MINNESOTA RIVER MATRIX: “non-discursive” alignments of immigrant churchyards on center lines in a New Norwegian Landscape, ca 1870-1900 DRAFT March 2017 Dennis Doxtater
[email protected] 51,360 words excluding References Cited 1 INTRODUCTION NORWAY • Evidence of abstract conceptions of “cosmos” in prehistoric Norway • The imposition of churches on the Scandinavian landscape • Cross symbolism and ritual practices in Norwegian farm life • Social structure of the farm landscape • The discourse of Lutheranism and Nationalism in 19th century Norway and America MINNESOTA RIVER • An eastern meridian: Palmyra – Fort Ridgely • A cardinal west from Palmyra? • East - West Norwegian Synod division 1872-76 • Formalization of the far West after 1878 • New congregations in the Yellow Medicine “Sogn” • The Hawk Creek – Rock Valle meridian in the eastern domain • Balancing the greater Hawk Creek Township center line: a second eastern meridian • Extension of the Hawk Creek-Rock Valle meridian south? • The Granite Falls meridian: a final center of centers? • Metrics of the Minnesota River Matrix INTERPRETING THE MINNESOTA RIVER MATRIX • “Discursive” and “non-discursive” processes in late nineteenth century Norway • Township center lines, meridians and cross points as New Norwegian Landscape • Integrative effects of the play between “discursive” and “non-discursive” EPILOGUE 2 Introduction “Years afterward, when the open-grazing days were over, and the red grass had been ploughed under and under until it had almost disappeared from the prairie; when all the fields were under fence, and the roads no longer ran about like wild things, but followed the surveyed section lines, Mr Shimerda’s grave was still there, with a sagging wire fence around it, and an unpainted wooden cross.