Introduction: an Interdisciplinary Perspective on Prehistoric Northern Europe
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Finland's Context and Configuration
CHAPTER 2 The Backdrop for Success: Finland’s Context and Configuration 1 Introduction Finland’s context plays a strong role in its outcomes in PISA. Following Phillips and Schweisfurth (2006) and Halls’ (1970) approaches to comparative educa- tion, this chapter explores Finland’s historical and social context in order to better understand the country’s educational achievements. An education sys- tem, as a “living thing,” according to Sadler (in Higginson, 1979, p. 49), merits investigation within its context. The Finns need and deserve more than a brief description to explain and clarify their unique qualities. The question, “Who are the Finns?” necessitates a long answer: But where does Finland belong? Is it a Baltic state, like Estonia? Is it part of Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, with which it is linked and with which it has such close ties? Is it really a part of Russia? Or is it something different from all these? A great part of Finnish history has been devoted to trying to solve this problem. (Bacon, 1970, p. 16) This chapter strives to clarify the Finnish context, and therefore how this even- tually influenced high PISA outcomes in all administrations of the survey. It also explains the Finnish education system after exploration of “things out- side the school system” (Sadler, in Higginson, 1979, p. 49). This approach will enlighten the context in which the education system lies. 2 History of Finland to Independence The Finnish people kept to themselves throughout their early history. “Due partly to the size of the country and their own small numbers, the Finns have striven throughout their history to live their own lives, avoid assimilation with their neighbours and remain aside from the quarrels of the rest of the world” (Juva, 1968, p. -
The Role of Skis and Skiing in the Settlement of Early Scandinavia
The Role of Skis and Skiing in the Settlement of Early Scandinavia JOHN WEINSTOCK The Northern Review #25/26 (Summer 2005): 172-196. Introduction Skiing as a modern sport spread from Norway in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to other countries where there was snow during some portion of the year. Many people had read Fridtjof Nansen’s account of his 1888-89 trek on skis over the inland ice of Greenland in his book Paa ski over Grønland, which appeared in Norwegian and other languages in 1890.1 The book helped make skiing a household word. Not so well known is the role of the Sámi (formerly Lapps) in the evolution of skiing. This arti- cle aims to sketch the ear ly history of skiing from its birth in the Stone Age to a period only some centuries ago. I suggest that Finno-Ugrian cultural complexes moved into Fennoscandia (the Scandinavian peninsula) from the east and south in the late Stone Age, bringing skis with them as one as- pect of their material culture. Germanic groups migrated northward into Scandinavia much later on. They too may have brought skis with them, but their skis were not nearly as technologically advanced as the Sámi skis. When Germanic groups came in contact with the Sámi, they profi ted from the latter group’s mastery of skis and skiing.2 Origins of Skiing The roots of skiing go back much further than a century or two. Written sources as early as 211 BC mention skis and skiing. There are rock carv- ings in northwest Russia and northern Norway depicting skiers that are upwards of four thousand years old. -
Anssi Halmesvirta the British Conception of the Finnish
Anssi Halmesvirta The British conception of the Finnish 'race', nation and culture, 1760-1918 Societas Historica Finlandiae Suomen Historiallinen Seura Finska Historiska Samfundet Studia Historica 34 Anssi Häme svida The British conception of the Finnish 'race', nation and culture, 1760 1918 SHS / Helsinki / 1990 Cover by Rauno Endén "The Bombardment of Sveaborg" (9-10 of August, 1855). A drawing by J. W. Carmichael, artist from the Illustrated London News ISSN 0081-6493 ISBN 951-8915-28-8 GUMMERUS KIRJAPAINO OY JYVÄSKYLÄ 1990 Contents PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION 8 1. THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IMAGE OF THE FINN 29 1.1. Some precedents 29 1.2. The naturalists' view 36 1.3. The historians' view 43 1.4. Travel accounts 53 2. ON THE NORTH-EASTERN FRONTIER OF CIVILIZATION: THE EVOLUTION OF THE FINNS 81 2.1. The science of race 81 2.2. The place of the Finn in British pre-evolutionary anthropology, 1820-1855 88 2.3. Philology, ethnology and politics: the evolution of Finnish 111 2.4. The political and cultural status of Finland, 1809-1856: British perceptions 130 2.5. Agitation, war and aftermath 150 3. ARYANS OR MONGOLS? — BRITISH THEORIES OF FINNISH ORIGINS 167 4. THE FINNS, THEIR KALEVALA AND THEIR CULTURE.. 191 5. COMPARATIVE POLITICS AND BRITISH PERCEPTIONS OF THE PROGRESS OF THE FINNS, 1860-1899 209 5 6. BRITISH RESPONSES TO THE FINNISH-RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL CONTENTION, 1899-1918 239 6.1. Immediate reactions 239 6.2. The Finnish question: variations on a Liberal theme 253 6.2.1. The constitutionalist argument 253 6.2.2. A compromise 266 6.2.3. -
Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568
This page intentionally left blank Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568 This is a major new survey of the barbarian migrations and their role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the creation of early medieval Europe, one of the key events in European history. Unlike previous studies it integrates historical and archaeological evidence and discusses Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and North Africa, demonstrating that the Roman Empire and its neighbours were inextricably linked. A narrative account of the turbulent fifth and early sixth centuries is followed by a description of society and politics during the migration period and an analysis of the mecha- nisms of settlement and the changes of identity. Guy Halsall reveals that the creation and maintenance of kingdoms and empires was impossible without the active involvement of people in the com- munities of Europe and North Africa. He concludes that, contrary to most opinions, the fall of the Roman Empire produced the barbarian migrations, not vice versa. guy halsall is Professor of History at the University of York. His recent publications include Settlement and Social Organization (Cambridge, 1995) and Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2002). Cambridge Medieval Textbooks This is a series of introductions to important topics in medieval history aimed primarily at advanced students and faculty, and is designed to complement the monograph series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. It includes both chronological and the- matic approaches and addresses both British and European topics. For a list of titles in the series, see end of book. -
Sarmatians and Their Influence on Germanic Peoples
Sarmatians and their influence on Germanic peoples Gunivortus Goos © Copyright Gunivortus Goos, April 2020 Prefatory FIRST OF ALL: This article is, except by Libre Office’s internals, NOT checked on spelling, grammar and sentence construction. Me, a Dutch, did not find someone this time to help me out with that. So, take it in its uncorrected version. When in 2012/2013 the author of this article started to research the early Franks from the time they were still pagans, he met the name 'Sarmatians' again. That was not a completely unknown term for him at the time, but it was only during this research project that he really got aware on how much these ethnic groups from the Asian steppes were in exchange with the Germanic tribes shortly before and in the first 6 centuries CE. In his 2017 book "At Elder Shrines", the Sarmatians are discussed several times, in some cases in more detail, and there's quite a lot speculated about them, because they had a lot of contact with the early Franks. Many of the notes at that time were not used for the book and were stored unused for several years; of some of them the author no longer even knows the sources; at that time he thought he could keep that in mind. Too much time has been passed since then. Instead of deleting all of these notes, it seemed to him more rational to use them in some way, and so he started researching again. An important role was played by the fact that for several decades the Sarmatians have been increasingly associated with Germanic tribes, whereby the influence of these steppe peoples on the Germanic tribes is often the central focus. -
Analyzing the Finnic Ethnonyms
KOSSUTH LAJOS TUDOMÁNYEGYETEM FOLIA URALICA DEBRECENIENSIA 6. FINNUGOR NYELVTUDOMÁNYI TANSZÉK DEBRECEN, 1999. Analyzing the Finnic ethnonyms RIHO GRÜNTHAL The Finnic languages are a typical group of closely related languages that are characterized by many common phenomena. Although these phenomena are abundant at all structural levels, beginning with vocabulary, phonology, morphology and the syntactic use of various grammatical elements, there is both a linguistic and historical basis for distinguishing between various Finnic dialects and languages. On the other hand, it is also typical of Finnic languages that in addition to the existence of some clear language borders, the shift from one language to another often takes place across dialectal iso- glosses. Although the mutual linguistic borders have traditionally been considered somewhat ambiguous, some of the structural differences are quite old. In the research into the Finnic languages the ethnonyms have often been regarded as a special subgroup of vocabulary which conserved a piece of information on the early division into ethnic groups and subgroups. Nevertheless, a more detailed analysis shows that this type of inductive conclusion can easily be misleading, and that some of the ethnonyms have begun to refer to peoples and their languages only later. How to define the Finnic ethnonym? As a definition will be seen below, the definition ”ethnonym” is not as clear-cut as the word itself (cf. Greek éthnos ’people’ + ónoma ’name’) at first sight appears. Actually, only a part of the Finnic ethnonyms are origi- nally ‘people names’, and many of them are structurally and etymologically in the first instance (macro) place names, e.g. -
Sámi Prehistories: the Politics of Archaeology and Identity In
OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY 47 Carl-Gösta Ojala Sámi Prehistories The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in Northernmost Europe INSTITUTIONEN FÖR ARKEOLOGI OCH ANTIK HISTORIA UPPSALA UNIVERSITET 2009 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Geijersalen, Centre for the Humanities, English Park Campus, Uppsala, Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 10:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Abstract Ojala, C-G. 2009. Sámi Prehistories. The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in Northernmost Europe. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. Occasional papers in archaeology 47. 353 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2096-2. Throughout the history of archaeology, the Sámi (the indigenous people in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Federation) have been conceptualized as the “Others” in relation to the national identity and (pre)history of the modern states. It is only in the last decades that a field of Sámi archaeology that studies Sámi (pre)history in its own right has emerged, parallel with an ethnic and cultural revival among Sámi groups. This dissertation investigates the notions of Sámi prehistory and archaeology, partly from a research historical perspective and partly from a more contemporary political perspective. It explores how the Sámi and ideas about the Sámi past have been represented in archaeological narratives from the early 19th century until today, as well as the development of an academic field of Sámi archaeology. The study consists of four main parts: 1) A critical examination of the conceptualization of ethnicity, nationalism and indigeneity in archaeological research. -
The Well Spring of the Goths
The Well Spring of the Goths The Well Spring of the Goths About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent Ingemar Nordgren iUniverse, Inc. New York Lincoln Shanghai The Well Spring of the Goths About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Ingemar Nordgren No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. iUniverse, Inc. For information address: iUniverse, Inc. 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com Scriptures from Västergötland’s museum nr 30, ISSN 0349-4829 Historieforum Västra Götaland, Series A, Academic dissertations No 1, ISSN 1404-8841 ISBN: 0-595-78450-X Printed in the United States of America I dedicate this work to my wife Margareta With thanks for support and understanding during many long years. Democracy “Laws”, writes S:t Isidorus of Sevilla who was busy in the 7th century in the realm of the Goths, “are valid first when they are confirmed by the people” Here we now are sitting after thirteenhundred years, we, the cousins of the civilised Goths, and can not recall that the thief-and misdeed-balc, the shop-closing law, the bank law, the wood-care law, Kepler’s laws and Gresham’s law and Parkinson’s law have ever been confirmed by us Alf Henriksson in Snickarglädje, 1974. CONTENTS Prologue ....................................................................................................1 -
This Area Was, As We Have Seen, Ancient Celtiberian Land Tardily and Very Superficially Romanized
(555) This area was, as we have seen, ancient Celtiberian land tardily and very superficially Romanized. Could anything be more reasonable than to suppose that the Cantabrians and Celtiberians preserved a great part of their epic tradition, which later came to form part of the basis of the Castilian epic? Is the Cantabrian-Celtiberian combination in the least Romanized parts of the Penninsula the reason why only Old Castile inherited and continued the epic tradition of the Goths? As we shall see later, Ramon Menendez Pidal seems to have sensed this, though he was little informed concerning Celtic studies. Referring to the Christianization of the Penninsula, Adolfo Salazar says: "... the pagan customs fought a delaying action, retreating to inaccessible corners in some cases; in others to a curious phenomenon of persistance which is today collected as "folklore" and which, in its poetic and musical aspects had tenacious guardians among the bards and jongleurs." (144) Speaking of the Northwest of the Penninsula, including Old Castile, said customs would be Celtic, as Salazar seems to suggest by his use of the Celtic word "bard". The Celtic musical heritage of the Northwest of the Penninsula is patent to everyone, to all who have heard Irish, Scottish and Breton bagpipes and also Gallego and Asturian bagpipes. A song of the Scottish Highlands, Bluebells of Scotland (the words appear to be of the period of the Jacobite Wars, of the end of the 17th and the 18th Century, although, as we shall see, the music may be older) has a melodic (556) line identical to that of a Gallego bagpipe tune, Alborada de Veiga. -
A Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians Or Goths
4 *• V ( ; I f r > • rf t. 1 '1 I I J \ . t :v<f < ,( ( ‘J) i V • 1 V' J,' •' ‘ .<^ 'VJ) ' V . •-- , r. j * ' '- ••1 t V :W . , ‘'i*' '1 < '-: Vi '“' f f ‘ .1 ' f> \ i; 'I.' ,5' m ‘ >.• [V ,; I t. rJill aland] (Friw I nf]® pISKrtUna], OjOrcAil*** i llrbudra^^-4^ 1 IWNI fa [OCEAN ? according'' to Ancient T u y (n J/anuhgeihu .^uinomS' ^^Sarm/t/a ^SMASS. r A spania' V / Ma-r>. TliaACE: '^DESERT.i WCJJII,, / MAONA lONCX^LJ CA/tTltAtur Hvrcnnin RtRTHtEI>^R •*>* N I (G M I EnYTHR^V»r MARE Scu Rr'DRVM. State of jAURRA Nations ICiiRRaO kXRSUtf at the Chriniaii tera A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE SCYTHIANS OR GOTHS- BEING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF EUROPE. By JOHN PINKERTON. LONDON: PRINTED BY JOHN NICHOLS, FOR GEORGE NICOL, PALL-MALL. M DCC LXXXVII. ; [ ] PREFACE. eing occupied with a mod laborious refearch B into the hiftory of Scotland, preceding the year 1056, the author found it incontrovertibly fettled from Tacitus, Bed a, and the whole ancient accounts, that the Cakdonii or the ancient and dill chief inhabitants of*that country, came to it from German Scythia, or Scandinavia. This led him to enquire how the Scythians came to give their name even to the mod northern parts of Ger- many, from the earlieft days of Grecian literature, down to a very late period. He found that the firfl; Greek authors had certain knowlege that the Scythians had proceeded from Little, or Ancient, Scythia on the Euxine, even to the extremity of Germany, peopling the whole intervening country and that the Latin daffies had the fame knowlege. -
Shamanism and the Ancient Greek Mysteries
SHAMANISM AND THE ANCIENT GREEK MYSTERIES: THE WESTERN IMAGININGS OF THE “PRIMITIVE OTHER” A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Troy Markus Linebaugh December, 2017 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Troy Markus Linebaugh B.A., Saint Vincent College, 2011 M.A., Slippery Rock University, 2013 M.A., Kent State University, 2017 Approved by Richard Feinberg, Ph.D., Advisor Mary Ann Raghanti, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Anthropology James L. Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………………...iii LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………v PREFACE………………………………………………………………………………………vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………...viii CHAPTER I. Introduction: the Problem of Shamanism in Ethnology, Archaeology, and Historiography………………………………………………………………………...1 a. Primitivism and Shamanism………………………………………………………3 b. The Problem with Ethnographic Analogue and the Archaeology of Religion……9 c. Entheogens and Altered States of Consciousness in the Narrative……………....14 d. From the Problems of Paleo-Shamanism to its Application in Historiography….19 e. Shamanism as Practically Barbarian Religion………………………………...…23 II. Gods, Beasts, and the Polis: Redux………………………………………………….28 a. The Barbarian Other……………………………………………………………..29 b. “Eaters of Flesh, Drinkers of Milk:” Nomads in Relationship to the Polis……...35 c. Barbarians as Naturally Slaves in the Polis……………………………………...41 d. Stereotypes and Other Hellenic Misinterpretations of Pontic-Caspian Cultures…………………………………………………………………………..44 e. The Oikoumene: from the Polis to the Eschatiai………………………………...50 f. Concluding Remarks for Chapter 2…………………………………………...…64 III. Pontic Barbarian Religions and the Invention of the Mysteries……………………..66 a. Animism, Totemism, and Northern Eurasian Ontologies………………………..70 iii b. -
The Indigenous Identity of the South Saami
Håkon Hermanstrand Asbjørn Kolberg Trond Risto Nilssen Leiv Sem Editors The Indigenous Identity of the South Saami Historical and Political Perspectives on a Minority within a Minority The Indigenous Identity of the South Saami Photo: Asbjørn Kolberg Håkon Hermanstrand • Asbjørn Kolberg Trond Risto Nilssen • Leiv Sem Editors The Indigenous Identity of the South Saami Historical and Political Perspectives on a Minority within a Minority Editors Håkon Hermanstrand Trond Risto Nilssen The Faculty of Education and Arts Norwegian University of Science and Nord University Technology Levanger, Norway Trondheim, Norway Asbjørn Kolberg and The Faculty of Education and Arts Nord University Nord University Levanger, Norway Levanger, Norway Leiv Sem The Faculty of Education and Arts Nord University Levanger, Norway ISBN 978-3-030-05028-3 ISBN 978-3-030-05029-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05029-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962762 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adap- tation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.