DOCSLIB.ORG

Swedish Space in Upper Midwestern Churches

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Swedish Space in Upper Midwestern Churches Swedish Space in Upper Midwestern Churches B. Marcus Cederström University of Wisconsin-Madison Abstract: This paper builds upon the intersection of ethnic identity and Swedish- $PHULFDQ VFKRODUVKLS SURGXFHG E\ *UDGpQ .O\PDV] 6FKQHOO HW DO 7KURXJK DQ DQDO\VLVRIWKHULWXDOL]HGFXOWXUHRIWKHFRPPXQLW\DQGWKHFKXUFKDVZHOODVWKURXJK an analysis of reported cultural practices and forms of folklore, this paper demon- strates that the church in the Swedish-American community of the Upper Midwest acts as a space in which Swedish ethnicity, identity, even heritage and history are created. Keywords 6ZHGLVK (PLJUDWLRQ³6ZHGLVK ,PPLJUDWLRQ³6ZHGLVK $PHULFD³6ZHG- ish-American Church—Swedish-American Folklore—Swedish-American Heritage— 6ZHGLVK$PHULFDQ,GHQWLW\³6ZHGLVK$PHULFDQ7UDGLWLRQV Traveling through the Upper Midwest, it is hard to ignore the many place names that inscribe Nordic heritage in signs, maps, and minds: Lindstrom and Finland in Minnesota; Norway and Toivola in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Stockholm and Denmark in Wisconsin. In each locale, Nordic heritage is further manifested as active community members make con- scious choices to sustain such expressive forms and practices as family names, holiday traditions, and the creation and display of material culture. What emerges is neither Danish nor Finnish nor Norwegian nor Swedish nor thoroughly American but must instead be viewed as uniquely Nordic 30 American Studies in Scandinavia, 44:1 American. Amanda Kolpin, writing about Lindstrom, Minnesota, suggests that “[c]ultural events and sites are often the locations where memory work takes place, which in turn serves to affirm the dominating themes of a shared identity apparent in a place’s narrative” (2011, 283). Just as Kolpin iden- tifies the connection between these Nordic-American cultural events and a sense of shared identity, the church in Upper Midwestern communities has served as both a tangible and intangible space of Swedish identity for many Americans of Nordic descent. Indeed for many, the church has been the fundamental institution through which they have formed and performed an ethnic identity which at once distinguishes them from their non-Nordic Upper Midwestern neighbors and connects them with their immigrant and Old Country ancestors. Swedish immigration and settlement in the Upper Midwest was ac- companied by a proliferation of churches which, through their buildings and grounds, constitute distinct spaces that also extend beyond their physical boundaries, imaginatively encompassing parishes and com- munities. Despite the subsequent decline and consolidation of Swedish- American immigrant churches in the 1900s, many continue to manifest their Swedish-American character not only through connections with both Scandinavian Lutheranism and the various theological denomina- tions but also through recurring place-making cultural practices which identify the church as a space of Swedishness. Swedish Americans con- gregate in churches not only to strengthen and preserve a sense of iden- tity with Sweden, but also to strengthen and preserve relationships with other Swedish Americans. When decisions are made to publicly display certain ethnic identity markers like folk costumes or foods, Swedish Americans are inferring the importance of those markers to the community as a whole (Gradén 2003, 12). Many of these displays of Swedishness in the Upper Midwest take place within the context of church life, and the organizations themselves then become creators and preservers of Swedish identity. Robert Klymasz claims that the process of examination, reexamination, discard, and revival is a process that helps to “perpetuate the community’s sense of ethnic loy- alty and identity” (1973, 138), while Steven Schnell points out that “[a]ll traditions are inventions, selective reworkings of the past. They are attempts to lend current practices the imprimatur of historical precedent and to pro- vide continuity with a past, whether real or invented” (2003, 8). Language and ethnic festivals allow Swedish Americans to claim and preserve an eth- SWEDISH SPACE IN UPPER MIDWESTERN CHURCHES 31 nic identity in the United States, but also to claim and preserve ties to an ethnic identity in Sweden. The inclusion of both American and Swedish aspects of ethnic identity leads to an ever-changing idea of Swedishness (Gradén 2003, 20). This process of change occurred in early Swedish immigrant churches in the Midwest, and also in the Rocky Mountain region where the church played an important role in establishing communities that displayed ties to their Swedish past (Attebery 1995, 124). Today, the process continues in rural churches in the Upper Midwest through certain displays which explain what it means to be Swedish. In this paper, I will examine Swedish-American cultural places cre- ated and sustained by Swedish-American churches—Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, Minnesota; Chisago Lake Lutheran Church of Center City, Minnesota; and Bethlehem Covenant Church of Stephenson, Michi- gan—so as to demonstrate the importance of the church in rural areas of the Upper Midwest as a place of Swedish identity. In the course of my field work, two central elements in creating and maintaining this identity have emerged—language and festivals.1 Before examining the way in which the interrelated phenomena of language and festivals contribute to such pro- cesses, it is necessary to sketch Swedish-American immigration history as it bears upon the churches under study. Swedish Immigration and Swedish-American Churches Between 1851 and 1930, approximately 1.25 million Swedes immigrated to the United States with numbers peaking between 1880 and 1900 (Ljung- mark 1996, 10-11). The motives for leaving Sweden were as varied as the people themselves. In the 1800s, some left for economic reasons. A popu- lation boom resulting in a shortage of available land, coupled with crop failures, provided enough of a push for many Swedes to leave for the United States (Ljungmark 1996, 29-31). Several other reasons, such as required military service in Sweden, Swedish class structure, a lack of political free- dom, labor unrest, and even religious dissent, played a secondary (or even tertiary) role in emigration; one of the most notable of these secondary mo- 1 Please see my article “Folkloristic Koinés and the Emergence of Swedish-American Ethnicity” in ARV: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 68 (2012): 121-150 for further use of quotations and documents from my fieldwork in the Upper Midwest in an examination of Swedish-American ethnicity. 32 American Studies in Scandinavia, 44:1 tivations was the pietist movement within the Lutheran church (Ljungmark 1996, 29-31, 35-43). Due to this type of religious emigration, several Swedish-American de- nominations were formed in the United States. The largest was the Augustana Synod, which had a membership of 250,000 people across the United States at its peak in 1930 (Ljungmark 1996, 116-117). Today, the Augustana Synod is known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), and in 2010, it had over four million baptized members despite a negative trend in member- ship over the last decade (ELCA Membership from 1988-2010 2011). The second largest Swedish-American denomination in the United States was the Evangelical Covenant Church (Ljungmark 1996, 117). The Cov- enant Church traces its roots back to the Lutheran Church in Sweden and the pietist movement of the 1800s. Many of the first members of the Cov- enant Church had originally been a part of the Augustana Synod but left to form separate congregations. In 1885, the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America was established, and by 1930 the Covenant Church had 30,000 members (Ljungmark 1996, 117-118). Even today, this denomi- nation continues to play an important role in the Swedish-American com- munities of the Upper Midwest. Swedish-American Churches and Communities in the Upper Midwest Drawing on examples of three different churches from these two broad de- nominations, this paper will focus on the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, Minnesota, and the Chisago Lake Lutheran Church of Center City, Minnesota, as well as the Bethlehem Covenant Church of Stephenson, Michigan. Immanuel Lutheran and Chisago Lake Lutheran are both con- gregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and both have strong ties to the Swedish-American community in the Chisago County area. The Chisago County area is sometimes referred to as “Swedeland,” because of the Swedish immigrants who began arriving in the area in the 1850s, or “Mobergland,” because of the immigrant novels written by the Swede, Vilhelm Moberg, which were set in that area. This area is comprised of several towns heavily influenced by Swedish immigration and includes Chisago City and Lindstrom, as well as Almelund and Center City.2 2 For an extensive study of the area, in particular Lindstrom, Minnesota, see Kolpin 2011, pp. 4-10. SWEDISH SPACE IN UPPER MIDWESTERN CHURCHES 33 In Center City, Minnesota, the Chisago Lake Lutheran Church was founded on May 12, 1854, by the Reverend Erland Carlsson from Chi- cago with a congregation of approximately 100 members. In 1856, a frame church was built, which was eventually replaced by a brick church in 1882. In 1889, a new church was built after a fire destroyed the previous building, and this most recent construction still stands today (Chisago Lake Lutheran Church History n.d.). In nearby Almelund, the idea for the Immanuel Lu- theran Church began in the home of Carl Gustaf Schander, an immigrant from Furuby, Sweden, at a meeting on January 31, 1887, and by the sum- mer of that same year the church was open to the congregation (Immanuel Lutheran Church: 120 Years in 2007 n.d.). Over the years, 529 other Swed- ish-born immigrants became members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, most having immigrated to the Upper Midwest in the late 1800s (Bjorklund and Leaf 2001).3 These churches were physical spaces of Swedishness for Swedish immigrants to the Upper Midwest. Today, these churches are still physical spaces of Swedishness, although their role within the community has evolved.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PDF Scan to USB Stick
    Retaining Modern Nordic-American Identity amongst Diversity in the United States Today CHRIS SUSAG his article examines Nordic-American identity as it exists to day in the United States. Four groups will be the focus of this discussion: Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Finland-Swedish Americans. (Icelandic Americans also belong in the multi-ethnic group, but were not surveyed for this study.) Many of the factors contributing to what some scholars see to be an apparent decrease in Nordic-American group identity will be examined. This article will also examine those aspects of each group that are important to its members and continue to serve as important aspects of the group's culture. Some comparisons will be drawn and the future of Nordic- American group identities considered. The United States has historically struggled to bring its citizens together as Americans. The American "melting pot" was one attempt to homogenize many diverse groups into the larger, collective group as Americans. Over time it became obvious, however, that not all Americans shared similar practices or identities and were thus not easily homogenized into this model. While it could be said that the melting pot encouraged many to give up their ethnic identity in favor of some sort of vaguely defined American identity, over time it has been largely abandoned. In its place, the contemporary approach to differentness in the United States is to encourage "diversity." This typically stresses the acceptance of the differences between groups and encourages the celebration of racial, ethnic, and cultural differ- CHRIS SUSAG holds a Ph.D. from the University of Joensuu, Finland.
    [Show full text]
  • Food Rituals: an Entree Into Multiracial Family Culture
    FOOD RITUALS: AN ENTREE INTO MULTIRACIAL FAMILY CULTURE A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree A: Master of Arts (, In f=THS7 Ethnics Studies * U lo by Nicole Evelyn Leopardo San Francisco, California May 2016 Copyright by Nicole Evelyn Leopardo 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Food Rituals: An Entree into Multiracial Family Culture by Nicole Evelyn Leopardo, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Melissa Nelson, Ph.D. Professor of American Indian Studies FOOD RITUALS: AN ENTREE INTO MULTIRACIAL FAMILY CULTURE Nicole Evelyn Leopardo San Francisco, California 2016 The meanings of food rituals among ethnic groups have become scholarly areas to explore using Sociological and Anthropological approaches. However, still missing in this analysis is what these rituals mean to self-identified multiracial families. Using Ethnic Studies and Mixed Race Studies literature, this research project weaves together cultural understandings of food rituals and theoretical concepts in Mixed Race Studies literature. This research seeks to answer the following questions: What function do food rituals play in multiracial families? How do these rituals help to create a sense of common culture in a multiracial family? Using focus groups of three multiracial families in the San Francisco Bay Area, the researcher found that food rituals function as a tool of cultural continuity and adaptation, and serve to challenge established gender roles.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics Among Danish Americans in the Midwest, Ca. 1890-1914
    The Bridge Volume 31 Number 1 Article 6 2008 Politics Among Danish Americans in the Midwest, ca. 1890-1914 Jorn Brondal Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge Part of the European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Regional Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Brondal, Jorn (2008) "Politics Among Danish Americans in the Midwest, ca. 1890-1914," The Bridge: Vol. 31 : No. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol31/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Bridge by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Politics Among Danish Americans in the Midwest, ca. 1890-1914 by J0rn Brnndal During the last decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, ethnicity and religion played a vital role in shaping the political culture of the Midwest. Indeed, historians like Samuel P. Hays, Lee Benson, Richard Jensen (of part Danish origins), and Paul Kleppner argued that ethnoreligious factors to a higher degree than socioeconomic circumstances informed the party affiliation of ordinary voters.1 It is definitely true that some ethnoreligious groups like, say, the Irish Catholics and the German Lutherans boasted full­ fledged political subcultures complete with their own press, their own political leadership and to some extent, at least, their own ethnically defined issues. Somewhat similar patterns existed among the Norwegian Americans.2 They too got involved in grassroots­ level political activities, with their churches, temperance societies, and fraternal organizations playing an important role in modeling a political subculture.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Issue Vol. 2 No. 4
    Swedish American Genealogist Volume 2 | Number 4 Article 1 12-1-1982 Full Issue Vol. 2 No. 4 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation (1982) "Full Issue Vol. 2 No. 4," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 2 : No. 4 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol2/iss4/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Swedish American Genea o ist A journal devoted to Swedish American biography, genealogy and personal history CONTENTS The Emigrant Register of Karlstad 145 Swedish American Directories 150 Norwegian Sailor Last Survivor 160 Norwegian and Swedish Local Histories 161 An Early Rockford Swede 171 Swedish American By-names 173 Literature 177 Ancestor Tables 180 Genealogical Queries 183 Index of Personal Names 187 Index of Place Names 205 Index of Ships' Names 212 Vol. II December 1982 No. 4 I . Swedish Americanij Genealogist ~ Copyright © I 982 S1tiedish Amerh·an Geneal,,gtst P. 0 . Box 2186 Winte r Park. FL 32790 !I SSN 0275-9314 ) Editor and P ub lisher Nils Will ia m Olsson. Ph.D .. F.A.S.G. Contributing Editors Glen E. Brolardcr. Augustana Coll ege . Rock Island. IL: Sten Carls,on. Ph.D .. Uppsala Uni versit y. Uppsala . Sweden: Carl-Erik Johans,on. Brigham Young Univ ersity.J>rovo. UT: He nn e Sol Ib e .
    [Show full text]
  • Swedish Americans and Coffee
    AA Swedish Americans and Coffee Joy K. Lintelman “It always smells of coffee, it smells (for various political and economic reasons), coffee use so svensk [Swedish],” declared Ruth Peter- spread to the lower social classes and across the country’s son in a 1995 interview about her volunteer work in the rural regions. By about 1850, around the time that the Kaffestuga of Minneapolis’s American Swedish Institute decades-long stream of immigration from Sweden to the (ASI), where coffee, sweets, soup, and sandwiches were United States began, coffee was a familiar and coveted periodically available to visitors. She continued: “This is beverage in much of the Swedish countryside as well as my heritage. I get such a good feeling when I come here.” its towns and cities. Minnesotan Christopher Columbus Peterson is hardly alone in associating coffee with Swed- Andrews, the American minister to Sweden from 1869 ish heritage. The beverage appears in Swedish Ameri- through 1877, remarked on Swedes’ penchant for coffee: cans’ writings, activities, and attitudes from the early “Its use is excessive among a good many of the common years of settlement in the United States to the present class, especially among the women. It is most always well day. Though Americans of many cultural backgrounds and strongly made.” A subsequent American minister to and diverse native origins—including other Scandinavian Sweden, William Widgery Thomas, observed in his 1892 countries—have long consumed coffee on a regular basis, book, Sweden and the Swedes, “The Swedes are very fond it is Swedish America that has erected such cultural sym- of coffee; they are continually cooking it, and out in the bols as coffee-pot water towers and sponsored a coffee- country the peasants are not satisfied unless they are able based community festival.
    [Show full text]
  • Four Hundred Years of American Life and Culture: a List of Titles at the Library of Congress
    Four Hundred Years of American Life and Culture: A List of Titles at the Library of Congress Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................2 Colonial America ....................................................................3 Farm and Frontier ...................................................................14 Cowboys and Ranchers ..............................................................25 Gold Rush ........................................................................33 Washington, D.C. ...................................................................38 Drink ............................................................................52 Medicine .........................................................................58 Currency ..........................................................................66 Language .........................................................................71 Women ...........................................................................80 African Americans ..................................................................83 Asian Immigrants ...................................................................90 Hispanic Immigrants ................................................................94 Jewish Immigrants .................................................................102 German Immigrants ................................................................106 Scandinavian Immigrants ............................................................109
    [Show full text]
  • The Festival of American Folklife: Building on Tradition Richard Kurin
    The Festival of American Folklife: Building on Tradition Richard Kurin This summer marks the 25th annual Festival of Mary McGrory, then a reporter for The Evening American Folklife. Over the years more than Star, wrote, 16,000 musicians, dancers, craftspeople, storytell­ Thanks to S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the ers, cooks, workers, and other bearers of tradi­ Smithsonian Institution, thousands of tional culture from every region of the United people have been having a ball on the States and every part of the globe have come to Mall, watching dulcimer-makers, quilters, the National Mall in Washington to illustrate the potters and woodcarvers and listing to art, knowledge, skill and wisdom developed music. "My thought," said Ripley, "is that within their local communities. They have sung we have dulcimers in cases in the mu­ and woven, cooked and danced, spun and seum, but how many people have actually stitched a tapestry of human cultural diversity; heard one or seen one being made?" they have aptly demonstrated its priceless value. Their presence has changed the National Mall During the mid-1960s the Smithsonian Institu­ and the Smithsonian Institution. Their perform­ tion re-evaluated its approach to understanding ances and demonstrations have shown millions and interpreting American culture and its atten­ of people a larger world. And their success has dant institutional responsibilities. Secretary Ripley encouraged actions, policies and laws that pro­ reported his initiative to mount the first Festival mote human cultural rights. The Festival has been to the Board of Regents, the Smithsonian's gov­ a vehicle for this. And while it has changed in erning body, in February, 1967: various ways over the years, sometimes only to A program sponsored by the Smithsonian change back once again, the Festival's basic pur­ should reflect the Institution's founding pose has remained the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Transnational Finnish Mobilities: Proceedings of Finnforum XI
    Johanna Leinonen and Auvo Kostiainen (Eds.) Johanna Leinonen and Auvo Kostiainen This volume is based on a selection of papers presented at Johanna Leinonen and Auvo Kostiainen (Eds.) the conference FinnForum XI: Transnational Finnish Mobili- ties, held in Turku, Finland, in 2016. The twelve chapters dis- cuss two key issues of our time, mobility and transnational- ism, from the perspective of Finnish migration. The volume is divided into four sections. Part I, Mobile Pasts, Finland and Beyond, brings forth how Finland’s past – often imagined TRANSNATIONAL as more sedentary than today’s mobile world – was molded by various short and long-distance mobilities that occurred FINNISH MOBILITIES: both voluntarily and involuntarily. In Part II, Transnational Influences across the Atlantic, the focus is on sociocultural PROCEEDINGS OF transnationalism of Finnish migrants in the early 20th cen- tury United States. Taken together, Parts I and II show how FINNFORUM XI mobility and transnationalism are not unique features of our FINNISH MOBILITIES TRANSNATIONAL time, as scholars tend to portray them. Even before modern communication technologies and modes of transportation, migrants moved back and forth and nurtured transnational ties in various ways. Part III, Making of Contemporary Finn- ish America, examines how Finnishness is understood and maintained in North America today, focusing on the con- cepts of symbolic ethnicity and virtual villages. Part IV, Con- temporary Finnish Mobilities, centers on Finns’ present-day emigration patterns, repatriation experiences, and citizen- ship practices, illustrating how, globally speaking, Finns are privileged in their ability to be mobile and exercise transna- tionalism. Not only is the ability to move spread very uneven- ly, so is the capability to upkeep transnational connections, be they sociocultural, economic, political, or purely symbol- ic.
    [Show full text]
  • Swedish Americans in Oregon by Victoria Owenius the Swedes Were at One Time One of the Largest Immigrant Groups in Oregon
    Swedish Americans in Oregon By Victoria Owenius The Swedes were at one time one of the largest immigrant groups in Oregon. Between 1850 and 1940, only Canada and Germany had more immigrants to Oregon than the Swedes did. The majority of Swedes in Oregon settled west of the Cascade Mountains, most of them in urban areas, especially in Portland and the coastal cities of Astoria, Marshfield (Coos Bay), and North Bend. Portland once had the largest population of Swedes in Oregon, most of them in northwest Portland, the Albina district, and Irvington. In 1910, over five thousand Swedish-born people lived in the city. Swedes could be found in almost every profession, including construction, engineering, medicine, business, and law. There were Swedish-owned hotels and restaurants, Swedish grocery stores and bookstores, a pharmacy, shoe stores and a hat shop, and in 1910 a Scandinavian American bank. Local Swedish contractors and laborers helped build the Ross Island, St. John’s, and Burnside bridges over the Willamette River. Swedes established Emanuel Hospital in Portland (now Legacy Emanuel Hospital) and Linnea Hall, built in 1909-1910 as the center of the Linnea Society in Portland. The First Immanuel Lutheran church still holds services in the building the Swedes built in 1905-1906. Swedes also lived in smaller Oregon communities, where they fished, logged, and farmed. The Great Migration from Sweden An estimated 1.2 million Swedes immigrated to America, the majority of them between 1840 and 1914, years when the Swedish population of Oregon was at its highest. The number of poor in Sweden grew throughout the nineteenth century, and a mass immigration to the United States started after a famine struck between 1867 and 1869.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Scan to USB Stick
    HISTORY AT WORK: THE 1888 NEW SWEDEN JUBILEE DAG BLANCK During the summer of 1888, an advertisement appeared in several Swedish-language newspapers in Minnesota, inviting "all Swedes in and around Minneapolis" to a meeting on 21 July to plan the 250th anniversary of "the arrival of the Swedes in America."1 This appeal to commemorate the establishment of the colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River in 1638 was signed by 15 prominent Swedish immigrants in Minneapolis, including Minnesota's secretary of state, Colonel Hans Mattson, and minis• ters of the Swedish Lutheran, Mission Covenant, Baptist, and Methodist churches. The proposed celebration took place on September 14 that same year and one observer noted in 1899 that "never has 'Svenskarnas Dag' been celebrated in a more grandiose way in America."2 Much more than a great and memorable celebration was involved, however, for the New Sweden Jubilee of 1888 in Minneapolis raises some important questions. Most specifically, what was included on its program? Who participated in it? Above, all, what was its overall significance to the growing community of Swedish immigrants in the United States? Between 1860 and 1930, some 1.3 million Swedes immigrated to the United States. Thus a Swedish-American community was created, often referred to as "Swedish-America." As the number of immigrants kept growing, so did Swedish-America. Numerically it reached its peak in 1910, when some 665,000 Swedes were recorded in the U.S. Census.3 Since Swedish immigrants were found throughout the United States, Swedish-America was not so much a geographic entity, but rather, as Sture Lindmark has put it, "a collective description of the cultural and religious heritage which the Swedish immigrants brought with them and perpetuated in America."4 Swedish-America consisted of a great number of ethnic institu• tions which in many different ways helped the immigrants adjust to their new environment.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic Groups and Library of Congress Subject Headings
    Ethnic Groups and Library of Congress Subject Headings Jeffre INTRODUCTION tricks for success in doing African studies research3. One of the challenges of studying ethnic Several sections of the article touch on subject head- groups is the abundant and changing terminology as- ings related to African studies. sociated with these groups and their study. This arti- Sanford Berman authored at least two works cle explains the Library of Congress subject headings about Library of Congress subject headings for ethnic (LCSH) that relate to ethnic groups, ethnology, and groups. His contentious 1991 article Things are ethnic diversity and how they are used in libraries. A seldom what they seem: Finding multicultural materi- database that uses a controlled vocabulary, such as als in library catalogs4 describes what he viewed as LCSH, can be invaluable when doing research on LCSH shortcomings at that time that related to ethnic ethnic groups, because it can help searchers conduct groups and to other aspects of multiculturalism. searches that are precise and comprehensive. Interestingly, this article notes an inequity in the use Keyword searching is an ineffective way of of the term God in subject headings. When referring conducting ethnic studies research because so many to the Christian God, there was no qualification by individual ethnic groups are known by so many differ- religion after the term. but for other religions there ent names. Take the Mohawk lndians for example. was. For example the heading God-History of They are also known as the Canienga Indians, the doctrines is a heading for Christian works, and God Caughnawaga Indians, the Kaniakehaka Indians, (Judaism)-History of doctrines for works on Juda- the Mohaqu Indians, the Saint Regis Indians, and ism.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae 1 of 11 Personal Data Name Mark A. Torgerson
    Curriculum vitae Personal Data Name Mark A. Torgerson Home address Work address 41 West Green Meadows Blvd. Judson University Streamwood, Illinois 60107-1130 1151 North State Street Elgin, Illinois 60123-1404 Home telephone (630) 267-7715 Work telephone (847) 628-1068 Fax (847) 628-1134 E-mail [email protected] Education Background University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana August 1990-May 1996 Degree awarded: Ph.D., theology, 1996 Dissertation title: “Edward Anders Sövik and his Return to the ‘Non-church.’ ” Dissertation director: James F. White, Ph.D. Degree awarded: Master of Arts, theology, 1993 Major: History of Christian worship Minors: Liturgical theology and studio painting (production of art for worship) North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois August 1984-May 1988 Degree awarded: Master of Divinity Area of concentration: Biblical studies Special studies at the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies, Jerusalem, Israel, 1987 California State University, Fresno, Fresno, California January 1979-May 1982 Degree awarded: Bachelor of Science Major: Agricultural science, international agriculture option Minor: Health science Three-month internship in agricultural development project in Udon Thani, Thailand, 1981 Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona September 1978-December 1978 Agricultural science studies 1 of 11 Curriculum vitae Mark A. Torgerson Employment Experience Judson University, Elgin, Illinois Professor, with tenure August 2002-present Chair, Worship Arts department; administrative duties include curriculum
    [Show full text]