences as well as the important activity, reindeer separation, as it has passed through several stages from the beginning of Reindeer Fences in Focus the reindeer herders’ association at the end of 19th Teppo Korhonen, Poroerotus. Historia, toiminta ja century through the present. He also takes into ac- tekniset ratkaisut. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seu- count the latest changes caused by membership in ra, Helsinki 2008. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seu- the European Union. Korhonen also takes advantage ran Toimituksia 1165. 309 pp. Ill. Maps. ISBN the extensive publications that have been done on 978-951-746-989-0. reindeer herding from other parts of Finland. It is pleasing that the author also describes the liv- n Reindeer herding is undoubtedly one of the most ing conditions and social activities during separa- classical themes in ethnological studies. In the last tions, i.e. where and how reindeer herders and other few years several studies have been published on participants spend their nights, because the separa- reindeer herding, but from different perspectives tions could last several days. Reindeer separations and areas. Teppo Korhonen’s book Poroerotus fo- have been important social events for the local in- cuses on one important theme in reindeer herding, habitants. The vivid descriptions from the different namely the history and functions of reindeer separa- participants discuss different aspects of human life, tion. Reindeer separation is an important part of the for example romances and having fun during rein- working year in reindeer herding, because it can be deer separations. regarded as a harvest of sorts. Today’s reindeer The last chapter, which is long and well illustrat- herding – or reindeer management – is concentrated ed with photos and different drawings, concentrates on meat production and, during reindeer separa- on the repair project financed and organised by the tions, the animals to be sold and slaughtered are sep- National Board of Antiquities. The author of the arated from the other reindeer. book has been the person in charge of this project The book contains two parts: the first part con- since 1987. All the phases of the repair work are centrates on reindeer herding and the reindeer sepa- well documented and described. Also, Korhonen rations, the second part on the project for repairing discusses some principles for the repair work. A reindeer fences financed and organised by the Na- short list with explanations of the special words re- tional Board of Antiquities. The fences discussed by garding the environment and reindeer herding used Korhonen in this book represent different ecological in this book, is included. and ethnic reindeer herding areas. One of them is the There are a couple of remarks that I have to make stone fence of Erttegvarri in Utsjoki (Ohjecohka). on this publication. The author uses both the forms The fences of Sammalselkä in Kittilä and Sallivaara Saami (saamelainen) and Lapp (lappalainen), al- in Inari are situated near each other. The fourth though the correct way today is to use the form Saa- fence is Saarivaara in Savukoski in eastern Lapland. mi. Although the term used in the sources is lappa- The fences are important in terms of their culture or lainen, it must not be used anymore in publications. in terms of their cultural environment (landscape). There was also some confusion with the places. All the fences are important from local cultural or There have earlier been two different reindeer local landscape perspectives. owners’ association called Kyrö, namely Kyrö in Korhonen uses a cultural historical perspective in Inari and Kyrö in Kittilä. The author has occasional- order to describe the history, work, and meaning of ly confused these two associations. 168 Reviews

The multiple voices of the local people, including of the book and deal with how material culture has reindeer herders, reindeer buyers and members of been studied over time in European Ethnology, both reindeer herding families, are included in this publi- as a concept and as an object of study. The more cation. The book contains many good and lengthy ethnographically influenced study of material cul- citations from the narrators. This surely makes for ture, which was more common during the first half interesting reading and will serve as a valuable of the 19th century, has been replaced, over the last memory for the children and grandchildren of the decades, by a new ethnological viewpoint that takes narrators. into consideration the social and cultural contexts in Although so many studies have been done and which the material culture is situated. Focus has also books have been published on reindeer herding, this been placed on material culture as a way of generat- publication has its own value. The knowledge and ing and strengthening personal and / or group identi- information which have been collected from the ty. reindeer herders and other local interviewees has In the other two articles concerned with this now been repatriated to them, although here only in theme of “objects and time”, Mária Flórián and Ti- Finnish, not yet in Saami. Reindeer herding is an mea Bata examine history and tradition in contrast important part of the cultural heritage of Northern to modernity and changes. The very different con- Finland and thus this books is also a valuable contri- texts in these two articles give the reader an insight bution to it. Personally, I also feel it honours the de- into the variety of ethnological research being con- scendents of the people who are the actors and prin- ducted on material culture. From one point of ciple narrators in this publication view, a special Hungarian garment, the fur cloak, Helena Ruotsala, Turku represents a significant historical influence on research as the garment can be traced back to the 16th century. While from another perspective, as in Bata’s article, the focus can lie on present day life Touching Things and souvenirs or keepsakes from honeymoons with Ethnological Aspects of Modern Material Culture. their suggested special role and meaning in con- Pirjo Korkiakangas, Tiina-Riitta Lappi & Heli Nis- temporary society. kanen (eds.). Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki How the importance and role of material culture 2008. 277 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-952-222-091-2. has shifted in museums is the topic of interest in the articles written by Zoltán Fejös, László Mód, Han- n Touching Things. Ethnological Aspects of Mod- neleena Hieta and Péter Illés. These articles were all ern Material Culture explores material culture from selected as concerning the theme “objects, mu- an ethnological and anthropological point of view in seums, authenticity”. Most of the examples present- mainly Finnish and Hungarian contexts. The book is ed in these articles are from Hungary and only one the result of the ninth Finnish-Hungarian sympo- article has a Finnish connection. The writers critical- sium, which was held in Jyväskylä in the summer of ly analyze the process of musealization and how ob- 2006. The book consists of 21 articles written by the jects, especially contemporary objects, find their participants of the symposium. In these articles, the way into museums. What happens when private ob- writers describe, conceptualize, contextualize, and jects become museum objects or are given over into analyze material culture with references to different the hands of a researcher? The articles show that the eras, places and social contexts. problems that, in general, are faced by all museums The articles are divided into four different chap- are both international and typical of our time. ters according to themes; the themes are “objects The majority of the articles are concerned with and time”, “objects, museums, authenticity”, “ob- the two remaining themes “objects, identity, con- jects, identity, consumption” and “objects and sumption” and “objects and everyday life”. In many everyday life”. All of the articles are written in Eng- of these articles the writers examine the consump- lish, seven of them by Finns and 14 by Hungarians. tion of objects, which impels the discussion forward The first two are written by Hungarians Attila towards a more modern ethnology. The writers Paládi-Kovács and Tamás Mohay, both of whom Ildikó Sz.Kristóf, Anna-Maria Åström, Pirjo Kor- continue the discussion initiated in the introduction kiakangas and Zsuzsa Szarvas discuss how material Reviews 169

culture has been given a different meaning, signifi- The book also gives an excellent insight into, and cance and value in our time due to fabrication and an update of, both a more traditional ethnology as mass production. The writers also discuss methodo- well as a more postmodern ethnology. Touching logical questions, categorizations, the role of adver- Things is therefore a successful example of a tisements and the relationship between objects and well-structured and interesting congress publication, identity. The last three articles concerned with this which gives a diverse picture of material culture and theme are written by Arja Turunen, Kata Jávor and its complexity, as well as the possibilities and Marketta Luutonen, and focus on clothing and how methods for contemporary ethnological studies on clothing can symbolize different things in different material culture. contexts and time periods, and thus reflect change in Sanna Lillbroända-Annala, Åbo society. In the last chapter “objects and everyday life” the discussion focusses on the relationship between material culture and people. In articles by Gábor Wil- Identity of Orcadians helm, János Bali and Jussi Lehtonen examples are Michael A. Lange, The Norwegian Scots: An An- taken from mobile service forms in the countryside, thropological Interpretation of Viking-Scottish as well as from how a certain type of object can re- Identity in the Orkney Islands. The Edwin Mellen flect the changes in gender roles. Iina Wahlström’s Press, Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter 2007. 311 and Zsuzsanna Batári’s articles discuss the mean- pp. Ill. 3 maps, 10 photographs. ISBN-13: 979-0- ings of and the future demand for a second home in 7734-53262-3; ISBN-10: 0-7734-5362-8. Finland, as well the aspiration to have a summer kitchen in Hungary. In these two cases, they are n The central aim of this enlightening book, based both faced with the dilemma of something tradition- on 11 months fieldwork in Stromness, Orkney, is al having to meet the needs of modern life. In the how “the people of Orkney discursively construct last article Erika Vass describes and analyzes how a and negotiate their cultural identity as Orcadians” special type of Hungarian house decoration has had (1) through informal narrative. As Lange underlines different meanings during the past decades. at the start, his (healthy) aim is to avoid the common Touching Things is a welcomed addition to the approach whereby scholars work at “establishing flow of ethnological publications and shows that their credibility in the field” by “girding themselves material culture can be studied from various angles with the latest theory and marching off toward some with new methods and research questions. Therefore slightly out-of- date theorist whom they have desig- proving that research into material culture is by no nated as their patsy”, waving “new titles and freshly means passé, but revitalizing and innovative. coined terms at their enemy, dropping big names in A book concerning material culture could have the field to act as their reinforcements” (1). Instead consisted of more photographs and illustrations than he proposes “use various theories and theorists … to the rather limited number found in Touching Things. help find my ways toward some understanding of The language use in the book is good but sometimes how people in Orkney think of themselves and their shifts between British English and American Eng- island home” (1), concentrating first and foremost lish. The articles are generally of a suitable length on the voices of the people themselves and the ways but differ considerably, in length, when compared to in which they view – and express – their identity/ies. each other. The thematical division of the articles This is an approach that many others worshipping at into the different chapters is very pleasing as a dia- the altar of theory would do well to learn from. log almost seems to be created between the articles, Another refreshing feature of Lange’s approach is even if they are not written in relation to each other. his aim to cross disciplinary borders, and “combine The contributors and editors have therefore success- the folkloric and the anthropological, to use folklore fully managed to bring together separate articles as an ethnographic window into interpreting cul- into an interesting whole that inspires the reader ture” (8), working on bridging “the gap between the from the beginning to the end. This is definitely disciplines of folklore and anthropology, more something that gives this particular congress publi- broadly between the humanities and the social cation an extra value. sciences” (14) and demonstrating “the usefulness of 170 Reviews

folkloric methodologies and ideas to anthropology the effect that the fear of being “bigsy” has, not only and vice versa” (15). We thus find a broad range of on getting the ever stoic Orcadians to express feel- approaches being effectively applied here, ranging ings and opinions in the media and in committee from those of Richard Bauman (on performance), work, but also on the wary Orcadian view of out- and Jack Niles (on narrative), to the work of Roger siders who often find it easier to take an active role Abrahams (on nature of identity), Anthony P. Cohen in such matters. (on semiotic anthropology), and Victor Turner (on Chapter 3, “Orcadian Accent and Dialect” (111– the idea of communitas). This book thus effectively 151) is particularly valuable for those interested in stands alongside some of Lange’s models, such as the connections between language, dialect and re- those of Henry Glassie (on Ballymenone, Ireland: gional identity, and the importance this has for a 1982 and 2006); Anthony Cohen (on Whalsay, Shet- sense of individual identity and difference and a land: 1982 and 1987); Jane Nadel-Klein (on Fer- sense of “authentic” belonging (especially relevant ryden, Scotland: 2003), and Sharon Macdonald (on in Norway, Iceland and the Faroes, as well as in Ire- Carnan, Scotland: 1997). land, Wales and Scotland). With effective applica- The book is divided into five key chapters. Chap- tion to the ideas of thinkers like Bendix, Coupland ter 1, “Background: Setting the Scene” (21–59), and Ricoeur on the ideas of “authenticity” and the which starts with a description of daily life and complex relationship between language and identi- “blether” (chat) in Stromness, provides a useful in- ty, Lange underlines how such questions are very troduction to the area, and the history of Orkney, much a matter of negotiation between speaker and concentrating particularly on those aspects that are (local) listener. He also underlines the degree to deemed important by those living in it. Emphasis is which the fragile survival and persistence of the Or- naturally placed on the early period of archaeologi- cadian dialect in today’s global society is seen by cal remains from the Neolithic to Viking Ages (like many Orcadians as a feature that connects them not Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar and Maes Howe), only to their Scandinavian “heritage”, but also a but note is also paid to Orkney’s changing status as golden “Viking” past, and thus a sense historical and it came under the cultural dominance of Scotland international importance. It also helps them differ- (after 1468), and later under further foreign influ- entiate themselves from mainland Scotland. ence via the Hudson’s Bay Company, its key strate- Chapter 4 on “Heritage” (153–211) is also essen- gic role in the two world wars, and most recently, its tial reading for anyone interested in the question of connection to North Sea Oil. Attention is also paid the nature and role of heritage and its relationship to to the role played by emigration and immigration, to local identity. Drawing on the work of earlier schol- inner class differences and hierarchies, and the in- ars like McCrone, Morris and Kieley, Macdonald, fluence wielded by not only ancient place names, and Hewison (interestingly enough no mention is and medieval saga literature but also the modern de- made of the work of David Lowenthal), Lange ex- velopment of tourism and Orkney brand-names. amines the way intangible and tangible heritage Chapter 2, “Being Important, Being ‘Bigsy’” have become closely intertwined for many Orcad- (62–110), on self image and self presentation in ians. Indeed, as he demonstrates, their sense of iden- Orkney, starts by dealing with a phenomenon well tity is closely related to the aforementioned idea of a known in other island communities in the North At- romantic “golden” Nordic past, something objec- lantic (Iceland being a perfect example), in other tified by the archaeological remains on the island words, a certain sense of self-pride and self assur- which have attained particular symbolic value for ance as a community (often based on history and the both the people of Orkney and their visitors. At the sometimes exaggerated achievements of local fig- same time, as Lange points out, heritage always in- ures), which clashes with an inner feeling of interna- volves a degree of choice and often construction, tional inferiority. As Lange underlines, this latter and often ignores other less glorious features of a feature is particularly strong in Orkney where is society and its past: as one informant says, heritage complicated by a further sense that personal boast- is what people “want to keep” (194). As Lange ing (being “bigsy”) within the community is some- shows, this can be seen as both a strength and a thing that is frowned on. The chapter examines these weakness, but nonetheless helps to underline the feelings in some detail, noting among other things close connections between the Orkney people and Reviews 171

the landscape they live in. It also gives them a sense standardisation with regard to the positioning of of worth and responsibility, and once again allows footnote markers (before and after punctuation: see them to see themselves as being different from the 27, 119–120, 141, 154, 169, 201 and 242 cf. 55, 96, rest of Scotland. 108 and 118); the positioning of footnotes (see 118– Chapter 5 on “Belonging: Orkney Identity, Ork- 119, where the footnote appears on the wrong page); ney Voices” builds on the above discussion, now fo- and the division of footnote material across pages cusing on how the Orcadians themselves explain (see, for example, 31–32, 119–120, and 169–170, their modern sense of identity in their conversations cf. 231). One also notes an odd imbalance between with Lange and each other. As Lange effectively the print setting of facing pages, and worst of all (at demonstrates here, identity is as much about under- least in the example I received), the fact that page lining boundaries and borderlines as it is about cre- 310 of the index was missing. In its place were two ating a sense of belonging. It has multiple layers (differing) versions of page 311. (ranging from the international to degrees of “im- In spite of the above, this well-researched and portance” within a classroom or group of friends), sensibly discussed book, which shows respect for and is not only a matter of personal feeling but a the individual voices of the people of Orkney, sense of how one is received by others. It is thus a makes for a valuable and welcome addition to ear- matter of negotiation. Through analysis of various lier studies on local identity, heritage, and the inti- kinds of discourse, ranging from informal conversa- mate connections between personal narrative and tion to literary, tourist and commercial images, and landscape. It should gain a central place among even the influential appearance of an Orcadian on other works dealing with the unique culture and reality television, Lange shows how the Orkney character of the Scottish and North Atlantic Islands. sense of identity is both shared and individual, and Terry Gunnell, Reykjavík connected to different things in different contexts: the landscape, the language, the history, and, as always, difference from Scotland. Like heritage, in each case it involves a degree of construction and Tradition and Tourism in Åland choice, but is nonetheless daily legitimised by living Tradition och turism på Åland. Att använda kultur- facts which range from Old Norse manuscripts to ar- arvet. Yrsa Lindqvist (ed.). Meddelanden från Folk- chaeological remains or the family names on the kultursarkivet 21. Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Litte- gravestones in the local graveyards. ratursällskapet i Finland 711. Helsingfors 2008. 240 The book ends with a brief conclusion which re- pp. Ill. ISBN 978-951-583-167-5. turns to the questions raised at the start, underlining the complexity, importance and role of the concept n During the summer of 2005, a group of research- of identity for any group of people. ers in the humanities studied the extent to which In general, I have very few criticisms about the symbols of tradition and local history – or to use a material contained within the book itself, apart from more up-to-date expression, cultural heritage – are its mistaken assertion that the “‘Vikings’” (if that is used in the image of Åland, the popular holiday des- what they really were) “left Norway in the 10th and tination, as it is presented to tourists. The research- 11th centuries” (34), and the fact that in spite of its ers, who all work in the archive world, most of them title, it actually has less to do with connections with at the Folk Culture Archives in Helsinki, sought to the modern Norwegians than the Old Norse world. I find out how producers, entrepreneurs, and guides would also question whether the Orcadians can be present the islands and their history. The documen- called “the” Norwegian-Scots” (something that tation project was based on the classical ethnologi- seems to ignore the equally Nordic Shetlanders, cal methods of fieldwork, participant observation, with whom a little more useful comparison could and interviews. The research group also benefited have been made, to outline yet another level of iden- from marketing material, such as tourist brochures tity). and presentation folders of various kinds. The par- More disturbing is the work of the publishers, ticipants in the project each selected a field in which who could have shown more care and respect with to collect material, for example, churches, local mu- their work. One notes, for example, a strange lack of seums, handicraft, or historic monuments, the aim 172 Reviews

being to investigate what the cultural heritage con- but we also visit craft shops, churches, and local sists of and how it is used by the tourist industry in heritage museums, as well as the Åland country- Åland. side. Issues of cultural heritage and heritage tourism Meta Sahlström, assistant at the Ostrobothnian inevitably concern questions of history and the use Archives of Traditional Culture in Vasa, writes in of history, the revival or revitalization of cultural ex- her interesting paper about Kobbaklintar, a pilot sta- pressions, and the politics of memory. These are tion at the entrance to Mariehamn. It was manned questions about active processes concerning what is between 1861 and 1971, after which it was trans- selected as heritage, who makes the selection, how it formed into a tourist attraction. The dilapidated is presented and used, and what the consequences of buildings were refurbished, a sculptor made a statue the selection and use may be. What happens to of a pilot, 2.15 metres tall, which was erected at the places and things when they are elevated into local/ lookout point, and a friends’ association was formed regional or national heritage? How are ideas, ob- to preserve and look after the buildings. Kobbaklin- jects, and places recoded and reinterpreted when tar is now marketed as Mariehamn’s and Åland’s they become symbols of something beyond them- face towards the sea. The maritime theme is also re- selves and are presented in terms of new contexts? inforced by the fact that you can buy Åland roe here Cultural heritage also tends to be linked to questions under the witty name Kobba Libre. Since the Swe- of authenticity and associated ideas of nostalgia. Re- dish word rom means both “roe” and “rum”, the using history, according to many researchers, means name evokes Cuba Libre, as well as sailors, harbour using nostalgia as a strategy and claiming the prima- pubs, adventure, and freedom, according to Sahl- cy of authenticity in an artificial and inauthentic ström. She also claims that people mostly come here present which people find uncomfortable and prob- in search of authenticity, which should be under- lematic. As tourists we are therefore expected – stood as a desire to get away from today’s fragmen- when we distance ourselves geographically from tation and instability. our familiar everyday world – to need to get away to In a couple of articles the chief archivist at the other worlds and times, where we can find the bal- Archives of Folk Culture, Carola Ekrem, writes about ance, continuity, and security that our own frag- the churches of Åland. There are sixteen old churches mented post-modern world seems to be unable to of- on the island, many of which are popular tourist at- fer. Based on this interpretation, heritage tourism tractions. They can be perceived as experiences, as functions as a healing plaster. religious places, as stages on pilgrimages, and as As a tourist resort, Åland has made the transition unique works of art. Ekrem gives examples of the from a bathing place for the cream of society in the kind of symbols churches are, but she also points out late nineteenth century to the promised land of mass – perhaps too prosaically – how problematic it can be tourism with the coming of the ferry traffic started to leave them open; thieves can be attracted to the by Vikinglinjen in 1959 and followed by Silja Line many valuable objects, cultural heritage in the most in 1961. Ever since then the traffic has been busy, literal sense of the term. These valuables are insepar- making it easy for all kinds of travellers to get to the able parts of the church as both an artistic and a spirit- islands easily, comfortably, quickly, and above all ual building, but they are unguarded and accessible to affordably. The flow of visitors has increased dra- all visitors. Making the cultural heritage accessible matically, from a modest 7,000 in 1948 to 180,000 entails the risk that it will be lost and therefore can no in 1963 and 2.1 million in 2006! longer be offered. The heritage thus bears the seeds of So what does Åland have to offer tourists, and its own destruction. how is the range on offer linked to the archipela- Yrsa Lindqvist, editor of the book and also archi- go’s own cultural heritage? These are the questions vist at the Archives of Folk Culture, writes about discussed in a number of articles in this volume, Åland craft as a symbol of tradition and continuity. the title of which means “Tradition and Tourism in She has interviewed craftsmen – two potters, two Åland”. The authors take the reader to different goldsmiths, four working with textiles, one with places where the cultural heritage is staged in vari- wood, and one with wrought iron – who all pursue ous ways. As is fairly natural when it comes to a “traditional” Åland crafts. She finds that the crafts- place like Åland, these include maritime settings, men are highly visible and have good networks in Reviews 173

Åland, partly through the “Archipelago Taste” and the history of the place is renewed every time it (Skärgårdssmak) project from 1996. This started is retold. The authentic, traditional Åland is thus with support from the EU and is now run as a created in a context of active memory politics and is joint-stock company with a sphere of operations that constantly being recreated. comprises both Sweden and Finland. The basic idea Tradition och turism på Åland is a well-made and of the project is to use local raw materials in order to aesthetically attractive product. It is accessible in the preserve and increase the number of workplaces in best sense of the word, with its well-written and pro- the archipelago. High demands are made of the par- fusely illustrated articles. It will no doubt be appreci- ticipants in the project. They are trained through ated as a gift in the region. It should also serve the seminars on topics such as marketing and service, purpose of marketing the tourist sites that are dis- and their products have to satisfy certain criteria be- cussed in it, and as such it will become a part of the fore they can be given the Skärgårdssmak trade- cultural heritage it describes. I would not be surprised mark, a white wave on a blue ground. The products if it joins the “authentic” crafts and goes on show like are therefore perceived as being typical of Åland, other objects at tourist destinations such as local heri- Lindqvist says, not just by tourists but also by resi- tage museums, churches, and museums. For that dents. Apart from their high craft quality, the prod- alone it will have fulfilled an important purpose. Yet ucts also carry symbolic meanings in the form of the volume has more dimensions than that. It is also small scale, nearness to nature, sustainable develop- an important scholarly contribution to the discussion ment, and a more “genuine” way of living in our of cultural heritage, perhaps not primarily for its mass-production society. theoretical sophistication, although several of the au- The volume ends with a long article by Anne thors use theoretical approaches in their studies. No, Bergman, archivist at the Archives of Folk Culture. the strength of the book is the many well thought-out She takes the reader on a guided tour through the empirical examples which can now serve as material Åland landscape. Bergman accompanied three for new and deeper studies. I am grateful to the indus- guided groups in May and July 2005. She begins by trious collectors for the rich database they have highlighting the important role of the guide, whose achieved with their studies and documentation. I pre- qualities must include being empathetic, well-in- sume that their results are now stored in the Archives formed, extravert, friendly, adaptable, and interested of Folk Culture, where they will be able to generate in people, besides having a sense of humour, knowl- many more studies. edge, detachment, and knowing not to talk about re- Agneta Lilja, Huddinge ligion or politics. The guide’s task is to be a kind of ambassador for the place, attracting both locals and tourists. In this work the guide conveys, creates, and strengthens the cultural heritage, partly by putting Pre-modern Attitudes across an idealized image of the culture. Förmoderna livshållningar. Dygder, värden och Bergman also points out that the role of the guide kunskapsvägar från antiken till upplysningen. Marie varies according to the place that is being shown. In Lindstedt Cronberg & Catharina Stenqvist (eds.). an authentic setting, she writes, the guide can talk Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2008. 329 pp. Ill. with greater freedom than in a museum, where the ISBN 978-91-85509-06-5. tour often follows the thoughts of the exhibition curator. She does not problematize the meaning of an n The hallmark of every advanced culture is a per- “authentic setting” here, but I guess that she means ception of certain historical events that have been places like a church, a ruined castle, or an ancient significant for that particular culture. This may be a monument where the narrative is not clearly struc- matter of idealizing certain times and phenomena, tured as in a museum, where the exhibition is built but it may also lead to the devaluation, or even de- around a chronology or a theme. But it is of course monization, of other things in the past. All this is true that every time an authentic setting is presented done so that the present and its cultural expressions by a guide, its authenticity is rewritten and it be- will seem excellent and praiseworthy for ordinary comes partly new. The authenticity is fragile and people. It has often been said that modern culture – elusive, and mostly just a temporary construction, not least the school system – neglects to provide a 174 Reviews

proper historical background to things in our time. edge in particular fields. We learn about what A lack of history, with devastating consequences for friendship and love meant in the past, what patience judgements and actions in the present can therefore and honour have meant, how political wisdom and be the result. acts of war have been interpreted, about the transi- It is one matter to retell history so that certain tion from philosophy with its roots in antiquity to events – often military ones – are fixed in time and al- the ethical and moral views of Christianity, all in low us to state a date when something happened. This contrast to folk traditions, especially concerning is important, giving the kind of things that can be marriage and the outlook on women in society. It is used in local histories and in tourist contexts. It is thus a broad spectrum of extremely interesting is- much more difficult to try to capture the lifestyle and sues that are highlighted here, making it impossible patterns of action of bygone generations. Yet this is to review each article separately. I shall content my- what is so important if we are to understand why peo- self with saying that the authors present highly valu- ple in the past acted as they did, and also to under- able knowledge, which ought to be a part of general stand modern phenomena and why there can be such public awareness and school education, although inertia in their implementation in our times. I am that is probably hoping too much. thinking of issues such as equality for women, the de- In reading this book I have above all been struck velopment of morals, and general matters to do with by the pervasive part played by Christian beliefs in the world of religion. In discussions and in letters to the interpretation of so-called scientific data, and by the newspapers today we often hear people wonder- how the moral values of the church have been inter- ing why questions of morality and religion cannot be preted in relation to folk customs with a long tradi- organized in a more rational and consistent manner. tion, and by how symbols such as heaven and hell What is often forgotten is the inertia that ideas and have been able to make such a big impact on folk myths have in our culture and the fact that new atti- beliefs. The book is in fact a rich source for an un- tudes do not develop very quickly. Also, our time is derstanding of how previous generations have ar- characterized by a conglomerate of philosophies, be- gued and acted in various situations. We find paral- liefs, and moral judgements that struggle with each lels to this in many parts of the world today, where other for supremacy and dominance. the modern way of thinking has not yet caught on – This book, with a title meaning “Pre-modern Atti- to say nothing of the late-modern mentality. And tudes to Life: Virtues, Values, and Paths to Knowl- one is struck by how close the pre-modern attitude edge from Antiquity to the Enlightenment”, sets it- to life really is to us in historical terms. One may self the task of acquainting us with the concept of wonder whether all the things in our late-modern so- “pre-modern”. This is actually a task that is far too ciety can be regarded as positive. The reading of this big for a single book. The solution is to look at dif- valuable book should at least help us to better under- ferent periods in history through articles dealing stand cultures in our world that resemble the pre- with matters of knowledge, values, and religion. The modern attitudes described here. In an intercultural book is a result of a network known as Life Atti- dialogue, for example, with some of our immigrant tudes: Ideas, Virtues, and Values in Pre-modern and cultures, the knowledge conveyed by this book is es- Early-modern Times, led by Marie Lindstedt Cron- sential. berg and Catharina Stenqvist, mainly funded by the Nils G. Holm, Åbo Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The book contains fourteen articles by different authors with an introductory description by the editors where the project is presented and the different Contemporary Folk Art contributions are summarized. The articles cover a Rondellhundar och schablonspindlar. Folkkonst i ti- long time span, from classical antiquity via the den. Eva Londos (ed.). Carlsson Bokförlag, Stock- Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It goes without holm i samarbete med Jönköpings läns museum saying that it would not be possible in a single long 2009. 192 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7331-222-6. article to outline the whole development that took place over such a long time, and therefore it was n The title arouses one’s curiosity, and the picture sensible to include articles that deepen our knowl- on the front cover showing a policewoman and a Reviews 175

roundabout dog no less so, particularly when it is a and here biblical stories from the Old and the New report from a scholarly seminar, the eighth seminar Testament were translated into pictorial language. on folk art. Folk art is an old ethnological topic, and The next four papers are studies of examples of it is interesting that it is subjected to discussion and narrative folk art, dealing with paintings of scenes problematization here in both contemporary and his- from folklife, wood carving, the large patchwork torical dimensions. The seminar had three main rug made by the people of Botkyrka, and newly- themes: narrative in folk art, illegal creativity in the made historical costumes. public space, and established artists drawing inspira- The next papers deal with modern-day illegal cre- tion from folk art. ativity, and a Danish reader feels envious of the The publication begins with theoretical papers in Swedish creativity and the folk protest with the which the term itself and its present-day use are dis- home-made dog sculptures placed in Swedish cussed. Barbro Klein regards “folk art” as a heuristic roundabouts, and Lars Vilks’s garden shed in term, not least in relation to handicraft and art. The Jönköping. Then there is an article about unauthor- discussion is then carried on to illegal folk art in the ized graffiti. All three are temporary phenomena urban space, and with reference to American graffi- that change quickly over time, which is totally in ti. Here one may wonder that no parallels are drawn keeping with the Zeitgeist. At least as exciting is the to Torkild Hinrichsen’s fieldwork and museum ex- artist Peter Johansson, whose work is often based on hibition about graffiti in Hamburg, where the graffiti modern, everyday folk art! If only we had such is more comparable to a Nordic situation than the artists in Denmark! American graffiti is. Johan Knutsson shows that, while traditional folk There are countless definitions of folk art, and Bo art disappeared at the end of the nineteenth century, Lönnqvist makes an interesting systematization and it was a source of inspiration for artists at the time. categorization of older ethnological definitions: (1) This was especially true for textile art, and Berit rural handicraft or peasant art; (2) hierarchically Eldvik tells of four such textile artists. subordinate, for example, an occupational category; Johanna Rosenqvist discusses the differences be- (3) undatable and styleless folk art; and (4) folk art tween folk artists and practitioners of handicraft and defined by cartographic method. Another form of arrives at the conclusion that folk artists are to a analysis is anthropological, in which the study of high degree eccentric men, whereas handicraft prac- “ethno-art” is central, and folk art is interpreted as titioners are mostly women working with textiles. non-material culture or as a communication process. The same could be said, by and large, about Den- Bo Lönnqvist shows how different and often contra- mark. dictory the many definitions have been. In short: the Borghild Håkansson uses the term “other art”, but term folk art is anything but unambiguous, and it is could in my opinion just as well have spoken about used in historical and contemporary studies and in folk art. She says that “other art” is especially cre- exhibitions. ated in the countryside depending on factors such as Sonja Berlin tells us that the term “traditional art” a good place, the availability of material, and craft is used in Norway out of a desire to assemble forms skill – the same applies in Denmark. of art that are handed down, both music and folk art, Finally, the last two papers show that such differ- in a single concept. “Traditional art” is also pre- ent things as gardens and PC cabinets are also places ferred because the word folk can have negative con- where folk art is practised. notations. It would have been interesting if parallels Generally speaking, the most interesting papers had been drawn to other countries; in Hungary, for are the discussions of the usefulness of the term example, music, dance, and material culture are ana- “folk art” in the present day and those dealing with lysed in a similar way. On the other hand, it would contemporary phenomena, not least because pre-in- be much more difficult to do this in Denmark, where dustrial folk art has been the subject of so many we do not have the same musical traditions. analyses in the past. One may wonder, however, Nils-Arvid Bringéus analyses southern Swedish why not one of the authors seems to know of the dis- wall hangings and hand-coloured woodcuts from a cussions in Germany about the present-day use of narrative point of view. The pre-industrial pictorial the term, for instance in the publications of Heinrich world was made for a population of non-readers, Mehl. 176 Reviews

All in all, the papers show a very wide spread, husband) about her background? What could her with theoretical discussions, ethnological studies of reasons have been? How did this concealment influ- folk art, and descriptions of the work of present-day ence her and what did it cost her? Or perhaps it was folk artists. This makes the book uneven, but it also only a relief to get rid of the past? The story of Karin shows that the term is operational for both historical Lützen’s mother is also a story about the possibility and contemporary material and simultaneously that of breaking loose, of creating yourself in your own it is impossible to provide an unambiguous defini- image, of the possibilities that geographical and so- tion of folk art. And it shows that folk art is alive cial mobility creates for individual re-creation. and well! “My Mother’s Secret” is also the story of Jewish Helle Ravn, Rudkøbing history in Europe, about the economic, political and religious framework that made Jews migrate to different regions of Europe, and the means by which they created new lives for themselves where they Tracing Jewish Immigration History settled. More generally it also becomes the history Karin Lützen, Mors hemmelighed. På sporet af en of migration and immigrants. What is it like to mi- jødisk indvandrerhistorie. Gyldendal, Copenhagen grate, how do you cope with new language and new 2009. 421 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-02-07476-5. customs, how do you create social bonds and be- longings? How do the immigrant parents relate to n “My Mother’s Secret” is a documentary story their children? How does the second generation dif- about the discovery that the author’s own family fer from the first generation, and what does the third history has been based on concealment. The Danish generation look like? Lützen devotes quite a lot of folklorist and historian Karin Lützen grew up with a space to the hometown benefit organizations for im- Danish father and a French mother. Her parents fell migrants, the organizations called landsmanshaftn in love in Paris in 1946 and her mother came to in Yiddish. After reading this book I share Lützen’s Denmark in 1947 to get married at the age of 23. fascination for these organizations. The organiza- Married to director and consul Lützen, she became a tions were intended as a mutual safety net for immi- proud ambassador of French culture. The elegant grants. All members paid a small amount to the or- and foreign director’s wife stood out somewhat in ganization every month and could expect help in re- the provincial town of Fredericia. Karin Lützen turn in the event of sickness and death and possibly grew up to share her mother’s affinity for everything also unemployment. Social gatherings and balls French, and she had strong bonds to her French heri- were places to socialize and celebrate their commu- tage. However, she knew about no family members nity, and also places to find future spouses for the apart from her maternal grandfather, who was still children of the members. Arranged marriages were alive when she grew up. Lützen’s mother had creat- common practice at least until the inter-war era. In ed her own family of French friends in addition to many cases these organizations came to play the her parents. It was only in 2003, several years after role of an extended family, and it is fascinating to her mother’s death, that Lützen received informa- read about these intricate networks of social and tion about her French family possibly being Jewish. economic bonds, of dependency and support. To- Lützen, at first a bit hesitant, but soon very enthusi- wards the end of the book Lützen also lets us take astic, took on the task of not only tracing her own part in the still existing annual ceremony of remem- genealogy, but also tracing the intricate history of bering the dead members. Although in many ways some of the Jewish migration in Europe during the anachronistic and dying organizations, we can feel last 150 years. Lützen’s reverence and excitement about being al- Thus the book ends up telling many different sto- lowed to take part in this long tradition and being al- ries. It tells the story of Lützen’s own family, about lowed to read some of the names during the ceremo- her immediate family and her newfound extended nial walk through several of Paris’s cemeteries. family. Apart from discovering a different truth The story of the landsmanshaftn and general mi- about her heritage, the main questions behind the gration history revealed through Lützen’s book also book are the ones she asks about her now deceased seems useful as a backdrop to studies of current im- mother: Why did she never tell her children (or her migrant life. To me the book is helpful in the study Reviews 177

of how migration changes human conditions and re- raised for this reader. What is it about these stories lationships and how it creates both losses and new that moves me and bring tears to my eyes? What af- opportunities. fects and emotions are ingrained in stories about “My Mother’s Secret” is also a story about the family, and about reestablishment of long-lost con- Holocaust, the Shoah, and the results of this for the nections? generations that experienced it, and for later genera- Karin Lützen is one of those researchers who tions. Some 76,000 French Jews were deported, and have used herself and her own experiences as en- only 2,500 of them came back. Several of Lützen’s lightening analytical tools throughout her works. Al- relatives were among the deported. How did this un- though I could have done without some of the speakable tragedy mark the days to come? How did names and the details of the genealogical process, the survivors handle the pain, the guilt, the love, the taking part in Lützen’s private search for her heri- deceit? Lützen also briefly explores the role the tage has certainly been a journey of interest on so story of the Shoah plays today, and how the narra- many different levels. To me Karin Lützen will al- tive and the role of the narrative have changed over ways be an example of a researcher who manages to time. An upsetting part of the French relationship to let her own presence in the story open up for new their Jews was the reconsiderations of citizenship emotional as well as intellectual revelations for the status after the Vichy regime came to power in reader. Her new book again proves that she is truly a 1940. In 1927 a liberal law on citizenship came into master of making the personal academically rele- force and immigrants who had lived in the country vant. for three years could gain citizenship. The secular Tone Hellesund, Bergen French state wanted as many citizens as possible, regardless of religion and background. During the Vi- chy regime these new citizenships could be recon- sidered, and Jews who had gained French citizen- Power Play in Dress ship could now risk having it rescinded, and thereby Bo Lönnqvist, Maktspel i kläder. Om det (o)synligas risk deportation. kulturella anatomi. Schildts Förlag, Helsinki 2008. Not surprisingly, the construction, deconstruc- 252 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-951-50-1798-7. tion and reconstruction of identities are important issues for Karin Lützen in this book. These are issues n That clothing has a powerful potential is unques- that have been a concern through many of her tionable. For centuries clothing has been one of the works, and here she discusses it from a new angle. more visual materializations and manifestations of As a researcher who has been particularly clear on identity, gender, difference, status and economy – the social construction of identities, it is interesting in essence the power play of everyday life. This may to follow her on this personal quest for “the truth” be more or less common knowledge to the cultural about her “real family”, and her emotions, experi- historic scholar; nevertheless, it is still worthwhile ences and self-analysis throughout this quest. to read the recent book on the topic by Finnish eth- Being moved is an important element in this nologist Bo Lönnqvist. Why? I find at least three book, and an important effect of it. Lützen writes reasons. 1. Lönnqvist is knowledgeable in the field about how she in many ways sees “shared roots” and can demonstrate his points through a vast and the value of biological kinship as sentimental number of examples, highlighting both the usually constructions. Despite her intellectual thoughts on visible power play in dress and at the same time the the issue, through this process she experienced that seemingly invisible. 2. Lönnqvist has a welcoming she was finding someone to whom she belonged and and nuanced understanding of fashion. Fashion is whom she curiously felt instantly connected to. De- considered a powerful force in clothing defining spite Lützen’s unsentimental language and ap- when clothes are “in” or “out”. 3. Lönnqvist per- proach, there are many moving moments as the nar- forms complex analysis of culture, demonstrating rative unfolds, particularly in the letters and meet- his theoretical awareness, without having to justify ings between her and older relatives. As Lützen his perspective through more or less repetitive analyses her own often surprising reactions during theoretical reviews. It makes his books worthwhile this quest for family, some of the same questions are reading and an introduction to the field. 178 Reviews

What characterizes the book is its fragmentary point that the human being and its body can be per- character. Each chapter presents separate examples ceived as a geographical area, a cultural map that and analysis, but Lönnqvist recommends that read- can be read and has the potential to reveal a variety ers identify the hidden connections for themselves. of analytical perspectives. The complexity of both The peculiar parrot on each opening page of a new metaphors supports the nuanced and reflective an- chapter is not, I presume, the focus, but rather the alysis, leading the reader to acknowledge power theme of power and men’s underwear. From chapter play in dress – not only with respect to what is im- to chapter the reader is presented with several stu- mediately visual, but also what is invisible. One ex- dies and examples of men’s underwear that collec- ample of these hidden garments is men’s underwear tively demonstrate and argue for the changing role prior to the middle of the 20th century, when white of men’s underwear, from garments of pure utility to cotton briefs turned into colorful, sexy and visible high fashion, making the book a cultural history of fashion items. men’s underwear as well. I can only wonder: why For the cultural historian, Bo Lönnqvist’s book is did Lönnqvist not dare to publish a book on men’s thoughtful reading and a prime example of how em- underwear? pirical knowledge of the past and the present within The book is divided into three sections, which are a specific subject matter – dress and power – is fun- further subdivided into numerous chapters. The first damental to the development of good cultural analy- section is concerned with power and powerlessness sis. For the specific fashion scholar the book demon- in dress. The second section is concerned with strates the strength of the ethnological version of magic, politics, and marks of civilization in dress. cultural analysis, revealing the complexity, mate- Finally, the third section is concerned with the exhi- riality and symbolism of dress and fashion. bition of dress, fashion, eroticism and fetish in Marie Riegels Melchior, Copenhagen dress. The examples are so numerous that it would not make sense to try to list them here. Rather, I want to draw attention to some of the main points Lönnqvist The History of a Noble Family makes that, in my understanding, represent refresh- Bo Lönnqvist, En finsk adelssläkts öden. Standert- ing perspectives invoked by cultural analysis on the skjöld – Standertskjöld-Nordenstam. Svenska litte- field of dress and fashion studies. For one thing it is ratursällskapet i Finland, Helsinki 2007. 335 pp. Ill. fundamental to Lönnqvist to perceive the human be- ISBN 978-951-583-147-7. ing as a construct between nature and culture. Dress materializes this, as it is both a physical need and a n When Gustav III in August 1772 staged his visual media for the manifestation of power, and bloodless coup d’état in Stockholm, the idea was subsequently gender, social status, ideology, that a Finnish naval squadron would come from fashion, etc. Sveaborg to support the king. A westerly wind, Another key point made by Lönnqvist is his dual- however, made the crossing impossible, and it took istic analytical perspective. If analyzing power, several days before the ships could sail to Stock- powerlessness must be included too. If analyzing the holm, by which time the king had already accom- visible, the invisible is included as well. If analyzing plished the coup. In Stockholm they were welcomed women’s wear as fashion, which dominates fashion by the king, who expressed his gratitude for the sup- studies with a starting point in the study of haute port by raising some of the ship commanders to the couture, men’s wear is also included; and so on and peerage. One of these was the Finnish ensign Henrik so forth. Johan Justander. On 13 September the same autumn Further, it is also worthwhile to draw attention to he was ennobled under the name Standertskjöld. It the two recurrent metaphors in Lönnqvist’s vocabu- may seem surprising that commanding a small ship lary and analysis: “Cultural anatomy” and “cultural could lead to the peerage, but the king evidently topography”. The first refers to human being as cul- took the opportunity to show this recognition of the turally loaded objects, or materializations of culture. men who had sided with him, even though the coup Human beings are understood as formed, dressed never led to any serious hostilities. and controlled by culture. The latter refers to the Ensign Standertskjöld returned to Finland, where Reviews 179

he spent the rest of his life, becoming a successful dying out. One of her sons therefore adopted the farmer and creator of an entailed estate for his fami- general’s eldest son Herman, thus establishing a ly, Wanantaka Gård. By the time of the Anjala third branch of the family, the baronial line of League at the end of the 1780s, his feelings for Gus- Standertskjöld-Nordenstam. tav III seem to have already cooled considerably. It Dealing with an entire family during two centu- is about this Standertskjöld family, rather unknown ries is like doing a highly complicated jigsaw in Sweden but successful in several respects in Fin- puzzle. Bo Lönnqvist manages the task elegantly. land, that Bo Lönnqvist, former professor of ethnol- The book is lavishly illustrated for the benefit of the ogy in Jyväskylä, has written an interesting book, reader; it is not too much of an exaggeration to say commissioned to do so by the Standertskjöld Family that virtually every family member occurs in some Association, founded in 1947. photograph. Yet it can still be hard for the reader to I cannot imagine that the Association is anything keep track of how the different people are related. but satisfied with Lönnqvist’s book. It is a detailed Luckily, Lönnqvist provides many family trees, history of all the branches of the family and the fate which one has to consult often. These are exempla- of various individuals over two centuries. It ought to ry. Readers from Sweden might feel the lack of a be an inexhaustible gold mine for today’s genera- map of Finland, marking the different estates and tion. A great deal of the material will be of interest residences. For members of the family association to them especially: the history of the family associa- this might be unnecessary, but this book is of more tion itself, the estate inventories with the carefully general interest. recorded details of the contents of the family’s One chapter examines the old roots of the Stan- manor houses, the well-chosen excepts from extant dertskjölds in Tavastland, especially in the land- letter collections, especially the letters to and from scape around Tavastehus. Here the reader becomes female members of the family. But there is no doubt closely acquainted with a number of estates, such as that the book is of more general interest to cultural Wanantaka, the entailed estate of the noble family, historians in both Finland and Sweden, with a pre- and Laukko, the entailed estate of the baronial sentation and analysis of the lifestyle and situation branch, not to mention many smaller farms. A spe- of the Finland-Swedish upper class in the Russian cial case is Karlberg, an estate built up by the indus- era and after Finnish independence. Lönnqvist has trialist Hugo Standertskjöld with a huge fortune, had the ambition to say something general about the likewise amassed through involvement in the Rus- phenomena of manor-house culture and family cul- sian arms industry in Tula. At the end of the nine- ture. The confrontations of the Finland-Swedish no- teenth century he seems to have been regarded as bility with modernity are also of general human the richest man in Finland, leading an ostentatious relevance, reflecting the eternal wave movements of and almost incomprehensibly hospitable life, which social classes, with rapid elevation, a few genera- benefited his poorer relatives in particular. Exactly tions of imposing exercise of power, and then a de- how it was possible to earn such a fortune in Russia, cline into the broad middle class. and in a relatively short time, is something that Trying to capture the characteristics of a whole Lönnqvist never examines. It is interesting that tsar- dynasty is, of course, a difficult task. A complicat- ist Russia welcomed Finnish investment in Russia, ing factor is that this family split into separate whereas Russian economic interests in Finland seem branches. A grandson of Ensign Justander, Carl Au- to have been modest. The Standertskjöld family in gust Standertskjöld, became a general in the Tsar’s the second half of the nineteenth century appears to army and earned a fortune in the mid-nineteenth have been a typical landowning family. In the twen- century at the rifle factories in Tula in Russia, tieth century farming seems to have been largely money that was then used to purchase a significant abandoned, partly because of decreased profitabili- number of estates, especially in Tavastland, the ty, partly because of traumatic experiences during family’s old native district. In 1874 the tsar made the short but bloody Finnish Civil War or the War of him a baron, as a result of which a baronial branch Liberation in the spring of 1918. Laukko was burnet of the family was formed. In addition, an aunt of the down by the reds, and the owner of Lahdentaka, Ed- general, one of Justander’s daughters, married into vard Standertskjöld, was murdered by red rebels. the Nordenstam family, which later was at risk of One feature of the family chronicle that is of par- 180 Reviews

ticular interest for a reader from Sweden is the Rus- fate of an entire family and try to describe the cul- sian threads in the tapestry. In the nineteenth century tural capital that it jointly managed. If anyone does, the young men of the family tended to train as of- however, this book by Bo Lönnqvist must be a ficers in the military academy in Fredrikshamn and source of inspiration. then went on to pursue a career in the Russian army. Mats Hellspong, Stockholm Usually, however, they returned in the end to Fin- land to settle for good. Russian seems to have been Rituals the most common language in the family, alongside The Ritual Year and Ritual Diversity. Proceedings Swedish, in the nineteenth century. The richest of of the Second International Conference of The SIEF the Standertskjölds, such as the general and his son Working Group on The Ritual Year, Gothenburg Adi, founder of the later global pulp industry Enso, June 7–11 2006. Lina Midholm & Annika Nord- had palatial homes in Saint Petersburg, while others ström (eds.). Institutet för språk och folkminnen, spent the winters in Helsinki and the summers on Göteborg 2007. 377 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7229- their country estates. The Russian Revolution, of 039-6. course, was a dramatic upheaval with devastating economic losses. At the end of the nineteenth centu- n The Ritual Year and Ritual Diversity contains for- ry the family had a rather cosmopolitan colour and ty-one speeches held at the Second International many of the girls married Russians. The Russian in- Conference of the SIEF Working Group on the Rit- fluence had various cultural expressions; one was ual Year in Gothenburg in 2006. The papers are the custom of appointing a kind of Turkish smoking sorted under a number of headings, such as midsum- room in the manor houses, a fashion that can be mer festivities, ritual theory, the place of rituals in probably be found on estates in Sweden too, but it the life cycle, religious rituals and ritual change. seems to be particularly widespread in Finland. This review will primarily focus on the Scandina- The chapter “Women’s Roles” gives interesting vian contributions, and even these will be discussed insight into the special tasks of women in the fami- rather selectively. ly, as a cohesive force, establishing contacts and Ann Pettersson and Anna Ulfstrand present their sometimes also being controlling actors. Here we research on what might be termed the invention of are also given a description of the life rituals, for ex- tradition in the case of the Swedish National Day, ample the elaborate funeral ceremonies during the which received formal status very recently. It was Russian period and also later. The women’s duties proclaimed a holiday in 2004 as of 2005, and the au- also have a central place in the chapter “Hospitable thors conducted fieldwork during the celebrations in Houses”, which uses guest books and other evidence an amusement park in Botkyrka, Hågelby Park, the to discuss social life on some of the family estates. following year. They describe the thoughts and the Here we see the Finland-Swedish high bourgeoisie ideology – if one is permitted to use such an old- and the role of hunting as an identity marker which fashioned word – of the organisers in constructing is underlined with many examples. In particular, the an entirely new kind of festival for which there was quiet life in small and later decaying manor houses no template, and it is interesting to note that they de- offers the reader fascinating material, a kind of cided to concentrate on the period of Gustav Vasa, Chekhovian life in the birch woods of Finland. which became the theme of the celebrations. For one To conclude, in “The Standertskjöld Tapestry”, thing, this period was viewed as ”real history”, and Bo Lönnqvist makes an attempt to sum up what he also, I believe, distant enough in time to be un- sees as the bearing elements of the noble family controversial, even though it does represent the structure: the naming practices, characteristic ex- founding of the modern Swedish state. The aim of pressions, attitudes to things and other people, a the Swedish parliament in finally introducing the kind of disciplined self-awareness. He also touches National Day as a public holiday was to wrest na- on how this changed during the twentieth century, tionalism away from right-wing ultranationalist not least after women went out into working life and groups, and to foster a positive form of nationalism a partly new occupational structure arose. I do not which was inclusive rather than excluding. In many know whether other researchers in the future will municipalities, a welcoming ceremony for new dare to undertake such a challenge as to paint the Swedish citizens has been incorporated into the fes- Reviews 181

tivities of the National Day, and so is also the case cold stones have been linked to the days of St. Olof with Botkyrka. In this context, the importance of (July 29) and St. Jacob (July 25), and are attested in migration for the development of Sweden into a central Sweden. They seem to be a recent, nine- modern welfare state was emphasised in the official teenth-century complement to the significantly older speeches held at the celebrations in Hågelby Park. sayings concerning hot stones being thrown into the Ane Ohrvik presents her research on the ritualisa- lake by Petter Katt (i.e. Petrus in Cathedra, February tion of Halloween in Norway, and on the impact a 22) or St. Matthew (February 24). These go back to single devoted individual can make on festival cus- the Middle Ages, and probably reached Sweden toms. The speech is based on an interview with an from the south. The sayings about the cold stones American man living in Norway, who played a sig- then received further elaboration: in northern Swe- nificant part in promoting Halloween as a festival den, three saints were said to do this, St. Olof, St. worth celebrating. Initially this was done privately, Lawrence (August 10) and St. Bartholomew (Au- but later as a professional event-maker. Ohrvik re- gust 24). In southern Sweden, the sayings about fers to it as ritual entrepreneurship, which is a fitting warm stones were jokingly extended by giving Pet- characterisation in many ways. The concept of rit- ter Katt helpers, the farmhands Tertullianus (the fol- ualisation, the strategies employed for differentiat- lowing day in the old almanacs) and Matthew (Feb- ing a ritual from ordinary humdrum life, serves as a ruary 24), as well as the maid Mary. Some scholars tool in elucidating his methods in the promotion of have interpreted the mention of Mary as a reference Halloween. A concrete strategy of ritualisation was to the Annunciation (March 25), but af Klintberg the use of specific artefacts, such as food and cos- thinks February 28 a likelier date, which is the name tumes, and these were included both in his own ar- day of Maria in Swedish almanacs. In this case, the rangements of Halloween celebrations and in his ac- tradition cannot be older than the nineteenth centu- count of Halloween festivities on his website, which ry, since this name was introduced in the almanac in was a popular source of knowledge about Hallow- 1806 to honour a daughter of the then reigning king een. In this way his version of Halloween celebra- Gustav IV Adolf. It seems to me that the example of tions constituted a model for others. The difficult this group of weather sayings illustrates the genera- part was convincing critics that Halloween could be tive power of folk tradition rather well, how estab- a meaningful element in the Norwegian repertoire of lished formulas and structures can be used to create festivals. Personally he believed that the shy and new traditions. conservative Norwegians needed a festival like Hal- Anders Gustavsson considers the politics of na- loween, when it was possible to take it easy and be- tional holidays on the Swedish-Norwegian border in come someone else for a while. Thus he defended Bohuslän, mainly from the 1990s onward. The focus Halloween in the media, emphasising its diversity. is principally on the Norwegian national holiday on Ohrvik accordingly concludes that the ritual entre- May 17, and how it is celebrated by Norwegians liv- preneurs have many opportunities to manipulate the ing in Bohuslän, permanently or during the summer. process of ritualisation, but that their influence is The Norwegian flag is important in this context as nevertheless limited by the reactions of their audi- an embodiment of national sentiment. Interestingly, ence. The notion of ritual entrepreneurship is apt in Swedes in Bohuslän have also begun to attend as this context as it alludes to the efforts and talents of well as arrange festivities on this national holiday, an individual in shaping a festival, and also hints at the latter mostly on the official municipal level. the commercial value of these efforts. I believe it Gustavsson asks why the Norwegian holiday at- might gain currency in studies of modern ritual at tracts Swedes too, but does not have the space to least. discuss this intriguing question in depth. On May 17 Bengt af Klintberg studies a number of weather and family birthdays Norwegians resident in Swe- sayings associated with saints’ days in spring and den fly the Norwegian flag, but on other days they summer. These sayings take the form of “this or that tend to use both the Swedish and the Norwegian saint throws cold/hot stones in the water”, referring flags, in order to maintain good relations with their to the water temperature sinking or rising in the Swedish neighbours. Mixed Norwegian-Swedish lakes, making walking on the ice hazardous and families also fly both flags, unless they adopt the bathing possible respectively. The sayings about Union flag, which was reintroduced for the cen- 182 Reviews

tenary celebration of the dissolution of the union be- agenda has also facilitated the introduction of new tween Sweden and Norway in 1905. For Swedes this rituals such as St. Valentine’s Day and Halloween, a flag represents solidarity with Norway, whereas development otherwise primarily fuelled by our Norwegians regard it as a reminder of political sub- modern consumer society. Ritual entrepreneurs are ordination to Sweden and resent its use. The re- mentioned as prominent agents of this change in rit- gional Bohuslän flag, which was designed in 1996, ual customs. Notwithstanding, neither the activities represents Bohuslän’s historical link to Norway as of ritual entrepreneurs nor the official multicultural part of its territory until 1658. Two thirds of the flag ideology have escaped controversy, and in this re- resemble the Norwegian one, and one third the spect Amundsen sees a move from the former con- Swedish. The regional flag is also an expression of a flict concerning the secularisation of Norwegian so- negative attitude to the European Union. Finally, ciety to one regarding the impact of non-European Gustavsson relates how people on the Norwegian cultures. The paper ends with a plea for the study of side of the border attempted to help the Swedes in these ritual changes in terms of rhetoric and ideolo- celebrating their new national holiday in 2005, and gy, and for a historical awareness in these times how Norwegian journalists wanted to cover the – when change has turned into a mantra – a form of non-existent – celebrations. One is left with the im- scholarly resistance to being uncritically swallowed pression that the Norwegians were more intent on by the catchwords of the present and the views they celebrating the Swedish national holiday than the represent. As such it is an important paper, remind- Swedes were. They celebrate Midsummer instead, a ing us of our duties as researchers. festival the Norwegians in Bohuslän have also be- Åsa Ljungström describes a ritual peculiar to gun to participate in. Gustavsson’s paper is an interest- Härnösand in the north of Sweden, which is per- ing example of how differently national sentiment can formed on December 5 each year in memory of a be constructed by citizens of two neighbouring coun- young girl who was murdered by her boyfriend, a tries, and how they adapt to new contexts. mentally ill African boy. While she lived she was Arne Bugge Amundsen contemplates some recent active in an antiracist movement in this town, and trends in the constitution of the ritual year in con- the ritual is her father’s way of continuing her temporary Norway. One of these is a rejection of the work. In order to do this, however, some aspects of role of Christianity in shaping the festivals of mod- the drama had to be hushed up, such as jealousy as ern Norway. The pre-Christian roots of Christmas, a possible motive for the deed. I found this very infor example, are emphasised, and a continuity be- teresting, as it affords a rare glimpse at those ele- tween the – very poorly documented – pagan cele- ments of a situation that had be passed over in si- brations of Yule and present-day celebrations is lence to endow a ritual with coherence and suit it to simply assumed. Christmas is regarded as the quin- its express purpose. When Ljungström and her stu- tessentially Norwegian holiday, and is thus associat- dents did fieldwork on the ritual, eighteen years ed with a national ideology, which in turn is strong- had passed since the girl’s death. Then the ritual ly related to a nostalgia for the lost agrarian society was almost exclusively attended by school chil- of the 19th century (with the Christian faith erased dren, who had been ordered to participate. An in- from this idealised image of the past). Another trend triguing part of Ljungström’s discussion is the is the politically motivated stress on multicultural- change in perspectives on the ritual exhibited by ism and integration, adopting the language of glo- those students who were natives of Härnösand, and balisation. In this context the national connotations thus had attended the ritual as children. The ritual of the ritual year are combatted. At the same time, itself comprises musical performances and the tell- the prevalent rhetoric of multiculturalism has also ing of life stories, a show by a professional enter- contributed to effecting a shift of focus from Chris- tainer, and an appeal for integration by the girl’s tian holidays to national ones, most prominently father, and ends with a ceremonial hug. The native May 17. However, recently the national aura of students remembered dreading this element as chil- these festivities has been replaced by a new multi- dren, but now find it an agreeable way to express cultural one. May 17 is no longer about being ethni- their solidarity with others. cally Norwegian, but an act of participation in a The Ritual Year and Ritual Diversity as a whole common celebration. The present multicultural covers a wide range of topics, from the initiation Reviews 183

rites in Icelandic gymnasia discussed by Terry Gun- Two articles, written by Hans Kirchhoff and Olaf nell and the “Primal Scream” at Harvard researched Olsen, focus on the time of the Nazi occupation in by Stephen Mitchell to the workers’ pleasure trips in Denmark. Kirchhoff discusses an important and hu- 19th-century Sweden presented by Håkan Berglund- man theme, the rescue of Danish Jews over Öresund Lake and the celebration of the popular Nobel Prize in October 1943. Over 7000 people thereby found Award banquet in contemporary Sweden analysed asylum in Sweden. Olaf Olsen, whose article con- by Marlene Hugoson. Neo-pagan rituals recur in a cerns Danish refugees in Lund 1943–1945, was one number of papers, and processes of ritualisation are of those who fled the Nazi occupation and thus the examined in many contributions. Several papers are article is based on personal experiences from the devoted to the origin and development of different time when he was only 15 years old. His contribu- ritual traditions, both in terms of long historical per- tion is a reminder of a period and of incidents that spectives and highly contemporaneous ones. To we so easily forget. summarise my impressions of this volume, it affords Per Erik Ljung’s article discusses literary contacts concise and sophisticated analyses of rituals with – and the contacts of literary scholars over Öresund. more or less obvious – connections to the ritual Several Swedish authors have crossed the Sound year, and as such, I believe these papers will find an and have also gained Danish and Scandinavian audi- appreciative audience. ences for their works. Especially among the Danish Camilla Asplund Ingemark, Lund modernist generation of the fifties and sixties, several authors had Swedish connections. Ulf Zander looks at national and regional identities in the Öresund region at the start of the twen- Contacts over Öresund in the Twentieth tieth century. Labour migration over the straits to Century Denmark provoked discussion and heated debate. Grændse som skiller ej! Kontakter över Öresund un- The same themes and questions, even images of der 1900-talet. Kjell Å. Modéer (ed.). København: the enemy, that were current a century ago are on Museum Tusculanums Forlag 2007. 137 pp. Ill. the agenda even now and discussed by politicians. ISBN 978-87-635-0481-2. Zander argues in his article that, in spite of long and multifaceted contacts and relationships over n Einar Hansen (1902–1994) was a Danish-born Öresund it still takes a long time before deep and entrepreneur, publisher, ship owner and patron, who real integration over national boundaries takes did his life’s work in the Öresund region. Carrying a place. double identity, Danish and Swedish, he devoted his Contacts and traffic over the water has been a life to changing the region’s position on the political natural part of the life of local people in the Öresund map. Through the foundations he started, Einar region. Orvar Löfgren begins his article with per- Hansen’s achievements have an impact on the bor- sonal memories of the now closed hydrofoil termi- der area of Öresund even today. nal in Malmö. He goes on to consider how people To honour Hansen’s career, a Swedish-Danish and ideas and as well as clichés, stereotypes, utopias scholarly seminar was held in 2002 to mark the cen- and dystopias are constantly travelling over Öre- tenary of his birth. The papers of that seminar have sund. The same stereotypes that are spread about now been published; some of them are in Danish, Swedes and Danes can also be heard about several some in Swedish. The editor of this book, Kjell Å. other nations. The stereotypes are powerful. The fi- Modéer, focuses on Hansen’s life and career, aptly nal article in the book is by Else Bojsen, who dis- describing him as a patriot of the border region. Ac- cusses the mutual intelligibility of the Danish and cording to Modéer, Hansen devoted his life to keep- Swedish languages, with a focus on language barriers. ing Öresund free and open, especially during the Altogether this publication shows how individ- Nazi occupation of Denmark. For Hansen Öresund uals can exert influence when they have the oppor- was both mare liberum, an open sea, and during the tunity. Einar Hansen had both economic and social Nazi occupation mare claustrum, a closed sea. The capital which he used for the benefit of the people article focuses on Hansen’s effort to help refugees in on both sides of Öresund. Elsewhere, individuals Sweden during the occupation. like Einar Hansen have later been very important in 184 Reviews

transnational activity. For example, the former pro- The history of Norwegian museums has many gen- vincial governor of Norrbotten, Ragnar Lassinantti, eral features also evident in folk museums. The is regarded as having had a decisive role in the base is dependent on volunteers and the initiatives cross-border cooperation in the Tornio River Valley generally come from below. As in Sweden, vision- in the North. ary men often fought for ideals in opposition to au- The bridge over Öresund was opened in 2000. thorities that looked upon them as backward-look- How borderless life has been since the coming of ing romantics. the bridge is an interesting question, and hopefully At the beginning of the twentieth century many we can read more about the later contacts over Öre- folk museums were established in Norway, for in- sund in the near future. This book gives a fine ad- stance Hallingdal Folkemuseum (1899), Trysil Byg- vance picture of it. detun (1901), Valdres Folkemuseum (1901) and so Helena Ruotsala, Turku on. Norsk Folkemuseum was founded in 1894 at Bygdøy in Oslo. The first chairman of the Board, Moltke Moe, formulated in a policy speech in 1895 what would become fundamental characteristics of A Century of the Hedmark Museum folk museums, or open-air museums as they are Ragnar Pedersen, Hedmarksmuseet 100 år. 1906– called today. He declared that museums should be 2006. Stiftelsen Domkirkeodden, Hamar Historielag. “close to life and give as broad a picture as possible Hamar 2008. 249 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-82-91326- 24-5. of the past. The artefacts should be shown in their own context and depict life as it was.” This point of n A museum’s history can be written as a diary of view was in contrast to the existing museums of that events and exhibitions. Over a long period of time time, which were just collections of artefacts (old- that can be interesting and fascinating. But a mu- sakssamlinger). seum’s history can also be described as part of a de- Norsk Folkemuseum was inspired by the open-air veloping process for society and a struggle for fun- museum Skansen, in Stockholm, and the ideas of its damental values over time. That is what Ragnar founder, Artur Hazelius. Norsk Folkemuseum be- Pedersen, the former director of conservation and came the inspiration and template for all Norwegian editor of the yearbook, has tried to do in a book that folk museums including Hedmarksmuseet, one of celebrates the first hundred years of the Norwegian the oldest in Norway. museum, Hedmarksmuseet in Hamar. In 1912 the Hedmark museum was moved to a It was founded in the years around 1905 when the new site, Domkirkeodden, where the ruin of the old union of Norway and Sweden ended. After a long Hamar cathedral is situated. On this site so dominat- time of preparations, it was initiated in 1901, and ed by its history the “new museum” was able to formally founded in 1906. It was able to open the grow into an important and impressive institution. doors to the public in 1908. Over the years the name The ruin of the cathedral has played an important has been changed several times. It started as Hamar role and the story of its documentation and restora- Folkemuseum, then it became Oplandenes Folke- tion is also the story of how the antiquarian profes- museum. In 1939 two institutions, Oplandenes sion has developed over the years. This is a fascinat- Folkemuseum and Domkirkeodden were merged to ing part of the book. Today the ruin is covered and become Hedmarksmuseet and Domkirkeodden. In protected by a building of the highest architectural 2005 the name was changed again in connection quality. with the incorporation of Norsk Utvandrarmuseum Under the guidance of Ragnar Pedersen we can (Norwegian Museum of Emigration). It was now follow the process of creating a museum from the called the Foundation Domkirkeodden, in which the first stumbling steps to a cultural site in today’s former institution Hedmarksmuseet and Domkirke- Hamar. It is a beautiful book, richly illustrated with odden became a separate department. maps, drawings and pictures of artefacts and build- The implementation of folk museums in Norway ings, showing the potential of an open-air museum, in the years around 1900 was part of the building with its skill to depict life in the past but also its role of a new nation. Folk museums became important as a meeting place in the present. tools for transmitting central values of the nation. Göran Hedlund, Lund Reviews 185

In the Arms of Morpheus phases in which we accumulatively dream perhaps Mikkel Venborg Pedersen, I søvnens favn. Om søvn as much as a quarter of that time; in other words, if og sovevaner på landet 1600–1850. Museum Tuscu- we sleep 25 years in a lifetime we spend six years lanum Forlag. København 2009. 206 pp. Ill. ISBN dreaming. We have little recollection of this – in 978- 87-635-2599-2. much the same way as it is difficult to know why we dream at all. n Museums collect and store objects and conduct Another reflection is that a sleeping person is al- research on the basis of them. The research of mu- ways a mystery to a person who is awake. The sleep- seums of cultural history, however, does not only ing person is absent and present at the same time – to consider the objects themselves, but points beyond all appearances calm, but in reality engaged in the them. What do objects tell us about the people who wildest adventure of the most private nature. Sleep is possessed and used them? About their attitudes, private, and many modern people become shy when norms and also their changing natures? they watch a person who is sleeping. Beds and sleeping places at the open-air museum This book is a very good example of the new ap- Frilandsmuseet in Denmark have inspired the cura- proach of cultural history which shows how sleep- tor Mikkel Venborg Pedersen to a creative and fas- ing habits have changed over time as conditions in cinating study of sleep and sleeping habits in Den- society have changed, how changes in things such as mark during the long period 1600–1850. the arrangement of rooms, furnishings, social pat- Sleep, according to the author, is a subject that si- terns, and so on, have influenced people’s views of multaneously divides and unites human beings. It is sleeping habits. also a subject which intimately connects artefacts The idea behind the book is brilliant and the result with life: beds, eiderdowns, pillows, toilet furniture, is excellent, in a field that is almost unexplored. De- chamber pots, watches, nightcaps, nightshirts and so spite the subject matter, there is no risk of falling forth. asleep while reading it. Apart from museum objects, the study is based Birgitta Svensson, Stockholm on written sources such as folklife studies and travel accounts. The book deals with the cultural history of sleep as it pertains to earlier generations who lived in the Living in a House That is Mine, and Yet countryside – whether they were peasants, servants, not Mine rural artisans or fishermen, people of means, pau- Kotina suojeltu talo. Arkea, elämää ja rakennussuo- pers or beggars. The author introduces the former jelua Suomessa ja Saksassa. (A Preserved House as residents of three of the farmsteads in the museum: a Home. Everyday Life and Building Preservation in the farmsteads of Pebringe in Central Zealand, Finland and Germany.) Outi Tuomi-Nikula & Eeva Lundager in West Funen and True near Aarhus in Karhunen (eds.). School of Cultural Production and Jutland with their buildings, gardens, landscapes, Landscape Studies Pubications XIII. University of household effects and possessions. Turku, Pori 2007. 348 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-951-29- The author makes the basic assertion that sleep is 3361-7. as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a bodily need, so sleep also has to be understood, interpreted n Outi Tuomi-Nikula, and Eeva Karhunen have and placed within an intelligible framework. Al- edited a handsome book about everyday life in a though sleep is a basic and perennial human need, preserved house. The book is the end result of the people have done it in different ways and have also research project “A Preserved House as a Home”, had different conceptions of it. led by Tuomi-Nikula and conducted jointly by a The book is like an intricate fabric with patterns group of Cultural Heritage Studies graduate students containing a mixture of exciting descriptions of mu- and their consulting supervisors, whose range of ex- seum objects and inspiring thoughts and reflections pertise runs from city planning to architecture and about some of them in a kind of borderland between museum work. The publication is both visually cultural history, psychology and philosophy. Ac- pleasing and very rich in content, and it has good cording to science, he says, sleep consists of four potential to become a well read book among the 186 Reviews

Finnish professionals who work within the wide These articles oriented towards the bygone times area of heritage preservation. certainly give a historical context and feel to the ac- At the core of the book Kotina suojeltu talo there counts of (post)modern life in the same quarters. At are the case studies at four distinct locales. Two na- the same time, however, they quite actively take part tional cultures, Finnish and German are represented in the production of the heritage contents. More of- in this research. In Western Finland, the Old Rauma ten than not, the past in these articles is coloured and the 5th district of the city of Pori are studied, with nostalgia – very much according to the tradi- and in Northern Germany, the prosperous farming tion of heritage accounts. Of course, certain nostal- region of Altes Land near Hamburg, and the state of gia and appreciation of heritage is one of the attrac- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which was governed by tions of these places nowadays. Even with all the the DDR regulations for the decades it existed. modern amenities, life in those old houses is in con- Roughly one half of the writers in the book Koti- tinuum with the past lives without those amenities in na suojeltu talo focus analytically in the contem- the same houses, in the different times. Indeed one porary living and preservation practices. To my of the most appreciated features of living in an old eyes, these articles are the most up to date and in- house seems to be the sense of a localised place in triguing both in an academic sense and in relation to that continuum of lives. the practical, everyday situations where the preser- The idea of a continuum of past and present vation or “developing” the old urban areas are de- people, and the breaks in the continuum, are well bated. Outi Tuomi-Nikula and Eeva Karhunen open represented in the two German cases that Outi the book with theoretical overviews. In the follow- Tuomi-Nikula compares in her articles of this vol- ing chapters, it is studied what it is like to live with- ume. In the Altes Land area, it is still often the same in a world heritage area or an area which is about to families who have lived in those old houses for cen- be preserved (Hannele Mäenpää and Samuli Saari- turies. Older generations are even visible by their nen, respectively); what the different preservation having inscripted their names or credos on the outer processes contain (Tanja Vahtikari, Liisa Numme- walls. The houses’ lives are long, an individual life a lin); practical insights to a consulting architect’s flicker in comparison. According to Tuomi-Nikula, working week and to preservation education (Kalle to be forced to sell one’s house has been and still is a Saarinen and Tuulikki Kiilo); gentrification of a tra- sign of bad management and failure as a farmer in ditional physical and socio-cultural landscape Altes Land. In contrast, the Mecklenburg-Vorpom- (Mervi Tommila). Perhaps the most acutely, the atti- mern area saw a severe break in the continuum of tudes and rhetorics of negotiation about the preser- generations of private ownership of land and houses vation of private dwellings are discussed by Outi during the Communist regime of the DDR. At least Tuomi-Nikula, Heidi Latvala, and Jukka Vuorio. inbetween the lines, there is also a break in nostal- The second half of writers reach towards the past gia: not all of the farmers were reluctant to move of the areas in question, especially in Pori and Rau- into the concrete housing estates. The traditional ma. This set of articles is more descriptive and less farm houses, and old urban houses as well, were analytic, giving accounts of different ways of so- without modern plumbing and central heating. In cialicing and using urban space in the past. In the that sense, those esthetically challenged DDR Old Rauma section of the book, the writers look into blocks of flats clearly provided an improvement. e.g. the culture of hygiene related public buildings Due to the near impossibility of getting materials, and places, social ways of spending free time, and keeping old houses from ruin was the work for the the different uses of market squares (Helena Mäen- extraordinarily devoted. pää, Jaakko Mäntylä & Henni Seppänen, and Katrii- The research conducted in all the four regions na Lamberg & Eeva Mattila, respectively). The past was aimed at understanding the thoughts and ex- in the 5th district in Pori is described from the point periences of private dwellers who now live in old of view of certain specific houses or their yards houses that are considered commonly valuable from (Marita Ruoho, Kati Kunnas-Holmström), chil- the heritage point of view. According to David Har- dren’s play (Laura Julin), sauna culture (Pia vey, turning to study “small heritage” is gaining Vähämäki), and small businesses (Johanna Ojala & popularity amongst the researchers of heritage who Katriina Välimäki, and Heidi Hietala). have previously concentrated on the bigger picture Reviews 187

of national narratives. In accordance to what Harvey really have to want to preserve and repair with a (2008, 20) also points out, it becomes evident in the gentle hand. That is equally a question of attitudes book Kotina suojeltu talo that studing closely the and of financial and material means. Judging from living experiences at the local and even private the articles of the book Kotina suojeltu talo, it helps levels, also helps understanding the processes at the if the dwellers of the houses are willing to see them- national and global leves of heritage politics. selves in a continuum of people and culture attached Comparing the four cases in Finland and in Ger- to the building and urban landscape. As one proud many, it turns out that while the building preserva- and humble Altes Land farmer chose to inscribe on tion policies differ, the individual fear of losing con- the wall of his house in 1822: “This house is mine trol is the same in both countries (Tuomi-Nikula, p. and yet not mine, those who come after me do not 339). To succeed in the preservation of buildings call it theirs either. As long as my hand moves I and historical areas it is of utmost importance to un- want to plough for my Heimat” (p. 282, my transla- derstand that it is not only a question of who owns tion from Finnish). what, but about living, dwelling in a place. People Petja Aarnipuu, Helsinki Ethnologia Scandinavica A JOURNAL FOR NORDIC ETHNOLOGY ISSN 0348-9698 Volume 40

THE ROYAL GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ACADEMY FOR SWEDISH FOLK CULTURE

Cover illustration: Mounted Kirgiz man. Zoologisk Haves Arkiv, Copenhagen.

Ethnologia Scandinavica is printed with the support of the Nordic Publications Committee for Humanist Periodicals and the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture. The journal publishes peer reviewed papers in English and German based on all branches of material and social culture, and in reviews, biographical notes and reports reflects ethnological contributions and activities in the Scandinavian countries. One volume of Ethnologia Scandinavica comprises 200 pages, published in one issue yearly. Subscription price for volume 2010 is SEK 291:-. Postage is included. Orders should be sent to Swedish Science Press, Uppsala, www.ssp.nu Ethnologia Scandinavica 2010 This year’s Ethnologia Scandinavica refl ects a renewed interest in materiality among ethnologists, no longer primarily an interest in artefacts as such but in processes of materialization, concerning both things and living bodies. Several articles also consider the signifi cance of place. Most things that happen literally take place and thus materialize themselves somewhere. The research front in Scandinavian ethnology today has adopted gender-specifi c analyses and is often phenomenologically inspired.

Ethnologia Scandinavica

Printed in Sweden Textgruppen i Uppsala AB 2010 ISSN 0348-9698 A JOURNAL FOR NORDIC ETHNOLOGY 2010