Contents

Papers 179 Automation and Late Modern Reason – Daniel Bodén, Systemmänniskan. En studie om männi- 3 Editorial. By Lars-Eric Jönsson skan, automationen och det senmoderna förnuftet. 7 Inscribing Possession. Køge Huskors and Other Rev. by Håkan Berglund Lake Tales of Demonic Possession across Genres and 180 Consumer Loyalty in Practice – Mads Dupont Cultural Fields in Denmark-Norway (1647−1716). Breddam, Loyalitet i praksis. En etnologisk kultur- By John Ødemark analyse af fænomenet den loyale forbruger. Rev. 26 Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? Some Con- by Fredrik Nilsson cerns about Engaging the Past in Present Fashion 181 A Swedish Mosque Presents Itself – David Gun- Practices in the Age of the Anthropocene. By narsson, Gäst i Sverige. Sanningsregimer, villko- Marie Riegels Melchior rade själv(re)presentationer och nationell till- 42 Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity hörighet vid moskévisningar i Stockholm. Rev. by among Professionals in Care of Older People. By Haci Akman Kristina Gustafsson 184 Cruising Sailors’ Online Travel Writing – Hanna 57 Synchronizing the Self with Science. How Individ- Jansson, Drömmen om äventyret. Långfärds- uals with Parkinson’s Disease Move Along with seglares reseberättelser på internet. Rev. by Eva- Clinical Trials. By Markus Idvall Marie Tveit 78 Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowl- 186 Doing Uniform in Denmark – Helle Leilund, Uni- edge. Tracking Change and Continuity by Analys- former på arbejde. Nutidige praksisser omkring ing Movement. By Miia-Leena Tiili ensartet arbejdstøj. Rev. by Karin Salomonsson 94 Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local 189 Funding European Research – Elisabeth Niklas- Perspective. An Ethnological Study of Highly- son, Funding Matters. Archaeology and the Politi- skilled Foreigners’ Work and Family Life in Søn- cal Economy of the Past in the EU. Rev. by Marie derborg, Denmark. By Siri Daa Funder Riegels Melchior 115 Respecting Swedish Muslims. Claims of Truth 191 Embodying America – Siv Ringdal, Kroppens Concerning National and Religious Belonging in transformasjoner blant unge Agder-kvinner i New Sweden. By David Gunnarsson York, 1945‒1965. Rev. by Tine Damsholt 137 Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century 194 Authentic Living through Native Faith – Jenni American Southwest. By Eva Reme Rinne, Searching for Authentic Living through Na- 154 Wild Animals in Human Assistance. Historical tive Faith. The Maausk movement in Estonia. Rev. Practices, Semiotic Grounds and Future Prospects. by Laura Stark By Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg 196 Expeditions to the Children’s Wear Islands and Museum Collections – Päivi Roivainen, Puettu lapsuus. Löytöretkiä lastenvaatteiden saarille. Rev. by Leena Paaskoski Biographical Notes 198 The Power of Death – Christina Sandberg, Med döden som protagonist. En diskursanalytisk studie 171 Sven B. Ek, 1931–2016. By Kerstin Gunnemark om dödens makt. Rev. by Birgitta Meurling and Annika Nordström 201 History of an Immigrant Neighbourhood in Den- 172 Ragnar Pedersen, 1941–2016. By Bjarne Rogan mark – Garbi Schmidt, Nørrebros indvandringshi- and Liv Emma Thorsen storie 1885–2010. Rev. by Markus Idvall 174 Beatriz Lindqvist, Professor at Södertörn Universi- 203 Changing a Lifestyle – Maja Schøler, “At være på ty. By Bo Nilsson livsstilsændringer er bare meget lettere”. Et antro- 175 Maria Zackariasson, Professor at Södertörn Uni- pologisk studie af en gruppe overvægtige mænds versity. By Ulrika Wolf-Knuts erfaringer med at ændre livsstil. Rev. by Fredrik Nilsson 205 Encounters with Sound Environments – Olle Sten- bäck, Den ofrivilliga lyssnaren. Rev. by Kristofer Reviews Hansson New Dissertations 176 A Photographic Breakthrough – Trond Erik Bjorli, Et fotografisk gjennombrudd. Fotografisk og Book Reviews nasjonal modernisering i fotografen Anders Beer 207 Disability Perspectives on Sound – Ljud tar plats. Wilses bildeproduksjon ca 1900–1910. Rev. by Funktionshinderperspektiv på ljudmiljöer. Åsa Gabi Louisedotter Alftberg, Elisabet Apelmo & Kristofer Hansson 177 Realities and Difficulties in Danish Agriculture – (eds.). Rev. by Aske Juul Lassen Rasmus Blædel, Vilkår, virkeligheder og vanske- 208 The Chief’s Totem Pole – Anders Björklund, ligheder i dansk landbrug – en etnologisk un- Hövdingens totempåle. Om konsten att utbyta dersøgelse. Rev. by Niels Jul Nielsen (based on the gåvor. Rev. by Carl Johan Gurt evaluation of the assessment committee, consisting 211 Fiction and Reality from Many Angles – Fiktion also of Egon Noe and Jostein Vik) och verklighet. Mångvetenskapliga möten. Anna

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Bohlin & Lena Gemzöe (eds.). Rev. by Ulrika 235 University as Medium – Universitetet som me- Wolf-Knuts dium. Matts Lindström & Adam Wickberg Måns- 213 The History of Night – Gunnar Broberg, Nattens son (eds.). Rev. by Gösta Arvastson historia. Nordiskt mörker och ljus under tusen år. 237 The Gender of Violence – Gabriella Nilsson & Rev. by Agneta Lilja Inger Lövkrona, Våldets kön. Kulturella före- 214 Norwegian Outdoor Life – Arne Lie Christensen, ställningar, funktioner och konsekvenser. Rev. by Ut i det fri. Livet på setra, hytta og landstedet. Rev. Solveig Bergman by Ole Rud Nielsen 239 Cultural Heritage – Crafting Cultural Heritage. 215 A Perfectly Ordinary Person? – Palle Ove Chris- Anneli Palmsköld, Johanna Rosenqvist & Gunnar tiansen, Den legende borgermand. En embeds- Almevik (eds.). Rev. by Hilary Stanworth mands oplevelser i billeder, fotos og ord 1865– 243 History of the Roma in Finland – De finska romer- 1948. Rev. by Marie Steinrud nas historia från svenska tiden till 2000-talet. Panu 217 A Cultural History of the Polar Bear – Michael Pulma (ed.). Rev. by Birgitta Svensson Engelhard, Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an 246 Islands and Islandness – Owe Ronström, Öar och Arctic Icon. Rev. by Ingvar Svanberg öighet. Introduktion till östudier. Rev. by Susanne 218 Sensitive Objects, Fleeting Atmospheres – Sensi- Österlund-Pötzsch tive Objects. Affect and Material Culture. Jonas 248 Broadsheets from the Margins of Society – Karin Frykman & Maja Povrzanović Frykman (eds.). Strand, Brott, tiggeri och brännvinets fördärv. Rev. by Sven-Erik Klinkmann Studier i socialt orienterade visor i skillingtryck. 222 Danish Local History under Debate – Kim Furdal, Rev. by Susanne Waldén Kampen om lokalhistorien. 1–2. Rev. by Anders 249 Sámi Perspectives – Visions of Sápmi. Anna Lydia Gustavsson Svalastog and Gunlög Fur (eds.). Rev. by Coppélie 223 Light and Lighting as Cultural History – Jan Gar- Cocq nert, Ut ur mörkret. Ljusets och belysningens kul- 251 Swedish Meal Culture Past and Present – Richard turhistoria. Rev. by Göran Sjögård Tellström, Hunger och törst. Svensk måltidshisto- 226 The Forbidden Joik – Ola Graff, Joikeforbudet i ria från överlevnad till statusmarkör. Rev. by Yrsa Kautokeino. Rev. by Gunnar Ternhag Lindqvist 227 Summer Life – Sommarliv. Minnen, drömmar och 252 Swedish Women’s Voices – Eva Helen Ulvros, materialitet. Kerstin Gunnemark (ed.). Rev. by Ca- Kvinnors röster. Livsöden från det moderna Sve- rina Ren riges framväxt. Rev. by Katarina Ek-Nilsson 229 The Beloved Museum – Charlotte Hyltén-Caval- 257 Eighteenth-Century Midwives – Kirsi Vainio-Kor- lius & Fredrik Svanberg, Älskade museum. Sven- honen, De frimodiga. Barnmorskor, barnafödande ska kulturhistoriska museer som kulturskapare och och kroppslighet på 1700-talet. Rev. by Inger samhällsbyggare. Rev. by Agneta Lilja Lövkrona 231 Sin and Grace – Bengt af Klintberg, Kvinnan som 259 Seawomen of Iceland – Margaret Willson, Sea- inte ville ha barn. Sagotypen ATU 755, “Sin and women of Iceland. Surviving on the Edge. Rev. by Grace”, i muntlig tradition och litterära verk. Rev. Mirja Arnshav by Ulrika Wolf-Knuts 261 À la Mode. Fashion between Art, Culture and Con- 232 Music on a Big Danish Farm – Jens Henrik Kou- sumption – À la mode. Mode mellan konst, kultur dal, Skæbnesymfoni og krokodillepolka. Musik- och kommers. Ida de Wit Sandström & Cecilia kulturen på en stor gård mellem 1880 og 1960. Fredriksson (eds.) Rev. by Arja Turunen Rev. by Gunnar Ternhag 263 Young People Finding Community – Maria 234 Journal of a Tour of Europe – Mikael Hisinger, Zackariasson, Gemenskapen. Deltagande, identitet Resedagbok från Europa 1783–1784. Jouni Kuure och religiositet bland unga i Equmenia. Rev. by & Märtha Norrback (eds.). Rev. by Henrik Briss- Ulrika Wolf-Knuts man Editorial By Lars-Eric Jönsson

This issue of Ethnologia Scandinavica ways in order to move tactically and navi- starts with going back in time. John gate strategically, emotionally and with Ødemark deals with a historical depiction responsibility in relation to science. of a series of demonic possessions in the This corporeal theme is in one sense re- seventeenth century. sumed by Miia-Leena Tiili, whose article It was triggered by a woman’s “truthful seeks and investigates cultural meanings account of a terrible temptation by the of corporeal patterns and movements. Tiili devil” in Køge, Denmark, and Ødemark elaborates the distinction between bodily investigates how this story has been un- and cultural knowledge and also how the derstood through history in different former overlap the latter and vice versa. frames – religion, science and fiction. Her case was collected from the Finnish Marie Riegels Melchior lets us stay in coast guard. Denmark and in history, but in quite a dif- Siri Daa Funder continues with an art- ferent theme and period. Riegels Melchior icle about the rationales for being trans- has likewise written cultural history, but national in a highly skilled professional in a future-oriented context. Her case is context. She investigates the conse- Danish fashion and its attempts to go quences of a labour market where trans- green, to become a more environmental nationality and migration is a condition friendly and socially responsible industry. for success in the global labour market, The following article by Kristina Gus- and the challenges such conditions gener- tafsson explores the meaning of culture in ate for four couples and newcomers to elderly care and the question of the impact Denmark. of culture on elderly people’s health. Gus- Daa Funder touches the problem of be- tafsson shows how culture, in its aesthetic longing, a concept further developed by sense, may be devalued to a means for David Gunnarsson in his article about na- health rather than being an end in itself, tional and religious belonging. His case is and how elderly people may be considered a set of guided tours of a mosque in Stock- only patients or care recipients rather than holm and the expression of respect during individuals who like culture in its own such tours, along with inequality and right. otherness. Markus Idvall continues with an inves- The 2017 issue rounds off with two tigation of cultural meaning and its effects articles returning to history. Eva Reme on being a patient. His example deals with takes her starting point in the Norwegian- Parkinson’s disease and the patients’ rela- born Frederick Monsen (1865–1929) who tions to their illness, to the development of migrated early to the US and made him- medial knowledge and hopes of curative self known as a photographer of the south- therapies. How do these patients relate to ern Californian deserts, a former “out-of- science, that is, to knowledge that is sub- the-way place” but in the twentieth centu- ject to development and not yet tried in ry a successively more attractive location clinical contexts? Idvall writes about syn- for intellectuals and artists. The desert be- chronizing the self with science and how came a place and contact zone for colonial individual patients utilize time in different encounters where people like Monsen un-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 4 Lars-Eric Jönsson, Editorial

derstood and portrayed “the Indian” con- a disciplinary tradition. Even though Nor- sidered as free, primitive, natural and, of dic ethnology was about to change in course, belonging to the past. those years, the discipline was still to a The final article is by Riin Magnus and high degree defined by these and other Ingvar Svanberg, who investigate how closely related empirical themes, as well wild animals have provided assistance to as its historical perspective. humans. Magnus and Svanberg give ex- As said, this was changing. Few of us amples and analyse different relations be- would today define ethnology from an tween wild animals and humans that are empirical point of view. Some would sometimes of mutual interest. Through point to the concept of culture, or every- observing, taming and or training, this his- day life and practices. Some would point tory give us examples of different human to a certain set of methods. But few would perspectives on and relations to animals. say that ethnology is understood and de- These two categories – humans and ani- fined by its empirical topics. I would not mals – that we tend to think with are either. self-evidently related to each other. However, my point is that our empirical Through history they have affected each choices are vital for the development of other in ways which have created both dis- our discipline. The topics we choose af- tance and closeness. fect both the individual scholar and the ethnological field as such. In this issue we This brief introduction to this year’s issue find three empirical fields that have at- of Ethnologia Scandinavica is, of course, tracted many ethnologists during the last not the result of thematic thinking on the few decades. I am thinking of migration, part of the editor or the editorial board. In- fashion and medicine/health. Ethnologists stead it gives the reader a set of articles have made significant contributions to that each, in its own right, gives valuable these fields. Let me focus on the latter as inputs to different fields of interest. an example. In health and medicine we But let us rest just here, for a while, and have explored patients’ experiences and consider the choices of investigations, the practices that from a medical point of choices of empirical subjects. What topics view seem to be out of reach. We have do we choose to study? How do we choose gained insights into processes of social our subjects for investigations and what marginalization, into how quiet traditions impact do these choices have for our dis- work in the highly discursive field of cipline? medicine and how the materiality of nurs- These questions are not intended to ing provides and restricts different ac- question our choices but to highlight an tions. And much more. interest in the consequences they entail. I would say that ethnologists have When Ethnologia Scandinavica was brought many insights and considerable new-born in the early 1970s there was a knowledge into the field of medicine and certain dominance of themes such as food, health. But how have all these studies af- peasant culture, fishery and museums. fected our own discipline? What consider- These themes were of course the results of ations, insights, scholarly experiences, Lars-Eric Jönsson, Editorial 5

methodological and theoretical develop- also Ethnologia Scandinavica. Soon ap- ments has it brought? proaching its fiftieth anniversary – 2021 – In my opinion, it would be of great im- this would be an appropriate and very wel- portance to develop such questions and come undertaking for the Nordic ethno- answers. I see many forums for such dis- logical community. cussions – conferences and seminars but 6 Lars-Eric Jönsson, Editorial Inscribing Possession Køge Huskors and Other Tales of Demonic Possession across Genres and Cultural Fields in Denmark-Norway (1647−1716) By John Ødemark

In 1647, the Norwegian theologian Johan He had searched in archives in Køge for Brunsmand published a book on the de- depositions, interviewed surviving wit- monic possession that took place in Køge nesses and, most important, compiled the at the beginning of the century. Bruns- narrative from manuscripts originally mand was born in Trondheim, and after written by Anna Hans Bartskjærs, the mis- studies in Sweden and Denmark he had tress of the haunted house, to document worked as the headmaster at Herlufsholm the earthly interventions of the devil and School, and from 1679 he was the vicar in the plights of the afflicted family. the Copenhagen home for the elderly. He KH became very popular, but it was was a prolific writer of both pious litera- also fiercely rebuked as dangerous super- ture in Danish and erudite works in Latin stition. The work was republished in sev- (Bæksted 1953: 32–46). In 1674, he added eral new versions where Brunsmand ex- to his literary output by publishing a vol- tended the text and the original narrations ume with the full title Et Forfærdeligt with an increasing amount of comments Huuskors Eller en Sandferdig Beretning on possession and its possibility. This om en Gruelig Fristelse aff Dieffvelen som editing history reflects the polemic over tvende Fromme oc Gudfryctige Æctefolk i the work. “An entire cosmology was at Kiøge for nogen rum tid siden haffver stake” in the debate about Køge Huskors, været plagede med [A terrible house writes H. Horstbøll (1999:500). The text- 1 cross or a truthful account of a terrible ual expansion of KH explicitly related the temptation by the devil which two pious work to this quarrel over cosmology, and and God-fearing spouses in Køge have in particular, the question of whether been plagued by for some time] (Bruns- spirits could act as corporeal agents in the mand 1953, n.p. hereinafter KH). human world. In this polemical context, Brunsmand’s “truthful account” was then, Brunsmand defended the truth of his about a series of demonic possessions own and Anna’s narrative. After 1700, which happened in the house of Hans however, KH would be published as Bartskjær in Køge between 1608 and popular literature and legend (sagn), not 1615. In 1612, Hans accused Johanne as the true and pious tale Brunsmand had Tommeses of having caused the demonic conceived it to be (Horstbøll 1999:500ff.). possessions by magical means, and the Brunsmand, it appears, had lost the cos- trials in the aftermath led to at least 15 mological debate, while the narrative death penalties (Bæksted 1953:24; Gilje about the events in Køge had changed its & Rasmussen 2002: 259). The events in cultural place in a manner that resembles the town of Køge played out at a time processes described by R. Porter: when legal persecution of witchcraft was at its peak in Denmark, and the Køge However scorned and spurned during the age of cases also left their mark on the witchcraft reason, the demonic and the magical did not so legislation that came into force in Den- much disappear from polite culture as change their face and place. Once disclaimed and tamed, they mark from 1617 (Kallestrup 2010; Levack became available for cultural repackaging, not- 2008:195). First published in 1674, KH ably in the domain of literature and the arts which refers back to these events. Brunsmand were themselves enjoying phenomenal growth himself regarded KH as a historical work. (Porter 1999:245).

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 8 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

In this article I will present a knowledge- phy with “prerogative instances” for in- and text-historical study of KH in the con- quiry and thus served as the “cutting text of wider debates about preternatural edge” in the intellectual debates that phenomena in Denmark-Norway and Eu- would eventually forge modern cosmolo- rope from the mid-1600s until the early gy and science with a field for “autono- 1700s. With KH as my point of departure mous” nature and natural explanations. I will thus move towards what historiogra- Conversely, I trace a genealogy of cul- phy has construed as the “breakthrough” tural inquiry in the debates on possession of Pietism and the Enlightenment. More- and the preternatural. On the one hand, over, I analyse KH in relation to two sali- this is in line with H. Geertz’s critique of ent intertexts which oppose KH, and put K. Thomas’s notion of a “decline of the possession script of KH into cosmo- magic”, which H. Geertz – pace Thomas – logical play. These cosmological quarrels rather saw as the “rise” of magic as a cat- turned around what I will call the scripts egory that marked cultural otherness for identifying, performing and diagnos- (Geertz 1975; Thomas 1978). To be sure, ing possession. A polemic intertext which we will find this development in the con- Brunsmand needed to counter was written text of Danish-Norwegian possession nar- by Balthasar Bekker. The famous Dutch ratives as well – in particular with regard witch-sceptic attacks Brunsmand, and the to Sami possession as described by the mental health of Anna, in De Betoverde missionary Isaac Olsen in Om lappenes Weereld [The enchanted world] (1691). vildsfarelser og overtro [On the errors and Another text which needed response was a superstition of the Sami] (1716). How- little book called Kort og sandfærdig Be- ever, magic is not only a category of retning om den vidtudraabte Besættelse otherness, but also a sign of identity in my udi Thisted [Brief and truthful narrative material. Shortly after Magnússon’s at- about the famous possession in Thisted] tack on KH, the lawyer and poet Tøger (1699). This was published by Árni Mag- Reenberg pokes fun at “the clucking hens nússon, an Icelandic antiquarian often re- in Kiøge” in his Ars Poetica (1701). But garded as a founding father of Old Norse surprisingly, he also identifies a certain history. Árni scolded Brunsmand for tak- cultural identity by associating the Old ing “fairy tales” (eventyr) as truth and Norse magic and the now ridiculed pos- misleading the populace, and, still worse, session tales with a Nordic poetic Geist. he actually regarded KH as the textual First I examine salient aspect of the in- model for, and hence the culprit behind, tellectual and cosmological stakes in the the possession in Thisted at the turn of the debate about such phenomena as Bruns- century. These polemical intertexts forced mand and my other authors were con- Brunsmand to defend his pious and true cerned with. Next I turn to KH itself and I account against what was then becoming analyse how it inscribes the possession the official epistemological, theological phenomenon textually, as well as how it and legal position. relates to other cultural aspects of posses- S. Clark has claimed that demonology sion. Finally, I examine the reframing and furnished early modern natural philoso- contestation of Brunsmand’s inscription John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 9

in the polemical intertexts, and the re- Elmer 2007:44, cf. Ødemark 2011 relating employment of possession tales in the Clark to Latour). In the context of the his- context of Nordic poetics and Sami mis- tory of knowledge, however, these issues sionary ethnography. should be connected to what Stuart Clark – borrowing a phrase from F. Bacon – The Intellectual Context of a Cosmo- calls “prerogative instances” in early logical Quarrel modern science (Clark 1997:251ff.). The The phenomena Magnússon, Bekker and debate on the reality of the possessions Brunsmand disagreed about – magic, pos- was a theme in official culture, and not session and the preternatural – belonged to marginalized as a scandalous sign of the the same ontological field. Magic or bitter resistance of superstition to “en- witchcraft was a possible cause of demon- lightenment” (ibid.; Ferber 2004:3). On ic possession, while possession as an em- the contrary, demons and witchcraft were bodied sign of supernatural presence was vital in the intellectual debates that would also related to the domain of the so-called eventually forge “modern” cosmology. preternatural: the part of nature that in ex- This was precisely because phenomena ceptional cases (abnormal bodies, comets like demons and spirits had not yet been etc.) could function as signs in nature ad- exorcised from natural philosophy – and dressed to man by “supernatural” agents because of the conflict about their onto- (Daston 1998). N. Gilje has referred to logical status contributed to creating the this by using the notion of a “semiotic cos- cosmological inventory recognized by mos”. With this he pinpoints not only that what B. Latour calls “the modern constitu- the world as God’s creation was a space tion”; i.e. the sharp distinction of nature filled with meaning (e.g. “the book of na- and culture, with the subsequent division ture”), but also that it was filled with of officially sanctioned knowledge into a super- and preternatural forces that on field for cultural interpretation and natural special occasions could communicate explanation – from which preternatural with humans by using irregular natural oc- signs were banished (Latour 1993). currences as signs (Gilje 2003). The debates about the preternatural also The modern distinction between (mean- formed a part of a wider concern with the ingless) nature and (meaningful) culture meaning of “superstition”. As the head- only arises when the preternatural zone – word for a broad category of “supernat- through which supernatural and hence ural” threats, superstitio was central in the also super-cultural beings can signify – is early modern lexicon (Clark 1997). In wiped out (cf. Daston 1998).2 Thus, ghosts present speech “superstition” mainly re- and demons are no longer legitimate nat- fers to beliefs and practices based upon ural science objects, but can be studied as faulty understandings of nature and caus- cultural fictions. We no longer expect to ality; i.e. beliefs not warranted by science learn anything new about the non-human (Martin 2004:10). Thus, the term desig- cosmos from such studies, “only” to attain nates the other of true knowledge and insight into man’s ability to create sym- (still) creates an asymmetrical relation- bols and culture (Clark 1997:251–280, cf. ship between various knowledge cultures 10 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

(Ødemark 2011). In the early modern pe- when demons come to assist the practi- riod, superstitio referred to a theologically tioner (who often naively believed that it defined “other”; idolatry and a “perver- was the spell that furnished the efficient sion” of religion (Baily 2008). Conse- cause). quently it did not reference statements “Superstition” was redefined and, we about, or practices relating to, forces and could say, “humanized” in the course of beings without empirical existence the 1600s and 1700s, and in particular in (ghosts, demons), but to beliefs and prac- relation to the debate concerning magic tices that had “lethal connotations” (Clark and the ontological status of spirits. In the 1997:474). In contrast to the modern or wording of Peter Burke: secular conception of “superstition”, then, Before 1650, the dominant meaning [of “supersti- the pre- and early modern category sub- tion”] seems to be “false religion” […]. The term sumed phenomena taken to constitute lit- is often used of magic and witchcraft in contexts eral threats – not the “mere” myths and suggesting that these rituals are efficacious but wicked. After 1650, […], the dominant meaning ontologically unfounded assertions of the […] came to be irrational fears and the rituals as- savage, uncivilized and unlettered mind, sociated with them, beliefs and practices which i.e. the objects of disciplines such as an- were foolish but harmless because they had no ef- thropology and folkloristics. This became fect at all (Burke 1994:241). particularly clear when superstitio re- We could roughly say that the concept ferred to witchcraft and sorcery. S. Clark moved from thematizing forces or effects has explained how the term thematized the which could not be accounted for with ref- “natural inefficacy” of the magical means erence to the regular workings of nature, used in witchcraft, and the practitioners’ and which therefore were often linked to “appeal to cause and effect relationships supernatural agents. Gradually, the term that were spurious in nature” (2002:120). begins to refer to misconceptions of na- It was actually “this inefficacy in magic ture. Belief in demons and magic ap- that made it demonic” (ibid.). The catego- peared as individual madness or a cultural rizations made by the seminal Danish delusion that characterized the individual theologian Niels Hemmingsen (1513− or collective “savage mind”. Thus, “su- 1600) illustrate this. Hemmingsen classi- perstition” becomes an issue for the hu- fied magic as superstition in his treatise man sciences (Cameron 2010). Or, in the Admonitio de superstitionibus magicis words of Roy Porter, “the demonic and the vitandis. Here he also maintained that the magical” did not disappear; rather it con- devil was always involved when “popular tinued to live on in new cultural locations magic” worked. Consequently magical and genres, and became increasingly practices concerning health and fertility in popular in literature and the arts. This shift popular culture were criminalized (Hem- of cultural location also implied that the mingsen 1575; cf. Gilje 2001, 2003). The demonic and the magical were “re- main reason for this was that diabolical in- packaged” as symbols of psychological or tervention was needed to make inefficient cultural conditions, as when “folk belief” practices and rituals into effective causes was reframed to be enjoyed aesthetically – the magic formula actually only works at arm’s length – for instance when KH John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 11

was recontextualized as a “legend” (Porter “fable” and reported “uncertain matters”, 1999:245). as Brunsmand himself laments in one of All the elements discussed here along a the new text sections added to the original diachronic axis come into play in the dis- version of the book (KH: 220). Was KH a cussions about KH and the possession true account of the presence of the master tales I am about to turn to. However, these of lies? Or was it itself based on lies, or at tales also demonstrate how the “signs” of best made up by a sick soul? possession and the preternatural were ac- KH appeared in many versions, also af- tivated differently in various cultural and ter the death of Brunsmand. In 1758 the narrative genres. story about the possessions in Køge was published under the title Mærkverdige Shifting Genres: Cosmological Quar- Trolddoms-historie [Strange story of rel as Textual History magic], and in 1819 it was included in “An entire cosmology was at stake” in the Danske folkesagn [Danish folk legends] debate about KH (cf. Horstbøll above). (Bæksted 1953:79 and 81; cf. Resløkken But what were the stakes? First and fore- 2013). More than a decade later Johan most the cosmological stakes were direct- Ludvik Heiberg wrote a vaudeville show – ly linked to Brunsmand’s title; more pre- performed one hundred and five times in cisely, to the author’s promise of a “truth- the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen between ful account of a terrible temptation by the 1831 and 1913 – on the topic that Bruns- devil”. Secondly, we have what we might mand had presented as a real cosmological call the ontological implications of that drama involving God and Satan (Dansk promise, namely, bodily possession by the forfatterleksikon [Danish encyclopaedia devil as a literal reality. It was precisely of authors]). Thus the narrative was de- this question of the devil’s physical inva- tached from the original context of piety sion of the possessed bodies that had cos- Brunsmand had written it into, and para- mological implications: “Is this hallucin- textually repackaged as fiction to be read atory or real. What is the real?” de Certeau for pleasure (Bæksted 1953; Horstbøll wonders while examining the possession 1999:500). in Loudon in France in the 1630s. He New editions also continued to appear adds, “[t]hat is precisely the question in Brunsmand’s lifetime. In the 1690s the asked during all these months [that the book was translated into German and possessions lasted]” (Certeau 1996:93). Latin, and these translations were also In the case of KH, the debate lasted not picked up by European intellectuals months, but years. Repeated doubt about (Bæksted 1953:75−85; Horstbøll 1999: the veracity of the account encouraged 500). In these publications Brunsmand new editions of what to begin with had continues to expand the text with new sec- been written to enhance popular piety. tions providing new comments on the This then moved the work into the centre original testimony by Anna, and new his- of contemporary theological and scientific torical examples of the reality of the phe- debate. As we have seen, opponents nomenon of possession. Doubts about the claimed that the topic of the book was a veracity of the account, and the increasing 12 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

erosion of the probability structure of the the founding myth). The conflict about the possession tale thus lead to an increase in cosmology of KH both illustrates and the text mass contained within the book’s complicates such a narrative. cover. With a slightly anachronistic twist we might say that Brunsmand’s purpose Inscribing Possession through Phil- with these textual additions was – precise- ology and History ly – to prevent the account from being KH includes several genres which all in moved into the genre of folkloric curiosa. various ways logically and narratively ar- The generic displacement from “true gue for the literal reality of the phenom- account” to “cultural fiction” may appear enon of possession. In part the book is a to be consistent with the narratives of historical reconstruction of the incidents secularization, modernization, and the in Køge, in part it is a historical interpreta- disenchantment of the world sketched tion, and in part a theological commen- above. And to be sure, these are also pro- tary. In the centre of all editions of the cesses where “traditional” ideas about book, however, is Anna’s “truthful ac- supernatural actors are increasingly folk- count of a terrible temptation by the lorized, debunked as fictions and thus on- devil”. The theological reflection and his- tologically drained of substantial reality: torical reconstruction thus circle around As we saw above, the “fall of magic” this account, which was originally intend- (Thomas) is also the “rise of magic” (H. ed to serve as an edifying example for the Geertz) as a cultural category of other- reader, but which had to be defended as ness, and an explanandum reserved for the having a literal reference as the attacks emerging human sciences. Through such upon its veracity increased. It is not least processes the “truthful accounts” and the narrative qualities of the account “faith” of past or present “others” are dis- which have guaranteed its survival from placed into the realm of cultural illusions cosmological transmutations and scien- or psychological delusions. Consider tific paradigm shifts – as fiction in new White’s narrative of secularization as a genres (legends, etc.), where the original cumulative transformation of faith into claim of “veracity” has been placed in pa- fiction: rentheses or dropped completely. Anna’s First nature, then God, and finally man himself narrative continues to be quite unsettling. have been subjected to the demythologizing scru- KH has been seen as an example of a tiny of science. The result has been that those con- learned Danish adaptation of European cepts which in an earlier time functioned as com- demonology in the tradition of the Danish ponents of sustaining myths […] have one by one theologian J. Brochmand (Johansen 1998: passed into the category of the fictitious (White 362). In KH the focal point is, however, 1978:252). Anna’s account, and it is her singular story The only firm ground here appears to be which is the basis for the theological and an anthropocentrically defined culture, demonological commentary. Anna has the construed by humans, and a myth-shatter- narrative voice throughout the whole sec- ing science which apparently evades the tion of the book titled Huus-Kaarset; this fictitious (since it is science that debunks is also her title in one of the original manu- John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 13

scripts. The focus in Anna’s story is not been, som et høns” [“two high slim legs the cause of the suffering, the witchcraft like a hen”] across the yard (KH: 110). her husband saw as the cause behind the Now the children in the house are also be- possession in 1612. The main theme is ac- ing harassed, and the subsequent night tually the effect of the magic (the posses- Anna and Hans’ eight-year-old daughter sion), and how the household members relates that a big man with wondrous experience and survive “bearing the clothes entered her room. After this she cross” with the spiritual and ritual means stopped eating (KH: 110). The stage is set at their disposal. As we shall see, this may and Satan can now invade the first human be linked to special features of learned body in the house. The victim is a Danish and reformed demonology. The twelve-year-old boy, who is first filled moral and religious implications of An- with anxiety, and who soon starts scream- na’s pious tale, however, are also summa- ing, while his bed is shaking with inex- rized in a concrete and educational lan- plicable force. The eyes of the boy are guage addressed to the “common man”: wide open and no one can close them, but Because the evil enemy deals with many ungodly his mouth is closed so hard that nobody things, as the cat with the mouse, which he has can open it (KH: 111). caught: he will play with them a little, and allow Such symptoms and singular events them to do much that is good and proper, so that were related to a wider cultural script. It he can better cheat and trick them and others [Thi was particularly subordinates, such as den onde fiende handler med mange ugudelige, som katten med musen, den som han haver fanget: children and women, who were featured han leger vel lidt med dem, og lader dem gøre in the possession cases, and who thus may adskilligt, som godt og skikkelig er, på det han have acquired a speaking position they desbedre dem selv og andre kan bedrage] (KH: normally would be excluded from – when 57). the devil spoke through just them (cf. The beginning of the narrative became Purkiss 1996:145 ff.). In contrast to witch- famous; it is in the same concrete register: craft, demonic possession was not a crime. The first sound giving the auditory pre- It was nevertheless a highly moral and re- monition of a diabolical presence is ex- ligious ambivalent phenomenon. A salient pressed by a seemingly quite prosaic case in point is Luther, who believed that simile, “like the clucking of a hen” – possession was “a punishment for, or an “clucks” that will become a commonplace instantiation of, sin” (Midelfort 2008: ridiculing superstition. One evening after 217). Moreover, witchcraft (as in Køge) the married couple have gone to bed, they was generally considered a possible cause hear sounds “som en høne der klukker of possession, and hence the possessed sine kyllinger sammen” [“like a hen person might also be seen as a victim of a clucking her chickens together”] (KH: diabolic invasion caused by witches. 109). Some days later the diabolical mani- Those possessed exhibited symptoms festation changes its sensory organ, from which were impossible to explain through the ear to the eye, and the reader is pre- available medical knowledge. The diag- sented to “a terrible skrubbetudse [toad]” nosis was normally only applied when which is seen walking on “tho høye smale natural explanations came up short in the 14 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

face of such symptoms as supernatural This last issue was particularly impor- strength, inexplicable spasms and twisted tant for Brunsmand. The historical recon- limbs that could not be put back in place, struction and the commentaries added in vomit of unknown objects, blasphemous later editions of KH primarily aim to speech with an uncommonly rough voice maintain the preternatural as a place (still a well-loved feature in horror where humans can seek a message with movies) – or speech in a language the pos- implications for salvation. Hence KH is sessed person was known to be unable to actually more radically devoted to a de- speak, such as Greek or Latin (Levack fence of the preternatural, and is not 2008b:118−119). The most spectacular “merely” concerned with the eschatologi- symptoms, such as speaking in foreign cal implications of demonic possession. languages, were absent in Køge. At stake for Brunsmand is the very possi- The most well-known European, par- bility for communication in a semiotic ticularly French, cases, such as the posses- cosmos, and for divine intervention in his- sion in Loudon, were dramatic acts which tory, even after the time of the apostles (cf. attracted a large number of spectators, and Resløkken 2013). Who would be the dis- which replayed the battle between God patcher of such signs? Was it God or the and Satan in public spaces and with the Devil making statements using “nature’s rite of exorcism as the culmination (Clark book” as a vehicle for signs? And had 1997:389−434; Certeau 1996; Ferber such communication ceased at the time of 2004). Compared to these, KH was a slow the gospels? Actually, Brunsmand con- chamber theatre lasting several years, siders KH to be “certain” evidence for mostly within the walls of the merchant’s such communication: house. Additionally, some also claim, in conflict with the For Clark, Christian salvation history certainty of the House Cross, that in history there and eschatology constitute the symbol also exists a plenitude of supernatural events, or structure which gives meaning to the pos- also omens and miracles: and such, they assert, are session phenomenon in the seventeenth not to be believed because, as they think after the century. The large numbers of corporeal time of the apostles, no recognizable supernatural possessions were physical and historical incident happens or can have happened, nor omens, wonders and miracles [Ydermere, frem- manifestations of the great wrath of the føre og nogle dette, i mod Huus-Kaarsets Visshed, devil, the postremus furor Satanae, which at der udi Historien ogsaa findis atskillige over- according to Revelation would prevail naturlige Hændelser, eller og Jertegn og Mirakler: during the end of days (Clark 1997:409). og sligt mene de, staar icke til troendis, fordi der As noted, the debate about possession was efter Apostlernis Tider, ingen kiendelig over- also linked to the question of preternatural naturlig eller Jertegns, Vunders og Miraklers phenomena: In certain abnormal cases Hændelser, saasom de formene, enten skeer eller kan være skeed] (KH: 232). natural objects might become charged with semiotic value, functioning as signs Brunsmand applies the philologist’s and addressing humans from supernatural the historian’s tool kit to argue that the agents about historical matters concerning time of miracles is not yet past, but con- salvation. tinues into the present. In the introduction, John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 15

he states that he wishes to go “ad fontes”. chronologically closer to the events than He thus found the main source in a manu- the variant Brunsmand chooses for his in- script from Anna Hans Bartskjærs, for cipit. The start of the “very old copy” is here “she herself [speaks]” [“[taler] hun still disregarded as the opening of the selv”] (KH: 107). This source is further “truthful account”. The theologian prefers scrutinized with reference to the female a text which opens with a report of sensory author’s ethos, the text’s logos, and its – perception, and which directly sets the purportedly poor – stylistic qualities: narrative in motion: “The first we sensed as they are written by a female person, one should of the evil in our house […] [“Det første vi therefore be satisfied that the case is truthfully de- fornumme det onde i vort hus […]’]” (KH: scribed, and not look for meticulous order or 109, my emphasis). decorous words or speech: in particular because In the older copy, however, Anna starts the best cloak of truth is simplicity [efftersom de with a meta-textual reflection on her own ere aff en quindes person skreffne, mand faar der med lade sig nøye, at sagen er sannferdig beskref- role as an author, and what it takes “[t]o fen, oc ikke see enten effter zirlig orden eller høye write about our evil plight” [“[a]t Skriffve ord oc tale: i synderlighed efterdi oc sandhedes om voris huskaars”], as well as the theo- beste klædning er enfoldighed] (KH: 106−107). logical importance of her account (ibid.). Thus the author’s “female simplicity” is Anna emphasizes that Satan can only act transformed into a stylistic asset and an with permission from God: epistemological guarantee of the “veraci- God [is] the most powerful [who] has allowed Sa- ty” of the narrative. With this association tan and evil persons to tempt and induce us […] of simplicity and veracity in place, Bruns- day and night for seven years and more [“Gud den mand can claim that his title keeps its Allermectigste [som] har tilstedt Satan oc onde mennisker, at friste oc anfecte os […] dag og natt promise of being history and vera narratio i siu aar oc lengre”] (ibid.). (true narration) in contrast to the fable and fairy tale critics had claimed that it was This theological comment from the (cf. Pomata & Sirasi 2005:4). Obviously, “simple” narrator actually goes straight to this is also a promise Brunsmand had the heart of learned demonology, for Anna signed off on with his own authorial name. here assumes a cosmological balance of With this historical and philological power where God permits Satan and his commentary, however, Brunsmand in- satellites “to tempt and induce us” [“at scribes a narrative voice which may be friste oc anfecte os”.]. Thus, the original placed more clearly in a “low” cultural source of Anna’s tribulations is, in the and literary register than we find in the final instance, “God almighty” [Gud den “source itself”. Brunsmand asserts that he Allermectigste] (ibid.). has had access to a “very old copy [heelt On the one hand, this is an idea which is gammelt Exemplar]” of the manuscript shared regardless of confession in Euro- which “appeared to have been written pean demonology, where the phrase stat- more than thirty or forty years ago” ing that Satan cannot carry out evil deeds [siuntes at være skrefen for mer end if God does not “allow” it is frequently re- tredeffe eller fyrretife aar siden] (KH: peated (Broedel 2003). This restriction 109a). This is, then, a source which is maintains the dogma of an omnipotent 16 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

God, and it establishes a border against a on other expectations about which forces Manichean cosmology with equally were at work in the cosmos. Nils Gilje, for strong good and evil powers – a Mani- example, asserts the following about the cheanism which may have reached its inclination of past actors to look for mes- Christian nadir in early modern demonol- sages from God in natural signs: ogy (Clark 1997). On the other hand, the Similar to us, they had certain expectations about theological reflections of the “simple” what it was possible to observe. They therefore in- narrator may also put us on the track of a terpreted their experiences based on a “scheme” – peculiarity of thinking about the diaboli- particular concepts or reference frameworks – cal in Lutheran Denmark-Norway. This which were virtually universally shared by the concerns the ritual means which may le- learned and the lay in the 1500s. Thus they were gally be applied when one is subjected to not very different from 21st-century men: We in- terpret and experience in our way and construe our “temptations” and “scruples”, and how data based on the same principles as people in the and why the possession appears as a past. The decisive difference is that we operate “cross” that must be borne. In Denmark, with other interpretative keys or other categories Peder Palladius, Zealand’s first superin- […]. [I likhet med oss hadde de bestemte forvent- tendent, firmly maintained that prayer, ninger om hva det var mulig å observere. De for- spiritual care and placing one’s fate in tolket derfor sine erfaringer i lys av et “skjema” – God’s hands were the only acceptable re- bestemte begreper og referanserammer – som langt på vei ble delt av både leg og lærd på sponse to bewitching (Gilje 2001 and 1500-tallet. I så måte skilte de seg ikke så mye fra 2003:208). As in KH – which is also prin- mennesker i det 21. århundre: Vi tolker og erfarer cipally focused upon the effects of the på vår måte og konstruerer våre data etter samme original act of witchcraft that paved the prinsipper som fortidens mennesker. Den av- way for the devil – this displaces the focus gjørende forskjellen er at vi opererer med andre from witchcraft and diabolic agency, em- tolkningsnøkler eller andre kategorier […] (Gilje phasizing the affliction. Because the af- 2003:158−159). fliction in the last instance came from an Looking for and reading signs from God omnipotent God, suffering should be in the sky, or explaining suffering by re- borne just as Job did (also a victim of ferring to witchcraft is thus not necessarily tribulations of diabolic origin, permitted an expression of failure of rationality – by God). Resorting to counter-magic even if such ways differ from “our” would reinforce the vicious circle and re- models for interpretation, and a “modern” move attention from “the need for repent- cosmology (cf. Skinner 2002). ance or the benefits of ‘bearing the cross’” Stuart Clark in particular has argued (Clark 1998:60, 76). that the cultural difference of the past can- not be explained away by replacing past Contesting Possession Scripts actors’ concepts of reality with “our” con- Much recent research in cultural and intel- cepts and ontologies. In a very influential lectual history has pointed out that posses- critique of witchcraft research, he de- sion and witchcraft phenomena should be scribes how causal factors “we” accept as understood in reference to “cultural real explain away phenomena such as scripts” or interpretative schemes based possession and witchcraft, but thus also John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 17

obscure the hermeneutic horizons people (through M. Lambek [M. Lambek cited in the past lived in and with. This primar- ibid.:400, my emphasis]). ily refers to sociological and psychologi- KH narrated and commented upon such cal explanations: “Many accounts of the a symbol structure. Moreover, its detrac- subject [witchcraft] have tried to explain it tors surely sought – and mostly succeeded in terms of something more real – for ex- – to distinguish the behaviour of the pos- ample, some set of social, political, or psy- sessed from Brunsmand’s script – and to chic conditions”, and explaining the phe- align it with other scripts for suffering. In nomena by referring to a “language of Thisted they even seem to have persuaded pathology” (Clark 2001:5 my italics). Ex- criminalized victims of possession to turn amples are psychological explanations to other symbolic structures to explain and which postulate that possession really is experience their misfortune. hysteria, schizophrenia or other medical As initially mentioned, a set of polemic conditions. Past ideas and concepts of re- intertexts achieve particular retroactive ality are here understood as erroneous rep- power relating to Brunsmand’s postulate resentations of an underlying reality, and that KH is a “truthful account”. Let us first hence “condemned as unreal” with our examine the one connected to the Dutch “true” reality as the epistemological and Calvinist, Cartesian and witch-sceptic B. ontological yardstick (ibid., cf. Clark Bekker, and then return to the Danish de- 1997:391). tractors of KH. Both seem to push KH into In contrast to explanations which take the realm of fiction; the first mobilizing possession back to what it “really” is, an rhetorical tropology, the second some- underlying social or psychological nature, thing resembling the sociology of popular Clark postulates that possession is a cul- belief. tural phenomenon, and that the reality of the phenomenon is “constituted by the 1. Bekker. In De betoverde Weereld (The categories in terms of which men and enchanted world) which Bekker began to women conceive of it” (ibid.:399). More- publish in 1691, almost 20 years after the over, all sickness and suffering must be first edition of KH, he pays a visit to Køge. “performed” in recognizable forms to be Bekker has no confidence in Brunsmand’s diagnosed and calibrated with an invento- “simple” and “truthful” narrator. On the ry of symptoms and role expectations, and contrary, he turns her into a pathologically therefore always has a cultural aspect. The unreliable narrator: “die gute Frau keinen “script” which makes it possible to present guten Gebrauch ihrer Sinnen hatte” [The possession as a recognizable phenomenon good woman had no good use of her is also the interpretative framework which senses] (KH: 300, n. 227). The origin of makes it possible to read the behaviour as the “truthful account” which Brunsmand a specific ailment, an example of a par- had decided to narrate is thus the debilitat- ticular disease or disorder. It is therefore ed mind of a sick woman. Bekker con- “analytically false to distinguish ‘behav- cludes that the account lacks veracity and iour’ from the symbolic structures which “that the evidence after being examined endow it with meaning”, Clark maintains by reason does not do” [“davon der Be- 18 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

weiss, nach der Vernunft untersuchet, able to “act upon a Body” (Fix 1989: nichts tauget”] (ibid.). 540−541, 1993:577). This is because they Bekker’s criticism of “the enchanted are banished to a separate spiritual realm, world” has often been explained by refer- and “forbidden” corporal associations ring to his Cartesianism and Calvinism. with humans. Cartesian dualism has no place for the Perhaps it can be claimed that this posi- form of interaction between bodiless spir- tion points towards a modern secular cos- its and physical bodies which bodily pos- mology where supernatural actors are session requires. Bodiless spirits simply pure fiction, spirit is substantially differ- cannot cross the ontological barrier be- ent from matter, and the preternatural no tween spiritual and physical matters, can- longer is a place for communication, and, not “act upon a Body, nor upon other im- not least physical interaction, between hu- material Spirits” (Bekker quoted in Came- mans and supernatural beings is banished. ron 2010:264; cf. Fix 1989:540 and Fix However, certain aspects of this disen- 1993). Besides, in line with Calvinist doc- chantment and fictionalization may also trine, Bekker opposed the almost Mani- be considered a return to a medieval un- chean balance of power which permeated derstanding of the relationship between demonological thinking. Bekker empha- the imagination, sensible reality – and the sized God’s power over all things, indicat- supernatural. Consequently, the historical ing that the Bible in several places states accumulation of fiction at the expense of that Satan has been captured and is under “sustaining myths” is far from as straight- control, imprisoned in hell (Fix 1989: lined and unambiguous. One salient case 539). However, it is not Bekker’s business in point is the famous Canon episcopi, to deny Satan’s existence, but rather to which was a legal prescript3 throughout limit his power over the physical world. much of the Middle Ages. Here the Sab- Moreover, his contribution to the world’s bath (another scene for corporal interac- “disenchantment” takes place with tradi- tions between humans and diabolical be- tional theological and rhetorical schemes ings) was placed in the realm of the im- of interpretation; allegorical exegesis. agination: Names and terms from Hebrew and Greek Have you believed or participated in this infideli- that are used about evil spirits – like the ty, that some wicked women, turned back after Sa- Greek “diabolos” (liar) or the Hebrew tan, seduced by illusions and phantoms of demons “Satan” (opponent) – do not, for Bekker, [daemonum illusioni bus [sic] et phantasmatibus seductae], believe and affirm: that with Diana, a refer literally to spiritual actors, but rather goddess of the pagans, and an unnumbered multi- figuratively to individuals who resist tude of women, they ride on certain beasts and God’s will, in other words to purely hu- traverse many areas of the earth in the stillness of man actors. Hence diabolos as a physical the quiet night, obey her commands as if she were actor on earth, with the power to influence their mistress, and are called to her service? […] material bodies, is to be considered a rhe- For an unnumbered multitude, deceived by this false opinion, believe these things to be true, and torical figure (an evil working inside a hu- in believing this they turn aside from sound faith man being). Angels and demons also exist […] (Canon episcopi quoted in Kors & Peters in Bekker’s cosmology, but they are un- 2001:65, Latin quoted from Caro Baroja: 268, n. 7). John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 19

Canon episcopi, moreover, indicates that er of KH. He assembled the possessed notions of a nightly ride are not so danger- women in the local church, and used ous per se, but for the fact that weak souls forms of exorcism, which were not strictly are attracted to such beliefs, and that they in accordance with the official, Danish- therefore implied the danger of a relapse Norwegian church ritual. Ole Bjørn was into pagan ideas (ibid.). also eager to institute legal proceedings against the witches, who here, as in Køge, 2. Magnússon. As we know, the truthful were assumed to be the human intermedi- account of KH was also captured in the aries of the diabolical intervention. A debate on the possession by the devil in Royal Commission was appointed; and af- Thisted at the end of the seventeenth cen- ter it had given its ruling Ole Bjørn was tury. Particularly important was the inter- barred from his pastoral position, and vention of the Icelandic antiquary Árni even banished from Jutland for fraud in Magnússon. Kort og sandfærdig Be- 1697. The incriminated priest’s appeal to retning om den vidtudraabte Besættelse the Supreme Court the subsequent year udi Thisted [Brief and truthful account of did not succeed (Appel & Fink-Jensen the widely known possession by the devil 2009). Magnússon’s account of the case, in Thisted] (1699) was published anonym- then, was the official one; it represented a ously, and contained a summary of the new policy for dealing with religious ex- Thisted case. It was written on assignment cess and superstition, not an act of isolat- by M. Moth, who was a judge in the case. ed, individual “enlightenment heroism”. Magnússon’s “truthful account” has – al- Ole Bjørn had used KH as a script for ready in its title – a clear intertextual link understanding the extraordinary events he to Brunsmand’s “truthful account”. But was confronted with – or to create them according to Magnússon, the truth of the fraudulently through a kind of “mimicry”, matter is that it was the “fables” and “fairy as his opponents claimed. At least some of tales” (eventyr) disseminated in Bruns- the possessed women were clearly also fa- mand’s book that caused the incident. Not miliar with KH as a script for the dramatic the devil himself, then, but stories about performance of a demonic possession. We him masquerading as “true” were to find an example of this in the deposition of blame. In Magnússon’s counter-account Maren Hansdatters, one of the possessed the explanation for the possessions in who was later hospitalized. According to Thisted is thus not to be found in demon- Maren, Ole Bjørn had proclaimed from ology, but in something similar to a cul- the pulpit that “they would see that it tural interpretation focused upon the mi- would be worse in Thisted than with the metic relation between texts and actions. Kiøge house cross” [“[d]e schulle see, at This interpretation is actually not unre- det blef verre i Thisted end med Kiøge lated to the idea of a constitutive relation huus-kors”] (Bæksted 1953:69, n. 1). This between texts or symbolic structures – reference also demonstrates that Køge and scripts – and behaviour that I dealt with Brunsmand’s work was a cultural com- above. The vicar in Thisted, Ole Bjørn – monplace shared by the populace and also originally from Norway – was a read- elites. In more general term we could say 20 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

that the popularity of books such as KH ality effect” (Barthes) in the official cul- puts binary divisions between popular and ture. The imitation now appears as a copy learned perceptions of possession and of an illusion without real reference. witchcraft under pressure (cf. Kallestrup It is the textual model or symbolic 2010:192; Nenonen 2007). structure furnished by Brunsmand’s vera Magnússon concludes his text with an narratio – itself supposedly a transcrip- attack on “the so-called house cross in tion of a woman’s tale of encounters with Kiøge” [“det saa kaldede Huus Kaars udi the demonic – that is the real agent. More- Kiøge”], which Ole Bjørn, following over, the danger is located first and fore- Brunsmand, had invoked as “no uncertain most in the transmission of tales between history” [“utviflagtig Historie”]. The book humans, not in the traffic between human which cites and debunks the title of KH and supernatural bodies. concludes with a firm rejection of its truth claim: Possession as Cultural Identity and In conclusion it is here appropriate to report on the Otherness recently printed account of the so-called house With the hospitalization of Maren, the fic- cross in Kiøge. That, as Mag. Oluf [Ole Bjørn] in tionalization and cultural declassing of his writing to the Bishop (pag: 23), as well as later, KH (now published as legend, ghost story always stated that this was a story without uncer- or as a document of a past mentality) it is tainties, indeed even more when this case of pos- tempting to state that the Danish-Norweg- session in its nature and manner appears to be quite fictitious. Thus we see what damage and in- ian possession cases have gained their jury can be caused when one sends such uncertain place in psychopathology, or in culture as fairy tales to be printed, to advance the knowledge “the wild thoughts of the common man”. of the common man [Til Beslutning falder her at However, the reemployment of the cases melde om den ved Trykken udgangne Beretning and the referencing of possession in two om det saa kaldede Huus Kaars udi Kiøge. At som particular cultural genres, a Nordic Ars Mag. Oluf udi sin Skrivelse til Bispen (pag: 23) Poetica and Sami missionary linguistics saavel som siden stædse udi Sagen sig der paa, saa som en utviflagtig Historie, have beraabt, ja yder- and ethnography, disturb such a story of meere, som siunes, efter dens Aledning og Maade smooth progress. While Sami magic and dette ganske Besettelses Verk opdigtet. Saa sees possessions continue to be dealt with as der af hva Uordner og Skade det ofte kand for- real phenomena until late into the 1700s, aarsage, at mand slige uvisse Eventyr til Trykken, the reuse of Norse magic in literature and og gemeene Mands Kundskap befordrer] (Mag- history reemploys Køge and Thisted in a nússon 1891:111−112). discourse on the Geist of Nordic literature. Here, then, KH and the “fictitious work of In Ars Poetica (1701) the Danish poet possession” are placed – precisely – in the and lawyer Tøger Reenberg associates the realm of fiction. Thus we see that KH ap- possession cases in Køge and Thisted with pears both as a producer of incidents, serv- the magic mind-set from which Norse ing as a script or mimetic model for later poetry arose. The poet localizes what he possessions, and also that almost at the actually calls the Geist (spirit) of Nordic same moment that it is made real through poetry in the figure of Óðinn. In the Rúna- imitation in Thisted it loses its textual “re- tal and Ljóðatal sections of Hávamál, the John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 21

deity takes control over the power of runes Og Høne-Kluk i Kiøge.  and spells, and thus combines voice and Det vared’, til den store Gud writing in an original poetico-magical per- Sit Lys i Norden tendte, Da bleve Runer rydded’ ud, formance. Thus, a particular Nordic Geist Og uten Adskiel brændte. was constituted in this use of magic and Ved ubesindig Nidkierhed  runes, and Nordic poets should relate in- Fordømtes alle Skrifter; tertextually to this origin to preserve their Og vi forliisede derved own poetic identity, Reenberg maintained Forfædrenes Bedrifter] (Reenberg 1997:140 and 143−144). Dec- (Reenberg 1997:141, my italics). ades before the Romantic calibration of In making the association between past the idea of a Volksgeist, Reenberg thus poetic possessions and contemporary identifies the collective Geist of Nordic “fables” and “fairy tales” passing for “true literature – a corpus of literature connect- accounts”, Reenberg was indebted to ed to a geographically defined collective P. H. Resen’s edition of the Edda fables. spirit by linking it to magic (Reenberg However, he was also indebted to earlier 1997:145−146). It is precisely in this con- commentators such as Ole Worm. Worm text that he invokes the possessions in had linked a hermetic insight into the na- Køge and Thisted. Even if the “Geist” in ture of the cosmos to the runes (which he the Edda and Thisted/Køge belongs in the associated with the magical and ancient fictitious space of past of superstition, wisdoms assumed by hermetic and Neo- there is also cultural value in the pos- platonic authors to be contained in Egyp- sessed place they share. The spirits from tian hieroglyphs). Consequently, he also Køge and Thisted survive as a kind of viewed the Norse script as a potential car- textual and cultural heritage, for Norse rier of an ancient wisdom about the cos- magic mos (not a “mere” local insight formed by was only sorcery [kogleri], one particular Norse or Nordic culture) they used to play ghosts [spøge];  (Ødemark 2011). For Reenberg, however, just as in the witchcraft in the fictive worlds shared by ancient and Thisted, contemporary “possessed”, are tamed as and clucking hens in Kiøge.  fiction and “cultural heritage”. The Old It lasted until God almighty Norse magic can be – poetically – cali- lit his light up North, brated with the contemporary possession Then runes were cleansed away, cases, and assigned the same epistemic and left without goodbye. value, as literature. Through mindless zealotry  In Reenberg, a mark of otherness ap- all writings were  condemned; pears to be turned into a sign of identity: Thus we lost  Magic and witchcraft are cultural traits the accomplishments of that have been associated with the north in our forefathers European intellectual discourse for centu- [Var kun Koglerie, ries, an association often attributed to De havde med at spøge;  Olaus Magnus’ Historia de gentibus Ret som den Tisted Hexerie, septentrionalibus (1555). The Northern 22 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

periphery earned a central place in Euro- ment illustrates that the relation between pean symbolic geography, as is testified “us” and “them” in these discourses is ob- by the way authors like Cervantes and viously “still” not purely anthropological. Shakespeare, and a historian and demon- Implicated in a missionary endeavour, ologist such as Bodin, located magical they are obviously related to an elsewhere scenes and diabolical forces in this region. beyond human culture; “we” living “here” The geo-symbolic linkage between the in the North are dependent upon “true north and magic is, however, older. It is Christianity” to escape superstition. The present in Saxo, as well as in the mid- victory over superstition is consequently twelfth-century Historia Norwegie and not to be conceived as a mere human and the Vetus Chronica Sialandie (Mitchell cultural achievement. Moreover, the ritual 2011:106−107). And as Stephen Mitchell practice of the other, gand, represents has observed: “Magic, witchcraft, and sor- more than the “mere ritual” of a foreign cery as a means of identifying or charac- “culture” seen as an earthly and human or- terizing in such a context that which was ganization of forms of thought and action. understood to be foreign, distant, or Olsen’s text is part of this missionary ‘other’ appears to be a common theme in project: His manuscript contains a set of all of them” (ibid.:106). narratives on individual, demonic posses- In the ethnographic present of Finn- sion among the Sami, the “target culture” mark, however, the term “rune” and de- of the evangelical endeavour. These sto- monic possession continue to refer to lit- ries of possession are inserted in the text eral dangers, and to “otherness”. Isaac amid his more general reflections about Olsen composed a short work On the Sami idolatry as a collective, religious errors and superstition of the Sami [Om phenomenon of idolatry and superstition. lappenes vildsfarelser og overtro] in 1716. Thus we could say that the possession nar- Here we encounter both the cultural regis- ratives in this text are placed in-between ter that Reenberg deployed to poeticize the individual register (characterizing possession as a cultural fact of identity, KH) and the more collective registers in and the individual register Brunsmand Reenberg’s text, where a particular poetic used to construct a pious example of how and cultural Geist is associated with the to bear the cross. North. Olsen tells about Sami haunted by Olsen was a key provider of knowledge specific Sami “demons” (both super- to the officially sanctioned Sami mission natural idols and human noaidis). Hence, of Thomas von Westen. The Pietist Tho- it appears that the bodily possession by the mas von Westen described as superstition devil “survives” in the missionary text and the ideas of a noiadi (Sami “shaman”) the missionary context as a literal phe- who boasted of having killed eleven per- nomenon. sons using gand, but he also added that This appears to be the case not least of “all of us here up north” would have been all when Olsen examines stories about equally stuck in superstition without the Sami who have undergone an ethnic pass- aid of true Christianity (quoted in Amund- ing, but are – corporally – plagued by de- sen eds. 2005:253). Von Westen’s state- mons – even when living among, and John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 23

dressing as, Norwegians. While Bruns- this, I have shown that possession as a mand believed in real diabolical agency, sign changes value in relation to various and Árni Magnússon explained the genres, but also socio-cultural sites; it sur- “same” phenomenon with reference to vives as a literal threat among the Sami, popular gullibility, the explanation for while it serves as a source of poetic iden- possession in Olsen’s text appears to be tity from the Norse past in poetics. both cultural and biological: “[M]agic is With reference to Clark’s notion of the inherited among them, and they can in- mutual implication of behaviour and its herit magic, gand, and devilry after each (singular) explanatory symbolic structure, other in the family” (1716/1910:9). Thus, I will finally note that the quarrel over the the Norse text that Reenberg attempted to narrative in KH, and the tale’s ability to turn into a literary and symbolic heritage remain relatively intact as it crosses into is “reinvested” with an ancient function of shifting genres, appears to imply a poss- othering. ible division between symbolic structure, experience and explanation, as well as the Concluding Remarks possibility of re-describing at least aspects In this article I have presented a knowl- of the same behavioural data from differ- edge- and text-historical study of KH in ent epistemological vantage points, even the context of wider debates about preter- if the cosmological implications of the natural phenomena in Denmark-Norway data differ: “This is demonic possession!”; and Europe from the mid-1600s until the “no it’s not, it is deceit, it’s madness!”. early 1700s. With KH and the debate John Ødemark about it as my point of departure I have Associate Professor followed developments towards what in Institutt for kulturhistorie og orientalske språk traditional historiography is narrated as Postboks 1010 Blindern the breakthrough of Pietism (in Denmark- NO-0351 Oslo e-mail: [email protected] Norway) and the Enlightenment, and, not least towards the “cultural repacking of Notes magic and the demonic” that Porter spoke 1 The word huskaars, which here and in several about. I maintain that we cannot analyse instances below is translated literally as the transformations of superstition and “house cross”, is significantly more seman- possession (magic as danger/magic as tically charged than the English translation. It “mere” error and/or cultural symbol) as involves the notion of a domestic cross to bear, a plight or an affliction of a religious or clear breaks between distinct and bounded moral nature, and it is typically associated paradigms, nor as the cumulative victory with the feminine. I am grateful to an an- of “enlightenment”. Such framings have onymous reviewer for pointing out these diffi- culties of translation. been challenged by examining how the 2Cf. “Supernatural, preternatural, artificial, un- signs of possession and the preternatural natural – these were the forms of the non- were activated differently in particular natural that bounded and defined the natural texts as well as in various genres (poetics, for early modern Europeans. Moderns oppose different complements to the natural: nature pious literature, theological discourses, versus nurture, nature versus culture – this last and missionary ethnography). By doing a word that early moderns seldom applied to 24 John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession

anything except the cultivation of the land. Caro Baroja, Julio 1998: Witchcraft and Catholic Even anthropologists, professionally alert to Theology. In Ankarloo, B. & Henningsen, G. the plasticity of cognitive and moral catego- (eds.), Early Modern European Witchcraft. ries, habitually divide up the world into nature Centres and Peripheries, pp. 19−44. Oxford: and culture and set about exploring the sym- Oxford University Press. bolic and ecological relationships between the Certeau, Michel de 1996 : The Possession at Lou- two. Yet the very categories of nature and cul- don. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ture, conceived in yin-yang complementarity, Clark, Stuart 1997: Thinking with Demons. Ox- are of relatively recent provenance. The con- ford: Oxford University Press. trast between early modern and modern ver- Clark, Stuart 1998: Protestant Demonology. Sin, sions of the non-natural is striking. In the cur- Superstition, and Society, in Ankarloo, B. & rent metaphysical vernacular, the artificial has Henningsen, G. (eds.). Early Modern European been swallowed up by the natural, the super- Witchcraft. Centres and Peripheries, pp. natural has shrunk to a philosophical possi- 45−82. Oxford: Oxford University Press. bility, the unnatural rings archaic, and the pre- Clark, Stuart (ed.) 2001: Languages of Witchcraft. ternatural no longer exists at all” (Daston Narrative, Ideology and Meaning in Early 1998:154). Modern Culture. London: Macmillan Press. 3 From approximately the tenth century a part Dansk forfatterleksikon: http://danskforfatterlek- of Gratian’s Decretum. sikon.dk/1850t/tnr1478.htm: Accessed 1 May 2016. References Daston, Lorraine 1998: The Nature of Nature in Amundsen, Arne Bugge et al. eds. 2005: Norges Early Modern Europe. Configurations, 6.2. religionshistorie. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Elmer, Peter 2007: Science, Medicine and Witch- Appel, Charlotte & Fink-Jensen, Morten 2009: craft. In Barry, Jonathan & Owen Davies et al., Når det regner på præsten. En kulturhistorie Witchcraft Historiography, pp. 33−51. Basing- om sogneprester og sognefolk 1550−1750. stoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Højbjerg: Hovedland. Geertz, Hildred 1975: An Anthropology of Reli- Bæksted, Anders 1953: “Indledning”, in Bruns- gion and Magic. Journal of Interdisciplinary mand, Johan. Køge huskors. Med indledning og History 6(1), pp. 71−89. noter ved Anders Bæksted. Danske folkeminder Ferber, Sarah 2004: Demonic Possession and 61. København: Einar Munksgaard. Exorcism in Early Modern France. London: Bailey, Michael D. 2008: Concern over Supersti- Routledge. tion in Late Medieval Europe. Past and Present, Fix, Andrew 1989: Angels, Devils, and Evil Spir- Supplement 3. its in Seventeenth-Century Thought. Balthasar Barnett, S. J. 1999: Idol Temples and Crafty Bekker and the Collegiants. Journal of the His- Priests. The Origin of Enlightenment Anticler- tory of Ideas 50, pp. 527−547. cialism. London: Macmillan Press. Fix, Andrew 1993: Balthasar Bekker and the Cri- Bauman, Richard & Briggs, Charles 2003: Voices sis of Cartesianism. History of European Ideas of Modernity. Language Ideologies and the 17(5), pp. 575−588. Politics of Inequality. Cambridge: Gilje, Nils 2001: Djevelen står alltid bak. Demo- Broedel, Hans Peter 2003: The Malleus Malefi- nisering av folkelig magi på slutten av 1500-tal- carum and the Construction of Witchcraft. let. Tradisjon 2, pp. 107−116. Theology and Popular Belief. Manchester: Gilje, Nils & Tarald Rasmussen 2002: Tankeliv i Manchester University Press. den lutherske helstat. Norsk idéhistorie II. Oslo: Brunsmand, Johan 1953: Køge huskors. Med Aschehoug. indledning og noter ved Anders Bæksted. Dans- Gilje, Nils 2003: Heksen og humanisten. Anne ke folkeminder 61. København: Einar Munks- Pedersdatter og Absalon Pederssøn Beyer − en gaard. historie om magi og trolldom i Bergen på Burke, Peter 1994: Popular Culture in Early Mod- 1500-tallet. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. ern Europe. London: Scholar Press. Hemmingsen, Nils [Nicolas Hemmingo] 1575: Cameron, Euan 2010: Enchanted Europe. Super- Admonitio de superstitionibus magicis vitandis, stition, Reason, and Religion, 1250−1750. Ox- in gratiam sincere religionis amantium scripta. ford: Oxford University Press. Hafnia. John Ødemark, Inscribing Possession 25

Horstbøll, Henrik 1999: Menigmands medie. Det the Nordic Middle Ages. Philadelphia: Univer- folkelige bogtrykk i Danmark 1500−1840. sity of Pennsylvania Press. København: Museum Tusculanums forlag. Nenonen, Marko 2007: Culture Wars. State, Reli- Johansen, Jens Christian V. 1998: Denmark: The gion and Popular Culture in Europe, 1400− Sociology of Accusations. In Ankarloo, B. & 1800. In J. Barry et al., Palgrave Advances in Henningsen, G. (eds.), Early Modern European Witchcraft Historiography, pp. 108−124. New Witchcraft. Centres and Peripheries, pp. York: Palgrave Macmillan. 339−366. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ødemark, John 2011: Ammestuens tale – “Over- Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm 2010: “Da kom den tro” og “fabel” i Pontoppidans Feiekost og onde ånd i mitt knæ”. En kulturhistorisk un- folkloristikkens forhistorie. In Line Esborg et dersøgelse af djævelbesettelse i Danmark efter al. (eds.), Or gamalt – nye perspektiver på fol- Reformationen. In Laugerud, H. (ed.), Religiøs keminner. Oslo: Aschehoug/Institutt for sam- tro og praksis i den dansk-norske helstat fra menlignende kulturforskning. reformasjon til opplysningstid, pp. 189−204. Olsen, Isaac (1716/1910): Om lappenes vilds- Bergen: Unipub. farelser og overtro. Kildeskrifter til den lap- Kors, Alan C. & Peters, Edward 2001: Witchcraft piske mythology II v. J. Quigstad. Trondhjem: in Europe 400–1700. A Documentary History. Det Norske Videnskaps Akademis Skrifter. Transl. Alan C. Kors & Edward Peters. Second Pomata, Gianna & Sirasi, Nancy G. 2005: Intro- Revised Edition. Philadelphia: University of duction, in Historia. Empricism and Erudition Pennsylvania Press. in Early Modern Europe, pp. 1−38. Cambridge, Latour, Bruno 1993: We Have Never Been Mod- Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ern. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Porter, Roy 1999: Witchcraft and Magic in En- Levack, Brian 2006: The Witch-hunt in Early lightenment, Romantic and Liberal Thought. In Modern Europe, 3rd ed. Harlow. Ankarloo, Bengt & Stuart Clark (eds.), Witch- Levack, Brian 2008: State Building and craft and Magic in Europe. The Eighteenth and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. In Nineteenth Centuries, pp. 191−274. Philadel- Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader, phia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2nd edition, pp. 185−197. London & New York: Routledge. Purkiss, Diane 1996: The Witch in History. Early Levack, Brian 2008b: Witch-Hunting in Scotland. Modern and Twentieth-Century Representa- Law Politics and Religion. London: Routledge. tions. London: Routledge. Magnússon, Árni 1891 [1699]: Kort og sandfær- Reenberg, Tøger 1997: Ars Poetica. In Klassi- dig Beretning om den vidtudraabte Besættelse sisme. Diktningens kunst. Oslo: Aschehoug. udi Thisted. Til alles Efterretning af Origi- Resløkken, Åmund 2013: “Den gloende jernring nal-Akter og troværdige Dokumenter uddragen og helvides aander”. Johan Brunsmands og sammenskreven (af Arne Magnussen). Paany tolkning av preternaturlige fenomener. Fortid udgiven af Alfred Ipsen. Kjøbenhavn. Jul. 2, pp. 72−76. Gjellerups Forlag. Skinner, Quentin 2002: Interpretation, rationality Martin, Dale B. 2004: Inventing Superstition. and truth. In Visions of Politics, vol. 1, pp. From the Hippocratics to the Christians. Cam- 27−56. Cambridge University Press. Cam- bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. bridge. Midelfort, H. C. Erik 2008: The Devil and the Thomas, Keith 1978: Religion and the Decline of German People. In Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Magic. London: Penguin Books. Witchcraft Reader, 2nd edition, pp. 211−222. White, Hayden 1978: Tropics of Discourse. Es- London & New York: Routledge. says in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore & Lon- Mitchell, Stephen 2011: Witchcraft and Magic in don: Johns Hopkins University Press. 26 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? Some Concerns about Engaging the Past in Present Fashion Practices in the Age of the Anthropocene By Marie Riegels Melchior

The philosopher Sverre Raffnsøe (2013) gin of my desire to take upon myself a reminds us that we humans are ontologic- more interventionist, ethical and respon- ally in the process of what he calls the “the sible research position. From this point human turn”. Human nature is now de- of departure, the current state of research cisive, with colossal significance for the into the topic of fashion and sustain- world we live in. ability will be consulted and discussed With the human turn, the human element steps with reference to my ongoing research forward as something that must find its own na- into Danish fashion in the first half of the ture, since it comes into being in relation to, and in twentieth century, in order to suggest an interplay with, something other and something how to contribute to the field using a his- more than the merely human. Explorations carried torical approach. What I suggest is a out under the heading “The Human Turn” look not at the human element in itself, but rather at the “back to the future” strategy, in which contemporary human conditions and the oppor- past fashion experiences are called upon tunities they offer for human coming-into-being in order to intervene in present practices (Raffnsøe 2013:24). of fashion consumption and use. Rather It is inevitable to acknowledge “the hu- than coming to a definitive conclusion, I man turn”, but as an ethnologist, it feels to intend to initiate debate about a possible me like a call for further scholarly-in- approach, and to discuss the immediate formed social engagement. What steps concerns that arise when the object of can we take to intervene proactively in one’s study transforms from knowledge shaping the human condition – a condition of the past and how changes have oc- that we have long studied, be it with shift- curred over time, to how to make use of ing aims of remembering the past, or inter- that past to intervene in present and fu- ests in identifying the differences that ture practices in the hope of improving characterize everyday life and people’s the sustainability of fashion and the hu- varied ways of practising “the good life” man condition as such. The anthropolo- (e.g. Stoklund 2003; Svensson 2012; gist Richard Wilk has argued that an- Damsholt 2015)? Thus, this article is con- thropologists have to “think of [them- cerned with how I, as an ethnologist with selves] as participants in change rather a cultural-historical approach to the study than just critics” (Wilk 2009:274). I of everyday life, can contribute to the share Wilk’s point of view, which shaping of a more sustainable human con- echoes the tradition of strategic social dition. I will unfold my concerns through science action-research (Madsen 2012: my specific field of study, Danish fashion, 2). One significant difference, however, as it was via this topic that the apprehen- is the issue of historical scope, which I sions of the anthropocene first became ap- address proactively and which frames parent to me, thereby prompting my cur- the concerns raised in the article. rent research interest. In the following, the contemporary “Beyond Next Season”: When the condition of Danish fashion and its so- Danish Fashion Industry Turned cial responsibility and sustainability dis- “Green” course will be introduced in order to Over the last ten years, the Danish fashion situate my research interests and the ori- industry has repeatedly asserted that

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 27

“green” is the new black, to use the fash- • promoting sustainable Nordic design; ion business lingo. In particular, the Dan- • lowering the environmental impact in ish Fashion Institute (DAFI, a network in- production; stitution established in 2005 by the Danish • increasing the market for environmen- fashion industry and the Danish govern- tally friendly fashion and textiles; and ment) has been advancing this view since • encouraging a market trend towards 2008, when it inaugurated the Nordic Ini- more recycling and reuse (Norden 2015: tiative Clean and Ethical. NICE is a joint 13). venture between DAFI and its Nordic counterparts to promote a more sustain- More specific regulatory initiatives in- able fashion industry by helping fashion clude plans to create a Nordic academy of designers and textiles companies to source sustainable fashion responsible for edu- in accordance with Nordic ethics and cating the industry’s employees and train- values.1 The “green” discourse in fashion ing them in sustainable fashion produc- is not exclusive to the Nordic fashion in- tion; to establish greater Nordic influence dustries, however; rather, it is a general in the EU concerning documentation and discourse of the global fashion industry in labelling of Nordic fashion and textiles in its attempts to improve and to counter the order to promote transparency between frequent criticisms it receives from en- producer and consumer; to initiate Nordic vironmental activists. guidelines and cooperation on green pro- Since 2008, the NICE initiative (re- curement; and to identify market barriers organized in 2016 as the Global Fashion and drivers for the recycling and reuse of Agenda, based in Copenhagen) has grown from proposing codes of conduct for Nor- clothing and textiles (Norden 2015). dic fashion companies to hosting the inter- These initiatives have in general been wel- national biennial Copenhagen Fashion comed by the industry, and the report em- Summit, initiated in 2009 to motivate the phasizes possible business opportunities, industry to achieve environmental sus- mainly in the area of recycling. However, tainability. Recently, the NICE initiative to other organizational stakeholders, the prompted the Nordic Council of Ministers report was a challenge, since it conflicted for the Environment to declare a joint ac- with the suggestions proposed in a road tion plan for sustainability in the Nordic map study prepared for the Nordic Coun- fashion and textile industries.2 Reports on cil of Ministers at the same time as the re- the use of textiles in the Nordic countries port was published. The road map argued showed that by 2012, the volume had that the industry’s so-called fast fashion3 reached 13‒16 kg per capita per year (35 business model is the main challenge, per cent more than the average textile con- since despite its recycling efforts, the in- sumption per capita in the rest of the dustry remains eager to expand resource world). Based on the assumption that inputs in the textile value chain rather than more than 50 per cent of the clothes con- reduce such inputs and redirect its focus sumed in the region were neither reused on quality issues. In order to incentivize nor recycled, the action plan suggested these changes, the roadmap suggested the four focus areas for improvement: Nordic fashion industries adopt local pro- 28 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

duction, use locally-sourced raw materials system of producers and distributors pro- (e.g. wool and other fibres cultivated in cessing fashion from creators to con- the region), and stimulate communication sumers. She called for the industry to re- between producer and consumer to ex- gain its cultural value as a so-called plain how these sustainable practices will “change agent” that pushes fashion for- impact quality and price (Klepp et al. ward (Cordero 2016). How to make this 2015). change happen is the core challenge, and As a person studying Danish fashion, is the focus of current negotiations among these events and their negotiations of best researchers and practitioners. practices are difficult for me to ignore. However, the immediate reaction could be Fashion and Sustainability Research to conclude that it is simply too difficult to in the Time of the Anthropocene fit fashion into a discourse of sustainabili- Focusing on the research field of fashion ty at all. Eva Kruse, the director of the and sustainability, a great variety of tra- Danish Fashion Institute, acknowledged jectories and ambitions appear: from ideo- as much in a statement at the 2015 Fashion logical, overused approaches, to more Summit: analytical, explorative ones. It is clearly a We don’t buy fashion to save the world. Even difficult subject to handle, as it can so though I’m pioneering for this, I’m not going to easily fall into moralistic, normative in- buy fashion just to save the world. I’m always go- structions of do’s and don’ts, even as it is ing to buy fashion because I like the colour, or it difficult to foresee the impact of the sug- 4 makes me look good. gested actions on the global environment Fashion stimulates dreams and aspirations in the long run. Clearly, the field provides rather than rational choices (Wilson a space for renewed critique of capitalism, 2003). Fashion exerts a powerful force with fashion as its prime materialization: over the choices people make regarding whether we look at women and child la- their appearance and consumption habits, bourers in painful and hopeless situations as both an image and a commercial prod- in the global textile and garment industry, uct. The challenge of the sustainability or water supplies spoiled by unregulated agenda is to appreciate the powerful force textile dyeing practices, it is fashion per se fashion exerts on human lives and to – from the industrialist to the supposedly transform it into a resource for a sustain- self-centred consumers that encourage the able future – though there is little doubt it acceleration of fashion production – that is will be challenging to do so without sacri- to blame. Dichotomies of good and evil in ficing fashion’s distinguishing character- the context of fashion are promoted istic as irrationally aspirational. This point through such studies as a simple case of of view is shared by one of the leading in- the problem on the one hand (e.g. fast ternational trend analysts, Li Edelkoort, fashion and capitalism/growth economy) among others. In 2015, Edelkoort issued versus the solution on the other (e.g. slow an “Anti-fashion Manifesto” in response fashion and anti-capitalism/post-growth to her perception of the collapse of the economy) (e.g. Cline 2012; Hoskins fashion system, defined as the complex 2014). It is difficult not to concede ele- Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 29

ments of this critique of the fashion indus- panding markets, and attracting investment. Every try, as certain aspects of fashion produc- aspect of our daily lives, including fashion, is un- tion and consumption do tend to stimulate der this pressure, which shapes the fashion sector in a number of problematic ways (Thorpe 2015: greed and display insufficient commit- 64). ment to saving our natural environment for future generations. The one-sidedness Environmental impacts are out of control of these studies blurs their impact, how- due to industrialized methods of produc- ever, because both the problem and the tion, requirements for growing natural solution are more complex. fibres,5 and consumers’ use, laundering Setting these polemical studies aside, and cleaning habits (Laitala et al. 2011). the research field can be divided into at Efficient and cost-effective production least three different research positions: the methods were initially a response to the business model approach (e.g. Hvass need to dress more and more people, as 2015), the design solution approach (e.g. the world’s growing population could af- Black 2008; Fletcher & Grose 2012; ford to consume more clothing, but its de- Skjold et al. 2016); and the consumption velopment has exceeded its purpose, re- advice approach (e.g. Klepp 2000; Clark sulting in excess production capacity and & Palmer 2005; Palmsköld 2013; Netter the rising problem of textile waste. In- 2012; Bly et al. 2015; Laitala et al. 2015). creasing levels of fashion consumption These positions share a drive towards did have positive effects, creating jobs in stimulating change. They seek, each in both developed and developing countries, their own way, to challenge the status quo but the constant downward pressure on by calling attention to the short-sighted- textile prices has meant increasing num- ness of current practices with respect to bers of unskilled, low-wage workers in the the global environment. What was accept- industry, and as such, both the historical ed as standard practice since the Second reality and the present situation are com- World War and the increased industriali- plex, and any suggested solutions need to zation of fashion production and con- be able to navigate in such an environ- sumption has changed. The progress of ment. the past along with the belief in economic Business model transitions for sustain- growth as a societal narrative in which able fashion suggest that the future lies consuming more is better are converted mainly in eliminating the linear produc- into what could be called a narrative of tion system6 in favour of a circular7 one, “wrongdoings”. The design strategist Ann rethinking value propositions and growth Thorpe has framed the situation in her potentials that are not exclusively con- contribution on economic growth and sus- nected to the acceleration of production tainable fashion for the 2015 Routledge and economic growth. A Swedish re- Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion search project, MISTRA Future Fashion,8 (Fletcher & Tham): emphasizes more specifically how the The pressure for growth is expressed in economic fashion industry needs to embrace mul- practices that increase consumption. Such prac- tiple business models in order to meet the tices include reducing costs, increasing sales, ex- complexity of the issue of making fashion 30 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

production sustainable: for example, by ways people use clothing. Their purpose is understanding the purpose of a garment to inform fashion designers, as change and its expected life span in order to im- agents, how to come up with new solu- agine new ways of earning profits not only tions for a so-called “new relational fash- on the individual garment, but also on ser- ion system” that derives from human rela- vices that support its sustainable handling tionships, and from sharing rather than (MISTRA Future Fashion Manifesto liberal market-driven logics of produc- 2015). This approach to fashion – one tion, distribution and consumption (Flet- could call it an expansion of the fashion cher 2015: 21). Fletcher states: system – is already being explored by As such, the “deep inner space” of the wardrobe companies, and includes up-cycle ap- offers up potential inspiration to a design process proaches, such as resell-reuse initiatives concerned with doing things better rather than do- (e.g. by the Swedish fashion brands Boo- ing more things with more materials. Such work merang and Filippa K), take-back initia- contributes to the radical “post-growth” sustaina- bility agenda that critiques the central importance tives (e.g. by H&M), as well as efforts to of growth to notions of prosperity and attempts to reduce waste in production processes define and describe economic activity by bio- (Thorpe 2015). physical limits. This explores an alternative to the The research focusing on design solu- predominant economic model that works within tions to sustainability challenges is also planetary limits and looks for ways to add value, meet needs and provide employment without con- challenging the fashion system by encour- stantly expanding material throughput. Framed in aging the professional fashion designer to this way the “craft of use” offers tentative starting intervene. The British design activist, re- points for understanding opportunities for how searcher, and professor at the Centre for fashion in a post-growth economy may develop Sustainable Fashion at the University of (http://www.localwisdom.info/craft-of-use). the Arts in London, Kate Fletcher, is cur- The consumer advice approach also rently a dominant voice in this field stresses the choices and changes available through the research project Local Wis- to users of fashion to adapt and apply. dom.9 This project, initiated in 2009, is “Smarter living” seems to be the key based on the idea that the current domi- phrase, understood in the sense of being nant fashion system is a power structure, better-informed and knowledge-based. and not the result of people’s desire as The idea that consumers need to change consumers to dress in multiple inexpen- their behaviour dominates the discourse sive garments (Fletcher 2015:19). The and as such corresponds with the other re- fashion system is not an imperative, but search approaches. More specifically, rather a result of intentional and political however, the struggle is how to elicit choice, which means it can be changed. changes in consumer behaviours: How to The project approaches the question of overcome culturally-constructed barriers how to re-think the fashion system of behaviour, everyday practices, routines through what is called the “craft of use”, and traditions in favour of a sustainability using ethnographic wardrobe studies agenda (e.g. Laitala et al. 2015; Gill et al. (Klepp & Bjerck 2012) to explore the 2016). Like the design solution approach, qualitative potentials of incorporating the the consumer research approach shares Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 31

the fundamental idea that the cultural in how people lived in the past, or how practices of using fashion could be differ- they dealt with the ordinary practices of ent and are liable to change if knowledge, trying on clothing, getting dressed, main- technology and cultural values are ex- taining their wardrobe, investing in their changed. Ethnographic studies may also (fashionable) wardrobe, etc. per se, but be of importance here, mainly to under- rather in how to make connections and re- stand the conservatism of people’s actions lationships between present challenges (e.g. Woodward 2015), while historical and complex past fashion practices that studies of past practices in handling can be of value today. In other words, it is clothes are believed to provide inspiration not just a matter of past facts or nostalgic for new user initiatives to maintain cloth- longing for the “good old days”, but a ing longer than the fashion discourse matter of how present concerns can con- might prescribe (e.g. Klepp 2000; Gordon tribute nuance to debates about how to & Hill 2015). change the fashion system and offer fash- ion consumers ways to change their Back to the Future: Getting Fashion habits. This is what I term the “back to the History Involved future” strategy: making the past literally In its acknowledgment of the difficulty of available for use in a specific present-day changing people’s behaviours and cultur- setting. ally-defined habits, my present study is a This analytical manoeuvre is challeng- continuation of and contribution to the ing. It raises questions, notably how to consumer advice approach to the study of perform ethical sensitivity. One thing to fashion and sustainability. The historical guard against is the temptation to manipu- approach I suggest does differ from late the past in the present. This can be studies by Klepp (2000) and Gordon & tackled in different ways. In my present Hill (2015), however, pursuing an inter- study, I try to address this issue through ventionist objective rather than just pro- methodological transparency, more spe- viding inspiration, and also actively en- cifically through incorporating interviews gaging in how to implement historical with people born before 1940;10 in the in- knowledge in the current debates and terviews, I evoke their memories of past practices concerning fashion and sustaina- fashion practices and frame these as bility. voices in conversation with the historical This way of thinking is familiar to the source material of fashion. For the study, discipline of history, in which it is not nine senior citizens were recruited from viewed as a discipline of the past, but as three nursing homes in southern Zealand, one that makes “use” of past experiences Denmark. Born between 1912 and 1937, to understand contemporary interests and one man and eight women from various phenomena (see Jensen 2010; Nielsen social backgrounds in both urban and rural 2010). But one could say it is the degree of settings were interviewed about what they use that distinguishes my approach, since remembered about fashion from their I aim to intervene more directly in the upbringing: in what ways fashion was part present. My main interest, therefore, is not of life, how fashionable clothing were 32 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

handled, and how these practices changed supposed to decrease due to the environ- during their lifetime. The interviews pro- mental crisis of limited resources. These vided keywords pointing to further in- represent just a few of the considerations sights about how fashion was enacted and when pursuing research within a timespan narrated in the past, as well as a critical of one hundred years, as is the case of my voice suggesting how to compare the his- current study. torical knowledge with the informants’ in- In the following, the study of Danish dividual experiences. On this basis, the fashion history in the first half of the twen- study widened to include readings of vari- tieth century is presented through a selec- ous fashion magazines, women’s journals tion of the insights the study has generat- and trade journals from the early to the ed. This will be followed by a discussion mid twentieth century, which the inform- of how this knowledge can make a contri- ants directly mentioned or which related bution to the current debates and negotia- to topics the informants addressed in the tions about improving the sustainability of 11 interviews. I am aware that the study has fashion, as well as what opportunities and a gender bias in its current form. This is challenges such an approach places before more of a coincidence than a strategic the ethnological scholar when her ambi- choice, and is not meant to imply that tion is to be actively engaged in trans- men’s fashion has nothing to contribute. forming the human condition within the Another ethical sensitivity of impor- anthropocene. tance is the choice of historical perspec- tive. What period in time and geographi- Responses from Past Danish Fashion cal setting is addressed, and why? In my Practices present study, the geographical setting is Denmark, as my interest in sustainable Through the interviews with the nine fashion stems from a study of Danish senior citizens, the study gained insights fashion (Melchior 2013). My period of fo- and perspectives on the past at different cus, the first half of the 20th century, was levels, as the informants helped to open selected for a number of reasons. It is the the field of study. At a basic and descrip- period that, it may be argued, comprised tive level, the informants introduced a vo- the formative decades of industrialized cabulary of words naming practices, sug- fashion production and mass fashion con- gested key subjects relevant to under- sumption, making it possible to compare standing their past practices of fashion, and contrast gradually changing fashion and referenced a variety of magazines and practices over time. It is a historical period journals they remembered in their homes in which the majority of people had limit- that distributed fashion news, which is ed economic resources to spend on fash- currently my main research material. On ion, indicating that access to new fashion an interpretive level, they explained their was still restricted, but nevertheless within understanding of these practices, and on reach of an increasing number of people. an emotional level, revealed the feelings This stimulated alternative approaches to they associated with their memories. For being fashionable that might be of value certain informants, the conversation was today, when the consumption of fashion is very moving, causing them to shed tears Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 33

of gratitude for the work and effort their This is a dilemma, or at least a challenge, parents expended in order to provide basic of the complex nature of the subject mat- clothing needs and to be able to follow the ter: overly-romantic views of potential fashion of the day, particularly when com- solutions – such as suggestions about re- pared to the lives and situations of the turning to some vision of the “good old informants’ own children and grand- days” of slow fashion (i.e. the slow turn- children. Although this was awkward in over time of fashion production and the the moment of the interview, these emo- longer use value of individual garments) – tional situations can be perceived as car- can too easily fall into the dichotomies of ing bodily knowledge (Scheer 2012). slow/past versus fast/present. They indicated an acknowledgement of According to the informants, who were the changes that have occurred over time raised in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and their significance: the relationship be- fashion was something they knew and tween past and present. Furthermore, cared about. The purchase of new clothes these emotions expressed the positive pro- was a rare treat for them, but the re-styling gress in access to fashion and the possi- of their clothes – particularly what they bility of choosing what to wear as part and termed “school dress” and “Sunday dress” parcel of the grand narrative of capitalist – was more common than buying new societies – at least, until this success began clothes, and outfits were passed down to be questioned in view of climate change from older siblings or family members, and environmental crisis. And despite sometimes in connection with special oc- their fond memories, none of the inform- casions. In their towns, new fashionable ants wished to revisit the past or trade styles were introduced via the local shop, away the progress they have experienced. visits from the local seamstress (if their The interviews produced no romantic mothers were not keen on sewing) or in views of the past; the memories evoked the journals their parents subscribed to or nostalgia in relation to the people remem- exchanged with neighbours. The weekly bered, but not their doings. This is not a 12 surprising observation, but it does have an women’s journal Hus og Hjem was the impact on how we treat the historical most popular fashion media among the in- knowledge with respect to the emotions of formants’ parents. Every week, new dress the informants. The positive narrative of patterns were distributed with the journal, their lives, passing as it did through what with corresponding descriptions of the lat- is commonly perceived to be the techno- est fashionable styles. The seasonal logical progress of modern society, and launches of women’s fashions in Paris or being part of achieving its results, has to menswear in London were also reported. be taken into consideration; at the same An article from the end of June 1913 ex- time, the problems identified in the debate plains the power of fashion both in Paris about fashion and sustainability point to and in the Danish countryside, corroborat- what could be called the “wrongdoings” ing the informants’ memories and high- that in retrospect characterized the general lighting the view – as true today as it was increase in consumer power in Western then – that fashion is present in everyday societies after the Second World War. life: 34 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

The power of fashion is great – we simply act views how they learned the importance of more or less quickly to follow it! Those in the looking respectable and dressing proper- countryside probably resist new fashions the long- ly: always wear clean clothes, and for est, but even there … you need only have an eye manual work or at home, only old clothes for how things change! Whether you like it or not is a matter of taste – we are only stating the facts. (either mended or with holes). The maga- Today we present two fashion plates of very dif- zines and journals consulted for this study ferent character from the races [Longchamp out- offered tips and tricks regarding how to side Paris]. Whether one likes them is up to each care for one’s clothes in order to have the reader to decide (Hus og Hjem, vol. 18, issue 27, right look and be fashionable. Orderliness 13 1913, p. 631). was a key word in this context, a value that Fashion journals of the same period, dis- implied the practice of a certain self-con- tributed between producers and retailers trol as well as social control. The disci- in rural towns, also reflected the speed of pline of order had economic and social the fashion market with their monthly purposes of respectability, as well as the fashion patterns (for example, in the jour- purpose of maintaining good health nal Modejournal Chic, patterns were list- through cleanliness, as the early twentieth ed by number and name of the month). century Danish etiquette expert and writer This commercial driver of fashion, there- Emma Gad (1852‒1921) would have it. A fore, appears to have been similar to the sense of order required the competence to present day, and is distinguished mainly strike the right balance in being fashion- by the production and distribution tech- able, but not a fashion victim – in the nologies available at the time: the narra- sense of “overdoing it” – and demonstrat- tives of journals and magazines, bearing ing being out of control: fresh patterns for individual designs, cir- However strong one’s craving for change, one ba- culated fashion at high speed. This would sic rule must be followed by those who want to gradually change after the Second World dress at less expense: never buy cheap acces- War, as industrially-produced ready-to- sories, only one truly beautiful thing. Stick with wear would make fashion even more eas- just a few items, in not overly-strong colours, which match each other so well that dress, hat, ily accessible and diminish the demand parasol and gloves always come together in a har- both for fashion patterns and for the skills monious and pleasing whole. […] Everyone must of cutting and sewing oneself. Based on acknowledge that a sense of order and good taste, this knowledge, it is possible to argue that as much as luxury and elegance, make a woman’s fashion had as significant a presence in dress what it should be – the frame around her people’s lives in the first half of the twen- beauty and accentuation of her personality (Emma 14 tieth century as today, but that this pres- Gad 1903: Vort hjem, p. 125). ence significantly differed in its context. The ideal fashionable woman, in other The technology was different, the econo- words, would be the orderly, self-respect- my was different, and so were the social ing woman. As today, the call to control and cultural norms and values guiding fashion through conscious practices was how to handle and live with fashion – the present in the past. The high cost of clothes, their use and their maintenance. clothes before the advent of mass produc- The informants emphasize in inter- tion stimulated such practices. The in- Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 35

formants emphasize in the interviews how moved, you are left with a wet spot on your dress being fashionable was an economic in- that catches everyone’s eye. Do you know what vestment that regulated how frivolous one you can do? Take an electric bulb that has been switched on long enough to be hot. Iron the wet could be. And this frugal attitude towards spot on your dress until it is dry and flat again the handling of clothes was shared and en- (Madame, September 1943, vol. 1, p. 21 “Smaa couraged through both fashion magazines lyse ideer”).17 and women’s journals. Tips and tricks for These suggestions may make one laugh keeping one’s clothes clean and appropri- today, but my point in highlighting them is ate provided recurring content in these to demonstrate the level of detail at which publications. The character of these en- values and norms are practised, and that couragements served to remind the user they were perceived to be part of the prac- how ordinary household equipment and tice of being fashionable in the past. In the ingredients could easily do the cleaning light of current concerns about the sustain- job. ability of fashion, however, these compe- For example, in a 1912 issue of the tences concerning the usage of fashion women’s journal Hus og Hjem, an article seem relevant, albeit with a different goal. under the heading “Good Advice” offered Today we cultivate them in order to di- guidance in cleaning chocolate stains: minish the human impact on the planet “Chocolate spots on linen and tablecloths Earth. Then, the goal was to be respect- can be removed by immediately washing able and to restrict one’s spending in fa- them off in milk and then rinsing them in vour of other, more important areas, for cold water”15 (Hus og Hjem, vol. 17, issue the development of a more prosperous so- 2, 1912, p. 31). Later the same year, under ciety. the heading “Practical Tricks”, the reader The light bulb example calls upon the could learn how to clean certain kinds of idea of orderliness to establish disciplin- outerwear: ary practices for sustainable solutions. Ac- If you need to clean the collars of men’s coats, it tions are required that both take control is so much easier to brush the dirty places with an and enlighten with state-of-the-art knowl- old nailbrush or toothbrush instead of rubbing it edge of how to be sustainable. Therefore, with a damp cloth. […] White woollen dresses and the example above has the most impact felt hats are easy to clean, when they are not too when viewed as a practice: a way of think- dirty, with old white bread (Hus og Hjem, vol. 17, ing and approaching problem solving. It issue 30, 1912, p. 478).16 illustrates a way of thinking via accessible This kind of advice persisted, indicating practices that utilize energy resources and the continuity of the social and cultural local means that are available in the spe- value of orderliness The following ex- cific situation and the immediate sur- ample is from a 1943 issue of the fashion roundings, and do not require further con- magazine Madame, under the heading sumption of resources. On this basis, it “Little bright ideas”: could be argued that it is the way of think- If you are at a dinner party and your dress gets ing and the skill of acting driven by the stained, you naturally know that most stains are value of orderliness that is essential to best removed quickly….But once the stain is re- transfer in time. 36 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

How Fashion Histories Are Sustain- argue that a third potential purpose exists able – a Discussion and Some  with respect to historical studies, which Concerns is to make history part of future solutions. The informants’ introduction to past Dan- If it is possible to handle the historical ish fashion practices, as I have intended to sources in due course and with the above demonstrate in the previous section, has led intentions, then the answer to the question to a recognition of how small but substan- I raised initially in this article – Are fash- tial details of various character can provide ion histories sustainable? – is yes. insightful knowledge, as well as to the sug- By highlighting three themes from my gestion that the historical study of fashion current and ongoing study of Danish fash- might have the potential to bring about be- ion history in the first half of the twentieth havioural changes in fashion consumption, century – the theme of the relationship be- making it more sustainable. tween past and present, the practice of In ethnological studies, Löfgren and fashion, and the value of orderliness – it Ehn have shown how the past can be a cul- has been shown that the history of fashion tural analytical technique to raise aware- can be sustainable. But the history of fash- ness of the changes that have occurred ion will need to be written in a way that in- when studying everyday practices, help- corporates the interpretive layer of how ing make ordinary practices visible and fashion histories can be sustainable for the noteworthy (Löfgren & Ehn 2006). The future of fashion, while going into the de- historian Frank Trentmann declares in his tails that historical sources can provide. It recent book Empire of Things: How We could be argued with some justification Became a World of Consumers, from the that this implies a distinctly functionalist Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First approach to this work, making the point I (2016) that history offers a perspective on raised about ethical sensitivity all the change over time as well as a new per- more essential to legitimizing this usage spective when thinking about current of history in any future interventions sug- problems. Trentmann further states that he gested by the interventionist scholar. is concerned with the consumer society The question remains as to how to con- that has emerged, clearly placing the duct the interventions that I argue for. The world in a serious crisis: “One lesson from scholarly tradition of ethnologists is to history is that we are wrong to take our produce – through books, journals and current standards as given or to assume museum collections – an archive of that our lifestyle will and ought to con- knowledge in the service of the public; tinue into the future, just more efficiently that is, the choice of how to use this serviced” (Trentmann 2016:689). To- knowledge belongs to the public. Ethnol- gether, these points of view not only af- ogists also have a tradition of interacting firm the importance of a historical per- with the public through museum exhibi- spective on contemporary concerns, but tions, public lectures and teaching (Otto also its dual purpose. Firstly, to put both 2004). Through these practices, knowl- the past and the present in perspective; edge is transmitted. What I shall suggest is and secondly, to point to the challenges the further development and expansion of presented by present concerns. I now these dissemination techniques to pro- Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 37

mote dialogue with public audiences by Sustainable Society Institute, argued in strengthening the ethnologist’s collabora- 2016 that what people might strive for in- tive network. So I must open my historical dividually as “the good life” needs to be fashion studies to interdisciplinary collab- reimagined and regulated by common orations; take part in the negotiation of norms and values that can support the how the knowledge generated can be Earth as a sustainable place to live. Alex- made to work in such settings; and be pre- ander says: pared and motivated to enter a continuous There is no conceivable way that seven billion dialogue between present concerns raised people, let alone eleven billion [by the end of the by everyday practices and the ongoing sci- twenty-first century], could live sustainably on entific development of the best environ- Earth in material affluence. Globalising affluence, mental solutions. The knowledge produc- quite simply, would be ecologically catastrophic. tion I engage in becomes an ongoing pro- Accordingly, members of the global consumer class need to reimagine the good life beyond con- cess and commitment. The traditional sumer culture and develop new conceptions of hu- communication technologies of ethnology man flourishing based on sufficiency, moderation, mentioned above will have to reflect this frugality and non-materialistic sources of mean- dialogue and engaged approach. ing and satisfaction. From a consumption perspec- Collaborations with schoolteachers tive, this might mean driving less and cycling more; growing local organic food; putting on seem one obvious path, in order to show woollen clothing rather than always turning on the young citizens how to learn from the past, heater; taking shorter showers; flying less or not at with its cultural value of orderliness, all: eating less meat; making and mending rather widespread economic scarcity and limited than buying new; sharing more; and in countless access to new resources – i.e. to new fash- other ways rethinking lifestyles in ways that radi- ionable dress. From this knowledge, they cally reduce energy and resource burdens. In sum, a post-growth economy would not aim to provide can be led to actions that today can stimu- affluence for all but modest sufficiency for all late the value of an orderly (meaning dis- (Alexander 2016:9). ciplined and in control) approach to the environment and an acceptance of the fact Fashion history has the potential to be sus- that the Earth’s population growth will tainable as long as the knowledge of the limit the material affluence of people and past can take part in teaching the present their ability to consume ever more as eco- alternative approaches to “the good life”, nomic growth expands. In this context where fashion is not dismissed but prac- fashion history can provide insights into ticed in different (environmentally friend- past ways of being fashionable that can be ly) ways acknowledging the role fashion learned and given new meaning in the an- plays in the act of being human. thropocene era. The contribution, therefore, becomes Towards a Conclusion part of the post-growth economy incentive Acknowledging the human turn made me that characterizes current fashion and sus- reflect and search for ways to make an im- tainability research with respect to both pact on my field of study, Danish fashion, the design solution approach and the con- by calling attention to its history and de- sumer advice approach. Samuel Alexan- velopment from the early twentieth centu- der, Research Fellow at the Melbourne ry to the present day. Crucially, the ac- 38 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

ceptance of the human turn entails an ethi- as of the methods one must apply. How cal ambition with respect to one’s research we handle the purpose of our studies I be- results. They need to make an impact, to lieve we must continuously debate as well engage and intervene in the world that sur- as the implications of the anthropocene as rounds the researcher. part of the social engagement we perform The ambition to make fashion sustain- as academic scholars. able is currently challenging the fashion industry and the consumption of fashion, Marie Riegels Melchior PhD Lektor as has been shown in this article. Fashion Copenhagen University per se resists rationality, in order to be Department of Ethnology/The Saxo Institute continuously producing new, irrational Karen Blixens Vej 4 dreams about looks and styles that eventu- DK- 2300 Copenhagen S email: [email protected] ally stimulate the production of new clothes for the market, utilizing enormous Notes resources of energy and natural resources. 1 See http://nordicfashionassociation.com/what- I have tried to insist, however, that fashion nice (visited 25 April 2017). history can have sustainable potential, and 2 In April 2015, the Nordic Council of Minis- that it is part of my ambition as researcher ters published the report and political declara- tion Well Dressed in a Clean Environment: – an ethnologist with historical interests – Nordic Action Plan for Sustainable Fashion to actively take part in improving the en- and Textiles. vironmental situation in which we find 3 Fast fashion describes the phenomenon in the ourselves due to population growth, eco- fashion industry in which production pro- cesses are accelerated in order to get new nomic growth and most importantly, con- trends to the market as quickly and cheaply as sumption growth. possible (Reinach 2005). If one accepts the “back to the future” 4 http://www.kering.com/en/magazine/fashion- research strategy, it may be possible compassion (1 October 2016). 5 Because cotton makes up approx. 90 per cent through explicit engagement and partici- of all textile material, its increase in clothing pation for a researcher to be a “change production is critical, as cotton cultivation re- agent”, activating historical sources to quires heavy use of water, pesticides and ferti- lizers (MISTRA Future Fashion Manifesto teach the present how to change habits of 2015:5). living. This will require establishing rela- 6 The fashion industry currently operates a lin- tionships between past and present; shar- ear production model, based on a “take-make- ing knowledge; entering into dialogues of waste” rationale, in which discarded textile items end up incinerated or in global landfills knowledge with the archival source mate- (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013). rial and with informants who can share 7 This describes the “cradle to cradle” principle, past experiences; and initiating dialogues in which all discarded clothing becomes raw material for new production. See Braungart & in the present so as to actively participate McDonough 2009. in making fashion history sustainable. 8 The research project MISTRA was initiated in Clearly the acknowledgement of living in 2011 and consists of two phases. The first the anthropocene raises the awareness of (2011‒2015) focused on clarifying sustain- able fashion, business models, production the purpose of one’s study, whether as an practices and consumer behaviour. The sec- ethnologist or other professional, as well ond (2016‒2019) will focus on what was Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 39

learned during the first phase and how these Smag, fuldt saa meget som Luksus og Ele- lessons can be applied in order to close loops gance, der gør en Dames Paaklædning til det, in the fashion industry. The project was spon- den skal være – Rammen om hendes Skønhed sored by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic og Fremhævelse af hendes personlighed.” Environmental Research (MISTRA Future 15 “Chokaldepletter paa Linned og Dækketøj Fashion Manifesto). fjernes ved straks at vaske dem af i Mælk og 9 See www.localwisdom.info (1 October 2016). derefter skylle dem i koldt vand.” 10 The interviews were conducted between 16 “Skal man rense Kraverne paa Herrefrakker, March and May 2015, and included the fol- gaar det saa meget lettere, hvis man børster de lowing informants: Rosa, born 1912; Agnes, smudsige Steder med en gammel Negle- eller born 1918; Karen Sofie, born 1914; Sølvig, Tandbørste i stedet for at gnide med en Klud, born 1932; Bodil, born 1928; Elsie, born oder ofte maa fugtes. (…) Hvide Uldkjoler og 1932; Esther, born 1931; Lilly, born 1937; Flithatte renses let, naar de ikke er altfor and Poul, born 1923. smudsige, med gammelt Franskbrød.” 11 So far, the study has included the following 17 “Hvis De er til Selskab og faar en Plet paa sources: Modejournal (1902‒1909, 1910‒ Kjolen, saa ved De naturligvis, at de fleste 1913), Gera Modejournal (1902‒1907), Pletter har bedst af at blive fjernet hurtigt. (Nu Modejournal Chic (1902‒1909), Hus og Hjem taler vi altsaa slet ikke om vanskelige Pletter (1912‒1938), Hver 8. dag, Madame (1943‒ og sarte Stoffer, som altid er klogt at lade et 1944), Vore Damer (1912‒1925), Skandina- Renseri tage sig af). Men naar saa Pletten er visk Skrædderfagblad og modejournal (1925‒ fjernet – saa sidder den vaade Plamage der 1927), Skandinavisk Skrædder-Tidende paa Kjolen og skinner alle Mennesker i (1906‒1907) and press clippings from the de- Øjenene. Ved De, hvad De kan gøre? Tag en partment store Magasin du Nord’s archive elektrisk Pære, der har været tændt saa længe, (1920‒1930). at den er blevet varm, og stryg med den Plet- 12 Hus og Hjem was a weekly women’s journal, ten tør og glat igen.” partly financed by advertising, that launched in 1897 as Husmoderens Blad. In 1911 it References changed its name to Hus og Hjem. The main content of the journal concerned family life, Alexander, Samuel 2016: Policies for a housekeeping and fashion, as well as sensa- Post-Growth-Economy. MSSI Issues Paper No. tional national or international news. 6, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The 13 “Modens Magt er stor – vi er bare mere eller University of Melbourne, pp. 1‒14. mindre hurtige i Vendingen! Længst holder Black, Sandy 2013: Eco-Chic. The Fashion Para- man sig vel nok standhaftig paa Landet, men dox. London: Black Dog Publishing. ogsaa der … ja, man behøver kun at lægge Bly, Sarah, Wencke Gwozdz & Lucia A. Reisch Mærke til Udviklingen! Om man synes om 2015: Exit from the high street. An exploratory den eller ej, bliver en Smagssag – vi konsta- study of sustainable fashion consumption pion- terer kun Faktum. Vi præsenterer i Dag to eers. International Journal of Consumer Stu- Modebilleder af ret forskellig Karakter fra de dies 39:125‒135. nævnte Væddeløb [Longchamp uden for Braungart, Michael & William McDonough 2009: Paris]. Hvorledes man synes om dem, bliver Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make hver enkelt Læsers Sag at afgøre.” Things. London: Vintage Books. 14 “Men hvor stærk Hang man end har til Af- Clark, Hazel & Alexandra Palmer 2005: Old veksling, en Ting bør dog fastslaas som Regel Clothes, New Looks. Oxford: Berg. for dem, der ville klæde sig billigt: de maa Cline, Elizabeth L. 2012: Overdressed. The aldrig købe tarvelig Pynt, men kun en enkelt Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. New virkelig smuk Ting, og de maa holde sig til York: Portfolio Penguin. nogle faa, ikke for stærke Farver, der staar saa Cordero, Robert 2016: Li Edelkoort: “Fashion is godt til hverandre, at Dragt, Hat, Parasol og Old Fashioned.” Business of Fashion, 5 Decem- Handsker altid kunne glide sammen til et har- ber 2016. (https://www.businessoffashion.com/ monisk og behageligt hele. […] Det maa staa articles/voices/li-edelkoort-anti-fashion-mani- enhver klart, at det er Ordenssans og god festo-fashion-is-old-fashioned). 40 Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable?

Damsholt, Tine 2015: Det gode liv i etnologien. Klepp 2011: Potential for Environmental Im- Kulturstudier 2015(1):37‒55. provements in Laundering. International Jour- Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013: Towards the nal of Consumer Studies 35:254‒264. Circular Economy, Vol. 2: Opportunities for Laitala, Kirsi, Casper Boks & Ingun Grimstad the consumer goods sector. (https://www.ellen- Klepp 2015: Making Clothes Last. A Design macarthurfoundation.org/publications/towards- Approach for Reducing the Environmental Im- the-circular-economy-vol-2-opportunities-for- pacts. International Journal of Design 9(2): the-consumer-goods-sector). 93‒107. Fletcher, Kate & Lynda Grose 2012: Fashion and Löfgren, Orvar & Billy Ehn 2006: Kulturanaly- Sustainability. Design for Change. London: ser. Århus: Klim. Laurence King Publishing. Madsen, Benedicte 2012: Aktionsforskning. Il- Fletcher, Kate & Mathilda Tham (eds.) 2015: lustreret med en case: aktionsforskning om ak- Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and tionslæring. (Arbejdsnotat), Psykologisk Insti- Fashion. London: Routledge. tut, Aarhus Universitet, pp. 1‒15. Fletcher, Kate 2015: Other Fashion Systems. In Melchior, Marie Riegels 2013: Dansk på mode! Kate Fletcher & Mathilda Tham (eds.), Rout- Fortællinger om design, identitet og historie i ledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion, og omkring dansk modeindustri. København: pp. 15‒32. London: Routledge. Museum Tusculanums Forlag. Gad, Emma 1903: Vort hjem. København: Det Mistra Future Fashion Manifesto 2015. Nordiske Forlag. (www.mistrafuturefashion.com). Gill, Alison, Abby Mellick Lopes & Holly Netter, Sara 2012: Sustainable Consumption and Kaye-Smith 2016: Practicing Sustainability: Il- Consumer Behavior, Deliverable 1. State of the luminating ‘Use’ in Wearing Clothes. Cultural Art, Copenhagen Business School /Mistra Fu- Studies Review 22:32‒58. ture Fashion. Gordon, Jennifer Farley & Colleen Hill 2015: Sus- Nielsen, Niels Kayser 2010: Historiens forvand- tainable Fashion. Past, Present and Future. linger. Historiebrug fra monumenter til ople- London: Bloomsbury. velsesøkonomi. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitets- Hoskins, Tansy E. 2014: Stitched Up. The Anti- forlag. Capitalist Book of Fashion. London: Pluto Norden 2015: Well Dressed in a Clean Environ- Press. ment. Nordic Action Plan for Sustainable Fash- Hvass, Kerli Kant 2015: Business Model Innova- ion and Textiles. (http://norden.diva-portal.org/ tion through Second Hand Retailing. A Fashion smash/get/diva2:819423/FULLTEXT01.pdf). Industry Case. The Journal of Corporate Citi- Otto, Lene 2004: Etnologien, kulturhistorien og zenship 57:11‒32. folkemuseerne. In Hans Dam Christensen et al. Jensen, Bernard Eric 2010: Using a Past – Magis- (eds.), Museernes historie og teori, pp. 9‒20. tra Vitæ – Approaches to History. In Anne Erik- København: Institut for Kunst- og Kulturviden- sen & Jon Sigurdsson (eds.), Negotiating Pasts skab. in the Nordic Countries. Lund: Nordic Aca- Palmsköld, Anneli 2013: Textilt återbruk. Om ma- demic Press, pp. 205‒237. terialitet och kulturellt slitage. Möklinta: Gid- Klepp, Ingun Grimstad 2000: Fra eggvendte lunds Förlag. laken til festlig lapp på baken. Råd og teknikker Raffnsøe, Sverre 2013: The Human Turn. The for å økonomisere med tekstiler 1900–2000. Makings of a Contemporary Relational Topog- Oslo: Statens Institut for Forbruksforskning. raphy. Frederiksberg: Copenhagen Business Klepp, Ingun Grimstad & Mari Bjerck 2012: A School. methodological approach to the materiality of Reinach, Simona Segre 2005: China and Italy. clothing: Wardrobe Studies. International Fast Fashion versus Prêt-à-Porter. Towards a Journal of Social Research Methodology 17(4): New Fashion Culture. Fashion Theory. Journal 373‒386. of Dress, Body and Culture 2009(1):43‒56. Klepp, Ingun Grimstad et al. 2015: Mapping Sus- Scheer, Monique 2014: Are emotions a kind of tainable Textiles Initiatives. And a Potential practice (and is that what makes them have a Roadmap for a Nordic Actionplan. Copenha- history)? A Bourdieuian approach to under- gen: Nordic Council of Ministers. standing emotions. In History and Theory, vol. Laitala, Kirsi, Casper Boks & Ingun Grimstad 51, pp. 193‒220. Marie Riegels Melchior, Are Fashion Histories Sustainable? 41

Skjold, Else, Ulla Ræbild, Karen Marie Hasling & Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-first. London: Sisse Tanderup 2016: Fur and Sustainability – Penguin Books. A Design Perspective. Kopenhagen Fur / De- Wilk, Richard 2009: Consuming Ourselves to signskolen Kolding. Death. The Anthropology of Consumer Culture Stoklund, Bjarne 2003: Tingenes kulturhistorie. and Climate Change. In Susan A. Crate & Mark København: Museum Tusculanums Forlag. Nuttall (eds.) Anthropology & Climate Change. Svensson, Birgitta 2012: Varför etnologi? Lund: From Encounters to Actions, pp. 265‒276. Studenterlitteratur. Walnut Creek, Cal: Left Coast Press. Thorpe, Ann 2015: Economic Growth and Sus- Wilson, Elizabeth 2003: Adorned in Dreams. tainable Fashion. In Kate Fletcher & Mathilda Fashion and Modernity. London: I B Tauris. Tham (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Sustaina- Woodward, Sophie 2015: Accidentally Sustain- bility and Fashion, pp. 64‒73. London: Rout- able? Ethnographic Approaches to Clothing ledge. Practices. In Kate Fletcher & Mathilda Tham Trentmann, Frank 2016: Empire of Things. How (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Sustainability We Became a World of Consumers, from the and Fashion, pp. 131‒138. London: Routledge. 42 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity among Professionals in Care of Older People By Kristina Gustafsson

In 2011, the Swedish Arts Council re- The aim is to describe and analyse the ceived a directive from the Swedish gov- expectations and experiences of cultural ernment to support the area of “culture activities among local politicians and and older people”. According to the na- professionals working with care of older tional cultural policy objectives, the people. What does culture mean in the set- Swedish Arts Council should work to cre- ting of care of older people? Why, when ate opportunities for everybody to experi- and how would it procure and use cultural ence or take part in cultural activities, to activities? What opportunities and short- participate in educational programmes, to comings are at stake? Two prominent develop their creative abilities and to ideas will be discussed, both embedded in make culture accessible (Swedish Arts contemporary care of older people in Swe- Council 2015). In order to achieve these den and strongly represented among the objectives, some groups may need subsid- politicians and professionals participating iaries and/or assistance. The directive rec- in this study. One idea is about self-deter- ognizes that, since older people often have mination and the other is about cultural relativism. Both ideas might be obstacles health problems or lead socially isolated for cultural activities. lives, they have difficulties attending or taking part in cultural activities. Further- Background more, by emphasizing the medical and therapeutic impact on health and well- From the early 1990s the Educational As- sociation of the region where the study being, older people are legitimated as a upon which this article is based was com- special target group (Kulturdepartementet missioned to deliver culture to the public 2013). This emphasis on the impact of cul- health care. Organizations working with ture on older people’s health led to new the care of older people were its main cus- motives for cultural policies. Culture is no tomers. Grants from the Swedish Arts longer primarily described as a right, but Council and the Regional Executive Com- as a tool for health and wellbeing among mittee of the studied region in 2012–2014 older people (cf. Arts Council England provided the Educational Association 2007; Vändpunkt 2014). with a possibility to further develop this In line with the directive the Swedish assignment. They started to produce a se- Arts Council distributed grants of more ries of cultural activities for older people than SEK 70 million to municipalities, au- and caregivers, called “Culture for Life”. thorities, associations and organizations One painter, two musicians (one opera all around Sweden in order to support cul- conductor and one troubadour) and one tural activities as well as accessibility to novelist worked with this project, as well and participation in “culture for older as one local museum providing material people”. This article is based on an ethno- from the museum’s collections and small graphic study conducted in one region in exhibitions about “weddings” and “coffee southern Sweden and a project about cul- breaks” mirroring past times. tural activity in care of older people in The plan was that “Culture for Life” 2013–2014. should continue over time, with cultural

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 43

workers and participants meeting regular- support, the Swedish Arts Council strives ly at least three times. On the one hand, the to achieve the cultural policy objectives participants were older people coming to and, at the same time, it promotes the de- the day care centres, social clubs or those velopment and distribution of high-quali- living in care homes and, on the other ty culture. The activities of “Culture for hand, the managers and the staff. “Culture Life” followed the same ambition, and the for Life” could be described as a cultural Regional Executive Committee’s website activity or intervention, with the objective guarantees that they supply excellent cul- of changing the situation for older people ture to the inhabitants of the region. From when it came to health and wellbeing. It the perspective of the Swedish Arts Coun- was also a training programme for profes- cil, the Regional Executive Committees sionals working in care of older people. and the Educational Association, there The objective was also to entertain and to was a definition of what culture is and develop the participants’ artistic skills and what it is supposed to offer in terms of ex- knowledge of culture in terms of painting, cellence and high quality. This does not singing and writing. This was the idea of mean that high-quality culture is a fixed the Educational Association and the inter- value; it means that culture is not just any- vention “Culture for Life”, but what was thing. The term “older people” refers to the ambition of the care of older people people who have reached the age of 65. sector? Why, when and how would it pro- Care of older people will be defined in the cure and use these cultural interventions? section about material and method. In order to find out about these questions, the Educational Association initiated re- Research Field search on the topic. It was my commission This study relates to several research to conduct the study in 2013 and 2014. fields: ethnological studies of ageing and older people, ethnological studies of the Concepts: Culture and Older People use of the concept of culture in various The main definition of culture in this art- settings, and also the vast field of health icle refers to aesthetical culture, per- and culture, medical humanities and ge- formed and represented at places such as rontology. To start with the latter, the museums, art galleries, theatres, libraries, Swedish national cultural policy de- concert halls. Aesthetical culture can be scribed in the introduction above is not consumed passively or people can partici- unique. Several European and Nordic pate in cultural activities. Aesthetical cul- countries have introduced similar policies, ture can also be valued (Öhlander 2005). intersecting cultural and public health The homepage of the Swedish Arts Coun- policies (Vändpunkt 2014). Besides the cil says: “The Swedish Arts Council seeks idea that cultural activity is a fundamental to provide all inhabitants in Sweden with part of humanity and its rights, these poli- access to a broad spectrum of high quality cies are based on the argument that culture culture” (Kulturradet.se). The focus on and the arts in all their forms have proven older people and cultural activity is con- to exert positive effects on people’s health sistent with this. Through grants and other and wellbeing (Hartley and Payne 2008; 44 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

Arts Council England 2007; Vändpunkt tolerance and modesty; e.g. students given 2014). the possibility to be introduced to other The arguments that promote good people, places and living situations of dif- health effects are supported by research ferent times and societies (cf. Clarke et al. that seeks evidence-based results (mainly 2015; Turner 2013). quantitative effect studies). The argu- Within the area of humanities, particu- ments are also supported by the results larly in the disciplines close to applied re- shown from cultural activities within di- search, such as museology, there is a cur- verse areas of health and social services rent discussion and freshly instigated re- and target groups, spanning from children search about how cultural institutions to old people and from people suffering and artists might support other public from trauma to people experiencing de- services, such as social services and care pression and/or social exclusion (Came- of older people (Jackson 2011). In addi- ron et al. 2013; Clift 2014; Hartley & tion, there are also critical voices within Payne 2008; Skingley et al. 2015; Teater the humanities, not against the effects of & Baldwin 2014). A major part of this re- performing or consuming cultural activi- search, though, is produced within disci- ties, but against the use of culture as if it plines related to older and ageing people, were without any meaning in itself (Bel- i.e. gerontology, geriatrics and psycho- fiore 2002, 2006; Belfiore & Bennett therapy (Skingley et al. 2015). 2010). Medical research on how the arts affect In Sweden, at Gothenburg University a our health is carried out in Scandinavia as research centre called Culture and Health well, often cooperating with other disci- operates in a multi-disciplinary setting plines, such as art history, literature or with the aim of establishing culture and music, with special focus on therapy health as a new and specific research area (Grape et al. 2003; Ruud 2002; Theorell in Sweden (Sigurdson 2014). Internation- 2009). Internationally, research on the arts ally there are several journals specialized and therapy could be the most well-estab- in this area, e.g. Journal of Applied Arts lished research area when it comes to evi- and Health and Arts & Health, both start- dence-based studies of the relation be- ed after 2009. This new research field of tween cultural activity and health (cf. culture and health relates to an already es- Cochrane Community). tablished field of medical humanities. As In the field of humanities, culture and described by Evans (2007) medical hu- the arts in health and social care settings manities are occupied with three main are often discussed in terms of liberal arts, issues, which all can be identified in the and the social advantages of studying the research overview above: 1. The thera- arts, history and philosophy in profession- peutic perspective and the use of arts, mu- al education are promoted (Nussbaum sic therapy and bibliotherapy in medical 1990, 1997). The idea is that consumption treatments of patients. 2. The pedagogical of/participation in cultural activities will perspective where courses in humanities, help people to develop emotions, empathy literature and art science are used in edu- and fundamental values, such as respect, cation in medicine. 3. The theoretical per- Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 45

spective that connects medicine and study is chiefly the ethnological and cul- healthcare to history, society and human ture-critical perspectives in the growing agency. area of culture and health and medical hu- Among ethnologists in Sweden there manities as described above. are several examples of studies about older people and ageing (Alftberg 2012; Material, Method and Theory Hyltén-Cavallius 2005b; Jönsson & Lun- The study was conducted in six munici- din 2007; Nilsson 2011). There are also palities in one region in southern Sweden. ethnological studies of the use of culture The main part of the collected material in health and care of older people (Drakos consists of 23 in-depth interviews. I start- 2015; Hyltén-Cavallius 2005a; Lundgren ed out by interviewing six local politicians 2005). Among those Drakos (2015) has from the social services board (four in rul- studied the meaning and impact of culture ing position and two in opposition). From in therapeutic treatment of patients with these interviews I obtained an overview of long-term pain. Hyltén-Cavallius has the complex social area of care of older studied the use of music and choirs in care people. Care of older people covers settings for older people. He has critically everything from open social clubs for analysed the normative idea of older older people to specialized rehabilitation people as “one generation with similar teams for dementia. I organized the differ- needs, tastes and wishes” and therefore ent forms of care for older people and care the same need of culture, e.g. accordion of older people in two categories: preven- music and “folkhemsromantik” (cf. Hyl- tive services open to all over the age of 65 tén-Cavallius 2005b; 2007). and care services possible only after in- To conclude, research in all sorts of vestigation of needs, conducted and de- areas within medicine, social sciences and cided by social work officers. Examples humanities provides culture with a wide of preventive services are open social range of value-creating characteristics, clubs and “meeting areas” open to all. spanning from the ethical impact on pro- Care services are home care service or liv- fessionals to the medical effects on the ing in special care homes. health and wellbeing of their clients, to the I interviewed nine middle managers critical humanistic approach concerning within public and private care services, the norms about older people and the four of them middle managers of preven- problem of considering culture as support tive services (all public), and five of them and tool for other areas rather than an end managers of care services. I also inter- in itself. In this study I am more concerned viewed three enrolled nurses working in with issues about the use and possible im- care services and four social workers plementation of cultural activities in care working with preventive services. To get of older people in a wider context than is- to know the care of older people from a sues about the impact on health or well- more general perspective I interviewed being of the specific cultural interventions two managers responsible for the devel- of “Culture for Life” (cf. Ekström & Sör- opment of the social care in their respec- lin 2012). Hence the contribution of this tive municipality. Finally, three cultural 46 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

workers from “Culture for Life” were in the same time and are influenced by the also interviewed. The respondents repre- same discourses in media debates, poli- sented a wide range of professional back- cies, regulating documents and legislation grounds, working/having worked with about older people, care of older people, care of older people and older people in ageing etc. This becomes correspondingly different areas of the region and in mu- obvious when comparing with other quali- nicipalities with various economic and tative studies with professionals working social situations. All respondents were in care of older people, conducted in other aged between 40 and 60, all native parts of Sweden (Elmersjö 2010; Åhlfeldt Swedes and all except one had long expe- & Engelheart 2009). In order to under- rience in working with older people. The stand the setting, observations were con- majority had 20–30 years of experience ducted, with the purpose of attending cul- of social work and care of older people in tural activities and learning the daily rou- particular. Besides the cultural workers, tines within care services and preventive only one of the politicians had a com- services. Observations were documented pletely different career. with field notes later turned into “thick de- The interviews were open-ended and scriptions” (Geertz 1973). Several other the respondents were asked in advance to sources of written material, such as the reflect upon two main questions. They municipality’s website, state reports, were first asked to describe their work and regulating documents from the National place of work and secondly to consider Board of Health and Welfare and the So- cultural activity in care of older people, cial Care Act were important complemen- when, why, how, by whom and for whom? tary material. They were also asked to relate their an- The study was not a case for vetting un- swers to concrete experiences in order to der the Ethical Review Act (SFS 2003: exemplify their sometimes quite abstract 460). Ethical principals have been fol- ideas about cultural activity in their work. lowed, together with informed consent. The interviews took place at the respond- Yet, there are constantly ethical consider- ents’ workplaces. They lasted between 1.5 ations to take into account. Although the and 2.5 hours and all interviews were re- topics of the interviews were quite harm- corded and transcribed after informed less, we sometimes touched on delicate is- consent. sues, and personal stories were told. It was Since the respondents had such a long evident that the terminology within the experience, the interviews also covered a care service was a sensitive issue. One re- long period of working in care of older spondent contacted me the day after our people, enabling comparisons in time and interview, wanting to correct her use of space between past and present (Riessman the term “care recipient” to “customer” 2003). It is trivial to say that each inter- when referring to an old person. view is unique. They are, but there are also Another ethical consideration is that patterns and ideas, and experiences even, confidentiality is always complex in that apply to all of them (although not evaluation studies or, as in this case, com- shared) since they operate in the same area missioned research, since the “field” (the Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 47

six municipalities of the region) is diffi- of dilemmas that structured their daily cult to fully anonymize. All quotations work and affected cultural activities. One used in the text have therefore been de- dilemma could be labelled as collectivism tached from place and context, while pro- versus individualism. fessional titles remain. The concern of the nurse mentioned The collected material – interviews, ob- above, who wanted to change the word servations, written documents and web “care recipient” to “customer”, could be pages – were analysed thematically using understood through the dichotomy be- cultural analysis with the aim of under- tween collectivism and individualism. standing the context and fundamental Several of the interviewed persons had a values of care of older people. Discrepan- long experience of working with care of cies, perspectives on human beings, ambi- older people, also among the politicians, tions and values with significance for the and one of the objectives mentioned for use of cultural activities were identified staying was the “mission” to change how and categorized under two main themes: old people are perceived and treated. In individualism and collectivism; private the late 1970s and early 1980s, when sev- and public (cf. Ehn & Löfgren 2012). eral of the respondents entered the labour These themes seemed fruitful to investi- market, they were upset by how the care gate in order to understand why, how, of older people was organized. “I thought when, by whom and for whom cultural ac- older people were badly treated. They all tivities were considered useful in care of had to take a shower on the same day, and older people. In analysing the themes, two they all had to take care of their stomach fundamental values seemed to dominate on the same day” (local politician). An- in the care of older people, the idea of other politician told about how those aged self-determination and the idea of cultural between 65 and 100 often were thought of relativism. In addition to the themes I also and lumped together more or less as a have further developed these two values in “bundle” and, therefore, supposedly were terms of a theoretical framework of the interested in the same kind of lifestyle and concept “the liberated self” and cultural activities, e.g. “listening to the accordion relativism. Themes and theory will be de- and playing Bingo” (cf. Hyltén-Cavallius scribed and used in the following sections 2005b). where the results and analysis will be pre- A third politician described how she sented. had introduced a new vocabulary in her municipality in order to change the per- Older People or Customers: Individ- spectives on the older people. Instead of uals Bunched Together as One Col- “service user” or “care recipient” she in- lective troduced “customer”. Her considerations In the collected material, several promi- pinpoint the problem of talking about and nent features came up as the respondents handling older people as a collective described their work and reflected on cul- group. This also pinpoints the efforts be- tural activity in care of older people. They ing made to change attitudes and find a often ended up explaining different kinds vocabulary that will help politicians, man- 48 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

agers and staff to recognize each person as Both home care services and care an individual. homes struggle with the staff schedules, The same politician explained that the with the dichotomy between collectivism term “customer” was introduced to em- and individualism included in the strug- phasize the relation between the old per- gle. One middle manager of a private care son and those working with the care of home explains: older people. Being a customer means be- Our passion is freedom and self-determination, ing an active person with individual ex- i.e. each person should be able to choose their dai- pectations, demands and rights that the ly life. This is what is the most important, to help professionals have to listen to. Otherwise them keep their freedom. As far as possible. It they will have no customers. Several of would not be possible [to work] if everyone want- ed to get up and have breakfast at 8 a.m. We can’t the interviewed reviewed the terms and have 200 staff coming in the morning. But we do how older persons were perceived. They as far as possible give them the opportunity to thought that the project of individualizing choose. older people through the customer ap- The quotation leads to the other dilemma, proach, as well as the concomitant right of public versus private. In the quotation it self-determination, were important ideas becomes obvious that the care home is a to safeguard. private home where older people live and that they should have the possibility to Private Living in Public Spaces continue the life they had before moving Concerns of this kind had consequences in, for example to have breakfast in bed at for the organization of the work, especial- 8 a.m. At the same time, it is a public ly within the care services. The preventive workplace for the staff. The workday is services were public, open and free to planned and scheduled in accordance with visit. The individual could reject partici- labour market regulations. Several of the pation and thus have an impact on the ac- interviewees discussed the dilemma of tivities that were offered. The whole idea working in someone else’s private home, of preventive services was based on col- particularly those working in care homes, lectivism, meaning coming together, tak- where the care and daily routines for older ing part in collective arrangements and people often were collectively arranged, doing things together (Teater & Baldwin for example, with breakfast, lunch and 2014; Roe et al. 2014; Skingley et al. dinner served in common rooms. Further- 2015). When it comes to the care services more, in these settings, offering activities and the care homes in particular, the situ- also became complicated. Most activities ation was somewhat different. The indi- were offered collectively in special week- vidual is considered able to choose a care ly programmes and ranged from playing home (public and private alternatives with bingo or boules, gardening, vegetable special profiles) but once the choice is growing, drama, yoga, crafts and art, a made, this individual is placed together pub quiz, fitness classes, and so on. with “seven other persons, and these you To sum up, the respondent above re- cannot choose” (public care home middle vealed how the risk of interpreting care manager). homes and care of older people as public Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 49

settings went hand in hand with the per- impossible, working situations (cf. Dick- ception of older people being a collective ens 2010; Teater & Baldwin 2014). The group (handled in public institutions). The care of older people in Sweden follows dilemma was that, instead of dealing with strict regulations and routines and every- individuals with respect for their freedom thing has to be documented. One manag- and right to self-determination and to live er emphasized that the planning of cul- in private spheres, staff still treated older tural activities is an open issue, since people as in the old days, i.e. as a (collec- these do not follow the daily routines or tive) “bundle”. This dilemma is relevant schedules. Hence, to work with a cultural to how cultural activity is perceived and activity could be a moment of freedom used in the daily work. and an inspiring break from daily rou- tines. In addition, a middle manager at a Expectations and Experiences of Cul- public care home explained: tural Activity in Care of Older People [To the staff] this means doing something mean- The interviews with the local politicians ingful and important – in short to do good. You clearly showed that the greatest challenge know, it is fundamental in this work, to do good. for all six municipalities was how to To do good gives a feeling of satisfaction, of com- handle the growing ageing population (cf. pleting something instead of [as it usually is in the daily work] being under pressure for not having Teater & Baldwin 2014; Skingley et al. the time. 2015). One politician explained: Anyhow, several managers have noticed To manage the future care of older people, we need more preventive work and services. Then reluctance among their staff to take part in people will stay healthy much longer. Otherwise activities such as “Culture for Life”. One the care of older people cannot be financed. Prin- explanation was the barrier of prestige. As cipally, our care of older people policy aims at described by Hartley, many people have keeping people healthy longer and dying sound strong memories of school teachers telling (local politician). them that they are not good enough when Cultural activities definitely seemed an in- it comes to drawing a painting or singing teresting alternative when organizing pre- (Hartley and Payne 2008:48). This was as ventive work. Local politicians also men- true for the older people as for the younger tioned the cultural policy objectives and staff. Another reason was characterized as the value of inclusion of older people as “the good housewife norm”. Cleaning up, well as the issue of right to cultural activ- cooking, taking care of the laundry is con- ity, but most prominent was the idea of sidered as real work, while drawing, sing- promoting health and wellbeing among ing and drinking coffee is “doing noth- older people. ing”. One manager reflected on the fact To the managers of care of older that, often, the staff did not realize that all people, culture had many meanings these activities were important to create a based on both experiences and expecta- relation to the old person, as well as for tions. The majority of these managers changing attitudes. In the act of drawing talked about the working situation of together under the supervision of an artist, their staff and described stressful, almost a more equal relationship might develop 50 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

between staff and the old person than in ceived and treated; from a collective another situation. One nurse sums up the group to individuals. The vocabulary meaning of cultural activity within her change was noticeable both in the inter- work (in care of older people). views as well as on the websites and else- Of course it is valuable working with cultural ac- where. Older people were described as in- tivity. It is great fun for me. I also think it is of sig- dividuals and customers with the right to nificance to the care recipients [customers] to see liberty and self-determination. me in another position and to develop another The political philosopher Charles Tay- contact. Normally I am someone who makes the lor (1991) argues that being perceived as bed or cleans the room. In doing activities to- an autonomic individual structures the gether, they see a completely different dimension of me, namely the human being instead of the way a person in a liberal democratic so- nurse. ciety is respected and recognized. Refer- ring to the Enlightenment philosophy and To conclude, besides the expected effect Rousseau, Taylor describes a dominating on health, working with cultural activity idea of self-determination and liberty in care of older people seems to hold based on the ethics of authenticity and many other values, such as being a cata- captured in these lines: lyst for doing good, creating equal rela- tionships and being almost subversive to Being true to myself means being true to my own originality, and that is something only I can articu- the routine and rule-based everyday care. late and discover. In articulating it, I am also de- Therefore, in order to give quality to the fining myself. I am realizing a potentiality that is work of the professionals, it seems rele- properly my own (Taylor 1991:29). vant to continue working with cultural This liberty of self-determination is activity in care of older people. There are formed in the intersection between the in- obstacles, though, and they will be ana- dividual, considered to be able to “meas- lysed next. ure” what is right, wrong and good for her or him, and the surrounding society that Self-determination and the Respect should respect this measure of right and for the Liberated Self good (cf. Giddens 1991). Taylor (1995: A middle manager of a private care home 145) discusses the implications of these considered the agreement procured by the ideas on society. Recognizing each human community, which said that she was re- being as an independent agent, with quired to offer activities five days a week. self-awareness and the capacity to evalu- It [the agreement] says offer. It sounds nice but, to ate and make decisions about his or her be frank, we must never forget what the older per- own life, is the kind of respect that society son wants. I can offer, offer and offer, but never owes people today.1 forget the question: What do you want? The interviews display traces of these As previously stated, local politicians, ideas, e.g. the quotation above and the cru- managers and staff working with/in care cial question, “What do you want?” In ear- of older people were currently involved in lier studies, I have used the concept “the a project aimed at changing the vocabu- liberated self” to explain how human be- lary as well as how older people were per- ings are respected and recognized in con- Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 51

temporary Swedish welfare institutions part in, or even be offered. One manager at (Gustafsson 2004, 2012; MacIntyre a public care home explains, “If Mary 1981). The respect for the liberated self is wants to paint, she should have the oppor- how professionals should recognize older tunity to paint.” people today, with capacity to evaluate The respect for the liberated self and for and make decisions about their own lives. individualism is a way to break up the for- The opposite would be the belief that mer treatment of older people as a passive older people are subordinate to traditions and collective group. One risk is that the and the power of other superiors, e.g. idea of the liberated self could be the ob- family, heritage and authorities (or care- stacle to hide behind, i.e. as long as the givers). To become a liberated self is a older people do not ask for something to goal, and professionals and welfare insti- do, those involved in care of older people tutions should work to promote the cap- do nothing at all. Another risk is that older acities of each individual when evaluating people are disqualified as “individuals”. his or her own life and decision-making. Most of older people living in care homes This is a respectful approach, but with in- (a minority) have multiple diseases, suffer dividual decisions come individual re- from dementia and/or memory problems. sponsibilities. While being respected as capable individ- The respect of the liberated self is also uals, they also have to be recognized and supported by economic liberalism and by still respected as people in need of help the decentralization of welfare institutions and in some respects as lacking the cap- and distribution of health care and social acity to choose, evaluate and make deci- services that many societies in Europe sions about their own life (cf. Nilsson have undergone (Rose 1999). As a part of 2011). recognizing a person as a liberated self, it is also important that society respects the The Idea of Cultural Relativism free choice of welfare services by offering The conclusion that the individual is to de- a wide range of both public and private cide whether or not he or she shall/wants services. In Sweden, the first steps to- to take part in/consume cultural activity wards economically liberal solutions for opens up for another idea presented in the the welfare sector were taken in the early interviews, namely, that culture cannot be 1990s. Economic liberalism means that valued. Local politicians explained that people are understood as customers on a with the challenge of a growing and age- welfare market. ing population, their one goal was to keep Both ideas, the respect for the liberated the older people safe and sound until the self and the recognition of the customer, end. To prevent illness, loneliness and are possible obstacles to cultural activity other problems of ageing, the municipali- in care of older people. If older people are ties offered preventive services and this is perceived as customers with a recognized where cultural activity becomes interest- capacity to evaluate their own life, the ing. In discussions about what culture is, politicians and the professionals cannot the most common answer was that it could decide what activities they should take be almost anything. 52 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

We talked about cultural activity within the care tivism is that the value of a cultural phe- for older people at lunch at home today. My hus- nomenon is relative and follows an imma- band said, “Culture, does that mean you will take nent rationality only possible to under- the old person to art galleries?” I answered, “No, stand in its specific context. In the case of we have to start asking questions about what cul- ture is, and what it is for you, what would make obstacles to cultural activity in the care of you happy?” My husband answered, “Well then, I older people, the politicians and profes- want to watch football.” “Okay”, I said, “that is a sionals represent the idea of cultural rela- cultural activity. But another kind than a piece of tivism, an idea that is generous and re- art at a gallery” (manager of a municipality devel- spectful in how it recognizes the choices opment unit). and tastes of the individual. One manager Again, it all comes down to the respect for concluded: the individual’s inner measure and the To me it does not matter what you do as long as it ethics of authenticity. What culture repre- gives happiness and wellbeing. And who am I to sents is up to the individual to decide. decide that painting together with a painter is Which cultural activity or art form a per- better than spending time looking in my own photo album? What people enjoy differs, and so it son chooses to consume or take part in is a must be. Just because people are old we can’t matter of being true to oneself and what guide them into what to do. I mean myself, I’ve makes oneself happy (Taylor 1991). This never enjoyed going to museums looking at paint- leads to relativism when it comes to cul- ings, so why would I do that when I move to a care ture and the value of culture. home? Going back to the early twentieth cen- This approach could be called cultural tury, the theory of cultural relativism relativism or the privatization of cultural was presented among cultural anthropol- activity. From the perspective of cultural ogists who questioned the dominating policy and cultural institutions, e.g. the theory of cultural evolution (Hastrup Swedish Arts Council, the Educational 2010). Briefly, cultural evolution was Association and the Regional Executive based on the theory that all cultural phe- Committee, cultural activity was not rela- nomena could be placed in chains of tive but seen as high-quality and excellent. evolution, like animals and plants. Cul- Furthermore, care of older people was tural anthropologists used the cultural seen as a public institution where cultural evolution theory mainly to explain the activity was possible to implement with differences between “cultures”, i.e. why the argument that excellent and high-qual- some were primitive and others devel- ity cultural activity is a right for all, with oped and civilized (ibid.). positive effects on health and wellbeing. What cultural relativists criticized was But this is of course an argument that is that the cultural evolutionist theory was dependent on the evaluation of the cultural both ethnocentric and wrong. Cultural de- activity as well as on the fact that not velopment and differences cannot be ex- everything that might be included in cul- plained as determined by evolution and ture and cultural policies has these good adjustment to nature. Culture is construct- effects. The strong belief in cultural rela- ed from human creativity and interaction. tivism represented in the interviews with Therefore, the core issue of cultural rela- politicians and professionals in care of Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 53

older people, undermined the aim of the older people” does not mean that profes- cultural policy and might form an obstacle sionals or politicians should refrain from to the use of cultural activity in the care of taking initiatives. older people. Second, the idea of cultural relativism could mean a devaluation of cultural ac- Opportunities and Shortcomings of tivity. Together, the ideas of the liberated Cultural Activity in Care of Older self and cultural relativism could lead to a People commodification of cultural activity, The ideas described above about the liber- which would then be recognized and con- ated self and cultural relativism open up sumed in accordance with the demands, for questions rather than answers to the is- tastes and interests of the old people, with sue of the use of cultural activity in care of no regard to excellence or high quality. older people. These are questions of rele- This risk has been debated in cultural pol- vance that need to be addressed in the con- icy studies. Believing in the positive im- temporary debate among policymakers pact of culture in social and care settings and professionals within social work, has led to instrumental approaches to cul- health care and cultural sectors. ture as a resource with specific (positive) First, the study showed that the de- results (Belfiore 2006). One reason to be mand within the care of older people was critical is that in reality there is very little based on individual wishes and interests, evidence that cultural activity has that and up to each old person to decide upon. kind of impact (Clift 2012). Another rea- This means that, in spite of the benefits son is that this cultural policy is “kid- for health and wellbeing, evidence-based napped” by other institutions and policy or not, cultural activity cannot be imple- areas and disciplines, e.g. by the health mented as part of the care of older people and medical care policy. Cultural activity as long as it is considered that it should becomes a tool and a support to other be an individual choice. Another problem areas of society, and the value of cultural related to the idea of the liberated self activity loses the value of being an end in was pointed out above, namely that the itself (Belfiore 2010). recognition of the liberated self tends to Finally, if the argument of cultural ac- make it difficult to recognize whether or tivity as a tool for creating health and not the older person is aware or not of his wellbeing legitimates its use in care of or her needs and capacities (to evaluate, older people, the target group (older make choices and decisions about his or people) is likely to be disqualified as a full her own life). The balance has to be member of society, with a right to cultural found between keeping the respect for activity. For example, if an older person the individual and his or her privacy and sings in a choir, singing might be con- setting up goals of social cohesion and sidered a tool for reminiscing and taking wellbeing by supporting collective activ- care of the brain (Teater & Baldwin 2014). ities in public spheres. Otherwise there is The health aspect becomes superior to a risk that nothing is done at all. Saying other aspects of attending the choir, e.g. “We have to listen to the wishes of the the purpose of having fun or learning 54 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

something. One consequence could be Can Learn from Each Other. Perspectives in that older people are perceived as care re- Public Health, 133(1), 52–59. Clarke, Jean, Lovelock, Roe & McNay, Marie cipients or possible care recipients instead 2015: Liberal Arts and the Development of of free and self-determined individuals Emotional Intelligence in Social Work Edu- that fulfil their own wishes. The easiest cation. British Journal of Social Work 45, 1– way to avoid this would probably be to go 17. Clift, Stephen 2012: Creative Arts as a Public back to the core statement and argument, Health Resource. Moving from Practice-based namely that cultural activity is a right for to Evidence-based Practice. Perspectives in all, regardless of its effects. Public Health, 132(3), 120–127. Cochrane Community. Available from http:// Kristina Gustafsson community.cochrane.org/cochrane-reviews Associate professor [accessed 12 October 2015]. Linnaeus University Den kulturella hjärnan. Available from http:// Department of Social Work www.kulturellahjarnan.se/forskning-2/forsk- SE-351 95 Växjö ning/ [accessed 12 October 2015]. e-mail: [email protected] Dickens, Jonathan 2010: Social Work and Social Policy. An Introduction. Abingdon: Rout- ledge. Note Drakos, Georg & Löfgren, Monika 2015: Kultur 1 Original title: “The Concept of a Person”: på recept vid långvarig smärta. Redskap för att Social Theory as Practice”, B. N. Ganguli förändra sig själv. Stockholm. Rapport från Memorial Lectures, 1981, New Delhi & Ox- Kulturförvaltningen Stockholms läns landsting ford: Oxford University Press, 1983. och Smärtrehabiliteringen vid Danderyds sjuk- hus. References Drakos, Georg, Löfgren, Monika & Rystad, Mar- Åhlfeldt, Emanuel & Engelheart, Stina 2009: So- gareta 2015: Rapport från ett pilotprojekt. Kul- cialt innehåll. Om förändringsarbete för en- tur på recept vid långvarig smärta. Stockholm. hetschefer i äldreomsorgen. Stockholm: Nestor Rapport från Kulturförvaltningen Stockholms FoU-center Skriftserie 01/09. läns landsting och Smärtrehabiliteringen vid Alftberg, Åsa 2012: Vad är det att åldras? En et- Danderyds sjukhus. nologisk studie av åldrande, kropp och mate- Ehn, Billy & Löfgren, Orvar 2012: Kulturanaly- rialitet. Lund: Lunds universitet. tiska verktyg. Malmö: Gleerups. Arts Council England, 2007: The Arts, Health and Ekström, Anders & Sörlin, Sverker 2012: Alltings Wellbeing. London: Arts Council England. mått. Humanistisk kunskap i framtidens sam- Belfiore, Eleonora 2002: Art as a Means of Alle- hälle. Stockholm: Norstedts. viating Social Exclusion. Does it Really Elmersjö, Magdalena 2010: Kompetensfrågans Work? A Critique of Instrumental Cultural lokala konkretisering. En studie om kompetens- Policies and Social Impact in Studies in the perspektivets betydelse för äldreomsorgens in- UK. International Journal of Cultural Policy, nehåll. Växjö: Rapportserie i socialt arbete 1, 8 (1), 91–106. 2010. Belfiore, Eleonora 2006: The Social Impacts of Evans, Martyn 2007: Medical Humanities. the Arts – Myth or Reality? In Culture Vul- Stranger at the Gate, or Long Lost Friends. tures. Is UK Arts Policy Damaging the Arts? Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10, ed. M. Mirza. London: Policy Exchange 363–372. Limited. Geertz, Clifford 1973: Thick Description. Toward Belfiore, Eleonora & Bennett, Oliver 2010: The an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In. The Inter- social impact of arts. An Intellectual History. pretation of Cultures. Selected Essays, pp. 3– Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 30. New York: Basic Books. Cameron, Marsaili, Crane, Nikki, Ings, Richard & Giddens, Anthony 1991: Modernity and self-iden- Taylor, Karen 2013: Promoting Well-being tity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. through Creativity. How Arts and Public Health London: Polity Press. Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity 55

Grape, Tom, Sandgren, M., Ericson L.-O. & Essays on Philosophy and Literature. Oxford: Theorell, Töres 2003: Does Singing Promote Oxford University Press. Wellbeing? An Empirical Study of Professional Nussbaum, Martha C. 1997: Cultivating Humani- and Amateur Singers during a Singing Lesson. ty. A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Integrative Physiological and Behavioural Education. Cambridge/Massachusetts, London/ Science 38, 65–74. England: Harvard University Press. Gustafsson, Kristina 2004: Muslimsk skola, svens- Öhlander, Magnus (ed.) 2005: Bruket av kultur. ka villkor. Konflikt, identitet och förhandling. Hur kultur används och görs socialt verksamt. Diss. Umeå: Boréa. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Gustafsson, Kristina, Norström, Eva & Fioretos, Riessman, Catherine, Kholer 2003: Analysis of Ingrid 2012: Between Empowerment and Personal Narratives. In Inside Interviewing. Powerlessness. Separated Minors in Sweden. In New Lenses, New Concerns, ed. J. A. Holstein New Directions in Child and Adolescence De- & J. F. Gubrium. London: Sage. velopment 3/1/2012, 65–77. Roe, Brenda, McCormick, Sheila, Lucas, Terri, Hartley, Nigel & Payne, Malcolm (eds) 2008: Gallagher, Wendy, Winn, Andrea & Elkin, So- The Creative Arts in Palliative Care. London phie 2014: Coffee, Cake & Culture. Evaluation UK, & Philadelphia, USA: Jessica Kinsley of an Art for Health Programme for Older Publishers. People in the Community. Dementia 15(4), Hastrup, Kirsten 2010: Kultur. Den flexibla ge- 539–559. menskapen. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Rose, Nicolas 1999: Powers of Freedom. Refram- Hyltén-Cavallius, Sverker 2005a: Det sinnliga ing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge svunna. In Bruket av kultur. Hur kultur används University Press. och görs socialt verksamt, ed. Magnus Öhlan- Ruud, Even 2002: Varma ögonblick. Om musik, der, pp. 203–224. Lund: Studentlitteratur. hälsa och livskvalitet. Göteborg: Ejeby. Hyltén-Cavallius, Sverker 2005b: Minnets spel- SFS 2001:453 Social Services Act. Socialtjänst- rum. Om musik och pensionärskap. Hedemora: lag. Stockholm: Socialdepartementet. Gidlunds Bokförlag. SFS 2003:460 Lag om etikprövning av forskning Hyltén-Cavallius, Sverker 2007: Lika gamla leka som avser människor. bäst. Ålder och generation som likhetsprojekt. SFS 2007:1091 Procurement Act. Lag om offent- In Åldrandets betydelser, ed. Lars-Eric Jönsson, lig upphandling. Stockholm: Justitiedeparte- Susanne Lundin & Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius, mentet. pp. 91–124. Lund: Studentlitteratur. SFS 2008:962 Lag om valfrihetssystem. Stock- Jackson, Shannon 2011: Social Works. Perform- holm: Justitiedepartementet. ing Art, Supporting Publics. Abingdon, UK: Sigurdson, Ola 2014: Kultur och hälsa. Ett vidgat Routledge. perspektiv. Göteborg: Göteborg University Jönsson, Lars-Eric & Lundin. Susanne (eds) 2007: Press. Åldrandets betydelser. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Skingley, Ann, Martin, Anne & Clift, Stephen Kulturdepartementet 2013: Uppdrag till Statens 2015: The Contribution of Community Singing kulturråd att främja kultur för äldre. (Ku 2013/ Groups to the Well-being of Older People. 1966/KO). Available from  Journal of Applied Gerontology 35(12), 1302– http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/16865/a/225551 1324. [accessed 29 March 2016]. Swedish Arts Council, 2015. Available from http: Kulturradet.se http://www.kulturradet.se/en/in-eng- //www.kulturradet.se/en/In-English/ [accessed lish/ [accessed 29 March 2016]. 12 October 2015]. Lundgren, Eva 2005: Hemlikt eller hemporr. In Taylor, Charles 1991: The Ethics of Authenticity. Bruket av kultur. Hur kultur används och görs Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: socialt verksamt, ed. Magnus Öhlander, pp. Harvard University Press. 225–262. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Taylor, Charles 1995: Identitet, frihet och gemen- MacIntyre, Alasdair 1981: After Virtue. A Study in skap. Politisk-filosofiska texter i urval av Ha- Moral Theory. London: Dockworth. rald Grimen. Göteborg: Daidalos. Nilsson, Gabriella 2011: Age and Class in the Teater, Barbra & Baldwin, Mark 2014: Singing Third Age. Ethnologia Scandinavica 41, 71–88. for Successful Ageing. The Perceived Benefits Nussbaum, Martha C. 1990: Loves Knowledge. of Participating in the Golden Oldies Commu- 56 Kristina Gustafsson, Expectations and Experiences of Cultural Activity

nity-arts Programme. British Journal of Social Capacity to Inspire Professional Growth and Work 44 (1), 81–99. Empathy. British Journal of Social Work 43(5), Theorell, Töres 2009: Noter om musik och hälsa. 853–871. Stockholm: Karolinska Institutet University Vändpunkt. Förslag om kultur och hälsa i nordisk Press. samverkan. Rapport till Nordiska ministerrådet Turner, Linda M. 2013: Encouraging Professional från Region Skåne 2014. Malmö: Region Growth among Social Work Students through Skåne. Literature Assignments. Narrative Literature’s Synchronizing the Self with Science How Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease  Move Along with Clinical Trials By Markus Idvall

I’m going to be cured within ten years, so if any- The impatience with scientific progress thing is going to happen with your stem cells, you was, it turned out, characteristic not only must hurry on, […] I remember I said to her. of Magnus’ story but also of many of the When Magnus was diagnosed with Par- other narratives that I came across during kinson’s disease (PD), he was only 44 my fieldwork. For example, when I inter- years old. Married with two children and viewed Anita together with her husband self-employed, he was in the middle of his Nils, this sort of anxiety was expressed life and busy with all those activities that rather unexpectedly in the middle of our are essential for a middle-aged man in his conversation. Now in her mid-seventies, position: job, family, vacations. The diag- Anita told me that she got her Parkinson nosis came as a shock for him as well as diagnosis eleven years before, at a time for his wife. Their life together became when she was about to retire from her more complicated and after some time work in an office. In the first years as they divorced. In my interview with him, chronically ill and retired, she was able to conducted eight years after he fell ill, do things without being hindered too much. Together with Nils she travelled a Magnus explained that, at that time, he great deal, for example. But successively could not include anyone else in his life. her illness became more and more incap- He had enough with the outbreak of his acitating. In the interview she concluded illness and all the new routines that were that travelling had now become too tire- introduced to him. His goal was to get some and stressful for her. Her life had in cured and he remembers that he promised a way slowed down and become more re- himself early to accomplish this within ten stricted. Regarding my questions about years. what science possibly could contribute in I met Magnus for an interview during a this situation, she did not hide how frus- fieldwork in 2015 on how PD individuals trated she as a patient felt about circum- and their relatives face biomedical science stances that she could not control or have and the possibility to participate in clinical any impact on. Reports on stem cell re- 1 trials. Magnus had volunteered as a par- search, for example, had followed her ticipant in a research project on cell trans- continuously ever since she was diag- plantation and in the interview quotation nosed with Parkinson. But nothing has above he recapitulates what happened just happened, she exclaimed with irritation. before he was enrolled in these trials that Her impression was that there had been no were planned. He had initiated contact scientific breakthrough whatsoever during with one of the researchers in order to be- all these years of her illness. come part in the medical project. As he Impatience with science – a sort of frus- described it in the interview, he even trated feeling that progress is too slow and urged this person, this scientist, to “hurry life is elapsing too fast – thus stood out as on” with research. In my exchange with a crucial factor for how these individuals Magnus I could sense in him a sort of im- with PD, who were both actual and poten- patience with the slow tempo of scientific tial trial participants, talked about the kind progress. of forefront science that transplantations

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 58 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

with dopaminergic (dopamine-producing) Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in cells into the brain are represented as Chronic Illness and Time she pictures within biomedicine.2 What was perceived how the self of the chronically ill is based as a slowness of research pinpoints an exi- on a strategic time structuring that in- stential dilemma for these individuals. As volves several different practices: organ- they live their life with a feeling that the izing, scheduling, reordering, simplify- kind of research results that could possibly ing, juggling, pacing, etc. (1991:134– change their situation – in a crucial way 166). and probably for the better – never come, In his work on the history of sexuality, they are simultaneously addressed as mor- the cultural historian Michel Foucault tal beings in a way. In an attempt to ex- (1988, 2002) shows how what he calls the plore what this pattern of existential anx- care of the self and different strategies of iety and dis/quieting dis/beliefs that the the body were central for the development PD individuals articulated is all about, I of the modern self. Together with Char- will apply a radical time perspective on maz’s self in time, Foucault helped me to these issues. In the article I highlight sev- focus on how the body turns into a strate- eral different aspects of how time is expe- gic arena for the individual subject in rienced, used and patterned in different fleeting encounters with the health prom- contexts: the gradual development of a ises of science. However, using the cul- specific transplant activity; some individ- tural theorist Michel de Certeau’s work uals’ juggling with the past; their connec- The Practice of Everyday Life (1984) I tions to what they see as the hope of the also turn the analysis in a different direc- future; their ways of sharing time with tion: instead of strategy I want to test what others, in terms of investing, consuming prospects a concept such as tactic has and wasting time, in terms of winning and within the frames of a time perspective. losing time, or waiting for time; their ex- According to de Certeau (1984:37), tactic periences of slow and fast tempos; their is vital for understanding how the opera- different practices of synchronizing with tions of what he calls “the weak” make use others, with what they perceive can save of time in order to realize “a mobility that them or let them down. must accept the chance offerings of the I will use inputs from four different moment, and seize on the wing the possi- scholars who in various ways gave me in- bilities that offer themselves at any given struments for problematizing how people moment”. Tactic and mobility will in this live in time and with time. Charmaz, context visualize how power is enacted on Foucault, de Certeau and Ingold: all four the individuals, in terms of what de Cer- deal with questions about the subject and teau (1984:37) calls “enemy territory” or her/his relation to time, body and mobil- “panoptic places”, for example, and how ity. The sociologist Kathy Charmaz the embodied strategies thus become tem- (1991) discusses how time experience is porary and restricted in different ways. an essential part of how the chronically Like de Certeau, the social anthropolo- ill constitute their self; how they organize gist Tim Ingold takes pains to integrate and cope with their lives. In her book movement in different respects in his way Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 59

of analysing people and environment. In fieldwork and the material that was col- his books Line: A Brief History (2007) and lected and eventually used in the analysis. Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowl- edge and Description (2011) he intro- Method and Material duces an original perspective on how hu- In the planning process of the fieldwork mans (and non-humans) live, not in stable that this article is based on, I became inter- networks but in knotty and disordered ested in meeting individuals with varied meshworks where individuals move experiences of biomedical science in gen- around in relationships not between but eral and clinical trials in particular. My along each other (Ingold 2011:63–94). initial focus, however, was on individuals The line is Ingold’s metaphor for how life who had participated in clinical trials. I is lived in movements which can be as- wanted to know more about their trial ex- sembled and fairly organized (Ingold periences. Still, I also had an interest in 2007:72–75), but whose main characteris- how patients more generally looked upon tic supports the idea that entangled life is new biomedical technologies and thera- endless, open and messy. My time per- pies. Because of this I eventually decided spective here will thus be related to how to interview not only actual trial partici- individuals are immersed in “conjoined” pants but also individuals who, even actions where lines are tangled while though having no personal experience of touching and crossing rather than meeting clinical trials, could relate to science in each other (cf. Ingold 2011:83). broader terms from their illness perspec- Below I will start the analysis of some tive. This double interest of mine, in trial individuals whose self will be pictured as, experience and in a more general but still ambiguously, both strategically organized disease-orientated perspective on clinical and in constant motion, by sketching a trials, was finally systematized by the con- brief historical contextualization of the struction of a questionnaire including current cell transplant trials. Linked to this questions on patient empowerment and contextualization will be the individuals’ clinical trial participation. own understanding of how the early trials, In the recruitment phase of the inter- which they did not take part in, turned out. view study, I was in contact with the two Their juggling with these past events then categories: individuals with Parkinson becomes the bridge to the analysis of the who either had or lacked personal experi- present where the cultural practices of ence of clinical trials. Individuals with connecting to others, sharing time and trial experience were enrolled through a synchronizing between different move- kind of snowball sampling. My first in- ments will stand in the forefront. To round formant with this background was well off I present a brief conclusion about how known in patient contexts and through one can understand the ways in which mass media. By using this person’s sug- moving along with life and science is a gestions for additional interview subjects, fruitful perspective on the situation for ac- I expanded that part of my interview study tual and potential research subjects. Be- that concerned trial experience. Individ- fore I start, however, I will present my uals without experience of clinical trials 60 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

were instead approached through contacts age about one hour, mostly took place in with different local patients’ associations. the interview subjects’ private homes. A In this case I was invited to meetings couple of interviews, however, were con- where I presented my research project ducted at my interview subject’s or my and, simultaneously, was allowed to ask own office and one interview was in an whether anybody in the audience was in- outdoor café. The interviews were record- terested in taking part as an interview sub- ed and these recordings were eventually ject in my work. All interview subjects, transcribed verbatim. Sixteen interview both those with and those without trial ex- transcriptions are thus the empirical foun- perience, were informed about the inter- dation of the analysis here in the article. view study through written and oral infor- Supplementary research material in the mation and they also signed a consent shape of biomedical articles published on form about their participation in the study. cell transplantation was collected for the All together 16 PD individuals were inter- historical part of the article. viewed. In eight cases, a partner was inter- viewed together with the individual with A Step-by-Step Development for Cell Parkinson. Thus, in total 24 individuals Transplantations into the Brain took part in 16 separate interviews. In the first half of the 1980s, research was The 16 individuals with Parkinson’s focused on cells from the adrenal glands disease – seven women and nine men – as a possibility to restore the failing func- were in different phases of their illness. tion of dopamine for Parkinson patients. Some had been ill for more than twenty Research teams in different parts of the years, while others received their diagno- world struggled to initiate the first clinical sis only a few years before. Some had ex- trials where the cell tissue for implantation perienced an early onset of the disease in into the brain of PD individuals was to be their life whereas others had perceived procured from the recipient’s own body. their first symptoms much later in life. Technically these interventions were thus Some were in their early forties when autografts, implicating only one individ- interviewed, while others had passed ual, rather than transplants, which always seventy. Some were employed or self- involve two separate individuals: a donor employed; others were retired, after reach- and a recipient. The first implantations ing retirement age or in advance as an ef- with adrenal cells took place in Sweden, fect of their illness. Some were affected by where four patients in total received this the disease rather mildly, whereas others type of tissue into the brain. These trials were affected to a great extent – they were not a success, however, as health im- could be hindered in their speech or their provements were only temporary for the legs were weak. In this sense I learned that patients (Björklund & Lindvall 2013:29– Parkinson is not only a degenerative dis- 31). At about the same time, a team in ease with distinct phases, but also a condi- Mexico City implanted two patients who tion where symptoms vary from individ- were relatively young, in their thirties, and ual to individual. who had “intractable and incapacitating The interviews, which lasted on aver- Parkinson’s disease”, with tissue from the Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 61

adrenal glands. The Mexican team, in con- transplants were planned by the Swedish trast to the Swedish groups, reported more team and in 1989 two new patients were firmly “[c]linical improvement” in their grafted with foetal neuron cells. “In pa- patients and in this way triggered a lot of tient 3”, the scientist remembers in his new activity within the field in the next symposium text, “it was clear that some- few years (Madrazo et al. 1987; Williams thing started to happen from about three 1990:301). According to a retrospective months after transplantation.” He con- article, several hundred patients had this tinued: kind of brain surgery worldwide in the The movements in his [the patient’s] limb contra- second half of the 1980s “in a series of lateral [on the opposite side] to the grafts were rather poorly controlled trials” (Dunnett et faster and his rigidity was less. His condition in al. 2001:365). In the USA, research the morning after drug withdrawal over night was groups soon showed that these autografts improved (Björklund & Lindvall 2013:39). from the adrenal glands “did not survive After another two months it was decided long-term and that, at best, modest clinical to investigate more carefully whether the effects [for the implanted patients] were improvement for this participant was “due followed by significant side effects and an to surviving graft in the patient’s brain”. unacceptable level of morbidity and mor- The check involved a trip to London for tality” (Dunnett et al. 2001:365). the scientist and one of his colleagues to- A change of track was already on the gether with their patient. Here they got a way in this growing patient participatory PET scan of the brain of the patient at a context of cell implantation. Neuron cells, collaborating hospital.4 “Already when we procured from human foetuses, were the were in London”, the scientist recalled in new bio-material that was invested with the symposium text, hope by the scientists. Preclinical trials the preliminary images suggested that dopa- with rats had been conducted since the minergic grafts had survived. We were extremely 1970s (Dunnett et al. 2001:365; Freed excited but could not believe that this was true. 2002:1755; Barker et al. 2013:84). In When I came home […] I did not dare to tell my 1987, time was ripe for a research team in wife. After a few days we got confirmation that the PET images really showed a surviving graft Sweden to perform the world’s first clini- […]. This finding, that grafted cells can survive cal trial with transplantation of neuron transplantation into the brain of a 50 year old hu- cells from aborted foetuses into the brain man affected by a chronic neurodegenerative dis- of human recipients.3 Within a short inter- order and give rise to a measurable improvement, val two Parkinson patients were selected was the most exciting ever in my scientific career and transplanted. The result for these trial (Björklund & Lindvall 2013:39–40). participants “showed minimal if any im- A new shift came in the 1990s however. provement and [there was] no real evi- Dopamine-producing cells from animals – dence of graft survival”, one of the scien- known as xenotransplantation – turned up tists involved in these trials recalled in a as a possible solution for humans with symposium text published more than Parkinson. If this could work, it may be twenty years after the trials (Björklund & possible to resolve the generic problem of Lindvall 2013:37). Despite this, new transplant scarcity that concerned not only 62 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

cells from aborted human foetuses but al- National Institutes of Health (NIH), per- most all sorts of grafts (kidneys, lungs, formed two double-blind, placebo-con- hearts, etc.). Great excitement surrounded trolled trials. More than seventy partici- xenotransplantation research in those pants were enrolled altogether in the two days, and some research clinics across the studies and the project designs made it world even initiated clinical trials with possible to compare how or whether trans- animal cell transplants. These trials with planted and non-transplanted participants pig cells and bovine cells involved not reacted differently to the treatments they only Parkinson patients but also individ- received (Freed et al. 2001; Olanow et al. uals with disorders such as cancer and 2003). Still, the researchers in the end diabetes. However, in comparison with could not give any exact explanation for the human cell material, the results from why there was such variability in the way the transplantations with animal cells patients reacted to cell transplants. An im- were not so promising. Animal cells were, portant finding of these bigger trials was, moreover, linked to a potential risk that however, the identification of the risk of a non-human grafts could spread diseases to certain side effect in the form of severe humans on a genetic basis. Scientific art- and uncontrollable dyskinesias (involun- icles had shown, for example, that virus tary movements of the body) for some of genes incorporated in the DNA of the pig the participants who were transplanted could infect human cells when these virus with the foetal neuron cells (Dunnett et al. genes and human cells were cultivated 2001:367; Evans et al. 2012:172).5 (Larsson & Brundin 2004:158–161). It was no surprise then that a new shift Eventually the xenotransplantation re- was indicated for cell implant research on search on humans was suspended in Eu- PD individuals in the early twenty-first rope and elsewhere. century. Now stem cells appeared as a In parallel with the xenotransplantation challenger of the original foetal neuron research, human cells continued to engage cells (Larsson & Brundin 2004:161–163). Parkinson scientists in the early 1990s. Stem cells were anticipated to become During this period around 400 PD patients more accessible than cells procured from were transplanted with foetal neuron cells aborted foetuses. They were also expected in different centres all over the world to be a more flexible tool for implanta- (Barker et al. 2013:85; Petit et al. 2014: tions than (ordinary) neuron cells in the 61). The results were diverse. There were future. Stem cells were potent in a com- patients whose condition improved after pletely new way, that is, they could de- having this kind of new cell therapy. But velop into all different cell types in the hu- there were also those who experienced no man body, while neuron cells were fixed improvement at all. “[T]he variability in in one single function.6 However, this clinical outcome was striking”, as ex- great flexibility of the stem cells was also pressed in a later review article on the ex- a weakness. This new type of cells were periments (Barker et al. 2013:85). As a re- known to start differentiating in uncon- sponse to this uncertainty two multicentre trollable ways, and in the human brain this projects in the USA, financed by powerful could lead to the development of brain tu- Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 63

mour for transplanted individuals. Stem called, for example, that foetal neuron cells were therefore not useful in clinical cells were questioned as source material. trials for the time being, whereas foetal Her own standpoint is nevertheless that neuron cells were taken as being a rela- the use of the human foetus for this kind of tively safe but rather inaccessible source object is acceptable. Inger likewise men- when performing transplants for some ad- tioned the foetal neuron cells that were de- ditional time.7 bated in former times. In her story the rec- ollection is embedded in her own fate. At Juggling with the Past and Monitoring the time of these controversies she was the Self in Participatory Contexts struggling to understand what was wrong This passage of a time filled with progress with herself. She was obviously experi- that runs step by step – a passage which encing her first PD symptoms in those took cell implantations on individuals years and got immersed in that type of with PD from adrenal to neuron cells, alienating process that one endures while from human to animal cells and back to falling ill (Gunnarson 2016:84–89). When human cells, as well as from foetal to, Inger finally contacted a doctor, she told most probably, stem cells – is not a lived him that she thought that she had Parkin- history for the individuals with Parkinson son. But the doctor, as a general practi- that I interviewed. Rather this passage tioner and not a specialist, did not think so must be seen as a history that is represent- because she was too young for that in his ed in different contexts for the individuals. eyes. She had not turned forty yet. However, in theory, a more personal expe- The early cell transplant trials were re- rience of the early trials could have been membered in an informational rather than possible for the individuals too. Having a personal way by many of the interview been born in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, subjects. The attitude of these subjects my informants were all contemporary be- was formed by a distance in relation to the ings at the time of the specific develop- actual events in the past. However, as in- ments. Still, none of the early innovations dividuals with PD they also sensed the im- or cell transplant trials, from the 1980s portance of understanding what truly hap- and 1990s, appears as a personal memory pened in those early trials and how all this in any of the interviews. Probably this has was related to them. The response of the to do with the fact that most of my inform- individuals to these former trials, or rather ants did not have their PD onset until some towards the information about them, be- years later, in the early twenty-first centu- came a sort of juggling with the past – ry. what Charmaz (1991:161–166) sees as a However, those few of my interview strategic time structuration in order to persons who actually got Parkinson in the control the difficult embodied situation. 1990s remember a particular debate from Such a striving for informational control, that decade, namely, the controversial is- from Foucault’s (1988) outlook a kind of sue of whether aborted human foetuses monitoring of the embodied self vis-à-vis could be used in clinical trials and for sci- science, was particularly apparent among entific purposes (see note 7). Birgitta re- those interview subjects who were partici- 64 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

pating in the cell transplant trials in the Magnus and Mikael described the past present time. When I interviewed Mikael trials with optimism, even though it was he was aware of his placement in the an optimism that was subdued. Both were group which was to be without an active aware of the problems encountered in the transplant, the control group.8 This cir- early trials. After his signing of the con- cumstance did not correspond to what he sent form, for example, Magnus read expected as he accepted participation in some scientific material on the early trials the project at an earlier stage. At the time that he received from a friend. Reading of his connection to the project he was this material he understood that some of prepared to be transplanted with the foetal the early trial participants had a different neuron cells. Still, his optimism from the type of Parkinson from his. When I asked time he was enrolled has not been reduced him if he had talked about this with his over the three or four years that he has doctors who were running the research taken part in the research project. In line project, he joked that he did not want to with this hard-won optimism was his way know too much. Still, in his opinion the early cell transplant trials were overall a of “remembering” the early trials at the failure from the perspective of the pa- clinic where he is enrolled, in the follow- tients, even though some participants im- ing terms: one-third of the eighteen pa- proved in their health. Mikael, from his tients that underwent surgery in the 1980s angle, identified risks that may turn up in and 1990s “were in principle cured”, future trials with what happened in those one-third “improved a great deal” and early trials that took place “outside Swe- one-third “had no clear effect”. den”, namely, that the conditions of sev- Magnus too put a lot of faith in the ap- eral of those early participants got worse proaching trials by juggling with the past. after their cell transplantation and one pa- He emphasized that some of the members tient even died. Mikael reasoned that this of the present research team were also in- probably had to do with mistakes made by volved in the early trials in the 1980s and these foreign researchers who carried out 1990s. In his view this was an advantage the studies or with the selection of partici- because the scientists that he was thinking pants which included patients who were of had, thanks to their experience gained unsuitable for that kind of surgical inter- knowledge that he thought would be use- vention that was in question. ful in the forthcoming trials. In Magnus’s opinion the early trials both failed and Connecting with the Scientists of succeeded and for this reason they became Hope a resource for future scientific work. To Kathy Charmaz (1991:250) discusses a stress his point Magnus recounted the dif- certain form of future-orientation among ferent theoretical insights that the re- chronically ill; how these can situate their searchers, in his view, gained from the selves in the future in what they do in their early trials, concerning the selection of the everyday lives, by “living in the future, trial participants as well as the medication [and by] directing one’s thoughts, actions, that these subjects had during the trials. and plans toward the future”. What hap- Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 65

pens according to Charmaz (1991:250) is entists too in their encounters with pa- that “[s]pecific meanings of the future tients. Most of the interview subjects had shape how ill people project themselves contact with their doctor once a year. into it”. Here I will deal with PD individ- These consultations usually took an hour uals’ self-projections into the future by and during this hour there was seldom analysing how these patients and trial par- time to ask more open questions that ticipants that I interviewed make contact would include scientific issues. Corre- in clinical encounters with that “industry spondingly, Marie told me how many of hopes” (Lundin 2004:11–12) that the questions she wanted to ask about how do- presence of science and implicitly scien- pamine works in the brain and whether the tists themselves represent. Attempting to brain can repair itself after loss of dopa- connect with clinical scientists is thus seen mine, but there was never any time for as an essential way for the PD individuals questions. She felt that her doctor was un- to follow hope – to live with hope – in der too much stress for that kind of con- their daily practices. If they succeed in versation. Inger likewise perceived that that following of scientific hope, they not there was no time to ask questions beyond only become part of the constant flow of her own condition when she met her doc- continuation or in that unfinished history tor, even though she knew that he was ac- which the past trials are a reminder of, and tive as a researcher. Instead she asked the which the scientific practices in the pres- nurses about what was going on in re- ent represent “before the cure”, but they search. These usually replied: “We will also qualify as moving into and thereby see in five or ten years.” But they did not having a future, even though this future is know anything really, Inger added. Per as- dependent on, in de Certeau’s (1984) and sumed somewhat critically that his doctor Ingold’s (2011) eyes, movements which was not doing any research at all. At least are indeterminately forward and not fully he had never talked about research with aligned with the half-structured, half- his doctor. Similarly, Bo was never able to messy meshwork of the scientific prac- learn more about Parkinson research in tices. conversations with his doctor. In the inter- A first impression was that for many of view his wife Karin disapprovingly added my interview subjects, research was un- that Parkinson care is not very well de- known ground when I mentioned the veloped in Sweden, at least not outside the topic. Instead, in the interviews the sub- areas of the university hospitals, and often jects often referred to their contacts with as a patient you meet a new doctor every doctors and nurses. However, in these time you come back for a new consulta- contacts with care-givers rather than sci- tion since the permanent medical staff is entists, the producer of hope – research – away on parental leave or vacation. could turn up suddenly and without warn- When it comes to connecting with sci- ing. The doctors especially have a dual ence within the frames of health care and role in this context. Their main character hereby, imaginatively, moving along a is that of the physician, but sometimes and promising therapeutic path into the future, often unpredictably they come out as sci- university clinics seem to offer more value 66 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

for their patients than other less academic formation about science. He had no con- clinics do for their patients in their con- tact with researchers for the moment and texts where academic traditions are spars- felt a bit wronged in terms of how much er. Mats’s story illustrates this. He had information those patients living in uni- previously gone to a doctor in his home- versity areas receive in comparison to town. But this doctor closed his clinic and what he himself received when living at a Mats was forced to find a new doctor. He long distance from a university hospital. decided to consult a doctor in a nearby city However, Anita, who was living in the with a university hospital. He explained same region as Per, felt that she obtained that the “culture” was totally different in all the information on research that she this new context. The doctor appeared to needed from her doctor. She added ap- know more and was more open in his talk provingly that this doctor never looked at than his former doctor was. Mats was not what time it was when meeting her. With- taking part in any trials for the time being, in this open time for consultation whose but felt that he had come “closer to sci- liberal frames were set by Anita’s doctor, ence” just by having a doctor in the uni- there was also time for some more casual versity town. In line with this circum- talk on research. According to Anita, her stance that university clinics increase the doctor explained to her how far the scien- possibility of scientific connections was tists had come in their research and how Birgitta’s description of how she interact- slow this development usually is. ed with her doctor. Being a scientist her- In these narratives about being inside or self, she had a good dialogue with her doc- outside the contextual boundaries of the tor and felt that she could discuss research university hospital and the hopes of the fu- questions with him as well. Her doctor ture that this institution gives rise to for was known as one of the successful scien- the chronically ill, one can sense what tac- tists at the university clinic. Birgitta was tic mobility may be about in situations not taking part in clinical trials at present, when individuals with Parkinson ap- but was waiting for Deep Brain Stimula- proach scientists. The university hospital tion (DBS) surgery, which is a form of represents that strategic space – an “ene- specialist care and only conducted at uni- my territory” in de Certeau’s (1984:37) versity clinics.9 Before she accepted this view – where one as a tactically orientated possible intervention, she had been in- potential research participant is reduced to formed in detail by her doctor-cum-re- being the other in relation to the relatively searcher. powerful scientists. However, individuals This closeness to science and possible who as actual trial participants have more better treatments in the future can be expe- continuous contact with clinical science rienced as unfair among other PD individ- appear to transform some part of this sec- uals and their families. At least, this is ondary position of being the other. In- how I interpret Bo and Karin’s critical stead, these individuals gradually seem to comment on Parkinson care above. These occupy a more strategic stance based on feelings of injustice also informed Per’s their embodied participation in the trials answer when I asked him how he got in- as well as on the self-care that supports the Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 67

kind of action that clinical participation the project. Magnus in a way confirmed entails. In Magnus’s story about how his this from his trial participant perspective. doctor, at a different hospital, reacted He was convinced that he benefited from when he heard about Magnus’ participa- his participation in the cell transplant tion in the clinical trials, we see how a re- trials. He visited the researchers three search patient in some instances can be- times a year in comparison to an ordinary come more than the subordinate other in patient who often meets his or her doctor the biomedical context. Magnus’ doctor is only once a year for consultation. If he a scientist himself, but he is not part of the wanted to, he declared, he could also tele- research project that Magnus is participat- phone his doctors any time. For example, ing in. However, this doctor knew very if he had the wrong medication he learned well who the scientists collaborating with about this at once as a trial participant. Magnus were, and apparently he also ad- Another one of the trial participants that I mired one or two of them. At least, this is interviewed, Annika, was, however, am- what comes to mind when Magnus de- bivalent about this question whether she scribes how impressed the doctor was would gain anything from being a re- when Magnus told that he was one of the search patient. In her imagination it was trial participants at the particular research like that, she said. But in practice she felt clinic. Hearing that Magnus was meeting that, as a patient, she had not gained any these well-known individuals every time benefits from her participation in the he went for a test that was part of the re- trials. She switched doctor when she be- search project, the doctor was mesmer- came trial participant. Now her doctor was ized. Some of these researchers that he one of the researchers whose project she gets to meet at the research clinic, Magnus was part of. However, even in this re- explained, have the status of rock stars search context consultation time seemed among neurologists in Sweden. to be in short supply. She talked about Whether trial participants can trans- how problematic it could be sometimes to form their supposedly minor position to get in contact with her doctor, or with any- such a great extent that they start to have one else at the university clinic, in order to an impact on doctors and scientists’ be- discuss her medication, for example. In haviour is a question that generates differ- these situations when she was acting as ent answers. If one asks individuals who patient in the research environment of the have never partaken in science there university clinic, she could “feel small” in seems to be an understanding that this is relation to the medical staff who were the case, that trial participants, for ex- simultaneously conducting research on ample, get consultation time with the doc- her. tor more easily than ordinary, non-partici- Feeling small is another way of saying patory patients. A reason can be, as one in- that one does not feel fully comfortable formant suggested, that a researcher who with one’s embodied presence in the con- is also one’s doctor needs to meet the pa- text of the clinical trials. In this respect the tient for a check-up at more frequent inter- enemy territory of the university hospital vals in order to collect necessary data for that turns the regular patient into the sub- 68 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

ordinate other is a reality also for those was time for all this in his life. Per’s Par- trial participants who strive to be more kinson appeared to be relatively mild in strategic in relation to scientists and doc- comparison to some of my other inform- tors. Also as a trial participant, one may ants’ PD. He explained that there are need to indulge oneself in that tactic and people who sometimes do not understand the greater mobility that characterizes that he is ill at all. According to Per, these how non-participatory patients relate to people could not read the small signs science in general. Even identifying one- which were present. If they looked at “my self with a small laboratory animal may, facial expressions” more carefully, they half seriously and half as a joke, be a way would understand, he said. Regarding re- to recognize for oneself one’s feelings of search, Per expressed great enthusiasm for smallness or vulnerability in this context. this. However, he himself was not inter- Both Magnus and Mikael mentioned in ested in taking part in clinical trials for the passing that sometimes when connecting time being. He felt that he was too well at with science one can feel like one of those the moment and, what is more, he did not laboratory animals – a rat or a hamster – have the time. that usually are experimented on long be- Per’s way of reasoning is not unique. fore clinical trials on humans are even Even with a life-long disease like Parkin- contemplated. Against this background, son one fills one’s days with time-con- connecting with science and possibly im- suming activities. Also managing the mersing oneself in what can be future chronic illness itself takes time, and often treatments appears as a possibility to gain means an immersion in illness (Charmaz a more high-status position than patients 1991:73–104). Therefore, in this continu- in general, but also as a form of emotional ous passage of mundane activities, an op- risk which means that in certain situations portunity to take part in a clinical trial con- one may feel strangely vulnerable in a veys something in temporal respects. way that one is not used to. Clinical participation becomes a form of investment in time for the individual with Sharing Time with Science PD in order to win or improve something. When I met Per for an interview he had Trial participation transforms the patients just finished his daily physical activity. into research participants but also into Together with a friend he was having time consumers who in their daily prac- lunch as I rang the doorbell to his house. tices and reflections are forced to balance His friend was about to leave and Per had between, on the one hand, what they see as time for our interview; actually the full af- a time loss for themselves and, on the ternoon if I wanted to, but in the evening other hand, what they experience as a sub- he was going to a concert with his choir. In stantial gain in some way. the interview I learned that Per had a lot of Investing time in clinical participation activities in his everyday life. Physical ac- varies a great deal in grade. Participation tivity took a lot of time, but he was also ac- in cell transplant trials is probably among tive in different societies. He had recently the more time-consuming projects for in- retired from his job and now felt that there dividuals with PD. When I listened to An- Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 69

nika, Magnus and Mikael – the three of with her own work at home. In contrast to my interview subjects who were taking many of her PD friends she was still work- part in a clinical trial – I got the impression ing professionally. These trips abroad of- that there were several dimensions in the ten meant that she missed two or three way they shared their time with science days at work. She was supposed to be within the frames of the research project. compensated for her loss of income, but On a general level they were assembled sometimes it took an annoyingly long time for this project for some years and maybe for this to come through. even longer.10 Assembled in the sense that By sharing time with science, the trial they were, as Ingold (2007:72–75) would participants took a certain step in their put it, following a process of construction illness careers where they demonstrated a or assembly where a number of connected moral self-management of the ill body points are planned for them and lie ahead within the frames of the biomedical sys- of them. They had already been part of the tem. This particular responsibility that the project for three to five years. During this trial participants showed is, according to time they had been subject to several tests. Foucault, a form of ethics engaging the Twice a year they visited the research subject and including a technology of the clinic and went through tests which were body (see e.g. Bernauer & Mahon 1994). repeated over again the next time they On the basis of the moral approach, ideas came. Once a year they also went abroad about possible personal gain from this par- to a specialist clinic where they, just like ticipation must embrace the fact that clini- the early trial participants, had a brain cal trials may be a painful or stressful time scan so that the scientists could map the for participants too. All three of them – disease progression in the brain. The re- Mikael, Annika and Magnus – confirmed peated tests gave a certain rhythm to their that these agonizing moments existed in a clinical participation and, in a way, a sort trial process. It may be that, due to the spe- of motivating orientation that took them cific research protocol, one is without ahead in the project. However, these tests medication for some hours or even days, also entailed a risk of collisions between or it can be that one is seized with cramp the private time of the individuals and the in one’s legs when one is supposed to lie assembled time of the project. Especially still in the brain scan machine. As Magnus the trip to the clinic abroad that was usual- said: You are not “on the top” when taking ly three days long had a tendency to inter- part in a research project; you “get mad at vene into the daily routines of the individ- the nurse when she doesn’t find the vein in uals. In Annika’s case these three-day your arm” or you get so bored and frustrat- long trips had not always been easily in- ed that “you shout at them to change the corporated in the constant flow of activi- music”. The tiresome or painful time that ties and demands at home. Last time she trial participants experience in order gain went she missed her son’s graduation day something for their possible improvement from school. She tried in vain to get a dif- does not need to be limited to the days for ferent date for her travel. Her visits to the the tests only. Trial participation can, as in clinic abroad had also been in conflict Annika’s case, make one exhausted and 70 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

consume one’s time after one has returned tissue right after the project was ended. In back home too. that way the project managers may hope The responsible attitude that the trial to incorporate a feeling among the control participants are forced to adopt – in the so- participants that they are not wasting their ciologist Nikolas Rose’s (1999:214) per- time when being part in the research pro- spective, their responsibilization – can be ject. On the other hand, although Magnus challenged in many ways during clinical still felt frustrated about being random- participation. Both Mikael and Magnus ized into the control group, he could also had been randomized into the control think of this as actually being a better al- group during the project process. As a ternative than receiving the active sub- consequence they would not get the active stance within the project time. He could be substance implanted in the clinical trial. reminded that a surgery is always a risk, This generated a personal crisis for both of and as a participant in the control group he them. They had been enrolled into the pro- would not be operated on in this project. ject on the basis of their conviction that “So maybe I am a winner anyhow,” he this trial was a way of receiving some concluded, even though he knew that he form of treatment for their Parkinson. would have to wait for his trial and poss- Now they were not involved in this critical ible treatment. part of the project any longer, and this In health care, waiting-time is usually a meant that both of them had pondered negative thing. As a patient one does not over whether they were going to use their want to wait too long to get treatment. One right to withdraw from the project. They is waiting for a specific treatment and had similar feelings about the new condi- meanwhile one is maybe suffering pain or tions for their participation in the project; getting more ill.11 In my interviews there feelings that their role in the control group are several examples of how the PD indi- would mean that they were losing time in viduals as patients have been forced to some sense in their search for better treat- wait for certain treatments for different ments or even a cure. reasons. Often it has been a question of A participant’s withdrawal is of course lack of resources. In some instances a problem for the managers of a research periods of waiting-time have developed project. Usually one has some kind of into a struggle to get a treatment more strategy to counter this kind of problem. In rapidly from the patient’s point of view. the project that Magnus and Mikael took One of my interview subjects had great part in, the individuals’ motivation to stay problems with her Parkinson and she was on in the project was assumed to be told by her doctor that she needed to get strengthened by offering these partici- specialist treatment in the form of Deep pants that have been removed from the Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery. She transplant group the possibility to take consented to this DBS surgery but was part in new clinical studies after the pro- deeply disappointed when she was told ject in question was finished, or, if the that there was to be a one year-long wait grafts turn out to be effective, by offering for treatment in her region. She could not the control participants a dose of this cell accept this and decided to protest against Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 71

these structural problems that she saw as invasive projects as well, but societal gain unfair in relation to what other patients ex- appears to be easy to refer to when the im- perienced in other parts of the country. mersion in science is relatively short for Eventually, and probably thanks to her the individual. Birgitta, who had taken protest, she got her surgery in a shorter part in smaller research projects earlier, time than was planned originally. but never in transplant trials, could in this For research participants waiting-time regard feel that it was her responsibility to is, however, an even more complex phe- participate in research. Still, time invest- nomenon to relate to. It is not certain that ments could be perceived as costly even in waiting is absolutely negative for you. As these smaller projects. For Anita and Nils Magnus reasoned, maybe he will be a it only took a day of their time to be part in winner even though he will have to wait a research project. This was some years longer for his possible treatment than the ago and they were driven by sheer curios- ones who are in the transplant group. Nor ity about Anita’s condition as a PD pa- is waiting something that is abolished tient. They felt that perhaps they were to even for those who get the supposedly learn more about this by participating in fast solution, the ones in the transplant the project. However, when I met them for group. Annika, who was one of these, felt interview I could sense a frustration that that she was waiting at the moment and had remained with them over the years that this long waiting-time, which it had about not being informed about any re- been, was bad for her participation in the sults from that other project. Also, for research project. She was motivated to Monica it was costly to participate in a get a cell transplant and her chances to relatively small research project. As wife obtain this were lowered every time a of a man with PD she participated in the planned intervention was suspended. same project as her husband. She be- Waiting had the consequence that she ad- longed to the control group and took the vanced in her illness and became more same type of tests that her husband did in ill, and this made her enrolment as a re- the research group. Afterwards she got search participant less certain since she really ill and had to stay in bed for several needed to fulfil certain health criteria to days, with severe headache and vomiting. be part in the project. Now in hindsight she said that she would Cell transplant trials thus involve indi- never again take part in a research project viduals for long periods of time. In con- like that one. trast to these time-invasive project there are many relatively small research pro- Synchronizing the Degeneration of jects, too, which are more economical as the Body with Science time investments for the PD individuals. Parkinson’s disease is not seen as a dis- In these projects sharing time with science ease that causes one’s death. Thanks to can easily be associated with ideas about medication it is a disease that one as how one as an individual contributes to chronically ill dies with rather than from the good of society by one’s trial partici- (Hagell 2004:79), but due to the degener- pation. This factor may be part of the more ation of the body that Parkinson causes the 72 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

disease develops into a kind of social trials. He had been enrolled in the project death in the end phase.12 Awareness of this by his doctor and the reason for this was latter phase – when one loses one’s auton- probably that he had this relatively slow omy as an individual and becomes de- degeneration of the body due to mild PD pendent on others – characterized some of and simultaneously was in relatively good my interviews explicitly. In this respect shape. Marie and Mikael were each other’s oppo- Instead, in order to understand how in- sites. Marie had a hard time controlling dividuals time the tempo of their own em- her feelings when she told me how fast the bodied degeneration with the opportunity progress of her illness had been in the last to take part in clinical trials, we need to few years. Her health condition had discuss it in terms of the cultural practice changed for the worse in a very short that I call synchronizing the self with period of time. Mikael, in contrast, looked science. With this conceptualization I slightly relieved when he told me how his want to stress how individuals negotiate doctor had explained that he was lucky to their own progress into the complex con- have a relatively mild form of Parkinson – dition of the illness with how they experi- that is, a condition that develops slowly ence the movement of science, whether it over the years. The tempo of the degener- is experienced as slow or fast, safe or un- ation of the body is therefore a central as- safe, etc. In the interviews I encountered pect of how one relates to science. Or two contradictory ways of synchronizing rather, the experience of the tempo, be- in relation to clinical trials in general and cause there is no exact correlation be- the cell transplant trials in particular: tween, on the one hand, having fast de- aligning and dis-matching. Annika, Mag- generation of the body, that is, being a pa- nus and Mikael had obviously all aligned tient desperate enough so to speak, and, on to the cell transplant trials in early phases the other hand, accepting participation in of their illness. But they did this in differ- clinical trials. Circumstances are more ent ways. Annika and Magnus were en- complex than this. This is shown, for ex- rolled in the trials in rather similar ways. ample, in the cases of Marie and Mikael. Both took an active stance in order to have Marie looked actively for different treat- the possibility to be recruited to the pro- ments that could help her, but told me that ject. Both approached a scientist after a she was not prepared to join a cell trans- lecture and asked if they could join as trial plant project today if she were asked even participant. When Annika did this she saw though her illness had developed fast in it as a chance to test something different. the last years. But maybe she would be in- She was aware that the foetal neuron cells terested in ten years or so when her condi- might not become a method for everyone, tion, as she anticipated, has worsened since there was the practical and ethical even more. Mikael, for his part, who was problem of the availability of cells. How- about the same age as Marie, that is, in his ever, she wanted to test this possibility be- early fifties, was, despite the slow pro- fore she had come too far in the progres- gress of his disease, as mentioned, already sion of the disease. Magnus, on the other taking part in the clinical cell transplant hand, became interested in the trial alter- Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 73

native successively. At the beginning of ing due to the movements of life (and sci- his illness he actually turned down a re- ence). Dis-matching has a lot in common quest from one of the nurses at the clinic. with de Certeau’s (1984:37) concept of It was not a formal request, but more of a tactic mobility. It is a movement that takes check as to whether he had any interest in the individual along and sometimes across this at all. However, as time passed he be- the enemy territory that science repre- came more and more interested in the sci- sents. Occasionally opportunities arise for entific alternative and after a popular lec- the individual to take part in what the ter- ture by a scientist on cell transplant re- ritory can afford, but usually there is no search he confronted the researcher in the real contact. Marie’s story has a lot of doorway after the lecture and asked if these features. She was only in her early there was any possibility to join as a trans- forties when she felt her first symptoms. plant participant. He gave the researcher More than ten years later she was interest- his name and after some time he was en- ed in stem cell research, but she was, as rolled in the project. When a friend, who mentioned above, not prepared to take also had Parkinson, questioned his de- part in trials if she were to be asked. In- cision by asking how he could let them stead, now she investigates her illness by “juggle with your brain”, he concluded her own “trials”. She studies herself by that this friend was ten years younger than objectifying herself, by looking at what himself. He saw this as “my chance to get reactions she gets when she exposes her something which I believe in”. Mikael, in body to different climates, different rou- contrast to Annika and Magnus, was, as tines, and different food while travelling. mentioned, approached by the clinic. On a Taking part in formal science was there- visit to the university clinic where he met fore not interesting for her at the moment. his doctor, he was given an information As also said above, she stated that she sheet about the project and was asked by would like to wait another ten years or so the medical staff whether he was interest- before she would participate in research. ed in signing up for the planned project. Birgitta had likewise dis-matched herself He did not know much about the research from taking part in surgery. In her case she project but he was interested at once and was offered Deep Brain Stimulation consented with a signature. (DBS) surgery at a time when she felt that Aligning is thus a form of synchroniz- her own symptoms were acceptable to live ing movement where accepting the condi- with, while she simultaneously perceived tions is central for how one times one’s that the surgeons needed more practice on own life and self with the institutionaliz- the specific surgical method before she ing practices of science. While accepting was prepared to accept an operation. Now, is the key feature of aligning, it is more however, when she had lived with Parkin- difficult to say what is most fundamental son for more than twenty years she was about the synchronizing practice of ready to accept DBS. Her problems had dis-matching. It is not a matter of rejecting worsened and the surgical method was science, for, as in Magnus’ case above, a more established today than it was when turning down can be followed by an align- she was deliberating on this at the first 74 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

time. Her initial negative reply to experi- ants with PD responded to the information mental or innovative brain surgery she ex- on these early trials, a sort of juggling with plained quite frankly as caused by plain the past and a monitoring of the self in or- fear of receiving this kind of intervention, der to maintain the body and steer towards especially when the method had not been health improvement arose. In this way the performed on that many patients yet. “In strategic handling of one’s own body in that way”, she reflected, “I do not have connection to information becomes fun- such great confidence in research.” Re- damental for how tactic mobility is enact- garding a future possibility of taking part ed by individuals in relations with and in in stem cell trials, she answered that the movements towards science. Central for very thought that someone was to “poke how the contact with clinical science about in the brain” made her scared. works is an industry of hopes where a self is constituted in different forms of negoti- Moving Along with Life and Science ated connections with, or withdrawals In this article I have explored how individ- from, the powerful forces of science. The uals with Parkinson’s disease relate to sci- university hospital as a sort of enemy ter- ence and to their own possible or actual ritory has a key role for how these connec- participation in clinical trials. Based on tions take place in a multitude of ways. Kathy Charmaz’s (1991) analytical per- Since sharing time with science is always spective on self, time and chronic illness, a sort of expenditure for the actual trial Michel Foucault’s (1988, 2002) attention participants, questions about timing and to the care of the self and to technologies awaiting one’s possible participation are of the body, Michel de Certeau’s (1984) often on the agenda for those who are ei- concept of tactic mobility, and Tim ther outside or inside in relation to what Ingold’s (2007, 2011) understanding of the clinical trials can offer. In the end of life as a continuous movement along en- my analysis the inexorable degeneration tangled lines, I have focused on how PD of the body of the PD individuals is linked individuals utilize time in different ways to a certain attention to the tempo of sci- in order to move tactically and navigate ence and life. The cultural practice of syn- strategically, emotionally and with re- chronizing the self with science becomes sponsibility in relation to science. Articu- the foundation of how one as a patient ei- lations of mobility, a sort of moving along ther aligns oneself with or dis-matches with life and science simultaneously, have oneself from science. On the basis of these been crucial for understanding how indi- two major orientations individuals negoti- viduals with PD relate to the panoptic ate their own in/voluntary movements into places and the powerful organizers of the illness with how they perceive the clinical trials. tempo of science. Synchronizing as a Analytically the article started by pre- practice is formed from below, and since it senting a background where cell trans- involves tactic mobility, it is a profoundly plantations to PD patients are described as temporal way of relating to uncertain sur- a historical development step-by-step, roundings. It can comprise resistance and from the 1980s until today. As my inform- rejection, but is principally a manner of Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 75

accepting, collaborating and waiting in re- The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskaps- lation to the demands and expectations rådet). 2 Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative that are present in trial contexts. disease that usually affects persons in their fifties or sixties. It was first described by the Acknowledgements British doctor James Parkinson (1755–1824) at the beginning of the nineteenth century. I wish to express my gratitude to those in- The cause of Parkinson is unknown. The dis- dividuals with Parkinson’s disease and ease is, however, triggered by the successive their partners whom I interviewed for this death of a specific type of cells in the brain, project. I also thank my two anonymous dopamine cells. With the loss of this neuro- transmitter dopamine, certain embodied peer reviewers whose comments were a symptoms arise successively: loss of the great help during the revision of the text. power of voluntary movement, rigidity, shak- ing and problems with balance. There are also non-motoric symptoms in the form of depres- Fieldwork sion, tiredness, anxiety, sleeping problems Between April and December 2015, and, in some cases, dementia. Since the 1960s semi-structured interviews, based on in- there are different pharmaceutical treatments, formed consent, were conducted on 16 including levodopa. These drugs which have an effect on the symptoms but not on the dis- separate occasions, mainly in southern ease itself function well in the beginning, but Sweden, with 16 individuals with Parkin- eventually the effect is reduced and different son’s disease and eight family members of side effects develop, for example dyskinesias (impairment of voluntary movements). Surgi- these individuals in total. Regarding the cal research is focused on replacing the loss of individuals with PD, there were seven dopamine cells by transplantation with dopa- women and nine men. They were aged 44 minergic cells from different sources (Hagell to 75. Duration of illness for these individ- 2004:78ff.). 3 For these clinical trials to happen, it was nec- uals differed from two years to twenty- essary that the Swedish government in 1986 two years. Among the family members established provisional guidelines for the use there were five women and three men, of tissue from aborted foetuses (Barker et al. who were between 65 and 80 years old. 2013:84). 4 Positron emission tomography (PET) is a bio- All interviews were recorded and tran- medical technology for observing and map- scribed verbatim. ping the interior of the human body. It is one of those visualization technologies that in the Markus Idvall last few decades have revolutionized bio- Assistant professor medicine’s possibilities to observe and map Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences processes in the brain and the body overall Ethnology (see e.g. Waldby 2000; Liljefors 2012). Re- Box 192 garding Parkinson’s disease PET scans, to- SE-223 62 LUND gether with another camera technology called e-mail: [email protected] single-photon emission computed tomog- raphy (SPECT), are useful for studying the progress of the disease in the brain and to Notes measure graft survival after cell transplanta- 1 This article was written within the research tion (Hagell 2004:80–81). project “The Two Horizons of Research: Cul- 5 Another effect of the NIH-funded studies was tural Analysis of How Patients and Scientists the ethical debate that followed the trials. The Face Each Other in Clinical Trials within the debate concerned the fact that placebo had Research on Parkinson’s Disease”, funded by been used in the two studies. Participants be- 76 Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science

longing to the control groups had experienced Löfgren (2010) and Beckman (2009). For an a procedure where a hole was drilled in the example that deals with waiting and health skull, but no active tissue was implanted into care and specifically haemodialysis and pa- the brain. Patients’ organizations and some in- tienthood, see Gunnarson (2016); and for an dividual doctors were critical of this kind of example that discusses scientific delays and sham surgery that harmed participants physi- suspense from the viewpoint of researchers in cally without implanting any cells (Galpern et a cell transplant context, see Wiszmeg (2016). al. 2012; Cohen et al. 2012; Idvall 2017). 12 In medical anthropology a distinction is made 6 Stem cells are associated with three kinds of between two sorts of death. On the one hand potency: totipotency, pluripotency and multi- there is “biological death”, which means “end potency. Totipotent cells produce all the cells of the human organism”, and on the other in an organism in development. Pluripotent hand “social death” which implies “the end of cells can give rise to any kind of body cells, the person’s social identity” (Helman 2007: but not to cells of the placenta. Multipotent 231). stem cells have lost their pluripotency and can only provide certain types of body cells (De- References volder 2015:4). Barker, Roger A., Barrett, Jessica, Mason, Sarah 7 The inaccessibility concerned not only the L. & Björklund, Anders 2013: Fetal Dopa- fact that there was often a shortage of research minergic Transplantation Trials and the Future material since several donors (read: aborted of Neural Grafting in Parkinson’s Disease. Lan- foetuses) were needed for each cell transplant. cet Neurology, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 84–91. A barrier for the technique was moreover a Beckman, Anita 2009: Väntan. Etnografiskt col- political and ethical debate that tended to be lage kring ett mellanrum. Göteborg: Mara. re-activated now and then and which was Bernauer, James & Mahon, Michael 1994: The mainly about the abortion as event itself, Ethics of Michel Foucault. In: Gutting, Gary whether it should be allowed or not, but also (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Foucault. about whether the human foetus can be used New York & Melbourne: Cambridge Universi- for scientific purposes of different sorts. In ty Press. many countries anti-abortion and pro-life Björklund, Anders & Lindvall, Olle 2013: From movements made the context for foetal neu- Neurons to Pills. A Symposium on a Revolution- ron cell transplant research uncertain (Idvall ary Method in Neurobiology and the Role of 2017). Creative Research Environments. Supplement 8 Unlike the NIH studies in the 1990s, however, 30, the South Swedish Society for the History of Mikael and the other trial participants in the Medicine. Lund: The Royal Physiographic So- control group were not going to receive any ciety of Lund & Faculty of Medicine at the Uni- placebo surgery. versity of Lund. 9 Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery may Charmaz, Kathy 1991: Good Days, Bad Days. The help against different symptoms of Parkin- Self in Chronic Illness and Time. New Bruns- son’s disease, including involuntary move- wick: Rutgers University Press. ments of the body (dyskinesias). It is a tech- Cohen, Perry D. et al. 2012: Sham Neurosurgical nique that has been developed since the Procedures. The Patients’ Perspective. Lancet 1980s, involving the implantation of elec- Neurology, vol. 11, no. 12, p. 1022. trodes through which electrical impulses are de Certeau, Michel 1984: The Practice of Every- sent to different parts of the brain. day Life. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: 10 That this time investment may be life-long is University of California Press. underlined by the fact that some of the previ- Devolder, Katrien 2015: The Ethics of Embryonic ous research subjects that took part in the ear- Stem Cell Research. Oxford: Oxford University ly trials have been subject to autopsy after Press. their death in order to check scientifically the Dunnett, Stephen B.; Björklund, Anders and cell transplants in the brain. Lindvall, Olle 2001: Cell Therapy in Parkin- 11 Waiting and waiting-time have been dis- son’s Disease – Stop or Go? Nature Reviews cussed as cultural phenomenon in ethnologi- Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 365–369. cal literature recently; see for example Ehn & Ehn, Billy and Löfgren, Orvar 2010: The Secret Markus Idvall, Synchronizing the Self with Science 77

World of Doing Nothing. Berkeley, Los Ange- Ingold, Tim 2011: Being Alive. Essays on Move- les & London: University of California Press. ment, Knowledge and Description. London & Evans, Jonathan R., Mason, Sarah L. and Barker, New York: Routledge. Roger A. 2012: Current Status of Clinical Trials Larsson, Lena and Brundin, Patrik 2004: Trender of Neural Transplantation in Parkinson’s Dis- i medicinsk forskning. Stora ord och snabba ease. Progress in Brain Research, vol. 200, pp. kursändringar. In: Lundin, Susanne (ed.), En ny 169–198. kropp. Essäer om medicinska visioner och per- Foucault, Michel 1988: Technologies of the Self. sonliga val. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. In: Martin, Luther H., Gutman, Huck and Hut- Liljefors, Max 2012: Neuronal Fantasies. Reading ton, Patrick H. (eds.), Technologies of the Self. Neuroscience with Schreber. In: Liljefors, Max, A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst: The Lundin, Susanne, Wiszmeg, Andréa (eds.), The University of Massachusetts Press. Atomized Body. The Cultural Life of Stem Cells, Foucault, Michel 2002: Sexualitetens historia. Genes and Neurons. Lund: Nordic Academic Band III: Omsorgen om sig. Göteborg: Daida- Press. los. Lundin, Susanne 2004: Etik som praxis. In: Lun- Freed, Curt R. et al. 2001: Transplantation of Em- din, Susanne (ed.), En ny kropp. Essäer om bryonic Dopamine Neurons for Severe Parkin- medicinska visioner och personliga val. Lund: son’s Disease. The New England Journal of Nordic Academic Press. Medicine, vol. 344, no. 10, pp. 710–719. Madrazo, Ignacio et al. 1987: Open Microsurgical Freed, Curt R. 2002: Will Embryonic Stem Cells Autograft of Adrenal Medulla to the Right Cau- Be a Useful Source of Dopamine Neurons for date Nucleus in Two Patients with Intractable Transplants into Patients with Parkinson’s Dis- Parkinson’s Disease. New England Journal of ease? Proceedings of the National Academy of Medicine, vol. 316, pp. 831–834. Sciences of the United States of America, vol. Olanow, C. Warren et al. 2003: A Double-blind 99, no. 4, pp. 1755–1757. Controlled Trial of Bilateral Fetal Nigral Trans- Galpern, Wendy R. et al. 2012: Sham Neurosurgi- plantation in Parkinson’s Disease. American cal Procedures in Clinical Trials for Neurode- Neurological Association, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. generative Diseases. Scientific and Ethical 403–414. Considerations. Lancet Neurology, vol. 11, no. Petit, Géraldine H., Olsson, Tomas T. and Brun- 7, pp. 643–650. din, Patrik 2014: Review: The Future of Cell Gunnarson, Martin 2016: Please Be Patient. A Therapies and Brain Repair: Parkinson’s Dis- Cultural Phenomenological Study of Haemo- ease Leads the Way. Neuropathology and Ap- dialysis and Kidney Transplantation Care. plied Neurobiology, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 60–70. Lund: Lund University. Rose, Nikolas 1999: Powers of Freedom. Refram- Hagell, Peter 2004: Utmaningar i utvecklingen. ing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge Nya behandlingsmetoder av Parkinsons sjuk- University Press. dom. In: Lundin, Susanne (ed.), En ny kropp. Waldby, Catherine 2000: The Visible Human Pro- Essäer om medicinska visioner och personliga ject. Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medi- val. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. cine. London & New York: Routledge. Helman, Cecil G. 2007: Culture, Health and Williams, Adrian 1990: Cell Implantation in Par- Illness. Fifth edition. London: Hodder Educa- kinson’s Disease. More patients Have Probably tion. Been Harmed Than Helped So Far. British Idvall, Markus 2017: Taking Part in Clinical Medical Journal, vol. 301, no. 6747, pp. 301– Trials. The Therapeutic Ethos of Experimental 302. Cell Transplantations. In: Hansson, Kristofer & Wiszmeg, Andréa 2016: Cells in Suspense. Un- Idvall, Markus (eds.), Neuroscience and Par- boxing the Negotiations of a Large-scale Cell ticipation. Lund: Arkiv. (In press). Transplantation Trial. Ethnologia Scandinavi- Ingold, Tim 2007: Lines. A Brief History. London ca, vol. 46, pp. 104–123. & New York: Routledge. 78 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge Tracking Change and Continuity by Analysing Movement By Miia-Leena Tiili

The Immobile Landscape of movements the situations were charac- On a late spring evening in 2008, I inter- terised by, and what kind of bodily prac- viewed a young officer who was on duty tices they evoked. Body posture seemed to at a Coast Guard Station. I had come to the be loaded with meaning. This made me station to collect research material for a wonder what kind of cultural meanings dissertation on organisational culture in the corporeal patterns of everyday activi- the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District, ties gave expression to. an administrative unit of the Finnish Bor- In the following, I will investigate the der Guard. When the informant and I dis- relationship between bodily knowledge cussed the winter season and the officers’ and cultural knowledge. Through a num- leisure activities, he brought up the tran- ber of theoretical approaches, I explore quillity he experienced at an archipelago how the bodily and the cultural reflect station. each other and how this interaction shapes Officer Antti: There (at the Coast Guard station cultural knowledge. Further, I strive with X), have you, or you most certainly have sat at that the help of my research material to show table, and there on the other side, where there are how, by noticing routine movement, we two chairs at the window so that you can see down can reveal self-evident basic cultural as- to the bay. And the boys, they sit there (laughter) sumptions. The overall aim of this article and watch (laughter) and say “Oh yes!”, when a seagull flies forward and backwards and the trees is to present how, by paying attention to come into bud. (laughter) bodily movement, the analysis of cultural Miia-Leena: (knowing the room and the situation, change and continuity in working life can laughter) Is this something you feel is strange or… be deepened. In my view, analysing Antti: Yes, a little bit (laughter) it would really movement increases our understanding of feel strange (to sit here), one must say. (5009:9) cultural knowledge in organisations and Obviously, the informant found it hard to thus provides insights to support leading imagine himself sitting at the window, change. As regards theory, the article is looking at a landscape where only the sea- linked to a phenomenological framework, sons and the seagulls offered variety. The and it can be read as an example of phe- scene was in sharp contrast to his profes- nomenological cultural analysis (Frykman sional expectations and previous experi- 2012).1 ences. At the beginning of the interview, The article is based on participant ob- he had related his experiences of a good servation in the Coast Guard operational working week when the coast guard pa- units – coast guard stations, patrol vessels, trols constantly had call-outs. border control units and a crime preven- Even if the informant’s narrative was tion unit – during the years 2007‒2009 rather mocking, it was thanks to discus- and also interviews with 30 people during sions of this nature that I came to notice the years 2003‒2012 (KyM 2748; 3624; the diversity of rhythms, movements, and 5009).2 The research material concerns body postures during the Coast Guards’ patrols, call-outs, border control, mainten- operations. The coast guard officers were ance, education, training, leisure activities used to describing their tasks, environ- and family life, and it covers a total of 170 ments, and units by mentioning what kind people’s perceptions of everyday life in

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 79

the Coast Guard. The informants were military service, and of the military per- mainly born between the 1960s and the sonnel 2.6% are women (www.raja.fi). 1980s, and represent all the military per- The administrative units have employ- sonnel groups and units of the Coast ees from several occupational groups with Guard. different training, tasks and professional identities. The military workforce consists Cultural Diversity in a Military Organi- of commissioned officers, warrant of- sation ficers and border and coast guards. Within Work and professions have been popular the Border Guard, the established ways of research topics in ethnology, and the thinking emphasise the group differences terms professional culture and organisa- and distinctiveness, making them seem tional culture have been defined in several like cultural islands or separate subcul- contexts. Somewhat generalised, the tures. Nevertheless, officials from differ- terms refer to practices, habits, values, and ent personnel groups work together and identities that arise within a profession or spend long periods in relatively closed organisation. Nevertheless, for a long time communities, for example, on patrol ves- researchers have asserted that cultures sels and on island stations. One can as- cannot be regarded as closed, monolithic sume that this creates a common profes- systems (Ehn & Löfgren 2012; Paaskoski sional context, where action and individ- 2015; Silvén 2004). Instead, cultures ual experience can be similar regardless of should be understood as dynamic pro- the employee’s military rank and person- cesses: “Culture is something that be- nel group. comes, not something that is”, states Jonas Military organisations strive to thor- Frykman (2012:27). oughly define and standardise practices Knowledge on the dynamic nature of that are introduced as military discipline. culture is intriguing in respect of the Finn- However, in previous research, differ- ish Border Guard military order, with its ences have been noticed that can exist be- diverse activities and multi-professional tween order and practice (Hockey 1986; working communities. The Border Guard Pipping 1947; Wollinger 2000). Actions is a law enforcement authority whose and attitudes often appear different de- main tasks are border surveillance, cross- pending on the situation that individuals border crime prevention and carrying out find themselves in. To describe the two border checks at border crossing points. In parallel realities that seem to exist in the addition, the Border Guard conducts, for same organisation the concepts of an offi- example, search and rescue (SAR) opera- cial and unofficial organisation have been tions and transportation of patients. The used. The official organisation, which is activities of the Border Guard are divided given expression through laws and regula- into nine administrative units, i.e. border tions, is based on a clear hierarchy and un- and coast guard districts, with a total of ambiguous behaviour. In unofficial set- 2716 employees. Of the approximately tings, e.g. during recreation and between 500 people who work in the Gulf of Fin- the staff members, these practices and land Coast Guard District over 90% are in ideas can nonetheless be questioned and 80 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

reinterpreted. The phenomenon is well vide two examples from my research ma- known in various organisational and mili- terial. I will return to them after introduc- tary contexts (Hockey 1986; Hoikkala & ing the concept of bodily knowledge. Salasuo & Ojajärvi 2009; Mälkki 2008; Ojajärvi 2015; Wollinger 2000). Case 1. A call-out, August 2007 The basis of my interest in work and The phone rings at the coast guard station at 1:00 embodiment lies in the questions concern- a.m. Someone has called emergency because a ing problematical categories and classifi- group of drunken people have just left an island cations such as official–unofficial and nearby by boat, and they pose a danger to both themselves and others. The officer on duty calls personnel groups. On the levels of action the other officers. They are soon awake, and to- and experience there is no clear dividing gether we hurry down to the pier. We head out line between the different categories; ra- with the Avon [a fast RIB]. After some driving we ther they are diffuse and ambiguous. In the stop the engines and wait in the middle of the bay. coast guard practices, cultural influences The night is warm and calm, and it is very silent. are merged from the official and con- Soon we can see a small boat approaching. The of- trolled zone as well as the unofficial and ficers put on the blue alarm light and get ready to stop the boat. uncontrolled zone. The practices have no The driver and the passengers are drunk. The fixed meaning; the meaning is rather boat is in bad condition, there are bottles and gar- something to be negotiated individually bage everywhere. We head back to the station and and collectively in connection with every- take the driver to a breathalyser test. The test is day work and the profession. An occupa- performed by another officer who lives nearby tion forms a field of activity (Silvén and has been on stand-by at home. He is trying his 2004), which drives working individuals best to wake up; he is blinking his eyes while he addresses the driver in a formal tone. His hair is to learn for themselves, orientate them- fluffy and he has got some imprints from the pil- selves and, both physically and mentally, low on his cheek. to take a stance on things and occurrences Later we hear that someone has been left be- (Frykman 2012:20; Ehn & Löfgren 2012: hind, and we have to pick him up. We head out, 9, 30, 41). From this perspective, knowing reach the island, and find the right person. He is is localised in practice (Pink 2009:34‒36), not willing to leave. The officer next to me is wait- and it is the embodied practices that join ing while his colleague does the talking. He is se- rious and keeps up the appearances, but I can see together different needs, motivations, and him gnash his teeth in the dark. influences (Lande 2010; Mälkki 2008:51; At 3:50 a.m. the call-out is over, but the patrol Wolkowitz 2006:19‒20). leader is still filling in the forms and records. There is plenty to do and the system does not work Knowing with the Body and within the properly. There are no other people present, and the officer is very frustrated. We leave him swear- Body ing at the office and go to bed. The sun is rising Even the everyday practice of the border when I walk across the yard (Field notes 1:16–17). guard officers can be analysed on the basis of this claim. To illustrate the border and Case 2. Performing border checks at the coast guard practices and to demonstrate first line, November 2007 how these theoretical inputs can be ap- I am sitting with two border guard officers in a plied to ethnographic materials, I will pro- passport control booth waiting for the ferry to ar- Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 81

rive. There is an empty hall in front of us, and patterns of movement create reality and more booths with officers next to us on both sides. meaning. Soon we can see hundreds of passengers disem- The philosopher Jaana Parviainen has barking. The doors open and the people flow reach the terminal. Queues start building up in front of written about how we know in, with, and the booths. The passengers come one by one to the through our bodies. To explain our pro- booth and hand their passports through a wicket in duction of knowledge, she uses the con- the window. The officer leafs it through and hands cepts of bodily knowledge and kinaes- it back. The procedure is accompanied by monot- thetic knowledge (Parviainen 2002:19‒20; onous greetings: “Hello. Thank you. Here you are. 2006:31‒32; 2010:324). The concepts Good afternoon, thank you. Please. Hello.” The concern the body’s ability to produce and officer opens the gate after each traveller, and the booth shakes every time. perceive movement while acting intelli- I look at the men sitting in front of me. The first gently in interaction with its environment. officer, Aki, is smiling and greets the travellers Bodily knowledge does not exist “inside” cheerfully. The other one, Timo, is looking seri- the corporeal body, but is an intertwining ous. He holds his hand by the wicket with his palm of the individual and the world, inside and up, as if he was trying to say: give it to me, hurry outside; it is not static knowledge but ac- up.  tive knowing, that occurs through the A middle-aged man comes to the hall waving a bottle of rum and singing merrily. He stumbles, body’s movement in the material world. and looks ashamed when he comes to the booth. In my interpretation, the terms practical, Officer Timo is as stolid as before when he per- bodily knowledge (Olsson 2003:39), the forms the border check (Field notes 1:31–32). body’s intelligence (Fundberg 2003: 87‒90), and embodied cognition (Fryk- The passages depict the tasks and sur- man 2012:77‒78) are related to Parviai- roundings in marine units and in border nen’s definition of bodily knowledge. All control units, which differed from each the terms referred to aim at the knowledge other in several ways. At the stations the that we ingest physically and sensually officers usually went out to the archipela- and that creates the intuitions and feelings go for call-outs. They co-operated with we can trust (Frykman 2012:27, 77). We their colleagues, and met citizens in vari- have a corporeal consciousness, which ous circumstances. In border control units makes the world understandable to us at the so-called first line the duties were (Sheets-Johnstone 2011:xxi, 53, 62, 128). performed in glassed-in booths. The ex- For an ethnologist, a very interesting cerpts also portray the professional con- question is how bodily knowledge reflects duct for officials working in the Border the cultural. The anthropologist Jaida Kim Guard. They should remain neutral and Samudra (2008) has conducted researched correct in front of the public. into how cultural knowledge is transmit- In working life, actions and body pos- ted bodily in dance, music, sports, and re- tures are seldom arbitrary, as routines are ligion. According to her, there are many governed by norms, materiality, and func- practices that are based on the exercise of tional requirements. They form a manu- certain body techniques and therefore can script for professional choreographies be called kinaesthetic cultures. Samudra (Silvén 2008:112). At the same time, the argues that the kinaesthetic also always 82 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

includes socio-cultural meanings that the well as work colleagues and civilians be- individuals in the group are involved in. ing present, the uniform and the working Somatic experience is not limited to the tools steer the officers’ bodies towards a individual body, as motion is always an stance that expresses readiness, ability and interaction, a form of learning and a trans- professionalism. By means of their bodies mission of information, a sort of social the border guard officers strive to commu- history of living bodies (Samudra 2008: nicate a neutral attitude, something that 677‒678). Bodily knowledge and cultural could be characterised as expressionless knowledge overlap and blend together.3 objectivity. At the same time as this lack Cultural knowledge is transparent: it is of expression hides personal thoughts, re- not conscious or unconscious, but consists actions, and feelings, it also signals a con- of implicit meaning that is created and re- trol over the situation and a readiness to peated in actions (Hervik 1994:83). Bodi- act both outwardly to the public and to the ly practices are incorporated in the human officer him/herself (Lande 2010:73‒75, habitus and they determine the individ- 203‒205). ual’s perception of his/her self, and his/her This normative bearing can be con- relationship with the outside world (Fund- sidered as the type of gesture that the liter- berg 2003:22, 34‒36, 90). Repeated ary scholar Carrie Noland (2009:3, 8) movements produce a silent, bodily logic, speaks about. With this concept Noland that affects our thoughts and actions (Ols- refers to all body movements that evoke son 2003). Therefore, attitudes and body kinaesthetic feedback and further agency. postures are basically inseparable (Utri- She sees the gesture as a dynamic link be- ainen 1999:45). They do not have a com- tween man and the world. The gesture is a plete, unaltered and universal significance meeting point for the individual and cul- (Laukkanen 2012:175), but they contain ture; the nodal point where culture (the knowledge that we discuss and convey imposition of bodily techniques), neuro- purely bodily in the learned everyday pat- biology, and embodied experience over- terns of movement. Movements and posi- lap and inform one another. Noland’s tions are never insignificant, but have con- thoughts are similar to the views on pos- sequences. ture of Terhi Utriainen (1999:27, 49, 54), a researcher in the study of religion. Ac- The Correct Posture cording to Utriainen, the social, the cul- During the fieldwork, for example during tural and the subjective are united by the call-out presented previously, I no- stance. The subjective experience is filled ticed how an officer who met a citizen in with significance in encounters between the course of carrying out a task would individuals and the world, implications typically lean slightly forward, with legs flow into the body when we move and, apart and hands resting on his/her equip- vice versa, meaning is embodied in move- ment belt. This address position is a posi- ments. In other words, ideas are realised tion that is characteristic of the police, the as movements (Frykman 2012:163). military, and the private security sector, It is not only their individual move- and it is also used in the Border Guard. As ments that shape the officers’ self-knowl- Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 83

edge, but the communities’ collective gether in Time how collective, synchron- choreographies also have importance. ised movements affect people. According When my informants spoke about their to McNeill, we are born with an innate everyday lives in the Coast Guard they de- ability to discern and recognise move- picted both the waiting for something to ment. Since individuals can move and per- happen and the call-outs that create varia- ceive movement even before birth then tion in operational activities and pace. movement is our quiet “mother tongue”: it They said that this was reflected in body is itself thinking, knowledge, and the basis posture, and described how staff could un- for all learning (Sheets-Johnstone 2011: believable quickly pull themselves to- xxxi, 116‒119, 139, 195, 210‒211, 223, gether and transform into trustworthy of- 233‒234); see also Ingold 2011:13, 150). ficers (3624:3, 4; 5009:5, 9, 11, 15). I too Moving in groups creates physical to- witnessed this type of metamorphosis dur- getherness and team spirit, which McNeill ing the fieldwork: calls muscular bonding. In many situa- We are watching TV when the alarm phone rings. tions, the ability is vital and it helps people Everyone becomes quiet and looks at officer achieve results in hunting, warfare, poli- Janne, who answers. Mika gets up looking alert. tics, and religion. Matias, who had just been lying on the couch, also The Coast Guard seem to have many gets up. As Janne grabs a pen Mika takes hold of his equipment belt that is on the back of his chair tasks that require a certain corporeal sen- and begins to put it on. Then, Janne holding the sitivity to be able to notice motion and act mobile phone bends towards us and whispers: correctly in the group. The field opera- “We are going out, but no rush” (Field notes 2:40). tions are based on learned patterns of As the alarm came in the officers already movement, “motor algorithms” (Warnier started preparing for the mission by ob- 2001:9), that are trained in the education serving each other’s faces, gestures and instruction and thereafter annually in con- single words. A step towards the map, a junction with different courses concerned look or a keyword told the others where with e.g. tactics, power use and maritime the patrol would go and what equipment SAR. The research material seems to con- was needed. This allowed the patrol to ap- firm the interpretation that military cohe- pear as an organism, a collective body sion has its origin in the communities’ (Hockey 2002:150‒151, 157, 164‒165) or bodily practices (Lehtinen 2014a). The a complete body (Hoikkala et al. 2009:24; “existential style” of the soldier is based Ojajärvi, 2015:36, 90). The terms refer to on the group’s joint motion and actions situations in which the individual body (Lehtinen 2014b:207‒208; see also does not only exist as a separate item but Grundvall 2005:173‒174). is connected to a larger whole. A complete On the basis of the research material, body is based on a silent dialogue and a obvious cultural assumptions can be dis- knowing that occurs between bodies (in- tinguished that in coast guard communi- tercorporeal knowing, Pink 2009:18‒19; ties are highlighted both verbally and also Olsson 2003:63, 240, 257‒259). physically. Operational activities have for The historian William McNeill (1995: long been based on certain choreographies 5‒7) describes in his book Keeping To- and motor algorithms, e.g. expressionless 84 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

objectivity, rapid departures, and routines The situation led to serious adjustment of a professional collective body, which difficulties which were later discussed construct a normative “we-ness” (Lehto- openly (Sundbäck 2005:361‒362). In the nen & Koivunen 2011:38; Wollinger research material, there are dramatic ex- 2000:136). These formed an established amples of the difficulties that the “pass- ethos that became visible when new tasks port control officers” had to struggle with. were introduced and work conditions The informants spoke of fatigue, loneli- changed. ness, futile applications to be transferred, alcohol abuse, various mental and physi- Conflicts cal symptoms, and four or five people The Finnish Coast Guard’s history began committed suicide (Field notes 1:13‒14; in 1930 when a military surveillance or- 2:49, 52; 5009:12, 21). When the employ- ganisation was founded to combat smug- ees discussed the difficulties, they usually gling, guard the sea borders and be re- blamed the misleading recruitment infor- sponsible for search and rescue opera- mation and inadequate leadership (3624: tions. After World War II the Coast Guard 2, 5009:14; Field notes 2:66; 3:69, 72). was merged with the Border Guard. The However, these reasons do not explain the period from the early 1990s to 2010 is resistance reflected in my ethnographic characterised by changes in the Coast research material from 2009. Guard organisation as well as in their core Officials in the border control units did functions. The introduction of the border not hide their aversion to border checks at control as a new function especially the first line. On the contrary, it seemed to aroused resistance among staff. The Bor- be permissible and fitting to stress the re- der Guard organisation took over this task sistance in discussions with the research- from the police and a Passport Control er. The informants sometimes explained Department was established in the Gulf of that they did not understand the travel Finland Coast Guard District in the begin- documents, that they were bad at this ning of the 1990s. During the following work, that it was impossible to know all years tens of border guards and coast the rules and that they would rather work guards were ordered from the land and sea elsewhere (Field notes 2:47, 3:69, 81). At borders to new, large units at the capital’s one point, a border guard waved the travel border crossing points. Instead of period document of a third-country national work at the stations, staff began doing above his head and hissed “I don’t under- shift work far from home in unestablished stand a word of this!” (Field notes 2:46). working communities with a high turn- What made my informants emphasise over of staff, and newcomers, who their incompetence and unprofessional at- thought they would be working at coast titude? The border guards’ critical opin- guard stations and on patrol vessels, were ions, in my interpretation, did not reveal sent to passport control lines. Even though the pros and cons of the work itself, but the arrangement was described as tempor- expressed a discrepancy between the offi- ary, many had to remain in these positions cials’ kinaesthetic experiences and cul- for over ten years. tural knowledge. They were a means of Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 85

dealing with cultural friction at the same from passengers rushing for their flights, time as indicating a cultural competence from impatient glances toward the moni- by communicating knowledge about tors and from planes taking off and land- which tasks and working conditions could ing. Working in the middle of this com- be considered appropriate, and which un- plex field of motion were the Border desirable. Guards, who, depending on their task, fol- Gestures and movements are linked to lowed the movement at a distance or inter- the materiality surrounding individuals. In acted with it. addition, bodily knowledge is also de- According to my understanding, there pendent on the situation and what one was a connection between the various comes into contact with (Frykman 2012: units’ kinaesthetic fields and the cultural 27, 116). Each environment has its own knowledge as to which tasks were per- peculiar movements, caused by the forces ceived as “good” and which “bad”. Offi- of nature, things and living beings, that we cials ranked the coast guard functions on interact with. Parviainen (2006:30‒31; the basis of the gestures, postures and 2010:320) calls these mobile environ- movements that the operations and the ments kinaesthetic fields. The concept fo- everyday work produced. At the begin- cuses attention on the routineness of the ning of the article the discussion with an rhythms and movements in working life informant was an example of this. By em- and can help us expose how officials por- phasising action and rapid departures, he trayed cultural change and continuity. showed that he appreciated movement When my informants reflected on their rather than static existence and sitting. work they talked at the same time about Similar views were typical of all the mili- what the different working environments tary personnel groups and age groups in demanded of the working body. What the Coast Guard. happened was that they pondered and Coast guard Niko: I don’t like all the office work found words for cultural change on a and stuff; I like to be out and be active and do physical and experiential plane. In the ma- things and be with different people (5009:13). rine units, the officials worked surrounded Border guard Essi: I’m such an active and nervous by wind, waves, shaking and heaving person that I must do something other than just sit- boats as well as sea-goers, who followed ting in the booth (Field notes 2:48). or did not follow instructions. The opera- Warrant Officer Tapani: I really enjoyed being at tions were characterised by the informants the big coast guard stations where you could go as unforeseeable events, creativity and co- and do things and be involved in the activities. I operation. In the border control unit, the have never really been an office worker. – You had to go after the slightest occurrence and it was kinaesthetic field was different. For ex- that [that I liked], especially when you got to be ample, at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, where involved in different incidents, that was what I the Coast Guard is responsible for the bor- liked most (3624: 4). der control, the characteristics of kinaes- Commissioned Officer Tuomo: I’ve always had thetic environment did not come from that kind of interests. – I have always been active forces of nature but from crowds of queu- outdoors and thought that an indoor job wasn’t ing people at the security checkpoints, something for me. I actually managed to avoid 86 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

service at the Coast Guard Headquarters for quite sidered a “shit job” (5009:1, 13, 14). some time. And I must say that I still don’t really While the coast guard officers, in the ma- like it either, even though it is in itself also a good rine units patrolled and went out with pa- job, but I don’t like it so much. Nowadays, I have trol vessels, snowmobiles, and hover- administrative duties but I also get to go out in the field sometimes (5009:20). crafts, their colleagues in the border con- trol units sat in their booths performing These statements should not be taken as passport checks day in and day out. The truisms, for it was by no means so that material conditions in the first line – the only active outdoor jobs were regarded as booth, the seat and the glass window valued tasks. Nevertheless, they reveal where the passengers show their travel that a practical approach combined with documents – steered not only the passen- an active ideal was so culturally dominant gers’ movements, but also restricted the that the civil servants, regardless of their officials’ freedom of movement and pos- role and profession, always talked about sibility to express control. It was also a no- and reflected on the importance of move- ticeable fact that at the first line the offi- ment. The awareness that being active cials met the travellers alone. Although should be appreciated was included in the the control booth had two spaces and offi- coast guard officers’ collective knowl- cials sat side by side, they took care of the edge and formed a “sounding board” border checks independently. (Hoikkala 2009a:47) whose echo shaped During the fieldwork, I noticed that the the individual experience. staff of the border control department of- Commissioned Officer Matti: It was like this, ten mentioned chairs and sitting in the dis- when I went to the office after working on the pa- cussions. The border and coast guards trol vessel and then after I had been there for some spoke about good and bad chairs, about time I was sent back to the ship to stand-in for the office chairs that were broken due to being boss. And it felt like yippee, back to a real man’s constantly adjusted and about musculo- job from the shore! But it was the first or second skeletal disorders. Perhaps it was so that night I lay there in the cabin and thought [laugh- ing] where do I hang the rope, and, I mean the seats aroused feelings and were pres- [laughs] that I don’t like this anymore. And it was ent in the narrative because they manifest- a surprise. To see how, in a way, I had grown out ed the typical working position, sitting. of a job and didn’t want to do it anymore, some- From this point of view, chairs can be in- thing that I had previously thought was very inter- terpreted as the cultural accelerators or esting and good (5009:1). key symbols discussed by Jonas Frykman Within a cultural context, where maritime and Nils Gilje (2003:46; see also Ehn & service was considered “a real man’s job”, Löfgren 2004:21; Hammarlin 2008:121‒ the border control units were peculiar. Sit- 123). ting in the first line and examining passen- gers’ travel documents was described by Paths of Reluctance the informants as the opposite of meaning- Alongside the formal practices within the ful work. In the Coast Guard, active, prac- coast guard, there arose an informal set of tical and autonomous work were decent practices directed against the employer’s tasks while border checks were con- expectations and official conduct. This Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 87

was seldom a question of the officials di- meaningful in relation to the cultural rectly refusing to perform tasks, although knowledge that stressed mobility as the some people used to make themselves right way of being, since from a historical scarce in order to evade tedious tasks like point of view the core functions of the sitting in the first line. They made them- Coast Guard were typically mobile and selves invisible by going to the gym, the therefore the proper patterns of action. terminals or restaurants and tried to avoid I sit with Saku at the first line as the night shift be- the duty room with the duty officer and gins. Saku is in a good mood and talks happily colleagues (5009:18). Sometimes, I tried about typical nights. I ask about negligence: do the in vain to find officials in the places staff perhaps have guests or drink alcohol when where, according to the current roster, the nights get long? Saku denies this and says it is they should have been working (Field not appropriate, but he continues that probably notes 2:49‒50, 55). sometimes “there are perhaps one or two things that are a little underhand”. The worst offences are The phenomenon is an example of the sleeping during the shift and “going on an adven- reluctance that the ethnologist Susanne ture”. Saku begins to relate an incident: “One time Wollinger (2000:74‒75) describes in her we found a small door, one of those doors that you study of Swedish conscripts. In military barely notice, and don’t know why it’s there. And organisations individuals learn over time when we opened it there were steps leading into to stretch the boundaries and take liber- darkness, and there was a tunnel so low that you ties, despite the discipline, and often this had to crawl. And suddenly there was a large cor- ridor ... We called it Narnia [laughs].” Such an ad- is done with leaders’ tacit approval. Re- venture was not allowed but not forbidden either. luctance means, according to Wollinger, According to Saku, the most childish officers both adaptation and resistance, and de- crept through the maintenance tunnels during the notes a cultural knowledge of the grey times when there were long breaks between flights zone between the permissible and the for- and no passengers coming through the border con- bidden (see also Hockey 2002:153; Mälk- trol. “There is also [location X], but you can’t go ki 2008:132‒133, 170‒172). The historian there anymore... it started to become crowded” (Field notes 2:61). AnnaSara Hammar (2014:273‒274), who in her thesis analysed the social order in In the coast guard border control units, ad- the Swedish navy during the years 1670‒ ventures liberated the border guards from 1716, claims that actions appearing to sitting in the glassed-in booths: they of- challenge official truths could in fact pro- fered breaks and respite. The narrow tun- mote the military order and indicate an ad- nel about which Saku spoke was “a spon- justment to control. Therefore, the catego- taneous path to relative autonomy” ries of official and unofficial are not oppo- (Hockey 2002:153‒154). The sociologist sites, but they assume and maintain each Elina Paju (2013:170, 178, 184‒185) ar- other. The unofficial is a reflection or a gues that physical movement can help us shadow of the official (Hoikkala 2009b: to cope with situations that leave little 130‒131, 174‒176, 179). room for creativity and individual actions. Besides sneaking away, another activi- Paju, who examined bodily practices in a ty occurred that the officials called adven- kindergarten, mentions the classroom ac- turing. Such playful practices became tivities as examples. The children’s wig- 88 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

gling, writhing, crawling, and swinging Kinaesthetic Dispositions was experienced by the adults as disturb- Similar to Jaida Kim Samudra, the cul- ing, but in fact the movements help the tural anthropologist Paula Tuovinen children to cope and understand. Perhaps (2006:258‒261) has written about body adventures were for the officials a way to language as culture. According to her cul- maintain their right to self-determination tural patterns are always also motor pat- in a military organisation. Also the man- terns. Actions produce cultural meanings agement was well aware that a relative that are transmitted through motor activi- amount of autonomy in fact supported the ty, repetition and imitation. Therefore, the authority’s actual operations (5009:9, 14). motor body acts as an intermediary in the Adventuring was appealing for a further “the archaeology of activity”: culturally reason. It was a collective pursuit, which defined ways of being, standing, walking, gave the staff in the border control unit the and using gestures and facial expressions, opportunity to take part in a professional which reflect the influence of past genera- choreography and the complete body, tions. In the terminology of Parviainen which they could not usually be part of as (2006:87, 93‒94), the concept of kinaes- they sat alone. thetic maps is aimed at the inter-subjective I interpret going adventuring and character of movement. Kinaesthetic maps arise when people compare their sneaking away as kinaesthetic processes kinaesthetic experiences with others where formal movements and postures are through what they see, hear and read. evaluated and reinterpreted. Through Mimi Sheller and John Urry (2006:216) movement officials discussed their speak of a “sensual and emotional geogra- kinaesthetic experiences in relation to the phies” that we generate through motion. Coast Guard’s cultural knowledge that This is not confined to individual bodies emphasises action and embodied we-ness. but includes spaces, actions, and cultures According to the philosopher Maxine that contain special kinaesthetic disposi- Sheets-Johnstone (2011:62‒66, 117‒118, tions, ways, styles and abilities to move 129), we find ourselves and our abilities and perceive motion. by moving in the world (see also Olsson The Coast Guard kinaesthetic disposi- 2003:246). Therefore, the techniques of tions compile and provide cultural knowl- the body are also techniques of the self edge about the profession. The disposi- (Warnier 2001:10; Wolkowitz 2006:19). tions are built up over a long period of The border guard officers desire to avoid time and include insights into adequate work at the first line and their judgment of professional choreographies, positions it as ”shit work” can, based on this, be un- and stances that embody a certain relation- derstood as an effort to maintain harmony ship to the world. Although kinaesthetic and a coherent self-image in a unit where dispositions are often unstated they are a static existence had replaced action. Those significant part of the professional capital, who worked with tasks that confirmed this which the ethnologist Leena Paaskoski established self-understanding had fewer (2008:79‒80) calls professional inherit- reasons to show reluctance. ance. Professionalism cannot be interpret- Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 89

ed as merely kinaesthetic dispositions, but the opposite of active doing and makes the concept explains why cultural knowl- healthcare seem feminine, explains Utri- edge can still reflect reluctance when indi- ainen. Sitting is static and timid, and vidual working bodies start to master new therefore represents a feminine way of be- environments and tasks. As the research ing (Young 1980) (see also Fundberg material shows, changes in the core func- 2003:186‒187; Lande 2010:29; Paju tions and the operational environment 2013:123, 200). aroused strong negative feelings among It was this posture that the coast guard the border and coast guards. To move or to officers disliked, and which in my opinion be still in a certain environment always was the reason why the first line border has an affective dimension (Sheller & checks were seen as ”shit work”. In light Urry 2006; also Laukkanen 2012:242; of embodied cultural meanings, this rele- Parviainen 2010:317). gation of the first line work is associated The kinaesthetic dispositions of work- with western gender cartography (Mas- ing life are not constructed in a vacuum, sey 2008:179). The concept refers to but they are formed in relation to general men’s free and women’s limited mobility perceptions of time, space, and gender. and patterns of movement that confirm the Although I did not here examine the gen- prevailing gender order. The border and der perspective, I want to state by way of coast guard officers’ perceptions of what a summary that the problems surrounding was a “decent job” was constructed on the the border control show a discrepancy be- basis of a cultural model story where the tween first line postures and the border man goes out and the woman remains guards’ perceptions of masculinity. In (even Mälkki 2008:83; O’Dell, 2004: many professions, technological develop- 115‒116; Tallberg 2009:156‒157, 164). ments and changes are experienced as a Corresponding observations that autono- threat to the entrenched gender roles and mous and active tasks have a high status “outdoor masculinity” (Aurell 2001: have been made in earlier research on 72‒73; Paju 2013:70‒173; Wolkowitz other professions in the transport, forestry, 2006:85). Doreen Massey (2008:166‒ and port industries (Nehls 2003:74‒75; 167) and Carol Wolkowitz (2006:67) Steel 2013:124‒126), the Rescue Services mention the British mining industry re- (Mankkinen 2011:162‒163, 170, 176) and structuring in the 1970s and ’80s as an ex- the Armed Forces (Mälkki 2008:191‒ ample. Despite the high unemployment, 192). As we have seen, the processes of male miners refused to accept new types meaning-making have a material basis. of industrial work if it meant that they According to the social psychologist Suvi would work in a sitting position at a con- Ronkainen (1999:214‒215, 225), space veyor belt. and place create and exclude identities and Terhi Utriainen (1999:171‒172) sug- subjectivities. For example, if women gests that postures explain gender roles cannot walk alone at night the city spaces even within the healthcare industry. To become culturally designated for men (see provide care often involves a sitting or also Silvén 2004:150‒151). When it is stooped position, which is perceived as taken into account that most of the women 90 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

who worked in the Coast Guard in mili- Silvén’s criticism is important when it is tary service were employed at the first directed against the term bodily knowl- line, it is not surprising that the border edge being used as a synonym for crafts- control maintained its reputation as a fe- manship. On the other hand, I feel that male and thus a subordinate task. bodily knowledge is not introspective or bound to an individual perspective. Rather Concluding Discussion the term invites insights concerning the re- In my article, I have examined how, by lationship between people and the world, noticing physical movement, we can por- and it emphasises mutual influences. The tray cultural processes and deepen our un- working body is both an object and an ac- derstanding of change and continuity in tive producer of cultural and kinaesthetic working life. I have used the concepts of knowledge (Kinnunen & Seppänen 2009). bodily, kinaesthetic, and cultural knowl- Bodily knowledge also has an inter-sub- edge to show how the military personnel jective nature, which constitutes the basis in the Coast Guard orientate themselves for professional kinaesthetic dispositions towards different tasks in their occupa- and maps. tional field of activity. The terms were de- Research into gestures, expressions, fined in a phenomenological framework. and body postures helps us to put cultural According to phenomenological oriented knowledge into words and to understand thinking the physical and cultural overlap how embodied cultural truths shape each other. Cultural knowledge is bodily everyday activities and experiences. To knowledge and movement a way of know- understand the connections between the ing. cultural and the kinaesthetic is essential if In her research on the work of profes- we want to understand the different reac- sional painters, the ethnologist Eva Silvén tions that changes can produce in profes- (2004:128‒129, 142) points out that the sional life. concept of bodily knowledge can lead to When people interact with their mater- the individual’s subjectivity and agency ial and social surroundings they discuss being highlighted, while the critical social and reinterpret at the same time the cultur- perspectives and questions about power al influences. This means that any practice and responsibility are reduced to the back- includes the possibility of both change and ground. Knowing is associated with continuity (Frykman 2012:27; Noland knowledge and skills, and therefore has a 2009:14‒15). Contradictions between positive connotation. This, Silvén argues, new information and cultural convictions makes us easily forget that the working have concrete implications, as the border body is also an object. Workers usually guard’s reluctance showed. This reminds have few opportunities to influence their us that the employers’ perceptions of the work environment and the external condi- personnel’s compliance and adaptability tions of their work. For example, a painter may seem unrealistic in light of the ethno- is at a high risk of being exposed to chem- graphic material (Wolkowitz 2006:67). In icals and solvents that in the worst case the Coast Guard the field operations, over can cause chronic diseases and injuries. a long period, had produced certain kinds Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge 91

of professional choreographies and kin- 2016 at the University of Helsinki (Tiili aesthetic dispositions that imparted knowl- 2016). 3 The latter term has been defined, for example, edge of the profession. This knowledge by folklore researcher Eija Stark (2011: was questioned when new tasks were in- 70‒71, 73‒77, 369). According to Stark, cul- troduced. In particular, the first line border tural knowledge implies unified, collective perceptions and linguistic performances ex- checks meant a questioning of the staff's pressed in sayings and in patterns of behav- professional self-understanding and the iour (such as “taking a sauna once a week”). function was therefore experienced as a As a pattern of behaviour always contains cultural anomaly. However, there is rea- both an idea and a practice (that it is de facto to have a sauna once a week), I also regard the son to point out that reality is always more concept as useful in research directed at the complex than the analysis describes. Al- material and bodily dimensions of culture. though I have concentrated on conflict and resistance, there were many officials who References thrived in the border control units. Field material Bodily knowledge, kinaesthetic knowl- Field notes 1‒3 2007‒2009. The material is in the edge and cultural knowledge, in my opin- possession of the author. ion, can offer new perspectives on work, Museum of Kymenlaakso (KYM), Kotka, Finland 2748: 1‒7 interviews, 2003 occupations and organisational cultures 3624: 1‒6 interviews, 2004 by overcoming dichotomies such as the 5009: 1‒25 interviews, 2007-2012 official-unofficial and the subjective-ob- jective. My analysis has hopefully given Internet an example of how phenomenological in- sights can help us identify and perhaps www.raja.fi even solve practical problems in working life. Literature Aurell, Marie 2001: Arbete och identitet. Om hur Miia-Leena Tiili städare blir städare. Linköping Studies in Arts PhD, Director and Science 229. Linköping: Linköpings uni- Museo Militaria versitet. Vanhankaupunginkatu 19 Ehn, Billy & Löfgren, Orvar 2004: Kulturanaly- FIN-13100 Tavastehus ser. Malmö: Gleerups. email: [email protected] Ehn, Billy & Löfgren, Orvar 2012: Kulturanaly- tiska verktyg. Malmö: Gleerups.. Notes Frykman, Jonas 2012: Berörd: Plats, kropp och ting i fenomenologisk kulturanalys. Stockholm: 1 For me, phenomenology is a way to explore Carlsson Bokförlag. how humans act and produce knowledge in Frykman, Jonas & Gilje, Nils 2003: Being There. reciprocal action with their environment. I In Jonas Frykman & Nils Gilje (eds.), Being perceive phenomenology as an understanding There: New Perspectives on Phenomenology of being and knowledge as being based on and the Analysis of Culture. Lund: Nordic Aca- sensory and bodily sensations. I have been es- demic Press. pecially inspired by the philosophy of Mau- Fundberg, Jesper 2003: Kom igen, gubbar! Om rice Merleau-Ponty (2002 [1945]). pojkfotboll och maskuliniteter. Stockholm: 2 The ethnographic material discussed here de- Carlsson Bokförlag. rives from my PhD fieldwork. My doctoral Grundvall, Stig 2005: Vagabond mc. Gemenskap, thesis in ethnology was presented in April manlighet och marginalitet. En studie av en 92 Miia-Leena Tiili, Kinaesthetic Dispositions and Cultural Knowledge

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Introduction life that is both transnational and local, in For me, the most important thing is just being order to understand the rationales behind happy wherever we are. For me, it’s not really de- their transnational practice and behind the pending on the location. For me it’s being happy, decision to move to Sønderborg – at least and the whole family to be together. That we are all feeling satisfaction with where we are and what for a period of time. we are doing. That we do not feel like we are This article’s main focus is on the spe- just… Here. (Peter) cific opportunities and challenges that are present in this transnational and local On a November night in 2014, I interview work and family practice, and it deals Peter (32) and his wife Carmen (32) in with these opportunities and challenges their house in the town of Sønderborg in from the families’ perspectives. In doing southern Denmark. The American-Mexi- so, different conceptualizations of the re- can couple has worked and lived there for lationship between work and family life just under two years with their three-year- old son. The family has previously relo- are examined. It is argued that gaining in- cated from other countries for work, and sight into the familial context of the therefore, at one point during the inter- people in question is crucial to under- view, I ask them, “So where do you con- standing the rationales for being transna- sider ‘home’?” Peter’s answer to this tional. The role of the accompanying question in the quotation above piqued my partner becomes particularly interesting interest in the kind of transnational work in understanding the dynamics of the and family practice in which a family family as a whole. When moving to a seems to move across borders as a small new country, these dynamics may change mobile unit to take up positions around the and can be challenged, which can result world. I decided to investigate this as the in conflicts for the accompanying part- main topic of my Master’s thesis1 at the ner. It is this challenge, especially, that University of Copenhagen and began to will be explored, as I examine how the recruit more informants who – like Peter family as a whole plays a crucial role for and Carmen – practise this kind of trans- highly-skilled foreign workers in Søn- national work and family life. I ended up derborg, and how work life simply can- interviewing four foreign families living not be conceived and understood inde- in Sønderborg. The four couples are all pendently from family life. highly skilled and moved to Sønderborg Therefore, the key research questions in as a consequence of concrete job offers. this article are: What happens when a During the interviews, I discovered that family decides to leave the home country even though the families have a transna- and live abroad? What happens to the dy- tional character, they are also very much namics within the family when moving to embedded in the local context in which a new country? And what kind of ob- they are situated – in this case, Sønder- stacles and opportunities do they meet? borg. They are obviously not as These questions will be analysed by ap- “free-floating” as they might appear at plying the ethnological state and life- first glance. I therefore decided to dig mode theory. This perspective is an ap- deeper into this form of family and work proach to understanding how people’s dif-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 95

ferent rationales, challenges and choices studies’ common denominator is the mes- are based on their specific life-mode sage that the import of highly-skilled la- orientations. In doing so, it contributes to bour is vital if Denmark is to succeed in an understanding of how people, in differ- the global marketplace. This is a view that ent ways, are trying to achieve “the good was, for example, reflected in the govern- life”. ment’s April 2014 proposal to reform its international recruitment programme, Context based on claims that Denmark is lagging In recent years, attempts to attract highly- behind in the worldwide competition for skilled foreign workers have been on the the highly-skilled labour. The same report political agenda in Denmark as well as in claimed that Danish society needs these other Scandinavian countries. This can be highly-skilled workers, who not only con- seen as a consequence of the competitive- tribute positively to productivity growth ness of a global economy in which knowl- in the companies where they are em- edge and innovation are key factors for ployed, but also contribute to the financ- further growth. With the global economy ing of the public sector (Regeringen comes the global mobility of labour and 2014). the ability of people to move from one In my fieldwork, I met four families place to another around the globe. Thus, that as of 2014‒15 had lived in Sønder- highly-skilled labour becomes an impor- borg for between six months and seven tant resource in each competing country. years as skilled foreign workers. The pres- As the focus on and need for highly- ence of these families in the area is a result skilled workers in Denmark has increased, of Sønderborg Municipality’s attempt in various reports and studies that seek to un- recent years to actively seek to attract cover how the Danish labour market at- highly-skilled foreign workers for the re- tracts and retains this workforce have been gion’s private recruiting strategy. One of published. Surveys have been conducted the major challenges experienced in the by both public and private organizations, region is the lack of jobs for accompany- all attempting to identify the challenges of ing partners. As a consequence of this, the attracting and retaining highly-skilled for- municipality has in recent years employed eign labour. Interestingly, several of these a local “settlement coordinator” to help point out that the inability to retain labour foreign families find housing, the right may be due to low measures of well-being school or day-care for their children, and – within the families who have moved to the if possible – a job for the accompanying country (see e.g. Oxford Research 2010; partner. The municipality also works in Arbejdsmarkedsstyrelsen 2011; Seidelin collaboration with a number of companies 2012; Thuesen et al. 2011). and municipalities in the region to im- Therefore, there needs to be a greater prove area companies’ opportunities for emphasis on the family – on the accom- growth through the attraction, reception panying partner and children – by, for ex- and retention of highly-qualified workers. ample, focusing on the school system and For example, the initiative “Partner Life” opportunities for partners to get jobs. The is a result of this collaboration – a project 96 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

that coordinates and makes visible the of opportunity for a municipality such as professional opportunities for an accom- Sønderborg, but also a challenge, due to panying partner moving to southern Den- their transnational and temporal character. mark. In my thesis, I analyse how trans- On this level it is also possible to point out national families’ lives can be understood opportunities and challenges included in within the framework of the state. I pres- the practice in question, within the fam- ent how different attempts to attract high- ilies. ly-skilled foreign labour to Denmark – in The accounts of four transnational fam- this case, Sønderborg – are made possible. ilies, based on fieldwork conducted in Here, Denmark’s effort to attract the high- Sønderborg, are the main focus of this ar- ly skilled through national initiatives such ticle. First, I will explain how the inform- as tax schemes for highly-skilled foreign- ants perceive the specific opportunities ers and partner programmes are central to that come with the move to Sønderborg. understanding the tools of attracting and Secondly, I will explain the particular retaining (Funder 2015). Further, these in- challenges to the informants that also itiatives are analysed in a municipal con- come with the move. Finally, I will dis- text in Sønderborg both as an extension of cuss these different opportunities and the governmental initiatives and as an ex- challenges, and in so doing examine dif- pression of specific circumstances related ferent aspects of living “the good life” as to Sønderborg, such as its geographical lo- defined by the informants. cation. This indicates that these trans- national families cannot simply be under- Presentation of Theory, Method and stood as independent, free-floating global Material people, but that they are people dependent The analysis is based on the ethnological on the conditions of the national and local state and life-mode theory. From a context in which they are situated. life-mode perspective, it is possible to in- These initiatives also indicate that the vestigate how individuals’ (or subjects’) well-being of the family as a whole might practices and ideologies can point towards play a central role in foreigners’ decisions different life-mode characteristics, de- to move to and stay in Sønderborg. How- pending on how the means-end relation- ever, these initiatives are not the focus of ship in the practice is composed. Thus, it this article, as the informants in my mater- is possible to understand how, for ex- ial did not pay much attention to them. In ample, highly-skilled foreigners are or- fact, some of them did not even know the ganized in families in different ways, with programmes existed. For highly-skilled different understandings of what consti- personnel, transnational mobility is often tutes “the good life”. In this context, the seen as an element of their ongoing career concept of life-modes serves as a key to advancement, though this is not the only understanding participants’ choices and rationale for living a transnational life. priorities, and not as a means to simply From this perspective, it is possible that classify them. The interesting point, con- the kinds of transnational families in focus versely, is that by applying the life-mode in this article are not only a particular kind concept, it also becomes possible to iden- Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 97

tify how different life orientations can not equally develop relations at the state lead to specific challenges ‒ for example, level. between the partners within a family. In this article the concept of life-modes Moreover, this article suggests that a is the main analytical tool. The definition transnational perspective can give insights of a life-mode is “an independent and into specific kinds of work and family life self-maintaining praxis which contains its marked by the opportunities of an own semantics and its own conceptual open-border regime. system” (Højrup 2003:4). As theoretical From a structure-dialectical point of de- concepts three different main life-modes parture, the state and life-mode perspec- have been identified. A life-mode has its tive provides an understanding of every- own specific praxis, which is “in turn de- day life – people’s lived experiences at termined by specific relations of labour in work and at home – as an integrated ana- a mode of production. Relations of labour lytical whole. Further, it is possible to re- imply the specific concepts of ‘end’, late these lives to a state level, and further ‘means’, ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ which to- to a system of states, which consists of the gether constitute a life-mode’s conceptual plurality of states. This represents the problematique: What we have tended to multidimensional concept of culture in the call its ideology” (Højrup 2003:126). In state and life-mode theory, in which the this theoretical perspective, a life-mode relations between the different dimen- (with its specific ideology) is, on the one sions constitute the theory itself. There- hand, closely related to the concept of fore, in an analytical context, it is also ne- work, and, on the other hand, has a great cessary to explicate these relations. It is impact on the individuals’ everyday lives my argument that by combining the state as it influences their understanding of “the and life-mode theory and a transnational good life” and the means for meeting it perspective, it is possible to bring this spe- (Højrup 2003:22). The three life-modes cific kind of migration into focus. This is are life-mode 1, which is the life-mode of a transnational life: a life which, in the the self-employed, life-mode 2, the life- context of this article, cannot be grasped mode of the wage-earner and life-mode 3, separately from the state, culture, work the life-mode of the career-professional. and the family. Therefore, it is my ap- In the self-employed life-mode there is no proach that the transnational life cannot be means-end relation, since there is no con- understood as something in and of itself, trast between work and leisure. Work and but that transnationality – as a condition – leisure are fused in a single act, designed can be incorporated into a conceptual de- to keep the company in business. In con- sign in combination with the state and trast, the wage-earner life mode is charac- life-mode theory. It hereby also becomes terized by a distinction between work and possible to point to variations within this leisure, which are contrasting concepts. specific form of transnational life. How- Here, work is a means to an end outside of ever, since this article is primarily devoted it, providing an income, which will make to the experiences of transnational fami- it possible for the employee to live a lies living in Sønderborg, it therefore does meaningful life beyond work during free 98 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

time. Within the career-professional life- gathered together, made dinner, while I mode, work is not understood as the oppo- had dinner with them, and in general as site of free time. For bearers of the career- they followed their daily evening routines. professional ideology work is not the Since the children were relatively young, I means to an end outside work, but the decided only to interview the parents. The work is the goal; where the career-profes- couples are all married and moved to Søn- sional unfolds himself and his qualifica- derborg as a consequence of one or more tions. Therefore, free time is commonly of the partners being offered a job. Three spend developing personal and profes- out of the four families had previously re- sional skills. Work is marked by a unique- located from other countries to take up job ness that can make the career-professional offers, and thus had previously been in a irreplaceable, because his work can not situation in which they had to settle down simply be taken over by another (Højrup somewhere new. For one couple, Caroline 2002:418). (43) and Lennart (50),2 this is the first time This description of the career-profes- they have lived outside the United States, sional may appear similar to the type of and they have been in Sønderborg for ap- knowledge-work characterizing the prac- proximately one year. Caroline and Len- tice of the highly skilled research partici- nart are from Chicago, USA, and the pants in this article. In the later analysis, couple have four children, aged 6‒23 years. however, I will argue that career work may Living abroad is not unusual for the take different forms in different families, second family, Sheryl (43), Carlos (40) and therefore, career work need not only be and their two sons, who have lived in three characterized by this certain uniqueness. different places around the world. Sheryl Further, female-specific life-modes have is from the US, and Carlos grew up in Co- been identified in order to understand the lombia. Their boys are aged 5 and 8, and role of the spouse and the family. In rela- before moving to Sønderborg four months tion to the wage-earner and the career-pro- previously, they lived in Massachusetts, fessional life-mode, a distinction between a USA, for four years. home-front and housewife practice has The third family, the Mexican-American been constructed. However, it should be couple Carmen and Peter, both 32 years noted that the practices are logically com- old, lived in Mexico until they moved to plementary to the wage-earner and the ca- Sønderborg two years ago with their – at reer-professional life-mode and, thus, not that time – newborn baby boy. They are necessarily related to a female or a male both used to living in different parts of the bearer (Højrup 2003:57). world due to their careers and are now con- The material was collected in 2014‒ tinuing this practice as a family. 2015 in Sønderborg and consists of in- The last couple, Mexicans Gabriella depth interviews with four families, con- and Bautista, both 36, have lived in Søn- ducted in English. Each interview lasted derborg since 2007. Before they moved to 3‒4 hours and included participant obser- Denmark, they lived together first in vations in the families’ homes, since I Mexico and then in Italy for one year. interviewed the families as they were Gabriella and Bautista are the only couple Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 99

that do not have children; however, they As mentioned above, the argument of plan to start a family within the next few this article is that it is necessary to take the years. Common to all these couples is that whole family into account when studying both partners were working before the the transnational lives of the highly move to Sønderborg. However, the move skilled. In literature about the theme in to Sønderborg has changed this condition question, there has been a tendency to de- for some of the families. fine these transnational or global families as families in which one (or both) parents Clarification of Concepts and  work abroad, whereas the rest of the fam- Positioning ily stays in the home country (see e.g. There has been relatively limited research Bryceson & Vourela 2002; Sørensen into this highly-skilled labour migration. 2005). The families in the present context Generally, research has tended to focus can instead be understood as mobile units mainly on what might be called low-wage travelling and settling down around the migration (see e.g. Bryceson & Vourela world together. It should be emphasized, 2002; Fechter 2007). Furthermore, the however, that the family as a “mobile type of labour migration in focus in this unit” is also an ambiguous figure, and this article is not permanent, but temporary distinction should not be understood as a migration. These highly-skilled workers categorical distinction between either the and their families intend to move, either divided or the whole family. back to their country of origin or to a new Moreover, research into the family and destination (Coles & Fechter 2008). In its relation to work life has often primarily this context, highly-skilled migrant la- focussed on what kind of gender roles re- bourers are often referred to as mobile late to this specific form of life: for ex- and/or trans-migrants rather than as mi- ample, how the woman is often regarded grants (Basch et al. 1994), which will also as a passive follower in transnational prac- be the case in this article. tice, in which she is given the task of tak- These mobile, highly-skilled workers ing care of the home, as opposed to the are most often referred to as expatriates. man, who performs work outside the The term comes from the Latin ex patria home (Coles & Fechter 2008; Fechter and refers to someone living outside his or 2007). Thus, these studies have mainly fo- her country of origin (Coles & Fechter cused on the woman and her gender as be- 2008). The term has connotations that of- ing the cause of a particular (unequal) ten are attached to Westerners in particu- practice, and have not displayed an inter- lar, and by using this term there might be est in work and family life as an integrated a risk that the mobile highly-skilled can whole from a conceptual logical starting appear to be a rather homogeneous group. point. Therefore, this term will not be used here; This article takes a more nuanced view instead, the state and life-mode theoretical of the family as a sphere that cannot be un- approach will be used in order to under- derstood as detached from work life, and stand the range of variation among the where possible differences between the highly skilled. sexes are analysed as life-mode character- 100 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

istics and not as gender differences. The pending on its theoretical and analytical article should be read as a contribution to context (Amelina et al. 2012:1; Basch et the debate on highly-skilled labour migra- al. 1994:4; Kvisto 2001:551). In this con- tion and family life. The ethnologists text, the need to go beyond the perspective Katarzyna Wolanik Boström and Magnus of the nation-state is taken into considera- Öhlander have recently dealt with this is- tion in order to grasp the consequences of sue in the article “Renegotiating Symbolic the open-border regime and the nation- Capital, Status and Knowledge: Polish state’s inherently changeable role. For Physicians in Sweden” (Boström & Öh- several decades, transnational approaches lander 2015), which has been an inspira- have criticized the nation-state perspec- tion for this article. As the title reveals, tive, the so-called “container model”, of Boström and Ölander’s article is based on falling victim to methodological national- a Bourdieu-inspired discussion, which ism: a criticism raised by, among others, emphasizes obstacles that are primarily the anthropologist Nina Glick-Schiller, connected to the work life and strategies who defines methodological nationalism for re-establishing professionalism and as the view that “the nation / state / society status in a new cultural setting. The pres- is the natural social and political form of ent article is a contribution to this research the modern world” (Wimmer & Glick- field; however, the life-mode perspective Schiller 2003:301). In this view, the na- pursues a focus on work and family life in tion-state becomes an established analyti- the transnational context. Further, the in- cal line of demarcation around a homo- terest is not to analyse the struggles over geneous “container” of national culture symbolic capital and hierarchical posi- (Nielsen & Sandberg 2014:26). tions, but to understand how the families It has also been pointed out that there in question create meaning in their lives as may have been a tendency to particularly mobile, resourceful, highly-skilled mi- emphasize macro-structural conditions in grants. With a focus on how work and the so-called globalization process, rather family life are transformed, when the fam- than identifying the individual’s role in ily settles down in a new local and nation- this process (Mau 2010:17). It is relevant al context, the article discusses how the to mention – according to the state and transnational practices can lead to oppor- life-mode perspective – that “the individ- tunities as well as challenges in the new ual” in the present framework is under- context, as the transnational practice influ- stood as a subject in specific contexts that ences both the ideals of (dual) careers and include the family, the work and the state, gender roles in the attempt to live “the both locally and transnationally. Thus, it good life”. may be fruitful to consider the concept of “individual” in the context of the state and Transnational Condition life-mode theory, which can provide it Key to the analysis is also the concept of with more specific theoretical content: as “transnationalism”. The concept is broad, part of a whole. and several authors within the field note This article focuses primarily on fam- that it contains different meanings de- ilies and their members, on how their Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 101

practices are composed – understood us- ic opportunities. When applying the con- ing different life-mode concepts – and cept of life-modes to these opportunities, how these practices are both local and it becomes possible to explain how the transnational.3 A transnational perspective informants make sense of their lives and can provide insight into the way in which their decision to move to Sønderborg. the participating families’ specific cross- These opportunities are very much relat- border activities can be understood. ed to the informants’ work (and family) Transnationalism is a condition that obvi- life, which – due to the theoretical start- ously cannot be understood only in the ing point – is a central theme throughout context of a nation-state. Transnational this article. conditions mean, for example, that Den- It is the first time Caroline and Len- mark – including Sønderborg – will need nart’s family has lived outside Chicago, to attract highly-skilled workers from all where their two oldest children are still over the world in order to succeed in the living. The family moved to Sønderborg international competition. This activity is primarily because Lennart was headhunt- constantly changing the market and the ed by Danfoss’s headquarters in Sønder- competition and can thus be said to be borg for a position as head of a depart- characterized by a constant temporality, as ment. Lennart worked at Danfoss’s Chica- companies continuously compete in order go office for 19 years as an engineer em- to attract the means to outperform each ployed in management. Lennart is used to other. The means for this might, in the working long hours and describes himself context of the state and life-mode theory, as very focused on his career. Moving to be characterized as career-work, which is Sønderborg was a great opportunity be- further characterized by the very same cause of the career advancement it offered kind of temporality because of the career- him. Alongside his job as an engineer, professional’s constant need for new chal- Lennart has been working for some years lenges and professional development. To on his MBA (Master of Business Ad- understand this condition, the state and ministration). It has long been Lennart’s life-mode theory can provide a theoretical great desire to move to Sønderborg, for understanding of how transnationalism both the job opportunities and the relaxing can logically be viewed as the way states atmosphere he associates with the town attempt to both maintain internal cohesion based on the many visits he has made dur- and recognition in the state system. This, ing his career at Danfoss. In 2014, Caro- then, is where the subjectivity (and the line was ready to take the plunge with family) is embedded – in the state contexts him, and they moved to Sønderborg with it revolves around. their two youngest children. Caroline says that she has also always been very focused Why Move to Sønderborg? – Specific on her career, in her case as a chemist em- Opportunities for Families ployed in marketing at a pharmaceutical Initially, these four families moved to company where she has worked for 20 Sønderborg because the move would years. She was dismissed in 2013, how- (ideally) provide them with some specif- ever, when her department was closed. 102 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

Caroline, too, has been trying to complete are being “bought” in order to perform an MBA for years, but it has been difficult tasks related to the home and family. because of her and her husband’s work- Before moving to Sønderborg in Janu- loads. ary 2014, Sheryl, Carlos and their two Considered from a life-mode perspec- sons lived in Massachusetts in the United tive, both Caroline and Lennart have pri- States, where they had lived for the past mary ends outside the home and the fam- four years. Those four years in the US was ily, where they spend the majority of their the longest the family had lived together day. Therefore, they seem to belong to the in the same place. They are used to mov- conceptual world of the career-profes- ing around the world, and have also lived sional, in which work is the end, and lei- in Columbia, the Middle East and Thai- sure and family life are the means. How- land. The family primarily moves around ever, the couple have also chosen to have the world to follow job opportunities, but four children together, which indicates Sheryl and Carlos also want to give their that they do not exclusively want to focus children an international upbringing. on their work. The time with their children Carlos, an engineer, was employed by in the evenings and on weekends also the Danish company Secure during the serves as relaxation time, in which Caro- four years the family lived in the United line and Lennart can recharge. This time States. Secure produces innovative medi- with the family can – from a life-mode cal equipment, and was founded in Søn- perspective – be seen as a means to their derborg, where its head office is located. end. Carlos works as head of the compliance In order for Caroline and Lennart to department, and was invited by Secure to overcome everyday challenges, they nor- move to Sønderborg in order to be close to mally hire help, as Caroline explains in the the team he manages and to optimize the following: department. Carlos describes himself as In the US, we have help – we have a house clean- having a business perspective and as a er, we have people who help with the children, we workaholic. He also feels great responsi- have people who help with meals. You are both so bility towards his work, since it deals with focused on your career, so you put in long hours, the quality of medical devices. In addition and you try to do it all, but you can’t. So we hire to his work at Secure, Carlos is in the pro- help. (Caroline) cess of starting his own company (which In the context of life-mode theory, this will also produce medical equipment) to- family can be analysed as composed of gether with a friend from South America, two career professionals. Here, the and is also completing an MBA. Carlos’s life-mode concepts do not directly con- life is primarily centred on work-related tribute to an understanding of how two ca- tasks and on developing his professional reer-professional practices can coexist skills. From a life-mode perspective, this when there is no home-front taking care of behaviour can be analysed within the con- the house and family. However, by using ceptual world of the career-professional, the life-mode concepts, it can be said that where work serves as a primary goal in characteristics of a home-front practice life. Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 103

Sheryl is trained in school management, home-front is not attractive to her. For and she has led schools in several of the analytical purposes, this can be seen as an countries where the family has lived. She expression of the fact that the couple must has sought for several years to complete be able to perform tasks that, in a life- her MBA, but often has not had time to do mode theoretical sense, relate to both the so, and she has had to take breaks during home-front and career work. the process. Work is what gives Sheryl’s The Mexican-American couple Carmen life direction and meaning, as explained in and Peter are now considering whether the following quotation, in which she de- they should stay in Sønderborg or return scribes the relationship between her work to Mexico, as Carmen’s contract with and free time: Danfoss, where she is employed, is run- ning out. Before the family moved, Car- I spend my free time on my work. I need to do something structured, so I can have a career men had been working at Danfoss’s office [laughs]. I’m a career woman.4 I’m looking for in Mexico for four years. She has a Mas- places where I can contribute, be a valuable asset, ter’s in Political Science and International make changes, improvements for children and Affairs and has worked primarily in nego- young adults and help them make the right tiation. Carmen has always been very choices. (Sheryl) committed to her work, but also to her From a life-mode perspective, this shows family, as she explains: characteristics of the career-professional We have the opinion that if you do something, do life-mode, where work occupies the ma- it well. So I wouldn’t say the job is secondary. Not jority of time in everyday life. at all. I don’t really know, it’s so difficult because it’s hard for me to leave work… I leave work at 6, It is also important to Carlos and Sheryl sometimes 7, when I feel like I need to go home that their children thrive, but both partners because of [my son]. I feel I need to be at home say that they themselves would not thrive with him, with my family… And sometimes I if their jobs were not interesting and miss them during the day. But, I’m also kind of a challenging. Like Caroline and Lennart, workaholic, I think. (Carmen) Sheryl and Carlos have usually hired help In Mexico, where Carmen comes from, (nannies) to assist with child care. They she says it is very common to work a lot, have split other chores equally between even if you have just started a family. One them, although Sheryl believes that she is of the reasons the family moved to Søn- the more organized one when it comes to derborg just after the birth of their son was home and family, whereas Carlos is fo- the opportunity it offered of not being cused on his work. Therefore, Sheryl forced to live up to the demands that Car- makes sure that chores are evenly distrib- men believes characterizes work life in uted, so that she is not (unintentionally) Mexico. The job offer in Sønderborg gave being exploited – understood with respect her the chance to be able to both spend to the life-mode concept – as a home-front more time with her son and husband and practice. Considering that Sheryl primari- to make career advancements. Carmen’s ly displays characteristics of the career- characterization of Mexican work life can professional life-mode, this “control” is be grasped by considering Carmen’s prac- understandable, since exercising the tice as being a complex composition with 104 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

ends in both work and family, seen from a for a safe and good childhood. But the life-mode perspective. couple can also imagine moving to a new Peter has a Master’s in Marketing and destination and do not rule out the possi- Strategy, and he met Carmen at their joint bility of doing so. Danfoss in Sønderborg workplace in Texas. They lived in Texas hired Gabriella in 2007, and she now has a before moving to Mexico, where Carmen permanent contract. She started at Dan- was employed at Danfoss. When Carmen foss as an intern in Mexico and joined the was offered the job in Sønderborg, Peter company immediately after she had had also just been offered a job in Atlanta graduated from college. Gabriella enjoys in the United States. The couple compared life in Sønderborg, which she believes is the locations and chose Sønderborg be- much less demanding than working life in cause Danfoss was able to offer working Mexico. Gabriella’s comparison of work- conditions that were more attractive than ing conditions in Denmark versus Mexico those in the United States, and because the can also be understood from a life-mode job represented a career advancement for perspective by considering different con- Carmen. From a life-mode perspective, it ceptions of the relationship between work is possible to understand that the percep- and leisure. For Gabriella, work is not the tion of “good working conditions” is also primary goal in life; her ability to enjoy life-mode-specific, and can in this case be leisure time, travel the world, eat at restau- explained by the fact that both Carmen rants and socialize are more important: and Peter have spilt ends in both work and It’s not only the job that’s important, it’s the family. Peter, therefore, quit his job and rest… And that can’t be offered in Mexico. We instead started his own Internet company are looking for the full package. Not just the job. with a friend. Not long after, the family It’s okay that we don’t have high positions in our moved to Sønderborg. Peter’s working companies. As long as we have enough money to hours are flexible, so he can spend time travel, have a car and a house and time enough in with their son. For Peter, working with the the evenings to do something else. That’s what matters to us. (Gabriella) company (and the quality of the work in general) is important, but it is equally im- When applying the concepts of life- portant for him to spend time with his modes, Gabriella’s practice is primarily family. understandable as the wage-earner life- The Mexican couple Gabriella and mode, in view of the means-end relation- Bautista, both 36, have lived in Sønder- ship of her practice. However, this does borg since 2007. They love to travel, and not mean that her work is secondary. have used their education as engineers as Work can be (and preferably is) both ex- an opportunity to move around the world, citing and challenging, but the primary particularly in Europe. The couple do not needs are mainly met during leisure time. have children yet, but would like to start a Thus, the concept of the wage-earner family within the next few years. They life-mode is insufficient in this context, plan to stay in Sønderborg in the child’s because there is no routine work involved. first years because they believe the town However, this shows yet again that life- (and Denmark) offers the best conditions mode characteristics may point in differ- Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 105

ent and opposing directions. People can ities can vary greatly, as demonstrated by demonstrate traits of different life-modes. their contrast with the aforementioned Bautista, who is also an engineer, is em- families. Highly-skilled workers are not ployed at a company that develops system necessarily individuals who – when ap- solutions and sensors for intelligent light- plying life-mode concepts – primarily ing. This is the first (and only) job he has show traits of the career-professional had as an engineer, as he was still a stu- life-mode. The character of the work is not dent when the couple moved to Sønder- necessarily irreplaceable or unique, and borg. Bautista is happy with his job and the worker does not necessarily seek con- his workplace, where he especially appre- stant career advancement and personal de- ciates the social cohesion amongst his col- velopment through work. Because they leagues. It is not only the content of his possess the same means-end relationships, work, but also the social relationships that Gabriella and Bautista seem to comple- are important. Bautista describes his rela- ment each other in the way that they agree tion to his work as follows: on the balance they think should exist be- Some of our friends come here, and go home to tween work and leisure. Living in Sønder- Mexico with a strong position. They work a lot. borg – Opportunities and Challenges That’s their goal. But that’s not for us. Work is With the move to Sønderborg, how- work. We try to keep a balance where we work ever, a shift in some of the informants’ in- hard enough not to get fired, but not so hard that dividual practices occurred, resulting in a you can’t enjoy your life. (Bautista) shift in family practices as well. These For Bautista, hard work means that life shifts caused some rather crucial challeng- cannot be enjoyed. In his free time, he is es and dilemmas for the families. Some of interested in sports and volunteer work the partners no longer work, or their work helping newcomers to Sønderborg to form may have a different character, which has social networks through associations and consequences for the partners’ and fam- sports clubs, which for him create a mean- ilies’ organization. Generally, the re- ingful everyday life. He describes his and search participants’ work has a transna- Gabriella’s balance between work and lei- tional character. That is, the work relates sure as contrasting with that of their to both their country of origin (and other friends, who, it would appear, bear traits countries) and to the specific context in of the career-professional life-mode in Sønderborg (and Denmark). their quest for career advancement. From For Lennart, moving to Sønderborg has this perspective, Bautista exemplifies the not required much habituation, since he contrasting life perspectives that exist be- had visited the town many times during tween career-professional and wage-earn- his employment. Contrary to Caroline’s er practice, in which the means-end rela- expectations, Lennart is working at least tionship appears contradictory, and one as much in Sønderborg as he did back in cannot understand the other’s life priori- the States: ties. I don’t think Lennart understands the Danish Bautista and Gabriella are examples of working hours. He still comes home at 6, he will the fact that highly-skilled workers’ prior- always be that way. He wants things to be perfect. 106 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

So he doesn’t have any responsibilities in the ous traits of the career-professional life- house. And he’s also working on his MBA, so mode. From being on what she describes there is not much time for anything else. So I had as “a specific career path,” she is suddenly to remind myself every day, I have to clean, I have to do the laundry, I have to cook. I have to change not working – at least not on something my mindset (Caroline). she finds interesting – and is now mostly in charge of the home and the children. While Lennart carries out his work at Thus, there is a shift in her practice from Danfoss most of the day, working on his being focused on career goals to lacking a MBA on the side, Caroline is trying to ad- structure that gives her the opportunity to just to their new life in Sønderborg, where meet her goals. Understood from the per- the family (at the time of the interview) spective of the career-professional life- has been living for about ten months. She mode, it is problematic for Caroline to has tried to find a job in Sønderborg or the suddenly be in a situation where the surrounding area, but is experiencing means-end relationship of her practice problems because her area of expertise looks so radically different, and the home does not exist in Denmark. She is there- and family (involuntarily) replace work as fore currently working part-time (ten the primary “goal” in her life. Theoretical- hours a week) as a translator for a small ly, her practice might seem to show traits consulting firm in Sønderborg. She de- of home-front practice, but Caroline is in scribes the transition as follows: this state unwillingly and does not thrive In Denmark, you have socialized medicine, so my in it, because it is – again, from a theor- job doesn’t even exist here. So when that’s not etical point of view – contrary to her your area, where do you go for a job? […] From January to July I wasn’t working, and I wasn’t life-mode-specific ends. working on my MBA yet. I had to remind myself Lennart’s job at Danfoss headquarters everyday that I needed to enjoy being here. It’s in Sønderborg is very much connected to difficult for me to go from working and being on the department in which he worked in a very specific career path to all of a sudden not. Chicago. He is in charge of communica- So both not working and being in another country is a lot to take in. It was very lonely and boring, tion with the department in Chicago, and and I knew I had to find something. Staying home therefore regularly travels between Søn- is definitely not my thing. It’s like… be careful derborg and Chicago. In this way, his what you wish for. For all these years you both practice is conversely characterized by kind of struggle and are like “I wish I had five relatively high continuity. more minutes!” and now you have three more In Sønderborg, Caroline spends most of years. So I have to take this opportunity and love it, because when we go back, I’m going to be her time working on her MBA, which she working again, thank God! [laughs]. Fortunately is completing online. This is a kind of op- this job fell into my lap. It’s not my area of exper- portunity for her, as by improving her tise, but it gives me something slightly meaningful skills she hopes for better chances in the to do. And fortunately, I have my MBA now, my job market when the family returns to Chi- MBA is my time (Caroline). cago – or moves on to another place – after From a life-mode perspective, Caroline’s the three-year period in Sønderborg. She practice has changed, as it no longer educates herself and spends time on activ- demonstrates to the same extent the obvi- ities related to a life outside of Sønderborg Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 107

and outside a Danish national governmen- responsibilities she has had to take on tal framework. In this way, she tries to due to Carlos’ absence: think about work as an element of con- We can’t live like this. He’s doing their job. tinuity, even though – as shown in the There’s a woman there, she goes home at 3:30 in quotation above – she does not always feel the afternoon. […] We came here thinking that this way. This transnational practice can Carlos was going to be home at 5, but he comes be grasped by looking at it from a home at 7 or 8. It’s not working, not at all. If I can get a good job, everything will be great. Then I life-mode perspective in which Caroline, can be a happier person, and make the demand for primarily showing traits of the career-pro- Carlos to take responsibility in the house. Now it’s fessional life-mode, continuously tries to half-hearted because I have nothing else to do. develop her skills. Furthermore, it may be […] I just need to get a job, then everything will that her lack of satisfactory work in Søn- be fine (Sheryl). derborg strengthens her transnational Primarily showing traits of the career-pro- practice, as local life in Sønderborg does fessional life-mode, Sheryl faces prob- not fulfil her specific life requirements. lems in her everyday life due to Carlos’ This shows that transnational conditions – time-consuming commitment to his work. in this case, the ability to continuously im- As long as she does not have a job, she has prove skills in your home country – are no choice but to be the one who (almost central to her specific life requirements re- exclusively) takes care of the home and lated to her career-professional practice. the family. When further applying the What makes Caroline hopeful, however, life-mode concepts, she can be said to is that life in Sønderborg is temporary. exercise the role as home-front; a role that Meanwhile, she tries to give her life con- basically contradicts her practice. The tent and meaning, which for her is related sharp division of responsibilities that the to personal development, by working on couple had before they came to Sønder- her MBA. borg is now out of balance. For Carlos and Sheryl, life has In many ways, Sheryl and Carlos’s changed as well. For Carlos, the biggest transnational practice is similar to Caro- difference has been adapting to what he line and Lennart’s. Carlos’s responsibility calls the Danish work mentality. At to manage communication with the com- work, he experiences a mismatch be- pany’s department in Massachusetts tween his own standards and his fellow means that he actually works more in the employees’. When he comes home from Danish context than he did before the work in the evening, he often needs to move. Like Lennart, Carlos often goes have online meetings with the company’s back to Massachusetts (every other department in the United States: meet- month) for work. Like Caroline, Sheryl ings that, due to the time difference, often also works on her MBA online in an at- take place late at night. These circum- tempt to improve her skills, which can be stances have consequences for the chil- theoretically understood as showing traits dren and for Sheryl, who is trying to find of the career-professional life-mode. work in Sønderborg, but has not had time Sheryl and Carlos also wish to leave Søn- to do so because of the family and home derborg after a period of time and there- 108 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

fore share with Caroline and Lennart tice has changed significantly with the many of the same rationales for residing in move to Sønderborg, since he does not the town. From a life-mode perspective, have a job. Instead, he is in the process of there is a shift in practices, especially for starting his own Internet company with a Caroline and Sheryl, but also for Lennart friend in the United States. They intend to and Carlos, who now work (even) more, advise other companies on marketing and creating an imbalance in their families. strategy. In Sønderborg, Peter’s responsi- Though their work and family life before bilities have primarily been taking care of the transfer could through different solu- the home and their son, who is almost two tions and choices be said to have been in years old. Given that the company still balance, the picture has now changed. In a consists only of Peter and his friend, he theoretical sense, this makes it challeng- has no employees he needs to be account- ing for the families to fulfil their percep- able for. Carmen sometimes also works at tions of “the good life”. home in the evenings and weekends, but Carmen and Peter’s priorities were, in a she is required to be at work during the life-mode theoretical sense, also primarily day because of meetings. Peter is not ex- understandable from a career-professional periencing the same daily frustrations as- perspective to begin with. But a twofold sociated with having to leave the work- goal in both work and family made every- place – or the home – as Carmen does. day life complex for them in Mexico. Car- Thus, from a life-mode perspective, they men tries, with ends in both work and both show traits of the same ideologies, family, to find a balance between work but handle the dilemmas that arise from and family life, but this is often made dif- such coexistence in different ways. For ficult due to the perfectionism she de- Carmen, a complex practice with ends in scribes as characterizing her approach to both work and family led to her accepting work. However, everyday life in Sønder- the job in Sønderborg, which was both a borg has changed her approach to work a career advancement and a chance to spend bit: more time with her son. In this way, she […] but being here has reduced it [approach to can more easily navigate in her dilemma. work] a little bit. It’s because of the environment. Peter tries to overcome that same dilemma The people here are not… Well, not everything is by starting his own company, which gives about the job here. That also has an impact on me. him the opportunity to work at a satisfac- I follow that. But still, at work everybody leaves tory job wherever he is in the world with at 4. I don’t leave at 4! I don’t think I will ever be his family. So far, Peter perceives the a 9-to-4 person (Carmen). company as an enjoyable project and does Although Carmen is working a little less – not expect it to grow into a big company. which was one of her reasons for moving However, it contributes to the develop- to Sønderborg – she still feels torn. From ment of his skills, and provides him with a life-mode perspective, she continuously relevant experience related to his profes- has ends in both family and work, but the sion. When their son is older, he would specific terms in Sønderborg have re- much rather go back to work at a job simi- duced work priorities a bit. Peter’s prac- lar to the one he had before the move. Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 109

Thus, from a life-mode perspective, it The fact that the couple does not yet have appears as if Peter is living temporarily in children is likely to influence how their the Danish context as home-front or as practice is organized; a life with children self-employed. At least, he shows some of might look different, since children would these traits, which further demonstrates naturally occupy some of the free time the that life-mode characteristics can point in couple enjoys. However, it appears that different directions. But what is important their dream of having children soon can, is that Peter himself considers this to be a in the theoretical sense, be analysed as a sort of break from normal life, so his com- goal for them. The initial reason they pany and his life as a homemaker should chose Sønderborg as a city to live in was not be understood as a permanent condi- their wish to raise future children there. tion. Theoretically speaking, the company They both feel that Sønderborg is a safe does not produce – as in the self-employed and ideal place to raise children. Both life-mode – something that maintains dai- Gabriella and Bautista believe that there is ly work. He delivers special knowledge, a clear distinction between work and lei- which further helps him to develop his sure, and that this distinction – seen from skills. Therefore, in the life-mode theor- a life-mode theoretical point of view – can etical sense, his practice still primarily fulfil their perception of “the good life”, shows traits of the career-professional life-mode, but the transnational and tem- which is primarily acted out during free porary situation in Sønderborg allows him time. It is also during free time that they to meet some of the conflicting objectives plan to spend a lot of time with their future he has in his life, in which work and fam- children. So, for Gabriella and Bautista, ily are prioritized equally. Through his life in Sønderborg provides them with im- choices, he has the opportunity to meet the portant opportunities to realize “the good different priorities that reflect his complex life”, which is why they are not currently practice. planning to move to another destination in Unlike the other partners, who are ex- the next year. They do not, however, rule periencing complex dilemmas and con- out the possibility of moving in the future: flicts with the move to Sønderborg, the We have our life here right now. […] But I don’t congruence of Gabriella and Bautista’s know about the future, I don’t think we will stay practices in Sønderborg is an example of here forever. Like my father says, we are citizens how practices can function together opti- of the world. There are pieces of our hearts differ- mally. Theoretically, they both primarily ent places (Bautista). show traits of the wage-earner life-mode, and have adjusted easily to the Danish An Understanding of Work and Family working environment, which, from their Life as a Whole life-mode-specific means-end relation- It has been shown in the above that what ship, provides them with some terms that can be analysed as problematic and un- are better than those in Mexico: satisfactory for some families can be per- It’s more competitive in Mexico. Here, it’s much ceived as optimal for others. more relaxed. You have the possibility to both The four families, according to the work and have a life (Gabriella). theory, show traits of different life-modes; 110 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

two of them, in particular – Caroline & “For me, the most important thing is just Lennart and Sheryl & Carlos – primarily being happy wherever we are. For me, it’s show traits of the career-professional not really depending on the location. For life-mode. In this theoretical life-mode, me it’s being happy, and the whole family family life is made possible by the to be together.” home-front, and therefore the family must This is a suggestion for how this kind of have a home-front in order to be in bal- highly-skilled transnational labour can be ance. Since this is not the case in these grasped by applying some specific theor- families, the life-mode concepts may be etical concepts. These insights can further insufficient. On the other hand, the con- help to locate why it might be especially flicts that arise within the families can be challenging to retain some of the highly- explained by using the life-mode con- skilled foreigners: because “the good life” cepts, offering the opportunity to explain for them and their families is to be mobile why this situation might be so problematic and transnational. for the family: because no one (willingly) has or wants the role as home-front. A Transnational Practice Nevertheless, the analysis indicates that in We don’t have a geographical spot or place that is spite of this, the family plays an important our home. That was one of the conversations we role for the research participants and can- had before coming. Where will we return to? We haven’t lived one place long enough the past ten not be seen as separate from work life. years to say, “That’s our place!” Basically, what From this perspective, it is necessary to I’m looking for is a place where I can contribute, perceive work and family life as a whole. be a valuable asset, make changes and improve- The family still plays a central role for ments. (Sheryl) those who have or want children, and if This is how Sheryl explains the family’s the families wanted a life where work was transnational life and her rationales be- the only goal, parenthood would not make hind it, and it is a telling description of the sense. When, as in the present cases, the way the informants in this case make family is highly prioritized, it may be (at sense of their lives. In this article, I have least to some extent) because children and tried to point out how the families’ local the family as a whole play a central role. and transnational lives can be related to These families can, in an almost Hegelian their different life-mode characteristics. view, be seen as fate communities5 – or at The objective was to understand why least communities – that through the se- transnational conditions cannot only be curity of the community are able to move examined as an explanation or a condition around in the world, and include them- in themselves. The ways in which families selves in new and different contexts. In are transnational is, however, related to this way, the family becomes the stable their specific life-mode characteristics. element in a life that is otherwise charac- Through the analysis of various means- terized by temporariness; and perhaps ends relationships in the families, it is pos- these families’ version of “the good life” sible to suggest what leads to their trans- is to live this way. As stated in Peter’s national lives. Again, in this context it is quotation at the beginning of the article: important to stress that no matter how the Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 111

families’ specific means-ends relation- However, Gabriella & Bautista’s thoughts ships appear, the family as a whole plays a about Sønderborg as being an ideal place key role in this kind of transnational prac- to raise their future children do indicate tice. Here the (sometimes contrasting) that they wish to be locally situated at least practices that the family consists of must for a number of years. But they are not coexist if balance in the family is to be concerned about whether the children will maintained. In this sense, a transnational be able to move at some point. All the practice creates conditions for some fam- families share the opinion that the transna- ilies that offer the opportunity for them to tional practice is mainly a positive aspect live “the good life”. This was the case of a child’s upbringing. with Carmen & Peter and Gabriella & The mobile life includes both opportu- Bautista, who especially appreciate what nities and challenges for the families. Fur- are for them appealing Danish working thermore, it is possible – as mentioned conditions that allow for a satisfying fam- earlier – that these kinds of mobile fam- ily life and free time. On the other hand, ilies are both a particular opportunity and life for Caroline & Lennart and Sheryl & particular challenge for a municipality Carlos is problematic, since they – from a like Sønderborg, for example, because of life-mode perspective – primarily show their transnational and temporary charac- traits of the career-professional life-mode. ter, which can make it difficult to retain However, it is interesting to note that re- them. Gabriella tells an interesting story gardless of whether the families can be on this subject from her workplace. From said to be thriving in Sønderborg, they are time to time, there are rumours that the all (to varying degrees) open to the possi- company will move abroad, and when this bility of moving to another destination in happens the Danish employees start to the world after a period of time in Sønder- look askance at the foreign employees. borg. For some, this interest in living Gabriella explains why: abroad is primarily for career advance- They know it’s easier for us to just move, because ment; for others, it is because they believe we’ve done it before. We don’t have our family it would be exciting and beneficial for here, and we could just as well make friends their family life – or for both their career somewhere else. I don’t think they have that kind advancement and family life. Thus, the of mindset, that you could just move. That might transnational conditions are, from this per- be it. (Gabriella) spective, deeply interwoven in the specific Thus, there are conditions for these trans- life-mode priorities. When asking the national people that are linked to the mar- families if they are ever concerned about ket they are a part of, and that put them in the rootless character of their practices a special situation. They are hypothetical- and the complex relation between being ly able to be as mobile – and therefore as both transnational and local, the inter- competitive – as the company they work viewees do not express any deep anxiety for. And just like a company, they need about – for example – their children’s lo- only be tied to a place for as long as the cal rootedness. First of all, home is where place can provide good conditions for the family is and not a specific location. their existence. This further emphasizes 112 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

that the family is central to the analysis. If concept – to maintain recognition as a the family does not have a transnational sovereign state in the state system, by (2) character – which is the case with the Dan- being a competitive part of the interna- ish employees Gabriella mentions – it may tional market. These two theoretical per- put the employee at a disadvantage. Yet spectives can be seen as inextricably inter- again, this stresses the importance of the connected, because transnationality has transnational condition. become an essential condition of the state’s work for sovereignty: the way Concluding Remarks states strive for self-preservation in the As mentioned earlier, the material pre- world of nations, the state system. The sented above has been gathered within the transnational activity, which in this case is framework of wider research, and in the the attraction and retention of highly- present context I have limited my material skilled foreign workers and their families, to a specific focus on the families’ per- is, from a state and life-mode perspective, spectives and experiences. Therefore, I an important factor in the state’s ongoing have not presented how the state and life- effort to achieve recognition as a sover- mode theory examines everyday life in re- eign state in the state system. lation to a governmental framework – the In posing questions as to how people state – in which everyday life unfolds, nor make choices and experiences in condi- how the state is included in a state system. tions of transnational life, this article has Thus, I will herewith touch very briefly pursued an interest in transnational fam- upon this relation, which, however, de- ilies and, more precisely, in highly-skilled serves much more in-depth analysis. foreigners and their families situated in The beginning of this article made ref- the southern Danish town of Sønderborg. erence to an April 2014 report presented In doing so, the key research questions as by the (now former) Danish government, presented at the beginning have been: which claimed that Denmark is lagging What happens when a family decides to behind in the international competition for leave the home country and live abroad? the highly skilled workers. The report What happens to the dynamics within the pointed out that highly-skilled foreigners family when moving to a new country? contribute positively to productivity And what kind of obstacles and opportuni- growth in Danish companies as well as to ties do they meet? the financing of the public sector. A con- By applying a state and life-mode the- sideration of how this statement can be oretical approach, the article has set out to viewed within a state and life-mode theor- answer these questions and show the im- etical perspective and a transnational per- portance of understanding work and fam- spective can help emphasize why these ily life as an integrated whole. This per- perspectives should be joined. This politi- spective has been used as an approach to cal objective can be seen as related to the understanding how people’s different ra- state and to transnational terms, since the tionales, challenges and choices are based goal is (1) to survive as a nation state, or – on their specific life-mode orientations. In as explained with the state and life-mode doing so, it contributed to an understand- Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective 113

ing of how people, in different ways, are the state’s internal work to maintain sov- trying to achieve “the good life”. In the ereignty in the state system. However, this analysis of the material, families were ex- should be understood as one possible ex- amined using the life-mode concepts as planation that requires considerably more analytical tools, which uncovered both attention. balance and complexity in their everyday The emphasis in the article was, how- practices, and showed how life-mode ever, on the families’ practices and expe- characteristics can point in different and riences and on how perceptions of “the conflicting directions. By analysing dif- good life” can differ among these transna- ferent life-mode orientations, it was poss- tional, highly-skilled workers and their ible to suggest how certain conditions for families. This is a condition which muni- some families can be understood as prob- cipalities need to be aware of when form- lematic, while for others they seem opti- ing their strategies. These workers are cer- mal. In this context, my main argument is tainly not a homogeneous group of people that by understanding the concepts of with the same wishes and needs; however, work and family as an integrated whole, it important for all of them was that life is is possible to provide suggestions as to not “good” if their family is not in bal- ways in which people try to realize differ- ance. Perhaps for this reason, it is neces- ent perceptions of “the good life”. Using sary to consider which conditions should the life-mode concepts, a further analysis be present in order for highly-skilled looked at how and why the families are workers and their families to settle down, being transnational. For the families in in this case in the town of Sønderborg. At this study, the move to Sønderborg pro- least for a while. vided them with some specific opportuni- ties in order for them to realize their per- Siri Daa Funder European Ethnology ceptions of “the good life”. However, the The Saxo Institute everyday life in Sønderborg also created Copenhagen University some challenges for the families as their Karen Blixens Vej 4 work and family lives suddenly under- DK-2300 Copenhagen S went reorganization. email: [email protected] Furthermore, from this perspective, it is Notes possible that these kinds of transnational 1 Therefore, the material presented in this ar- families are not only a special opportunity ticle has been gathered within the framework – e.g. for a town such as Sønderborg – but of wider research. also a particular challenge, because of 2 All names mentioned in this article are modi- their transnational and temporary charac- fied. 3 The study, however, could also have focused ter, which can make it challenging to re- on companies, organizations or institutions, tain them. Reflexively, I have tried to in- which can also be considered from both state dicate some possible explanations for this. and life-mode and transnational perspectives. Here, the state and life-mode theory can 4 The term “career woman” is the informant’s own expression and should not be confused help to explain how attracting and retain- with the content of the theoretical career-pro- ing highly skilled foreign labour is part of fessional life-mode. 114 Siri Daa Funder, Transnational Work and Family Life from a Local Perspective

5 Hegel’s concept of the family is a theoretical the Copenhagen Area, Denmark.” Ethnologia suggestion for how the family can be concep- Europaea 44:1, pp. 23‒37. tualized as a fate community (Hegel 2004: Mau, Steffen 2010: Social Transnationalism. 176). Initially, it was a substantial inspiration Lifeworlds Beyond the Nation-State. London: for my interest in the importance of the fam- Routledge. ily. Oxford Research A/S and The Copenhagen Post 2010. The Expat Study 2010. Bording. References Sørensen, Ninna Nyberg 2005: “Den globale fa- milie – opløsning eller transnationalisering af Amelina, Anna et al. 2012: Beyond Methodo- familien?” Dansk Sociologi 1/16, pp. 72‒89. logical Nationalism. London: Routledge. Basch, Linda, Nina Glick Schiller & Christina Thuesen, Frederik, Mette Kirstine Tørslev & Tina Szanton Blanc 1994: Nations Unbound. Trans- Gudrun Jensen 2011: Rekruttering og fasthol- national Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, delse af højtuddannet arbejdskraft. Danmark, and Deterritorialized Nation-States. London: Norge, Holland, Storbritannien og Canada. SFI Routledge. – Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Velfærd . Boström, Katarzyna Wolanik & Magnus Öhlan- Wimmer, Andreas & Nina Glick Schiller 2003: der 2015: “Renegotiating Symbolic Capital, “Methodological Nationalism, the Social Status, and Knowledge. Polish Physicians in Sciences, and the Study of Migration: An Essay Sweden”. In Rethinking Ethnography in Cen- in Historical Epistemology.” International Mi- tral Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan. gration Review 37(3), pp. 576‒610. Bryceson, Deborah & Ulla Vuorela 2002: The Transnational Family: New European Fron- Internet Sources tiers and Global Networks.Oxford: Berg Pub- Arbejdsmarkedsstyrelsen 2011: Rapport om rek- lishers. Coles, Anne & Anne-Meike Fechter 2008: Gen- ruttering af højtkvalificeret arbejdskraft fra der and Family among Transnational Profes- tredje lande. 5 March 2015. Available via: http: sionals. London: Routledge. //star.dk/da/Om-STAR/Publikationer/2011/07/ Fechter, Anne-Meike 2007: Transnational Lives. Rekruttering-af-hoejtkvalificeret-arbejds- Expatriates in Indonesia. London: Ashgate. kraft.aspx Funder, Siri Daa 2015: Transnational Work and Oxford Reasearch A/S og Dansk Erhverv 2010: Family Life from a Local Perspective (Master’s Living and Working in Denmark – an Expat thesis, not published). Perspective. Oxford Research. 18 February Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 2004: Retsfiloso- 2015. Available via: http://www.oxfordre- fi. København: Det lille forlag. search.dk/media/48201/451880-GuidetilEx- Højrup, Thomas 2002: Dannelsens dialektik. Kø- pats.pdf benhavn: Museum Tusculanums Forlag. Regeringen 2014: Lettere adgang til højtkvalifice- Højrup, Thomas 2003: State, Culture and ret arbejdskraft – udspil til en reform af inter- Life-Modes. The Foundation of Life-Mode national rekruttering 2014. 5 March 2015. Analysis. London: Ashgate. Available via:http://bm.dk/da/Aktuelt/Publika- Kvisto, Peter 2001: “Theorizing transnational im- tioner/Arkiv/2014/International%20rekrutte- migration: a critical review of current efforts.” ring.aspx Ethnic and Racial Studies 24(4), pp. 549‒577. Seidelin, C. A. 2012: Udenlandske eksperter øger Nielsen, Niels Jul & Marie Sandberg 2014: “Be- produktiviteten mere end danske eksperter. tween Social Dumping and Social Protection. Dansk Industri. 7 April 2015. Available via: The Challenge of Creating Orderly Working http://publikationer.di.dk/dikataloger/254/4. Conditions among Polish Circular Migrants in Respecting Swedish Muslims Claims of Truth Concerning National and Religious  Belonging in Sweden By David Gunnarsson

In 2016, the Swedish Muslim politician positionality. It was a situation in which a Yasri Khan withdrew his candidacy for Muslim, in the position of the guide, has the board of the Swedish Green Party on an opportunity to present alternative account of his handshaking practice, stories, about who Muslims are and what where he claimed religious reasons for not they do. The visitors for their part could shaking hands with women. The debate assess, respond to and challenge those following his withdrawal was focused on stories. The aim of the study was to illus- gender equality issues from the beginning, trate how discourses about Muslims mani- but very soon started to revolve around fest themselves on the guided tours of the Swedishness instead, and in the end mosque in Södermalm and what knowl- prompted the prime minister to state that edge of Swedish Muslims and Swedish- in Sweden we greet each other by shaking ness were raised in that context. What re- hands. Therefore the debate came to con- gimes of truth met? How were these re- cern what can be acceptable behaviour in gimes of truth organized and conditioned Sweden, but Khan’s actions were deemed depending on the position before, during un-Swedish rather than problematic from and after the tours? a gender equality perspective. As mentioned, a central notion in my In this article, I will investigate the rela- understanding of the tours is regimes of tion between national belonging in Swe- truth. It is used here in a Foucauldian den and religious belonging to Islam in sense, implying that the world becomes Sweden and how that is related to the re- available to us through linguistic matrixes current talk of respect during the guided that are connected to power (Foucault tours of a mosque in Stockholm that I have 1991; Foucault 2007:47; Butler 2005:17). studied.1 It is precisely that discussion on These “epistemological regimes of intelli- respect, in relation to national belonging gibility” (Inda 2005:8), linking knowl- in Sweden, which will be in focus in this edge of the world with its comprehensi- article. Why has it been important to show bility, guide what is perceived as reason- respect on the guided tours of a mosque? able and sensible in differing contexts What in the tours brings such issues to the (Hall 1997:54‒56). Every self-presentation fore? What personal convictions can be therefore becomes a self-(re)presentation, set aside or negotiated in the exercising of because who I can be understood as is the respect? result of interpretations made in using The study explored the regimes of truth these matrixes. According to Judith Butler surrounding Muslims in Sweden. The (2005:22f), whose developments and in- main focus was on the production of terpretations of Foucault I find useful, a knowledge regarding Muslims in the con- “regime of truth governs subjectivation” text of the guided tours of a mosque in and calling it into question would mean Stockholm. Special attention was given to calling into question my “ability to tell the how regimes of truth regarding Muslims truth about myself”. Therefore, the power inform the conversations during the visits, of the regimes is existential and conditions how they were debated in this particular the self-(re)presentations. arena and how that was dependent on Therefore, who I am is always an open

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 116 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

question and the answer a result of identi- tours has been footed in such storylines. In fication processes. Being identified as the article I will show which storylines someone, by myself or others, means be- about national identity and religiousness ing positioned in particular social posi- were brought to the fore in the talk about tions, as observed by many ethnologists and handling of issues concerning show- (Berg 2007; Gerber 2011; Johansson ing respect during the tours. Before get- 2010; Léon Rosales 2010). Bronwyn ting into that, though, I will present the Davies (2000) claims that we, in that man- study from a methodological point of view ner, position each other in everyday con- and describe the scene of the tours, the versations. Every narrative, statement or mosque in Södermalm. assertion has a certain storyline as its foundation, and inserting subjects into a Method and Data story is what creates continuity for the The study is based mainly on participant subject (Davies 2000:21f). From this per- observations made during 14 guided tours spective, everyday conversations can be 2003‒2006 and on interviews with three viewed as negotiations on positioning. For guides and 22 visitors regarding their ex- example, being positioned as a “Muslim periences on the respective tours. Most of in Sweden” or as a “Swedish Muslim” has the visitor groups were making study a political dimension, where being called visits as a part of educational training. the latter is a more inclusive articulation in Seven of these were in primary and sec- terms of national belonging. Being called ondary education and two of them at col- a Swedish Muslim is currently an articu- lege level. To frame and contextualize the lated aim of many Muslims, not least the tours I have furthermore used data from ones born in Sweden (like Khan). A story- mass media, mainly press clippings, but line is the connections made between po- also features from television shows. Other sitions and ontological assertions and can categories have been archival data, leaf- also include characteristics, such as being lets and brochures handed out at the positioned as powerful/powerless, for ex- mosque, as well as fictional books and a ample. mailing list for Muslims. The guided tours The presence of differing storylines and of a mosque have offered an opportunity the negotiation on positions leads to more to study the production of knowledge or less articulated claims of truth. Thus, about Muslims since they presented me with regard to the subject, narration can with articulations of different regimes of also become an issue of being able to as- truth stemming from different ontologies, sume authority, the ability to create a rea- a multitude of storylines so to speak. sonable story about oneself of which I my- While there is a lot of talk about Muslims self am the author (Davies 2000:66‒68). in Sweden, there are few forums where For the guides this has meant telling other Muslims get to talk back. The study visits stories than the ones present in media of to the great mosque in Södermalm in what Swedish Muslims can be understood Stockholm that I participated in were as and the conditions for their lives. characterised by the guides becoming ex- The talk of respect during and after the perts on themselves (Gunnarsson 2016). David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 117

The tours were roughly divided into for example. They had received no special two parts, the first half usually consisting training or any specific course to become of a tour of the building, in which the large guides. Some of them, however, had taken prayer hall and the room directly under- a course arranged by Sweden’s Young neath the dome were almost always pre- Muslims (Sveriges unga muslimer (SUM) sented. Sometimes the library, offices and equipping them to go to schools, for ex- the washing room were displayed, and ample, to debate and inform about Islam only rarely the gym and the restaurant. and Islamophobia. Usually, the guides’ The building itself has drawn some of the training had rather consisted in auditing visitors I have talked to, since it is listed tours with experienced guides and partici- under a preservation order for represent- pating in a forum for the guides at the ing the early modern welfare era, in which mosque where they could discuss and find a lot of money was spent on a power sta- solutions to recurrent questions or prob- tion such as this. One of the most famous lems. Swedish architects of the last turn of the Most of the guides had a background in century, Ferdinand Boberg, designed it North Africa, either having relatives there and many visitors admired the original til- or as a region of emigration. Over the ing in the former machine hall, which is years I have had conversations with many now the prayer hall. It was rebuilt to be- of them, but interviewed three of them for- come a mosque and inaugurated in 2000. mally. Two of them were men and one This first part of the tour has been quite woman. One of them was born in Sweden, formalized. two had experience of living in the (for- Less so the second half of the tour, mer) Eastern Bloc. They were aged be- which has usually been spent in the con- tween their twenties and fifties. Of the ference room and has been designated for guides I observed in tours there was one questions from the visitors. This part has from the Middle East and one from the had the characteristics of debate and nego- Nordic countries as well. tiation, in the forms of cooperation as well as reluctance. Although there have not A Mosque in Stockholm been set themes for the questions, and they The mosque which was the setting for my have only rarely been explicitly prepared, study is a Sunni mosque and claims to be they have concerned similar subjects. open for all Muslims that wish to pray. In Generally, they have concerned the every- practice, however, the mosques in Stock- day life of Swedish Muslims, the guides’ holm are visited in accordance with eth- personal moral convictions, not least with nicity and language, besides religious regard to gender equality, and topical denominations. There is a large Shi’ite news on Muslims. mosque in Jakobsberg, a purpose built The guides were made up of a core of Turkish Sunni mosque in Fittja and the volunteers that receive no economic com- one in Södermalm is mainly Arabic, to pensation, although some were part of the name a few of them. The tours are organ- hired staff that worked for IFiS (Islamic ized by the Islamic Association in Stock- Association in Stockholm) in the mosque, holm (Islamiska förbundet i Stockholm 118 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

The entrance on the western facade, facing Björns trädgård. Photo: David Gunnarsson.

(IFiS) which is part of the United Islamic the inner city of Stockholm. Beside dis- Communities in Sweden (Förenade isla- agreements and financial difficulties miska församlingar i Sverige (FIFS). FIFS amongst the Muslim organisations, the organizes over 30,000 Muslims and is one political process also dragged on. The city of the largest receiving Muslim organiza- council rejected several suggestions from tions of financial grants from the Swedish the planning department. Concerns main- state (via the Commission for Govern- ly involved that the suggested locations ment Support for Faith Communities were too far away from, or too close to the (SST).2 city centre, and they were deemed both The making of a mosque in Södermalm too attractive (fit for other activities) and could be read as an attempt and longing to too unattractive (in industrial areas or the belong and establish a “home”, at least in like) (cf. Karlsson Minganti 2004: a religious sense, where it has not been 154‒157). symbolically available beforehand. From The first purpose-built mosque in Swe- about the 1970s onwards it seemed more den was erected in Gothenburg in 1975 by and more problematic for the Muslim or- the Ahmadiyya movement. Since then ganizations in Stockholm not to have a several other mosques have appeared, but representative mosque in the capital of there is only one (the one in Fittja) where Sweden. The inauguration of the mosque they call to prayer on the outside of the in Södermalm, on 8 June 2000, therefore building. On many occasions the planning ended over 20 years of struggling to re- and building of mosques stir controversy ceive the permission to build a mosque in and conflict. That does not pertain to Swe- David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 119

den exclusively in fact it is so common have a representative mosque in the centre that in 2005 the Journal of Ethnic and Mi- of the capital. gration Studies had a special issue edited Avtar Brah (2002) revisits the old con- on mosque conflicts in Europe, including ception of diaspora, which proceeded examples from France, the United King- from an envisioning of a centre/home and dom, Germany, Belgium and the Nether- a periphery, and introduces the notion lands. In her introduction the editor, Joce- diaspora space in its stead. By employing lyne Cesari (2005:1016), discusses how it she wishes to acknowledge the com- Europe has experienced a growing politi- plexity of the politics of difference and cal interest in Islam since the 1980s, espe- highlight the simultaneous importance of cially with regard to connections between place and transnational movement in con- European Muslims and political move- temporary identity formation (Brah 2004: ments of different kinds. She further con- 202). In using the notion, Fataneh Fara- cludes that the presence of mosques in Eu- hani (2007:39) shows how, for example, rope has contributed to and facilitated the the Ethnology subject in Sweden has establishing of global networks between changed as a result of migration processes Muslims (Cesari 2005:1018). This atten- that have pushed it into new fields of ex- tion and visibility, both politically and ar- ploration. Issues concerning Islam and chitecturally, has led to debates and stirred Muslims have also ended up on the agen- emotions. da more generally as a consequence of mi- A mosque in Södermalm connects dif- gration and globalisation. One of the fering spaces and becomes a part of sep- things transnational movement does is to arate and parallel networks. Places are challenge what is (un)acceptably different nodes in movement (cf. Foucault 1986: in a specific time-space (Brah 2004:190), 22f). Places thus define each other; a in this case the question of who and what mosque in Södermalm has other symboli- can be understood as (un)acceptable in cal values than a mosque in an apartment Sweden. Diaspora space is an intersection in a suburb. The Muslim position is often where the borders of inclusion and exclu- linked to immigranthood in Sweden, sion, of belonging and othering and of Us wherefore, in spite of being a religious and Them are drawn (Brah 2002:208f). It identity, it also carries ethnic and national is this kind of negotiations, on religion and implications (Ask 2014:119; Hvitfelt national belonging, which I will highlight 1998). Claiming the Muslim position in my data and that have taken place dur- could therefore negatively impact the pos- ing the tours. sibilities for viewing oneself or being viewed as Swedish. During the guided Respect and Social Inequality tours a (limited) number of positions have The guides saw the tours as a chance to al- been feasible. The situation makes the as- ter other stories about Muslims and allow sumption that the guide is a Muslim rea- the visitors who tour the mosque to hear sonable, and further that the visitors are something that is not mediated or taught in not (which is not always the case). This is school; however, they experienced diffi- why it has been symbolically important to culties in terms of gaining credibility with 120 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

regard to their presentation of alternative In their analysis of a global survey, with stories. Even when the guides talk about follow-up interviews, aimed at Muslims their private life, as is often the case, they of the world, John Esposito and Dalia are challenged and sometimes mistrusted. Mogahed (2007:xiii, 61, 87) state that one The guides, and hosts, use their private of the most common things that Muslims lives to explain their position in Sweden, asked for that would better relations with but the visitors also expect them to expose the West was showing greater respect. their personal opinions regarding how The results of the survey are highly gener- they, as Muslims, would act in morally alized and stem from an inquiry that difficult scenarios; thus, the tours present seems to uphold a sharp difference be- a situation where the visitors seem more tween West and the Muslim world. There- comfortable than the hosts. Another sig- fore it is hard to say what respect stands nificant result is that both the guides and for in that case. With regard to the tours, the visitors expressed the importance of however, we might see it as a reiteration the tours becoming a respectful meeting of a current and contemporary theme. place. Religiosity, religion and secularism Only a few researchers have taken on seem in themselves to represent otherness. the notion of respect in theoretical terms, What is respectful in practice, however, is although it sometimes appears as an emic not very clear. There is an ongoing debate concept (see e.g. Gaskell 2006; Lalander in Swedish society concerning whether it 2009). However, both Richard Sennett is respectful to shake hands with a Muslim (2003) and Beverly Skeggs (2000) have in a working situation, as is customary in problematized and discussed it as a no- Sweden. Moreover, the showing of re- tion. Sennett analyses respect in the wel- spect is given a gender dimension on the fare society and what it means in our time, tours, since the main way to perform re- but also considers the historical processes spect is for every woman to wear a robe that have produced it. He states that mu- when entering the mosque. Respect as a tual respect is a strong idea in the welfare practice seems to be mired in social in- society and involves treating others as equality. equals. In his reflection he identifies some The tours of the mosque have a setting of the foundational forms of respect. So- of certain societal ideals and values, and ciety provides us with three ways to earn although these differ many have talked respect, he argues. First, we can earn re- about the importance of showing respect spect through self-development and put- during the visits. There have been differ- ting our capacities to use. Second, we can ent kinds of respect available in these situ- get social esteem by taking care of our- ations, and both guides and visitors articu- selves and becoming self-sufficient. Third lated that showing respect is important. and last, we can gain respect by helping Perhaps this is the respect a host would others and giving back to society (Sennett show a guest, and vice versa, but it is also 2003:63f). This societal value, though, is a respect they have for a place that is challenged and undermined by the brutal sacred. There is a strong will in all parties presence of social inequality. The com- to maintain a respectful meeting. passion that motivates helping others and David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 121

giving back to society can be perverted the tours? In what ways has this been a into pity, which means that to the receiver way of handling social inequality and pro- it could appear to be contempt. And the cesses of othering? I will discuss how re- successful self-sufficient citizen may spect has been addressed as a universal make others look like people who do not value, mainly in the educational settings, achieve to their full potential (Sennett how it has been sexed with regard to prac- 2003:64). The respect we earn and the tices of veiling, and lastly how respect has ways to reach it are challenged by the so- been discussed as something potentially cial inequality. hindering. In the conclusion, these threads Another central idea in Sennett’s under- will be woven together in a discussion on standing of respect is that it is expressive the othering of religiousness in Sweden and performative, it is done in actions. and its implications for the possibility of From this aspect it is also informed by so- creating a sense of national belonging for cietal inequality since respect had the le- the Muslim community. gitimation of inequalities that characterize hierarchical societies as its aim (Sennett Respect as a Universal Value 2003:207), for example bowing to the In my data, respect appears within a num- queen. Beverly Skeggs (2000:11) argues ber of different contexts and meanings. It that respectability was one of the most im- is first and foremost in, but not limited to, portant mechanisms for the class concept the educational contexts that respect was to emerge. This was mainly linked to the given key importance. Respect was linked distinction that was made between the to honesty, in terms of not being mislead- non-respectable women from the slum ing in communication. In other contexts and the respectable women from the my informants have talked about it rather middle class. In Skeggs’ understanding, as refraining from speaking an opinion respectability is dependent on social posi- that one would think the other party might tions of class, gender and sexuality and is find offensive. However, a commonality linked to the construction of subjects and seems to be found in that it has meant at- occurs in dialogical deeds of recognition tempts at giving room for subjectivity. In (Skeggs 2000:13). Hence, I perceive acts that sense, my data hints that respect has of recognition to be central to respect, as meant giving voice or authority. This es- well as the mutuality and reciprocity. Sen- pecially applied to the visitors, who by lis- nett makes a comparison with an orchestra tening and letting the guide finish their where everyone is expected to play their speech have created a space for him/her to part, the difference being that there is no express their views and standpoints. The score or notes but a social text that evolves respect has been based on an idea about through mistakes and errors. difference and disparity, which are often In the following I will present the way explained and understood through refer- respect has been used and discussed in my ences to structural contexts in society (cf. data, and analyse it from the viewpoint of Brown 2006). That Muslims have prob- what is performed in the respectful acts. lems with gender equality has been How has respect been performed during viewed as self-evident, and generalizable 122 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

to the person in front of you, by reference spect was to be shown for cultural diversi- to public speech on Muslims (for example ty (Runfors 2003:140). In Runfors’s study in mass media) proceeding from a story- respect was explained to comprise show- line that positions Muslims as gender un- ing consideration, feeling safe, having a equal. sense of responsibility, showing toler- Muslims are often portrayed as an espe- ance, being honest and being able to work cially troublesome category when it on a team (Runfors 2003:144). comes to issues concerning universal That the Swedish school system should values such as democracy or gender foster citizens who treat others with re- equality (cf. Esposito & Mogahed 2007). spect has been highly present in what pu- Sweden, not least since entering the EU in pils and teachers have told me in inter- 1995, has branded itself as a role model views and during visits, and has made acts country regarding gender equality, and of accommodation desirable. Even per- this has meant that Swedish identity has sons who would not usually consider acquired a naturalized connection with wearing a Muslim scarf to accommodate gender equality (Towns 2002). Due to the religious groups have done so during the storyline that positions Muslims as par- visits. This could be read as a performa- ticularly gender-unequal, it becomes self- tive act of respect with regard to a “diver- explanatory that anyone who can pass as gent minority”, and an effect of that “mi- being a white Swedish visitor can also nority” having access to a place in which pass as gender-equal, since they possess they can be hosts. the bodies of the nation. This makes it Since showing respect is about posi- easy for those visitors to criticize the gen- tioning, it is crucial to consider processes der inequality of Muslims without having of subjectivation. This enables us to ana- to question their own positions. lyse who the participators can become to Another available framework for un- each other. If respect involves recognition derstanding respect is as a guide for inter- of the Other then we end up with a game action in a multicultural society. The of mutual desire for recognition (cf. Butler Swedish national encyclopaedia states 2005:24). It connects to the foundational that it means showing and feeling (suffi- ethical question: How should I treat you? cient) high esteem of a person(’s charac- (Butler 2005:25). A question which is wo- teristics) (www.ne.se). The notion also ven into how the production of an I and a seems to have positive connotations when you comes about and the social norms that describing how to interact with other makes the appearance of the Other poss- people. In her study of the making of im- ible. Judith Butler, however, refrains from migranthood in Swedish schools, Ann perceiving the relation between recogni- Runfors shows that one of the things the tion and the norms, or the structure, as au- teachers wanted to equip their students tomatic. Instead she says it has to do with with was respectful behaviour towards the desire to recognize the Other. others (Runfors 2003:142). This idea was Sometimes the very unrecognizability of the other also present in the curriculum for primary brings about a crisis in the norms that govern rec- school at the time which specified that re- ognition. If and when, in an effort to confer or to David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 123

receive a recognition that fails again and again, I As I mentioned before, the school is call into question the normative horizon within seen as a pivotal instrument for fostering which recognition takes place, this questioning is good citizens where particular ways of part of the desire for recognition, a desire that can find no satisfaction, and whose unsatisfiability es- dealing with diversity are advocated. tablishes a critical point of departure for the inter- Teaching pupils to show respect for rogation of available norms (Butler 2005:24). people with Other habits or ways of think- ing, which has been addressed by several The quotation is taken from her discussion teachers I have interviewed, is a part of on recognition and the links to regimes of that fostering, but with different regimes truth. Here it seems it is the desire to re- of truth in circulation mutual respect be- ceive or lend recognition that could moti- comes a negotiable concept. Its contents vate such a powerful act which question- have not been uniform in practice. The ne- ing a regime of truth through which one is gotiations are power-laden, and since it made comprehensible is, that is, question- has to do with the production of truth and ing your own being. Butler seems to imply knowledge it has not been negotiated on that there can be a desire to recognize something that has no place in the struc- equal terms. As I have shown, respect as a ture. “Unrecognizability” could, in this universal value and desirable way of deal- case, pertain to the rigidity of the struc- ing with diversity is bound up with social tures and their changeability, where the inequality. Furthermore, the respect that is desire to recognize the Other may be the shown from the positions deemed inferior driving force. Desire brings about the cri- tend to be invisible; it is visible mainly sis of the structure. when it is not shown. None of the visitors, Perhaps there is a choice that appears as interviewees or participants on the tours well, a choice between questioning the have expressly exemplified how the norm itself or the persons outside the guides show respect during the tours. norm. Many of the visitors have told me that their motivation to go on a tour of the Sexed Respect mosque has been to hear something else Respect is performed in everyday, mun- about Muslims, something that a newspa- dane actions. The showing of respect has per or a book would not tell you. In that been highly sexed during the tours, since motivation we may see the desire to rec- the most manifest way to show respect has ognize the Other in an including manner, been by wearing the robe that every fe- making authority possible, and thus ac- male visitor has to wear. Therefore it is es- knowledging that Muslims are misrepre- sential to investigate the relation between sented or only (re)presented superficially. sex and respect. Wearing the robe was a The hope has been that a personal meeting difference-maker, in the sense that it re- with a Muslim could change that. The minded the visitors of trips abroad and guides’ possibilities of giving a version of situations where the same kind of regula- their own, however, does not guarantee tions applied for entering sacred sights. that the norm is questioned; instead it can Although the practice of covering the backfire and bring about non-recognition body generally was seen as un-Swedish or rejection of that version. and often questioned by the visitors during 124 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

the question time, the women were gener- have simultaneously performed it. In this ally willing to accommodate and wear the context it is important to stress that the cri- robe during the tours, mostly without tique, during the tours I observed, never complaint. concerned the wearing of the robe during Subsequently, a paradox stood out in the tours, but rather the practice as it af- my data. For most visitors showing re- fects Muslim women. Consequently, the spect at a sacred site seemed self-evident. respectful meeting was not about being In conversations and in interviews many convinced about the plausibility or the women talked about it being very unprob- properness of a Muslim way of life but lematic to wear the robe during the visit. rather about being able to accept and tol- At the same time, a recurrent theme in the erate the differences that were (re)created questions to the guides was why Muslim in the interaction between guide and visi- men force women to veil. The guides, for tor. Even if the tours themselves were their part, often answered stating that veil- footed in difference-making, as I have dis- ing is a minor part of the religious prac- cussed earlier, these differences were not tices that has caught too much attention in necessarily and automatically (re)created. Swedish society and that the faith itself is It takes labour to (re)create the differences the important issue. At the same time, they as well as looking for similarities. In a had introduced the demand for every way, sameness was created by the female woman to wear a robe, which would cer- visitors wearing the robe (i.e. by perform- tainly make it appear as though it was ing a Muslim practice). quite important to them. According to the During the tours universal values were teachers that have gone to the mosque for negotiated, values that concern the whole study visits for many years, the robe was a of humanity and how we should interact. rather novel demand; when they made These ethical questions were embedded visits to the same organization’s former in contemporary debates in Sweden. basement mosque it was not required. The What was meant by gender equality for handling of women’s naked skin therefore example? One of the groups I participat- seems to have varied over the years and to ed in came from a Bible College in be an issue for negotiation rather than one Stockholm where they studied theology where consensus has been reached on the and philosophy. They were asking ques- part of the mosque. Thus, the question of tions concerning the status of women in covering women’s bodies in the mosque Islam to which the guide answered that paradoxically stands out as tremendously when it comes to the rights and duties important and, at the same time, irrelevant there are no male or female, they concern – for both guides and visitors. human beings. But he also stated that the I would say that the accommodation of sexes, although they have the same value, the visitors in this matter was a performa- have different tasks and that God created tive act of respect, where respect meant everything in pairs so that we may get to wearing the robe, although for many it know each other. was against their beliefs. The practice has The guide in his answer proceeded from been critiqued by the visitors while they a specific content of the concept gender David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 125

equality that was not necessary to articu- same questioning of their beliefs and late specifically. It was what he presumed values with regard to societal norms, may- that the visitor meant. He presupposed be even gender equality. The idea that that it was a question of value, that men Swedes are particularly gender-equal ex- and women have the same value. Interest- ists, seemingly quite unproblematic, side ingly, he first took a stance which was re- by side with the insight that many have lated to radical feminist constructivism, in concerning the striking inequality on the which there are no sexes, only human be- Swedish labour market (Dahl 2005, ings (cf. Gemzöe 2002). He also said that 2010). It appears to be precisely the com- some of the differences between the sexes parison to the Muslim immigrant that is were related to cultures and traditions (a necessary for forgetting the conditions for common way to cleanse the religion of women in Sweden that makes the position perceived perversions (see also Karlsson of Swede claimable by almost anybody Minganti 2007:84‒88). The differences that can pass as Swedish (cf. Towns that he categorized as traditional seemed 2002). Swedishness in this corporal sense to be secondary to the foundational uni- has whiteness as its mark (cf. Mattsson versal values. A little later, he took more 2005). Further, previous research has of a biologist stance when he said that shown that Muslim identities exist in an there are two sexes that have the same ambiguous field of both religious and ra- value but complementary roles (cf. Fara- cial categorization (Meer 2012; Meer & hani 2007; Gemzöe 2002; Laskar 2005). It Modood 2010), enhancing the question of is also interesting to note that the exposi- national belonging in this case to be one tion on the status of women in Islam was involving racial issues. delivered quite defensively; he was de- If the position of Swede was considered fending his faith from the knowledge and as gender-equal, there is also an ostensibly storyline which would say that Islam is a clear-cut idea of Muslim women as vic- religion that oppresses women or that is ir- tims and oppressed (cf. Badran 2008; rational. He was questioned and he an- Cooke 2008; Farahani 2007; Mohanty swered in defence. The limited credibility 2003). Such an idea forgets the signifi- that was expressed in the follow-up ques- cance that feminist movements have had tions from the visitors formed the condi- in Muslim countries and, further, the “Is- tions for his possibilities to authority. lamic feminism” that is striving for gender Gender equality was addressed on equality within the framework of an Is- every tour that I observed, and according lamic understanding of themselves (Bad- to the guides it almost always does. The ran 2009; see also Hassan 1999; Mir-Hos- visitors that ask questions often highlight seini 2006). “the gender-equal nation of Sweden” and, Additionally, there is another context in questioning the Muslim, made them- that makes it hard to address the complex- selves spokesmen of it. Perhaps that was ity, in that in public discourse there is sel- most conspicuous in the case of the Bible dom any distinction made between what College and a group of young Christians has been termed the Islamic and the Mus- that almost certainly would have met the lim. The Islamic, in this sense, pertains to 126 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

religious doctrines in themselves, whereas motives can be political, cultural or reli- Muslim means the practices of Muslims, gious to mention some (Farahani 2007: based on their interpretations of the doc- 134). It can be done by choice, it can be trines (cf. Imam 2000:121). During the imposed and it can be opted out of. One of tours these categorizations continually its functions is blocking the male hetero- spilled over into each other. What the sexual gaze (Farahani 2007:157f). It is Quran says is interpreted as what Muslims this function that the guides have referred actually do and what Muslims do is often to when they explain why all women have interpreted as a natural part of the religion to wear a robe in the mosque and the rea- and Islamic doctrines. It hides the fact that son they introduced it on the tours. What the Quran is interpreted in different ways. they experienced was that they had some This confusion of Islamic and Muslim younger women coming to the mosque in helps to consolidate the ideas according to clothes where belly and arms were ex- which the religion is assumed to penetrate posed, which was unacceptable and dis- every part of a Muslim’s life (Gardell tracting. Consequently, they introduced 2010), a view that has sometimes been up- the robe so that they would not have to held by the guides as well. single out the women whom they thought dressed disrespectfully. As such, the robe The Scarf and the Robe (and the scarf) raises questions and am- While guides tended to stress the individ- biguity among the visitors about how to ual responsibility and choice of Muslim handle it and how to act. women to wear a headscarf or not, visitors Several described it in terms of a uni- more often spoke from a standpoint from versal dress code that everybody that en- where it unambiguously was understood ters the mosque had to accommodate to. as an oppressive practice imposed on The guide, and also some of the Muslim women. Women and women’s clothes interviewees/visitors that I talked to, have often been given special attention stressed that the dress code went for men and have become symbols of societal or- as well. In my observations, however, I ders (Ask 2014; Badran 2008; Cooke saw young men wearing shorts and 2008: Imam 2000:128); this becomes a t-shirts, and even one of the guides had a battleground for what is (un)acceptably t-shirt on at one time, without them receiv- different (cf. Brah 2004). Fataneh Fara- ing comments or being asked to wear a hani (2007:128f, 169), in her thesis, an- special garment to cover up their exposed alyses how the veiled body (the use of the skin. The male dress code was discussed robe in the case of the tours) represents a briefly in one of the tours I observed, but certain desirable heterosexual feminine it never really caught the attention of subject in a specific heterosexual drama- guides or visitors in a profound way. turgy (see also Laskar 2005). The veiled There was quite another willingness, body represents a respectable femininity mainly for the visitors, to discuss that is desirable. women’s clothing. In other words, the ar- There are no simple and definite rea- guments about women’s and men’s dress sons why women veil their bodies, the codes as a means of showing respect for David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 127

the sacred site were somewhat contradic- visitors articulated resistance to veiling, tory. On the one hand, it was explained as both to me during the tours and in the in- an equivalent obligation, on the other terviews afterwards. When they were in hand, the interest in discussing men’s the mosque, however, the responsibility clothes was rather poor. That even a guide for wearing the robe could be ascribed to could wear a t-shirt shows that the control the arrangers of the tours and not to the and focus on men’s respectability in the visitors that performed the acts. mosque was weak. Further, the link to respect indicates The significance of the robe was, more- that this was something they would not over, often downplayed. Many stressed normally do, something over and beyond the temporariness and that they went there everyday practices. It seems primary to of their free will and then had to accept handle this paradox, partly because you that obligation (i.e. assuming the position have to do something contrary to your of a guest). In that way, it seemed to re- principles, partly to be able to explain the semble more of a role you played for a deed as the result of your own choice and short while, and a performance that did not as docility or compliance in the face of not stick to the actor’s real character. This an imposed obligation. What poses a could be read as a practice rooted in the threat might be that the deed has effects desire to wipe out the effects of the act, and that anyone who wears the robe actu- like having your deed undone (cf. Butler ally has yielded to something they would 2006). There seemed to be an agreement, normally oppose. There is a possibility and an agreement which worked very well that the arguments of the feminine visitors in that case, that it was a deed that was not had the aim of maintaining a rational and for real. But what poses a threat? Why independent subject. cannot the deed be real? In what alterna- Mark Fisher (2011:41) argues that cri- tive ways, apart from being temporary and tique and cynical distance to our actions unreal, could the deed be understood? are characteristic of our time. The cynical Values concerning sex and sexuality distance opens up for the possibility to have been central in the making of differ- view yourself as critical although your ence vis-à-vis colonial subjects (Loomba practices might run counter to your con- 2008:159, 163; Farahani 2007). Conse- victions, for example eating shrimps that quently, the Muslim scarf is often a matter you know are produced in a way that de- of discussion when it comes to what is stroys the environment and to which you (un)acceptably different (Brah 2004:190). are opposed. Following that, the critique For that reason one might expect more of veiling may have been viewed as protests against wearing the robe during enough by the visitors, the critique made the tours and in my data. Probably very the wearing of the robe viable. few visitors viewed the decision to wear The requirement for women to wear a the robe on the tours as the outcome of a robe was possible to explain and accept personal conviction that veiling their body because of its transience or because cri- in that manner was something they gener- tique was articulated against it during the ally appreciated. On the contrary, many tour. Another feasible reading is that the 128 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

guides and the Muslim visitors I inter- explained that the ruling is motivated by viewed downplayed the importance of keeping the fidelity in heterosexual mo- wearing the robe because of the great at- nogamous relations and he also asked the tention the Muslim scarf has attracted and group who spends most time in front of the focus on Muslim women’s rights. In the mirror. Is it a man or a woman? His that sense, the downplaying could be a argument was based on an unspoken ob- form of resistance to Islam being depicted viousness, that it was the woman’s part of as a particularly patriarchal and oppres- the heterosexual contract to make herself sive religion for women. desirable to the man. Further, it was ob- The robe has been a physical and sexed vious that she should attract the right man way of showing respect, and there have only. What he referred to in that answer very seldom been public grumblings and was the heterosexual dramaturgy that complaints, although several articulated motivates veiling (Farahani 2007). When their critique to me individually. There- he asked who spends most time in front fore it seems plausible to say that the re- of the mirror he got no answer, only quirement for women to wear a robe stood giggles from the audience. Those giggles out as a legitimate practice in the mosque. could be interpreted as a recognition of Following what I have hitherto dis- the validity of the heterosexual dramatur- cussed on the robe, the sexed respect gy for the visitors. seems to have contained an element of The positions in that storyline can easi- compromise, overriding the demands for ly be recognized. The visitors spoke on comfortability. The mosque is far from the behalf of Muslim women from a position only place where women are taught to be as Swedish and white, gender-equal with respectable and ashamed of their naked the right to correct the Other. In the article bellies (Skeggs 2000), for example, but it “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Gayatri was also reiterated at the tours I studied. Chakravorty Spivak shows how one of the Clothing and the exposure of limbs and legitimating and formative approaches skin has been the pivotal battleground from the colonizer to the colonized has where respect for the other has been nego- been that white men are saving brown tiated, and the heterosexualized female women from brown men (Spivak 2002). body of the middle class is also expected Thus the questions about the scarf during to be respectably dressed (Skeggs 2000: the tours were embedded in a context of 198). In other words, respect is something who can save whom and who has to be that is sexed and linked to the female body rescued in the name of gender equality. more generally. Wearing a headscarf appeared to be an The heterosexual dramaturgy created illegitimate and incomprehensible prac- sameness between guides and visitors as tice in the eyes of the visitors, and the well. On one of the tours where the guide guide tried to make it comprehensible by was answering a question about why referring to a heterosexual matrix where Muslim women wore a headscarf, after a women make themselves desirable to men few arguments a visitor asked why a (Butler 1990). Even though it was an open woman cannot attract a man. The guide question about who spent most time in David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 129

front of the mirror, the answer was so ob- centrate on the fewer instances when re- vious they did not have to articulate it. spect is articulated as something problem- Heterosexualized stereotypes became a atic, but also the situations that have been way to explain the questioned rules and talked about as examples of disrespect, bring them into a storyline that the visitors when the respect has been challenged. could recognize. This could be viewed as Respect could allude to negative feel- a situation in which the guide succeeded ings as well, where showing respect for in having authority since his explanation your parents may be understood as a prac- gained support and no one questioned it, at tice that belongs in a patriarchal structure least not in articulated form. There was a and therefore illegitimate and undesirable conformity between the orders that the (Andersson 2003:105). In a brochure on guide invoked and a heterosexual drama- the moral system of Islam that IFS handed turgy that they could recognize. The het- out in the mosque they emphasized re- erosexual matrix brought order to the mis- spect for parents as something important. understandings (cf. Jonsson 2007:176), in In that text it was described as synony- this case the incomprehensibility of reli- mous with caring, which is an inalienable gious rules. part of the religion. So, respect can be de- So, discussions on sex and sexuality sirable in that form too (see Ask 2014). certainly have the potential for articulat- With Sennett’s view on the welfare socie- ing difference but can also contribute to ty it could easily be understood as a form articulating sameness. The heterosexual of respect that performs social inequality desire and the naturalness in which and is therefore problematic and unman- women make themselves attractive for the ageable (Sennett 2003). It might come off right man makes the veiled Muslim as outdated and un-Swedish since it does woman intelligible. The example shows not conceal the social inequality which is how the Swedish rhetoric on gender its basis, as does the ideal of mutual re- equality reaches a limit and is forced to spect. There are examples of how this af- handle the problematic differences be- fects pupils that are understood as immi- tween sexes (Dahl 2005:63). In this case grants, where the parents, especially the the visitors had no further questions, but father, are seen as hindering their children the guides’ storyline with the vain woman (Runfors 2003). In other words, and as in front of the mirror stood as a truth they Sennett (2003) also pointed out, there are could not or would not question. forms of respect that are perceived as problematic, archaic and unjust. Contestations and Disrespect Pernilla, one of the teachers I inter- So far I have concentrated on examples viewed, talked about respect having an when the respect has worked, so to speak, obstructive side to it. Too much respect when there has been a fundamental con- makes people hold back and refrain from sensus about what should be said and done saying things that they want to and should in different scenarios on the tours, even express. Being “over-respectful”, as she though questions and issues have been put it, prevents unprompted interaction. raised. In this section I would like to con- The ideal, according to her, was to be able 130 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

to pose any question that comes to mind to me that they knew how to show re- and convey any opinion you have to the spect. By pointing out that he did not, guide. She remembered a visit to a they could demonstrate to me that they semi-god in India and compared it to the knew what the norms were (cf. Martins- visit to the mosque and said on both occa- son & Reimers 2008). Another way of in- sions that she had questions she wished terpreting what he did is to see it in the she had had the courage to ask. She de- context of the class; maybe they were his scribed herself as “lame” in those situa- audience. Cursing can function as a tions and could not understand how she, means of earning respect (Gaskell 2006: who has been educated to be critical, be- 221) in another sense, a kind of respect came so lame and not so forthright. What that comes from daring to do the forbid- she said hints that a guided tour or study den or dangerous. visit to a religious site or group is a context In another interview with pupils from that does not invite you to express a diver- that same class, where they were eager to gent standpoint and critique. Maybe it is a describe themselves as an unruly class to genre that provokes respect more than me, disrespect came up in the form of a criticism. fantasy, an imagined scenario. It all start- At other times the respect has been ed with one of the three boys I interviewed challenged by means of disrespectful pitching a question about what would hap- conduct. When I participated in a tour pen if a girl would not put on the robe or a with a high school class from one of the headscarf. The question was mainly di- northern suburbs of Stockholm, one of rected at me, I think, but since I hesitated the pupils put on the robe, although he the two others, one a convinced Muslim was a boy, before the tour started and the and the other an atheist of “Muslim ori- guide had arrived. This act of cross- gin”, started to answer. They were both dressing passed without anyone saying convinced that nothing much would hap- anything at the time, maybe because it pen and that there would be an easy and happened in a liminal timespace, in the peaceful solution. In their fictive storyline foyer before it started. It was also a limi- they created positions of which the most nal timespace since it is a bit unclear elaborate perhaps was the host’s. In creat- when a teacher brings a class who should ing the positions they clearly used a nor- step in and say something. The teachers mative level (cf. Butler 2005:24) and de- handed over the responsibility to the picted them as warm, generous and wel- group and the guide. What was very coming. The Muslim hosts that they por- clear, though, was that in the interviews trayed were far from the image of a with his classmates (I never interviewed fundamentalist or extremist; in contrast him) he could be used as a deterrent ex- the fictive hosts were very understanding ample of what not to do when in a and accommodating and respected other mosque. (He also cursed in Finnish be- people’s integrity. If the girl does not want fore he learned that the guide was a con- to wear a robe or a scarf she cannot be vert from Finland.) What he did opened forced to and is of course welcome to visit up a possibility for the others to convey the mosque anyway. David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 131

The most passive position in the story ing she still wanted to visit the mosque. was perhaps given to the girl who resist- Just as in the interview with Pernilla this ed the regulation. Even though she ap- seemed to be the most desirable, to do peared to be headstrong and uncompro- the visit without compromising your mising from the start she soon disap- convictions, ideas or critique. With Per- peared from the story. She was made a nilla it was very articulate that it went symbol of a conceivable resistance, an not for Muslims only but for religious object that could be used to test the re- people in general. spect of the guides. Her position could also be linked to what could be termed le- Respect and Otherness in Sweden gitimate disrespect, the upside of intoler- In this article I have shown how the fre- ance, a critical voice that stands up for quent talk of respect in relation to the herself and her convictions (she is not guided tours of the mosque in Söder- “lame”), a position from which it is malm is footed in the handling of social possible to say no. inequality and the Othering of Swedish The central positions in the storyline Muslims. It seems that is why it has been were ideal in a way that they formed a so important. The tours I participated in utopia of sorts, where the most desirable showed that respect is displayed in dif- ethical conduct the boys could imagine was ferent ways but that the most obvious hegemonic. The example also shows an way is the sexed respect which involves idealization of following your heart and not wearing a robe to cover the hair and skin yielding to someone else’s will, but being of the female visitors. Therefore, respect free and independent selves (Ask 2014; was often talked of and performed as a Gustafsson 2004; Runfors 2003). How- part of heterosexual dramaturgy. How- ever, being able to compromise is also ever, this was often done in negotiations highly esteemed in the story. The anony- with personal convictions of the visitors mous Muslim does let the woman enter the according to which veiling was an objec- mosque without a robe or scarf after all. tionable practice in general. Respect was That way our conversation became a thus performed as an accommodation to discussion on viable strategies to handle the Other, a national Other. situations when your principles or con- In Sweden, a country that many under- victions are put to the test. A way we had stand as secular or post-Christian (Thur- learned to handle diversity was showing fjell 2015), religion itself and religious respect, in the sense of seeing the practice seems to form a constitutive out- Other’s position as plausible. All parties side to Swedish national identity. Accord- understood their respective convictions ing to David Thurfjell (2015:29, 202f), the and were accommodating in spite of secular attitude to religion in Sweden their convictions being challenged. The comprises a mild criticism of religion, but girl may have been more rigid, uncom- although many of the secular majority promising and had a lot of integrity. But Swedes that he interviewed generally re- she came to the mosque, although she frained from criticizing Islam they often could not yield to the regulation of veil- used Islam and Muslims as specific ex- 132 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

amples when discussing religious issues. rooms and on Facebook, Anders Karlsson Therefore, Muslims hold a special posi- (2015) argues that the secular norm is tion as a national Other in Sweden and are strong in Swedish schools. He observed a often used in discussing what is (un)ac- class that watched a movie about a Mor- ceptably different, especially when it mon girl, and asserts that the pupils per- comes to religious matters. ceived her life as undemocratic and not The relation between the religious and free (Karlsson 2015:122). One of the ste- the national, the Muslim and the Swedish, reotypes concerning Muslims is that they has been a recurring theme in my data. are often believed to have problems with There seems to be a sharp, although nego- becoming or being secularized (Gardell tiable, line at religiosity when it comes to 2010:87). Such an attribute has not come Swedishness. The national is a backdrop about haphazardly but is linked to the for discussions on universal values, sex making of Swedish self-images and a part and gender equality. The discourse on re- of making difference with regard to Mus- spect, concerning the guided tours of the lims. Like immigrants, Muslims become mosque, is linked not only to the Muslim potential anti-citizens or quasi-citizens as a position of Otherness but to a reli- (Khosravi 2006:287). Just as Swedishness gious person more generally as Other in has an increasingly naturalised link to Sweden, forming a constitutive outside of gender equality and tolerance (Towns Swedishness. Even though this is valid for 2002; Hübinette & Lundström 2011), it is religious people in general it is more se- also linked to the secular (Fazlhashemi vere for Swedish Muslims, who are often 2009; Karlsson 2015). Secularism as a po- made the example when speaking about litical idea requires tolerance and respect religion in Sweden (Thurfjell 2015). The for other ways of living, even though there storyline that positions Swedes as self- has been tension in the relations between evidently secular, nevertheless, is too the liberal values of the state and the role simplified and uncomplicated. Ann af of the state church in Sweden as well as in Burén (2015:218), in a study of people Denmark (Berg-Sørensen 2006; see also who defined themselves as (non-)reli- Hägg 2008). gious and as part of the majority of Swe- The role of religion is ambiguous and dish people, shows that a common ap- complex within nation formations, but proach to religion amongst her interview- currently an obvious trend is that states ees was that they had a fragmented view that have chosen to strive for secularism and diverse simultaneity of ideas that stem have an increasingly hard time fending off from Christianity, Buddhism, witchcraft religious questions (Modood 2013:71; and science. Yuval-Davis 2011). More pressure on as- Yet, religion in itself seems to com- similation co-exists with increased natu- pound the possibility of making difference ralization and legitimation of religion in relation to the Others in Sweden, where (Yuval-Davis 2011:137f). Confessional religious is often thought of as a dichot- Muslim schools are an example of that. omous antithesis of secular. In his licenti- The Swedish state has granted permission ate thesis, based on observations in class- to confessional schools, but they have to David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims 133

abide by a curriculum that tells them to also secular. There seems to be a potential teach the pupils that no one religion is bet- scepticism between the secular state and ter than any other (Berglund 2010; Gus- the religious representatives and a re- tafsson 2004). strained criticism that motivates the re- For Swedish Muslims Sweden might spectfulness. As with Yasri Khan, Muslim very well be spoken of as a country seems to be useful to make examples and where there is a lack of religion (Ask draw the lines for Swedishness. As I am 2014:154). Tariq Ramadan (2004) writes sure there are many patriarchal traditions that Muslims in Europe have reacted to practised by Swedish politicians who are the secular in two different ways – one not Muslims that seldom get the same at- reactive and one subservient. The reac- tention or effects, one might wonder why tive approach comprises a withdrawal this case led to a withdrawal from the can- from society and the creation of enclaves didacy and why the prime minister felt it wherein a conservative and traditional urgent to state that the greeting was not Muslim identity is cultivated. In contrast, Swedish. It seems it was not most impor- the subservient approach has meant tant to discuss his greeting practices from alienation from the Muslim identity and a gender equality perspective but rather to an unconditional surrender to the de- draw the line of Swedishness at a Muslim mands of the secular society. Fazlha- practice. shemi has summarized a similar ap- David Gunnarsson proach in the sentence: A good Muslim is PhD a former Muslim (Fazlhashemi 2009: Södertörns högskola 263). Further, Fazlhashemi says that Flemingsberg there are a number of ways to approach SE-141 89 Huddinge email: [email protected] the secular society with its belief in sci- ence – from Ramadan’s position, which Notes according to Fazlhashemi is character- 1 This article is based on my thesis (Gunnars- ized by assimilating science as long as it son 2016) and the study of the guided tours of is not in conflict with Islam, to other po- a mosque in Stockholm. sitions that rather would see the religion 2 Visit www.sst.a.se for further information. and traditions changed to fit the Euro- pean societies (Fazlhashemi 2009:262– References 274). Fieldwork In this way the religious and the Mus- Participant observations made during 14 guided lim is reiterated as a difference and an tours 2003‒2006. Interviews with 3 guides and 22 visitors 2003‒ Otherness in relation to Swedishness and 2006. secularism. With the focus I have had in my study, respect has stood out as a way Literature of showing understanding for such a reli- gious Otherness. The idea that Sweden is Andersson, Åsa 2003: Inte samma lika. Identifika- tioner hos tonårsflickor i en multietnisk stads- a secular nation produces a national body del. Eslöv: Brutus Östlings bokförlag Sympo- that is not only white with blond hair, but sion. (Diss.) 134 David Gunnarsson, Respecting Swedish Muslims

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Skeggs, Beverley 2000: Att bli respektabel. Kon- Towns, Ann 2002: Paradoxes of (In)Equality. struktioner av klass och kön. Göteborg: Daida- Something is Rotten in the Gender Equal State los. of Sweden. Cooperation and Conflict: Journal Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty 2002: Kan den sub- of the Nordic International Studies Association alterna tala? Postkoloniala studier, pp. 73‒146. 37(2), pp. 157‒179. Thurfjell, David 2015: Det gudlösa folket. De Yuval-Davis, Nira 2011: The Politics of Belong- postkristna svenskarna och religionen. Stock- ing. Intersectional Contestations. Los Angeles: holm: Molin & Sorgenfrei Förlag. Sage. Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century  American Southwest By Eva Reme

Place may be created through science, vi- scapes in the southwest. Nevertheless, he sions, creativity and the longing for an al- is representative of the groups of intellec- ternative world. The actual place in ques- tual elites who made this place come into tion here is the desert areas in Southern being. California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. In the last decades of the nine- Place-Making teenth century, most of the Euro-Ameri- Many concepts have been applied to de- cans considered this territory as – to cite scribe how the deserts in the southwest be- Anna Tsing – an “out-of-the-way place” came so attractive. Judith Hamera and (Clifford 1997:68). Entering a new centu- Alfred Bendixen (2009:3) use the term ry, this changed. Now the area had be- “create” to put forward what happened in come an attractive place on the American the last decades of the nineteenth century. map. How could this happen? Not only Martin Padget underpins how writers and had the desert turned out to be a destina- photographers of the time produced the tion for explorers and researchers, also American Southwest (Padget 1995:424), artists, authors, writers and photographers while William Stowe refers to Yi-Fu Tuan found their way to the southwest (Smith to point out how the southwest landscape 2000; Padget 2004; Sandweiss 2002; is “a construct of mind and feeling” Auerbach 2008; Hinsley 1992; Wilcox & (Stowe 2009:26). All the different verbs Fowler 2002; Hamera & Bendixen 2009). make it clear that the process from space The desert was for a while viewed as to place is an active process, a dialogue something resembling a meeting place for that also includes tactile senses. intellectuals (Smith 2000:8). They all Much of the same processes applies to made their contributions both to express the term place-making. Barbro Klein, who and to communicate what they found has been engaged in migration, America special. In this manner they all became and the new world, has chosen “place- “place-makers”. I will focus on the making” to emphasize the process where- people, meanings and emotions which by immigrants select places, give them made this region a place. One of the ques- names, history and memories (Klein 2002: tions is to what extent this process of 6). This parallels much of the work asso- place-making was motivated by visions, ciated with the photographers and explor- needs and longings for an alternative ers in the America Southwest. Moreover, place. place-making is a concept that can be The guide into the desert, and into its traced back to Heidegger, who also em- myths and what should be regarded as a phasized “that we cannot exist inde- magical landscape, will be the Norwegian- pendently of the world around us but also born photographer Frederick Imman that the world around us cannot exist inde- Monsen. Compared to the many hundreds pendent of the people who inhabit it” of Norwegian-American photographers (Heidegger in Sen & Silverman 2014:3). (Lien 2009), he was an exception in that In this way, people create places through his photographical motifs are mainly por- methodical deliberation as well as through traits of American Indians and their land- experiences that are not always carefully

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 138 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

considered. Likewise, Yi-Fu Tuan is cited there were areas looked upon as unregu- for his use of the term place-making to lated and secretive (Hinsley 1992:3). highlight that “when space feels thorough- Those were first and foremost the “en- ly familiar to us, it has become a place” chanted” desert where the Hopi, Navajo (Othman 2013:556). To discover and cre- and Pueblo Indians lived. Euro-Ameri- ate place does not primarily depend on cans described this as a territory full of technical instruments, but more on the secrets, with its mysterious cliff dwell- dialogue between landscape, thoughts and ings, hidden prehistoric relics and fasci- senses. As Jonas Frykman emphasizes, nating Indian dances. Nevertheless, this places appear meaningful when they can did not prevent the landscape from being be experienced with body and soul (2012: considered “empty” (Hamera & Ben- 40). This more or less phenomenological dixen 2009:4), and hence extending an gateway to the southwestern areas fits the invitation to investigate and explore. manner in which Frederick Monsen and Among those who accepted and felt his contemporaries made their way into drawn to the spell of the desert was the desert. That is also the reason they can Frederick Monsen. be called place-makers. This open term encompasses both construction and con- Frederick Monsen, a Photographer in sciousness, feelings and unconsciousness. Love with the Desert The southwestern regions on which Frederick Monsen (1865‒1929), who was Monsen and other travellers and explorers born in Bergen and emigrated to America imposed their written and visual narra- with his parents, was taught the art of pho- tives were located in Southern California, tography by his father. Later he estab- Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. These lished his own photograph studio in San were not newly discovered territories, but Francisco. Unfortunately, much of his pic- according to Curtis Hinsley (1992:2), re- ture collection was lost in the devastating gions that from 1865 represented a land- earthquake and the fire in 1906. He saved scape in an ambiguous position of con- some of his photos by burying them in the tiguous but unincorporated space. Al- garden and he had previously deposited though the destiny was to be wholly incor- some with colleagues. In the aftermath of porated in the United States, in the years the catastrophe, he settled in Pasadena, after the Civil War it remained “largely California, where many of his fellow pho- unexplored, undefined, and unoccupied tographers already had their homes (Jutzi by peoples qualifying as American citi- 1986). zens. As such, it also stood in significant Although he never managed to recon- ways unmeasured and uncontrolled” struct his entire repertoire of photos, he (Hinsley 1992:2). In the 1880s, however, became an acknowledged photographer in the transcontinental Santa Fe Railroad and his time. Examples of his pictures may be the South Pacific Railroad entered north- found in several books presenting photo- ern New Mexico and Arizona and laid the graphs of American Indians in general foundation for busy traffic. Despite this, (Bush & Mitchell 1994; Current 1978; until the end of the nineteenth century Fleming & Lusky 1993). The same ap- Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 139

plies to literature reflecting the popularity accomplished photographer with artistic of the southwest landscape and the south- talents and as a member of different scien- west Indians at the end of the century tific networks. No doubt, even if the term (Graulich 2003; Padget 2004; Sandweiss would have made no sense to him, he 2002; Auerbach 2008). surely had the resources to act as a place- Frederick Monsen was a multifaceted maker. ambitious man with many irons in the fire. When it came to handling photographi- He regarded himself as an artist, photogra- cal technology, he holds a reputation as an pher, explorer, archaeologist, anthropolo- entrepreneur. He was the first professional gist, ethnologist and ethnographer. His ar- photographer who replaced the tripod ticles and lecture brochures (Monsen camera with hand-held Kodak cameras. 1907, 1910, 1913, 1925) leave no doubt Simultaneously operating several cam- that he regarded his skills in science and eras, he managed to take sequences of pic- art as far above the average. Still, his in- tures that captured the instantaneous and discreet use of many titles was a practice the impulsive, which he considered typi- shared by several others desert enthusiasts cal of what the Indians “really” were like. such as George Warton James (Smith He acquired the West Coast’s largest mag- 2000:148) and Charles Fletcher Lummis nifying apparatus and hand-coloured the (Padget 2004:115). The use of numerous images himself with imported colours titles also indicates a time when the bor- from Japan (Jutzi 1986, Monsen 1925). ders between different academic disci- The way of tackling his cameras and pro- plines were blurred. At the time anthro- cessing his pictures were methods to get pology was an acknowledged discipline, hold of what he looked upon as genuine as which in the 1880s included ethnology regards both landscape and people. Frede- and archaeology as well as “ranges of rick Monsen also became a well-known variation of human physical types, socie- person to many Americans after touring ties, cultures, and languages, past and the continent with his photographs and present” (Wilcox & Fowler 2002:121). presenting what he called pictorial stories. This was still, however, a period when it His themes were the poor situation of the was possible to be “an anthropologist Indians, their genuine culture and his without portfolio” (Wilcox & Fowler methods to get close to them take “natu- 2002:127). Despite having no formal edu- ral”, not arranged images. cation, Monsen could style himself pro- Frederick Monsen’s articles and bro- fessor and be titled so by others. His scien- chures linked to his lectures show a man tific aspirations were expressed through of high self-esteem, open to the world and membership of exclusive clubs as the deeply – intellectual and emotionally – en- Royal Geographical Society, the Ameri- gaged in his work. This was part of his can Natural and Geographical Society and luggage when he entered the desert, which the American Anthropological Associa- during the last decades of the nineteenth tion, to name a few (Monsen 1907, 1925; century could be considered a contact VanderMeulen 1985). With a record like zone, as James Clifford (1997) uses the this, Monsen could present himself as an term. He in turn borrowed the term from 140 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

Mary Louise Pratt who defined it as “the and Ferdinand Lundgren, to mention just a space of colonial encounters, the space in few of them (Padget 2004:177; Smith which people geographically and histori- 2000:14). What Frederick Monsen man- cally separated came into contact with aged together with the many others desert each other and establish ongoing relations, travellers was to make the moods and usually involving conditions of coercion, meanings of the desert known to the radical inequality, and intractable con- world. For the Bergen-born photographer, flict” (Clifford 1997:192). One can there- the yellow desert sand and landscape fore imagine a community where different shapes stretched into infinity and could in groups crossed each other’s paths. Such no way be captured through geographical meetings may have resulted in exchanges coordinates. These areas lay as intersec- of opinion, both respectful and competi- tions between aesthetics and deep-felt ex- tive. Euro-Americans were thrilled by the istentialism. According to Monsen this desert and the indigenous people that they was the place where one could experience: regarded as part of a unique and incom- Glowing atmosphere, the vast stretches of sand parable nature. Their ambitions were to that fairly pulsate with the light and the color, the picture the scene, the primitives and their towering cliffs of rugged, rich-hued rock, and the culture, artistically and scientifically ac- primitive, peaceful Indian folk who still live after cording to existing patterns and through the manner of their forefathers in villages that personal impressions. There was no seem to have been part of it all since the morning shame in being the best. Nevertheless, of the world (Monsen 1910:168). their pursuits had common capabilities Motifs, colours and words roamed be- that made it possible to consider their re- tween science and art, between what was sults as collective ethnography or a collec- considered as facts and what was experi- tive place-making project. They all creat- enced as magic. Here it is tempting to re- ed guidelines for how to make one’s way flect on Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas that high- through the desert, and they all helped to light how neither time nor place has prior- specify the expectations for what to see ity over one another. Through the concept and to experience. of chronotope, Bakhtin explains how it is in the intersections between time and The Creation of Paradise place that place becomes meaningful and Frederick Monsen no doubt fell in love that time assumes concrete and substantial with both the desert landscape and the In- forms, or where “time […] takes on flesh” dians as – one may assume – did most the (Bakhtin 1981:4). Through the crossing other desert travellers at the time. This time-place axis, place emerges as a dis- could be anthropologists like George tinctive entity, separated from the space Dorsey and Walter Houge, writers such as around it (Bakhtin 1981:4). Hence, the de- George Wharton James, Charles Fletcher sert stands out as a unique place where the Lummis and Charles Francis Saunders, indigenous people’s steps in the soft sands photographers like Karl Moon, Edward are movements which may be followed Curtis and C. C. Pierce, and may also have back to the beginning of time. Bakhtin included the artist Elbridge Irving Couse links the chronotope to authors of novels. Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 141

Storm at Hopi pueblo of Walpi, first Mesa, Arizona. Repro- duced with permission from Braun Research Library Collec- tion.

One of his points is that the “author-crea- “art-creator”. Monsen declared the desert tor” may exist as a link between the fictive to be a place “of unparalleled richness” world and the world of the realities. This only possible for an artist who had “the “creator” perspective points at the trans- power and the understanding to find and formation process involved when the express what is there” (Monsen 1910: landscape may be captured in photographs 168). In this manner, Monsen photo- as well. The gaze with which Monsen and graphed the desert as a fascinating “un- his colleagues observed their special place touched” world, close to imaginations of parallels the chronotope Bakhtin has Paradise. Jerold Auerbach states that bib- named the idyllic, briefly defined “as lo- lical metaphors were common in the sec- cus for the entire life process” (Bakhtin ond half of the nineteenth century. As a re- 1981:229). sponse to the many dramatic changes in Monsen and the desert explorers were society, he views “[the] discovery – or, breathing in the air of infinity, material- more precisely, creation ‒ of the South- ized in the huge stretches of sand. To visu- west as an American Eden” (Auerbach alize this landscape and the American In- 2008:7). In the desert, time and place were dians was difficult, even Frederick Mon- local, but made it self-recognizable as sen had to admit that. Still, he could de- something all human and something en- fend his place-maker status with reference chanted and authentic. to his engagement in science and his artis- The desert was expressed as holy and tic talents that, according to Bakhtin, given to mankind as such. Yet, at the same might have given him the status of an time it was rooted in individual experi- 142 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

ences and impressions. As such, the desert bodied what could not be found in a pro- was also Frederick Imman Monsen’s spe- gressive modern America. cial place. Here industrialism, capitalism and materialism were absent, here he Cliff Dwelling and the Search for an could feel solidarity with people who still American History lived in harmony with nature, and here he Among those who have expressed rather could feel the unity of the authentic and negative evaluations of the American pho- unspoiled (Akin 1907). The excursions tographers is unsurprisingly, Susan Son- away from the civilized world became an tag. She argues that the contemporary “inner” journey to the “real” and the eter- photographer “is not simply the person nal. Frederick Monsen was without a who records the past, but the one who in- doubt a thorough anti-modernist. Perhaps vents it [...] through his eyes the now be- it was not so strange that Monsen took out comes the past” (Sontag 1978/2002:65). the deeper colours from his watercolour Hence, the camera is represented as an in- box when a world like this was to be pre- strument with a capacity to twist and sented. Still, Monsen was far from the transform reality. only one who appreciated this magical Frederick Monsen would agree about world. Many of the authors, photogra- the power the camera might possess. Still, phers and explorers of the desert ex- he would likely distance himself from the pressed their doubts about the new indus- viewpoints expressed by Sontag. To him trial world, writes Sherry Smith. She has his cameras and his artistic gifts made the pointed out how “the middle and upper imprints of the enchanted place come classes who exercised a considerable cul- through. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to ture power – looked for alternatives” interpret photos like these as portraits of (Smith 2000:8). The southwest landscape, the contemporary explorers themselves. the indigenous people faithful to their sac- The photographs represent a conventional red rituals and crafts, represented the op- genre where the Indians have no place in posite to the destructive powers ruling the the picture. Here, the focus is on the enig- urban centres. Not only the desert but also matic cliff ruins and the lonely photogra- “Indians were among the most important pher. These pictures are also found in the symbols used to critique the modern” photographical collection Monsen himself writes the historian Philip Deloria (in left behind. They show a passionate and Auerbach 2008:7). The physical place enthusiastic explorer who observed steep also became an inner mental landscape for cliff walls and secretive cliff dwellings. Monsen and so many others of his time. It “Spread Throughout the vast Navajo land- has been noted that never was a place cre- scape, remains of the Stone Age people’s ated upon so much aesthetical individual- cliffs whisper to us the story of a dead, ity. This is not strange, as the desert did buried and forgotten past”, declared an ex- not only represent a different world, but cited Frederick Monsen (1907b:51). also an alternative place. Here a radical Portraits of the cliff dwellings and the person could find a community based on explorer were published in many of his nature and an authentic culture that em- lecture brochures referring to his adven- Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 143

Ruins of a Forgotten Race. The Frederick Monsen Col- lection. Reproduced with permission from Kristina W. Foss. turous feats. He also cited the Los Angeles that had reached its peak long before the Times from 1886 which refers to Frede- era of civilization. Could the cliff ruins rick Monsen as one of the first to make the serve as evidence of a history that was to world recognize the great archaeological be found long before the Navajo, Hopi and treasures hidden in the desert sand (Mon- Pueblo Indians occupied the landscape? In sen 1909). This is one way to understand that case, the photographs pointed back to the pictures. Whether this is the best way a past parallel to the pyramids of Egypt or not is of no importance, although it in- and the temples in Athens (Sandweiss dicates a certain competition among the 2003:78). desert photographers and like-minded Opposite views highlighted connec- people. tions between the cliff ruins and the exist- Moreover, there were further under- ing Indian villages built of clay. Frederick standings linked to the photos. The inex- Monsen shared this view. He claimed that plicable parts of history were a topic that the ruins represented a form of primitiv- concerned many in the late 1800s. With ism that pointed back to “how Americans the Indians out of sight, it was less prob- lived and died long before ‘the paleface’ lematic to discuss whether the desert land- came and brought destruction” (Monsen scape and the cliff ruins belonged to the 1907b:21). Many shared Monsen’s opin- Indians’ territory or not. Based on the ions, but how could one celebrate a culture ruins, one could speculate as to whether that was to decimated through assimila- America had its own remote golden age tion? A strategic solution emerged gradu- 144 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

ally. The rare cavernous settlements could descriptions based on distant observations be considered as part of the grand Ameri- could be combined with reflections and can nature. The responsibility would auto- methods founded on closeness and empa- matically fall to the US authorities who thy. Boas himself generated, with the help ruled over knowledge and resource man- of assistants and local professional pho- agement (Sandweiss 2003:78‒80). The tographers, more than three thousand pic- “empty” desert was now, with the help of tures, mostly of body types, precisely to Monsen and his colleagues, in the process “resolve the question of Native American of becoming a national historical place. origins” (Pinney 2012:45). About the same time researchers such as Frank Playgrounds and Monuments Hamilton Cushing and James Mooney, Scholars at the end of the nineteenth cen- both working among the American In- tury were, as several generations before dians in the southwest, had “initiated what them, still occupied with the origins of the later generation would call ‘participant American Indians. The accurate descrip- observation’” (Wilcox & Fowler 2002: tions of the indigenous people towards the 165). These were methods also employed end of the 1800s were not only a means to by Boas. When new ideas and ideals categorize the different groups of the ori- reached the southwest, the American In- ginal American inhabitants, but also a way dians’ way of life came to be regarded as to obtain more information about a myste- a unique culture that had to be understood rious past (Wilcox & Fowler 2002: in its own right (Wilcox & Fowler 2002: 160‒172). This might also have been a 165). motivation for Monsen’s physiological Put in context, the physical reports of observations found in his articles and as the indigenous Americans made by Fre- captions attached to his pictures. About derick Monsen were in accordance with the Hopi, he noticed: the scientific norms at the time. He saw [They] are rather small of stature, but muscular himself as both an archaeologist and an and agile. Both sexes have reddish brown skin, anthropologist who followed the aca- rather high cheekbones, a straight broad nose, demic practice of his time. When it came slanting eyes, and large mouths with gentle ex- to fieldwork, he perceived himself as a pression (Monsen 1907a:51). specialist far above the average. In the Descriptions like these may seem contra- early 1890s Monsen spent several peri- dictory to his photographs, where emo- ods doing fieldwork by living among the tions and empathy dominate. This is cer- Indians. “Before I could understand the tainly not the case. By the end of the cen- Indian, I had to learn how to get behind tury, Franz Boas was already well known his eyes, – to think as he thought, to live as an anthropologist to scholars working as he lived, and to become, so far as pos- in the southwest. He had developed what sible for a white man, an accepted mem- has been labelled a holistic anthropology ber of the society” (Monsen 1910:165). which included “archaeology, linguistics, From Monsen’s point of view, this was cultural anthropology and physical an- the only way to create pictures that con- thropology (Fowler 2000:240). As such, veyed the authenticity of the indigenous. Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 145

Hopi boys from Walpi, Arizona. Given to Bergen Museum by Monsen when he visited Bergen in 1912. Braun Research Li- brary Collection.

Eagle Watchers. Repro- duced with permission from The Frederick Mon- sen Collection. Kristina W. Foss.

In his articles, he pointed out how essen- like America’s growing cities, this was a tial the fieldwork was. It made him place for freedom of movement and friends of the Indians and it resulted in spontaneity. Frederick Monsen, as an knowledge few others possessed (Mon- artist, photographer and researcher, took sen 1910:166). pride in conveying life as it unfolded With the desert experienced as a van- among his new friends. Using his hand- ishing paradise, the American Indians held cameras, he took several pictures in were localized in the land of the past. Un- sequences so that bodies, suppleness and 146 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

fast movements could be captured. Play- graphed “real” life. Magical sand swirls ing with the children, he felt he came toward the sky and distinctive cliffs influ- close and his presence did not affect the enced everyday life and daily activities. young ones. To Monsen these photo- Beautiful bodies and harmonious faces re- graphs expressed the true and natural life flected harmonious souls and innocent of the Indians in general. The pictures minds. demonstrated two points. Firstly, this is a Frederick Monsen, like so many of his primitive breed in both physical and contemporaries, viewed the Indians as mental terms. The second point refers to representatives of a distant Stone Age. a hard and free life that has led to the de- Still his respect for them was profound velopment of strong bodies adapted to and his stays with them alternated be- their life and environment (Monsen tween joy and melancholy. Hence it was 1907a:41). The impulsiveness and not at random he named one of the photo- “primitive breed” of the Indians charac- graphs “The Bronze Study”. In the endless terized both the people and the place. desert landscape, he portrayed a young Due to his special photographic tech- girl in half-profile. She is naked, she has niques and his fieldwork, he was among tousled hair and she is sitting with her long the very few – or the only one, he thought legs stretched out on a cliff that resembles – who could capture this phenomenon. a continental shelf. Through the caption, This primitive and innocent way of being he makes her body shine in bronze metal. that the children demonstrated could be It is not difficult to interpret the photo as a recognized in all the Navajo, Hopi and monumentalization and sacralization of Pueblo people in general. Observing and the Indian Monsen imagined had “been playing with the youngsters, he tried to here since the dawn of time” (Monsen grasp the spontaneous rhythm that char- 1907a:52). Like the Euro-Americans in acterized the Indians. general, he was convinced that the In- For Monsen the more distant physio- dians’ days as Indians were numbered. logical description and his subjective por- The whites’ way of life was about to take traits coloured with closeness and empa- over and Monsen, with his declared close- thy were part of a whole. Some of his con- ness to the Indians, saw it as his duty to temporaries found his pictures too roman- create a memorial of the American Indians tic, close pictorialism that represented a and their culture. The Bronze Study is a photographical genre close to art. Monsen monument and an honour to a people, a did not recognize these claimed re- place and a time on the verge of disappear- semblances. This genre was something he ing. associated with Edward Curtis and other Pierre Nora (1989) has underlined how photographers he disliked for their arti- towards the end of the nineteenth century ficial photographs. They represented one could feel that rural life and traditions cameramen who dressed up their subjects were about to change. This led to an in- and manipulated both the light and the creased willingness to create monuments landscape in the pictures. Monsen photo- to remember and never forget what once Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 147

had been important. The girl on the cliff is young, but that makes Monsen’s motif re- flect the ambivalence that Nora sees as characterizing monuments. They ac- centuate contradictions such as “life and death”, “time and eternity”, “sacred and profane”, the “collective and the indi- vidual” (Nora 1989:19). These opposi- tions are applicable both to the girl and to the place she inhabits. Frederick Monsen has photographed the desert as a magical, enchanted but also memorial site.

Art, Crafts and Ceremonies Monsen, and contemporaries, felt that the connection between people and place came to light in the admiration of the In- dians’ arts and crafts. He took pictures of them as they were about to weave rugs, braid baskets or forming jars. These were photographs intended to show how the Hopi Basket Weaver. Reproduced with permis- sion from The Frederick Monsen Collection. people, landscape and culture were inter- Kristina W. Foss. twined in one another. Expert hands en- cased in tradition shaped authentic and unique objects. In the view of Monsen and “white man’s” knowledge should not be other anti-modernists, the Indians’ crafts forced upon the Indians. It was important became a storage for fundamental human to realize that there was a market for their values that were part of a holistic exist- distinctive and beautifully decorated ence in general (Padget 2004:206). Frede- baskets, textiles and silver work. He did rick Monsen was thrilled and captivated his very best to oppose to “the destruction by the desert people’s material culture; it of ancient craft and the attempt to replace was the shapes, decor and the secrets they them by modern commercial work that is could tell about the place, the people and practically valueless as well as hideous the culture. Well into the new century, this and commonplace” (Akin 1907:5). The craftsmanship was still one of Monsen’s historian Curtis Hinsley regards the inter- central and recurring themes. One of his est in the art and the craft produced by the articles was typically titled “The Destruc- American Indians in the period as a rebel- tion of Our Indians: What Civilization Is lion against the depersonalization due to Doing to Extinguish an Ancient and High- modern industrial life and its products. ly Intelligent Race by Taking Away Its “Indian cultures offered models of authen- Arts Industries and Religion” (Monsen ticity and non-historical stasis that stood 1907d). The main message was clear. The in strong contrast to industrial America” 148 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

(Hinsley 1992:16). This is also the opin- Fleming 1993; Padget 2004). So was it ion of the historian Don Fowler, who too for Frederick Monsen, who indicated argues that a “central tenet of the modern- in his photographs how he let himself be ists art movement was the rejection of ef- carried away by the movements, the body fete academic representational art as cor- paint and the snakes that curled up be- rupt product of a decadent civilization” tween the Indians’ teeth. He interpreted (Fowler 2000:353). He also adds that the dances as a poetic tribute to nature, to some of the modernists saw “primitive the sun, the earth, the clouds and rain. art” as “real art” since it was produced by They demonstrated how nature was in- real, natural (and not artificial, civilized) scribed in body and mind (Monsen people (Fowler 2000:353). The aesthetic 1907d:72). Hardly any of his descrip- view of the handmade objects was also a tions are as enthusiastic and inspired as view that captured the genuine and harmo- when he describes the conclusion of the nious daily life of the indigenous people. Flute Dance where the Hopi dancers con- The objects crafted by the Indians were a verge in their sacred circle with torches way to “fill” the place of something that held high above their heads: was part of the life, the landscape and the There are no words for all the ghostly beauty of homage of art and craft was part of the that scene, the silver moonlight, the sharp ink- place-making. black shadows, through which the torches show The aesthetic appreciation of Indian like smoky yellow points of flame, the white art was important for the Euro-American night, the wide silence, and the creeping chill in adventures in the southwest. An ap- the air (Monsen 1907d:59). proach like this can be regarded as part of Monsen believed his representations of a strategic method in the creation of the the desert were more real, more genuine new narrative about the American Indian. due to his skills to capture the magical at- The narrative of the Indians as barbarians mosphere. He could handle his camera and brutes was replaced by a story of and he was certainly among those who people with creative skills rooted in tra- could deal with words. However, he was ditions. not alone. The dances had become some- The vast and broad interest in the thing of a standard highlight in written as American Indians and their territories well as in visual imageries (Smith 2000; made the different place-making agents Padget 2006; Fowler 2000). function like a collective endeavour. Of- The impressions made by authors, pho- ten it was the same attraction, such as the tographers, artists, even researchers and dances, which lured travellers to the tourists, appeared surprisingly unanimous “secret” and sacral places. The Bird despite their various forms. They were all Dance, the Flute Dance, not to mention contributions to the story of the desert and the Hopi Snake Dance, would eventually transformed the earlier “empty” spaces attract throngs of travellers. No one with a into adventures and attractive places. sketch book or a camera would leave the Thus, the making of the American South- desert without some written or visual ref- west turned out to be close to a collective erences to these dances (Bush 1994; biography that mirrored the place-makers’ Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 149

conceptions, experiences and impres- each other’s tripods and nudged each sions. other’s camera lenses. Half a dozen or more Indian policemen led by act- From Memorial Sites to Tourist ing agents kept us in line, so we had to go ahead Adventures and make the best of it. The pictures of spontane- Through his travels and stays in the desert, ous traditional life had come to an end and the In- dians were paid for posing (Vroman in Fleming & Frederick Monsen felt he had found a Lusky 1993:145). place, a people and a culture with roots from the dawn of time. Here he pursued The Indians gradually realized the eco- his research interests, satisfying his long- nomic potential the tourists brought. Now ing for adventure and an alternative life they themselves could direct the perfor- horizon. At the turn of the century, how- mances of ceremonies and traditions. Au- ever, this magic world was in transforma- thentic impressions became a basis for tion. In Frederick Monsen’s photos, be- economic transactions. tween dancing Indians in ritual cloth, one Here it is tempting to use Anna Tsing’s could also catch glimpses of the Euro- term “friction” which she has reserved for American middle-class men in bright suits “the awkward unequal, unstable and crea- and desert hats accompanied by women in tive qualities of interconnection across long skirts and lace blouses. Several of differences” (Tsing 2005:4). Tsing writes them even had their own cameras. Adam about the transformations of Indonesian Vroman, friend and colleague of Monsen, Borneo’s landscapes in the 1980‒1990s counted 40 tourists who observed the and focuses on agents with divergent in- Hopi Indians’ famous Snake Dance in terests and competing agendas. Despite 1897. Two years later, in 1899, the num- differences in place and time, it is possible ber had risen to 200 persons (Graulich to observe parallels to the events that un- 2003:82). In the new decades in the twen- folded in the southwestern deserts. Here tieth century thousands of tourists found actors such as archaeologists and anthro- their way to the enchanted desert that had pologists, artists and authors, photogra- become a destination for urban travellers phers and explorers shared interest but in search of the exotic and authentic. The still challenged each other. Their back- scientific manifestations with references ground from the American continent and to nature as well as a prehistoric culture Europe made them an uneven group but were of course an extra bonus, even an in- bound them together through common in- spiration to look for relics themselves. terest and common longing for what was Eventually it became quite chaotic, Indian different from their own world. They met agents intervened, professional photogra- the American Indians with curiosity and phers were referred to special areas where empathy, unaware that they were over- only selected ceremonies and activities stepping borders belonging to “the other”. could now be observed. The photographer They encountered the original Americans Adam Vroman described how impossible as a people living in nature, of nature and the situation had become. The photogra- in pact with nature. They regarded the in- phers stumbled into one another, struck digenous peoples as if they had their roots 150 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

in biblical places like Paradise and Eden. national geography whereby it “came to The meetings between the different characterize America itself as nature’s na- groups were not only a New World tion distinct from Europe’s claim as the against an Old World, but also an encoun- historical backdrop of civilization” (Sears ter between explorers and explored. This in Campbell 2011:13). As such, the place could not happen without frictions that be- also attained international status, a place came more noticeable and palpable when visible on the global map as something tourists entered the landscape. They had special and something valued. their expectations as the groups of anti- modernists had their visions, and these did In Need of a Place not always coincide. For the experts and In the end, it is natural to ask what Frede- experienced people like Frederick Mon- rick Monsen did when it became difficult sen it became increasingly problematic to to continue his career as a courageous ex- continue the role as researchers in an enig- plorer. He did not leave the Indians, but matic “untouched” landscape. The fric- changed his path and became one of the tions and frustrations for both parties grew best-known lecturers and popularizers of even more when the “primitives” took the life of the Pueblo, Navajo and Hopi In- hold of the situation and demanded money dians. for being watched and for the observations By the end of the nineteenth century the of their dance performances. Some dec- Santa Fe Railroad had made the desert ac- ades into the new century, the desert of cessible. For tourists to take full advan- Eden was turned into a crowded place. tage of their trips, the train companies of- Nevertheless, Monsen and the others fered free tickets to writers and photogra- who could handle cameras, watercolour phers who were willing to give lectures on brushes, notebooks and archaeological in- Indian landscape and culture. Among struments, had described the desert and its those who accepted this offer was Frede- people, they had visualized rituals and rick Monsen, who with his slide lectures handicraft, they had measured cliff dwell- and pamphlets (Monsen, 1907d, 1913, ings and brushed sand off old relics. 1925) helped to implement what we today Through these efforts, what once were would call adventure or knowledge tours. considered “empty” was now “filled”. It Because Monsen was so committed to and had become a place to identify with. It had enthusiastic about his relationship with been a local place where names like the the Indians, it might almost seem as if he Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert virtually sold his Indian friends to the lured tourists from far away. It was not tourists. From Monsen’s point of view, it solely in museums in the southwest that was the opposite. His new project working items from the desert landscape were for the railway service was his way to stored. The indigenous people’s culture change the Euro-American attitudes to- acquired the of cultural heritage and their wards America’s Indians. Martin Padget landscape, once looked upon as an (2004:195) underlines that photographers “out-of-the-way place” was transformed as well as writers considered that their at the beginning of the new century into a task as tourist guides was a way to break Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 151

down the Euro-American ethnocentrism. most beautiful he ever had seen and Mon- In this connection, Frederick Monsen may sen the best lecturer he had ever heard” also be regarded as one of the early advo- (Monsen 1925:2). The Catholic Women’s cates of what has been named cultural Society in California found his presenta- relativism. That should not come as a sur- tion “sympathetic” and refined, his stories prise due to his enthusiasm for the Ameri- appeal strongly to cultivated audiences” can Indians. As late as 1907, he stated, just (Monsen 1925:4). as insistently and emotionally as before, Frederick Monsen had photographed that: both the desert landscape and his own Some day when it is too late, we may realize what “mindscape”. Nigel Thrift has highlighted we have lost by “educating” the Indian, and forc- how some locations can be emotionally ing him to accept our more complex but far in- tuned from the start or else become tuned ferior standards of life, work and art. These sound over time (Thrift in Frykman 2012:52). like strong statements, but let any man who doubts That was exactly part of Monsen’s ambi- their truth take a journey through the Painted tions, namely, to catch the sand, the red Desert and live for a while with these gentle brown children of an ancient race. The chances are clouds, the smiles and the movements that he would find himself the learner instead of from unknown times. Together with other the teacher, and if he had ears to hear and eyes to explorers, scientists, artists and photogra- see, the spell of the Desert would be upon him all phers, he took part in a large place-making his days (Monsen 1907c:691). process. When they succeeded, it may Frederick Monsen continued to make his very well have been a result not only tours virtually all over the nation until he based on skills and strategies, but also on died in 1929. He showed his lantern slides their creativity, their pictures, novels and and lectured about the Hopi, Navajo and narratives. As place-makers they infused Pueblo Indians’ ways of life and about his the landscape with magic and secrets. own experiences and adventures. With his Maybe they did it for humankind, but cer- hand-painted glass slides, he found his tainly they lived in an America where the ways to institutions and societies that need for an alternative place was felt. Per- spread from Harvard University and the haps it was here, out in the desert in the National Museum in Washington DC to southwest, the first American anti-mod- women’s societies as well as press and ernists – or the first of the American radi- military unions (Monsen 1925:11). The cals – encountered each other. audience let themselves be fascinated both Eva Reme by the pictures and by Monsen himself. AHKR-Kulturvitenskap “Mr. Monsen is the first artist to paint on Postboks 7805 glass for optical projection, and the results NO-5020 Bergen show in the colour and atmospheric effect email: [email protected] secured – no one has been able to secure anything like them before”, one could References read in the New York Herald (Monsen Akin, Louis 1907: Frederick Monsen of the Desert – The Man Who Began Eighteen Years Ago to 1925:10). Theodore Roosevelt found “Mr. Live and Record the Life of Hopiland. The Monsen’s collection of photographs the Craftsmen XI(6). 152 Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

Auerbach, Jerold 2008: Explorers in Eden. Pueblo Klein, Barbro 2002: Gamla kartor och nya värl- Indians and the Promised Land. Albuquerque: dar: om migration och platsskapande. Tidsskrift University of Mexico Press. for kulturforskning. Bakhtin, Mikhail 1981/1990: Forms of Time and Larsen, Peter & Sigrid Lien 2007: Norsk fotohi- of the Chronotope in the Novel. The Dialogic storie. Fra daguerreotypi til digitalisering. Imagination. Four Essays. Austin: University Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. of Texas Press. Lien, Sigrid 2009: Lengselens bilder. Fotografiet Bush, Alfred L. & Lee Clark Mitchell 1994: The i norsk utvandrerhistorie. Oslo: Spartacus for- Photograph and the American Indian. Prince- lag. ton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press. Monsen, Frederick 1907a: The Primitive Folk of Campbell, Robert 2011: In Darkest Alaska: the Desert. Splendid Physical Development that Travel and Empire along the Inside Passage. yet Shows Many of the Characteristics of an Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Earlier Race than Our Own. The Craftsman 11. Clifford, James 1997: Routes. Travel and Transla- Monsen; Frederick 1907b: Pueblos of the Painted tion in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Desert. How the Hopi Build Their Community Harvard University Press. Dwellings on the Cliffs. The Craftsman 12(1). Current, Karen 1978: Photography and the Old Monsen, Frederick 1907c: The Destruction of Our West. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Indians. What Civilization Is Doing to Extin- Eastman, George 1909: Brev fra Eastman til Mon- guish an Ancient and Highly Intelligent Race by sen. Dated 23 September 1909. Taking Away Its Arts Industries and Religion. The Craftsman 11. Edwards, Elizabeth & Christopher Morton 2009: Monsen, Frederick 1907d: The Festivals of the Photography, Anthropology and History. Ex- Hopi. The Craftsman 12. panding the Frame. Farnham: Routledge. Monsen, Frederick 1909: With a Kodak in the Fleming, Paula Richardson & Judith Lynn Luskey Land of the Navajo. New York. Eastman Kodak 1993: Grand Endeavours of American Indian Co. Photography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Monsen, Frederick 1910: Picturing Indians with Institution Press. the Camera. Photo-Era. The American Journal Fowler, Don D. 2000: A Laboratory for Anthro- of Photography XXV(4). pology. Science and Romanticism in the Ameri- Monsen, Frederick 1913: The Frederick Monsen can Southwest 1846‒1930. Albuquerque: Uni- Expeditions. versity of New Mexico Press. Monsen, Frederick 1925: The Frederick Monsen Frykman, Jonas 2012: Berörd. Plats, kropp och Lectures. Rochester, N.Y.: Eastman Kodak ting i fenomenologisk kulturanalys. Stockholm: Company. Carlson Bokförlag. Nora, Pierre 1989: Between Memory and History. Graulich, Melody 2003: “I Became the Colony”. Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26. Kate Cory’s Hopi Photographs. In Susan Ber- Othman, Sumaiyah, Nishimura, Yukio & Aya nardin et al. (eds.), Trading Gazes. Euro-Ame- Kubota 2013: Memory Association in Place rican Women Photographers and Native North Making. A Review. Procedia – Social and Be- Americans 1880‒1940. New Brunswick: Rut- havioural Sciences 85. gers University Press. Padget, Martin 2004: Indian Country. Travels in Hamera, Judith & Alfred Bendixen (eds.) 2009: the American Southwest. 1840‒1935. Albu- The Cambridge Companion to American Travel querque: University of New Mexico Press. Writing. New York: Cambridge University Pinney, Christopher 2012: Photography and An- Press. thropology. London: Reaktion Books, available Hinsley, Curtis M. 1992: Collecting Cultures and from ProQuest Ebook Central. Cultures of Collecting. The Lure of the Ameri- Sandweiss, Martha A. 2002: Print the Legend. can Southwest, 1880‒1915. Museum of Anthro- Photography and the American West. New Ha- pology 16(1). ven: Yale University Press. Jutzi, Alan H. 1986: Southern California Pho- Sandweiss, Martha A. 2003: The Necessity for tographers and the Indians of the Southwest Ruins. Photography and Archaeology in the 1888‒1910. Unpublished manuscript, confer- American West. In May Castleberry (ed.), The ence paper at Princeton University. New Old World. Photographic Views of Ancient Eva Reme, Place-Making in the Late Nineteenth-Century American Southwest 153

America. Albuquerque. University of New (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to American Mexico Press. Travel Writing. New York: Cambridge Univer- Seattle Post-Intelligencer 22 July 1900. sity Press. Sen, Arijit & Silverman, Lisa 2014: Making Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt 2005: Friction. An Eth- Place. Space and Embodiment in the City. nography of Global Connection. Princeton, NJ: Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Princeton University Press. Smith, Sherry L. 2000: Reimagining Indians Na- VanderMeulen, Thomas 1985: F. I. Monsen. His- tive American through Anglo Eyes, 1880‒1940. tory of Photography Monograph Series 13. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Arizona State University. Sontag, Susan 1978/2002: On Photography. Lon- Wilcox, David R. & Fowler Don D. 2002: The Be- don: Penguin Books. ginning of Anthropology in the North American Stowe, William W. Stowe 2009: “Property in the Southwest. From Thomas Jefferson to the Pe- Horizon”. Landscape and American Travel cos Conference. Anthropological Archaeology writing. In Judith Hamera & Alfred Bendixen in the Southwest 44(2). 154 Åsa Alftberg, The Practice of Ageing Wild Animals in Human Assistance Historical Practices, Semiotic Grounds and Future Prospects By Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg

Although the recent “animal turn” in the turn out to be one of mere dominance, the humanities (along with the post-humani- paper will reveal cases where the consid- ties turn) exhibits a critical programme of eration of mutual interests is of signifi- the Enlightenment concept of man cance. We will thereby concentrate on the (Wolfe 2009), it has also brought a ecological and semiotic processes that un- broader interest in the diversity of hu- derlie such inter-specific relations. The man-animal relations. This is reflected in theoretical grounds of the paper are devel- the variety of disciplines that have ad- oped as extensions of the Umwelt theory dressed the topic in the past decades, of Jakob von Uexküll (Uexküll 1909; from anthropology/ethnology (Mullin Uexküll & Kriszat 1934), while historical 2002; Kohn 2007; Kirksey & Helmreich and ethnographic sources provide the em- 2010; Samuelsson & Svanberg 2016, pirical material. To examine the scope of Smart 2014, Strecker & Svanberg 2014, relationships between people and animals, Svanberg & Arluke 2016) to human we use data from many human societies. geography (Whatmore 2006; Lorimer & The cross-cultural samples chosen are Driessen 2016) and semiotics (Tønnes- given in order to illustrate the complexity sen 2010; Martinelli 2010; Magnus 2015; and variation of wild animals as human Maran 2015). The relationships covered assistants (cf. Serpell 1996:60–72). The by these studies reveal different modes of selected examples serve to stress the di- relating to animals in various cultures versity of human and helper animal rela- and historical epochs (Descola 1996; tions, both in terms of functions and ways Erikson 2000). Some of the studies lay of establishing the relations, rather than to stress on the transitions of humanity and provide a detailed account of each case. animality (e.g. Potts 2007), whereas The application of Umwelt theory helps to others focus on the encounters of humans highlight how turning to other species for and other animals as instances of meeting assistance or help has not only contributed the “other”, which result either in dia- to the development and expansion of syn- logue (Patton 2003; Grandin & Johnson anthropic behaviour, but has also brought 2006) or in certain forms of defamiliar- along a higher convergence of signs and ization (Berger 1991). meanings between humans and other spe- This article will merge the questions cies. Depending on the similarities and about transition and dialogue while dis- differences of the human and the other cussing the diversity of ways wild animals species’ Umwelten, people have also had have provided assistance for humans. The to employ different strategies to bring helper animals discussed in the paper ex- about a meaning change in the animal, tend, as it were, the human organism (and which is necessary for the particular func- in several cases the humans extend also tion of help. In the current paper, we will the animal) in its struggle for certain use Umwelt mainly as an organizing prin- means of subsistence. On the other hand, ciple for different kinds of interspecific re- the employment of animals in such a func- lations. Although the term Umwelt desig- tion demands attention to the other spe- nates the whole set of meaningful objects cies’ needs, and although the relation can of an animal, we will focus on those which

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provide the shared ground of activity for purposes will also be left out of our dis- human and non-human subjects. cussion (Cock 2014). We designate as human assistants those Based on the knowledge of the animal’s animals which mediate the fulfilment of ecological relations and cognitive capaci- certain human functions, tasks and activi- ties, different strategies have been used to ties thanks to their specific sensory and obtain help from certain taxa. We will dis- behavioural characteristics. The topic is cuss them using the example of wild ani- explored from a historic as well as a pro- mals used as helpers in fishing. However, spective stance. The animals discussed in we will demonstrate that it is not the estab- the study attend to objects that humans lished ecological relations of the animal also find to be of use, but lack or need to per se that matter in the choice of certain supplement the means to access and pro- species for human functions, but how cess those objects. The study is hence those relations appear in the light of hu- limited to animals which, in their assist- man meanings and interests. No strict ance function, exhibit at least some sort of temporal or spatial limits are set to the agency and which are employed in the ac- cases discussed in the analysis. Our ex- quisition or guarding of resources. Wild amples given here are used to mark and animals which are tamed in order to be exemplify the types of animal assistance used as resources (e.g. for food, clothing delineated on different ecological and or medicine) are not included in the cur- semiotic grounds. Several questions rent study, nor are animals whose behav- raised in connection with the latter are ad- iour has been interpreted as an omen dressed. Do humans and wild animals (Lévi-Strauss 1962:73–74; Svanberg share the same species of predators and 2008) or those who have been used simply prey? Is an object which one strives for as live bait (van Beek 2013; Litvak & something that the other wants to get rid Mandrak 1993). We also do not include of? Can they help each other in reaching harvesting species such as wild bees and and obtaining juxtaposed objects? Many various rodents that had their stores of historical usages of wild animals have food plundered repeatedly by humans been abandoned today. We will therefore (Crane 1999:43–103; Ståhlberg & Svan- finally consider the reasons why the spe- berg 2010). cies have in many cases ceased to serve Although tamed wild animals kept as the role of human helpers and what the companion animals in the same way as prospects are for those human and non-hu- domestic pets provide human individuals man animal relations. or families with enhanced emotional and psychological well-being, this is also left Background out of the discussion here (Erikson 2000). Domestication has been characterized as Birds kept merely as amusement for their “the most profound transformation that song, birds used in song contests and birds has occurred in human-animal relation- in blood sports (cockfights) are not dealt ships” (Russell 2002:285). However, hu- with here either. The use of owls and other man societies have also always made use bird species as living decoys for hunting of interaction with wild animals for a large 156 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

array of purposes, especially in food-pro- recent evidence of the same kind of rela- viding activities such as fishing, hunting tionships. We have for instance an ethno- and gathering, and have tamed them as graphic record from the 1870s of how Ir- guardian animals or as comfort animals rawaddy dolphins, Orcaella brevirostris, for company and toys (Serpell 1996; assisted fishermen in India to chase fish Ståhlberg & Svanberg 2012). Animals into their nets. The local fishermen have also helped in a variety of ways to claimed that particular dolphins were as- cure people in traditional and modern so- sociated with specific fishing villages. Le- cieties from various ailments (Serpell gal claims were frequently brought into 2010). Wild animals living under captive local courts by fishermen to recover a conditions have furthermore provided share of the fish from the nets of a rival ecosystem services of crucial importance fisherman which the plaintiff’s dolphin for the survival of human societies. Ex- was claimed to have helped fill (Anderson amples are bumblebees cultured for agri- 1879:361). This ethnographic evidence is cultural use as pollinators, mussels kept confirmed by a recent study from Burma. for removing bacteria and toxins in estu- Tint Tun reports in his gripping study that aries, and cyprinids kept in ponds and in the upper reaches of the Ayeyawady lakes as aquatic weed controllers (Char- River, Irrawaddy dolphins drive fish to- donnet et al. 2002; Olsén & Svanberg wards fishermen who cast their nets in re- 2016). Similarly to phytoremediation, the sponse to acoustic signals from them. In term zooremediation has been suggested return, the dolphins are rewarded with to denote the use of animals in the remedi- some of the fishermen’s by-catch (Tun ation and stabilization of (aquatic) eco- 2014). systems (Gifford et al. 2007). It is of Another interesting example is given by course possible to make a long list of how Carl Linnaeus who in 1732 observed how people benefited from other species’ be- the Arctic skua, Stercorarius parasiticus, haviour, foraging and abilities in their indicated with its behaviour to the fisher- search for food and other public goods. men along the coast of the province of Some can be described as more or less Ångermanland where the Baltic herring, kleptoparasitic behaviour of humans; Clupea harengus, were in the sea (Lin- others are symbiotic interrelationships be- naeus 1913:43). Eagles, falcons and other tween Homo sapiens and other taxa. raptors have since time immemorial been Among the human activities which used for hunting mammals and birds in have involved the assistance of wild spe- many parts of Eurasia. Falconry is a hunt- cies, hunting and fishing are the most ing practice known already in Asian an- prominent ones. A fascinating example of cient cultures (Cock 2014:152–170). In how wild animals have assisted humans in old Russia, the great grey shrike, Lanius their food search is given by Pliny the El- excubitor, was sometimes trained for der (Book IX: 9), describing how dolphins catching small birds (Bowden 1869:124). in Nismer helped fishermen to capture The use of birds for hunting is known fish. In this relationship, both species from many parts of the world (Soma benefited from each other. There is more 2014). The Dene people of Alaska, to give Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 157

just one example, have traditionally exploited resources (see Malamud 2013: trained ravens, hawks and other birds of 36). prey to sight and hunt game for them, but Although helper animals are not ex- also to alert them of danger. Even wild ploited for their nutritional or energy geese were trained to spot game for their value and it is their species-specific be- keepers (Russell & West 2003:37–38). haviour that ultimately serves as a value Ethnographic descriptions from various for humans, one cannot deny the instru- parts of the world are full of such testimo- mental touch of the relationship. On the nies of how wild animals, either tamed or other hand, the natural adaptations of the by developing a kind of symbiotic rela- animals limit the functions they can carry tionship, have helped humans in many out and hence are determinative factors in ways. They have been turned into human the development of their relations with hu- helpers and providers (e.g. Gilmore 1950; mans. In addition, often it is the presence Ståhlberg & Svanberg 2012). of certain environments (semi-natural communities, gardens, urban parks, etc.) The Concept of Animals as Helpers rather than direct human-non-human ani- In our study we aim at drawing attention mal influences that matters in the estab- to the diversity of human and non-human lishment of such interspecific contacts animal relationships by observing the (Kinzelbach 1999). mid-space and transition zones of the Highlighting helper animals might established polarities of human-animal in- also be seen as a reiteration of the age-old teractions. The group of animals discussed division of animals into useful animals in the article – wild animals in human as- and pests. We try to back away from the sistance – are wild if compared to domes- essentialist linking of species to their tic animals, but they are still tamed or at- beneficial or detrimental quality and in- tracted to human environments. They do stead demonstrate how different human not serve as resources themselves for hu- activities with the same species can also mans and yet they contribute to the acqui- shift the meanings it is endowed with. sition or removal of some items that are of From the opposite side, objections might interest also for man. However, there are be raised against anthropomorphizing several points of critique that might be animals by attributing to them abilities of raised against the compilation of a catego- providing help which they do not pos- ry of helper animals, which we would like sess. Indeed, the ethological definitions to forestall with the following clarifica- of animal assistance are narrower than tions. First, the terms “helper animals” or the definition used in this article. In cog- “animals in human assistance” might nitive ethological terms, instrumental evoke instrumentalist connotations and help, as one type of pro-social behaviour, similarly to the recent expansion of the has to comprise a motivational and cog- “service animals” concept, in terms of nitive component that is a recognition of both species and functions, might be sub- the other’s goal and the motivation to jected to criticism about the inherent do- help (Warneken & Tomasello 2009:457). minionism and treatment of animals as un- The presence of such altruistic behaviour 158 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

has been experimentally demonstrated the beginning of the twentieth century. only in a few social species (cf. Bräuer et Uexküll’s work is mostly known these al. 2013). However, the term “assist- days for his introduction of the term Um- ance” in the current article is used as a welt as a species-specific phenomenal functional concept and in this sense ani- world (Uexküll 1909; cf. Hoffmeyer mals may not provide help in cognitive 1998:40). The Umwelt of an animal con- terms, but their behaviour might still re- sists of objects that are meaningful for the sult in such an effect for humans. animal as well as the cues (olfactory, The reasons for seeking support from visual, acoustic, etc.) an animal uses to wild animals range from the simple lack recognize and obtain those objects. On the of other devices to acquire the desired re- one hand, the sensory ecology and the sources for religious reasons, e.g. among signs that the animal perceives and acts Brahmins and Buddhists who have not upon separate it from other organisms been allowed to kill animals themselves, which rely on a different set of sensory but who were free of guilt if the killing cues and meaningful objects. On the other was done by another animal (Brandt 1972: hand, the cues that the organism perceives 15). In some cases, the animal’s ability to also connect it with other organisms gather a significant amount of some re- which serve as sources of the cues in an source in a limited time may be of primary ecological web. Uexküll’s work has later importance (e.g. diving birds that drive the been criticized for his too rigid treatment fish swarms). In other cases it is the selec- of ecological relations, which leaves little tivity and specialization to some resource space for their transformation (Stjernfelt that has turned human attention to the ani- 2001:86; Tønnessen 2009:47). mal’s activity. Yet, the same criticism has at the same time served as a basis for the discussion The Ecological and Semiotic Grounds about the underlying mechanisms of semi- of Animal Assistance otic change (see Hoffmeyer 2004; Tøn- The existing ecological relationships be- nessen 2011). The use of wild animals as tween human and non-human animals can human helpers is also an instance of such be both relied on and preserved (e.g. by a change, which ensues from the meeting symbiosis) or subjected to modification of two Umwelten and their mutual accom- (e.g. from competition to commensalism) modation in the process of taming and at- in the process of obtaining help from ani- traction. It is thus not only the use of re- mals. In semiotic terms, the shaping and sources that is changed due to the novel reshaping of the relationship between hu- relationship, but also the perception, cog- mans and helper animals can be explained nition and the corresponding apprehen- through the convergence or divergence of sion of the environment of the involved meanings of certain environmental ob- species. In the following, we will observe jects. how the existing ecological and semiotic Ecological relations were placed on relations between humans and animals semiotic grounds already by the Baltic contribute to the choice of means for tam- German biologist Jakob von Uexküll at ing or attraction and how the introduction Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 159

of novel cues and objects into the organ- the killed prey. The peasants searched the ism’s Umwelt transforms the human and hunting area in the morning and were able non-human animal relationship. The types to gather the lion’s leftovers. The lions of human-animal Umwelt relations can be were therefore tolerated and not hunted modelled on axes which contain the vari- (Brehm 1915:66). ables “object” and “meaning” and the However, the overlapping of objects values “same” or “different”. and meanings by humans and non-human animals does not necessarily have to Type 1 same Type 2 evince a competitive character. This is so for animals that signal predators which carry the same meaning both for humans Meaning and their domestic animals. In such situa- same different tions, a symbiotic relationship can be de- veloped from a commensialistic one Type 3 through the distribution of roles, such as different when an animal gives an alarm about a Object predator and humans take action to drive it The initial relations between the human and ani- away. mal Umwelten, which underlie different forms of Many wild species have been kept in animal assistance. The meaning of the types and captivity in order to serve as watchdogs. examples of them are provided in the text below. In mid-nineteenth-century India hyenas served as guardian animals in the villages Firstly, such human and non-human ani- (Jerdon 1867:118). From Central Europe mal relations can be observed where the there are data on cranes, Grus grus, which objects that humans and non-humans at- were tamed for the same purpose (Gunda tend to and the meanings that they attri- 1969:482; Bartosiewicz 2005). Guinea bute to the objects overlap (type 1). In nat- fowl in African villages have long been ural conditions such an overlapping of appreciated because they raise the alarm meaningful objects (e.g. items of food) when strangers and beasts approach. So might result in competition. By offering did the great northern diver, Gavia immer, other benefits or replacing the initial ob- tied on the roofs in Greenlandic settle- ject with another one with the same mean- ments (Svanberg & Ægisson 2005). In the ing, the competitive relation can be turned villages of the natives of South America into a symbiotic or commensialistic rela- guans, curassows and screamers, Chauna tionship. Human intervention is here di- torquata, served as “watchdogs” in the rected to the enhancement of the animal’s villages (Gilmore 1950:390–393; Gunda capacity to perceive the object of interest 1969:490). Peasants in East Africa viewed and to the breaking of the process of act- the lion as good for them because they ing upon it, for example by preventing the chased away wild hogs that were harmful animal from capturing or consuming its for their fields (Brehm 1915:6). prey. Hunting lions provided poor African As a second possibility, humans and peasants with meat by leaving residues of non-human animals may both be interest- 160 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

ed in the same objects, but for different (Svanberg 2006). Free-ranging wild birds reasons (e.g. if something is food for the were often kept in the yard or flew about animal, but vermin for human) (type 2). In in homes. An often quoted example in or- such cases, often no training of the animal nithological literature is the secretary is needed, but simple attraction to human bird, Sagittarius serpentarius, which is re- settlement might suffice and no funda- ported to be kept on South African farms mental transformation of the ecological in order to control venomous snakes in the relationship between humans and non-hu- yard (Brehm 1911:299). Domestic ducks, man animals is necessary. The human ef- Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, were ac- fort is directed to raising the saliency of cording to Tao Huo (1487–1540) used in certain human-bound objects or organ- southern China already during the Ming isms in comparison with other potential dynasty for controlling amphibious crabs objects carrying the same meaning in the in rice paddies (Zhou 1990:132). In animal’s Umwelt. This can be done by cre- Mexico, tamed roadrunners (Geococcyx ating an environment where not just the californianus) were popular both inside object is the attractor for the animal, but houses and outdoors, consuming mice, also its other needs are met – e.g. by pro- smaller snakes and other reptiles as well viding nesting places, etc. Conscious ef- as insects (Gillmore 1950). On the Hun- forts are not even needed to get the ani- garian plain, the peasants kept common mals to human environments where the kestrel, Falco tinnunculus, inside build- presence of abundant resources is a suffi- ings to check on mice (Gunda 1969:494). cient attractor in itself. In nineteenth-century Italy, it was com- In pre-industrial, traditional societies mon to keep one or several specimens of many predators and various species of the little owl (Athene noctua) in houses birds were regarded as beneficial for the and gardens in order to capture rodents, villagers because they eat and keep away slugs and insects (Niewenhuyse et al. pests and other harmful animals from hu- 2008:15–17). At the end of the nineteenth man settlements. Agricultural areas, century, Cuthbert Christy (1897) reported barns and fields are full of insects that de- from Santo Domingo that the double- stroy crops and harvest produce. Some striped thick-knee (Burhinus bistriatus domestic birds such as chickens keep dominicensis) was sometimes kept in worms and larvae under control in the houses in order to capture the cockroaches yard. A few insect-eating wild birds that invaded the islanders’ homes. In Cha- which usually nest around humans, for co and Paraguay, the cuckoo (Guira instance swallows, wagtails and storks, guira) was “said to rid houses of all the have been welcomed to such an extent creeping and running insects”, according that they have entered folk beliefs and to an ornithological study from 1926 folk tales throughout Europe (Tillhagen (Wetmore 1926:188). In several parts of 1978; Svanberg 2013). Europe, quails (Coturnix coturnix) were Taming wild birds was a popular pest kept in houses to eat insects. There are control method among peasants in several also observations from Japan in the 1860s regions of the world, including Sweden on keeping insectivorous birds as insect Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 161

predators on farms (Brehm 1911:92; Finally, the objects that humans are Notehelfter 1992:590f.). looking for may not be present in the Um- Székely peasants in Romania used to welt of an animal (type 4), but it might still tame stone marten, Martes foina, in or- possess the perceptual and/or motoric der to keep rats and mice away from means of retrieving them. Training is their houses (Gunda 1972). Marbled needed in order to bring the animal to no- polecats (Vormela vormela) have been tice the cues and objects that are otherwise used in Asia in order to control rats. Still of no significance to it. However, one can in the 1940s, Afghan shopkeepers in Ka- also simply expand the set of objects that bul kept them in their stores in order to serve the same functions (e.g. as items of exterminate rodents (Akhtar 1945). Rev- food), in which case no special training is erend Wood (1890) describes how a needed. woman kept a hedgehog in order to get rid of cockroaches in her kitchen. Wild Animals as Human Helpers in Hedgehogs have actually been common- Fishing ly kept in gardens in order to exterminate As a huge number of ethnographical snails, snakes, small rodents and other studies of traditional and peasant societies pests. indicate, myriads of wild species have Thirdly, animals may provide help for been historically used as human helpers, humans and vice versa, if they are interest- with a corresponding multitude of reasons for their engagement. These projects are ed in different, but contingent objects usually rather casual and vary from house- which carry the same meaning for them hold to household, but in some cases cer- (type 3). There might be no direct contact tain animal taxa have been used as helpers between the human and the non-human for generations (Gilmore 1950; Gunda animal before the possibility to assist one 1969; Brusewitz 2001; Ståhlberg & Svan- another in accessing the resources is dis- berg 2012). Moreover, the means humans covered. In many parts of tropical Africa, have used to obtain help from animals also people searching for honey have de- vary to a great extent and this can be veloped a kind of partnership with the demonstrated even within one function greater honeyguide, Indicator indicator, the animals have fulfilled for humans. The which led them to the bees’ nests. It has use of different strategies for obtaining been best studied among the nomadic animal assistance, in turn, brings about Boran people of northern Kenya. The different kinds of changes in the animal’s Boran claim that they can deduce the di- communicative behaviour, its habitat and/ rection and the distance to the nest as well or feeding habits. as their own arrival at the nest from the In the following, we outline the histori- bird’s flight pattern, perching height, and cal strategies for turning a wild animal calls. Analyses by Husseyn Isack and into a human helper, using the fishing Heinz Ulrich Reyer (1989) of the behav- function as an example (for an overview iour of guiding birds confirmed these of animals used in fishing, see Brandt claims. 1972). The strategies are organized ac- 162 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

Cormorant fishing in Japan at night. Japanese block-print by Katsukawa Shunsen (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). cording to the extent of the human-caused then attracted to human habitats, tamed transformations in the animal’s behaviour and finally trained. It is also important to and environmental relations. At the same note that the same species might be treated time, those intrusions evince a hierarchy differently in different cultures for the of changes in the animals’ Umwelten ‒ same purpose. A good example are differ- from an almost non-existent change in the ent species of the cormorant family: great case of the following of the animal in its cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, natural environment to a significant trans- has been domesticated in China as a fish formation via training. Given the diffuse catcher, Japanese cormorant, P. capilla- borders between human-influenced and tus, has been semi-domesticated in Japan, wild habitats, taming and attracting, while great cormorant, P. carbo, has only simple tolerance and conscious attraction, been subjected to taming and training in the categorization should indicate a varie- Europe (Laufer 1909; Manzi & Coomes ty of strategies and is not meant as a com- 2002:598). Whereas they have been used prehensive typology with discrete classes. by European royal courts for entertain- The same species might undergo all of the ment since the seventeenth century, in phases outlined below, being first ob- East Asia they have been tied to obtaining served in the natural environment, and a livelihood since at least the third century Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 163

(Beike 2012). In some parts of South Asia 28, 125). This was also part of the Saami tribal groups are still using Indian darter, local knowledge about otters (Svanberg et Anhinga melanogaster, in the same way al. 2016). Although the causal link of as cormorants in East Asia (Stonor 1948). which animal triggers the appearance of the other is reversed here, the otter–fish Following the Animal in Its Natural association still holds true. Environment A question could be raised as to whether Bringing the Animal to the Human animals whose behaviour is observed to Environment tell the presence of predator or prey spe- It is certainly easier to manipulate land cies that are of interest for humans (e.g. ecosystems in a direction that attracts fa- birds of prey used for hunting or sea birds voured species than to do the same with as indicators of fish swarms) or whether natural marine or freshwater habitats. The confiscating food from the animals from creation of artificial water bodies does their storing places (e.g. the fish caught serve the function, though. Human land- and stored by otters or by ospreys and sea scapes, from farmyards to fields to mod- eagles) might be counted as helpers of hu- ern cities have always been attractive to mans (Brusewitz 2001). These observa- some opportunistic species, which have tions at least serve as a precondition to been considered on the one hand as nuis- later tame the animal to carry out the same ance, as potential vectors of disease and functions. Humans do not influence the sources of noise and filth, but on the other animal behaviour by this strategy of ob- hand identified also with activities bene- taining help, although they might influ- ficial for humans (e.g. hedgehogs, house ence the resource base of the animals. Of- snakes, birds against vermin). Indeed, ten, it is the “service of the senses” that most of the earlier natural histories (e.g. such indicator animals provide for hu- Carl Linnaeus and Alfred Brehm) are keen mans. Similarly to domestic assistance to enlist such benefits as part of the spe- animals like guide dogs and hearing dogs, cies descriptions. If humans have recog- they extend the human senses without nized such a benefit, conscious efforts necessarily capturing or retrieving any re- have often followed to attract the animals sources. Unlike the first, they do it due to into the environment. The ancient custom their natural adaptations and not because in Scandinavia (in Finland especially in of the associations built via training. The the south-west) of keeping pikes, Esox lu- cause-and-effect relation might be even cius, and frogs in wells and springs in or- reversed by such observations, but the in- der to purify the drinking water from bugs ference might still guide humans to the re- might be mentioned here as an example source that was sought for. For example, (Sarmela 2009:130–131). in Estonia it has been noted that if one ob- Given the difficulty of altering the wa- serves that otters have come to the river, ter environment, the animals used for ob- then the fish will also gather at this place, taining resources from water have been as they will gather if the otter is whistling tied to human habitats mostly by restrict- (Estonian Folklore Archive: ERA AI III ing their movement capacities and possi- 164 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

bilities. At Lake Doiran between Macedo- root out fish from places of refuge, and nia and Greece, working groups of fishing cases have been reported where otters birds have been formed (including red- even rose to the surface to inform fisher- breasted merganser (Mergus serrator), men if no fish were found in the region great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus), (Gudger 1927). In his monumental work cormorants (Phalacrocorax), Arctic and Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, red-throated loons (Gavia arctica, G. stel- published in 1555, Olaus Magnus gives lata)). The wings of some of those birds some further details on tame and trained have been clipped and they are used to otters in Sweden (book 18:16). Here, how- drive fish into special fences separated by ever, he refers to another geographical lo- chambers (Brandt 1972:17; Apostolski & cation: “On the estates of some eminent Matvejev 1955). In any case, the border citizens in Svealand otters are made so between the keeping of wild birds for fish- tame that, on a sign from the chef, they ing by enclosing them to human domains dive into a pool and catch a fish of the size and the taming of those animals, discussed he has indicated, returning for another and in the next section, is diffuse. yet another until his instructions have been completely satisfied.” Taming and Training the Animals Otter fishing has been known in Europe Humans have also used several species to since the late Middle Ages. According to obtain desirable food by interrupting their late medieval zoologists like Thomas of normal procedure from catching prey to Cantimpré (Liber de natura rerum, 1225– its consumption. In these cases, either part 1241), Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum of the food is confiscated by humans and/ Naturale 1244), and Albertus Magnus (De or a replacement is offered for the items Animalibus,1257), otters were trained for that are taken away. Often mechanical fishing in central and Western Europe means have been used to obstruct the ani- (Bernström 1975, col. 390). The method, mal from swallowing its prey, which has which is still in use in different parts of the saved the time and effort needed to train world, is that the otters dive after the fish the animals – tethered cormorants, with and drive them into the fishermen’s nets. rings around their necks. Some of the spe- Izaak Walton is another European source cies tamed as human helpers can be fur- for this custom. In his famous book The ther subjected to training, whereby a more Compleat Angler (1653), reprinted many extensive modification of the animal’s be- times and translated into many languages, haviour can be achieved. Training also he describes in detail how otter pups were makes it possible to get the animal to at- caught at the age of three to four months tend to objects that might have not existed and trained like dogs. The otter was in its natural environment before. muzzled to prevent it from eating the fish, Fishing with trained otters has been and it was fastened by a line to its master. known for centuries in Asia and Europe We have several examples from England. (for various examples from Eurasia see The Swedish zoologist Sven Nilsson Svanberg et al. 2016). In China, otters (1847) wrote in 1847 that otter pups were used to drive fish into fishing nets, to “could be tamed and trained to fish”. The Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 165

Tame otter bringing fish to the head chef, according to Olaus Magnus (Historia de gentibus septen- trionalibus, 1555).

habit of taming otters for this purpose is tame otter can learn to fish by itself, but described from several locations in Swe- preferably they let the pup be trained by a den (Svanberg et al. 2016). tame adult otter. The otters were named It seems also to have been a widespread and they used whistles and commands in practice among Saami fishermen to use ot- order to control them. Not only did it catch ters for fishing until rather recently, ac- fish for its owner but it could also show cording to a study from Lule Lappmark. In where fish were located in the streams and winter, when it was hard to catch fish us- lakes and drive the shoals towards land. ing snares or nets under the ice, the otter The Saami in northern Scandinavia con- was especially useful, as it could be re- sidered the otter as a species that should leased into open holes in the ice. To get not be hunted. However, Saami relying on hold of an otter for training the Saami fishing very often tamed otters in order to hunter searched for them during the spring assist them in the fishery (Svanberg et al. when they had pups in their holts. Male 2016). pups were preferred to females, which Another example can be given from were left in the holt to grow up among the contemporary Bangladesh. Villagers in otter parents. Once you have taken care of certain areas are completely dependent on an otter pup you are then obliged to keep their otters and have no other livelihood. it for life. In the beginning the pup was Each fishing group is composed of one kept in a cage made of willow branches fishing boat, three to five fishermen, one and was fed with small living fish. The special rectangular net, and three otters pup was easily tamed and could be re- (usually two trained adults and a juvenile leased from the cage when it lived in the under training). The otters drive the fish hut or tent together with its owner. They into the net from different directions, and avoided keeping the otter with the dogs. A when the fish come close to it, the fisher- 166 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

men pull the net into the boat (Feeroz et al. capybaras and other wild rodents, and also 2011). insects and snails, for food (Hardouin 1995). The pet industry continues to pro- Decline of Wild Species as Human duce wild animals for keeping in homes Helpers (Chardonnet et al. 2002). Nevertheless, The need to keep up with the demands of their future use in the helping function global markets has been detrimental to the cannot be totally ruled out. Although the traditional use of wild animals in many biological limits of wild helper animals places. As the amount and type of items have contributed to the demise of their attainable through the help of animals is former functions, the same restriction has tied to the biological limits of the organ- at the same time served as a mechanism ism, a rise in demand and the need for the for abstaining from the overexploitation fast acquisition of resources renders inef- of natural resources. ficient the use of animals in their previous Besides the economic and technologi- functions. On certain occasions, however, cal reasons, ethical issues might also re- the specialization and specific adaptations strict the persistence and continuation of of the animal may still exceed the poten- the practices discussed here. The more in- tial of technological devices. This is the tense the human intrusion in the animal case of cormorants, which are considered behaviour, the more does the relationships inefficient for catching fish these days, but appear to be based on service and domin- which are still used to catch, for example, ion. Given the expansion of areas where high-priced fish like the ayu, Precoglos- human and non-human species meet daily, sius altivelis (Brandt 1972:16). it might be worth exploring how the ani- Different scenarios can be drawn for the mals could be included by shaping the en- future of the relationship between humans vironment in a way that makes both hu- and helper animals once the helping func- mans and non-humans feel at home, in- tion has been discarded. The contacts may stead of considering them as daily nuis- be loosened and become only occasional; ance. Urban ecology and urban planners the animal might be re-identified with could here give a hand in developing ter- some of its earlier meanings (cormorants rains and elements that would allow and as competitors); it might be tamed and be- favour the development of symbiotic rela- come a pet (hedgehogs) or used as part of tions. In this connection, a writer and a tourist attraction. Most commonly, they hacker Josh Klein developed his by now are still exploited as resources – wild un- notorious crow “vending machine”, where gulates are farmed worldwide to yield urban crows could exchange coins for meat and antlers (Piasentier et al. 2005); peanuts (Klein 2007). Although Klein bears, tigers and snakes for medicinal use could not really demonstrate that the ma- (Abbott & van Kooten 2011); bobcats, chine works with non-captive crows, the foxes, and racoons for fur production idea behind the machine was to propose (Roots 2007:127); crocodiles, pythons that humans and synanthropic species and monitors for their skins (Roots 2007: could indeed benefit from the co-presence 58–73); microlivestocks, such as can rats, of each other. Despite the so far scant suc- Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance 167

cess with the machine, the media coverage Western Yunnan in 1866 and 1875; and a and responses to the experiment reveal the Monograph of the Two Cetacean. London: Bernard Quarich. social unease that is felt about the status Apostolski, Kiril & Matvejev, Sergej 1955: Fisch- quo of human and synanthropic species fang in Umzäunungen mit Hilfe von Vögeln am relations. The creation of environments Dojran-See. Izdanija Zavod za Ribarstvo na and conditions, which would trigger crea- S.R. Makedonija 1: 29–89. Bartosiewicz, László 2005: Crane. Food, pet and tive responses from humans as well as symbol. In Feathers, Grit and Symbolism. Birds non-humans, might result in totally novel and Humans in the Ancient Old and New forms of assistance not available in the Worlds, eds. G. Grupe & Y. Peters, pp. 259– historical record. 270. Leidorf: Rahden. Beike, Marcus 2012: Die Geschichte der Kormo- ranfischerei in Europa. Vogelwelt 133: 1–21. Riin Magnus Berger, John 1991 [1980]: About Looking. New PhD, Research fellow at the Department of Semi- York: Vintage. otics Bernström, John 1975: Utter. In Kulturhistoriskt University of Tartu, Jakobi 2 lexikon för nordisk medeltid vol. 19, cols. 388– EE-51014 Tartu 391. Malmö: Allhem. email: [email protected] Bowden, John 1869: The Naturalist in Norway Or, Notes on the Wild Animals, Birds, Fishes, Ingvar Svanberg and Plants of that Country. London: L. Reeve. Senior scholar at Uppsala Centre for Russian and Brandt, Andres von 1972: Fish Catching Methods Eurasian Studies of the World. London: Fishing News Ltd. Uppsala University, Box 514 Bräuer, Juliane, Schönefeld, Katja & Call, Joseph SE-751 20 Uppsala 2013: When do dogs help humans? Applied email: [email protected] Animal Behaviour Science 148: 138–149. Brehm, Alfred E. 1911: Brehms Tierleben. Allge- Acknowledgements meine Kunde des Tierreichs vol. 8. Die Vögel. Riin Magnus’s research was supported by Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut. Brehm, Alfred E. 1915: Brehms Tierleben. Allge- the research grants IUT2-44 and meine Kunde des Tierreichs vol. 12. Leipzig: PUT1363 “Semiotics of multispecies en- Bibliographisches Institut. vironments: agencies, meaning making Brusewitz, Gunnar 2001: De hjälpsamma djuren. and communication conflicts”. Ingvar In Människan och naturen. Etnobiologi i Sve- rige vol. 1, eds. B. Pettersson, I. Svanberg & H. Svanberg has been funded by the Commit- Tunón, pp. 119–126. Stockholm: Wahlström & tee for Ethnology and Folkloristics at the Widstrand. Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Chardonnet, Philippe, des Clers, Bertrand, and by Uppsala University. Fischer, John, Gerhold, Richard, Jori, Ferran & Lamarque, François 2002: The value of wild- life. Scientific and Technical Review of the Of- References fice International des Epizooties 21(1): 15–51. Abbott, Brant & van Kooten, G. Cornelis 2011: Cock, Mark 2014: Birds and People. London: Can domestication of wildlife lead to conserva- Jonathan Cape. tion? The economics of tiger farming in China. Crane, Eva 1999: The World History of Beekeep- Ecological Economics 70(4): 721–728. ing and Honey Hunting. London: Routledge. Akhtar, S. A. 1945: On the habits of the marbled Descola, Philippe 1996: Constructing natures. polecat, Vormela peregusna. Journal of Bom- Symbolic ecology and social practice. In Na- bay Natural History Society 45: 142. ture and Society: Anthropological Perspec- Anderson, John 1879: Anatomical and Zoological tives, eds. P. Descola & G. Pálsson, pp. 82–102. Researches. Comprising an Account of the London: Routledge. Zoological Results of the Two Expeditions to Erikson, Philippe 2000: The social significance of 168 Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, Wild Animals in Human Assistance

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Tønnessen, Morten 2009: Umwelt transitions. von Uexküll, Jakob & Kriszat, G. 1934: Streifzüge Uexküll and environmental change. Bio- durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen. semiotics, 2(1), 47–64. Berlin: J. Springer. Tønnessen, Morten 2010: Wolf land. Bio- Warneken, Felix & Tomasello, Michael 2009: semiotics, 3: 289–297. The roots of human altruism. British Journal of Tønnessen, Morten 2011: Umwelt Transition and Psychology 100: 455–471. Uexküllian Phenomenology. An Ecosemiotic Wetmore, Alexander 1926: Observations on the Analysis of Norwegian Wolf Management. Doc- Birds of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and toral Dissertation, University of Tartu. Chile. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian. Tun, Tint 2014: Castnet fishing with the help of Whatmore, Sarah 2006: Materialist returns. Prac- Irrawaddy dolphin, Orcaella brevirostris, in tising cultural geography in and for a more- Myanmar. In Proceedings of the Design Sym- posium on Conservation of Ecosystem (The than-human world. Cultural Geographies 13: 13th SEASTAR2000 Workshop), vol. 2, pp. 39– 600–609. 45. Kyoto: Kyoto University. Wolfe, Cary 2009: Human, all too human. “Ani- van Beek, Walter E. A. 2013: Crab divination mal Studies” and the humanities. PMLA 124: among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon 564–575. and Northeastern Nigeria. In Reviewing Reality. Wood, John George 1890: Petland Revisited. Dynamics of African Divination, eds. W. E. van London: Longmans. Beek & P. M. Peek. Berlin: LIT Verlag. Zhou, Yao 1990: A History of Chinese Entomolo- von Uexküll, Jakob 1909: Umwelt und Innenwelt gy. Beijing: Tianze Press. der Tiere. Berlin: Julius Springer Verlag. 171 Biographical Notes

Sven B. Ek 1931–2016

During his years as docent in Lund, he focused his interest on urbanity; Sven B. Ek’s research meant a new orientation in ethnology. He ex- plored cultural processes and historical changes with the emphasis on the everyday life of work- ing-class families. Stadens födelse and Nöden i Lund – en etnologisk stadsstudie would long be required in ethnology. Another book that at- tracted great attention was Kulturrevolutionen börjar i kommunen, where Sven considered in- novative methods for active cultural life, arguing that “the cultural revolution starts in the munici- pality”, as the title says. As professor, Sven directed ethnology in Go- thenburg towards working-class culture, with his- torical materialism as the basic outlook. People’s own memories and experiences were in focus in different projects which resulted in essays, disser- tations, popular works, and extensive interview material, which was archived in the Institute for Sven B. Ek, Gothenburg, professor emeritus of Language and Folklore in Gothenburg (DAG). ethnology, passed away on 20 May 2016. Sven Stadens Janusansikten – Göteborgare tycker om gained the title of docent in 1962 at Lund Univer- Göteborg was the last anthology in which he also sity and during the 1970s he was head of culture involved younger colleagues. Sven was highly and museum director in Landskrona, where he was profoundly engaged in cultural politics. appreciated as a supervisor; he rarely steered his Between 1980 and 1996 he was the first professor doctoral students, but instilled self-confidence in of ethnology, especially European, at the Univer- them. With him as guide, there were several ex- sity of Gothenburg. cursions to various European countries in order to Sven Birger Ek was born in Lund in 1931. In establish contacts. These journeys were memor- his memoirs, En grötvägrares memorarer, he able in many ways. When chairing seminars Sven tells about his parents, who were teachers “be- was keen on achieving a climate in which critical longing to the people who built up the democratic perspectives were rewarded, and he stressed the organization society”. This background left its importance of spreading research findings outside mark on Sven throughout his life. In Etnologiska the academy. In this spirit Sven founded the Eth- visioner he reflects on his choice of subject, eth- nological Association of Western Sweden and in- nology, which was by no means given, but “an al- itiated the Humanist Days when he was dean of ternative to painting or writing”. Sigfrid Svens- the faculty. son, professor at Lund University, whose orienta- Sven B. Ek was an independent researcher tion was towards Swedish peasant culture, tradi- who brought out parts of our hidden history and tion and change, encouraged Sven to develop the worked to democratize the cultural heritage. Sven research field. Ek’s dissertation, Väderkvarnar had a keen interest in art and was himself a pain- och vattenmöllor, was a study of windmills and ter. Besides academic texts he wrote articles on water mills from a cultural and political perspec- culture and debating pieces, crime fiction and tive. The relationship between central control and causeries. He had a gentle, sly humour and an ar- folk practice was placed at the centre. The rich tist’s soul capable of seeing the large in the small. empirical material meant that the book reached a All this we will remember and miss. wide circle of readers for its descriptions of “a Kerstin Gunnemark and Annika Nordström, piece of splendid engineering”. Gothenburg

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 172 Biographical Notes

Ragnar Pedersen, 1941–2016

His main fields of research were agricultural history, vernacular architecture and church buil- dings, foodways and nutrition, museology and the historiography of Norwegian ethnology. His first scholarly investigation, Seterbruket på Hedmar- ken: Fra system til oppløsning (1971), discusses the importance of the summer dairy pasture sys- tem in the farm households of Hedmarken. The study is a functionalist analysis, first situating the summer abodes in an economic system together with the farms, secondly trying to explain why the farmers stopped sending their animals to the summer dairies and the system dissolved. Peder- sen pursued his studies of agricultural history in several shorter articles. Regretfully, his early and main opus in the field, entitled Norsk jordbruk: Vilkår og løsning (“Agriculture in Norway: Con- ditions and solutions”), has remained unpub- lished. This is a comprehensive survey of pre- industrial agriculture with its regional varieties, Ragnar Ernst Pedersen, professor of cultural his- the latter understood as a function of local eco- tory (formerly ethnology) at the University of logical conditions. Oslo, passed away on 28 June 2016, at the age of As head of a museum with an open-air sec- 75. His professional career spanned both the uni- tion, he took a keen interest in vernacular archi- versity and the museum, that is, Hedmarksmuseet tecture. A central feature of his surveys and ana- and Domkirkeodden in Hamar, with its depart- lyses is to regard dwellings as being dynamic, ments for archaeology, cultural history and indus- that is, the way they developed and changed. In trial heritage. Pedersen’s scholarly interests later years Pedersen focused on research ques- covered the local culture of the Hedmark region tions such as cultural heritage and the authenti- of Norway as much as Nordic ethnology. In an city and identity value of material culture. From admirable way he applied to local ethnography vernacular architecture he turned to manors and perspectives drawn from ethnological theory, just church buildings. He was especially engaged in as he combined scholarly research on an ad- studying the church interior, its architecture and vanced level with public outreach, through texts, symbolic values, not merely as a holy space but lectures and museum work. All through his career also as a cultural and historical practice. His ma- he remained loyal to the legacy of his two main jor achievement in this field was to ensure that teachers. Professor Hilmar Stigum had taught the ruins of the medieval cathedral on the mu- him to value closeness to and respect for the arte- seum site are now protected by a structure of facts of preindustrial society. From Professor glass and steel that is a sculpture in itself. His Knut Kolsrud he inherited a strictly analytical last works were an article on theory and approach to popular culture. methods applied in stave church research and a After his MA in European ethnology (1971), monograph on Åker Manor. Based on letters and Ragnar was employed as a curator at the Institute of diaries, the study describes an aristocratic way Ethnology (1972). Until 1980 he worked partly at of life and farm management in the eighteenth the Institute and partly as director of the museum. and nineteenth centuries. Both were published In 1980 he returned to the museum and to the posi- after his death. tion of director and head curator, an office that he Pedersen’s articles on foodways have a region- kept until his retirement in 2011. In 1988 he was al rather than a national scope. His texts on mu- appointed Professor II at the Institute, a post that he seology reflect general issues such as museum combined with his museum work until 2011. ethics, museum architecture, and training and re- Biographical Notes 173

search in the museum, as well as historical re- that he recurrently singled out for theoretical dis- views of Norwegian museums. The historio- cussions. graphical texts treat a range of subjects, from Ragnar Pedersen was a scholar who always biographies of individual scholars to analyses of talked with knowledge and enthusiasm about the ethnological journals and critical reviews of discipline of ethnology and the profession of the fields of research. His articles are too numerous ethnologist. He could turn any cultural phenom- to be mentioned in detail. They all contain enon into an ethnological topic, an asset that in- thorough documentation and lucid analyses, spired both his students and his colleagues. But whether he is throwing an aesthetic glance at folk life was more than scholarship, even to Ragnar. art or discusses the relevance and reliability of He kept a very hospitable home in Hamar, he en- different source types, whether he is applying joyed merry dinners, and he cultivated friendship. functionalist theory, consumption theory, or ac- He will be deeply missed by colleagues and tion theory. Material culture and the materiality friends. of culture were his main fields of study, fields Bjarne Rogan, Oslo, Liv Emma Thorsen, Oslo 174 Biographical Notes

Beatriz Lindqvist, Professor at Södertörn University

viduals versus structures reflects an important strength in her analytical endeavour; the ability to understand ethnographic material in relation to wider societal structures and power relations. In her research, Beatriz Lindqvist relates cen- tral questions of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and migration to ’the new economy’, for example when she investigates discourses on trafficking. According to official Swedish discourse, female sex workers are slaves, forced into prostitution against their will. However, according to (some of) the sex workers themselves, there are many reasons why they engage in sex work, for ex- ample high unemployment rates following on- going neoliberalizing processes. Thus, Lindqvist reveals trafficking to be a much more complex phenomenon than the dominant discourse might lead one to believe, and she emphasizes the need Beatriz Lindqvist was appointed professor of Eth- for an intersectional approach that also takes pro- nology in 2016. She defended her doctoral thesis cesses of economy and globalization seriously. at Lund University in 1991. Since 1997, Lind- This sensitivity towards complexities is also pre- qvist has been lecturer in ethnology at Södertörn sent when Lindqvist discusses the consequences University, and she received the title Docent in of repressive strategies against sex work. On the 2003. Lindqvist has long experience of both one hand, such strategies can be important for lecturing and research, and she has had several eliminating gender-oppressive structures, and on assignments within Södertörn University. the other, they can have unwanted effects for Ethnic identity and international migration are marginalized women, such as increased illegal important themes in Beatriz Lindqvist’s research. migration and trafficking. In her doctoral thesis, Drömmar i vardag och In her research, Beatriz Lindqvist has returned exil: Chilenska flyktingars kulturella strategier to questions regarding identity construction and (1991), she discusses the cultural processes the Baltic States. Based mainly on interviews, she through which Chilean refugees define their has investigated how Latvian and Russian aca- belonging and aims in life, and their reflections of demics in Latvia construct identity. For the Lat- circumstances that forced them to emigrate. The vians, it was important to create distance from thesis is a rich and multifaceted depiction of “the other”, i.e. Russians, foreigners and occu- Chilean refugees’ life situation in Sweden, and il- pants. By stereotypical ideas about the evil and lustrates Lindqvist’s ability to carefully handle ruling mentality of the Russians, the Latvian aca- substantial empirical materials. demics constructed a self-identity as a demo- Another recurring theme in Beatriz Lindqvist’s cratic, individual, nature loving and tolerant production is how individuals in subordinate posi- people, while the Russians were depicted as in- tions navigate between their own definitions of tolerant, despotic, collectivistic and urban. reality and dominating power relations. This is ex- Beatriz Lindqvist’s contribution to Swedish eth- emplified by her research on body, gender and nology is substantial. She is a critical (political) sexuality, in which she illustrates how individual and independent researcher, not afraid to deal with women’s stories can be understood as negotiations controversial subjects. Her doctoral thesis is still a with the structural demands of modern society ground-breaking and well-known publication, and where individuals are more or less “forced” to take I am convinced that we can look forward to many personal responsibility for their own health, rela- more important contributions in the future. tions and happiness. Lindqvist’s research on indi- Bo Nilsson, Umeå Biographical Notes 175

Maria Zackariasson, Professor at Södertörn University

in Zackariasson’s analysis of the young people’s understanding of the concept of democracy, their outlook on the future, and how the media portray this. That book too is based on interviews and participant observation. Young people’s views of Christian religion, especially the free church, are the subject of stu- dies such as “Coming from the Outside” (2012), which uses theories of socialization to answer questions about what happens when young non-believers become active in a Christian youth group. The shared interest in the Christian faith and the shared practice in language and behaviour in the group could function as means of socializa- tion, but thanks to her creativity, Zackariasson finds contradictions in the interview material when it turns out that not all those engaged in Christian youth activity want to become be- lievers; they do not want to change their identity. Zackariasson’s pedagogical perspective is clearly Maria Zackariasson combines cultural research seen in her insight that people who want to be- with youth studies. Her scholarly production can come believers may need to defend themselves be grouped in two themes, namely, how young and will thereby hone their arguments in dialogue people view the world around them and how they with outsiders. Knowledge, argumentation skills, relate to religion. The first group includes the and commitment are thus tested, just as when one doctoral dissertation Maktkamper och korridor- teaches students. fester (2001). What processes arise when a group A concerted assessment of Zackariasson’s of individuals live in a collective setting where written works shows that she is highly aware of the boundary between private (a student’s own prevalent theories. Her ability to do independent room), and public (corridor and kitchen) is differ- research is evident from the fact that she has rare- ent from at home? How does community arise? ly published anything with other authors. A char- Who is excluded and why? Through interviews acteristic of her work is that she proceeds from with people in two student corridors at Uppsala “general truths” which she rebuts or qualifies. University, Zackariasson answers these questions The complicated world in which we live requires with the help of analytical tools such as youth, us to adopt several perspectives simultaneously. culture as process, public–private, power, and With her research on young people, Zackariasson gender. The will to community is the force be- shows how this can be accomplished. She can hind life in the halls of residence. build up and develop research of high quality. This dissertation proved to be fruitful for sev- Maria Zackariasson has devoted much of her eral articles about how young people think. In a working time to teacher training at Södertörn book aimed partly at a popular audience, Viljan University. This is one reason for her great peda- att förändra världen (2006), Zackariasson shows gogical awareness. By being responsible for how wrong it is to believe that young people to- several courses at different levels and at different day are not interested in politics. Although party universities, she has demonstrated that she can politics in particular might make them yawn, develop, lead, and deliver teaching. She knows general political stances in movements like Attac the latest trends in education and she has a will to or Social Forum make them want to change the develop her teaching in a way that activates stu- world, as the title says. Often they have been dents to participate in the learning process. Sö- abroad and seen the world from a new angle, or dertörn University may be congratulated on ac- their families may have been a seedbed for criti- quiring a competent professor. cal thinking. The scholarly value of the book lies Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo Reviews

New Dissertations Wilse’s success should not primarily be sought in technical advances according to Bjorli, but rather in his development of a new photography. By combin- A Photographic Breakthrough ing the opportunities of the new instant photography Trond Erik Bjorli, Et fotografisk gjennombrudd. Fo- and the genres of painting, Wilse develops a modern tografisk og nasjonal modernisering i fotografen photography. That is, the modern photography his Anders Beer Wilses bildeproduksjon ca 1900–1910. contemporaries were in need of. A rewarding aspect University of Bergen, 2014. 373 pp. Ill. Diss. ISBN of Bjorli’s thesis is that even though it does not 978-82-308-2793-2. focus on the power of photography, this subject is easily read between the lines throughout the text.  In his doctoral thesis, Trond Erik Bjorli writes: Wilse documented Norway for half a century. His Anders Beer Wilse was once Norway’s most fam- photographic production includes around 200,000 ous photographer, today he is in the process of being negatives and his images are among the most well- forgotten. Wilse’s photography and his role in Nor- known photographs in Norway. Today, Wilse’s wegian history is the subject of Bjorli’s thesis. He work by no means lacks appreciation from contem- uses Wilse’s photographic production and develop- porary institutions. In the protection plan for Nor- ment as a platform for discussing the role of pho- wegian photography from 1991, Wilse’s archive is tography with a focus on modernization and identity described as one of two Norwegian photographic ar- as well as the history and ontology of photography chives most worthy of preservation, and in 2014 and the relation to art. The period in focus, c. 1900– Wilse’s photographic production was included in 1910, is carefully chosen. Technical improvements “Norges dokumentarv”, the Norwegian part of at the end of the nineteenth century solved difficul- UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. The 150th anniversary of his birth in 2015 also drew at- ties that had hitherto been restrictions on the produc- tention to his work. Undoubtedly Wilse’s motifs be- tion and distribution of photographic images. The came icons of Norwegian visual culture, contribut- dry plate, or gelatin process, opened up for amateur ing to and forming a modern national identity. Upon photography and a general industrialization. New reading Bjorli’s thesis I was struck by the question opportunities for reproducing photographic images why it took so long for a more thorough investiga- in print had seen the day of light, making a transi- tion like Bjorli’s to arrive on such an influential tion from photographic products to photographic power in Norwegian society. Could it be the same motifs possible. In 1905 Norway achieved final sep- reason Bjorli claims and gives as a justification for aration from Sweden and a nation was born. The de- his own text when trying to determine the signifi- sire to form a national identity created a need to find cance of photography: that photography is more his- and express the uniqueness of Norway. All these cir- torically interwoven in human physical and mental cumstances shaped what Bjorli calls a “photogra- acts than many other technical aids? Or does the on- phic moment” when, according to Bjorli, materiality tology of the photographic image lie in its invisibili- and ideology united in a moment specific for Nor- ty, its ability to remain seemingly transparent way and perhaps even in the history of photography. throughout whatever context its users places it in? Bjorli places the breakthrough for Wilse’s photo- Or does the vast flow of photography in contempor- graphic illustrations in 1906 as the breakthrough of ary societies in itself hide the influence and power? photography as an illustrative art in Norway as well Whatever the reason, Bjorli’s thesis is a welcome as the breakthrough for modern photography. In contribution to a phenomenon whose widespread short, Bjorli focuses on the elements of Wilse’s re- use and extent is worthy of considerable research ef- newal of photography and argues that Norwegian forts. I do lack a wider international perspective and photography was modernized with Wilse. Thus, he comparison in Bjorli’s argument about the “photo- argues that a fundamental modernization of Nor- graphic moment” and his statement that this mo- wegian photography took place in the years after ment of transition stands out more clearly than usual 1900 until the First World War, in opposition to the in the history of photography. Finally, Wilse’s pho- claim that this process came about during the inter- tographic production serves as the stem from which war period. Bjorli grows a number of branches to form a broad

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 Reviews 177

discussion on photography and cultural history and to pursue agriculture, since there is not sufficient the result is enjoyable reading for anyone with a yield for ordinary wage labour, while simultane- photographic and historical interest. ously the capitalization of agriculture means that Gabi Louisedotter, Lund owner-farming is a form that cannot be repro- duced. The agricultural establishment, understood as the organizations Agriculture & Food and Sus- tainable Agriculture, operates with a dominant nar- Realities and Difficulties in Danish Agri- rative of the owner-farmer in order to go on receiv- culture ing support from the surrounding society while Rasmus Blædel, Vilkår, virkeligheder og vanskelig- simultaneously lobbying for a policy that promotes heder i dansk landbrug – en etnologisk undersøgel- a structural development in the opposite direction. se. Afd. for Etnologi, Saxo-instituttet, Københavns In connection with the analysis of the farms, the Universitet 2016. pp. Diss. author primarily draws on the Marxist theory of modes of production and ethnological life-mode  Against the background of the crisis in Danish ag- analysis; the theoretical distinction between simple riculture, Rasmus Blædel’s Ph.D. dissertation, the commodity production and capitalist production in title of which means “Conditions, realities, and dif- particular is a key to the different rationales that can ficulties in Danish agriculture – an ethnological be applied in the management of the studied farms, study”, aims to investigate new and/or alternative and in a broader sense to understand the prevailing paths of development in agriculture which may be economic culture. This theoretical approach, which signs of ownership constructions and business has also been used before in ethnological studies of models with a potential to tackle and transform the Danish agriculture, seems well suited to exploring critical situation. the tensions associated with organization and own- The dissertation exhaustively considers central ership in agriculture today. aspects of the position of agriculture vis-à-vis the The dissertation is based on copious, broadly rest of society and discusses the relations and the based fieldwork material ranging from conversa- hierarchy between the different stakeholder groups tions and interviews with politicians, organization that try to assert their positions in debates and with people, and other stakeholders at both national and respect to political priorities. EU level, to notes in the form of observations, First and foremost, however, the focus is on conversations, and interviews from the author’s conditions inside the agricultural sector, including stays on ten farms in different parts of Denmark. the conflicts between a “productivistic” and a more In addition he uses a selection of research reports, “green” line in the development of Danish food policy papers, legislation, consultation statements, production. The clear conclusion here is that the etc. The author could have given a clearer account current political economy, like the general trend of the criteria for the selection of documents, re- throughout history, supports productivism. A cen- ports, and themes brought up in the introduction to tral feature of the dissertation is the insight into the dissertation and in section 1. The selection specific farms and a discussion of the significance does not appear to be based on a survey of the lit- of ownership for organization, production, and erature or on a clear theoretical framework. Per- changes of generations; especially whether the ra- haps the core of the problem is partly the approach tionale of the owner-farmer can survive in Danish to other research on agriculture and foodstuffs. agriculture, and what other forms of ownership Blædel declares that there is a great deal of Danish might have the potential to support profitable and research on agriculture and food production, but culturally sustainable business models. All the instead of presenting this research and positioning farms have been selected to represent alternative, himself in relation to (some of) it, he chooses to but viable, ownership constructions and business dismiss it wholesale as being embedded in a com- models, each one an explicit solution to the current plex of agricultural research closely connected to crisis. The dissertation nicely demonstrates the the industry. paradox that it is only as owner-farmer (simple After the introduction, where the field and the commodity production) that one can get manpower problem are defined and the author describes his 178 Reviews

choice of method and theoretical foundation, the forms of ownership in Danish agriculture. The dissertation is structured in three main sections. Sec- farms have been selected for study as “alterna- tion 1, “The three tracks – preamble”, presents the tives” to the dominant form of ownership – owner- three frameworks that dictate the conditions: politi- farming – which according to Blædel is a dying cal, economic, and social/cultural. Section 2, “The form of organization. It is methodologically prob- seven farms – an empirical survey”, describes each lematic that Blædel aims to say something satis- of the seven farms that were chosen as the primary factory about the challenges to owner-farming in empirical material and discusses, on the basis of Danish mainstream agriculture solely by studying interviews with owners and employers, the special alternative forms of ownership among farmers who orientation of these farms, the business model, and stand out by virtue of their personality. He should the mode of organization. The description of each also have reflected – as he could have done by farm is followed by a “Cultural excursus” in which bringing in the concept of neoculturation – on the different representations of agriculture in the form fact that all the selected farms have alternative net- of novels, poems, songs, plays, and museum exhibi- works for the sale of their produce and thus create tions about and experiences of farming culture are special conditions. When the author does manage, discussed as part of the examination of the position despite methodological weaknesses, to arrive at an of agriculture in society. Section 3, “Summary and understanding of the challenges to Danish agricul- conclusion”, discusses the findings and the potential ture – especially to owner-farming – it is thanks to to utilize them for the future development of agri- this rich empirical work in which the individual culture. cases are described in their context. The central concepts, the framework condi- The conclusions are sharp and make their point. tions, in these sections – and in the dissertation as Among other things, he says that the demand for a whole – would have deserved more detailed subsidies can only be embedded in the narrative of treatment. The framework conditions for the oper- the Danish owner-farmer, and that when it is open- ation of the farms thus end up as an inappropriate ly communicated that the owner is a bank or a dualism of “structure” and “actor”, and this only foundation – which is rather what is actually subsi- gives a partial insight into the practice that takes dized by the policy for the industry – the subsidies place on the farms. As the dissertation shows, the will lose their legitimacy and foundation. Blædel concrete practice (in the efforts to deal with chal- writes: “The fact that the two things – owner-farm- lenges, compare the concept of “neoculturation” ing and structural development – are mutually op- that the dissertation itself mentions but does not posed does not make for credibility in stakeholder develop) both on the farms and in the associated representation, communication, or organizational organizational contexts (among the “actors” if one identity.” This is a good example of knowledge likes), is significant for policymaking; similarly, that can only arise through a constructive link be- of course, there are also forms of practice (such as tween the theoretical and the empirical. Yet there some of those which the dissertation considers) is a lack of reflection on the fact that form of that find it harder to make any mark on the ownership and economic logic (understood as “framework conditions”. This reveals the lack of a either simple commodity production or capitalist conceptual apparatus to discuss the distribution of production) do not necessarily correlate (such that, power, which otherwise occupies a crucial posi- for example, owner-farming is connected solely to tion in the dissertation. This could have been simple commodity production). remedied, for instance, with the concept of the It is a huge problem that the dissertation tackles. state developed as an extension of ethnological Against that background Blædel has chosen, instead life-mode analysis on which the author draws. of conducting a finished investigation of a more re- Without concepts that can also handle hierarchical stricted body of evidence, to present a broad range structures, the “framework” ends up appearing of debate material, discussions, analyses, etc. – and either as given or as a result of decision makers’ not least of all the paradoxes in these – and to dis- one-sided thinking. cuss them in relation to the selection of concrete In terms of method, the dissertation can be un- farms and their management; and then he has tenta- derstood as a (comparative) study of alternative tively indicated alternative ways of using the poten- Reviews 179

tial for development in agriculture in relation to the late-modern reason has come into existence by prevailing paradigm. This approach makes it diffi- studying automation”. At the same time, the disser- cult for the author to position himself also in relation tation makes readers expect a study of what he calls to the less politicizing research literature that actual- late modern man. ly exists. This defect, however, is offset by the in- To achieve the aim, the author studies how auto- sights provided by the dissertation, and by the ana- mation was implemented in two important organiza- lyses of fascinating, complex, and conflict-ridden tions for society, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, a political and economic features in the development bank in the private sector, and Försäkringskassan, of agriculture. the Social Insurance Agency in the public sector. Niels Jul Nielsen, Copenhagen (based on the evalua- Two separate periods are examined, 1960–1978 and tion of the assessment committee, consisting also of 2008–2013, where he thinks he can see the ideas Egon Noe and Jostein Vik) about the new technology most distinctly. For the first period he focuses on how Skandinaviska En- skilda Banken developed cash dispensers (ATMs) and other digital bank services, and for the second Automation and Late Modern Reason period he considers Försäkringskassan’s self-service Daniel Bodén, Systemmänniskan. En studie om applications. människan, automationen och det senmoderna för- The empirical material consists of the staff news- nuftet. Etnolore 36. Institutionen för kulturantropo- letters Din Bank and Dagens socialförsäkringar, pe- logi och etnologi, Uppsala universitet. Uppsala riodicals produced for the employees, not by the em- 2016. 211 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. ISBN ployees; in other words, the content was written at 978-91-506-2587-5. the behest of the management of the two organiza- tions. This makes it excellent material for studying  There is broad consensus among researchers that ideological matrices in the management. This is sup- Western society since the 1960s has undergone such plemented with articles and reportage in national a radical change that one can justifiably talk of a newspapers, along with policy documents. To ac- new era. It is argued that the older “industrial soci- cess the living context of the people concerned, ety” has been transformed into a qualitatively differ- Bodén follows the good ethnological research prac- ent society which is named in relation to different tice of combining several different types of sources, theoretical foundations, for example, as “the such as interviews, witness seminars, recollections, post-industrial society”, “the service society”, “the observations, and blogs. knowledge society”. There are many explanations The dissertation is arranged in such a way that the for the transformation, but all the explanatory study can easily be followed step by step. In the first models indicate that digital information technology, empirical chapter the author describes how cash dis- and with it the automation of various jobs, has pensers and digital self-service platforms were in- played a major role in the leap into a new era. This troduced in Sweden, and elucidates the values and is the starting point for Daniel Bodén’s dissertation the ways of thinking that automation was expected Systemmänniskan (“System Man”). But since he is to instil in the public. Here automation is found to an ethnologist and a student of culture, Bodén is not materialize values such as speed, simplicity, ef- interested in automation itself, but in automation as ficiency, and freedom of choice. Bodén identifies a “peephole” through which to discover how a these as cultural values, part of an ideological power special way of thinking and reasoning, what he calls strategy, which sought to convince the public of the late modern reason, has emerged. The basic outlook liberating potential of technology, and thereby make of the dissertation is historical materialism, which is every individual submit to the logic of the market: in noticeable in the emphasis on historical process and other words, to get people to regard the principles of historical context in the analysis, or more exactly, the market economy as bringing liberation. how material conditions, social organization, and With this as a starting point, the next chapter is consciousness mutually influence each other in a devoted to the idea of society as an all-embracing historical movement. The aim of the study is “to market and people as customers. This is about how elucidate the historical process through which the the idea of the customer and the market came to 180 Reviews

control the way the two organizations were built up mould. A new form of capitalism required new and how new services were launched, based on the forms of dominance. The strategy is to act without expected demands of the imagined customer. Bodén being seen. Power becomes invisible in the process, shows how the new organization was portrayed as and thus both effective and all-embracing. But the customer-friendly. A seemingly egalitarian relation- question is how all-embracing the way of thinking ship would guarantee fairness, equal and reciprocal also became. What causes particular difficulty here exchange relations. The development of automated is Bodén’s further aim that the dissertation is also services thus took place in accordance with the lib- supposed to be a study of late modern man. It is not eral idea of the market as an egalitarian social insti- clear from the dissertation what is meant by late tution where customers and sellers exchange ser- modern man, or at least it is not unambiguous. This vices, with the market’s additional ability to give the confuses the reader. Does it refer to an imagined customer freedom of choice. In the following chap- ideal person or to man in late modern society, that is ter Bodén shows how this relationship between cus- to say, all people, regardless of their social position? tomer and bank gradually became increasingly ab- Certainly, automation connected the individual to stract. Automation created a reified order which re- the market in new ways, but did it also give rise to a duced human contact, as social relations were re- “general collective consciousness”, as the author placed by “transactions between abstract figures”, as says, so that all people adopted a specific way – and the author puts it. Through time, in other words, the the same way – of thinking in order to “make the encounter between organization and person, as a re- world comprehensible”? Can this be captured with sult of automation, became more and more placeless the empirical material that the author has chosen to and anonymous. analyse? It is scarcely possible to say anything about The empirical chapters end with an examination people’s thinking without capturing the everyday of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken and Försäkrings- life where their thinking and doing take place. This kassan as workplaces, and the effects that automa- kind of empirical evidence is totally lacking in tion and the symbolic order described above had for Systemmänniskan. the employees. The author notes that the employees Yet this does not detract from the merits of the through time experienced greater freedom and cre- dissertation. By studying concrete and material cir- ativity in their work, but, as he points out, on condi- cumstance in order to understand the construction of tions established by the management, to work within “late modern reason”, a close-up study that is rarely given frameworks in order to find solutions and undertaken by scholars in other disciplines, System- achieve set goals. By scrutinizing forms of control, människan adds new knowledge to the discussion of management philosophy, and work processes in the how the transformation of Sweden into a late two organizations, Bodén shows how a special way modern capitalist society actually happened. of thinking based on the logic of the market became Håkan Berglund Lake, Umeå a part of both organizations. This meant that the idea of society as an all-embracing market acquired a dominant position not only in the commercial Consumer Loyalty in Practice sphere but also in the public sector. Mads Dupont Breddam, Loyalitet i praksis. En etno- Systemmänniskan is a well-written dissertation logisk kulturanalyse af fænomenet den loyale for- with a detailed and concrete method of bringing us bruger. Det humanistiske fakultet, Københavns uni- close to the operative work in two organizations, versitet 2015. 220 pp. English abstract. Diss. and it lets us follow how a special way of thinking came into existence, what the author calls late  This dissertation, with a title meaning “Loyalty modern reason. This way of thinking can be viewed in practice: An ethnological cultural analysis of the as a foundation for a new power strategy in “late phenomenon of the loyal consumer”, tackles an capitalism”. Through a concrete study of automation important contemporary topic: loyalty programmes in two organizations, Bodén shows how control dur- in the service sector, with special focus on the ing the studied period took on new and refined Danish Co-op. In scholarly terms the dissertation is forms, as a consequence of the transformation of so- important. Through a focus on everyday practices ciety and the way capitalism was forced into a new the dissertation contributes new knowledge about Reviews 181

loyalty processes. The choice to study the Co-op is logical research on consumption, the author seeks to well grounded, giving the author an opportunity to contribute knowledge about how loyalty is created discuss how loyalty processes are created in an through practices. In relation to STS-inspired con- organization that is somewhere in between club ac- sumption research, he builds on earlier studies and tivities and business. The Co-op runs for-profit op- thereby broadens our knowledge. At the same time erations and is simultaneously expected to be a as the dissertation is positioned with reference to members’ club with a specific historical heritage to three distinct fields, two other fields remain relative- relate to. ly implicit and vague. According to the title of the The dissertation rests on a theoretical foundation, dissertation, it is supposed to be an ethnological cul- Science and Technology Studies (STS), that is well tural analysis of the loyal consumer. It remains un- chosen in relation to the scholarly problem. Particu- clear, however, how the dissertation is related to larly important is the “praxiographic” trend within ethnological consumption studies and especially to STS. With the help of this theoretical approach, the ethnological cultural analysis (which the title seems author can study heterogeneous practices among to suggest is something other than cultural analysis Co-op employees and members/co-owners. It can be in other disciplines). observed that the author uses the chosen theoretical One of the dissertation’s most important findings approaches in a productive manner. He also demon- is that loyalty, like the loyal consumer, is not some- strates his independence in relation to the theoretical thing stable and everlasting. Instead the author premises. Here I am thinking especially about Bred- shows that loyalty is a fragile construction that re- dam’s ability to adapt Annemarie Mol’s discussions quires constant doing. In this doing of loyalty, it is in The Body Multiple to his own research field. not only interpersonal relations that are important, The main empirical material in the dissertation but also a series of things such as membership cards, consists of interviews with employees and mem- charge cards, and computer programs. Never-ending bers/co-owners. The choice of method is to some work is required, according to Breddam, to practise extent a challenge since Breddam’s aim is to study loyalty because different materialities, discourses, practices, the making of loyalty. Here the author and social relations are involved. These are un- could well have developed the discussion of how the doubtedly significant points, but they are largely interview as a method has been used in order to theory-based, without a solid empirical foundation study practices. It would also have been beneficial to support the conclusions. In the dissertation, more- to have greater clarity about the author’s attitude to over, a formulation that is important in relation to the knowledge process. Breddam does admittedly the theory and conclusions occurs no less than 46 discuss how knowledge is created in the re- times: Loyalty requires “stort og stadigt” (consider- searcher’s encounter with the world, here the in- able and constant) work. Breddam states early on formants. The dissertation rejects the idea that the (pp. 14–15) that the dissertation intends to prove this, as a starting point for the study. But what is researcher “drains” information from the world or meant by considerable and constant? Although these informants. Of course this is a highly relevant and terms or measures are so vital for the dissertation, moreover accepted stance. Yet Breddam, when ana- they are never defined. In the dissertation there is lysing quotations, does in fact drain knowledge from thus an excessive tendency to let the theoretical his informants. For this reason, a more elaborate dis- premises steer the analysis of individual quotations. cussion of this “draining” would have been desir- But this and other objections should not deter poten- able, not just in the part about method but also in tial readers: Breddam has written an interesting dis- conjunction with the analysis. sertation about a highly relevant subject. The dissertation is positioned in relation to three Fredrik Nilsson, Lund research fields: business-related/economic research on loyalty; anthropological consumption studies; and STS-inspired consumption studies. In relation to first of these fields, the dissertation brings new A Swedish Mosque Presents Itself knowledge by emphasizing that loyalty is created in David Gunnarsson, Gäst i Sverige. Sanningsregi- and through relations rather than by being an indi- mer, villkorade själv(re)presentationer och nationell vidual property. In relation to the field of anthropo- tillhörighet vid moskévisningar i Stockholm. Institu- 182 Reviews

tionen för etnologi, religionshistoria och genusve- tours function as a tool that Swedish Muslims can tenskap, Stockholms universitet 2016. 214 pp. Eng- use to present alternative storylines. lish summary. Diss. ISBN 978-91-7649-419-6. Gunnarsson’s theoretical premises are mainly post-structuralist theories of knowledge produc-  “Guest in Sweden” is a doctoral dissertation writ- tion. Truth regimes, storylines, and authority are ten by David Gunnarsson, an ethnologist at the uni- three theoretical positions he uses a great deal. versities of Stockholm and Södertörn. This disserta- Michel Foucault’s concept of truth/power regimes tion is part of the research project “The Orient in is one of the most central concepts in the study. Sweden”. Briefly, this theory claims that what is truth in a Gunnarsson investigates here the truth regimes special social context, in a specific time and place, concerning Muslims in Sweden. Based on fourteen has to do with the power structures in these demar- guided tours of the mosque in Sweden, he tries to cations and positions. In the context of the mosque, see how knowledge about Islam and Muslims is pro- the guide has a specific position, for instance as duced in the interaction between the visitors and the Muslim and guide, and those visiting the mosque guide. He wants to see which narratives, storylines, are guests. He uses storylines and authority to- the guide presents in order to bring out the right gether with this concept. truth about Muslims and to (re)present himself. The method Gunnarsson uses is to proceed How are these alternative storylines received and inductively from fieldwork to theory, that is to say, what renders authority and credibility in this con- with an open methodology. He has used the text? methods of participant observation, interviews The author begins by presenting the subject of with guides and visitors, and collecting written ma- the study. The rest of the chapter provides an terial. Most of this collecting was done in 2003− account of the theoretical foundation, of materials 2006. In contextual terms, Gunnarsson uses written and methods, and an outline of the dissertation. First sources to see what the debate about Muslims in we are told about a visit the author paid to the Zayed Sweden was like at any particular time, following bin Sultan al-Nahayan mosque in May 2003. The the media and then seeing how visitors on the tours guided tours are divided into two parts, one in which took up topical problems. visitors are shown round the mosque itself and one “A mosque in Södermalm” – Gunnarsson thus where visitors can ask questions. On this specific tries to present the place that was the centre of the tour Gunnarsson was fascinated by what he per- study. He begins by considering the mosque in ceived as the guide’s need to convey the right and Stockholm as a diasporic space. By that he means a true Islam. In many ways this laid the foundation for place with transnational movements, signs, and what Gunnarsson is trying to examine in this book. symbols. He uses the term diasporic because he as- According to Gunnarsson, the guided tours felt like sociates the space offered by the mosque with iden- an effort to describe Islam in the correct way and tity construction and the idea of a home, a centre. they were highly complex. The second feature iden- This space becomes an interface between estab- tified by Gunnarsson is how the guide represents lished identities and positions. The mentality of “us” and positions himself. The guide does this in con- and “them” is negotiated here. Here he also dis- nection with a question from one of the engineers cusses the position of Muslims, how this is connect- about whether there is an Islamic state. The guide ed to immigration, and how this position can easily answers by emphasizing what is distinctive about become synonymous with non-Swedish. He regards being Swedish: “you’re blond, blue-eyed, and speak the position of “Swedish” as hierarchically superior Swedish”, thereby implicitly underlying his own al- to an “immigrant” position, and argues that this is terity as a Muslim. The guide goes on to say that un- established on the linguistic level. During the guided der a Muslim state people would be defined on the tours, the space and storylines create “from the out- basis of their actions and not their appearance; in side” the conditions that give the guide the authority other words, how much one follows Sharia. It is also to put forward new truth regimes. Gunnarsson goes specified that the guide considers European values on to tell of how the mosque, which is often referred to be close to Islamic values and that true Islam and to as “the mosque in Sweden”, has become repre- ideas about democracy work well together. The sentative of Swedish Muslims. It is a forum where Reviews 183

politics and culture meet. Furthermore, we read that can also be used as a resource. Especially in chapter the mosque is supposed to be a place for openness, a 5 the author examines the values and ideals on place where everyone is welcome regardless of their which the tours are grounded, and the conditions different characteristics. Gunnarsson says that the this creates for the production of knowledge. Gun- openness is a tool for making the place less danger- narsson writes that it seems as if tolerance and re- ous and threatening. spect for religious and cultural differences is an The mosque as context and space is further dis- ideal and a framework for the tours. There are cer- cussed, in both local and global contexts. The author tain storylines about how a tour should be conducted also shows how majority vs. minority (Swedish vs. and what the meeting with a Muslim should be like. Muslim) creates a “politics of difference”. More- Where does the boundary go for what is acceptable over, he examines how truth regimes about Muslims in this setting? Gunnarsson’s conclusion here is that in various media are expressed in the question ses- the guide’s respect for the visitors is taken for grant- sion on the guided tours of the mosque. The guides ed more than the visitors’ respect for the guide, and feel a need to correct certain beliefs the visitors have this can be connected to the hierarchical relationship about Islam. Gunnarsson says that it is a dominant between Muslim and Swedish. He also examines storyline that Muslims are presented as migrants, gender, sexuality, and respect, universal respect, re- foreigners, and potential anti-citizens. As migrants, ligiosity, and alterity. Finally, Gunnarsson tries to Muslims are also categorized as an economic bur- sum up his findings. He says that in this dissertation den. These and similar contexts force them to argue he has analysed the production of knowledge about that their presence (in Sweden) is legitimate. The al- Swedish Muslims and the conditions in which this terity of the Muslims is thus negotiated during the takes place. He looks at authority and the guide’s tours. Gunnarsson underlines his points by constant- scope for action during the tours. He underlines that ly referring to specific guided tours. He also con- this is a study of who can speak with authority. He siders storylines of what it is like to be a Muslim goes on to sum up the contexts he has already ex- woman, and stresses that the combination of Muslim amined, the mosque as a space and the media’s truth women and feminism is viewed as a contradiction in regimes. He emphasizes that the mosque in Söder- terms. He then continues with other notions and malm is representative of Swedish Muslims. Gun- how these are countered: extremism, stereotypes, narsson looks at the mosque in 2016, ten years after and how this creates an external pressure to present his study, and notes that more mosques have arisen Islam as open and tolerant. But Gunnarsson under- and the number of mosque tours has decreased takes a closer analysis of the effects of what he sees slightly. He sees that the media have more storylines as intimization, the way the visitors (mostly when and alternative storylines than when he performed they come as pupils from some educational institu- his study. There is an English summary at the end of tion) have a personal encounter with Islam. Here he the book. looks at what he calls the comfort zone. The term re- As I view this dissertation, Gunnarsson takes up fers to the sense of security that comes with receiv- many interesting themes, but at times it can be un- ing confirmation for one’s own truth. By this he certain whether he is most interested in how means that he opens the material to a power analysis knowledge in this particular setting is produced of the interaction that entails a struggle for interpret- with the aid of linguistic matrices, or if he is more ative representations. Inside the comfort zone one interested in actual Swedish Muslims. He tries all can use one’s knowledge as an obvious starting the time to see how the guide and the visitors posi- point in the conversations. The struggle that takes tion themselves in relation to each other, what place on the tours – who is to have the power of roles they are assigned or assume, and how this af- definition? – can give different degrees of (un)com- fects the authority and credibility of what is said. fortableness. Gunnarsson also considers how the In my eyes, however, all the actors are people with guides are sometimes put up against the wall and fairly strong resources and (as he indeed specifies forced to share of both the private and the public himself) from the middle class and thus not wholly sphere. The visitors can be interpreted as wanting to representative. He tries to even this out by using gain access to the guide’s “home” and become fa- various written sources in order to reflect the de- miliar with the stranger’s thinking. Personal matters bate climate in Sweden at the different times. Da- 184 Reviews

vid Gunnarsson nevertheless does a thorough job travelling short or long distance, old or young, re- and links the empirical material to the theory very tired or working. It seems as if almost all of these well in his dissertation. have a homepage or a blog about sailing, but the Haci Akman, Bergen quality and professionalism of those are not dis- cussed. Hence, it seems a bit of a contradiction in terms to choose a particular group going to a par- Cruising Sailors’ Online Travel Writing ticular place blogging in a particular way – when the actual narrative context is so diverse and multifacet- Hanna Jansson, Drömmen om äventyret. Lång- ed. I would have liked to see some sort of overview färdsseglares reseberättelser på internet. Stockholms of how many Swedes indulge in long-term sailing, Universitet 2017. 266 pp. Ill. English summary. and it would also be nice to know how many of Diss. ISBN 978-91-7649-614-5. those blog about it. Further, sailing around the world is not just a  Hanna Jansson’s dissertation, “Dreams of Adven- Swedish dream. I miss the international perspective ture”, investigates the written public narratives from on world sailors as part of an international com- Swedish cruising sailors as well as the narrating pro- munity or culture of sailors. cess. Her major aim is to analyse how crews de- scribe ongoing experiences in online travelogues. Jansson claims to have used both qualitative and Further, Jansson aims to show how the journeys, the quantitative tools in analysing her material. Qualita- stories and the storytelling are mutually related to tively, she has aimed to search for both patterns and one another. As regards theory, she aims to combine discrepancies. I would have liked to see these dis- Amy Schuman’s research on immediate storytelling cussed more systematically. Quantitatively, she has and Reinhart Koselleck’s perspectives on time as made some sort of statistics on how often the crews situated and subjective. update their blog, how long the time-gaps are be- The dissertation is based on fieldwork online and tween updates, and how much time is covered in offline. The online fieldwork involves thorough each update. Little of this is present or discussed in reading of the blogs and websites of four sailing the dissertation. crews. The offline work involves interviews with Her thorough digging into blogs from a particular these crews and an additional fifteen crews in har- group in a particular timespan, shows us what re- bours in Sweden, the Azores and Gran Canaria. sults a very eager, knowledgeable and persistent Jansson’s fieldwork seems thorough and targeted, narrator can accomplish with all the available tools and her abundant use of quotations from the mater- at the time. These tools are very different from those ial gives the reader a good sense of the field. Jans- a decade before, or those available today, as Jansson son has chosen to include only narratives from also states herself. Jansson’s travelogues were post- crews crossing the Atlantic Sea and then returning ed between 2005 and 2011. home, following more or less the same route. She Jansson has chosen a structure for her dissertation chose to disregard crews that actually sail around primarily following the chronology of the travel- the world. Jansson found about 30 Internet sites fit- ogues. Chapter 1 is the introduction. ting her criteria and she chose four of these. These Chapter 2 concerns expectations and routes. were chosen because they were written by active Jansson writes that the route and schedule for narrators that published multiple and/or long posts. cruises to the Caribbean and back is determined by She also chose to study blogs made by people that several geographical and meteorological factors. It were not retired from work, hence their journey was turns out that most sailors follow much the same a break, not a permanent lifestyle. Obviously limita- route and time their departures likewise. Jansson tions are necessary. But by choosing the narrators calls this common schedule the narrative geogra- that narrate the most, she has chosen a quite elitist phy of the cruising sailors. The routes structure the approach to the narrators. narratives, and the handbooks, travelogues and oral But while her four main crews are from 23 years narratives from other sailors combine to establish a of age to somewhere in their forties, the sailors in- horizon of expectation that Jansson claims is very terviewed at location in the harbours do not fit any visible in her material. She therefore argues for an of these criteria; they seem to be a diverse bunch intertextual understanding of writing and travel- Reviews 185

ling. This is a bit like kicking in an open door: Chapter 4 concerns the individual narrating travel writing/narrating always relates to the jour- voices, and Jansson shows very well that even ney and to other tales. But it is interesting to see though her main crews have a common starting how expectations of drama are handled by the point, genre and context, their stories develop quite bloggers, who overemphasize dramatic expecta- differently along with their different choices after tions to make their blogs exciting, and also express having crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Jansson uses disappointment when their passing of dangerous Charles Briggs and Richard Bauman’s theory of the seas is calm and uneventful. intertextual genre definition when she discusses Chapter 2 ends with a rather interesting example this. She also shows us how the bloggers explicitly of the dynamics between bloggers and readers. The refer to each other using links to other blogs. Here blogs are read by family and friends but also by Jansson uses Katharine Young’s term joint storytell- strangers that are interested in the topic of long-term ing. sail cruising. Readers can write comments after the Chapter 5 concerns the manufacturing of time. letters posted on the blogs. A reader is very annoyed This is an interesting chapter, since it reveals several when one of the crew sailing the Anarchy, the quite creative techniques used by the narrators in or- woman Taru, posts a letter with pictures from her der to create a coherent chronological narrative, short visit back home to Finland by plane. Taru while encountering various technical difficulties. hosts a very popular blog on world cruising by sail- For instance they backdate posts posted much later boat. The reader claims Taru’s trip home is an inter- than the events happened, creating an illusion of continuity for the reader. But the observant reader, ruption of the sail cruise, and narrating about it ruins or the reader who checks the blogs often, will notice the narrative about the cruise. The reader writes: that there sometimes are long gaps where nothing is “We are not interested in following you. This is not posted. Jansson’s use of Katharine Young’s terms your blog” (Jansson 2017:77). This is an interesting taleworld and storyrealm are useful terms in this example of how the audience sanctions narratives, chapter. in this case written ones. Taru dismisses the com- Chapter 6 concerns the readers and compromises ment, calling the commenter crazy in a post called made by the narrators. Most of the sailors have high “World wide web full of Wackos”. Jansson, on the ambitions to entertain, inform or educate their read- other hand, understands the commenter’s reaction, ers. Their ambitions are challenged by the fact that having sensed similar disappointments herself when blogging becomes a quite tiring and troublesome reading other blogs where the sailors on the one job. The crews still do their best to give their audi- hand write themselves into the wilderness in one ence what they want in their updates, and by doing post, just to pop home by plane in the next to cele- this they demonstrate their performative compe- brate Christmas in Sweden. This would make excel- tence, using Charles Briggs’s term. This involves lent grounds to discuss the bloggers’ narrative and self-censoring their blogs not to upset parents with strategic competence, but Jansson does not take this tales of real danger. discussion further. It is also surprising that this ex- Chapter 7 concerns the stories’ ends and clos- ample of Taru’s blog – and other examples in this ings. Some narratives end abruptly due to illness or chapter as well – is not included in Jansson’s list of technical problems. Some end before the boat material. Hence she often finds it useful to recite reaches home due to the crew having lost motivation and discuss blogs that do not fit her criteria of field- for blogging when all the excitement is behind work material. them. In the cases where the narrative does not get a What can one narrate when nothing happens? closing, the readers complain, but sometimes the And is nothing really nothing? Jansson explores this ending never comes. further in chapter 3. The crossing of the Atlantic is Chapter 8 is the conclusion. Jansson has somewhat paradoxical; usually the wind is stable achieved her aims, she has analysed how crews de- and good and the sailing easy, but it is strenuous for scribe ongoing experiences in online travelogues, the crews to be isolated at sea for several weeks. and she has shown us how the journeys, the stories Jansson uses theory of rite de passage to understand and the storytelling are mutually related to one an- the importance of this part of the journey. other. Jansson argues for an understanding of nar- 186 Reviews

rative as a contextual and ongoing process. She Doing Uniform in Denmark further shows us how technological development Helle Leilund, Uniformer på arbejde. Nutidige prak- has changed online narrating, and that people today sisser omkring ensartet arbejstøj. Ph.d.-afhandling, use combinations of Facebook, Instagram, You- Det humanistiske fakultet, Københavns universitet tube and so on. 2015. 260 pp. Diss. The theories applied throughout the dissertation are appropriate, but there are few theoretical discus-  There is too little research about uniforms, when sions as such. I would have liked her findings to be you consider that increasing numbers of people in more systematically discussed, and I miss her taking more and more occupations have to wear some kind more of a bird’s-eye view of the cruisers: Why do of identical clothes at their work today. Helle Leilund they choose this form of travelling? What does the seeks to rectify this shortage with her dissertation journey really mean to the sailors – before, during about the significance of uniforms for employees and and after the journey? Why the urge to publicly dis- managers of the railway, the health service, and the play their stories? post office. Doing extensive ethnographic fieldwork, In the last few decades the Internet has been bom- the author takes the reader into staff rooms, changing barded by blogs about everyday chores and rather rooms, and clothes stores, into hospital corridors, on uneventful activities. People blog about their cats, board trains, and on postal delivery rounds in the about painting a kitchen chair, or baking a cake. countryside. The impressions and experiences result- Everything gets shared by everyone – or so it seems. ing from her trying out the different jobs – wearing a How do the sailing blogs relate to the bigger picture uniform – are analysed with the aid of recent theories of blogging and narrating online? The people who of materiality, “what people do with materiality and blog about their journey, do they blog about what materiality does to people” (p. 14). A funda- everything else as well? mental assumption is that “the material and the social/ I also miss further discussion of what cultural cultural cannot be explained, understood, or given norms govern the group of sailors. Are people meaning without each other” (p. 32). crossing the seas seen as some sort of elite travel- In the opinion of the author, the museums (at lers, by themselves or others? It certainly seems so least in Denmark), in their work of documentation and exhibition, have not regarded uniforms as any- to me, and it seems like a challenge for them to ful- thing more than a piece of costume history. An im- fil the right criteria; too much help, too much portant motive for the study is thus to provide the money or too easy a route and you are not a real museums with new methods for charting and captur- world cruiser. Why the urge to be a specific stereo- ing the societal and cultural context, and the prac- type? And why this urge for hard work and leaving tices in which the uniform is created. Leilund herself the modern world behind? Has modern life become has long experience of working with collections of so easy that people need to make up their own textiles and clothes at different Danish museums. struggles? The overall problem tackled by the dissertation is We as folklorists and ethnologists know that “to investigate how uniform working clothes are a topic, context, story and the process of narrating part of different practices at different workplaces, always interconnect. Jansson has some interesting that is, in different spatial and material situations” contributions to how contextual factors shape the (p. 15). The three organizations under study are the stories, but her dissertation would have benefited if Danish railway company DSB, Post Danmark, and her questions and aims had been somewhat more Gentofte Hospital. Here the author wants, first of all, ambitious and creative. Still, Jansson’s thesis is to study “the superior level”, that is, the aims of the thorough and informative, and it gives the reader operations, the profiling, and so on; secondly, how an interesting glance into a temporary lifestyle the uniform is part of the method for managing the many of us, or our friends and relatives, have employees; and thirdly, how the working clothes are dreamt of. included in different ways in the employees’ dress Eva-Marie Tveit, Bergen practices. The text is arranged in nine chapters, the first three of which constitute an introduction presenting Reviews 187

the design of the study, the link to the work of the marcated social and cultural whole” (p. 54) she museums with costumes, a history of research with wants to follow the uniforms in the different prac- the focus on dress and clothing, the theoretical tices where they are performed in a multi-sited eth- framework, and a description of the method and ma- nography. She links this method to Mols’s praxio- terial. Then the fieldwork is presented in three long graphic method. The question is whether the differ- chapters, with most space being devoted to DSB. ence between “classical” ethnological fieldwork This is followed by a chapter examining uniforms methods and a praxiographic method are clarified in and the management of the various workplaces, and the dissertation, and whether this potential differ- a chapter describing the employees’ practices of cre- ence really has an impact on Leilund’s collection ating a “self” in uniform. The last chapter sums up and processing of the field material. the study. There is a certain risk that the reader will The empirical material, which was collected in perceive the chapters describing the different work- 2005–2007, is presented in a clear and exemplary places as solely empirical and the last three chapters fashion in an appendix with a list of all the interviews as analytical, but analytical and theoretical reason- and observations, along with archival material. ing is blended with empirical descriptions in every In chapters 4, 5, and 6 the reader is introduced to chapter. On the other hand, it is somewhat unclear the three workplaces that make up the empirical how the chapter divisions correspond to the divi- framework of the dissertation. The author gives ex- sions of the problem into three different levels of amples and analyses of the different practices in analysis. which uniforms at work are done. Vivid descriptions The dissertation applies theories of practice- from the participant observation, together with quo- based communities, actor networks, and material- tations from interviews, give insightful interpreta- izations, theories frequently used and developed in tions of the complexity, and the potential arena for Danish ethnology. In a detailed theoretical discus- conflicts, that the use of uniforms can entail. sion the author introduces ANT as the overall theor- Through this analysis of practice the author seeks to etical field, with names like Annemarie Mol, John show that the technology of uniform dress is not Law, Madeleine Akrich, and Bruno Latour as the something that arises of itself. It arises by being main inspiration. Materiality, for example a uni- constantly negotiated, adjusted, stabilized, and de- form, should be perceived as active and processual stabilized. and something that includes both linguistic and ma- Under the heading “DSB makes modernity and terial factors. The concepts of relational materiality diversity in uniform” Leilund explores how the ba- and material semiotics are introduced. The uniform sic outlook of the railway company, that diversity can be understood as an actant and together with should be viewed as a strength, is expressed in the other actants operating in dense networks. The con- uniforming of the staff. How does the company ma- cept of practice – in Mols’s praxiographic variant – terialize the explicit goals of respect for difference has a central role throughout the text. When the fo- when it simultaneously demands that everyone cus is shifted from the workplace to the practices of should wear a uniform? The answer is given partly the individual employee and “doing the self”, the by seeing the superordinate position of the uniform author leans on fashion researchers such as Joanne in DSB and how the uniform is used in practice to Entwistle and Sophie Woodward to discuss the so- achieve specific goals such as communicating a spe- cial and cultural meaning attached to – but also cre- cial self-perception, and by describing the inten- ated by – individual clothes choices. tions, ideas, and expectations the company has of its The design and methods of the study are present- employees in relation to the use of uniforms (ques- ed as a “classical ethnological fieldwork method tions that also apply to the other places observed based on thick descriptions” (p. 59), which are con- during the fieldwork). structed through qualitative interviews and different DSB, by comparison with the two other work- forms of participant observation. On the other hand, places, has an ambitious and broad uniform pro- the author wants to get away from what she regards gramme. The reader follows how it came into exist- as the traditional approach to fieldwork: “Instead of ence through interviews with designers, middle doing classical ethnographic fieldwork in one place management with responsibility for its implementa- over a long time, and analysing one activity as a de- tion, and different users who do uniform on an 188 Reviews

everyday basis. The author captures and illustrates ed by comparison with the working conditions at the conflicts and contradictory expectations of the DSB and Gentofte Hospital, where the cost of time, uniform as revealed in the use of the garments, in rationalizations, and competition from private actors material, cut, and details. In this way she exposes surely have just as much an impact on today’s oper- the script that is inscribed in the technological ob- ations. Possibly the author’s perception of the physi- ject that the uniform can be analysed as. cal and central role of time in Post Danmark is due In chapter 5 of the dissertation, where the setting to the fact that she herself took part in the work and is Gentofte Hospital, the author describes a uniform the doing of the uniform to a greater extent than at programme that differs in several respects from the the other workplaces? one at DSB. There is a greater demand for uniform- Chapter 7, “Doing management with uniform”, ity; all the uniforms are made of the same material, deals precisely with what the heading promises. By all are white, and above all, there are far fewer parts focusing on the concept of modern management, to the uniforms and fewer variations to choose Leilund wants to study how, but above all why, uni- among. In the analysis this is linked in an interesting forming is a part of the relationship between man- way to the demand for economies of scale when it agement and employees today. In practice it is often comes to laundry, and to the discourse about hy- the middle management who are responsible for en- giene which has historically legitimated the entire suring that the uniform is worn properly, and that hospital system. During the time when the fieldwork those who wear it signal what the company or insti- was being done there was a controversy about uni- tution wants to be associated with. Janne, who is in forms which initially involved a rather small group charge of a staff of some seventy railway employ- of staff, namely, female employees with an Islamic ees, personifies the management philosophy that faith. They wanted a new kind of uniform, one that Leilund would link to the use of uniform. For the could cover more parts of the body. The controversy reader it is positive to come close to a person who is developed to include more occupational categories studied in depth, but at the same time it is a pity that and further problems connected to the uniform sys- the discussion of management techniques does not tem. By connecting occupational pride, gender, include the hospital and the postal service to a great- body, religion, and hygiene in relation to working er extent. clothes, the author presents one of the dissertation’s In chapter 8 we meet three DSB employees who best interpretations of how uniform is “done”. “make themselves” in different ways through the The fieldwork on which chapter 6 is based differs uniform. None of them have anything against wear- from the fieldwork done at DSB and Gentofte Hos- pital. At Post Danmark there was no time or space ing a uniform, and through interviews and partici- for long interviews or group conversations, so in- pant observation we follow how they select the dif- stead the uniform practices had to be experienced in ferent components of the uniform, choose matching the work itself. The author had to carry heavy loads, ballpoint pens to stick in the breast pocket, and run up and down stairs, cycle uphill, read maps on above all feel that they become someone when they winding car trips, all of which gave her the impres- step into the uniform. Here Leilund uses findings sion that work as a postman was more physical by and theories from fashion studies, about how clothes nature than articulated and verbalized. It also put the are selected, what is signalled through the choice of focus on time as a central analytical category, as re- clothes, and how boundaries between the private gards the efforts to improve efficiency as well as the person and the professional self are affected by competition from new mail companies, but also the dress practices. Here the author provides many in- organization of the work and the functionality of the sightful quotations and nicely described situations, uniform and its historical symbolic value. The ro- but once again it would have been good to be given mantic picture of the postman in his red jacket, with more examples from the hospital and the post office. time to stop and chat to everyone on his way, actual- Perhaps the generally positive relationship to the ly had very little to do with today’s uniform prac- uniform at DSB would have been modified if the fo- tices and tasks. It is obvious that time is a central cus had been shifted to workplaces with stricter uni- and well-found analytical category as regards Post forms allowing less variation and with fewer parts to Danmark. But perhaps its significance is exaggerat- choose among in the uniform programme. Reviews 189

I appreciate the theoretical approach and am in- Stockholm University 2016. 332 pp. Diss. ISBN spired by the theoretical literature on which the 978-91-7649-320-5. analysis is based. But I do wish that the potential in these theories had been used in a more thorough-  The title of this thesis by Elisabeth Niklasson, going fashion. The analysis could also have been now a post-doctoral fellow at the Stanford Archae- linked more closely to changes in society and shifts ology Center in California, says it all: funding mat- of power in a changing working life. The author’s ters. The study shows that research and knowledge strong desire to offer new methods to vitalize and production in the case of archaeology is shaped by renew the museums’ work of documenting and ex- funding sources and the political economy they im- hibiting clothes is, unfortunately, not followed up ply. The catchphrase “follow the money” may have properly in the dissertation. We may hope that Lei- its popular origin in the Hollywood movie All the lund will have an opportunity in future to achieve President’s Men (1976), but it is nevertheless a valid this desire through her position as a strong link be- approach to revealing and documenting complex tween the museum world and research. phenomena, and has been adapted by researchers in The significance of uniforms for management, the humanities and beyond. What is interesting organization, and power over work, as well as for about this thesis, however, is how Niklasson’s identity and occupational pride, will not decline in search for meaning and understanding digs deep tomorrow’s working life. In 2016, ten years after into the European Union bureaucracy from the early Leilund did her fieldwork, a judgement was pro- 1970s to the 2010s in order to understand how the nounced in a Swedish court, according to which the funding schemes are politically, administratively Karolinska Institute in Stockholm had to pay 5000 and academically produced. In particular, it ex- kronor to a female dental student as compensation amines how the figure of archaeology, as Niklasson for discrimination. Like the employees at Gentofte calls it, is vulnerable to this, since in the context of Hospital, with reference to her religion, she had EU funding, its knowledge production and the phys- wanted to modify her uniform by covering her arms ical objects it discovers can be used as evidence with the help of disposable plastic sleeves. The em- both of the past and of European culture’s status and ployer did not want any departure from hygiene rou- identity as something unique. Anyone who has ap- tines and uniform rules with reference to patient plied for EU funding or participated in EU-funded safety and protection against infection. We recog- research projects will find the thesis informative and nize the arguments. insightful, and will likely be encouraged to reflect One aim of the dissertation is to get us to see and upon how the EU’s funding of cultural actions understand today’s increasingly common use of uni- should matter; how to interpret the political agendas forms, in a new and more problematizing way, that of the EU as expressed through funding actions; and is, to de-stabilize the phenomenon of identical work- how to make the subject matter of one’s research ing clothes. And this is also the positive end result project challenge knowledge production and percep- of the rich empirical accounts and the imaginative tions within the EU administration concerning is- analyses of the employees’ everyday life in uniform. sues of cultural identity and heritage. Now that I have put down the dissertation after read- The analytical point of departure of this thesis is ing it, I realize that I understand the phenomenon of how Europe has been constructed as an analytical uniforms in a new way and I remember the nicely category by the discipline of archaeology itself, and retold situations from the fieldwork, which the au- from there how archaeological knowledge has been thor skilfully undresses to expose their cultural deployed in European politics – as well as in cul- meaning. tural programmes beginning in the 1970s and con- Karin Salomonsson, Lund tinuing through the most recent funding schemes Rafael (1997−1999), Culture 2000 (2000−2006), and Culture 2007−2013 – in order to promote a Funding European Research sense of common cultural origin and cohesion Elisabeth Niklasson, Funding Matters. Archaeology among member states. This approach is chosen in and the Political Economy of the Past in the EU. De- order to examine and understand the practices partment of Archaeology and Classical Studies. governing EU funding. 190 Reviews

Niklasson’s study is therefore composed of an a combination of social constructivism and critical analysis of the different ways of conceptualizing realism: realist social constructionism (Edler-Vass, Europe within the discipline of archaeology; a map- Dave 2012: The Reality of Social Constructivism). ping of EU cultural programmes that support ar- In practice, this theoretical approach prompts chaeological research; an ethnographic study of the Niklasson to regard Europe and European heritage administration of the Culture 2007−2013 pro- as what she calls real constructions, which are pro- gramme that follows the journey of project pro- duced and reproduced by discourses (text, practices posals in archaeology from the pre-application and power structures) and have a substantial impact phase, through the application phase, and to the on the world. The method of the study is qualitative, post-application phase; and a study of the narratives composed of a combination of ethnographic field- of successful applications for EU funding with an work, semi-structured interviews, and readings of archaeological component. The study generated vast reports and documents in order to be able to gener- and diverse information from interviews with 41 ate an intertextual analysis regarding the production different experts handling EU funding applications; of EU policies. from participant observations while working for five What are the findings of the thesis, then? In her months as an intern in the European Commission’s answer to the first research question, Niklasson ex- agency in charge of administrating projects funded plains how the 1970s were a turning point for the by Culture 2007−2013; from archival research into European Parliament, when it designated cultural reports and policy documents concerning the EU’s heritage as an appropriate use of EU budget re- cultural programmes; and from the study of 161 suc- sources. In this context, archaeology has been con- cessful archaeological research applications for EU sidered good for the European project, since as a funding. discipline that provides evidence of the past – a cul- Guiding this complex study is a three-part re- tural “glue” that can unite the politically-motivated search question, informed initially by two matters of entity – it has historically played an important role concern. First, Niklasson observed how archaeolo- in nation-building and region-building projects. In gists and heritage professionals tend to present 1976, expenses for cultural projects appeared in the phrases about European identity as givens in pro- European budget for the first time (keeping in mind, posals, which invited critical reflection through her as Niklasson states in her introduction, that the first two research questions: (1) How, and for what amount allocated to culture by the EU has never ex- reason, has the EU interacted with the domain of ar- ceeded one per cent of the total budget). Protecting chaeology as a component of cultural heritage? European cultural heritage and teaching Europeans (2) How, and with what outcomes, have archae- about their common identity was considered a ne- ological projects co-funded by the EU funding pro- cessity in a time of economic crisis and decreasing grammes in culture interacted with constructions of popular support for economic cooperation in the Eu- Europeanness? The second matter of concern for ropean Community. At the same time, attentiveness Niklasson was what actually happens when a deci- to heritage, archaeological sites, historic buildings, sion is made whether or not to support a particular monuments etc. was developing within other inter- research proposal. This led to her third research national organizations, such as UNESCO, which in question: (3) What processes of translation charac- 1972 initiated the World Heritage Convention to terize the interaction, and where does the power to strengthen the protection of the past and its mani- define Europeanness lie? festations, since these were increasingly being The research questions reveal Niklasson’s theor- threatened by the development of modern societies etical approach. The core interest of the thesis is not and the pursuit of attractive business opportunities. to discover the origins of EU funding and archae- Meanwhile, the European Community continued its ological knowledge, but rather the processes and support of heritage, as Niklasson demonstrates with components that define EU funding in specific ways reference to a variety of reports and documents from and exert certain effects on the reality of archae- the European Parliament. Its economic support of ological knowledge. The theoretical approach in- the Acropolis in Greece in the late 1970s demon- forming the study is in the vein of the social theorist strates how archaeology came to represent the Dave Edler-Vass, using what Niklasson describes as promise of the European project, since the site was Reviews 191

perceived via archaeological knowledge to represent the ongoing critical negotiation of what is Europe a kind of origin myth of European unity. But Niklas- and European. son’s study reveals not only the promise of archae- Marie Riegels Melchior, Copenhagen ology for constructing Europe, but also its chal- lenges; among other things, it is perceived as being inflexible and as promoting national belonging. Embodying America Niklasson shows in the study how difficult it is to Siv Ringdal, Kroppens transformasjoner blant unge create what she calls a European “we-ness” founded Agder-kvinner i New York, 1945‒1965. Universite- in a shared past. She concludes in frank terms, “ar- tet i Oslo 2016. 370 pp. Ill. Diss. chaeology has never been of any great importance to the EU. Its position in cultural heritage has fluctuat-  How was America embodied and materialized by ed but there has never existed any grand scheme to young females from Agder in the middle of the create a European past or a united voice when it twentieth century? Siv Ringdal’s dissertation pro- comes to promoting heritage in the union. Instead vides a thorough and interesting cultural analysis of national representatives, MEPs and Commission of- female migrants moving from Agder, Norway, to ficials have, at different times in EU history and New York, America, during two decades after when opportune for other aims, drawn upon cultural World War II. With the body as the analytical per- heritage, bringing archaeology with it” (Niklasson spective and empirical approach, she gives an origi- 2016: 266−267). Niklasson suggests that a further nal contribution to migration history, and a readable challenge for the discipline is how archaeological representation of the bodily transformations that the scholars find that they have to rewrite archaeology geographical and cultural movements involved. A as a tool to define roots, belonging and cultural general feature of this dissertation is that it com- identity in applications for EU funding. Niklasson bines various theories and analytical concept in a criticizes this practice as application poetry, despite natural and integral manner, and provides a thor- the fact that cultural actions are often vague in their ough and well-informed analysis. formulations, since they are an outgrowth of consen- The dissertation is extensive: 342 pages of text sus-seeking and the self-perpetuating, bureaucratic make up 14 chapters, the bibliography comprises 14 machinery, and mostly aim to resist controversy dense pages and the dissertation has three supple- among the different political interests. Niklasson mentary texts relating to the interview methodology. highlights how applicants, expert reviewers and But no English summary. consultants are left to supply the meaning, and as The empirical basis of the dissertation is primari- such are responsible for interpreting the European ly created through interviews with 21 women who, and explaining how their work contributes to Euro- when young and not yet married, moved to New pean added value, a question commonly asked on York in the period 1945‒1965. Photos and material such cultural programme applications. objects (and especially clothing/garments) have Even though it is depressing to read how cultural been integrated in the interviews, and have served as heritage is so often held hostage to other political “memory hooks” (mindes kleshængere). In addition agendas instead of being appreciated in its own reportage articles from Norwegian and Norwegian- right, Niklasson also provides an optimistic perspec- American newspapers are used (especially about the tive on behalf of her discipline. By understanding competitions “Miss Norway” and “Viking Queen”), the way funding is administered within the EU, ar- and finally photos and prescriptive literature such as chaeology has the potential to claim the authority to etiquette books, beauty books and Christian moral define not only the past but the present. Archaeolo- books. All in all, a clear combination of normative gists simply need to engage critically with Europe writing and descriptions of actual experience; ideal when in dialogue with the EU. Niklasson is con- and real practice. vincing in her claim that funding matters – and not Ringdal discusses the fieldwork very thoroughly, only in the literal and very pragmatic sense from the how the interviews were prepared and conducted, point of view of archaeology. It also matters insofar the importance of the material surroundings, and she as it defines the concerns of the EU, and places an reflects (with the support of theory) on the use of obligation on archaeology to take an active part in oral sources. She also discusses the ethical issues in 192 Reviews

an exemplary manner. However, she could have and hygiene (i.e. the use of deodorant, leg shaving, critically examined the consequences of the ethical- hair washing) to negotiations between religiosity ly informed choice of anonymity for the majority of and bodily cultures. the informants. As a reader one could have wished The first part on the working body describes the for a less strict policy on the use of illustrations. The girls’ arrival in Brooklyn, where domestic service dissertation shows only a dozen pictures, and only often was the first job that the female migrants two of them are related to the women interviewed. obtained through their transnational network of At the same time a number of images are discussed mothers, cousins and aunts. Domestic service was in the analysis, but the use of these pictures without poorly paid and without much freedom, but an op- provenance (who, when and where) is somewhat tion when you did not have any skills in the lan- frustrating, especially since several photos of the ac- guage or any education. Domestic service could tual informants are described in detail without being later serve as a stepping stone to the US labour mar- included in the dissertation. One cannot help think- ket. The Norwegian women were popular and, fol- ing of how the images and the objects that have been lowing the discourses and ethnic stereotypes of the the focal point for the interviews could have en- post-war period, known to be hardworking, clean, riched the dissertation. Thus, it must be questioned honest and adaptable. And “white”! In this part of whether it was really necessary to omit the large the dissertation the employers are also described, visual material that has formed the empirical basis and it was often through the employers that the of the analysis. A very important dimension – the young women learned the language and “the Ameri- materiality of the bodily transformations which the can way of life”. The latter involved a plethora of dissertation investigates – is excluded due to the eth- new cultural phenomena such as technical devices ical considerations. (i.e. refrigerators, washing machines), self-service The first two chapters of the dissertation intro- stores, food culture, personal hygiene and other duce thematic issues, source material, theory and bodily micro-practices. Some of the young women method. The following chapters are organized in became part of the family and learned new bodily three parts, following the main questions of investi- practices and urban choreographies. This part of the gation of the dissertation, while a last short chapter dissertation about the working body deals primarily “The cultural history of the taken for granted”, that with the conditions for the women and with the dis- is, the history of bodily micro-practices, rounds off courses on domestic work, more than the reader the dissertation. comes close to the concrete bodily practices. The object of study guiding the analysis is articu- The second part is about the consumer body, and lated via two main questions: How was America here the new bodily practices that the women had to embodied by the young women when arriving, when appropriate are analysed – how to wash herself, how settled in the New York context and when returning to wear make-up, and not least, how to dress and (if they did) to Norway? And which bodily and ma- consume clothes – in a whole different way than in terial expressions did the new life in New York get? Agder. The familiar practices became matter out of These questions form the backdrop for a wide range place. In a new geographical, location completely of issues relating to three versions of the female mi- different bodily and material practices had to be grant’s body, which are also used to structure the learned. Furthermore, consumption in America was analytical part of the dissertation: the body of la- a case of patriotism and the women had to acquire bour, the consumer body, and the body of leisure. the new practices of consumption, with a lot of new, These three headings work mostly as a good and or- colourful and cheap dresses that did not last long. derly structure, while it may be argued that it some- Synthetic materials (nylon in particular) gave new times also appears to be an artificial distinction, challenges to keep warm in winter or avoid sweating where it is not always clear why phenomena such as in the summer – and whereas a good knitted sweater religion, dresses and deodorants fit into one catego- could cope with the cold in wintertime, the perspira- ry and not another. The chosen structure still pro- tion and the resulting smell in summer was a new vides a clear thematic foundation to each chapter problem, which in turn required new material-dis- and makes sure the readers are offered a broad his- cursive practices. One was supposed to be “fresh” ‒ torical perspective on everything from housework clean and white. And taking a shower became an Reviews 193

everyday activity. In this part of the dissertation, sented as a tool to get close to each individual and there is much more body and materiality and focus body. However, this perspective does not seem ful- on the micro-processes of the bodily transforma- filled in the first two parts of the analysis. This is tions. probably linked to the use of literature with heavy Finally, the third part of the dissertation presents emphasis on the legitimation of norms. One can the body of leisure or the various bodily choreogra- question whether norms are something external one phies women had to master. Body ideals and guide- simply just has to adapt. Or could she have reached lines for how to move were not the same in Agder a deeper understanding of the informants’ practices and New York; what was considered sinful (i.e. by other interpretations? As mentioned, the disserta- dancing or going to the cinema), natural or feminine tion succeeds best in the analysis of the various was practised differently. And the young women Christian choreographies (ch. 13), where Ringdal had to balance between the practical, sensible and breaks new analytical ground. Here there is no doubt natural ideal in Norway on the one hand, and the that the dissertation contributes new and important elegant, made-up, hourglass-shaped and high-heeled understandings of how bodily transformations and bodily ideal in America on the other. The local migration are entangled. Brooklyn beauty contests, “Viking Queen” (and The field of Norwegian-American migration his- “Miss Norway”), where the winner won a trip to tory that has its academic canons and thus has creat- Norway and was treated as a semi-official guest ed its own genre is also discussed, which is laud- with intense media coverage, was one of the scenes able. It is argued that Norwegian-American histor- where the Norwegian-American hybrid body had to ians have created an image of the Norwegian immi- be negotiated and practised. Blond girls were pre- grants as very adaptive and conforming to the ferred, as this Norwegian-American hybrid body contemporary American ideologies. This tradition is also became a way to perform whiteness in the partly challenged, but also to some extent continued multi-ethnic Brooklyn. Here the natural blond and in this dissertation. The specific perspective on the friske kække jente (fresh bold girl) became a cen- women’s experiences however, offers a new under- tral white choreography. Furthermore, there were standing in relation to previous research. Trans- various ways to perform Christianity; in Norway the nationality is discussed in relation to the migration pietistic bodily choreography characterized by the network between Agder and Brooklyn. This per- absence of all that was sinful, and on the other hand spective could have been better used by also looking the secular or more superficial religious choreogra- at the transference between the two locations, rather phies that could be done in New York. This last part than contrast only. The same applies to connections is the most successful of the dissertation when it with existing research on migration and cultural his- comes to analysing the diversity of bodily choreog- tory, and consumer history and cultural studies. The raphies. dissertation lacks a broad overall discussion of these Ringdal is well-read and draws on literature from fields that would have made it possible for Ringdal a wide variety of disciplines: migration history, to treat them critically and clarify her own contribu- transnational studies, cultural studies of consump- tion in relation to the fields. Similarly, the continuity tion, media, the history of the body, etc.; and last but from earlier migration could have been better inte- not least ethnology which is the field in which she grated. Other women’s experiences from the inter- inscribes her dissertation. As regards theory and war years – the mothers and aunts – are mentioned, methodology, it is Science and Technology Studies but to a limited extent the subject of analysis. (STS) that provide the perspective and procedure. Despite this criticism, there is no doubt that this Here Ringdal combines the more historical and so- is a very interesting dissertation that contributes to cial science-based research which she refers to with substantial and new understandings of women’s a more empirical analysis. With reference to the cul- migration experiences. And it raises the overarch- tural studies she draws on, she states that “a problem ing question of how we write the cultural history with parts of this research is that it often takes the of the “taken-for-granted” and often untold; of form of a macro social analysis in which phenomena bodily practices and especially the gendered micro- are painted with a broad brush on a large canvas” (p. practices in the past, which we cannot observe di- 17). In contrast to this, the STS perspective is pre- rectly and which often are absent in the source 194 Reviews

material. The question of how to do ethnography anthropologist Sarah Pink, and her analysis is bol- of the past! stered by Margaret Wetherell’s theory of affect as Tine Damsholt, Copenhagen well as the phenomenological approach of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The book provides a strong reflex- ive analysis of how knowledge was transmitted to Authentic Living through Native Faith the author through bodily participation and her openness to feelings and sensations. She also pro- Jenni Rinne, Searching for Authentic Living vides a thought-provoking description of her own through Native Faith. The Maausk movement in Es- self-reflection regarding her position and role in her tonia. Södertörn University, Huddinge 2016. 218 research. pp. Ill. Diss. ISBN 978-91-87843-49-5. The author makes a good case for the central role played by affect in Maausk, and makes the insight-  This ambitious work addresses the Estonian ful point in her conclusion that those Maausk practi- Maausk movement: native faith groups with a spe- tioners who attempt to live alternative lives do not cial relationship to nature and practices inspired by generally verbalize their resistance to the complex traditional folk beliefs. In Maausk, certain places hegemonies that influence their daily life, but ex- and entities are defined as sacred and worth preserv- ing, and the author seeks in her work to unpack the pressed it through embodied affect. In fact, the main meanings and practices surrounding these values. point that the author makes in her research is that Participation in this movement is not described as Maausk represents the formation of an ethno-reli- homogeneous nor necessarily linked to formal, insti- gious group identity which is at the same time a tutional organizations, although a central organiza- form of social resistance, and that this resistance is tion exists. Instead, much of the practice of Maausk carried out not necessarily in an explicit or verbal takes place on the level of the family and the indi- manner, but through the bodily experience of alter- vidual. native lifestyles. The author’s choice of approaches, The author takes an ethnographic approach in her that is, phenomenology and the concept of “affect”, research and focuses on the analysis of culture at are thus successful in that they provide useful ana- several levels: nation, group, individual. The work lytic tools for drawing meaning out the author’s em- as a whole is well written and is structured around pirical source materials and for producing new in- three main themes: (1) identity construction; (2) sights. sacred places; and (3) the meaning and construction In addition to examining Maausk from the per- of folk traditions. The author’s rich empirical source spective of the sensations and feelings experienced materials are based on 23 interviews as well as par- by Maausk participants, the author goes further by ticipant observation conducted in the Estonian lan- placing these experiences in their specific historical guage over a period of nearly five years. Although and social contexts, namely the Soviet and post- the interviews are highly informative regarding the Soviet period as well as the current effects of global meanings assigned to practices and sacred places by and neoliberal restructuring of Estonian economy Maausk participants, it is the author’s participant and society. The value of the author’s historical con- observation that occupies a central role in the data textualization of Maausk becomes particularly ap- gathering and analysis, since the author sought to parent in her discussion of whether or not partici- learn through doing. During her fieldwork, she paid pants view Maausk as a religion on a par with other particular attention to the experiences and feelings religions like Christianity. of the persons she studied, making the primary focus The author adopts the compelling approach that of the study neither practice nor performance, but religious affiliation does not necessarily reveal instead the relationship between Maausk participa- everything about people’s everyday religious prac- tion and affect. The author defines affect as a con- tices and beliefs. Due to historical circumstances, cept that refers to the emotional level of human Estonians tend to be suspicious of official or institu- existence, experienced with the body through senses tional religion, and therefore surveys of church at- and feelings. tendance are insufficient measures of people’s reli- The author’s methodological approach is based gious commitment. Thus religious agency goes be- on the sensory ethnography proposed by the visual yond mere institutional participation or non-partici- Reviews 195

pation, and there is much more beneath the surface and uses of spaces seen as sacred. On the other to explore than what is readily visible. Most Maausk hand, those who self-identify as Maausk adherents participants prefer not to define their movement as a also learn about “tradition” from heritage institu- religion, instead, they often associate religion with tions such as museums, so that what emerges is a something shameful or embarrassing, and the author picture of a complex relationship between informal provides an interesting and clear discussion of why and formal/institutional sources of knowledge in this is so. She also brings up the interesting point Maausk. that participants’ view of the relationship between In its treatment of Maausk, the study raises a Maausk and the concept of institutionalized religion number of intriguing questions to which it does not varies according to the situation and the political always provide answers. Since the study emphasizes aims of the participants. the diversity of practices related to Maausk, it re- The author argues that Maausk represents a late mains unclear what is the core of Maausk’s faith, modern religious movement that is not just centred commitment or world view. The reader is left won- on the individual and his/her psychological develop- dering, if Maausk participants have a core set of be- ment, but is intrinsically linked to community, local liefs or practices, even loose ones, how do they place, local and national history, and current eco- transmit and maintain this core? It must also be nomic pressures. Yet as the author also points out, pointed out that the work is characterized by some- individuals who identify with Maausk and authori- thing of an overreach in terms of theory and con- ties who claim to speak on behalf of organized cepts. There is an attempt to introduce so many the- Maausk groups may have differing criteria for what oretical perspectives – all of them interesting – that is really authentic in Maausk belief and practice. the author has understandably had difficulties in The author concludes that a major theme of weaving these various theoretical strands together, Maausk discourses has been a deep connection to, and the result is a rather eclectic and fragmented and claims to, places and territories constructed as overall impression of the analysis. sacred. The legitimacy of these claims was bolstered The author places her research squarely within through constructing an imagined past for such field of the ethnology of religion, and provides a places and territories. Fruitfully linking her focus on good overview of ethnological perspectives of reli- affect to the construction of place, the author defines gion in the Baltic region and parts of Scandinavia. “place” not as a “thing” but as an event. The impor- However, the study could have benefited from a tance of the home, that is, the private and domestic broader engagement with anthropological, socio- sphere in constructing meanings surrounding place logical and religious studies research on folk and is mentioned repeatedly throughout the work. The popular religion written since the early 1990s – author insightfully points out that embodied prac- much of it focusing on local identity and local histo- tices carried out by Maausk participants, that is, ry. In a similar vein, the author’s claim that knowl- various forms of singing and dancing “traditions”, edge is embodied while doing during the transmis- are a way of creating connections to the past and im- sion process is persuasive, but would have been bet- agined ancestors, especially when there is no actual ter supported by the large volume of ritual theory in way to know for certain the past content or meaning ethnologically-oriented fields already available on of traditional or ancient practices. this topic (e.g. Catherine Bell, Tomas Gerholm, Roy The author points out that in Maausk, the private Rappaport, Jean Comaroff). And while I applaud the and the domestic are valued in terms of the symbolic focus on lived experience as a key means of gaining meanings of space and objects, and home is seen as new insights into everyday ethno-religiosity, from a “pure” and the opposite of industrial or institutional. methodological and analytical perspective, there is Thus the aim for many Maausk practitioners is not little or no acknowledgement of the role played by to make sacred places available to the public but to discourse, language and narrative in shaping this ex- make them private, only for the use of Maausk ad- perience. herents and to protect them from the public. This On the whole, however, it has been difficult to can lead to stances in conflict with those of heritage find any areas which deserve serious criticism in a and environmental protection institutions when it work which is so well written and which has so comes to how these groups perceive the purposes much new knowledge to offer. The research design 196 Reviews

and research questions asked are both solid and rele- children below school age, during the twentieth and vant. The overall analysis of the empirical source twenty-first centuries. In her research, she asks how material is carefully executed and the ideas pre- children’s wear is discussed, which features have sented are successfully tied together to create impor- been considered important in clothing, and what this tant insights. The findings are without a doubt valid tells us about the meanings of childhood. Roivainen and convincing. One of the great strengths of this makes children themselves central actors of her re- study is the author’s perceptive use of her own expe- search by interviewing them about their own experi- rience in participant observation, her recognition ences of clothing in general and children’s wear in that when she saw research participants being museum collections. How do children themselves moved by something, she was moved by it too, experience and interpret both historical and contem- which aided her in understanding how bodily prac- porary clothes? As a by-product of this research, tice, social interaction, meaningful space, and feel- much wider questions are answered as well: How ing were all intertwined. Indeed, the author’s sys- well can the museum collections explain children’s tematic recording of her own emotions, sensations clothing or even childhood? How can we study and and impressions in the field is a methodologically interpret museum objects? innovative approach which represents the cutting The research benefits from a combination of vari- edge of ethnological research. This methodology ous sources, nearly 750 museum objects in the col- helped her to access the affective and physical expe- lections of the Helsinki City Museum, interviews of riences that comprise the meaning and motivation 5- to 7-year-old children, inquiries and child-care for Maausk participants, and as such represents a literature, and from multistrategy, i.e. combining valuable contribution to the fields of ethnology, an- various methods. Roivainen approaches her topic thropology, and religious studies. concurrently from the past and the present, empha- Laura Stark, Jyväskylä sizing that different time levels are always present when we collect, discuss and study the past. Inter- preting and giving meanings to the children’s wear of the past century tells us just as much about the Expeditions to the Children’s Wear Is- present day. She points out that for this reason she lands and Museum Collections does not want to tie her study strictly to any exact Päivi Roivainen, Puettu lapsuus. Löytöretkiä lasten- time or place, and not even social dimensions vaatteiden saarille. Kansatieteellinen Arkisto 56. emerge clearly in her research. This is, however, Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys, Helsinki 2016. 335 one of the problematic sides of the study, as cultural pp. (English abstract: Dressed Childhood. Journeys objects are always also anchored to their own time, to the Children’s Wear Islands.). Diss. ISBN 978- place and social context. To what extent does this 951-9 057-98-9. choice reduce our view of the real nature of chil- dren’s clothing and to what extent does it really  Dressing, childhood and children’s clothing are serve the research problem, understanding the cul- not unknown fields in Finnish ethnology. Neither tural meanings given to childhood in Finland during are museum collections or interviews strange the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, without sources in ethnological research. On the contrary: generalization? museums and ethnology have a long shared history The research is divided into three main parts, On in Finland, and we ethnologists have always learned the Pier (introduction), Children’s Wear Islands and to ask people about their daily life. Nonetheless, Souvenirs from the Children’s Wear Islands (epi- Päivi Roivainen’s dissertation Dressed Childhood: logue). The metaphor of “children’s wear islands” is Journeys to the Children’s Wear Islands manages to based on the way many childhood researchers have open new views and to utilize both museum collec- seen the worlds of children; there are spaces, opin- tions and interviews as sources of her research in an ions and ideals – culture − defined and limited espe- innovative way. Roivainen’s dissertation can be cially for children. The idea and concept of child- considered as a fresh new start both in ethnology hood becomes visible, for example, in children’s and in museology or the museum field in Finland. clothing. As such “islands” Päivi Roivainen points Päivi Roivainen’s topic is the clothing of Finnish out ways of understanding cleanliness, practicality, Reviews 197

fashion and beauty, colours and prints, and the mul- ing and interviewing children under school age, is, tisensory materiality of children’s wear. As two of in my opinion, the most inspiring part of Päivi her islands she additionally names the age periods of Roivainen’s research. Taking children as co-re- childhood, and museum collections which also de- searchers of the study is an innovative and creative fine the way we see Finnish childhood of the past way of interpreting cultural expressions, children’s century. wear in the museum collections. Roivainen showed The research is not only ethnology, or material pictures of historical children’s wear to her young culture studies, but opens up museological view- interviewees and asked them to comment on the points as well. For this reason, defining an (ordi- clothes. The children’s comments and interpreta- nary) object, which is here thoroughly done, is not, tions tell a lot about opinions and meanings connect- in my opinion, quite enough for the conceptual ed to today’s childhood. This method combines, in needs of this research. When using museum collec- an interesting way, modern ethnology and processes tions as sources, the definition(s) of a museum ob- of assessing the significance of museum collections. ject would have given more assertiveness to the re- The latter has been introduced in the international search. What is the exact distinction between an ob- museum field during the past decade (for example ject and a museum object? Understanding and defin- Significance 2.0 in Australia, Assessing Museum ing also the musealization process more clearly Collections in the Netherlands, Reviewing Signifi- would have helped in interpreting the objects and cance in Great Britain and Merkitysanalyysime- explaining the cultural networks of the (museum) netelmä in Finland). Essential to these methods is objects and their meanings. A museum object is al- the way individuals and societies are taken in the ways not only evidence of the real past, but also of processes where museum objects and collections are the museum history, choices made by museum pro- interpreted and given meanings. Päivi Roivainen’s fessionals. Without this context, it is impossible to research becomes even more exciting as these indi- describe and understand the human culture docu- viduals are 5- to 7-year-old children with great cre- mented in the museum collections. ativity and imagination. It also shows that in ethno- Taking this museum history and museum pro- logical research mostly traditional methods like in- cesses more clearly into account would have been terviewing and examining museum collections are extremely important especially when considering still relevant and can even be used in a fresh and children’s clothing through museum collections. Be- fruitful ways. sides her qualitative methods in the research, Roi- What do we learn, then, during these expeditions vainen introduces a quantitative way to take over to the children’s wear islands, about children’s and study large research materials in the museum clothing and meanings given to childhood? Chil- collection database. This is seen even as a methodo- dren’s clothes indicate meanings given to childhood logical experiment in a museum context. She uses but they also shape the ways of being a child. data mining and draws diagrams and figures of the Clothes may have allowed as well as restricted chil- museum-documented children’s wear to be able to dren’s doing: in Finland practicality and technical answer the question: how is the material history of features of children’s wear, for example, have long childhood seen through museum collections? Even been important as outdoor activities in any weather though the museum history and historical collection are seen as part of good childhood. The idea of inno- management policies are not sufficiently shown cent, clean and tidy children has been strongly em- here to explain these figures, Päivi Roivainen gives phasized in clothing. Children themselves appreci- Finnish museums and their collection management ate happy colours, imaginative prints and magic professionals a lot to think about. Digital humanities feeling, as well as similar clothing on other children. can greatly help in handling museum collections as The multisensory materiality is emphasized when research materials, and museums’ collection data- children themselves talk about clothing: they judge bases should probably serve much better in data the clothes on the grounds of comfort. They want to mining processes in future, if we want to increase feel comfortable, experience a pleasant touch and be the research use of our museum collections. able to move easily. The other central method of this dissertation, eth- What then are the lessons of the expedition for nographical analysis based on ethnographical writ- the museum collections? Museum collections in 198 Reviews

Finland seem to describe, as Päivi Roivainen points course of death” – structured as a kind of journey out, mostly a wealthy, ideal, desirable childhood and from illness and death to the funeral, the mourning, adults’ attitudes toward childhood. However, mu- and the reorientation in the informants’ lives. The seum collections still have great potential; they are first part provides a background, stating the aim, dynamic sources that should be used, interpreted material, theory, and method, and presenting re- and further developed both in museums and in eth- search on death in different disciplines and from dif- nological research. ferent angles. The author also considers the place of Leena Paaskoski, Helsinki death in the public and the private sphere and the changes that have taken place there. Christina Sandberg has done extensive fieldwork. The Power of Death Her main material consists of interviews with five families, with thirteen informants in all, who obvi- Christina Sandberg, Med döden som protagonist. ously appear here under fictitious names. The first En diskursanalytisk studie om dödens makt. Åbo interviews were structured, while the rest had the Akademis förlag, Åbo 2016. 246 pp. English sum- character of open conversations. Moreover, Sand- mary. Diss. ISBN 978-951-765-846-1. berg has interviewed people who come into contact  Christina Sandberg, with her dissertation in folk- with death in their professional work (doctor, priest, loristics, “With death as protagonist: A discourse- police officer, psychologist, two funeral directors). analysis case study of the power of death”, tackles a The solid empirical material is one of the merits of subject that concerns us all: death. She thus in- the study. scribes herself in a long-established tradition in The fieldwork was conducted from 2001 to 2007, ethnology/folkloristics where many studies have while the writing of the dissertation began in 2005. been conducted, albeit from partly different angles. In 2009 the author then changed her theoretical and Louise Hagberg’s När döden gästar (1937, reprint- methodological perspective, from folkloristic narra- ed 2015) is emblematic here, but other ethnologists tive research on how death is perceived in today’s and folklorists have explored this theme. society, to discourse analysis inspired by Michel Christina Sandberg’s dissertation is a non-illus- Foucault’s theories and discussions of power (more trated monograph of 246 pages, including the list of on the change of perspective below). sources and references and an appendix reproducing The author shows that she is well read in lit- the informants’ narratives about family and death. erature dealing with ethnographic method and The aim is to show, from a folkloristic perspective fieldwork; she discusses different interview and with examples from the author’s interview ma- methods, their advantages and disadvantages. She terial, the forms of power that can be exercised in also touches on matters to do with nearness and connection with a death in the family, and the con- distance. She writes (referring to Eero Suoninen sequences that acts of power in the discourse of 1993): “It is important for the researcher to distance death can have for those concerned, but also how himself from the speaking person, the informant, power is expressed during the actual interviews. The and to focus on patterns of meaning in the language, starting point is Michel Foucault’s thesis that power which gives a better perception of things like the in- is ever-present everywhere in all relationships. formant’s role identity and how it is steered by con- The dissertation is mainly based on interviews ventions in different contexts” (p. 32). But is that but also brings in written material, including schol- really how folklorists and ethnologists work today? arly studies in different disciplines dealing with Of course we must try to learn the difficult art of al- death, and some more popular works. Sandberg be- ternating between nearness and distance in the re- gins with a survey of research on death, ideas about search process, as Billy Ehn writes about in Var- death, and rituals of death, which shows that she is dagslivets etnologi (1996), but here it almost sounds thoroughly familiar with the topic, both in folkloris- as if the researcher should have a purely instrumen- tics/ethnology and in other disciplines. tal attitude to the informants. I do not think that The dissertation is arranged in four parts – “Re- Sandberg displays such an attitude in her study. She searching death”, “Talking about death”, “Acting seems like an attentive and respectful interviewer, around death”, and “Exposing power in the dis- able to be present in the interview situation, but also Reviews 199

mastering the art of distancing herself when it metaphors. Body language, too, shows whether the comes to analysing the material. informant is uncomfortable and does not want to go As always, there are many aspects to contemplate into a subject in depth. But power, of course, is also as regards interviews, and Christina Sandberg re- expressed in different forms of action. Here Sand- flects on many of them, but for some others I would berg talks of the power of sickness, the power of have liked to see a more profound discussion, for in- death, and the power of society. stance about how significant it is that she knew The power of sickness is exemplified by all the some informants beforehand, but not others. More- authorities to which one is exposed when one is over, it would have been valuable to discuss the seriously ill, for instance in the health service (the study design as regards the interviews with different power of authoritarian health care). But it is also a family members. What can it have meant that the matter of expectations, explicit and implicit, that last informant to be interviewed in a family could relatives should always be available to look after a possibly have received information from the others sick person, being prepared if the sick person is in about what the interview would deal with? hospital and even more so if the person is at home. Otherwise I would underline that Sandberg has a The power of death, for example, can be about how good discussion of the interview method and her spouses are affected by seeing their partner waste own role as an interviewer in terms of power. She away as the will to live declines. Having detailed talks here of self-reflection, not reflexivity, which is memories of the event (the death) and being able to the normal term in today’s ethnological/folkloristic convey them can be viewed as an expression of the research, at least in Sweden. Here, however, I would power of death: when no one remembers you any have liked to read more profound reflections on longer, you are definitively dead! The power of so- some matters of research ethics. One concerns lan- ciety includes, for instance, attempts to revive a per- guage. Since some of the informants speak Swedish son, the requirement to call the police in the event of and others Finnish, the Finnish quotations have been a death in the home, the use of black body bags, the translated into Swedish, which is not entirely with- hearse that comes instead of an ambulance, and it out problems. There is some discussion of this prob- includes the actions (empathetic, instrumental, lem, but the consequences of this approach should friendly, reserved, etc.) of the professional actors have been discussed in more detail. (police, health care staff). Michel Foucault believes that power is to be One section is about funerals, showing that the found everywhere, and Christina Sandberg quotes survivors always try to satisfy the wishes of the de- his elegant statement: “people know what they do; ceased as regards the form of the funeral. If there are they frequently know why they do what they do; but no such wishes, they try to arrange the funeral in the what they don’t know is what they do does” (in way one thinks the person would have wanted it. Dreyfus & Rabinow 1998:187). Palpably inspired Religion as such is pretty much absent from the text, by Foucault, she discusses how power relations and however, which is somewhat surprising. Even if the acts of power are visible in virtually every context, informants did not consider themselves or the de- but without considering factors such as gender or ceased as being particularly religious, one might class, areas where power relations otherwise tend to have expected some reflections on faith and reli- make themselves felt. gion. What is discussed, on the other hand, is differ- Sandberg discusses power relations elsewhere, ent forms of condolences. Often a hug or a firm for example, how they can be expressed during handshake is preferable to empty words or expres- fieldwork. She critically scrutinizes her own role as sions of the type “it was God’s will” or “it must be a an interviewer. She also makes the reader aware that relief that he/she no longer has to suffer”. power is not solely manifested through speech and An interesting section deals with who assumes deeds, but can also be expressed in various strate- the role, or is assigned the role, of primary mourner gies of silence. In her material she finds different in a family: the widow/widower, the children, or the kinds of silence: the silence of death’s presence, the parents. An important observation is that a person merciful silence, and the silence of helplessness. In can be the primary mourner in one context but not in addition there are different linguistic markers that another. Here different power relations are built in, maintain silence or involve circumlocutions, such as as when a young widow is not assigned the role of 200 Reviews

primary mourner, because her mother-in-law uses the approach of discourse analysis to see how claimed that role. power is expressed in different discourses about Finally the author discusses the period of reorien- death. She writes: “Through cultural analysis I get tation that begins roughly a year after the death, clues to how people are schooled in and influenced when the relatives can begin to return to some kind by different communities and their traditions, while of normality again and find meaning in their lives. discourse analysis, through studies of speech acts, In the conclusion the author also discusses how the gives clues to how people themselves perceive and informants create identity in relation to the de- interpret a phenomenon or an experience and what ceased. It is tactful not to speak ill of the dead, and consequences this has for the person” (p. 31). For in principle Sandberg’s informants do not do so. In- me this sounds somewhat contradictory, since I see stead all the dead person’s good points are empha- cultural analysis and discourse analysis as having sized. They are described as active, positive, and different goals. Cultural analysis searches for under- strong individuals, and the informants not infre- lying patterns, while discourse analysis is not inter- quently say how like themselves the dead person ested in anything underlying but (in this case) in the was, which Sandberg calls positive manipulation. speech act in the moment, here and now. The opposite is negative manipulation, when the in- Discourse analysis does not focus on individual formant mentions his or her own (or someone people’s intentions and ways of thinking, Sandberg else’s) negative properties in contrast to the de- writes. Instead the researcher is interested in how ceased. These types of manipulation create a certain discourses are produced, “for example how one’s picture in the interviewer/researcher, both of the de- own and other people’s identity is created in differ- ceased and of the informant and can thus be regard- ent specific contexts” (p. 29). This makes me won- ed as a kind of power action, albeit unconscious. der, however. Can one merge discourse analysis Christina Sandberg describes the change of with research on identity? Perhaps this has to do theory and method she made from what we can call with the choice of words by the researchers to whom folkloristic narrative research to discourse analysis. Sandberg refers and not her own stance. I myself This happened in 2009, that is, after she had already associate the concept of identity with modernity collected her material. The former perspective, she studies, whereas discourse analysis seem to me to be says, had been “boned too much” by earlier research more akin to post-modernity and post-structuralism. (p. 40). Sources of inspiration that she mentions be- Christina Sandberg discusses memories and nar- sides discourse analysis are ethnological cultural ratives, describing the phenomenon that a narrative analysis in the style of Billy Ehn and Orvar Löfgren, about a particular event can set its stamp on the as well as grounded theory. She does not often link memory of the actual event or experience. Memory back to the latter, however, in the rest of the book. is thus affected by how the event/experience is re- As the folklorist she basically is, Sandberg thinks told. I would have liked to see more of this interest- that narrative theory focuses its research on the nar- ing discussion in the analysis of Sandberg’s own rator, on genre-specific rules, narrative conventions, material, as this is a discussion that is relevant for and the textualization process, whereas the commu- anyone using interviews as research material. Most nicative relationship between the statements and ethnologists and folklorists today probably agree their effect in the discourse is what discourse theory that it is virtually impossible to tell about an event focuses on. This sounds reasonable. It seems to me, “just as it was”. Even a highly realistic rendering of however, that the author has tried to combine these what happened contains interpretations and angles, theoretical approaches, although it may be ques- which the narrator often does not even reflect on. In tioned whether one can really combine them. I feel that sense all narratives are “fabricated” without some doubt, as I would claim that it is noticeable necessarily being “a pack of lies”. throughout that Sandberg as a researcher is primari- Another aspect of the relationship between (life) ly schooled in folkloristics. This is evident, for in- stories, interviews, and memories has to do with the stance, in the sections dealing with interpretation, distance in time. How far back in time the deaths de- close reading, and transcription. scribed in the dissertation happened ought surely to Christina Sandberg regards her investigation as a entail certain differences as regards memory and re- case study inspired by cultural analysis where she telling. Some of the deaths had taken place fairly Reviews 201

relatively recently, while others were several dec- uals of death. The study will be of interest for future ades ago. The distance in time probably affects the research in this field for both ethnologists/folklorists informants’ recollections in different ways, which and researchers in other disciplines, as well as inter- could have been discussed more by Sandberg. There ested general readers. Moreover, the interview ma- is a rich body of research literature on this “gilding” terial itself, which is now archived, will surely be a of memories. rewarding source for future researchers. Christina Sandberg’s dissertation is well written, Birgitta Meurling, Uppsala but there are some typographic errors. Perhaps pres- sure for time can explain some of the careless mis- takes. Sometimes colloquial turns of phrase are History of an Immigrant Neighbourhood in blended in the otherwise scholarly language, but not so much as to spoil the overall impression. The way Denmark the bibliography is divided thematically is no doubt Garbi Schmidt, Nørrebros indvandringshistorie good if one is looking for a specific topic, but it can 1885–2010. Museum Tusculanums Forlag, Køben- take some leafing back and forth to find different havn 2015. 491 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. works under the right heading. ISBN 978-87-635-4338-5. Summing up, the aim of the dissertation is to ap- ply a folkloristic perspective and use examples from  What happens with places that suddenly receive a interview material to show what kinds of power large number of newcomers over a relatively short action can occur in connection with a death in the time? How do some places seem to be more pre- family and the consequences the power actions in pared than other places when it comes to including the discourse of death can have for those concerned, new arrivals? Such questions may rack one’s brain and also how power is expressed during the actual in these times of migrant flows and changing border interviews. This aim, in my opinion, is achieved, but practices in Europe. One way of reflecting on this is I wonder whether the author could not have to read the Danish scholar Garbi Schmidt’s compre- achieved similar results even without having relied hensive book Nørrebros indvandringshistorie so much on discourse analysis. A lasting impression 1885–2010 from 2015. Schmidt is a so-called “pro- is that Sandberg chiefly demonstrates her compe- fessor with special responsibilities” (MSO professor tence as a researcher schooled in folkloristics, where in Danish) within the field of cultural encounters she moves with a sure foot. Power and discourse studies at Roskilde University, and Nørrebros ind- analysis, on the other hand, although given a lot of vandringshistorie 1885–2010 is her doctoral thesis. space in the introduction, is not fully integrated in The focus in this urban history that Schmidt de- the analytical chapters. The approach of considering lineates is on the area of Nørrebro in central Copen- different power relations and power actions which hagen. Schmidt asks how this urban neighbourhood arise in connection with a death is however innova- has developed into a specific area in the city and at tive and worth highlighting. Especially interesting is the same time played the role of a relatively liberal the discussion of the primary mourner in the family, receiver of im/migrants from different parts of Den- a path that can certainly be further explored. mark and the rest of the world. Finally, I would say that Christina Sandberg’s The book contains seven chapters. In the intro- dissertation is a study that more than fills its place in duction a background is given to how Schmidt de- the ethno-folkloristic field. It is also a welcome con- cided to explore Nørrebro’s immigration history in tribution to the scholarly discussion about the out- the first place. She started her research process by look on death, dying, and mourning in a contem- looking at young Muslims in Denmark as a whole, porary context. One of the great merits is Sand- but eventually moved from a national to a local as berg’s fieldwork and the solid empirical material well as historical perspective on immigration. Addi- that she has created, which serves as a good founda- tionally, in this introduction she provides an over- tion for the study. By conducting a contemporary view of central theoretical concepts and of previous study and being so well read in the research field, research on Nørrebro. She also explains how she has she has made an important contribution to ethno- worked with what she calls mixed methods, includ- logical and folkloristic research about death and rit- ing both quantitative and qualitative approaches and 202 Reviews

data. In these introductory pages the aim of her grants have lived in Nørrebro during the different thesis is formulated too. Crucial for her work was to periods. But the analyses are also based on qualita- develop a perspective on integration, cultural en- tive sources, such as memoirs and personal narra- counters and immigration based on the study of a tives and newspaper articles. For her contemporary specific urban context where people live together, chapters she has moreover conducted fieldwork in- make contacts and influence each other. cluding observations and qualitative interviews. Al- The empirical parts of the book have a chrono- together it is a big corpus of material that Schmidt logical storyline. The first empirical chapter de- leans on in her thesis. The material has been collect- scribes Nørrebro as a relatively young urban area ed in collaboration with student assistants who have during the period 1885–1915. In these years Nørre- contributed statistics and interviews over the years. bro had a growing population of immigrants from As regards theory the book refers to a current dis- Sweden, Russia and other European countries. Sim- cussion on space and place. In this conceptual dis- ultaneously the neighbourhood was the centre of the cussion Schmidt is particularly inspired by the fast-growing labour movement of the time. In the French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre second empirical chapter Schmidt focuses on the and his understanding of the city as a social produc- immigration that took place as a consequence of the tion of heterogeneous space. In the theoretical sec- Second World War. During this turbulent period in tion of her introduction Schmidt relates to Le- European history, which in the book stretches from febvre’s well-known analytical triad of spatial prac- 1935 to 1947, Nørrebro was particularly affected by tice, representations of space and representational the immigration of German Jews and German war spaces. Other central contributors to Schmidt’s per- refugees. As the constant centre of the labour move- spective are renowned geographers like John Ag- ment it was also an arena for different social clashes. new (the distinction between space and place) and In the third empirical chapter, which deals with the Doreen Masey (relational space and the concept of period 1960–1971, Nørrebro experiences a redevel- throwntogetherness). The French cultural theorist opment at the same time as new immigrant groups, Michel de Certeau also plays a significant role in in the form of guest workers from countries such as connecting narration to travelling and movement. Yugoslavia and Turkey, establish themselves in the Schmidt also takes part in a Danish discussion on area. Nørrebro was seen as a slum by many, but also urban space where, among others, the geographer as a place for community and for alternative and ex- Kirsten Simonsen contributes by highlighting the perimental living. The fourth empirical chapter role of the narrative when it comes to how place and looks at a specific event of political activism during space are constituted. the years 1978–1982. A playground called “Bygge- Schmidt introduces the concept of grounded poli- ren” that was in the middle of a conflict between dif- tics (hverdagsrummets politik in Danish). Here she ferent social and economic interests led to clashes mixes Lefebvre’s perspective on the city together with the police in Nørrebro. In the fifth empirical with her own interest in the urban street and public chapter we are in contemporary times, 2000–2010. space. This grounded politics become particularly Nørrebro has now become an immigrant neighbour- clear in the last empirical chapter where demonstra- hood in everyone’s eyes, but also an area with gang tions and political manifestations are the object of criminality and drug abuse. Religion in general and her reflections on what contemporary Nørrebro has Islam in particular have become significant ele- transformed into. However, the empirical chapters ments for how the old working-class environments do not have any profound discussion other than just are represented in the public discourse on immigra- a mention now and then of one or two of the con- tion and integration. cepts that Lefebvre, Agnew, Massey and the other The introduction also has a methodological sec- theorists have conceived. These chapters that mirror tion. Here Schmidt explains how she has used a tri- Nørrebro’s historical transformations as place and angulation of different methods and sources. She space are basically an empirical review of all the has combined a quantitative and qualitative ap- different sources that Schmidt uses for her argu- proach in her explorations of Nørrebro’s immigra- ment. The different sources – newspaper articles, in- tion history. Census data and statistics, for example, terviews, survey data, etc. – together give a con- are applied in order to find out how many immi- siderable and convincing picture of Nørrebro’s step- Reviews 203

wise and ambiguous development from labour sym- Changing a Lifestyle bol to immigrant centre. But in this empirical Maja Schøler, “At være på livsstilsændringer er bare reporting, more in-depth reflections on the theoretic- meget lettere”. Et antropologisk studie af en gruppe al concepts that are shared with social science in overvægtige mænds erfaringer med at ændre livsstil. general are lost. Det humanistiske fakultet, Københavns universitet. The book is a brick. Almost 500 pages long, it 2016. 196 pp. Diss. has a nice layout and quite a few illustrations: fig- ures, tables, maps and photos. It also has a section  Rising costs for health care entail a need for more with an appendix and an index of names and topics research about how people relate to health matters in at the very end. everyday life. For that reason, this is an important What then about the space, place and scale of dissertation. The title means “Being on lifestyle Nørrebro? What does Schmidt conclude regarding changes is just so much easier”: An anthropological this topic? Nørrebro has definitely changed over the study of a group of overweight men and their experi- years. The area has grown in territorial terms while ence of changing lifestyle. The choice to focus on it simultaneously has turned into a complex men is also well justified, since previous studies city-scape. But Nørrebro has also persevered as a have shown that men die earlier than women and form of symbol for how the city and even the nation that their attitude to health matters seems irrational. can be perceived in different respects. The neigh- Through the dissertation the author seeks to contrib- bourhood was long a labour movement symbol and ute more knowledge about men’s attitudes to health today it has become the arena for how Muslim iden- and thus also create the conditions for future health tity can be performed and debated in Danish society. work. In these changing contexts Nørrebro as a place in a The dissertation is well written and informative. way included and connects what is local, national The study looks at a group of overweight men aim- and transnational at the same time. ing to achieve a healthy lifestyle through small Nørrebros indvandringshistorie 1885–2010 is changes in diet and exercise habits. To achieve this impressive when it comes to how micro and macro goal they take part in a course to help them achieve perspectives are linked. Still I miss a more analytical a balanced way of life between health ideals and culturally shaped everyday habits. Schøler regards understanding of what I see as a form of categoriza- the course as a project in cultural education since it tion practices in situated processes. Schmidt focuses seeks to create “men-with-a-healthy-lifestyle”. on the concept of the immigrant (indvandraren) and The main material in the dissertation consists of she certainly offers some important insights into this field notes compiled during the course and in con- question: how for example the definition of this cat- nection with observations in the homes of four par- egory has changed over time. However, while read- ticipants. Alongside this the author has conducted ing the empirical chapters of the book I constantly twelve semi-structured interviews and continuously feel that there are several opportunities to go even talked informally with the men as the course pro- deeper into this question of categorization by look- ceeded. The methods are well chosen and justified ing not only at how Nørrebro is constituted as place in relation to the purpose. and relational space but also how different cat- By elucidating the tension between everyday egories and identifications are made on street level habits and health ideals, the author is continuing a and in everyday life contexts. Throwntogetherness well-established research tradition in cultural analy- is an interesting wording for understanding these in- sis, and also a vigorous research field in the health terconnections and diachronic relations that the sciences. Schøler, however, challenges a couple of thesis displays, but in my view the discussion would central premises in this field. First of all, there is the have gained by using concepts that referred more to assumption that a change of habits is a result of re- social dynamics of different kinds rather than to the flexive practices and rational choices. This attitude spatial formations implied by the concepts of place, is common in the health sciences and is often ac- space and scale. companied by a powerful faith in knowledge: If Markus Idvall, Lund people get more information about diet or exercise, they will change their lives in a healthy direction. 204 Reviews

This intellectual tradition often ignores the fact that micro-processes intended to enable a distinct analy- everyday life is permeated with several different sis of the details and the complexity of everyday cultural logics or norms that collide with the health life. This analytical strategy works very well. ideals, which means that people do not always fol- Chapter 6 examines advice and artefacts that the low the advice of health experts. Secondly, the dis- participants encounter during the course, and which sertation challenges a common assumption in cul- they use in order to change their habits. In theoreti- tural studies, namely, that habits are hard to change cal terms, the chapter proceeds from the idea that because they are internalized and rooted in everyday materialities affect our way of meeting the world bodily practices. and making meaning. This opens for an analysis of In theoretical terms the dissertation is inspired by “physical artefacts and advice” as being significant Michel Foucault’s studies of how people shape their in themselves. To enhance our understanding of the lives, their identity, through discursively formed significance of the artefacts, the author adds the con- technologies of the self. The author has an inde- cept of fetish. It is thus possible to study the mean- pendent approach to this overall theoretical frame- ings that lie outside the concrete utility value of the work and adds other concepts that make it possible artefacts, which gives a nuanced understanding of to analyse the complexity of everyday life and the the participants’ attempts to change their lifestyle. nuances in people’s lived life. Through a reflective Chapter 7 focuses on how the participants’ bodies use of Foucault’s perspective and by adding other become significant in the efforts to change habits. concepts, Schøler produces more knowledge about The body is analysed both as an object and as a men’s health and lifestyle. starting point for emotions, choices, experiences, re- The dissertation also has a clear theoretical goal, flections. A major point is that bodies are created in namely, to develop the concept of lifestyle in rela- the tension between objectivity and subjectivity and tion to how it has been used in the cultural sciences that bodies thus stand out as both partners and oppo- and the health sciences. In the former, lifestyle is nents in the attempts to change lifestyle. In theoreti- understood as collective and often unreflected prac- cal terms the author derives support from the con- tices, whereas in the latter lifestyle is understood as ceptual pair of the absent and the present body and an individual, risky project that is susceptible to from the concept of reflexive bodily techniques. The change. Schøler launches an alternative concept of latter concerns specific ways of moving, of using the lifestyle: an ethnographic perspective that is close to body, ways which are learned and which we some- practice, which understands lifestyle as lived experi- times, but not always, think about. ence that is shaped at the intersection between dif- In chapter 8 the attention is focused on the rela- ferent interests (on the one hand externally formu- tion between individual and collective, between lated health ideals and on the other hand stable col- one’s own experience and that of other people. The lective and habit-based bodily practices). In this un- aim is to study the social practices of the course and derstanding lifestyle is a practice shaped by dreams, how these affect changes, and to study the impact of hopes, and moral duties, and by creative negotia- individual experiences on the construction of a tions between structural possibilities and limitations. shared narrative about change and balance. In ana- To put it differently, Schøler’s concept of lifestyle lytical terms the chapter is inspired by the concept comprises both unreflected and reflected practices. of community of practice. Communities of practice The dissertation discusses how the participants are situated in everyday life and are thus both con- do lifestyle change through three analytical cross- text-dependent and changeable. Through this con- sections: materiality, body, and sociality. Schøler cept it is possible to understand the participants’ shows how changes are practised in everyday life; practices as an expression of a collective “educa- how artefacts and advice contribute to a change in tional process”. routines; how bodily techniques assist in control of The dissertation deserves praise for the way it the body and how the body is simultaneously a shows how the participants reflect on and utilize dif- starting point for change; and how social communi- ferent methods, artefacts, and social relations in or- ties or relations contribute to change through ex- der to combine a healthy lifestyle with a well- change of experiences. These three aspects are re- balanced life which means that they do not make a lated to each other but are treated as three distinct complete break with everyday cultural norms and Reviews 205

habits. By regarding lifestyle changes as cultural, Encounters with Sound Environments situated, and creative practice, the dissertation Olle Stenbäck, Den ofrivilliga lyssnaren. Möten makes a contribution to research on men’s health med butiksmusik. Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg and lifestyle. But there are also things that could 2016. 190 pp. Ill. English summary. Diss. ISBN have been developed to give the study greater depth. 978-91-97535380. Balance stands out as a central concept in relation to one of the premises of the dissertation, namely,  Everyday life creates a variety of involuntarily that life is uncertain, complex, and chaotic. The par- listening for many of us. It can be the fan system in ticipants in the course are said to have had the goal the office or school, the cars driving by outside our of achieving balance. But it is uncertain whether window, the old dishwasher in our kitchen, or the balance is an analytical concept or a state that can be in-store music in the city. Many times we do not no- studied empirically. Judging by the analysis, the tice the sound, instead it is perceived as a back- participants themselves do not seem to talk explicit- ground sound that blends into the place we are a part ly about balance as a goal, which means that the of. It is only when the fan stops or we close the win- concept must be analytical in character. If it is an dow that we feel relief at how nice silence feels in analytical concept, it remains unclear how the au- our bodies. In Olle Stenbäck’s dissertation Den ofrivillige lyssnaren (“The involuntary listener: En- thor defines and operationalizes the concept. counters with in-store music”) this kind of involun- The dissertation continues the wave of research tarily listening serves as the methodological input about materialities that we have seen for more than a for how to understand and critically investigate what decade. The significance of artefacts is in focus in can be called sound environments and individual chapter 6. Yet it is uncertain how the author deals listening in a cultural context. Stenbäck thereby fol- with artefacts in relation to (oral and written) advice. lows a growing ethnological interest in studying Sometimes they seem to be treated as synonyms and sound and sound environments as a methodological sometimes they appear to be two essentially differ- opening to different cultural processes. His study is ent elements. It would have been good to see a the- interested in people’s encounters with music in re- oretical discussion of the difference between arte- tail environments, through the following aim: “The facts and advice. aim of this dissertation is to explore potential cus- The dissertation has a somewhat ambivalent atti- tomers’ encounters with the phenomena of in-store tude to masculinity and health/overweight. The au- music” (p. 10). Thus, he brings together the study of thor distances herself from the gender perspective, sound environments with theories of consumption, but there are earlier studies indicating that gender is music ethnology and affects. The following three important not least for understanding men’s atti- main questions are in focus: (1) How are people di- tudes to health, the body, and also overweight. Ac- rected towards in-store music? (2) How do they cording to Schøler, there is no empirical evidence listen to in-store music? (3) What kind of listening is that gender has any significance. There is good rea- made possible and/or prevented in the store? son here to problematize how the author analyses The study is based on sixteen interviews, a digital her material; does the material talk to her, or is the ethnological questionnaire, articles from newspapers material analysed from theoretical perspectives? If it and traditional fieldwork. Stenbäck has an evolving is the latter, it is not particularly hard to find ex- discussion on how to capture such a fleeting phenom- amples of masculine patterns in the quotations. The enon as in-store music. As he points out, people’s vis- study would probably have gained in depth if it to the store is often quick and, at the same time, an Schøler had chosen to position the dissertation in re- everyday phenomenon. In-store music is nothing one lation to a large research field examining men’s and reflects upon, rather this is often the goal of in-store music. It is supposed to be a sound in the background overweight men’s health from a gender perspective. that blends in with the surroundings. The ethnological Despite these criticism, this is a dissertation with method of fieldwork is therefore a good entrance for interesting discussions and analyses of masculinity, this type of study, to study when nothing special hap- health, and overweight. It makes a valuable contri- pens. What I wish Stenbäck did more was expose bution to knowledge in this field. himself to situations that were a little bit more unfa- Fredrik Nilsson, Lund miliar to him. He focuses mainly on Gothenburg and the environments which, as he writes, are “familiar to 206 Reviews

me” (p. 35). What would happen with the analysis if The chapter “Sensuous states” opens up an inter- he went to another smaller town? To a supermall in esting cultural analysis of the complexities that arise the suburb? Or why not another country and the in a city centre with a sound environment that has in-store music there? increasing and loud noises. One of the perspectives The dissertation has six main chapters in addition that Stenbäck discusses is obstacles that arise for to an introduction and a conclusion. In chapter two – people with hearing loss. Sensitive positions are “Chasing the in-store music” – Stenbäck presents used as a methodological term to highlight the audi- the central themes that the thesis deal with. It is tory barriers that can be problematic and where theoretically quite heavy, with a focus on what the people develop different strategies to handle their characteristics of today’s shopping areas are. How problems. In a more metaphorical way the auditory can they be seen both as uniform – between differ- obstacles can be seen as what Simon Frith has called ent cities – but at the same time as places where “volume as a barrier” (2003), a metaphor that helps people develop specific practices? The chapter has us to see barriers as socially constructed in the en- one important discussion for ethnology, about how vironment. The chapter adds many important per- people think, reflect upon and act in relation to this spectives and connects ethnology to the field of crit- specific place. This discussion is also linked to what ical disability studies. This is a field that is under- role in-store music has in shopping areas today, in developed in the study and something that would be relation to an historical perspective. A central factor of great interest to elaborate in future studies. is that the in-store music is not always something In chapter six the discussion from chapter five is that is only in the background; instead it can be the turned around, and in “mutual spaces” we meet a one cultural element where the store is trying to cre- theoretical perspective on feelings of inclusion. ate the feeling of a nightclub. How does a person create an affective alliance in the In chapter three – “Producer strategies” – the dis- store and to the in-store music? The store is here course of in-store music is analysed by the compa- seen as a shared space where social togetherness can nies that have been producing this kind of music and be created in different ways. Stenbäck has an inter- the genres they create to sell the music. Of particular esting discussion on how we can walk into a store interest is the company Muzak – which has also be- and feel at home. How can this feeling be under- come synonymous with in-store music – and how in stood? But it is also a feeling that can easily be the 1930s they started to market instrumental music turned around and instead create an affective alien, to stimulate the working environment. This music is when we do not recognize ourselves. When it is the compared with furniture that is crucial for the room wrong music, wrong clothes to buy and so forth. but blends into the background in order not to catch The last empirical chapter is named “Potential our attention. In this way it can be a substitute for an intrusive silence that can arise in a room or an eleva- customers” and focuses on the role the informants tor. The background music in this chapter becomes a take on as consumers. A central aspect is what way to discuss some of today’s in-store music that is possibilities the customer feels that they have to af- more to the forefront in the store. fect their own role in this environment. The chapter In “Contemporary musical flows” – chapter four thereby raises the question of power and if we are – Stenbäck analyses how the stores use, for ex- prepared to assume the role of consumers. ample, DJs at weekends who come to the store and “In-store music correlates with so much more play their music, or streaming services. Thereby the than what appears in a particular store” (p. 179), stores also signal important popular cultural codes Stenbäck concludes in the last chapter. This is a cen- to the customers and communicate important cul- tral point that needs to be made stressing that we tural values. It should be new music played loud and need more cultural studies on how sound environ- the goal is that the customers are as interested in the ments and individual listening always take place in a clothes as in the music. It is not something that cultural context. How can a sound environment cre- should only be in the background. New digital tech- ate an affective alliance when is it turned around and nology is also used to promote the music the store becomes an affective alien instead? Stenbäck’s dis- plays through music newsletters. The chapter illus- sertation opens up this field in many interesting trates and analyses in a very interesting way how we ways. today look for new music in other ways than in the Kristofer Hansson, Lund music store. Book Reviews they need to cope with. They are put in situations where they wish to turn off the CI, but feel it is mor- ally problematic to do so, as the ability to hear is Disability Perspectives on Sound perceived as something inherently good by their Ljud tar plats. Funktionshinderperspektiv på ljud- peers. People with CI are equipped with the possi- miljöer. Åsa Alftberg, Elisabet Apelmo & Kristofer bility to turn hearing on and off, but find that exer- Hansson (eds.). Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural cising this flexibility is not within the scope of being Sciences, 11, Lund 2016. 184 pp. ISBN 978-91- a good citizen. 981458-6-1. In the same line of thought, in chapter 3 Ingela Holmström problematizes the ways in which tech-  This edited volume from Sweden draws on Scan- nologies are and have been used to create participa- dinavian disability studies and the discussion of the tion, at present and during the twentieth century. environment, difference and disability. Through dif- Children with hearing impairments were excluded ferent empirical studies, the authors explore sound from ordinary schools until the 1970s and 1980s, and different types of hearing impairments, and dis- but this changed, and with CI the boundaries be- cuss the role of sound and hearing in contemporary tween the deaf and the hearing have become con- society. The overarching focus is on the ways in tested, to the degree that children with hearing im- which the environment is part of the hearing impair- pairments today are expected to participate on equal ment. As such, the volume is a classic Scandinavian terms. Through her fieldwork, Holmström shows study of functional impairment, but with a rather un- how this expectation is impeded through the many derstudied type of impairment in focus. difficulties in everyday life that the children experi- One of the ambitions of the book is to study how ence, such as going to the pool or teachers con- sound environments can be changed in order to trolling the technologies, thereby choosing when to create participation and accessibility on equal terms hear on behalf of the children. for everyone, in line with the UN Convention on the Robert Willim shifts focus from hearing impair- Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ments and CI to sound and sound environments as In the introduction by the editors, the reader is contested territory in chapter 4. Entering the world introduced to the idea of sound environments as of sound through complaints about diffuse noise in hegemonic and normative. Sound environments are Skåne, Willim asks how to control sound and prob- always organized for those who are capable of hear- lematizes standards and benchmarks of sound. ing. In this regard, as hearing is a basic component While sound is experienced subjectively, it needs to of social interaction, people with hearing impair- be standardized in order to create benchmarks for ments easily experience exclusion. The question is, acceptable sound levels. Through different cases, how good hearing one needs in order to participate Willim shows how norms for sound are dynamic in the existing hearing environments, and how hear- and historic, and how new technologies such as ear- ing environments can be used to facilitate inclusion. phones and sound modulations reconfigure sound Thereby, hearing impairment is not perceived as an norms. individual problem, but in part as a social construc- In chapter 5, Elisabet Apelmo provides a litera- tion created through impairing sound environments ture review about sound environments connected to and the people living in them. leisure activities for deaf people and people with In chapter 2, Åsa Alftberg studies this construc- hearing impairments, and discusses some key con- tion by exploring how people with cochlear im- cepts within the field. Central to this discussion is plants (CI) live with them, the meanings they assign the social status and cultural identity of the D/deaf. to them and the ways they participate in society. While being deaf is a kind of disability, the Deaf This participation is a problem for people with CI. perceive themselves as a linguistic minority. Full citizenship in an ableist society requires fully Formed as a political identity, the Deaf point to the functional bodies able to communicate on equal organization of society as that which creates dis- terms. But people with CI often find that sound is ability. While deaf children today mostly live in unpleasant noise after the implantation, and that it is hearing families, in the first part of the twentieth made difficult through all the small arrangements century they were grouped in schools for the deaf,

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 47, 2017 208 Reviews

thereby enabling this communal identity. With the the large groups of people with hearing impairments propagation of new technologies such as CI, this in general, as well as to the role of sound in contem- identity becomes contested again. Key to the debate porary society. The discussions are well communi- about D/deaf today is whether the focus on social in- cated and serve as a good entry to key concepts tegration eradicates the cultural identity of the Deaf. within disability studies, and to some of the issues Moreover, while the “compensating” technologies, emerging from ethnological studies of health and such as ICT, create new possibilities for the deaf, disease. they also create new possibilities for social isolation, However, the critique of the normative, hearing for example, through online shopping. hegemony and the subsequent suggestions for Per Germundsson and Berth Danermark resituate change create new normativities that seem to at- the discussion of sound environments in chapter 6 tempt to dismantle difference. While the volume from people with hearing impairments to a specific points to many interesting discussions about sound environment, namely, open-plan offices and the and hearing impairments, some reflections on the consequences they have for people’s health in gen- new normativities produced through this dis- eral. While the authors focus on people with hearing mantling are missing. For example, what kind of impairments in open-plan offices, they also describe normativity is produced if the construction of hear- the general problems with this kind of working en- ing as normal and deaf as deviant is reshuffled? Is vironments. Many people in the workforce have the goal to make deafness normal, or what kind of hearing impairments, and hearing aids do not work difference is produced through increased participa- well in open-plan offices. Moreover, the ageing of tion? And can phonocentrism be transformed the workforce means that more people with hearing through inclusive architecture or other socio-mate- impairments are working. The author places these rial reconfigurations? problems within an understanding of dialogue as se- While the volume would have benefited from ex- quential, which means that meaning is constructed ploring such questions, it opens up a complex field through a range of information. If part of the dia- in a comprehensive manner and positions sound, logue is not heard, the bigger picture is disturbed. hearing and deafness as concerns in political debates Such problems with open space offices have health about dis/ability and difference. consequences, and the authors call for an increased Aske Juul Lassen, Copenhagen focus on the subject and advocate evidence-based practice. In Chapter 7, Kristofer Hansson uses the case of sports for children with CI to problematize the The Chief’s Totem Pole moral foundations of habilitation through sports ac- Anders Björklund, Hövdingens totempåle. Om tivities. He asks what problems are solved through konsten att utbyta gåvor. Carlsson Bokförlag/Etno- leisure activities for children with disabilities, why it grafiska museet, Stockholm 2016. 220 pp. Ill. ISBN is a problem not to exercise and for whom. By scru- 978-91-73317-40-5. tinizing a press release about young people with dis- abilities exercising insufficiently, Hansson points to  In this book Anders Björklund, who was director a disability-political paradox within habilitation: the of the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm 2002– problem is constructed twofold, both as an individ- 2013, tells the long and at times exciting story of the ual problem for the children and as a societal prob- G’psgolox totem pole, which came to the museum lem resting on the conditions for exercising. in 1929 and which was returned as a gift to the Hais- Through interviews with habilitation personnel, la people in 2006. The Haisla are a group among the Hansson shows how the power and responsibility to indigenous North American population who to- exercise is complex. gether go under the name of the Northwest Coast The volume discusses difference and how majori- Peoples. They are still a vigorous, thriving group, ties include and exclude minorities by focusing on a culturally uniform but politically and linguistically huge but often overlooked population group: people divided. Today they comprise about 150,000 people with hearing impairments. While many chapters fo- in two countries. Some of the Northwest Coast In- cus on CI, other chapters broaden the discussion to dians have maintained their traditions and religion Reviews 209

particularly well, with spirit-seeking and shaman- chase in Sweden (p. 95). And the Haisla, during ism, and have their language and social system in- their many visits to Sweden, emphatically declared tact. The arrival of the white man spread epidemics (also to me) that the totem pole had been taken with- among the aboriginal population, as there was no re- out their approval when they were away fishing. It sistance to the diseases brought by the missionaries. was quite simply stolen, as the author puts it (p. 72). Smallpox claimed many lives. In places more than Since this was the case according to the Haisla, they 75 per cent of the population died during the second had every right to take it back. Perhaps we will half of the nineteenth century. The Haida of the never know exactly how it happened, but there is no Queen Charlotte Islands were reduced to a fraction doubt that, with the prevailing paradigm and with of their number, with far-reaching consequences. It the white actors who were involved, the totem pole was smallpox that struck G’psgolox’s people, the was removed partly or wholly against the will of the Henaxiala, and was the reason why the totem pole indigenous people. was carved in 1872. The totem pole was carved in The linguistic groups in certain places on the memory of how Chief G’psgolox obtained shaman- northwest coast of North America still have a world istic powers. view based on the idea that time is constantly oscil- In the many detailed chapters in this book, lating between bad and good times. They believe Björklund takes us through the entire case of the to- that the changes between these times come often, tem pole, giving us good insight into the history of and it is important to perform certain acts during how it was collected and the leading figures in- good times. In their mythology the sun is viewed in volved. There was such a strong desire to acquire a cosmogonic terms as the father while the earth is the totem pole in Sweden that it is not particularly un- mother. The sun is still regarded as the supreme be- likely that irregularities were committed. As the au- ing. The spirit Zoda is honoured on the totem pole thor rightly points out, and as I have also stated in a for his goodness, both his healing powers and his work in 2001, it was in the heyday of evolutionism protection of G’psgolox the chief and his people. and positivism. It was seen (and perhaps desired by This good force is highly valued by the Northwest some people too) that these indigenous peoples were Coast Peoples, not least of all after the many nega- going to disappear as part of a natural development, tive events since the first contact with the whites. and it was believed that the almost fanatical collect- Björklund provides a detailed account of this course ing of ethnographic material of all categories, in- of events for the Haisla, both past and present. In cluding human remains, was a service performed for G’psgolox’s totem pole, the goodness of Zoda today mankind by ensuring that these vanishing cultures still stands for identity, politics, and the old beliefs would at least be preserved in museums. There about supernatural beings. Björklund demonstrates should thus be no doubt that people with these con- nicely how different groups of Haisla relate to this, victions, the prevailing paradigm at the time, were letting us follow their internal debate and the con- prepared to go very far in their collecting zeal, de- flicts on the matter. It is good that he presents the spite the Canadian legislation that applied when the Haisla’s own statements so that we can follow the G’psgolox totem pole was exported to Sweden. Sig- arguments of both the traditionalists and the mod- vald Linné, head of the Museum of Ethnography in ernists. This is the emic perspective. The important Stockholm in the 1950s and 1960s, told Staffan Bru- point is that, as Björklund shows, there are several nius, the curator of American artefacts in the 1980s, reasons for the attitudes to tradition on the northwest that he could expect some action from the Haisla coast. A nuanced picture shows a combination of people in the matter of the totem pole. This was be- neotraditionalists, whose motives for preserving tra- cause “the white people in power who had permitted dition can often be found in political and identity as- the accession and export were real bastards” (p. pects of life, and real traditionalists, who despite all 106). We may assume that Linné was well aware of the far-reaching changes in their living conditions the whole morally dubious accession history of the still maintain an unbroken cultural and religious tra- G’psgolox totem pole, perhaps more than he said dition. There is a traditional belief with many mani- openly in 1985. festations, while simultaneously different segments After a careful search of the archives, the author of the communities relate in different ways to the is able to state that there is no receipt for the pur- traditional culture. We have a heterogeneous society 210 Reviews

today where different views of tradition occur to- famous Haisla artists, Lyle Wilson, and his argu- gether. This is partly a question of different genera- ments for the preservation of the totem pole. Wilson tions and their attitudes, but also of how the tradi- was one of the chief advocates of this, and all tion is used for various purposes to do with politics through the book we follow his appeal with its cri- and identity. It is a strength of the book that Björk- tique of the traditionalists’ choice, which he argued lund presents this clearly. The author has left no was based on feelings as well as beliefs. “Some stone unturned in presenting everything concerning people have compared the G’psgolox pole to a this issue in Sweden and Canada. His impressive tombstone and its presence has brought bad luck” collection of material and his meticulous research (Wilson, quoted on p. 155). Wilson’s reasons for allow us to follow the case from start to finish. preserving the pole and his critique of the idea of After my many visits to almost all the Northwest letting it go back to nature were quite different from peoples, it is my opinion that traditional thinking – the traditionalists’ outlook. In his appeal, however, in different shades – is still the most important thing one can also read between the lines and see how for these people. And as Björklund rightly states, it strong the pre-Christian religion still is. In the case was this traditional thinking that eventually tri- of the Haisla, the G’psgolox totem pole represents umphed in the demand for the return of the totem good, the living heritage going back to the time be- pole. According to the belief, Chief G’psgolox Dan fore the coming of the white man. The important Paul chose the religious path. These ideas, in my thing here is that, even though different segments of opinion, are the core of the whole issue and the real the Haisla today view this in different ways, as iden- reason for the demand for the return of the totem tity, politics, or religion, with Zoda as a still living pole. Through the final action with the pole, all in and acting supernatural being, they all agree that the accordance with the tradition that everything should repatriation of the totem pole is a victory for their go back to nature, the old ideas were followed and own values, a triumph over colonial repression, over became a reality in 2012 (n. 258; p. 70, n. 92). The economic injustice, and so on. So regardless of how totem pole was believed to have magical properties today’s Haisla have viewed the matter, what was ac- (p. 70). Tradition triumphed, and the Haisla chose, complished in 2006 has been of great significance despite the possible reactions and consequences, to for the overall situation of the indigenous population let it happen. Through this action, it is believed, today. Zoda is once again able to protect his territory. At In this book we are given a well-written, nicely Kitlope Lake, close to the place where the totem illustrated account that considers history, museum pole once stood, it is believed that the petrified man practice, and also the problem of repatriation de- lives too, and that this being, together with Zoda mands in an international perspective. The volume will forever protect the Kitlope Valley, now that the gives good insight into the history, from the time totem pole is back. when the pole was added to the collection, to the These two beings are believed to have been in the first requests for return, the protracted negotia- area for a very long time, watching over it. In this tions, the government decision in 1994 to return connection Björklund writes (p. 97): “It can even be the totem pole as a gift, all the twists and turns in questioned whether it was ‘owned’ in any sense or if the process, the actors involved, the debate in Swe- it was part of a completely different context of den with arguments for and against repatriation. meaning with animistic links to totem animals and The great value of the book lies in its survey of all traditional hunting grounds and was thus owned by the events along the way and the emic arguments the Kitlope Valley – ‘for we do not own the land so of the Haisla, including the different opinions much as the land owns us’.” Perhaps the figures within that group. The author has gone to great carved in the log meant that it belonged to another pains to include practically everything that was register than what language encompasses, mediating discussed in the case, especially at the Museum of between humans and nature (p. 73). This is the core Ethnography; the arguments, documents, letters, of the whole demand for the return of the pole, that and articles written for the case are quoted here in it is based on a still living belief. It is only through meticulous detail. The book is thus an important this emic perspective that we can understand. document in museum history, relevant to the return Björklund also lets us follow one of today’s most of objects not just by Swedish museums but also Reviews 211

European museums which hold ethnographic mate- Truth. And readers’ reactions are the central theme rial from indigenous peoples. The volume is a wel- in Maria Karlsson’s study of letters to Selma Lager- come contribution to Swedish museum history, as löf from her admirers. Many of these letters show well as a good record of the problems indigenous what the fans thought about Lagerlöf’s books, how people have gone through, and especially how the they had read them, and how they related to her as a Northwest Coast Peoples were affected by the person when reflecting on her works and drawing greedy collectors of Western society. Björklund’s conclusions about who she was. Some of them actu- book is a valuable addition to the scant literature in ally found her so kind that they felt emboldened to Swedish about the indigenous people of the west beg money from her. The article also analyses fe- coast of North America, which ought to inspire male and male ways of reading Lagerlöf’s work. more research on this fascinating area. Claudia Lindén gives us a meticulous analysis of Carl Johan Gurt, Stockholm Karen Blixen’s novel Gengældelsens veje (The An- gelic Avengers) as a work about Denmark under the Nazis. The novel was published in 1944 and has many features that really belong in the Gothic. The Fiction and Reality from Many Angles interpretation of the book as a fiction in which to Fiktion och verklighet. Mångvetenskapliga möten. clothe the fear of contemporary reality is convinc- Anna Bohlin & Lena Gemzöe (eds.). Makadam för- ing. lag, Göteborg/Stockholm 2016. 284 pp. Ill. ISBN Popular culture is produced to a large extent out 978-91-7061-198-8. of fictitious ideas about what people want. Above all, it must be viewed as entertainment. In that state-  In a dozen articles, the two editors and ten culture ment one can read an implicit assumption that enter- researchers explore the relationship between fiction tainment is of no importance. Elin Abrahamsson, and reality. Most of the authors are from Sweden, however, shows that girls’ culture for instance, also but this does not prevent them from analysing ob- contains quite a lot that has a basis in reality. In the jects from other countries. In this way one could say girl’s room one can dream of the future, but there is that the collection of articles has an international also the possibility, after negotiation, to adapt to re- value even though it is all in Swedish. ality and put up resistance to both reality and fiction. One of the editors, Anna Bohlin, begins the book Fanny Ambjörnsson and Ingeborg Svensson con- by promptly observing: “A desire for reality is typi- tribute a queer-feministic analysis of the television cal of our time.” This may be the case, although the reality show Paradise Hotel. The authors have done world is full of fantasy, girls’ dreams of a big, lavish participant observation, examining how viewers re- wedding, visions of becoming a celebrity, and sys- gard the series; they find that viewers do not accept tems that encourage competition to reach an im- what they see uncritically, but express a realistic dis- aginary summit or achieve eternal youth. tance to it in the camp sense of security that collec- Many of the articles consist of literary analyses. tive viewing gives. It goes without saying that there is an essay about One group of articles deals with pilgrimages. Karl Ove Knausgård’s Min kamp (My Struggle). Lena Gemzöe has noticed an interaction between Annika Olsson examines how a reader can view and going on pilgrimages and literary descriptions of understand Knausgård’s large opus. Although it pilgrimages and observes that the sensation of the gives the impression of being a description of reali- pilgrimage is determined to some extent by literary ty, so faithful that it could be classed as an ethno- accounts of events, thoughts, and experiences of pil- graphic account of Nordic society in the twenty-first grimage. Correspondingly, the literary descriptions century, it has obviously fictitious elements that lead the pilgrim, at least in certain respects, to ex- erase the dividing line between fiction and reality, a pect and apprehend the journey as being a predeter- problem that is often discussed by readers who love mined sequence of events. Fredrika Bremer is one of historical novels about real people. The readers’ the earliest authors to describe experiences of pil- ability to identify with the text and recognize them- grimage in Swedish. Anna Bohlin devotes a study to selves and their own life situation in it is more inter- Bremer’s memoirs of a journey to Italy, Turkey, esting to think about than the question of what is the Greece, and Palestine in the mid nineteenth century. 212 Reviews

Bohlin wants to see which kind of reality Fredrika usually associated with a skeleton, because of the Bremer ascribes significance to and how this hap- discourses prevailing in today’s Swedish society. pens. The relationship between the physical place, Music films as a way of creating a home district for example in Jerusalem, and Bremer’s sacred are the object of Ingemar Grandin’s interest. He geography becomes the central point in the article. performs a highly systematic analysis of thirty The lesson is perhaps that we see how inconsistent Nepalese music films and shows how they are en- Bremer is when she argues with herself about the hanced to correspond to a fictitious ideal image of meanings of the holy places. It is clear to the reader a Nepal that is outside time. He draws good paral- that sensory impressions and physical experiences lels to Swedish local history research and Artur make the journey into a pilgrimage. Hazelius’ ideas about Skansen and what that Karin Becker and Geska Brečević have spent open-air museum would represent. The concept of time in southern Mexico and have seen there how an nationalism is central to Grandin’s way of viewing artists’ colony grew up in a village called Santa his material. Nostalgia and imagined memories of Ana, where the inhabitants took advantage of the a homeland long-since vanished but still familiar to opportunity to present their patron saint in different “everyone” are the ingredients in the Nepalese mu- contexts. Santa Ana is not just the village’s patron sic films. saint in a theological sense but also functions as a The book Fiction and Reality opens and closes uniting factor in the village when artists and ama- with long chapters by Anna Bohlin and Lena teurs agree to build a chapel in her honour to devel- Gemzöe respectively, providing a more general op the village through the use of history, partly in view of the idea behind the book and the articles. order to improve the economy. The figure of Santa The work is informative and inspiring for scholars Ana was rendered “modern” when it was animated, in the disciplines represented: archaeology, gender installed in an iPod which was then placed in a little studies, culture studies, literature, media studies, reliquary, which was to be replaced through time and anthropology. I found it interesting to learn that with a chapel. Catholic folk piety and the local reli- scholars of literature are rarely concerned with read- gion were blended to give a functional whole. The ers and their reactions and attitudes to what they figure of Santa Ana combines many earlier layers of have read. It is surprising that this is possible in a time which can be brought out in the observer’s time when people are placed at the centre in virtual- gaze. She occurs as a statue, as a newly made doll, ly every respect. I was also struck by the statement and later as a digitized figure, and people tell local that some of the articles formulate a methodological stories about her. A similar process is described by approach that places religion in cultural research – Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, who considers the Vik- as if this were something out of the ordinary. Reli- ing Age female figure called Estrid. Estrid is a skel- gion is in fact a form of cultural expression, as eton found by archaeologists at Broby bridge in scholars of religion have demonstrated for several Täby, in the Stockholm region, an area long known decades. Moreover, the Société Internationale for its many runic stones. The skeleton was recon- d’Ethnologie et de Folklore has a vigorous section structed and given a human-like appearance as both called Ethnology of Religion, founded by the Swe- a young and an old woman, and the name Estrid was dish ethnologist Nils-Arvid Bringéus. It has been ac- bestowed on her. The reconstruction of the young tive for almost 25 years, and even before that there woman was placed in a museum while the old Estrid were countless studies of folk religiosity. found her place outside the local museum, in the When a book is interdisciplinary and multidis- library, and she was given a biography as a powerful ciplinary, methodology is put to the test. In this col- Christian woman and mother during the period that lection of articles each author has his or her own historians call the Viking Age, which has mythical way of illuminating the material from different associations in popular consciousness. Thanks to the methodological angles. It is rewarding to see how biography, she enjoyed a life long after her own people in different disciplines go about obtaining re- time, as a figure on the museum’s website and as the sults. Given that the readers presumably also repre- title of a citizens’ newspaper. Danielsson very suc- sent different disciplines, some of the authors could cessfully demonstrates how an archaeological find well have presented their methods in more detail to takes on completely different meanings than those assist people in neighbouring disciplines who might Reviews 213

perhaps like to experiment with ingredients from a where the prison staff were placed and where new research field. To sum up, I can say that the law-abiding citizens lived? The punishment did not book is a good example of cultural scholarship in a just send the prisoners into a dark cell, but also back broad sense, as it includes articles based on varied to a different, bygone time. They were therefore not material, varied questions, and alternating methods. punished (solely) with darkness itself, but by being Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo (Turku) symbolically denied access to the light of modern society. The latter was no doubt the worst thing. In any case, the punishment appears to have had no ef- The History of Night fect; the women did not become less insubordinate. Darkness is intimately associated with night. Gunnar Broberg, Nattens historia. Nordiskt mörker Night and darkness have been interpreted and un- och ljus under tusen år. Natur och Kultur, Stock- derstood in different ways throughout history, and holm 2016. 432 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-27144-14-9. this is in focus in the latest book by the historian of ideas Gunnar Broberg, the title of which means  I remember once reading that darkness was an es- “The History of Night”. It is a large, heavy book sential precondition for successful riots, since it con- with over 400 pages, which might perhaps have cealed the rioters and enabled them to escape quick- ly into invisibility. The French Revolution, accord- benefited from being abridged somewhat to make it ing to this way of thinking, could not have taken more inviting to handle. The author states that this is place without darkness. Here darkness was some- not a book about the major events but about the thing positive, although otherwise it has usually had small changes that are not always so visible. He also negative connotations. In the folk imagination, as writes: “The humanities are perhaps the true science expressed in the material preserved in the folklore of night because they are about the obscurity of the archives, darkness is always linked to evil and de- human mind and the insights of darkness.” The structive forces. book thus begs to be read! Darkness has always provided cover for hidden The title reveals that this is a book about Nordic (= evil, forbidden, sinful) things to happen. The darkness and light over a thousand years. Somehow darkness is to be cursed. We talk about the darkness the “thousand-year perspective” seems obsolete and of the Middle Ages, the Prince of Darkness, and so rather off-putting. It reminds me of the scholarly on. In the decadent Berlin of the 1920s, darkness, in ideals of bygone times, where a historical survey the sense of the sinful night time, was what attracted from past to present was often more important than people to forbidden pleasures that could not stand the author’s logical reasoning. Do I want a thou- the light of day. But night was also the time or the sand-year perspective? Do I want to be able to fol- state when sharp daylight was replaced by a soft, low night from the Middle Ages to the present day? embellishing darkness that did not expose flaws as No, I don’t. I would rather see the author examine in cruelly as daylight did. At night all cats were grey, depth some interesting aspects, problems, or per- and even the most obscure and shady activities spectives than provide a long historical survey. And found greater acceptance than in daylight. in fact Broberg does not strictly give us a thou- The negative discourse of darkness includes, for sand-year history; he selects specific eras and phe- example, the punitive function. In the women’s nomena from the Middle Ages via the Enlighten- prison in Norrmalm, which I recently studied, dis- ment and the romantic period up to modern-day obedient and insubordinate women were punished at lighting, considering these in some depth. the end of the nineteenth century by being confined Since Broberg is extremely knowledgeable and in a dark cell. Most of the women were from the motivated by a desire to share his huge learning, the countryside, where electrification was still limited, book is not just a survey of different aspects of so they ought to have been well used to darkness. night, darkness, and light but also a series of history Was the point of the punishment really the darkness lessons in a broader context. The author takes his of the cell? Or was the dark cell perhaps also a sym- many examples from very disparate places. A rather bolic expression of the unenlightened, unmodern so- entertaining example he cites is the practice of night ciety where the prisoners were thought to belong, courtship or “bundling” (nattfrieri). It was a custom whereas the light outside was the modern world in peasant society that young men went visiting girls 214 Reviews

when they were sleeping in the outhouses in sum- a new symbolic value, creating an atmosphere rather mer. There the boy could get into bed with the girl than being a true source of light. Candles are he visited, but he was not allowed to touch her or mass-produced consumables which can be bought at take off his clothes. In this way the young people low prices. We throw away candle stumps because could sound each other out before they proceeded to they are of no value to us. That would have been un- courtship and marriage. This bed-sharing was inno- reasonable wastefulness in former times. Yet the cent in character, but still the church raged against it world has been lighter at night than it is today. Dur- because the clergy could not control the custom and ing the oil crisis of the 1970s, a lot of street lighting did not approve of “folk households” of this kind. was switched off to save energy. Only some of it has Broberg takes a completely different example of been lit once again. Now I am used to it, but I re- the attraction of night from romantic musicians and member the difference when my street became dark, poets such as Frédéric Chopin and Erik Johan really dark. The darkest place in my contemporary Stagnelius, many of whose works have night as experience, however, is the cemetery on All Saints’ their theme. And certainly, the romantic period Day. Dark as a bag, because that was the evening was the era of night at its darkest. It was also the when all the beautiful lanterns and candles were to age of vampires, who prefer to operate at night. On be lit. I had serious problems sticking to the paths. the way into the modern age, these beings were Everything was black, and the many lighted candles driven away by electrification and enlightenment did not help much. It took some time before my eyes (at least) in our parts of the world, and the signifi- were accustomed and I was able to find my bear- cance of night partly changed with the coming of ings. Would it have been equally hard for me two light. But vampires and other nocturnal beings do hundred years ago? not disappear. They adapt and survive, albeit in These are some of the thoughts aroused in me by new conditions. Nattens historia. It is hard, however, to do justice to Is it perhaps the case that we are more afraid of Broberg’s book in a short review, since the content the dark now when the world is lit up? Was fear of is so multifaceted and varied. The book is also of a the dark impossible in the past when the world was kind that must be read more than once to be properly dark at night, when the whole winter was coal-black appreciated. Quite simply, it takes time to enter into in some places? In that dark society people had to it, since the many examples of the significance of accept that many jobs could not be done after night- darkness require constant reflection by the reader. fall. At the same time, we may be surprised that But it also provides reading for a long, long winter. people could nevertheless do so much with such bad A slight criticism is that the beautiful colour illustra- lighting: sew, write, and read, for example. People tions are grouped together at two places in the book. had no choice but to get used to darkness. An ex- I would have preferred to see them beside the text ample of this is the phenomenon of kura skymning, where they belong. sitting out the dusk; instead of lighting candles or Agneta Lilja, Huddinge lamps as soon as it began to grow dark, people sat in the gathering darkness, accustomed their eyes to it, and let the body relax. My grandmother did this in Norwegian Outdoor Life her kitchen all her life. We often had our most inti- Arne Lie Christensen, Ut i det fri. Livet på setra, mate conversations then, as darkness laid its concili- hytta og landstedet. Pax forlag, Oslo 2015. 320 pp. atory and forgiving veil over the world and over us. Ill. ISBN 978-82-530-3795. Still today I think I try to economize on light when darkness falls. I very rarely, if ever, switch on the  Norwegians’ relation to nature has for many years ceiling light. been essential in the conception of Norwegian iden- Broberg’s book ends in the contemporary flow of tity, both for Norwegians themselves and for for- electric light. Much of the world is light around the eigners. This book gives a cultural-historical back- clock. Not everyone sleeps at night. The time when ground to the development of this relation. work had to stop when darkness fell is a thing of the An integral element in this relation is the second distant past. Nor do we need to save candles any home that many have. This relation is a point of de- more; since electrification came they have taken on parture in the book. The author unfolds this theme in Reviews 215

the preface. He tells about his own second home and A Perfectly Ordinary Person? how his values for the use of it have changed, corre- Palle Ove Christiansen, Den legende borgermand. sponding to technological changes. En embedsmands oplevelser i billeder, fotos og ord In the next chapters the author explains life in the 1865–1948. Forlaget Vandkunsten, København second home in a broad cultural-historical context, 2016. 157 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-7695-413-0. relating it to the development of outdoor life in gen- eral and to local inhabitants in the areas that these  A perfectly ordinary person. The kind of person urban people visit – and to nature as well. who is a part of history in a collective, but as an in- Next is a text on the social and cultural con- dividual rarely leaves enough of an impression to struction of the sæter (summer farm) household end up in a researcher’s focus. Or perhaps there and the social organization of fishing in Lofoten. should be a question mark after the phrase “a per- The tourists often looked on life at the sæter as fectly ordinary person”? For even though that is idyllic, when in reality it was very heavy. This part how I started reading the latest book by the Danish is interesting, but could in my opinion have been cultural historian Palle Ove Christiansen, “The shorter with an emphasis on the relation to urban Bourgeois Man at Play: A Public Servant’s Experi- outdoor life when it just was urban people who ences in Pictures, Photos and Words, 1865–1948”, I were interested in this. However, the author also soon start wondering about the adjective “ordinary”. focuses on the relations between the local people What is an ordinary person, and what can his or her and the holiday visitors. life story tell us about how existence was shaped by In the next chapter the author writes on second the individuals who lived their lives together but homes in the nineteenth century. also how they shaped their living conditions on the As a special Norwegian national symbol the au- basis of the circumstances surrounding them? This thor highlights the peis that was formerly a universal also puts the concept of “everyday life” in the fireplace in peasants’ houses. Before the end of the centre, and with that as a guiding star we follow the nineteenth century it was replaced by iron stoves, author’s grandfather, a cashier at Det Kongelige As- but around the turn of the century this peis, ideally sistenshus (The Royal Pawn), Georg Alexander Christiansen, through all the things that make up made of soapstone, became a symbol of national ro- everyday life, but also the things that he found en- manticism. In the opinion of the author this is a part joyable and made life worth living. of the Norwegian hygge, so it is a symbol of authen- The scene in this book is, above all, bourgeois ticity. I should add that the fire in the stove obvious- Copenhagen. Georg Alexander was born in a rela- ly gives a social focus for the social group in the tively well-off family, but his father was defrauded room. A part of this symbolic value is that the peis and the family economy suffered. Despite this, was formerly the place for cooking, in addition to Georg Alexander’s life did not change noticeably; providing some light. with the aid of good friends he was able to lead a The next chapter is about urban outdoor life in re- fairly free life. He began early on to keep a diary, to cent times. The contrast to life and work in the city draw and paint. Through nine chapters we follow is an essential key. Georg Alexander Christiansen through his life, start- The finishing chapter highlights the role of doing ing with his youthful existence in Copenhagen in the something in the second home with one’s own 1880s, to married life with the serious Vilhelmine, hands. As an excellent example the author has a pic- family life and the 47 years as an employee at the ture of himself at a wooden Chinese bridge that he Royal Pawn, and finally the last phase of his life. In himself has made. He stresses that his own work is other words, this is an account of a life from the essential and a part of his identification with this carefree youthful years to the duties of a public offi- second home. The history of the house is essential cial and a family breadwinner. The book about too: it was once the home of a fisher peasant. When Georg Alexander Christiansen follows a classical returning to this second home the author is returning life-course theme, where the focus is also on signifi- to an authentic, frugal, pre-modern life for a limited cant events in his life. His life took a specific direc- time. tion with his marriage to Vilhelmine, an intelligent Ole Rud Nielsen, Åbo (Turku) and highly religious woman who ran the household 216 Reviews

with an iron hand, and his decision to remain pas- and turns it so that it is not so much about everyday sive in a relationship that would define his life. existence and more about what goes on inside a per- Through the diaries Georg Alexander left behind, son. Christiansen’s book thus becomes a journey the author is able to paint a vivid picture of his into a man from the petty bourgeoisie, who ex- grandfather. But the diaries are not the only traces of presses himself in his collecting, his painting, and Georg Alexander’s life. He had the soul of an artist, his diaries. These everyday thoughts, experiences, who found an outlet for his creativity, not in his ca- and dreams are the kind of things that usually disap- reer but in leisure time when he painted, took photo- pear when a person does. This is where Georg Alex- graphs, and wrote in his diaries, which became more ander ceases to be one of these “ordinary” people, like scrapbooks. These, together with the picture and it is precisely through the rich material pre- that the family history paints of him and his family, served after his death that he is unique – as all constitute the foundation for what we know about people really are and become, in cases where it is the life of a perfectly ordinary person – Georg Alex- possible to study them in the same way that Chris- ander – and the dreams and experiences it consists tiansen has been able to gain access to his grand- of. father’s innermost self. Christiansen takes his readers to a Copenhagen The book clearly shows us Palle Ove Chris- that no longer exists. We are given a rare glimpse of tiansen’s ethnological gaze. He combines different the life of a Copenhagen official. The style in which types of written sources with pictures and with the the author explains things, with no interest in telling handed-down stories about a family and a man he us “what it was really like”, makes it possible for the never really got to know. Here Christiansen himself reader to experience the complex existence that is a draws attention to the dangers of being too close to human life. It is seldom possible for a researcher to the person you are writing about. Does his relation- get so close to people from a bygone time. The rich ship to Georg Alexander blur his researcher’s gaze? material left by Georg Alexander is of course a cru- Or is this a risk that comes with all research centred cial factor in this. on individuals? Perhaps this close kinship can even Georg Alexander did not distinguish himself in be an advantage for Christiansen. His knowledge of any way. Not in public circles, not in career terms, the family history, in combination with the exten- and not socially or even within his own circles of ac- sive source material, perhaps opens doors that quaintances. He was a responsible public servant, would otherwise be closed. At the same time, Chris- took care of his family, and was like most other tiansen is a skilful writer who guides the reader with people in many ways. At the same time, with the a sure hand through the chapters of the book. Some- help of the picture that Christiansen paints of his times I feel that I too, as a reader, have come close grandfather, he stands out as unique in many ways. to this Georg Alexander, that I have developed a re- He devoted his spare time not just to his diaries but lationship with him and in a way “got to know” also to amateur painting and later amateur photogra- what makes him a person. This is not without prob- phy. Since his early youth he had collected lots of lems, of course. It is clear that Georg Alexander had things: postcards, letters, napkins from restaurants a rich inner life, where he found the strength to cope and variety theatres, place cards, tickets, labels, cut- with everyday life with a dominant wife and a mo- tings, programmes, dried flowers from excursions, notonous job. But the question is, how willing and much besides. Some of these ended up as illus- would he have been to share all this with strangers? trations in the diaries, but mostly he just collected This is an important issue that I would have liked to them. Georg Alexander seldom records difficulties, see more discussion of. problems, or setbacks in the diaries. Nor does he de- It is well worth mentioning the treasury of pic- scribe the major historical events that happened dur- tures in the book. The illustrations are of good qual- ing his life. Perhaps the diaries and his painting and ity, enabling a detailed study of Georg Alexander’s photography were a kind of escape from reality, a diary entries and his drawings. It is easy to imagine haven he sought when he felt that his life was that a great many pictures have not been included – cramped, and where he created a universe of his a whole life with pen in hand, constantly taking own, to suit him and his needs. And this is where notes, drawing and painting, must have generated a Christiansen skilfully captures this “ordinariness” wealth of pictures. Together with the pictures, the Reviews 217

diary notes, constitute Georg Alexander’s life. The changes were made to the way animals were kept a cover of the book shows a photograph of a middle- few decades ago, Skansen sold its polar bears, to the aged Georg Alexander, sitting with his dog and an great dismay of many. Yet the bear park Orsa easel. He is smiling and looking straight into the Grönklitt still has polar bears. The most famous camera. The inside covers, on the other hand, are polar bear in captivity in its day, however, was little marbled in blue and brown shades to resemble the Knut in Berlin Zoo, which became the public notebooks that Georg Alexander himself used. favourite and a commercial success in 2006. There Palle Ove Christiansen’s book is a fine example were even songs about it, such as “Knut is cute”. of good ethnological research based on fascinating In our time it is perhaps not primarily the polar historical material. Georg Alexander Christiansen bear as something to see in a zoo that makes it such steps out of the shadows in an engaging way a palpable part of our consciousness. Instead it is the through Christiansen’s vivid language, both as an worrying signs of climate change, with the polar ice individual and as part of a collective. cap rapidly shrinking, which have made the polar Marie Steinrud, Stockholm bear, more than any other species, into what we could call, with a typical modern cliché, an Arctic icon. We have seen film clips of polar bears sliding A Cultural History of the Polar Bear around on melting ice floes. At the same time, the Michael Engelhard, Ice Bear: The Cultural History modern tourist industry makes it possible for us to of an Arctic Icon. University of Washington Press, go on trips to Svalbard and Greenland in the hope of Seattle 2016. 304 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-0295999227. seeing polar bears. Interestingly, despite the fact that Greenland is a part of the Nordic community, na-  Part of the international image of Sweden for a nook, the Greenlandic name for the polar bear, is long time included the idea not just that women probably the only word from Greenlandic/Kalaal- were tall and blonde but also that wild polar bears lisut that can be expected to have spread to the other roamed the streets of Stockholm. Of course, there Nordic countries. There is no doubt, however, that were no polar bears in the streets of Stockholm, an the polar bear is a charismatic species with a power- odd cliché, one might think, but it was taken seri- ful cultural charge for people, both in its own imme- ously in countries like the USA. More than anything diate environment and in the world as a whole. else, it is evidence of a stereotyped analysis of the The polar bear is a predator that leads a nomadic world. On the other hand, there have been, and still life in the Arctic Ocean and on the tundra. The are, polar bears in captivity even in Scandinavia. In species is actually the only predator that views hu- AD 894 King Harald of Norway received two young mans primarily as prey. People in the Arctic have polar bears as a gift from a Norse settler in Iceland. therefore viewed it as both divine and an enemy, but Haakon IV of Norway sent a polar bear to the Holy also as a food resource, and in recent years as a Roman Emperor Frederick II, who sent it on to Sul- strong symbol of the ecological crisis in which we tan El-Kamil of Damascus in 1234. In the 1250s find ourselves. For thousands of years mankind has King Haakon IV also sent a polar bear to Henry III interacted with the polar bear, as is manifested, for of England. The first polar bears came to Sweden in instance, in preserved artefacts. The author of this the seventeenth century (see my article in Svenska book, Michael Engelhard, has a degree in anthropol- Linnésällskapets Årsskrift 2016). The best-known of ogy from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, but them is the polar bear that the young Tsar Peter gave he works as a wilderness guide and has taken an in- in April 1685 to Karl XI, and which was kept terest in the place of the polar bear in human cultural chained on Helgeandsholmen, where it was able to history. The result is a rich volume, illustrated with dive into the waters of Stockholm and catch its own 170 pictures, 145 of them in colour. fish. The polar bear came from Novaya Zemlya and In Engelhard’s book we are given a broad survey was portrayed by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. of the polar bear, predominantly consisting of cul- For much of the twentieth century the Skansen tural zoology. The author traces human interaction zoo had polar bears, which regularly had young. The with polar bears 10,000 years back in time, when cute polar bear cubs were one of the most popular finds from the De Long Islands off the coast of Sibe- postcard motifs from Skansen in their day. When ria are evidence of meetings with local hunters who 218 Reviews

killed females in particular. The famous Knut is (Snow White), born in 1938 at Skansen, was a polar treated in a separate chapter called “The Life and bear cub that aroused almost the same interest Death of a Superstar”, which shows that the atten- among the public and was cherished by the press in tion he attracted also led to conflicts with organiza- the same way as Knut. tions like PETA. But the public won. They adored The role of the polar bear in cult and beliefs Knut (as I was able to see for myself on a visit to among the Inuit and other circumpolar peoples is Berlin). People still leave flowers in memory of the subject of a chapter. The author also considers Knut at a bronze plaque erected as a memorial in the the erotic charge of polar bear skins, not least in zoo. Like another Jim Morrison, Knut suffered a art. We may remind ourselves that the Swedish tragic and premature death, which nevertheless national poet Verner von Heidenstam is said to made him immortal. He was losing the cuteness fac- have seduced his much younger wife-to-be, Greta tor the older he grew. Sjöberg, on a polar bear rug when she was still a Through early data from Japan, via Norse sources teenager. to early modern travel accounts and maps, the au- The illustrations in Engelhard’s book are exqui- thor illustrates dramatic and peaceful meetings with site, full of exciting angles and almost all of interest polar bears through the ages. One chapter is dedi- as cultural history. Special praise should go to the cated to the place of the polar bear in the history of cover picture of Adolf Nordholm’s “At the North zoological science. Interestingly, it was not Lin- Pole – polka for violin and piano” from 1897, with a naeus who gave the polar bear its scientific name. fantastic scene of dancing Inuit and polar bears Linnaeus knew of Friedrich Martin’s description of playing instruments. There are plenty of photo- it from 1675, but since he never saw a polar bear graphs of wild polar bears elsewhere, so I appreciate himself, he regarded it as a white variety of the ordi- the way the author has taken pains to find captivat- nary brown bear. Instead it was the English explorer ing illustrations. The result is an engrossing, wide- Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave, who in ranging presentation of the cultural zoology of what his account in 1774 of an Arctic journey left us the is, after all, an Arctic icon. To give an understanding first valid description of the polar bear and gave it of mankind’s close relationship to other species we its scientific name. need more books of this kind. Cultural zoology is a Polar bear hunting is given a chapter of its own. It genre that advances our knowledge of mankind’s reminds me of when I was in Nanortalik (a town complex relations to other species. with three polar bears in its coat of arms) over 15 Ingvar Svanberg, Uppsala years ago and interviewed an old east Greenland hunter, who was legendary in his community for having shot a very large number of polar bears in his Sensitive Objects, Fleeting Atmospheres youth, but who now, in his autumn years, passed the Sensitive Objects. Affect and Material Culture. Jo- time with something as peaceful as doing exquisite nas Frykman & Maja Povrzanović Frykman (eds.). beadwork and knitting sweaters for his grandchil- Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2016. 285 pp. Ill. dren! In Sweden too, the romance of polar bear ISBN 978-91-87675-66-9. hunting has left its mark in stories and songs. From my youth I remember Tor Bergner of the Klara Bo-  The primary question posed by this edited vol- hemians singing a song about polar bear hunters in ume, Sensitive Objects: Affect and Material Culture, Hammerfest. concerns objects becoming “sensitive”, the moment There is a particularly fascinating chapter about when they become affecting, loaded with affective polar bears in zoos and circuses. Even Sweden had value or feelings of various kinds. In the volume polar bears in circuses in the 1950s. In the nine- there are several examples of objects or things (not teenth century there were polar bears in travelling necessarily meaning the same) which become sensi- menageries. The many polar bears around 1900 at tive. One such text is Orvar Löfgren’s inventive es- the fairground Stockholms Tivoli, the present-day say on how baggage, especially when women pack Soliden, were taken over in 1906 by Skansen and suitcases in movies, start to vibrate with a content laid the foundation for large-scale breeding of the which make both the pictures of them and the bag- species. Skansen kept polar bears until 1984. Snövit gage sensitive, loaded with something quite special Reviews 219

which becomes deeply moving to the viewer. An- enue) which points towards contradictions in what other example is from Jonas Frykman’s essay she calls systematic observations – characterized by “Done By Inheritance”, which can be read as a observations of events and persons and attempts to Proustian display of how questions of inheritance describe these – which easily take on rhetorical, might be handled in conjunction with the dispersion metaphorical meanings. Lundgren notes that her ap- of a home, a detached house or a flat and the con- proach has its basis in discourse theory, discourses tents of this property being split up, for example, af- being understood as materialized, as practices, with ter the death of the heirs’ parents. Frykman shows, the addition that there is a turn taking place towards in a way which is akin to Löfgren’s method, how the observing subject, a turn which also problema- certain things are loaded with an especially strong tizes the same subject. And what will be understood affective value and can start to function as symbols, as causes of things happening are, in her view, perhaps even as some kind of “memory icons” of against a discursive thinking, individuals, not struc- the type the Polish cultural historian Krzysztof Po- tures or norms. A similar turn dominates the Sens- mian has named semiophor. Using as research mate- ible Objects volume, which makes it quite important rial these kinds of breakups in the mundane world, above all as an example of how ethnological re- Frykman is able to show how strong feelings of search could start to renew both its theoretical ap- various kinds are put in motion in conjunction with paratus of concepts and its way of studying the a question of inheritance, problems which may serve world, and indirectly not only the research objects as both foci for storytelling and entries into past but also the observing and written ethnographer. worlds. In certain cases such inheritance disputes Perhaps the most pressing question the volume can lead to siblings becoming into foes who never poses – and tries to answer – is the one about how an again want to see each other or talk to each other. existentialist-phenomenological approach grounded What makes this book so fascinating is that the in Heideggerian categories such as Dasein, vorhan- question of the sensitivity of the objects and their den, zuhanden, Befindlichkeit, or in Kierkegaard’s possibilities to influence and communicate is allied discussion about Angst and anxiety, presented and to some other questions with both an ontological analysed in an excellent way by Nils Gilje in the and an epistemological bearing. The volume can be book – could be used in mundane ethnographical re- looked upon as an attempt, if not to answer the ques- search with a credible methodological approach. tions involved in an exhaustive way then at least to The fact that Jonas Frykman, who obviously has bring the questions into a current ethnological re- functioned as primus inter pares in the work on the search practice, one which up till now has been volume – his earlier cooperation with Nils Gilje, in dominated by a more textual, more discursive or in- e.g. the volume Being There (2003) is an important tersectional and above all more constructivist per- point of reference, as is Frykman’s own neo-phe- spective on the research methods and practices in nomenological offering in the book Berörd (2012) this field. To see that this is indeed the case one with its subtitle Plats, kropp och ting i fenomenolo- need not look further than to some of the edited gisk kulturanalys (Place, body and thing in phenom- volumes produced in Swedish within the ethnologi- enological cultural analysis) – so decisively con- cal research field in this millennium with an ambi- nects material culture with affect, makes this a book tion to answer questions of epistemology and in cer- of great interest and importance. tain cases also ontology, such as Gösta Arvastson & But the volume is perhaps even more interesting Billy Ehn’s Etnologiska observationer (2009), Lena because the sensitive objects and the affects are po- Gemzöe’s Nutida etnografi: Reflektioner från me- sitioned in a triangular field. The third side of the diekonsumtionens fält (2004) or Barbro Blehr’s triangle is something which cannot directly be con- Kritisk etnologi: Artiklar till Åke Daun (2001). But sidered an object – if so it is a highly fleeting one – in Etnologiska observationer, for instance, one can but not as an actual subject either, but more some- note that it is possible to combine a discourse-theory thing in between, a kind of fleeting “ether” or in- perspective with what could be called a more phe- deed atmosphere, which is the sector where the af- nomenological or performative approach, as in fects emerge most clearly and the material aspect of Anna Sofia Lundgren’s essay “Störning på Holland the field evaporates and becomes, if not immaterial, Park Avenue” (Disturbance on Holland Park Av- then markedly intersubjective. 220 Reviews

So, what is atmosphere if one reads this volume? cursive is linked to this and opens the field to the There are many entries to the concept in the index to philosophical work being done in many different the book, roughly the same amount as there are to corners of the world today concerning realism ver- another other central concepts in the volume: object. sus idealism, materialism versus immaterialism, It seems as though atmospheres possess a rather Kant versus Heidegger, and also questions of how dualistic nature: they have both a subjective and a phenomenology has been interpreted by thinkers collective and not least intersubjective side. In my such as Deleuze, Levinas and Derrida. By underlin- reading the questions concerning atmosphere are the ing the importance of the object in phenomenology, book’s most important contribution when it comes questions about subjects and subjectivities, either to scientific advances. Frykman’s own contribution collective or individual ones, will have to be ad- in the essay on inheritance troubles is at the frontline dressed, for instance questions of how such collec- here. But there are still questions to be answered in tivities emerge, function and are maintained. Frykman’s text as well, and they concern the fleet- Methodologically a couple of the essays in the ing, quixotic nature of atmosphere, its moving posi- volume stand somewhat apart from the rest. One tions, something which makes it epistemologically such text is Orvar Löfgren’s research on what he part of a kind of postmodern world in which the calls “Emotional Baggage”, to be more specific the moving, fleeting aspects have priority over the static importance of suitcases and baggage in film, espe- one, stasis. But the question concerning its character cially Hollywood movies, an investigation based to remains to be answered: if the atmospheric obvious- a considerable extent on film, but not entirely since ly is neither an interior nor an exterior quality of the the study also combines the movie analyses with objects in question, then what is it exactly, this ele- history and field observations and therefore might ment operating in the interstices between several be considered a methodological bricolage in line different categories? The problem with Frykman’s with ethnographical analysis called non-representa- conception of atmosphere is that it is at the same tional theory, a field which cannot be equated with time very vague – he sometimes equates it with am- the kind of existentially accentuated phenomenolo- bience – as in much late modern or postmodern mu- gy that Frykman represents. sic, not least soundtracks, incidentally – and at other Another essay which might feel a little bit peri- times closely binds it to affects, preferring to speak pheral but at the same time is very interesting is Nils of affective atmospheres, as if this duo would al- Gilje’s “Moods and Emotions: Some Philosophical ways operate together. But this kind of conceptual- Reflections on the Affective Turn”. The peripheral ization does not take into account that atmosphere nature of the piece in this case has to do with the might well operate without a clear affect attached to strong emphasis on a history-of-ideas type of text it or vice versa, the affect carrying the atmosphere. which from an ethnographical point of view might In a special issue on atmospheres in the journal be seen as an outsider in this respect, but it is exe- Emotion, Space and Society, the editors, the Danish cuted with a penetrating inquiry into the works of researchers Mikkel Bille, Peter Bjerregaard & Tim Spinoza, Heidegger, Sartre and not least Kier- Flohr Sørensen, try to move behind this dualistic kegaard as to what today might be called a new model of atmosphere into one which is staged and branch of doing ethnographic work, in an existen- manipulated in different ways and researched even tialist-phenomenological or neo-phenomenological in historical contexts, then the complexity and am- way. Perhaps Kierkegaard’s discussion of the prob- biguity of the concept of atmosphere will gain lem of anxiety will in the end be the one which is strength and to my mind give it an even more press- most useful of the philosophers Gilje discusses as ing significance than it has in Sensitive Objects. regards further research within his tradition in eth- The question of atmosphere is also related to an- nology and cultural analysis. The fact that the nega- other issue which does not get a wholly satisfying tive affects seem to carry greater weight has been answer in this volume, the subject-object relation shown in the overall picture of affects provided for (the one which Lundgren was also interested in), a by Silvan Tomkins, one of the pioneers in this affec- question which a radical phenomenological research tive turn. Of the nine affects Tomkins has listed, two approach must be able to give credible answers to. are positive (joy, interest), one is neutral (surprise), The question of the pre-subjective and the pre-dis- but six are negative (anger, disgust, dissmell, dis- Reviews 221

tress, fear, shame). As the observant reader will are in the editors’ view always situated in a certain note, neither anxiety nor angst is listed among Tom- situation, and the person in question has to confront kins’ categories of affect. The step from affects to this situation where things such as affects are related what the cultural historian Karin Johannisson de- to objects, as for instance when an upset woman scribes in her book Melankoliska rum (2013), what (from Frykman’s chapter on inheritance struggles) could be called affective syndromes, is another story breaks a vase in anger. This is, the editors write, an well worth pursuing further. Johannisson describes a example of what Heidegger meant with the concept range of phobias which in an overwrought way of Befindlichkeit, a situation in which affects make point towards threatening images of the life world things mean something, a complex chain of relations we experience. It might be, she concludes, that which can be experienced immediately and which agoraphobia, claustrophobia and vertigo, based on a become distinct. traditional conception of space and attuned to the lu- This volume and its research objects cross bound- cidity of planes, might be replaced by conceptions aries in a geographical way too. There are three dis- which relate to a new physical space, new technolo- tinct geographical boundaries in the material. A bloc gies and virtual realities. of texts – affectively the most charged here – deal In the introduction to the volume, entitled “Af- with different aspects of the highly turbulent recent fect and Material Culture: Perspectives and Strate- past of the Balkans, more specifically from the for- gies”, Jonas Frykman & Maja Povrzanović Fryk- mer Yugoslavia – these are Maja Povrzanović Fryk- man note that the writers of the book are interested man’s “Sensitive Objects of Humanitarian Aid” in practices and lived experiences which are al- (subtitled “Corporeal Memories and Affective Con- ways historically embedded. From this they con- tinuities”), Nevena Škrbić Alempijević & Sanja Pot- clude that objects are not to be understood with an konjak’s “The Titoaffect: Tracing Objects and independent affective charge. It is the practices, Memories of Socialism in Postsocialist Croatia” and praxis, when people use objects or become inspired Stef Jansen’s “Ethnography and the Choices Posed by environments, which they research, and it is by the ‘Affective Turn’”. Jansen’s research object is people who are telling the researchers about their located in Bosnia Herzegovina, although the text is practices as goal-oriented, meaningful and affec- above all methodologically cued and offers a phe- tively charged, they note, with a reference to an nomenologically oriented researcher several differ- earlier text by a contributor to the volume, Stef ent possibilities for building up a robust methodolo- Jansen. gy. There is a family resemblance between Jansen’s In the next step in the ontological grounding of essay and Löfgren’s since both in their research use their research method the editors refer to Martin not only fieldwork but also movies as material. Of Heidegger. Here his well-known thought that it is the texts focusing on the Balkans, perhaps the most impossible to experience the world cognitively illuminating as to the power of affective objects is without being affectively attuned or in a certain the one by Maja Povrzanović Frykman on the emo- mood is emphasized, but it seems that for the editors tional and affective charge which material goods Heidegger’s thoughts on affects and material culture handed out in humanitarian aid during the war are even more important in this context. Especially 1992–95 still hold over those who were subjects of the questions of tools and instruments are, they hold, the aid rations. The links between affects, memory central to Heidegger’s system. Tools, they write, are and storytelling here are quite strong and they also designed to be used by the owner of the tools at a fill the essay with a powerful emotional charge. given moment (they are zuhanden), but when they No fewer than four of the essays here are based happen to break they are vorhanden and give the on research material from Norway. These are Britt user a reason to contemplate their construction. A Kramvig & Anne Britt Flemmen’s “What Alters tool which is vorhanden is an object which gets a When the Traditional Sámi Costume Travels? A name, which can be pondered on and gets its cul- Study of Affective Investments in the Sápmi”, Eli- tural significance though an inventory of the rest of sabet Sørfjorddal Hauge’s “In the Mood: Place and the tools. In this way the tool, the object becomes a Tools in the Music Industry with a Focus on Entre- symbol or a representation. preneurship”, Kirsti Mathiesen Hjemdahl & Jonas Heideggerian Stimmung or moods and feelings Frykman’s “Innovation and Embodiment in a Small 222 Reviews

Town Hotel” and Sarah Holst Kjær’s “The Perform- When reading the well-researched articles by ative Museum: Designing a Total Experience”. Kirsti Mathiesen Hjemdahl & Jonas Frykman on in- The third geographical area which the volume novation and embodiment in a small town hotel in deals with is Southwest Texas. which is the place in southern Norway or by Sarah Holst Kjær on the per- which a probing phenomenological cultural analysis formative museum and tourist attraction in Southern is performed by Lesley Stern and Kathleen Stewart Norway called the Lindesnes Lighthouse, a feeling (the latter known for her book Ordinary Affects akin to watching a feel-good movie or a romantic from 2007), “Companion Pieces Written Through a comedy starts creeping in. This might have some- Drift”, performed in a spirit of experimental ethnog- thing to do with both these objects and clusters of raphy in the form of a travelogue of these peripheral objects being quite striking aesthetically, situated as and mostly desolate parts of Texas. A result of the they are in the tourist industry which by its very na- experiment is a double report of how to take in and ture in many ways is adjacent to genres of entertain- how to write about a trip which all the time is a per- ment in e.g. cinema, from detective stories to ro- formance and an opening to sensations and vibra- mantic comedies or melodrama. My question is tions which the “ordinary” ethnographer or traveller simply one about emerging narrative genres and does not necessary experience. The research method sentimental structures to be reckoned with in the requires an openness to nature, atmospheres, feel- ethnographic storytelling taking place. I think these ings, anxieties, but also to symbols of various kinds types of often “minor” genres and aesthetic cate- and a certain staging (which interestingly enough gories are constantly on the move today and might links it to the findings of the Danish research group coalesce in ways we haven’t understood well mentioned earlier in this review). The performance enough yet, not even in an otherwise quite impres- is akin to both a road movie and a form of writing sive volume like this one. associated with authors such as Rebecca Solnit or To conclude: the enigma is still unsolved: when Georges Perec. With help from memory work and a patterns of behaviour, genres from different media situational performative logic, with special objects, and art forms and registers of gestures are brought in above all a cardboard rooster, bought by one of the into this type of study, will this move dissolve the ethnographers and photographed in various posi- possible pre-discursive and pre-reflexive aspects of tions in the landscape, the writers try to open up the these relations between what we have learned to call ethnological field in new ways. This text concludes subject and that which we call object and undo this the volume and is well worth reading but at the same something which is more vague and elusive, such as the Heideggerian philosophical categories? time points towards the methodological challenges facing the neo-phenomenological approach. Sven-Erik Klinkmann, Vasa And there might still be something missing in this quite thorough and well-researched book on sensitive objects, affects and atmospheres, some- Danish Local History under Debate thing which above all poses questions of tem- Kim Furdal, Kampen om lokalhistorien. 1–2. Mu- porality, above all those concerning the relation- seum Sønderjylland, ISL-Lokalhistorie, Sønder- ship between the contemporary, the moment of borg 2016. 714 pp. Ill. English and German summa- “now” in the objects and affects analysed and ries. ISBN 978-87-88376-99-9. various aspects of the past and of the future. This problem is raised in some of the texts, especially  Kim Furdal, curator at Museum Sønderjylland, the one by Frykman on inheritance troubles and starts from the growing interest in local history stud- those from the turbulent recent history of the Bal- ies in Denmark since the 1970s. In this comprehen- kans in which questions of remembrance play sive two-volume work with over seven hundred quite a decisive role in the affectual history writ- pages he gives a detailed historical account running ing that takes place in these ethnographies. But from the end of the nineteenth century to the con- there is still something lacking concerning the temporary focus on works of local history in Den- work to be done in affect studies of the kind this mark. The two books are based on the author’s doc- book is an example of. toral dissertation from 2012. Reviews 223

Furdal is critical of the way that historical re- time is not important in these cases, in contrast to search at universities in Denmark has devoted scant topographic history. What has happened took place interest to local history and has even regarded such “within human memory”, without the time being ex- studies as uninteresting and unscientific in terms of actly specified. The place is more important than the source criticism. Instead national history has been at time. For the author it is essential that homeland his- the centre. tory is not generally regarded as poor-quality local The author seeks to correct this by analysing local history by comparison with topographical history. history literature, with the emphasis on Sønderjylland Instead it is a matter of different forms of historiog- (South Jutland). This corresponds to the Duchy of raphy, each with its own justification. Schleswig, which belonged to Germany from 1864 It is only since the 1970s that literature on home- until a plebiscite was held in 1920. Denmark’s south- land history has begun to appear to any extent in ern boundary at this time ran much further to the Sønderjylland. Many local history archives and so- north than today. In view of the German history it is cieties were established at this time. The conse- natural that the author also considers the interest that quence was a democratization of local history in that Germans have taken ever since the nineteenth century more people without specific training in history in the concept of Heimat (hjemstavn in Danish). In could write articles and publish works from their this concept there has been a clear link between the own locality. In this context one can talk of amateur home district and the nation state after the unification historians. The interest in the place where one feels of Germany in 1871. In Denmark, on the other hand, at home can be perceived as a counter to the tech- hjemstavn does not always refer to a local district nologization and globalization that has increasingly where one feels at home; the idea of the nation is au- affected people’s lives in recent decades. Through tomatically included in it too. what they have experienced locally, individuals gain Furdal’s aim is to try to understand the forces that something personal and need not feel lost in the face drive the interest in local history and how it has de- of an impersonal multitude of people and rapid tech- veloped over time. The breakthrough for local histo- nological development. ry began in the 1890s at Askov folk high school, The primary thing about Furdal’s two books is which is close to the old border with Germany. In that he focuses on and explains two completely dif- 1891 a journal of Danish cultural history was start- ferent strategies that have occurred in Danish local ed, Aarbog for Dansk Kulturhistorie. At the same history literature. These are topographical history time there was a growing interest in Heimatvereine versus the homeland history that he identifies with in Germany. more. There is a red thread running through both Up until the 1920s the term “topographical histo- books. The detailed presentation and the many ex- ry” was used, referring to a place to which the re- amples may however make it heavy work for the searcher has no personal relationship. It concerns an reader to plough through the large amount of text objective history with strict scientific theories and and follow the running theme. For anyone who methods which university historians can accept and would like a more accessible survey of the main engage in. The results are supposed to have a gener- points in the discussions and analyses there is a al bearing, to say something about the development good summary in the closing chapter, “In the Mists of society, and to have some potential connection to of Time” in volume 2, pp. 585–605. the national history. Anders Gustavsson, University of Oslo/Henån Coming as a later contrast to this was hjemstavns- historia (homeland history). This means that the au- thor and the reader have a personal bond to the place that is studied: the place where they were born, have Light and Lighting as Cultural History their family, and feel at home. This is personally ex- Jan Garnert, Ut ur mörkret. Ljusets och belysning- perienced history, with one’s own memories and ens kulturhistoria. Historiska Media, Lund 2016. with the people at the centre. This kind of history 269 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7545-404-7. has a limited chronological depth, going back at most a hundred years. This is the history the author  Art and literature contrast darkness and daylight is mostly concerned with. Chronological or linear with artificial light, emphasizing the importance of 224 Reviews

sight, but also how hearing, touch, and to some ex- chants often took the customer outside to show their tent even the sense of small are significant for help- wares, Garnert writes, but even I remember from my ing vision when it is hard to see. Despite the dark- childhood in the 1960s that a shop assistant could ness that must have been greater in the past, it is not take a customer out into the street to see the colour certain that people then were more afraid of the of the cloth better. This book highlights Pehr Hille- dark, but the remarkable things that happened in ström’s pictures because he is one of few artists who folk belief often took place in the dark hours, or have painted people and places in evening light. A rather at dawn and dusk. The transition between day written source is Märta Helena Reenstierna’s diary and night was an insecure time when supernatural from the eighteenth century, which tells of lighting forces ruled. Dusk and darkness required caution in a manor house. when something practical had to be done, if it could Something began to happen gradually with light- be done at all. Lighting, even the smallest kind, was ing technology. The oil lamp with the Argand expensive. Before the coming of modern lighting, burner from the 1780s was a predecessor of the festive illuminations were possible only on very paraffin lamp but it was only an option for wealthy special occasions, for example, when a king was people. Oddly, it is not mentioned in contemporary crowned. The sense of festivity was only possible sources, although we often read about candles of tal- because darkness otherwise prevailed. low and wax. Garnert does not tell us why this is. To understand light and the experience and utility Perhaps people in the upper classes were so used to of illumination, Jan Garnert considers here the candles that nothing new could compete. Perhaps rhythm of natural light during the day and the year. artists in the eighteenth century were more interest- Nordic light is special since the sun can be low in ed in the experience of a living candle flame than in the sky for several hours. Artists and authors have describing the use of lighting. Candles have an an- testified to the distinctive quality of twilight. The cient symbolic meaning. The development of stearin author wonders whether twilight nowadays can per- candles is a typological and functional evolution of haps be appreciated more when lighting technology tallow and wax candles, and their ceremonial func- can illuminate the darkness of evening. In the old tion was also taken over by stearin candles. days it was perhaps most associated with nuisance. The light that changed everything was the paraf- Garnert makes a serious attempt to understand how fin lamp, because of the brightness of the light and people in former times experienced light and dark, the availability of paraffin. The paraffin lamp is said but it is not always easy to arrive at clear answers. to have created a new form of togetherness in bour- He mentions that winters without snow could feel geois families. Memoir writers tell of how the lamp particularly gloomy. “Black winter” is what people was placed in the middle of the table and the family still call a season without snow in some parts of assembled around it. Artists have illustrated this as Scandinavia where there is usually snow in the winter. well. Working-class families also gathered around The book surveys pre-industrial lighting tech- the lamp, but for practical reasons, to perform vari- niques. Garnert believes that, for a farmer with land ous chores. The author also notes that the assembly and money, there was no shortage of lighting other around the lamp could become a coercion. than in a technical sense, but the number of people Garnert observes that it is hard to find artistic im- without property grew in the nineteenth century and ages from factories, offices, and other workplaces. their poverty did not permit much lighting. An inter- Work environments are however described in litera- esting perspective, in view of the fact that industrial- ture, memoirs and archival material. The paraffin ly produced light began to be developed in the mid lamp was not a major lighting revolution in indus- nineteenth century, is that it took roughly a century try, especially not outdoors in places like sawmills, for good lighting to become generally available. For where working hours had to be adapted to the both high and low in the old days, lighting was asso- rhythm of the day; this had also applied to bygone ciated with the fire hazard and the smell. The per- craftsmen, who had a feast on the day in autumn ception of colour follows the history of lighting, and when it was necessary to light the candles in the Garnert illustrates this too with the aid of art from workshop again. Outdoors on factory grounds it was the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It could be the electric arc light that made it possible to work af- rather dark in shops in former days, and cloth mer- ter dark. Certain people began to wonder about the Reviews 225

negative effects of lighting. August Strindberg tings in older styles which did not use the potential wrote that electric light harms the eyes and prolongs of the incandescent bulb to the full. The author has working hours for labourers. not undertaken any in-depth study of this conserva- The incandescent bulb “saw the light of day” in tism, which persisted throughout the twentieth cen- 1879, and small steam-powered generators began to tury. Workplaces made much better use of the po- deliver electricity to the central parts of Swedish tential of new technology. towns. The artist Hugo Birger painted the Fürsten- In 1924 the first neon lights in Sweden were berg home in 1885. Garnert analyses the painting switched on, in Stockholm. Lighting is a subject on and points out that the two people depicted there can which there are many opinions. The municipal ar- talk to each other even though they are at some dis- chitect thought it was banal but the Beauty Council tance from each other. Electric light did not require in Stockholm saw it as a natural development of people to gather round a table as the paraffin lamp metropolitan society and an aesthetic enhancement. had done; the electrified chandelier illuminated the The Light Week in Stockholm also provoked de- whole room. Electric lights gave off no fumes, did bate. “Lighting barbarism” was the term used to not need to be refilled with fuel or cleaned. They criticize the muddle of outdoor illumination and fa- were easy to switch on and off, and could be left un- cade lighting that failed to bring out the architecture. attended. An industrially produced form of lighting The author Ivar Lo-Johansson wrote the novel was gaslight, which gradually disappeared as elec- Kungsgatan in 1935, with its testimony to the huge tric bulbs became more common. attraction of city lighting for young people. During In Sweden in the 1920s work was done to im- the 1930s, however, domestic lighting was behind prove light fixtures and create a functional and the times among individuals and families who still pleasant lighting environment. Several old factories lived in small flats that lacked modern conveniences began manufacturing electric fittings and new such as running water and toilets. The Cooperative manufacturers established factories. A number of ar- Society founded the Luma factory, which began chitects, including Gunnar Asplund, began to work making bulbs in 1930 to bring prices down. In the with the planning of lighting. Light culture became majority of homes there was still just a single ceiling a familiar concept and “The Swedish Association lamp in each room. Despite the limitations in the for Light Culture” was founded in 1926; under the housing environment, the 1930s was the period leadership of Ivar Folcker it helped to spread infor- when modern lighting technology began its devel- mation to improve lighting technology. Garnert opment. The next step was the fluorescent tube. Re- mentions several classics in the history of light fit- markably, this caught on during the Second World tings for the home, the workplace, and public out- War and Sweden was an unusually illuminated door lighting, which makes his book interesting and country when other countries were under a blackout. worth reading. It is a fact in the history of Swedish It took some time, however, before fluorescent tubes lighting that the two world wars stimulated electri- became common in homes. fication with the aid of water power, making it pos- The 1950s was an intensive time for the improve- sible to install electric lighting to avoid dependence ment of domestic lighting. It began when Swedish on imported paraffin and coal. Radio launched a series of programmes called “The The exhibition “Light in the Service of Man” in Living Home” in 1951. A new material for light fit- 1928 at Liljevalch’s Art Gallery in Stockholm and tings was plastic, which gave new possibilities, but the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 displayed modern bentwood also became fashionable in an attempt to lighting technology, and Garnert states that the ideas imitate the glow of a living fire. Hans-Agne about good lighting in the home and the workplace Jakobsson’s bentwood lamp from Elysette was a were among the goals of the welfare state, “the success which was manufactured until 1989. The people’s home”. The exhibitions and the autumn advent of television required domestic lighting to be campaign of the Association for Light Culture in adapted. Backlit ceilings became common in offices 1929 emphasized that Sweden’s housewives needed and shops in the 1950s, but now development had functional lighting in the home. There was disap- come so far that there was too much light, and fluor- pointment that, despite all the information about escent tubes soon went out of fashion. good lighting, consumers preferred to buy light fit- The last two chapters in the book are about the 226 Reviews

present and future. Some analysts maintain that and joiking. In several studies he has taken an inter- there are now no technical deficiencies or costs to est in analyses of form. He has refuted the previous- stand in the way of lighting. One may doubt the lat- ly widespread view that joiks are improvised, with ter, as many Swedes feel that electricity is expen- the form being of little significance. Graff’s conclu- sive, and the environmental aspect makes people sion is the opposite, namely, that joiks are built up think about their electricity consumption. The devel- with a strong sense of form. In his doctoral disserta- opment of lighting now takes place on the terms of tion (2002, published in a revised version in 2003) technology, which seems to lack limitations. Unlike he succeeds in making the extremely scant source other domestic fittings, it cannot build on older tra- material say something essential about the Coast ditions. Nowadays people “furnish” their homes Sami tradition that is now extinct in practice. Graff with light, but function and light quality are not shows how the proximity to Norwegian musical cul- simple matters to resolve. A new profession of spe- ture has affected joiking among the Coast Sami, and cialists, light designers, has arisen in recent years. how their joiking, despite this proximity, has pre- When it comes to tendencies for the future, the au- served very old features which disappeared even thor sums this up with LED and colour, and our re- earlier elsewhere. lationship to the rhythm of the day. Daytime can Kautokeino in the present study is a municipality now last around the clock without interruption. in the northern county of Finnmark with a small Göran Sjögård, Lund population. There is a large Sami element. The pro- hibition on joiking in school teaching was made by a wholly Sami school board; it was thus neither the The Forbidden Joik school management nor any central Norwegian body Ola Graff, Joikeforbudet i Kautokeino. Davvi Girji, that was behind the ban. The negative attitude to n.p. 2016. 197 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-82-329-0034-3. joiking among the Sami in the locality was based on two unfavourable circumstances, namely that joiking  Research on joik and joiking has long been domi- was regarded as pagan and that it was associated with nated by an interest in pre-modern joik traditions. The drinking. There was an equally negative view in the functions of joiking, its forms and its regional varia- neighbouring municipality of Karasjok, but there, ac- tions, have occupied the pages of books and journals cording to Graff (p. 164) they did not go as far as to – a direct parallel to the tendency that has dominated impose a formal ban. To understand this difference in research on other Nordic folk music for so long. attitude one needs to know that Laestadian belief had Roughly 25 years ago, research began on joik and a strong position among the Sami population. joiking in modern society. Two trails, often com- Graff follows closely how the schools related to bined, can be discerned: the encounter of joiking the prohibition. A relevant factor is that many teach- with popular music and joik as an expression that ers did not have a Sami background and in many generates identity. cases came from the south. They thus had poorer Ola Graff’s latest research goes beyond these contact with the Sami population and their way of well-trodden paths when he investigates the ban on thinking, and above all they could not teach the chil- joiking in school teaching that the school board in dren about joik. They were thus doubly disqualified Kautokeino imposed in 1953. The prohibition was in this burning issue. maintained for several decades. Graff’s study ex- Teachers and school management obeyed the de- amines how the ban was enforced and heeded, how cision of the school board for a long time, even if the ban can be explained and how it was described they did not sympathize with it. In 1976 the question in literature and the press. Ultimately, this detailed came up again. By then the attitude to joik had study concerns the ideas about joik and joiking that changed in Norwegian society as a whole, and the have existed during the period in question: among first joik-based bands had been formed. But the local decision makers, among the Sami population school board chose to maintain the prohibition on in the municipality, and among teachers and school the use of “joik discs or sound recordings in history management. lessons in school” (p. 62). Ola Graff is a curator at the University of Tromsø Graff’s study goes on to describe how this prohi- who has for many years published works about joik bition became increasingly difficult to comply with, Reviews 227

even though schools were obliged to respect the re- Summer Life newed decision. An external decision that affected Sommarliv. Minnen, drömmar och materialitet. Ker- the situation locally was when Nils-Aslak Valkea- stin Gunnemark (ed.). Makadam förlag, Göteborg/ pää was invited to joik at the opening ceremony of Stockholm 2016. 335 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7061- the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994. His 218-3. performance rekindled the negative emotions about joik among certain Sami, even though joik had then  Before proceeding further into this book review, I become an acclaimed symbol of Norway and the owe the reader an acknowledgment. Much along the northern culture. The gap between these perceptions lines of the contributors to Sommarliv, who tell us illustrates the great distance between the central their own stories of “summer life” in the epilogue, I elite and a minority who were distant in several re- must confess that I too am a stuga owner. As I read spects. through the chapters of this edited volume, not only Ola Graff’s book is meticulous in its description was I invited into the lived life of other second home of this drama. There are so many details, and the dwellers and owners, campers and sailors in differ- quotations from minutes and newspapers and news- ent phases of life and history in a predominantly papers are so long that a reader may suspect that the Swedish summer landscape. Throughout my reading author is mainly addressing a local readership out of of the edited volume I also found myself revisiting a desire to satisfy their need for reconciliation in this episodes from family chronicles. The building of the value-laden conflict. The narrative can no doubt still wooden cottage, the stuga, in Småland by my grand- be sensitive. “The question of joik in school was parents in the late 1970s, their travels first by ferry fraught with emotion. One of the reasons for that is (and initially by scooter!) and later on over the that joik itself is fraught with emotion” (p. 177). In Öresund Bridge. The delicate negotiations of in- the text there are interviews with people who were heritance and, eventually, the careful introduction of themselves involved in the events. It is rather telling a better half into the practice and rituals of my stuga that we see less soul-searching than a tendency to and how it gradually but not without controversies forget. became ours. The scholarly value of the book lies, to begin Soon followed the joy of bringing up two new with, in the well-found choice of topic. The prohibi- stuga goers and experiencing anew the joys of child- tion in Kautokeino is a seemingly trifling matter, be- hood in the woods hand in hand with new worries sides which it is now a thing of the past, but it is about the future for this little piece of heaven on nevertheless an important piece in the puzzle that is earth. The aesthetics of our stuga: the lament in ear- the history of how joik was moved from the solitude ly adulthood of not possessing an authentic ødegård of the reindeer herder to today’s media spotlight. and the current cherishing of its retro seventies dé- The prohibition illustrates how difficult the change cor and easy maintenance. The careful balancing of of attitude was among certain Sami and how local comfort (such as indoor sanitation) and simplicity thinking was not in step with the reappraisal in so- (outdoor shower, no internet), the adding of new ciety at large. Although the study took place in a functional and decorative elements – often pur- small environment, it is a much broader problem. chased at a local flea market, but also the caring for As for the text, a reader with an interest in re- and restoration of the old. search will get most out of the closing part of the As I read through the book during late winter and book, which is entitled “Reflections” but which just early spring, I found myself and my family reflected as easily could have been called “Conclusions and in other people’s lives – and increasingly yearned Discussion”. Here Graff puts the conflict into a for the coming summer, the first smultron (wild larger perspective, viewing it in relation to the trans- strawberries), and the ice-cold dips into the lake. formation of joik in our times and the changed status Sommarliv had me completely disarmed confronted of the Sami in their respective societies. Those in- with the impressions and weight that summer life volved in Kautokeino were staunch in their opin- clearly but unexpectedly imposed on me during my ions, but they were nevertheless firmly clamped in readings, which had been assigned to me for very the vice formed by these larger changes. different reasons – my professional insights as eth- Gunnar Ternhag, Falun nologist and tourism researcher. 228 Reviews

But this is in fact one of the central points that the ing practice, cultural differences, motivations and editor Kerstin Gunnemark and contributors are try- aspirations (Asta Burvall) and into the leisurely ing to make: that individual experiences and prac- space of the garden of allotment owners, through ac- tices weave into cultural history in the unfolding and counts of memories, aspirations and reality (Eva repetition of Nordic rural and maritime summer life. Knuts). In spite of attempts to delimit it from “everyday The third section, “Generation and Cultural Heri- life”, closely described in many of the contributing tage”, explores summer life as seen through an inter- chapters, summer life practices are deeply engrained generational lens. In the first contribution, heritage/ into our world building as individuals and as a so- inheritance and belonging are explored along three ciety. In that sense, the book is a classic example of analytical currents: the interplay of change and con- what ethnology does best, manoeuvring modestly tinuity, place, and memory. These show how heri- yet steadily between narratives of lived experience tage is spatially and culturally practised in and and the gradual changes of leisure patterns, cultural through a particular place (Maja Lagerqvist). Dis- aspirations, socio-economic opportunities and tech- continuity is studied next through the phenomenon nological advances. of what we might term “summer house hopping”, To exemplify this, an impressive array of essays where holiday dwellings are continually substituted has been collected in this book. As the title suggests, with others along different phases of life. Also, we summer life is explored as memories, as dreams and learn how holiday house “pioneers” are succeeded as materialities. These aspects are scrutinized fur- by both cultural custodians as well as cultural inno- ther in four general sections. The first section, “Ac- vators (Kerstin Gunnemark). counts of Summer Life Activities”, provides ex- The three contributions to the fourth section on amples of summer activities. The first chapter ana- “Aesthetic Expressions” centre on the aesthetic and lyses a questionnaire survey on holiday houses, increasingly digitally mediated staging of the holiday offering us accounts of the simplicity, changes, con- home. First explored is the roles and relationship be- troversies and contrasts to normal urban environ- tween imaginaries of summer, aesthetic traditions and ments as experienced and recounted by Finnish artefacts in the assemblage and staging of the holiday summer cabin goers (Yrsa Lindqvist). Interestingly, home – and in that process, of the self (Bia Mankell). we are then told about the holidaying practices of Next, the emerging concept of cottage blogging is tourist destination residents themselves, in this case scrutinized, comparing and contrasting it to diaries, from Gotland, opening up for new ways to study and proposing blogs as valuable sources for late and understanding tourism places and host-guest en- modern everyday performances and staging of sum- counters (Birgitta Strandberg-Zerpe & Carina Jo- mer life (Susanna Rolfsdotter Eliasson). hansson). The destination takes centre stage in an The materialities and practices of aesthetics sur- account from DanishTisvilde as a place of tourism, rounding our holiday and holiday homes are lastly in which a longitudinal approach is deployed to investigated, drawing on fieldwork on so-called life- grasp space-bound and tourism-related continuities, style shops at a coastal destination. In this retail en- changes and controversies (Ole Rud Nielsen). vironment, aesthetics and offering “the right feel- In the second section, “Dreams and Realiza- ing” is presented as an ongoing and taxing achieve- tions”, we are invited to explore imagination and ex- ment (Ida de Wit Sandström). pectations of summer life and how these are bal- The last section, “From the Seaside”, puts us to anced against and negotiated with reality. Based on sea, exploring marine summer life. The expressions a historical account, it is explained why German of summer are explored using the “ideal” IF-boat as tourists long for Swedish forest cabins (Silke a prism. Exploring what makes this vessel so Göttsch-Elten) and the cultural construction of Swe- long-lasting and so suitable for acting out sailing den in Germany is further pursued in an analysis imaginaries, we retrieve the search for simplicity which conjoins the urge for Sweden by individual and freedom and the closeness to nature from many tourists and the pop-cultural staging of Sweden of the “land-based” accounts but also new elements through media and films (Jasmin Laura Panzlaff). in the sociality of summer, such as that of competi- We are also brought along to a contemporary camp- tion (Christine Fredriksen & Eva Hult). For many ing site to explore the unfolding of particular camp- Swedes, sailing is simply a summer pivot and as this Reviews 229

last chapter on veteran boats explores, so is often Lagerqvist’s chapter exemplifies the fruitful ex- nostalgia and once again, an increasing aestheticiz- ploration of the hybridity and fluidity of the torp, ation and reconceptualization as heritage and as but right from the introductory chapter developing places of leisure. In this reworking process, contro- summer life as a returning contrast to the urban way versies and power issues linger (Mattias Friham- of life, binary oppositions are remarkably prominent mar). As a last reminder, this contribution recalls in illustrating and conceptualizing unfolding sum- that although much might look, feel and be remem- mer practices: the rural as opposed to the urban, bered as idyllic in the magic Nordic summer land- summer to winter, holidaying to work, the simplici- and mindscapes, not everything always is. ty of the holiday home to that the of “complex”, The essays in the book briefly summarized above rushed or modern “real” home. are well-aligned and project a sense of clear editing. While these contrasts are surely interesting and – The book is abundantly illustrated, but the use of il- as mentioned at the beginning – recognizable to this lustrations is inconsistent and often unexplained, reviewer, they fail to address relational, processual ranging from pictures provided by informants or ar- and entangled theoretical concerns (ANT being one chives, taken by the researchers or simply added for of them) as well as social and technological the purpose of aesthetic illustration. As pointed out changes, which have enabled or forced holiday in the preface, the book results from work conducted home owners or goers to rework their practices. The in relation to a Northern European Summer Life re- increasing blurred work/life distinctions and the ad- search network and a number of “mini symposiums” vances of the internet are but two changes that have have been held, ensuring regular contact and corre- fundamentally disrupted the proposed division, for spondence between the contributors. This undoubt- instance by making the holiday home a very edly assisted in the close connection between most well-suited place for researchers (and journalist, au- of the chapters, with very few unnecessary overlaps thors, bloggers…) to work. and an impressive width. It seems that some authors Just as we are shown in contributions to the book have attempted to work within a collective concep- how housewives did not always “get away from it tual framework. Two recurrent concepts are the all” when the family went on summer holiday to a Foucauldian concept of heterotopia as a way to un- rustic holiday home, I would have enjoyed learning derstand imaginary or concrete places and a loosely more about how holidaying norms and distinctions appropriated understanding of materiality from are blurred, challenged, maintained or torn down to- Actor-Network Theory. day. So while we might still recognize and experi- While these are undoubtedly relevant to explore ence (or at least dream of) clearly divided spheres, a the imaginaries and concrete practices of “summer- next volume on “summer life 2.0” would also be on my academic reading wish list, which, as many of housing”, they seem rather superimposed onto the this readership might be familiar with, is often ex- empirical material, as they are never fully deployed plored in a hammock while on holiday. At least in or worked through the material. While the idea of ma- our dreams. teriality as a process drawn from Tine Damsholt et al. Carina Ren, Copenhagen works very well, for instance in the chapter on aes- thetic staging from de Wit Sandström where it is combined with insight from Thomas O’Dell on emo- tional labour, non-human agency is never really The Beloved Museum demonstrated as more than a general claim. Surely Charlotte Hyltén-Cavallius & Fredrik Svanberg, materiality matters, but how does it do so as some- Älskade museum. Svenska kulturhistoriska museer thing more than a prop or a backdrop? This is still left som kulturskapare och samhällsbyggare. Nordic rather underexplored. That aside, the volume intro- Academic Press, Lund 2016. 211 pp. Ill. ISBN duces many other ways to theoretically engage with 978-91-88168-44-3. summer life, starting with Orvar Löfgren and afore- mentioned Damsholt et al. and O’Dell over Bourdieu,  In the early summer of 2015 I visited the Louise Baudrillard, Featherstone and Miller to Massey and Bourgeois exhibition at Moderna in Stockholm to- the “early” Foucauldian Urry to his later mobility-ori- gether with my granddaughter, then five and a half ented work with Hannam et al. and Bærenholdt et al. years old. Having shown herself to be a capable 230 Reviews

drawer, she fell in love with Bourgeois and with clear who is included and who is excluded. This ex- other artists – for example Picasso, Dali, and clusion and sorting according to value is the focus of Duchamp – and she seemed to be highly satisfied the museum discussion in this book. Ultranational- with this art experience. When I asked her after- ism is used in the sense of “the use of history to wards what had been the best part of the visit, how- clarify and support the radical, ultranational sorting ever, she answered: “That you were allowed to go in of people into us and others”. and keep your shoes on.” I was slightly disappointed Fredrik Svanberg writes about the ultranationalis- and thought perhaps that she had not grasped so tic use of history, in which one’s own “race” and much of the visit, but when we got home she made a history are evidence of belonging and domiciliary drawing of Bourgeois’ spider sculpture which rights for those who are entitled to call themselves showed that she had noticed details in the work and Swedes. This discourse often emphasizes kinship had thus paid attention to the art too, even if the great- with the Vikings, who are turned into a group that est sensation was being able to keep her shoes on! almost certainly never had any counterpart in reali- This was my granddaughter’s first visit to a major ty. The stress on belonging is an effective way to ex- museum. Before that she had only been to the Upp- clude others, those who, according to the ultra- land Museum and Bror Hjorth’s house in Uppsala. nationalistic ideology, do not count as Swedish. And Visiting museums has since become a favourite pas- there are many of them! time for her. This puts her among a large group of In his article Svanberg considers urgent topics Swedes. For, as the ethnologist Charlotte Hyltén- such as race, racial biology, and racism in relation to Cavallius and the archaeologist Fredrik Svanberg the museum world. He takes his examples both from show in their book Älskade museum (“Beloved mu- Nazi Germany and from today’s racist Internet fo- seum”), Swedes like to visit museums. Museums rums where Swedishness, belonging, and exclusion actually have more visitors than Allsvenskan first- are discussed. He notes that the museums mostly division football, the Globen arena, and the contest fail in their presentations of diversity and that they to select a Eurovision song together! It certainly not infrequently display a racified and/or “Swedish- sounds plausible. Swedish” image at the expense of the cultural diver- A museum is by definition a non-profit institu- sity that is characteristic of Swedish society. If I tion, open to the public and with the mission to pre- compare this with the archive world, I find that the serve, explore, and mediate the cultural heritage. problem has been the same, that is, “the Swedish” That last task in particular has led to the rise of a has been in focus and has been well demarcated new professional category: the museum educator, from the diversity that has been labelled “Foreign whose job includes creating models for how the mu- Peoples in the Country”, synonymous with Sami, seums’ mission and material will reach as many Jews, Finns, etc., in other words, deviating in eth- people as possible. And since Swedes are a museum- nicity or religion from the Swedish norm. loving people, the educators have evidently suc- Ethnicity and religion are thus in focus in Älskade ceeded, or they will succeed. museum. Charlotte Hyltén-Cavallius writes about The cultural heritage administered by the mu- exhibitions on religion, such as Islam, Buddhism, seums is usually defined as a shared body of tradi- Hinduism, and Catholicism. She observes that mu- tion, the value and relevance of which is not ques- seums make the religious heritages invisible, that tioned but accepted as self-evident by a sizable they apply a historicizing perspective, and place group and is elevated above any doubt or political other religions than Christianity outside Sweden, so squabbling. The cultural heritage belongs to every- that it seems as if Sweden has nothing to do with one, not just some. Yet the cultural heritage – for ex- those religions. In this way they diminish the reli- ample, museum objects selected by someone with gious diversity in contemporary Swedish society. It the right to make distinctions and choices – can feels a bit like being back in high school: when we never be apolitical. This is particularly obvious studied the subject of religion (and not Christianity) when extreme nationalist groups claim the heritage the textbook had 90 pages on Christianity and 10 and interpret it from their positions, for example in a pages devoted to other religions. This was a great (vain) quest for the “Ur-Swedish”, which is sup- disappointment to an age group which could be at- posed to distinguish Us from the Other and make it tracted to a religion like Buddhism. Reviews 231

Some of the conclusions the authors draw from Sin and Grace their study are that the museums chiefly tell the his- Bengt af Klintberg, Kvinnan som inte ville ha barn. tory of the white man. Women and children are Sagotypen ATU 755, “Sin and Grace”, i muntlig tra- under-represented. Women, moreover, are usually dition och litterära verk. Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Aka- portrayed in passive roles. Ethnic minorities and demien för svensk folkkultur, Uppsala 2016. (Acta HBTQ people are also under-represented. What we Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi 163.) 306 pp. are shown instead is a heteronormative individual. Ill. English summary. ISBN 978-91-87403-20-0. There are direct parallels to this skewed outlook in the archives. There it is likewise mostly men’s his-  One of the grand old men in Nordic Folkloristics, tory that is told, while women, children, and minori- Bengt af Klintberg, has published a book investigat- ties take a back seat. There too, a normal individual ing a fairy tale about a woman who would do even is allowed to represent what is Swedish. evil things in order not to become pregnant. This Going to a museum is a phenomenon that arose fairy tale has number ATU 755 in the recent motif during the nineteenth century. Although museums index by Aarne-Thompson-Uther. In the Nordic existed before that, this was when they began to in- countries, a long time has passed since we read a terest a larger number of people, not least the grow- monograph about a fairy tale. In fact, af Klintberg ing bourgeoisie. The authors cite the example of the wrote most of the texts during the 1970s and, from National Museum, which opened its doors in 1866. 2015, he completed the manuscript with the fourth There the intention was to refine the Swedish people and fifth chapter and the summary. Folklore re- by means of an evolutionary stroll through art from search has changed tremendously during the last the Stone Age to the present day. Visitors could fol- thirty years, methods are different, research ques- low the development from a simple state to their tions altered and even the style of writing folkloris- own complex society of the present. tics is new. It goes without saying that this time span Älskade museum is the result of a research project is extremely difficult to handle. titled “Museums Beyond Homogeneity”, a collab- The book starts with a chapter in which the reader oration between the Multicultural Centre in Tumba is acquainted with the tale. In a good scholarly man- and the National Council for Cultural Affairs. The ner the author defines his material, 152 written re- project was originally part of a larger umbrella pro- cordings from the Nordic countries, from which he ject called “Norm, Nation and Culture” run by Öre- requires as a criterion that they contain some central bro County Museum. The book is a good and neces- characteristics, i.e., that the woman uses magic in sary complement to previous critical studies of mu- order not to become pregnant, that she marries a seum practices, such as Stefan Bohman’s Historia, preacher, that she loses her shadow, and finally that museer och nationalism from 1997. something that cannot possibly flower puts forth Älskade museum is a very well written book, and blossoms and leaves. the text – I can imagine – is so reader-friendly that it After a source-critical passage and some pages is suitable for a large audience that need not have so about earlier research, the “real” investigation starts. much advance knowledge. Yet despite all its merits, The author introduces his source material and I sometimes get the feeling that the authors repeat demonstrates how it is found all around the Nordic themselves. Moreover, it disturbs me that they use countries, including some recordings from the the imprecise word kring instead of a correct prepo- southern parts of the Baltic Sea. Most of the records sition to mean ‘about, concerning’. It is regrettable are Swedish, either from Sweden or the Swedish that academic language should be influenced by parts of Finland. The author wants to see whether what I perceive as colloquial language from the the recordings give a correct image of the distribu- world of politics and the media. It is bad enough to tion of the tale in time and space and presents his find kring in seminar papers at universities, but variants country by country. This question is cer- much worse to encounter it in specialist literature. tainly not easy to answer because there are still Naturally, this does not detract from the value of the many unsolved problems in the gathering process. content, but it causes irritation in an otherwise seri- However, he reaches the conclusion that the tale was ous text, giving it a tone of uncertainty. probably widely known in Sweden from the nine- Agneta Lilja, Huddinge teenth century, and that the Baltic area was its place 232 Reviews

of origin. At the same time af Klintberg describes among those who left ATU 755 behind more than a how the collecting of folklore was conducted, and hundred years ago. how the collectors worked. The outcome is a fine The last chapter deals with literary variants of the assortment of collectors’ biographies. tale. It turns out that quite a lot of writers were ac- To my mind, the motif analysis is the most inter- quainted with the story and made use of it in their esting part of the book. The author demonstrates works, and again, it seems that the Swedish folklore how such an analysis can be useful for quite differ- was inspiring them, more or less directly. In the ap- ent purposes than to define the original form of a pendix af Klintberg also introduces an anthroposo- tale or to study its distribution. Here he explains phic variant of “Sin and Grace”. what the motifs in the tale mean. For instance, he of- Bengt af Klintberg ponders on some central fers an explanation for what it means when the questions in folkloristics, and here he makes an ef- woman turns a quern anticlockwise in order not to fort to define a tale type. It turns out that a scholar give birth, or what the narrators want to express has to be rather strict about how many motifs can when they tell about a person who has no shadow. be combined in a tale before he or she decides that People who listen to folklorists telling about their the relevant text belongs to one specific tale type. research often ask exactly this kind of questions! For instance, not every tale about a flowering stone There is also a cultural-historical component in the table is a variant of the tale type ATU 755. The text that makes it even more pleasant. scholar has to define what is the kernel, what is the A classical folklore topic comes to the fore central message in a text before he or she classifies when af Klintberg asks whether his tale is a fairy it. In studying this problem af Klintberg also tale or a legend. Genre analysis was central in folk- demonstrates possible ways in which a compilation loristics during the 1960s and 70s, and especially arises. the line between these two genres attracted schol- Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo (Turku) ars. Long stories were fairy tales and short ones were legends. “Sin and Grace” was found in both extended and diminutive forms. Magic acts be- Music on a Big Danish Farm longed to the fairy tale whereas all kinds of Chris- Jens Henrik Koudal, Skæbnesymfoni og krokodille- tian traits were generally categorized as religious polka. Musikkulturen på en stor gård mellem 1880 tales. The same folklore narrative can be told for og 1960. Historika, Copenhagen 2016. 239 pp. Ill., several minutes but also just mentioned in passing. music examples. ISBN 978-87-93229-68-6. Bengt af Klintberg favours regarding his text as a religious tale. However, this chapter also deals  Would you like to travel in time to a fascinating with the ability to tell long oral stories. He asks musical environment in a vanished Denmark? when the oral fairy tale vanished in the Nordic Then read Jens Henrik Koudal’s book about a countries, and maintains that this happened along music-making family on the big farm of Torpelund with all the major changes in society in the early in north- west Sjælland, not far from the town of twentieth century, except in Telemark, Norway, Kalundborg whose medium-wave transmitter used where oral tales were narrated even in the 1950s. A to be seen on every old radio receiver. Koudal’s starting point for his thinking is that long stories account is strict scholarship but with a distinct lit- are older than the shorter variants. erary touch that makes it captivating. In other Chapter four deals with the worldview of the nar- words: music rises from the page, skilfully per- rators. With the help of a stylistic analysis the author formed in the upstairs room in the farmhouse, investigates the variants from a gender perspective whether arranged local dance music or jewels from according to the narrators’ sex and demonstrates the classical repertoire. The reader is thus admitted how the meaning of the tale differs depending on it. to the limited circle who attended the family’s mu- Men tend to describe the woman who did not want sical gatherings. to give birth more harshly than women, who seem to Jens Henrik Koudal is senior researcher at the be more conciliatory. Here the storyteller’s art Danish Folklore Collection, which belongs to the comes to the fore, and the reader can see how there Royal Library (which for some unfathomable reason were more or less experienced and skilled tellers has recently been given the secular name of Nation- Reviews 233

al Library). Behind him he has a long series of his- the family and the farm challenged the noble estates torically oriented studies of folk music-making, in cultural rank. above all of instrumental music – his masterly doc- One reason why this insight into a Danish fami- toral dissertation about town musicians in Denmark ly’s musical history is so fascinating is that we learn is a classic. The Danish Folklore Collection pre- about their repertoire – as both performers and serves the very large archive from the Torpelund listeners. It consisted of two parts. They were pas- farm on which Koudal bases this study. The archive sionately committed to the local dance music: “min- contains printed and handwritten music, letters, uet, Kehraus, English dance, country dance, reel, diaries, photographs, etc., which has enabled Kou- march, waltz, Hamburger, polka, mazurka, and dal to follow in detail the doings of the music-mak- galop” (p. 119). This was the family’s own music, a ing family. perception that was strengthened when folk music Jens Henrik Koudal characterizes his study as started to attract general attention as a cultural herit- ethnomusicology. Consequently, his actual study age and some family members took the initiative to object is the music culture that existed on the farm publish parts of the family knowledge in arranged for almost a hundred years. With the support of form. Although the dance tunes were regarded as the Alan Merriam’s classical analytical perspective – family’s property, this music linked the family to the music itself, musical actions, and ideas about people in the surroundings. When dance fashions music – Koudal investigates the totality of musical later changed, the preservation of their own dance life maintained by several generations on the farm. tunes meant that the family’s members felt that new- He calls the Olsen family proprietors and there- fangled innovations were alien. fore talks of a proprietor culture (p. 15). Koudal The other, and larger, part of the repertoire con- writes that after around 1850 this term referred to sisted of classical music – symbolized in the title of “a non-noble owner of a large farm, usually 60– the book (alongside the crocodile polka) by Beet- 100 hectares of land, that is to say, an area larger hoven’s fifth symphony, “The Fate Symphony” than a normal farm and smaller than an estate” (p. (Skæbnesymfoni). In an appendix Koudal lists the 36). contents of the extant music. We see there that the The large surplus from the agricultural operations Olsens performed works that were widespread in gave several members of the owner’s family the op- bourgeois circles in many countries. There was portunity to devote themselves wholeheartedly to scarcely any Danish or Nordic touch to the way it music. And this in turn built up a strong identity in sounded. Some of it was performed in the original these individuals of being educated musical people, setting, but most of it was arranged for the available as is very clear from Koudal’s history of the family. instruments and voices. “The work, as we have it In similar contexts, the term conspicuous consump- from the composer’s hand, is not sacred; it is more tion is used about this kind of activity which was important that it can be made to resound at Torpe- perceived as different in the eyes of the surround- lund in small ensembles” (p. 146). This attitude too ings. agrees with contemporary bourgeois music-making Another term that easily suggests itself is educa- far beyond the borders of Denmark. tional capital. The Olsen family deliberately strove Jens Henrik Koudal’s conclusion is that the musi- to become educated in the field of music. This unit- cal culture at Torpelund was characterized by con- ed the members so much that they spoke about “our servatism, privacy, and exclusivity (p. 211). It was circle”, thereby marking a dividing line against most conservative because it was based on the view that other people in the neighbourhood. The author making music could maintain the significance of the claims that the Olsens were not aiming to be “ac- family. The musical culture was private “because it knowledged members of society in a broader sense, cultivated the home and the family circle in a way but to become part of a musical culture whose val- that was invisible to others” (p. 212). And it was ex- ues were ultimately defined by the farm, the family, clusive because it strove to uphold a difference and the locality” (p. 211). The internal cohesion, the vis-à-vis the educational level of the surrounding members’ personal identity, and the family’s atti- people. As a reader one is inclined to agree with tude were thus the most important consideration, not Koudal’s conclusions. social elevation. Yet the result was nevertheless that The arrangement of the book merits a comment. 234 Reviews

In the introduction the author declares his scholarly The journey that Hisinger and Råbergh would un- premises in rather brief terms. The descriptive chap- dertake in Europe, for eighteen months in 1783–84, ters, as I have said, are extremely vivid, but only ex- was thus a natural part of a noble officer’s training, ceptionally are they supported by research-based lit- to improve professional and language skills, to forge erature. Theoretical discussions are reserved for the contacts and acquire a good general education. last two chapters. There the study is linked to rele- Hisinger himself, moreover, was particularly inter- vant literature, and some concepts are introduced to ested in drawing and wash-drawing and in civil and help the reader understand what has been described. military architecture, and he would have ample op- No reason is given for this unusual arrangement, portunity to study these subjects on the tour. which is bewildering. The educational tour as such went back all the It is nevertheless delightful for a reader to partici- way to the Middle Ages, when pilgrimages to spe- pate in the music-centred social life of the Olsens, cial holy places and peregrinations to universities on which was usually combined with good dinners the Continent were common. In the eighteenth cen- based on the produce of the farm. Jens Henrik Kou- tury the universities were no longer the main attrac- dal has written a memorial not just to a remarkable tion for the travellers; now the classical educational family but just as much to the many, many people tour had been differentiated. To be able to serve through history who have had a passion for music with a foreign regiment, to pursue studies, and to en- and through their music-making have passed the joy culture and entertainment were crucial individ- torch to new generations. ual motives for these tours. Not only noblemen’s Gunnar Ternhag, Falun sons, like Hisinger himself, went on tours, but also aristocratic ladies, artists, and academics. Italy was not infrequently the main destination, where ancient Journal of a Tour of Europe works of art and ruins could be studied. In France Mikael Hisinger, Resedagbok från Europa 1783– the traveller was expected to engage in conversation 1784. Jouni Kuure & Märtha Norrback (eds.). with philosophers, and in England one could study Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Helsingfors/ the design of the parks. Bokförlaget Atlantis, Stockholm 2015. 389 pp. Ill. Preparations for the journey included reading the ISBN 978-951-246-7/978-91-7353-690-8. rich amount of available travel literature, the aim of which was to give practical advice. Through this lit-  In 1783 a lieutenant at the Royal Fortifications erary genre the would-be traveller could become ac- Administration, Mikael Hisinger, then aged 24, be- quainted with the culture, nature, and history of dis- gan a large tour of Europe in order to gain an educa- tant countries, chiefly in Europe. The narratives tion and to improve his knowledge of fortification could be full of scholarly detail and scientific de- and industrial management. The journey was fi- scriptions, but they could also be entertaining with nanced by Mikael’s father, Johan Hising, owner of tales of exotic adventures. In the eighteenth century, the Fagervik ironworks in Nyland in Finland, where however, the genre became more specialized, as the would-be traveller lived and worked. Mikael books could deal specifically with culture, art, or na- Hisinger’s travelling companion was to be Lieuten- ture. ant Carl Råbergh, who had obtained a two-year Another essential preparation was to ensure fi- travel grant from the Fortifications Administration. nance for the journey, which had to cover the hire of This Administration, responsible for the coun- a horse and carriage or payment for transport, ac- try’s defensive structures, would for a long time to commodation, purchases on the journey, and tips. come be the only institution where it was possible to Hisinger took out cash with the aid of bills of ex- pursue studies in architecture. Besides, a knowledge change at bankers in Strasbourg and Dresden. An of defensive structures could only be obtained by educational journey was expensive and therefore travelling around Europe. These tours were thus a could only be undertaken after serious economic natural part of a fortification officer’s education, consideration. which also included combat tactics, arithmetic, The primary aims for the journey of the noble of- geometry, the theory of perspective, mechanics, ficers Hisinger and Råbergh was to study different hydraulics, and cartography. fortresses in Europe. It goes without saying that they Reviews 235

would also learn about culture, history, and art. The interest and energy can vary as regards how much is two officers took such a keen interest in fortifica- noted down in the course of the journey, and the tions that they were sometimes suspected of being same applies to Hisinger. Not everything is of the spies. A crucial condition for their ability to visit same importance, and in certain periods the notes several of the sites was that they had letters of become more sparse. In the main, however, the recommendation from important people, which was reader is given a detailed and captivating picture of especially important in France. They also had the the places and people that Hisinger and his compan- task of observing the military manoeuvres of Fre- ion visited and met along the way, and at times he derick the Great at Potsdam in summer 1783, which gives a fairly spicy account of various things. both gentlemen documented in the form of drawings The publisher of the work, the Swedish Literature and sketches. Society in Finland, has given us yet another lavish But it was not just military fortifications that the and beautifully illustrated book, and if one is par- two travellers were interested in; they also sought ticularly interested in the culture and history of the out ancient monuments and works of art. Originally learned class of Finland-Swedes in the eighteenth there were plans, as on other more extensive edu- century, Mikael Hisinger’s travel journal can defi- cational tours, to go to Italy and visit the Roman nitely be recommended. monuments, but for various reasons they decided in Henrik Brissman, Lund the end to study monuments elsewhere on the Conti- nent, for example the Saxon kings’ collection of an- tique sculptures in Dresden or the aqueduct in Lyon. University as Medium Metropolitan architecture in cities such as Berlin Universitetet som medium. Matts Lindström & and Paris aroused great interest on the tour, and the Adam Wickberg Månsson (eds.). Mediehistoriskt most powerful experience of that kind for Hisinger arkiv vol. 27. Mediehistoria, Lunds universitet was the Ermenonville park outside Paris, designed 2015. 296 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-981961-0-8. in the new philosophical-romantic style. Another purpose of the journey was to collect  “This collection of essays concerns the use of old certain works of art, the most distinctive of which and new media in the humanities. If we are to follow was the Chinese pavilion which later ended up at the editors’ arguments, there is a need for digital Fagervik; it was, and probably will remain, unique laboratories. Digitization has become a permanent in Finland. revolution in the humanities. Hisinger’s travel diary is introduced by an The volume is divided into four thematic parts, eighty-page account of Hisinger as a person, his starting with “Roads of knowledge: Physical sites family and professional life, plus a description of the and digital tools” (Kunskapens vägar: Fysiska plat- preparations for the journey and of how it actually ser och digitala verktyg). Here Pelle Snickars writes turned out. The book has plenty of beautiful illustra- about the crossroads between traditional academic tions, as befits the genre, and it is not difficult to im- structures and the rapid growth of computerized agine the travellers’ fascination with the places they technologies. New forms of publication cultures and would visit. The notes are detailed too. After the in- Open Access may be the logical consequence of a troductory parts comes a transcript of Hisinger’s growing sharing culture. Cecilia Lindhé discusses diary, and the reader is given good help to under- how the senses and the room’s physical shape pro- stand both the antiquated technical terms and the vide new ways to make history present. Maria Eng- numerous Gallicisms, the eighteenth-century coun- berg focuses on her role as a scientist and how it terpart to today’s Anglicisms, although mostly used changed when encountering digital technologies. It only by the upper class. Not unexpectedly, Hisinger was like a movement from an initially analytic rela- uses French idioms in every other sentence, which tion to new variations on creative involvement. The modern readers may find tiresome and coquettish. variety of media experiences from the digital labora- On the other hand, Hisinger’s language gives the tory HUMlab in Umeå are evolved in Patrik documentary feeling a reader today expects of a text Svensson’s input. If the universities traditionally fa- from the late eighteenth century. voured textual expressions, there is a change going As is customary with travel journals, the writer’s on. 236 Reviews

The next thematic field is “The university sys- sophical view on the academic practitioners’ chal- tem: People, media, machines” (Universitets- lenges and opportunities has much to do with time – systemet: Människor, medier, maskiner). Here the for example how digital storage capacities overrule complex relation between Academia and the sur- traditional views of time and makes concurrences rounding community is examined. Magnus Brem- wider in our minds. mer illustrates this by drawing attention to the in- Here I will proceed with some words about the formal and international observation network taking contribution by Magnus Bremmer. The early use of form in meteorological science during the second scientific photography is highlighted in his article. half of the nineteenth century. I make a special com- At the same time he touches on what I have been ment on Bremmer’s input later in this review. studying for a long time, the history of winds and Jonas Andersson Schwarz describes a network clouds. Therefore I will present my personal reflec- among bloggers that shows how the boundary be- tions on his article, filtered through my own find- tween Academia and the outside world has gradual- ings. The title of Bremmer’s article is: “En ofantlig ly shifted from well-defined borders to much maskin: Fotografiet, molnatlasen och 1800-talets smoother dividing lines than before. In this context meteorologiska nätverk” (“An immense machine: Niklas Svensson examines the often lengthy appeal The photograph, the cloud atlas and 1800s meteoro- processes related to academic appointments in the logical network.”) 1800s, which triggered certain public interest in aca- The situation in London in 1803, when Luke demic appointments. Howard presented his watercolours to an audience The third theme is “Knowledge and communica- in the East End, was remarkable. People must have tion: The order of words” (Kunskap och kommu- wondered where the cloud classification came from. nikation: Ordens ordning). The most fundamental The classification was brilliant and indeed some- media expressions are language and words. Bo thing new. Among Howard’s admirers were the poet Lindberg explores how they have worked in Aca- von Goethe and many artists of the time, and the demia. Today, English is the “lingua franca” and a cloud names were based on family names, like reminiscent of the linguistic unity that Latin origin- flowers in the Linnaean style: cirrus, cumulus and ally gave the European universities. Perhaps this, as stratus. Lindberg speculates, might reflect a growing cos- Much later, in the 1860s, the physicist and me- mopolitan future. teorologist Robert Rubenson and the young lecturer The spoken word stands in contrast to written Hugo Hildebrand Hildebrandsson in Uppsala begun texts. Leif Dahlberg examines academic conversa- publishing the series Bulletin météorologique men- tion. As something opposed to written texts, spoken suel with observations and weather data from the words create opportunities to think in new ways, and observatory in Uppsala. there are a whole range of professional interactive Bremmer starts his article here. It is in the wake situations and “good conversations” at the universi- of an international meteorological conference in ties. Jonas Ingvarsson comments on the relationship Vienna in 1873. The delegates were asked to send in between theory and practice in the humanities in photographs of clouds in their home countries; it similar ways. was still unclear whether they were the same all The last theme of the anthology is “Critical per- over the globe or not. Hildebrandsson started his co- spectives” (Kritiska perspektiv). The focus is on the operation with the Uppsala photographer Henri Osti two major names in international research on media and after some years they published Sur la classifi- history, Friedrich A. Kittler and Hans Ulrich Gum- cation des nuages employée à l’Observatoire brecht. Friedrich Kittler’s contribution concerns the météorologique d’Upsala (1879). Perhaps they university’s history and future, transformed into a scored a bonus point on the international scene. No medically inspired vocabulary (anamnesis, diagno- other country responded to the idea of bringing back sis and prognosis). Finally, Mira Stolpe Törneman images of national clouds. and Adam Wickberg Månsson present an interview For a long time Hildebrandsson, now professor, with Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. The result is an had studied the patterns of high cirrus clouds over eye-opening conversation about the relation be- Sweden. Often they came in from the west, forecast- tween time, thought and technology. The philo- ing rainy weather and barometer minima. Reviews 237

On the international agenda in the 1880s and 90s Neumayer and Köppen 1890, was presented to the was the interpretation of the clouds. The heat of net- international expertise at a meeting in Munich in working, connecting observatories, was high and the 1891 and the coloured paintings were received with practice of telegraphic meteorology became a minor enthusiasm. The participants decided that the cloud revolution. nomenclature should be the international standard In accordance with my own findings Bremmer for the whole earth. describes the intense work going on in Uppsala to The reason why Bremmer decided to deepen his make preparations for another Cloud-Atlas. Two interpretation of this part of meteorological history ladies, Elise Arnberg in Stockholm and Augusta might be explained by his genuine interest in the Wigert in Uppsala, were asked to paint pictures to history of photography. Bremmer defended his overcome the disadvantages of colourless photos. thesis recently, Konsten att tämja en bild: Fotogra- Now it was their work to produce a series of cloud fiet och läsarens uppmärksamhet i 1800-talets Sve- paintings in oil with photographs as models. Some rige (2015) (The art of taming a picture: The photo- other paintings had been sent over to Sweden from graph and the reader’s attention in nineteenth-centu- colleagues in Germany for inspiration, originally ry Sweden). Part of the thesis also involves Profes- aiming for the sea weather service, Seewarte. Hilde- sor Hildebrandsson and his experiences of cloud brandsson travelled to Hamburg in December 1888 photography that are presented in this volume. to discuss the Swedish pictures. The task was not My own studies cover the ethnology of clouds enviable. It was difficult to produce images so that and winds. Preliminary results are presented in Rig the cloud shapes, colours and lights became consist- (2014, vol. 97:4) and Kulturella perspektiv (2015/3– ent with reality. One should not forget that the 4). I can identify shortcomings in Bremmer’s article, clouds are an ever-changing topic, explained one of things he did not see in the archives, but also clearly Hildebrand’s friends, Philip Weilbach in Copenha- recognize a qualified researcher. His article is gen. well-written and a valuable piece of scientific histo- During the work on the International Cloud-Atlas ry. I appreciate his systematic thoughts and impres- Hildebrandsson discussed the names of the clouds sive interpretations. with Ralph Abercromby, president of the Royal Me- I have often referred to the laboratory metaphor teorological Society in London. Abercromby had in my lectures. It is a pedagogical metaphor that has made two trips around the world to take photos of much to say about ethnological creativeness. The clouds. The purpose was to answer the question editors of the volume, University as M, pick up the whether clouds represented the same shapes and same thread and focus on new media, digital human- forms all over the World. After the last journey in ities and laboratories. The result is a valuable mirror 1886, he went directly to Uppsala to meet Hilde- of media and ethnological studies and moreover, I brandsson. They found that clouds were all the would strongly recommend it to young researchers same. There were the following basic cloud forms in the humanities. with their Latin names: cirrus, cirrostratus, cirro- Gösta Arvastson, Uppsala cumulus, stratocirrus, cumulocirrus, stratocumulus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, nimbus and stratus. The names had been in use in Uppsala since the mid- The Gender of Violence 1860s and were based on Luke Howard’s scheme. Gabriella Nilsson & Inger Lövkrona, Våldets kön. Surely the coming Cloud-Atlas would trigger a Kulturella föreställningar, funktioner och konse- deluge of comments, both positive and negative. As kvenser. Studentlitteratur, Lund 2015. 218 pp. ISBN I see it, paintings could of course be criticized as the 978-91-44-09360-4. outcome of subjective eyes and an affective identity. A photograph was neutral, objective and scientific.  In this book on “The Gender of Violence: Cultur- The Uppsala photographer Henri Osti, who moved al Ideas, Functions and Consequences”, Gabriella to Sweden from Germany and was well known in Nilsson and Inger Lövkrona convincingly argue that academic circles, provided him with photos. violence is a phenomenon that ought to be studied Professor Hildebrandsson’s Cloud-Atlas, pub- from the angles of history, cultural analysis, and lished in cooperation with the German scientists feminist theory. The authors raise questions such as: 238 Reviews

How is violence understood in different historical, tics. Vigorous (radical) feminist research on vio- societal, and cultural contexts? What functions does lence emerged as part of the gender-power theory violence have on the structural level and for particu- and became highly significant for the political un- lar individuals? What consequences does violence derstanding of violence. The designation “men’s have for its victims? How is violence sanctioned and violence against women” was launched as a reaction what kinds of violence are criminalized? to gender-neutral concepts such as “family vio- The authors, who are both ethnologists, have lence”, which was criticized for making the role of done research on violence in a long historical per- the perpetrator invisible, and with it the gender- spective (Lövkrona) and with a contemporary ap- power relationship in the couple and in society. But proach (Nilsson). The book focuses on violence as a the book also shows that there is by no means a cultural construction and as a learned cultural be- hegemonic outlook on partner violence in Sweden. haviour. At the same time, the authors emphasize There have been great differences of opinion in vio- that violence has a material and bodily foundation. lence studies – which Anne-Lie Steen (2003) has The central perspective in the book is that violence aptly called a “discursive battlefield”. is regarded as a gendered phenomenon. Men and Gender-power analysis, according to the authors’ women are victims and perpetrators of different analysis, had a strong position in Swedish research types of violence, in different arenas, and to differ- and politics up to the middle of the first decade of ent extents. The common denominator for different the twenty-first century. Then came what the book violent acts is that the vast majority of the perpetra- calls a “backlash”, which the authors associate with tors are men: men exercise violence against women, a general anti-feminist turn in society. What this against other men, and against themselves. Men’s backlash entailed remains unclear, however, at least violence against women is the main focus of the for this reader. One form of critique against the radi- book, but the authors add nuance to that picture in cal feminist understanding of violence came from the light of recent gender research, for instance by practitioners in the field of violence, who claimed including an intersectional perspective where social that the gender-power theory portrayed women as categories such as age, ethnicity/race, class, and passive victims and made their resistance and their sexuality are viewed as being associated with gen- agency invisible. There was also criticism of the fact dered ideas about violence. that social measures were almost exclusively geared The authors analyse violence by proceeding from to women, while children who experience violence their own and other researchers’ texts. Their ap- in the family, for example, are easily forgotten, as proach to violence resembles that of discourse an- are the perpetrators of violence. alysis, although they do not use the term discourse. The perpetrators – the majority of whom are How do definitions and interpretations change over men – receive considerable attention in the book, time? Who argues, why, and on what basis? What but the question of what should be done with them discursive shifts do we see in the argumentation? could have been discussed in more detail. Is it The approach is similar to that of the political scien- men’s attitudes to women and to violence that we tist Carol Bacchi (1999), “What is the problem rep- must change, and if so how? Is it therapy that is resented to be?”, where different types of policy is- needed? What type of treatment? How are we to sues (for example drugs, immigration, or equality) understand male violence – that the perpetrators are studied on the basis of a critical analysis of how are “deviants” or “typical” representatives of the the problem is represented in the political debate. male sex? An important message in the book is that the The authors say that the critics are partly right in terms we use about violence are never neutral. They that the gender-power perspective excludes certain arose in a specific context, often as a result of an ac- types of violence and groups of victims and perpe- tive political stance. Våldets kön is particularly in- trators of violence, and they state that the term “vio- teresting for anyone who wants to read about the po- lence in close relations” was introduced to capture liticization of the gender issue and the development the violence that takes place in same-sex couples. of research on violence in Sweden since the 1990s. From a Norwegian perspective I would argue that The book analyses how the concept of gender power the change of term was at least partly due to a desire gained ground in research, social debate, and poli- to include the violence that children are exposed to, Reviews 239

and also to be able to study violence in a life-course inconsistency in the content. Another unnecessary perspective. flaw is the failure to distinguish between the Euro- Female activists have expressed concern that pean Union and the Council of Europe in the discus- gender-neutral terms obscure the fact that serious sion of the Convention on Preventing and Combat- systematic partner violence mainly affects women. ing Violence against Women and Domestic Vio- This critique is both understandable and justified, lence, known as the Istanbul Convention (p. 39). yet I think that broader and more inclusive terms The book emphasizes that an intersectional per- need not necessarily mean that one is blind to the spective on violence is important, but in practice the gendered character of violence, or that one ignores a discussion of ethnicity is confined to honour-related structural understanding of partner violence. Re- violence. A broader analysis of the significance of search in recent years, from having looked for an ethnicity would have been desirable. There is some overall explanation for the occurrence of violence, evidence that young men with an immigrant back- has begun to develop more complex frameworks for ground are over-represented in the statistics as re- understanding it. I think that this is under-communi- gards assault rapes; immigrant women may be par- cated in the book. Interpersonal violence arises in ticularly venerable to domestic violence; and corpo- interaction between factors at the societal level, in ral punishment of children is fairly common in some the immediate environment, in the couple, in the immigrant families. Explanations for the phenome- family, and at the individual level. In addition to non certainly include other factors than just ethnici- gender there are crucial risk factors and vulnerabili- ty, such as socio-economic factors and marginaliz- ties, such as class background, social marginaliz- ation. For that reason in particular, this discussion is ation, addiction problems, and the perpetrator’s ex- far too important to be left to immigration critics posure to violence in childhood, which can shed and right-wing populists. light on differences in the prevalence of violence in The outlook on violence in society as a whole, in different groups in society. There is a definite need research as well, displays a lack of history that for continued dialogue between different theoretical makes it harder for us to understand the mechanisms traditions. Feminist research on violence has a given behind violence and thus to prevent and deal with place here, but perspectives based on psychology violence. It is important that humanists and cultural and health studies are needed too. In any case, vio- researchers take part in research in a field that re- lence studies with a gender perspective today are not quires a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary ap- exclusively about structural gender relations, but proach, but which has hitherto been dominated by can also include interactionist and constructivist ap- researchers in social and health sciences. The book proaches (“doing gender”). is based on rich and varied material and has a prob- In the introductory reflections the authors express lematizing, open, and critical approach to important surprise that Sweden, which is at the top of every in- aspects of gendered violence as a cultural and his- ternational quality index, has such a high occurrence torical phenomenon. Despite my critical remarks, I of violence against women and “the largest number regard Våldets kön as a very welcome contribution of reported rapes in the world” (p. 8). Here they also to Nordic research on violence. claim that violence is increasing rather than decreas- Solveig Bergman, Oslo ing in Sweden. As a social scientist I reacted to the uncritical treatment of statistics in this part of the book. A little later (p. 45), admittedly, this is nu- anced. Here the authors emphasize that available Cultural Heritage studies of the frequency of violence display great Crafting Cultural Heritage. Anneli Palmsköld, Jo- variations and methodological differences, that the hanna Rosenqvist & Gunnar Almevik (eds.). De- actual extent of violence is difficult to measure, and partment of Conservation, University of Gothenburg that it is not easy to compare the situation in differ- 2016. 117 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-981406-3-7. ent countries. What is perceived as violence varies, likewise the way of registering violence and the ten-  Crafting Cultural Heritage presents five papers dency to report violence. With more careful editing given to the Association of Critical Heritage Studies of the book it would have been possible to avoid this inaugural conference, ‘Re/theorising Heritage’, 240 Reviews

Gothenburg, 2012. Rosenqvist’s ‘Introduction’ afforded hand-weaving, peasant embroidering and notes conference participants were urged to ‘avoid lacemaking. These it tried to foster by collecting ex- site- and artefact-based definitions of heritage in a emplary old work and making materials, tools and traditional sense’, whilst Laurien’s paper helpfully updated patterns available through its shops devoted suggests we view cultural heritage not as ‘a neat to well designed and approved craft products. Cro- little parcel with a distinct addressee, but rather [as] chet – an entirely un-mechanised technique – met something constructed in the present in order to the handicraft criterion but was nonetheless con- serve a variety of reasons.’ In this sense all heritage demned by the largely middle-class founders of the is ‘cultural’ since social processes are always in- Home Craft Movement and others of their ilk, be- volved in designating artefacts, practices, land- cause of various problematic characteristics of the scapes, geological features or whatever, ‘heritage’. product, its production and producers. It was a Laurien’s claim that ‘cultural heritage acts as re- modern, cosmopolitan practice, condemned in a par- sources that individuals and groups use more or less ticularly nationalistic period as lacking traditional consciously in their quests for identity and struggles roots in local Swedish culture. Defined as ‘easy’, for power’, and Rosenqvist’s suggestion that ‘what insufficiently disciplined, favoured, particularly in is to become official heritage or not is a choice made the early 20th century, by low status individuals – in highly professionally institutional and political maids, lower-class women, even children, it was settings’, signal the first of the collection’s two main deemed aesthetically unattractive. Ellen Key, advo- themes – i.e. how and why craft [or art] heritage is cate of tasteful functionality thought the ‘dead white constructed. The second key concern is how tradi- blotches’ of crocheted dust covers, tablecloths etc. tional craft skills can be documented, transmitted made rooms look like drying attics. Despite this re- and preserved. The word ‘craft’ has various con- jection of crochet as heritage, today there seems notations. ‘To craft’ refers to making or shaping – some softening of the stand against it. Palmsköld in various languages the terms for ‘craft’ and finds people now rescuing crocheted goods from ‘power’ are cognate, whilst ‘crafty’ can mean clever flea markets, appreciating the time and skill they or shrewd. Sennett in his seminal The Craftsman embody even though unsure what to do with them. defines the latter as someone dedicated to producing Interestingly she suggests that crochet may be be- good work – of whatever kind – for its own sake. coming one technique among others, escaping the But in this collection craft principally relates to what old heirarchisation. The HCM’s website currently is made by hand – raising the question of how the advertises a how-to-do-it book Virka! [Crochet!]. artisanal can survive once industrialisation and now Laurien shows how today’s new Swedish practi- automation, arrives. tioners of Shibori – a method of folding, pressing, Three of the papers are by Swedish authors, ap- stitching then dying fabric to pattern cloth, seek propriate given Sweden’s history of strong concern positively to distinguish their product by favourable with heritage – often in tension with a modernising comparison with the knytbatik/tie-dye particularly ethos. ‘Craft, Crochet and Heritage’ and ‘Pleasure/ favoured by 1960s hippies. Invoking tie-dye allows Unpleasure: Performing Cultural Heritage: voices practitioners to explain their activity to uninitiated from the artistic practice of Shibori in Sweden’, by others – ‘it’s a bit like knytbatik’ – but also to claim Palmsköld and Laurien respectively, focus on the Shibori’s elevation. Again the disfavoured form is first of the collection’s themes. Referencing differ- presented as aesthetically unattractive, unprofes- ent kinds of hand-worked textiles, in different sional, slovenly, requiring little skill [you can buy periods, they provide examples of how positive kits to do it]. Shibori is seen as complex and skilled, value and heritage status is awarded or denied. In ‘full of creative possibilities and challenges’. Re- each instance, cultural gatekeepers or entrepreneurs sults are planned, not random – although an element award status within what Bourdieu [strangely never of unpredictability is often valued. Photos suggest a mentioned by either author] would call a ‘field’ of more disciplined colour palette than the hippies’ opposing practices and practitioners. Palmsköld in- psychedelic outbursts. Lack of traditional Swedish vestigates the influential Home Craft Movement/ roots counted against crochet. But Shibori gains Hemslöjdsrörelse in the late 19th and early 20th cen- cachet from being a traditional Japanese technique, tury denying crochet the value and heritage status it given that country’s high status in the world of arts Reviews 241

and crafts. ‘Foreigners making authentic crafts with cultural heritage can be problematic for artists ‘who their authentic techniques far off the tourist trails – have tended to see everything as available for their which the artist can study and appreciate profession- use and reuse as they feel fit.’ His introductory anec- ally’, says Laurien, can constitute a positive ‘Other’ dote in which a fine art graduate, finding that a tex- in terms of which to construct identity – in contrast tile designer considers knytbatik to be the ugliest to the negative ‘Other’ provided by the low status thing he knows, thereupon decides to use it in his children, housewives, amateurs and hobbyists who work, illustrates the low regard in which tie-die is perpetrate tie-dye. High status, internationally- held. But it also suggests art’s high status allows it known practitioners like Issey Miyake whose pleat- to use ‘low’ forms deliberately, perhaps provoca- ed textiles innovatively develop traditional crafts, tively, ironically or even in a hierarchy-challenging provide another version of the positive ‘Other’. way, without threatening its own elevated position. Whilst Palmsköld documents how a high status The British contributor, Donovan, defines herself category external to the crocheters evaluated their as an artist, combining practice and research. Her craft, it is the Swedish Shiborists themselves who article [‘Sexuality, Deathliness and Chocolate: talk- claim high status. Mainly female, with various kinds ing, making and performing Nottingham’s lace of formal art education and some at least sufficiently heritage] describes three art works she ‘performed’ well off to make study visits to Japan, they currently relating to Nottingham’s ‘almost extinct’ lace indus- constitute a ‘critical mass’ of about fifty and are be- try. All aimed to get the works’ audiences to talk ginning to institutionalise themselves through lec- about lace and the city’s historic involvement in its tures, courses, exhibitions and the 2010 founding of manufacture – by putting lace-made items on mar- Svenska Shiborisällskapet [the Swedish Shibori So- ket stalls in the town and at a festival for Goths, ciety]. ‘Many of the artists who have added Shibori making chocolate lace patterns at the tourist office, to their artistic repertoire’, says Laurien, ‘should be and collaborating with local university staff and stu- considered as belonging to an elite’. That Shibori is dents to produce a lace-inspired costume for a bur- referred to as an ‘artistic practice’ and the Svenska lesque performance at Nottingham’s museum. Shiborisällskap website declares its intention ‘to fa- Whilst Palmsköld and Laurien document the com- cilitate the development of Shibori in Sweden as an paratively well placed and powerful defining some art form at a high artistic level’, may also be a status kinds of product and activity as more valuable than claim. A little disappointingly, neither Laurien nor others [historically the norm for the heritage indus- any other contributor specifically discusses the art/ try], Donovan usefully reminds us that heritage may craft relation [though Rosenqvist has interestingly be contested, that it can have official and unofficial considered this elsewhere]. They don’t mention how versions, involving grander and ‘smaller’ narratives. some post-Enlightenment European cultures have It is the latter, ‘mundane but nevertheless rich per- positively associated ‘art’ with distinctively individ- sonal stories’, her art interventions were intended to ual creativity and intellectual concerns, and ‘craft’, elicit. Unlike the more standard ‘oral history’ ap- less favourably, with ‘mere’ bodily skills. This proaches to capturing such memories, however, Do- probably helps explain why, as Palmsköld does novan only sought to evoke and not to record re- note, craft work has often been linked to collective sponses – even though some participants feared rather than individual knowledge and old craft items their experiences would be forgotten. Rosenqvist can seldom be traced to a specific maker. Today says this research offers a ‘co-participatory, multi- when ‘fine’ artists talk about their work’s ‘authen- vocal epistemology of heritage’. But whilst we ticity’ they are generally asserting it as a genuine ex- might welcome Donovan’s suggestion that heritage pression of their own personality, feelings and be- be treated as a ‘responsive’ and ‘multi-perspectival’ liefs, whilst the contemporary art world prizes ori- concept, her claim that what it comprises should be ginality and innovation highly. Craft workers may, ‘decided by the individual for the individual and but need not be, original and when they claim au- from the individual’s point of view’, unwarrantably thenticity for their product they are more likely to be rules out ‘performing’ it as a collective project. making claims for its conformity with established Aren’t hegemonic heritagizing strategies of the genres or techniques. Such a distinction might link dominant more likely to be effectively challenged to Laurien’s suggestion that ideas of ‘ownership’ of collectively than on an individual basis? Why be in- 242 Reviews

terested in how lace relates to the Goth subculture if as co-participants in its research. Almevik speaks of it is only individual views that matter? craftsmanship as ‘knowing in action’, querying how The remaining two papers, by Almevik, a found- what is known implicitly, particularly tactile, em- er of the University of Gothenburg’s Craft Labora- bodied knowledge, can be made explicit. How can tory, and the Italians Lupo and Giunta, consider how those who have spent many hours practicing skills, craft skills can be documented, preserved and trans- aspects of which they now mobilise ‘without think- mitted to new generations of producers. ‘From Ar- ing’, pass these on to others? And how far can, for chive to Living Heritage: participatory documenta- example, a museum professional claim to have tion in crafts’ and ‘Contemporary Authentic: a de- ‘real’ knowledge of a craft in which they are un- sign-driven strategy for activating intangible heri- skilled? Through considering the inadequacies of tage and craft knowledge’, share common themes some existing examples of filmed craft processes but with differences of emphasis. Almevik [like and by working with current craft practitioners to Palmsköld] notes the early Swedish heritage mu- produce new videos and other documentation of seum professionals’ focus on collecting and preserv- their activity, Almevik considers what might be ap- ing material artefacts threatened by an industrialis- propriate techniques to capture exactly what the ing society. He contrasts this with the increased con- craftsperson needs to know and do to perform their temporary concern with how such products were craft. But although he found craftsmen struggling made – both as something of interest in itself [as In- when trying to write about their practice, often ask- tangible Cultural Heritage] and as required for ing whom they should consider as their audience for building restoration work. The Italians’ project, their efforts, he himself pays little attention to how whose presentation is sometimes difficult to follow, variations in people’s backgrounds, experiences and seems more concerned with retaining and develop- existing competences might affect how they should ing the craft tradition for city and regional economic be taught. How much can be taken for granted de- development, including as part of a place-marketing pends on whom you are informing. And appropriate ‘tourism offer’. With echoes of the Home Craft metaphors [‘get it to the consistency of batter’ for Movement’s ‘Svensk Slöjd’ trademark for goods example] may vary by audience. I suggest there is sold in their shops, they want to establish ‘Contem- no ‘one size fits all’ kind of documentation and that porary Authentic Milano’ as a ‘recognisable brand’ even the already well informed might benefit from a for craft products, with its own quality certification ‘triangulated’ form of knowledge collection and system marketable at trade fairs and elsewhere. transfer. They call their strategy for ‘activating’ craft knowl- Besides their attempts to document craft workers edge, ‘design-driven’. This could mean that it is the in action, both the Swedish and Italian researchers strategy that is designed, in the sense of being care- arranged sessions in which more senior workers en- fully worked out and composed of interlocking ele- gaged with their juniors. But although Lupo and ments. But it is also design-driven in that it aims to Giunta called their week-long workshops Bottehga mobilise a modern design aesthetic to make old craft after the workplaces where Renaissance masters skills relevant today. A goal was ‘to design new and worked with their apprentices, neither they, nor innovative contemporary authentic products and Almevik provide much information on the various processes based on heritage’, and they have devised ways in which different craft skills were traditional- an ‘authenticity/innovation matrix’ which grades ly learned across the generations. What kinds of di- various ‘material’ and ‘immaterial’ aspects of a rect teaching were there, how far were initiates ex- product on a scale from ‘very traditional’ to ‘very pected to pick things up simply by watching or by innovative’. trial and error? Could what worked well in the past Both the Swedish and the Italian projects involve have any relevance today? The broader context in attempts to document traditional craft processes as which craft workers are located then and now is knowledge which can be passed on to new practi- relevant here. It certainly also needs considering by tioners. But at least as presented in these papers, it is those who hope not just to preserve knowledge of the Craft Laboratory that is the most self-reflective craft skills as heritage, but to facilitate ‘craft-work- and sophisticated about the difficulties of doing this. er’ being a viable occupation today. A strength of It is also particularly invested in seeing practitioners Contemporary Authentic is that it doesn’t just list Reviews 243

Milan’s ‘endangered masters’ and document the problematically expensive, requiring those who can skills they possess but also tries to map their net- afford to buy them to be willing to pay a premium works of relations. These extend beyond those with for their craftedness, uniqueness or such like. Even any direct co-workers, to relations with material with a market, craft-workers are dependent on the suppliers, other enterprises, art institutions and the continued availability of tools and materials and ac- general public. That connections can be of different cess to affordable premises for their work – which kinds – ‘reproductive’, ’sharing’, ‘communicative’, urban redevelopment often threatens. In the longer is recognised. So is their different spatial reach, al- term they also need to be able to attract, train and re- though ones which have become embedded in the tain new workers. local region are of particular interest. However, This is a thought-provoking collection raising as there is no clear discussion of why Milan’s histori- many questions as it answers. It made me want to cally strong tradition of independent craft working ask about national differences in orientation to craft is under threat, nor exactly how changes of network and craft heritage and to formal and informal art/ relations might be implicated in this. Almevik also craft/design education. It made me wonder about the provides only a few glimpses of his contemporary possible independence of preconditions for preserv- craft workers’ external relations. He suggests many ing the continued production of specific craft prod- feel rather isolated, with small firms unable to rely ucts, specific craft techniques, and the safeguarding on family traditions worrying about their ability to of the traditional role of craft worker. As Traditional obtain already skilled workers whilst hesitating to Authentic shows, heritage techniques can be used to risk the costs of training novices. They experience make new products. But the craft-worker role could fitting in with the formal, rationalised protocols of also be occupied by someone using innovative tech- contemporary building and restoration projects niques and materials to make non-traditional items. problematic, finding that ‘traditional techniques and Are we more interested in safeguarding, the practice materials are being outcompeted by new industrial of making things by hand, or specific craft processes products because they cannot prove the qualities and and products? Do we necessarily have to make this formal eligibility of their way of doing things’. choice? Palmsköld and Laurien suggest amateurs Where they do get work they often have to cede tend to be disvalued by professional art/craft work- their autonomous design and planning decision- ers. But given the contemporary difficulties of sup- making to, for example, heritage professionals. An porting oneself solely through handicraft produc- experiment in which plasterers on one restoration tion, challenging the professional/amateur distinc- site set up a blog documenting and explaining their tion might be a good move. Encouraging and devel- daily activities is praised for allowing the hands-on oping the competencies and commitments of those workers to communicate with their managers, sup- presently designated amateurs might help save old pliers and building consultants, facilitating a less crafts and increase appreciation of the efforts and top-down, more dialogic, relationship between skills which hand-produced goods embody – some- them. That digital technology skills are important thing which could benefit those seeking to sell them. It could also allow more people to experience the for documenters and disseminators of craft heritage pleasures of making things by hand. is evident in several of the papers. Hilary Stanworth, Swansea University As I have begun to suggest, we need to under- stand the difficulties craft-workers presently face if we want to support craft-working as an occupation. Without subsidy [for which being labelled as ‘herit- History of the Roma in Finland age’ may be all important] or without additional in- De finska romernas historia från svenska tiden till come from teaching their craft skills to others, the 2000-talet. Panu Pulma (ed.). Skrifter utgivna av craft-worker has to make products people want, at Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, SLS & Atlan- prices they can afford and are prepared to pay. Apart tis, Helsingfors & Stockholm 2015. 503 pp. Ill. from nostalgic interest, goods meeting needs that no ISBN 978-951-583-338-9 & 978-91-7353-835-0. longer exist or for which manufactured alternatives are more effective, are unlikely to be popular. High  This book contains an impressive collection of re- production costs can also make handmade products search about the history of the Roma in Finland 244 Reviews

from the sixteenth century to the present day. It has gathered in the folklife archives since the nineteenth its origin in a large research project initiated by the century. Finnish Roma organizations. The research has been The authors are exemplary in the way they avoid conducted in close cooperation between the aca- using today’s terms and outlooks, instead trying to demic community and the Roma organizations. The find the history in its own particular time. This editor of the book, Panu Pulma, professor of history means that designations such as Roma, tattare, and at Helsinki University, has also led the research pro- zigenare are problematized in an interesting way, ject together with a representative of the Roma or- which also clarifies societal conditions and the zeit- ganizations. Those employed in the research project geist of the era concerned. A good approach is to have been historians, social scientists, and an ethno- use the terminology of the primary sources in order musicologist. The authors declare that it is unthink- to show whose outlook is reflected and whose voice able that the history of a minority can be written in is heard in the context. At the same time as the au- any reliable way without their participation, and thors criticize the use of sources presenting descrip- trustful cooperation has therefore been established tions by authorities and officials, however, they with Roma organizations. This has been an essential themselves have also been forced to use them. They condition for the work. Several Roma have also describe it as a special problem that they have chief- written contributions of their own, giving them a ly encountered those who, as a result of various de- distinct voice throughout the book. Personal experi- viations from the norm, came into contact with pub- ences and the strong oral tradition that is character- lic authorities; they emphasize that they have not istic of the Roma thus set their stamp on the whole reached what they call “assimilated” people because account. The most valuable thing about the book, they were not in contact with the authorities. Here, however, is that the history of the Roma is not de- as elsewhere, one therefore wonders what the au- scribed from a victim position but from a position thors actually think is typical and constitutive of the where the group takes part in active interplay with group. If one is “assimilated” and does not live in the rest of society. Questions are asked about how the manner of the Roma, is one then a Roma? the Roma have affected the development of society Flexibility and change in traditions and customs and, conversely, how society has forced them to is emphasized throughout in an exemplary fashion. adapt and reformulate traditions and cultural expres- It is all about the history of the Roma in Finland, but sions. linked to Roma in other Nordic countries, and here Research and descriptions concerning the history Sweden plays a major part in different ways. It is of minorities should not be presented as something pointed out that the reason some families and indi- out of the ordinary but, as is done here, as a part of viduals are used as examples is quite simply that the shared history of a society. Moreover, it is em- there is source material which makes this possible, phasized here, as ought to be self-evident, that a mi- rather than that they are particularly interesting. nority is not a uniform group; it can contain a multi- The book is divided into three large parts, the tude of different traditions, identities, and cultural first of which is a chronological account in four expressions. The point of departure for this research chapters of the history of the Roma from the six- is that the Roma and other inhabitants of the Nordic teenth century to the Second World War. countries have had a shared history in the last five In the very first chapter the doctoral student Tuu- hundred years, while it is simultaneously underlined la Rekola fills over eighty interesting pages with a that the Roma are a larger international ethnic mi- solid survey of the early Roma history from the six- nority. teenth century to the Second World War. This sec- The main focus here is on the interaction between tion is one of the best in the book, based on exten- Roma and the rest of society, and how this has sive research in the sources, not least of all the court changed both. Groups like the Roma have rarely left records. In some places, however, the description is any written sources to express their own standpoints slightly problematic, as when she states that a per- and perceptions, and that has also affected this re- son was not released from prison on the grounds of search, chiefly in the account of the early history. being a Roma, whereas in fact the reason was that On the other hand, there is a rich source of knowl- the person was a vagrant. The laws against vagrancy edge to draw on: the oral traditions of the Roma, in the eighteenth century were very strict. A discus- Reviews 245

sion here about the relationship between vagrancy evacuation of the Karelian Roma during the war. and ethnic affiliation would have been interesting. There was a large Roma population in the Karelian On the other hand, the author gives us a nuanced ac- peninsula, amounting to one third of all Finland’s count of the debate in the eighteenth century about Roma; they were the ones who experienced the taking Roma children into care. But in the descrip- greatest changes. The war years are described in tions of the enlistment of soldiers, the Roma are contradictory terms. There was a kind of positive shown in a poor light, when it is stated that the spirit of brother-in-arms which Roma felt at the crown recruited the cheapest people possible and front, giving them a positive Finnish identity. Yet at that the Roma either joined the army in that capacity the same time, repression and discrimination at or were forcibly recruited because of their vagrancy. home helped to strengthen the Roma identity with All through the book one can see that the Roma its isolation and exclusion. ran into difficulty because of the vagrancy laws, In the second part of the book, entitled “Towards since they had no fixed employment, but there is no real citizenship”, Miika Tervonen discusses the ma- discussion of why they did not adapt. Was the free- jor change in the situation of the Roma in Finland dom of the road such an important part of their way from the end of the Second World War until today of life? And did the Roma way of life thereby con- in seven short chapters. From the 1950s many of the flict with society’s norms and laws? How did this traditional occupations of the Roma declined in sig- affect the laws, and how did it affect the lifestyle? nificance. Horse trading and craft work became less The analysis could have been clearer here. The itin- and less important. Some Roma then switched to car erant way of life is described but not discussed. dealing and trading in factory-made goods. The Moreover, there ought to have been room for a dis- horseman culture had an upswing in the 1970s, how- cussion of whether social status should be related to ever, with the growth of harness racing. It is also the Roma identity or to the association with occupa- noted here that poor relief and other social security tions and jobs of low social status. There is a risk of benefited the Roma, but not at all to the extent that circular reasoning here. An example would be the they were entitled to. For example, they did not dare description of the “tinker” (tattare) who became a to ask for help, for fear that the authorities would vicar. What does this description say about the take their children into care. The deeper analytical Roma affiliation? Does the author think that being chapters in this part are interleaved with short bio- Roma is more than a way of life, a set of customs graphical accounts, such as the story of the best- and traditions? If a person has left all that behind, known Roma author in Finland, Veijo Baltzar, the has he or she ceased to be Roma? The important musician and debater Rainer Friman, the musician question of what is Roma is not considered. How Aale Lindgren, and the debater Miranda Vuolasran- does one become a Roma and how does one retain ta. or leave this identity? Is it something different from One chapter clarifies what the new age has in- a social and cultural affiliation? But these questions volved: a development from social-policy refugees should not cast a shadow on a great research to a national minority. Many Roma migrated to achievement and a fine presentation by Rekola. In Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s and found work the description of Carl Palm just a few pages after there. It is gratifying to note that informants in sev- we have met the vicar, it immediately gets better. eral interviews say that they found Sweden a more This introduction is followed by a more analyti- open country with a more tolerant atmosphere cal chapter by the postdoctoral researcher Miika where people did not care “whether you were a gyp- Tervonen. Under the heading “Vagabonds and sy or not” (p. 204). boundary transgressors” this discusses the Roma in There are short chapters describing the work with the emerging nation state, and it also provides some- children by the Gypsy Mission, the role of the thing of a background to the chapters later in the church, and the international connections of Fin- book where Tervonen discusses changes in recent land’s Roma policy. When the mission later became times. the Roma’s own organization with one of their own After these two opening chapters, which are the people managing the activities, it changed direction heaviest, there are two short sections, more like es- more towards efforts against substance abuse and says, one about religious revival, the other about the work with young people, but also things such as vio- 246 Reviews

lin teaching and the production of information bro- changes in society have enabled social mobility both chures about Roma culture. within and between different groups. Ethnicity is In a final short chapter in part two, Miika Tervo- created and experienced both inwardly and outward- nen considers the situation of EU migrants and dis- ly, that is, how you perceive yourself and how you cusses stereotypes and prejudices now that Roma are perceived by others. Often we need clear cate- from Romania and Bulgaria have come to Helsinki gories while simultaneously we find it difficult to to beg. As an explanation for their situation in the decide how to relate to those who want to remain home countries he cites the new aggressive national- outside the categories or change them. ism, the drastic privatization coupled with unem- To conclude, I would say that the most interest- ployment as a consequence of the new economy, for ing texts in the book are those by Miika Tervonen, which the Roma are made into scapegoats. As long who describes, discusses, and analyses the situation as the problems in the home countries are not of the Roma, for example, in the emerging nation solved, they will go on begging in cities like Helsin- state, and their changed situation during the war. ki because it gives them much better chances of sur- These long chapters are significant for understand- vival. ing other parts of the book. The third part of the book is about how their lan- A detailed list of sources and a full bibliography guage and culture have changed. The head of re- with an index of persons strengthens the impression search in Roma Studies at Södertörn University, of a solid research report. Yet this is not just a dry Kimmo Granqvist, begins by describing the history and matter-of-fact presentation; on the contrary, the of the Romany language in Finland from the Middle reader is given a vibrant, colourful, and easy-to-read Ages to the present day, when there is a blend of dif- account. The rich illustrations further enhance this. ferent Romany dialects. A review of such a full book as this can only be a Risto Blomster, researcher at the folklore archive quick survey, but I hope that it will attract anyone of the Finnish Literature Society, devotes a chapter interested in sharing a truly multifaceted presenta- to a detailed description of Roma music, starting tion of the history of a minority, the Roma in Fin- with the gypsy romanticism of the eighteenth and land. But here one can also see how to write inter- nineteenth centuries, via orchestral music and the esting history with great historical depth, even in a role of Roma musicians in dance music, to the world field where the sources are highly inaccessible or of Roma singers. The rich material in Finnish folk- one-sided, as is often the case with groups on the lore archives enables a multifaceted description. margin of society. To sum up, the book has given Several Roma artistes and orchestras are given sep- me many nuanced pictures of the situation of the arate presentations. Roma in Finnish society over a period of more than Anna Maria Viljanen, associate professor of an- five centuries. thropological psychology, surveys changes in Roma Birgitta Svensson, Stockholm women’s dress through descriptions by outsiders and by means of interviews with the Roma women themselves. And Marko Stenroos describes the dress traditions of Roma men and above all boys. Islands and Islandness Among Roma handicraft we find crochet work, Owe Ronström, Öar och öighet. Introduktion till paper flowers, embroidery, and various kinds of östudier. Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm 2016. 312 utility objects, but most beautiful of all is the Roma pp. Ill. ISBN 978-91-7331-790-0. jewellery. In the excellent short chapter by the doctoral stu-  The title, Öar och öighet: Introduktion till östu- dent Marko Stenroos that rounds off this thick book, dier, leaves no doubt about the subject matter of the a positive image of the many faces of the Roma re- present volume, although “öighet”, islandness, minds us how easily stereotypes can be attached to might be a term that sounds unfamiliar to some. people and how important it is to see that Roma too However, it is a concept the author has been using live in the border zone between Finnish and Roma for quite some time in different contexts, and I can identities and that all kinds of belonging are mix- assure any sceptics of this coinage that it makes per- tures. But above all it is made clear here that fect sense after having read the present volume. On Reviews 247

the other hand, the latter part of the book’s title, “In- understanding islands is through the lens of duality troduction to Island Studies”, might be a bit of a and dichotomy. As pointed out by Ronström, con- misnomer. Naturally, I do not in any way imply that temporary Island Studies have tried to question and introductions make up a limited or inferior genre of go beyond these taken-for-granted dichotomies by, academic literature – far from it. Still, for a work for example, adopting a “both-and” view instead of labelled as an introduction it generally suffices to an “either-or” view. Still, a number of conditions give the background and a review of research and seem to be solidly connected with the idea of is- literature for the field in question. Nevertheless, lands, of which remoteness, clear borders and ar- while Ronström’s introduction certainly does pro- chaism are among the most entrenched. vide all of this, it also presents new research and Another interesting discussion concerns the con- perspectives that, in fact, contribute to and advance necting of islands and mainlands through bridges. the field of Island Studies. What does a bridge do to an island? And what hap- The volume consists of sixteen chapters of vary- pens with the “quintessential” island qualities of ing length; some contain longer investigations, ex- separateness, inaccessibility and remoteness? Island amples and discussions, while others are more in the bridge-building projects have often been the source style of philosophical reflections. Together they all of heated debates and strong emotions. However, provide pieces to the island-puzzle. Parts of the con- looking at the consequences of “bridge-building” tent have been previously published elsewhere, for islands from a global perspective there is no mostly in English-speaking journals. Bringing the definite or predicable outcome – the ramifications texts together in a larger framework makes for inter- might be positive or negative, the effects insignifi- esting juxtapositions and gives greater depth to the cant or momentous. overall argument. The study steadily circles in on its The book is crammed with island facts, to the theme, switching between macro and micro perspec- point that I find myself thinking that I will probably tives. The opening chapters deal with the question of have great use of this volume as an encyclopaedia what constitutes an island from the point of view of on everything from statistics on island populations, geography and language. The following chapters ad- global distribution of islands and ways of distin- dress the concept of islandness on a more abstract guishing between different types of islands in vari- level by focusing on perceptions, metaphors, images ous languages. Firmly standing on an ethnological/ and ideas about islands. folkloristic platform, the author also covers many The structure of the book inevitably leads to reoc- other disciplinary perspectives such as history, lin- curring themes and discussions, almost to the point guistics, mythology, popular culture, geography and of repetition. However, the attentive reader will ap- philosophy – all in the quest to investigate and re- preciate how these returning themes are expanded veal our thinking about islands and islandness. upon or explored from new angles. For example, the It is generally not common practice for reviewers discussion of how centres and peripheries are creat- to turn the focus to their own person in the writing ed and maintained is raised in many of the chapters, of a review. Nevertheless, in this case I felt oddly but in different contexts and at various points on the compelled to position myself: after, in fact, not hav- concrete-abstract continuum. ing lived on my home island of Åland for over twen- Rather than trying to provide a thorough outline ty years I still self-identify as an islander. Ron- of all the chapters I will pick up a few of the threads ström’s discussion of islandness makes me question running through the book. First and foremost: myself. Perhaps my eagerness to claim islandness “What is an island?” – The question is posed many for my own part is not just about good academic times and Ronström gives many answers. What practice of positioning and declaring one’s own emerges is that, apart from being a geographical cir- biases – it might just as well be about a wish to iden- cumstance – i.e. a small piece of land surrounded by tify with perceived island qualities? A stance water – islands are in many cases “what we want strengthened by, or even born out of, living on the them to be”. This is when the concept of “island- mainland? ness” comes in handy. Places and phenomena can be I have previously been fairly secure in my knowl- perceived as “islands” through being ascribed cer- edge about what an island is. However, after having tain qualities, images and ideas. A common way of read Ronström’s book (and previous articles on the 248 Reviews

same topic) I am no longer so sure. This, to me, is In her book Brott, tiggeri och brännvinets för- what good research in the humanities and social därv – studier i socialt orienterade visor i skilling- sciences should do. Rather than presenting facts as tryck (Crimes, begging and destructive liquor – static truths, it is about going beyond what is pre- studies about socially oriented broadsheet ballads) sumed, questioning what we think we know, and in- Strand analyses three kinds of songs from the nine- troducing new or alternative angles and perspec- teenth and early twentieth century: so-called blind tives. songs, songs about crime and criminals, and songs While reading Öar och öighet I was reminded of from the temperance movement about alcohol an oft-quoted excerpt from a poem by the Prince Ed- abuse. Furthermore she approaches her data from ward Island born poet Milton Acorn: To be born on three different angles: as archival sources, as aes- an island’s to be sure/You are a native with a habi- thetic texts of a specific genre and mode, and as ver- tat/Growing up one’s good training/For living in a sions of events described in other sources. country, on a planet. That islands actually are useful A blind song is by definition written by a blind for applying to matters beyond themselves is also person who sold it to help earn his (only a few of the one of Ronström’s central arguments. Islands are blind authors were women) living. However, the “good to think with” – helping us to understand hu- name of the actual author is seldom confirmed, and mans and how we construct our world. Consequent- many of the texts are very similar in both content ly, one does not need to be a devoted nesophile and structure. The reason why the author has lost his (lover of islands) to enjoy and gain insight from Öar or her sight is often described, for instance “blind och öighet. from birth” or – as in this detailed description writ- Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch, Helsinki ten in old-fashioned Swedish – “A new song about an unlucky wedding where the soldier Johan Palm was shot in the face through a farmer’s careless use of a gun, but after a lot of suffering survived and lost Broadsheets from the Margins of Society his sight.” Karin Strand, Brott, tiggeri och brännvinets fördärv. These ballads show a shift in society from a reli- Studier i socialt orienterade visor i skillingtryck. gious discourse where blindness was seen as God’s Gidlunds förlag, Möklinta 2016. 272 pp. Ill. ISBN endurance to an individualistic way of tackling diffi- 978-91-78449514. culties in life. Strand also describes the way in which the blind have been portrayed in literature  Many of us know “The Ballad of Elvira Madi- throughout the centuries. Often the presence of a gan”; we sang it in school and learnt about the sad disabled person carried a message; someone’s deaf- story of the tightrope dancer Elvira and the hand- ness led to funny misunderstandings and a blind per- some lieutenant Sixten Sparre, who eloped and com- son was expected to have a greater insight or per- mitted suicide together. This is a well-known broad- haps special talents, such as being exceptionally mu- sheet ballad about a true event from the late nine- sical. Strand also asks how and whether the texts teenth century. Karin Strand, a music researcher and were actually sung, which is an interesting question. archivist at the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Old texts seldom tell us about the way in which they Jazz Research (Svenskt visarkiv) shows how the were used after being passed on to a buyer, the only broadsheet ballad was an early type of mass media thing left to study is the actual text. The broadsheets which reached its peak of popularity during the were often sung to well-known tunes, and Strand nineteenth and early twentieth century, before the concludes that the blind sellers sometimes sang or breakthrough of other mass media. The broadsheet read parts of their texts out loud, when trying to sell was a kind of popular street music that turned up in them. the sixteenth century when printed literature became The second chapter deals with broadsheets about available to the public. This leaflet, often a single crimes and criminals. Just like the blind songs, these folded sheet containing songs about recent inci- texts show a shift in society from a religious deter- dents, could be bought for a Swedish shilling (skill- ministic outlook on life to an early modern approach ingtryck). Being cheap it appealed to a wider audi- emphasizing every individual’s responsibility for ence than the upper classes. his or her actions. In the early texts, the sinner re- Reviews 249

pents and begs for God’s forgiveness. Some of the ences from different kinds of written texts and from texts claim to be written by the sinner himself, but the surrounding society. However, the influence of Strand questions whether a prisoner, waiting to be the wide range of oral narratives is not mentioned, executed, would really cry out, “Oh day of death – an approach that would have deepened the analysis. you hasten, I fear thee!”, followed by a long solemn A disturbing detail is the way in which the author rhyme about his anguish. Thus, the texts were most avoids writing in the first person, but rather uses certainly written by someone else and sold at the “we” when describing how she proceeds in her an- time of the trial or execution. Strand then looks at alysis, which makes the text feel a bit “educational”. the reality behind the texts in authentic court records Why not use the word “I” when describing what you and gives detailed descriptions of the criminals, intend to do in the following text? their lives, the events leading up to the crimes and All in all Brott, tiggeri och brännvinets fördärv what happened thereafter. This is an exciting insight is an interesting and comprehensive book that can into some extraordinary life stories! be read by anyone. Karin Strand provides many Finally Strand looks at temperance songs (and well- chosen and sometimes amusing quotations prose) about drunkenness. These songs were writ- from the broadsheets as well as interesting facts ten in a time when the temperance movement was about the lives of those who are presented in the advancing in Europe and drinking was seen as (and texts. I also enjoyed all the pictures of the broad- probably was) a growing problem. The texts often sheets and their contents. It gives insight into the focus on the family: poor struggling wives and world behind the ballads, some of which are still children, all victims of the husbands/fathers alco- sung today. holism. The child in the song symbolizes inno- Susanne Waldén, Huddinge cence and vulnerability in contrast to the selfish drunken adult/man. These themes also appear in oral narratives, such as drinking narratives, where a drunken man or father in front of an innocent Sámi Perspectives child shows the contrast between good and bad, in- Visions of Sápmi. Anna Lydia Svalastog and Gunlög nocence and guilt. In drinking narratives, as in the Fur (eds.). Arthub Publisher, Røros 2015. 200 pp. sobriety songs, the drunkard sometimes stops Ill. drinking when hitting rock-bottom. A common theme in the temperance songs is a drunken father  Visions of Sápmi is a richly illustrated anthology turning sober after the death of his neglected child. about representations of Sápmi and its inhabitants in The ethnologist Christian Richette (“Frälsta alko- art, literature, maps, scholarship, history, etc. Con- holisters livsberättelser”, in Anders Gustavsson tributors are members of a group of scholars, Riek- (ed.), Alkoholister och nykterister, 1991) has kis, who initiated the idea of the anthology. The vol- studied the life stories of sober alcoholics. As in ume consists of an introduction and seven chapters, the ballads, the turning point from drunkenness to which are briefly summarized here. sobriety is emphasized as a major event. Other In the first chapter, Anna Lydia Svalastog of Øst- similarities between the broadsheets and other gen- fold University College writes about Sámi and colo- res of folklore are also apparent, for instance the nial perspectives on mapping. Her chapter provides fixed textual structures that appear in the ballads as an overview of Sámi history in Sweden and in Nor- well as in legends and life stories. way, and it takes maps published and re-distributed The final chapter sums up by discussing the way in major publications about the Sámi and/or by Sámi in which the broadsheets show voices from the out- scholars as a point of departure. Svalastog’s contri- skirts of society. Some texts show a closeness to the bution gives an interesting reading of maps of Sáp- leading character of the ballad; the author might mi in relation to each other, and it illustrates varia- even be the main character him/herself! Sometimes tions of perspectives and ideologies across time and there is a distance to the characters in the ballads, disciplines. The chapter ends with relevant sugges- like the descriptions of criminals. Some of the songs tions for what maps of Sápmi should imply, but it claim to describe a true event, others are clearly fic- would have benefited by including examples of re- tional. Strand also discusses the intertextual influ- cent maps – for instance those that include winter 250 Reviews

grazing areas or that place the North at the center by Swedish Church and the Sámi (Lindmark, Daniel & configuring Europe as upside down compared to tra- Sundström, Olle (eds.) 2016) and the work that has ditional maps, which problematize the Eurocentric been initiated toward the creation of a truth commis- perspective. sion (https://www.sametinget.se/90491). The second chapter, written by Mikael Svonni of Harald Gaski of the University of Tromsø applies the University of Tromsø, examines texts and illus- a pan-Sámi and Indigenous perspective in his essay, trations by Johan Turi, who was canonized as the and he discusses shared foundational values in Sáp- first Sámi author with his book Muittalus samid bir- mi with a poetic yoik text by Anders Fjellner as a ra (1910), which was the first of its kind in North point of departure. This chapter is an important con- Sámi. While Turi’s narrative technique has been the tribution to discussions about Indigenous scholar- topic of previous studies (for instance Cocq, Cop- ship, taking into account both Sámi and internation- pélie 2008 and DuBois, Thomas 2010), less atten- al contexts. Gaski’s approach problematizes and tion has been paid to his detailed illustrations. questions perceptions of Sámi communities, identi- Professional film and music maker Runar En- ties, and discourses of heterogeneity. berg’s chapter is an ethnographic documentation in As we can read in the introduction, Riekkis, the stories and pictures of the contemporary life of rein- group of scholars behind the book, was formed in deer herding. It is a poetically written ethnographic 2003 by researchers and teachers who were at the text from the perspective of the author as an “ob- time appointed to or affiliated with Umeå Universi- server”, in the form of a diary, with quotations and ty, and the idea of a publication was launched in stories from the reindeer herders Enberg visited. 2006. Visions of Sápmi has the ambition “to give the The chapter written by Jan Erik Lundström, the readers a first glimpse, from a number of angles, Swedish art curator, concerns the works of three into an exciting and many-facetted field of study” artists: first Katarina Pirak-Sikku and her work (p. 15). “Sápmi” (2008), followed by a more extensive de- Umeå University is one of the few universities in scription and analysis of works by Joar Nango, and the Nordic countries that offers courses in Sámi cul- finally art pieces by Kristin Tårnesvik. As Lund- ture, history, and language on a regular basis, and ström shows, these artists problematize through where one can get a PhD degree in Sámi Studies. their works the views and gazes, and thereby the at- Research at the university related to Sámi issues is titudes, towards the Sámi and Indigenous people. also promoted through Vaartoe, the Center for Sámi Ingrid Kristin Dokka of the Norwegian Film In- Research. It is therefore not surprising that Umeå stitute focuses her chapter on representations and University is mentioned in the introduction as the self-representations in films and discusses a range of starting point for the initiative of the group and for productions about Sápmi and the Sámi, from early films to contemporary ones by Sámi producers. the book project in 2006. What is surprising, how- Dokka convincingly contextualizes these produc- ever, is that the anthology does not include nor enter tions in relation to societal changes. Although the into dialogue with the research and education in three chapters do not refer to one another, Dokka’s, Sámi Studies that is conducted at Umeå University, Lundström’s, and Svalastog’s texts comprise three despite the many connections and common research readings about critical perspectives on representa- foci between the authors and scholars at the univer- tions of Sáminess that complement each other in a sity. productive manner. In terms of readership, Visions of Sápmi will pro- Professor of history at Linnaeus University Gun- vide valuable insights for scholars, teachers, and lög Fur’s chapter is about the official apology to the students interested in expressive culture, issues of Sámi people by the Swedish Minister of Agriculture representations, and self-representations in general. and Sámi Minister Annika Åhnberg in 1998, and the Readers with interest in Sámi cultural expressions in apology is discussed in relation to Indigenous rights particular will find in this book a pertinent overview and contexts. It is a timely and well-written contri- of significant topics in contemporary Sápmi and bution to the ongoing debate of reconciliation in the within the field of Sámi research. Swedish context, bearing in mind the recent publica- Coppélie Cocq, Umeå tion of a white paper about the relation between the Reviews 251

Swedish Meal Culture Past and Present vessels, since it was now easy to heat water for Richard Tellström, Hunger och törst. Svensk mål- washing up. Still today, our cooking is based on the tidshistoria från överlevnad till statusmarkör. Forum ability to cook on four heat sources, different com- bokförlag, Stockholm 2015. 283 pp. ISBN 978-91- ponents separately. Frying meat in one pan, making 37-14344-6. the sauce in another, boiling potatoes and vegetables separately, is completely different from cooking  When tackling a new research topic, one can sud- everything in one pot. In the pot the taste and con- denly discover information about that topic in many sistency were already determined when the food different quarters: in the newspapers, in social me- was cooking; when the ingredients are cooked sep- dia, in newly published titles etc. The same applies arately, the taste and textures are not mixed until to any person who becomes interested in something, they are in the mouth. Other innovations that Tell- and you sometimes wonder which came first, the ström mentions are the mincer and the paraffin chicken or the egg. For anyone with an interest in lamp, which show the complex network of historical food, which includes me, it seems as if everything milestones in technology and development that have right now is about food in some form. Interest in brought us to where we are today. One can speculate food as entertainment, nutrition, lifestyle, environ- about what things would be like if history had taken mental impact, a way of socializing, all this refutes a different course – what Tellström calls counter- the old saying that we eat to survive, as Richard factual food culture, that is, imagining an alternative Tellström observes in this book, the title of which course of development for food culture. By reason- means “Hunger and thirst: The history of Swedish ing about “what if?” one can make visible ideas and meals from survival to status marker”. We eat to values concerning foodstuffs, dishes, and meals, and live, to express ourselves, and to show what we rep- Tellström is obviously happy when pursuing this resent. historical speculation: everything from technical in- Tellström gives a multifaceted description of the novations to restrictions on food culture, which can development of Swedish meals, mainly from the be either self-assumed on political grounds or dictat- relatively static peasant society of the nineteenth ed by war and occupation. It is fascinating to be re- century to today’s diet, which is no longer a matter minded of the ideology behind the Blue-and-White of survival. There has been a corresponding shift products designed by Konsum as recently as the late throughout the western world, and it is easy to agree 1970s and early 1980s. The idea was that food sold with much of what the author says from a Nordic in these basic series would not have variants in taste perspective, although Sweden may seem to be the or types, not have attractive packaging since that leading Nordic trendsetter. Sweden publishes more could entice people to buy what they did not need, cook books, for instance, and many of these signal a and so on. This is our recent history, a memory that lifestyle more than they are used as a source of re- most people have repressed, and today’s generation cipes. can hardly imagine it in contemporary Swedish cui- In ten chapters Tellström analyses food and sine. The chapter on counterfactual gastronomy is meals from the angle of cultural history. He shows perhaps the one that yields the most “aha!” experi- that a food culture does not arise by chance, but is ences, and Tellström appears to be in top form when constantly shaped by events that we are more or less he shows how the details build up the whole that is unable to affect. Different cultural choices are made food culture. at the individual level, but also collectively, since It is above the emphasis on culture that is impor- the mealtime community is so crucial for our well- tant in this term. Tellström returns several times to being. Even more important, probably, are technical the predominant view of food as nutrition and ener- innovations and political decisions affecting what gy, possibly also a question of rural development, we put on our plates today. New ways of cooking whereas food as culture has not had the same broad ingredients give new kinds of food. The entry of the recognition. He has interviewed several ministers of iron range into the kitchen revolutionized not only culture about their outlook on food culture, but their the dishes people ate and the vessels they were answers have been vague and evasive. Food has cooked in. It also affected the way of composing many dimensions, including aesthetic and gastro- meals both the number of dishes and the number of nomic, based on perfect knowledge, training, and 252 Reviews

creativity. Yet this is a long way from recognition of you notice repetitions in several of the chapters, the kind that is granted to culture in the sense of art, which can make it hard to tell one chapter from an- literature, music, etc. In Sweden, moreover, aca- other as they appear at times to be about the same demic studies of food culture are limited to ten thing. weeks; one cannot take a degree in the subject, even There is a trend in English-language literature though this complex topic deserves in-depth study. about food and cookery to produce popular works At Helsinki University there has been a profes- on cultural history. I am thinking of books like Con- sorship of food culture since 2012, but this is un- sider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat usual in a global perspective. The chair was estab- by Bee Wilson (2012) and At Home: A Short Histo- lished specifically to raise the status of food culture ry of Private Life by Bill Bryson (2010), which also as a research field, and we may hope that other presents the history of the kitchen. There is much countries will follow. less comparable literature in Swedish, but Tell- As Tellström shows throughout the book, food- ström’s book is a corrective. I can also imagine that stuffs always contain some form of nutrition and it would make a good audio book, or that the differ- energy, but they also carry cultural meanings. To ent sections would work well as podcasts. It is prob- fail to realize that is to ignore the significance of hu- ably Richard Tellström’s journalistic engagement mans as cultural beings. Unesco’s Convention for that makes the chapters feel like instalments in a se- the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Herit- ries, this time in text form. age, which Sweden ratified in 2010, has given food Yrsa Lindqvist, Helsinki and meals – alongside traditions and customs – a chance to be classified as the heritage of humanity in the same way as places and material objects on Swedish Women’s Voices the World Heritage List. Besides the gastronomic Eva Helen Ulvros, Kvinnors röster. Livsöden från meal of the French, there are five other culinary det moderna Sveriges framväxt. Historiska Media, items on the Representative List of the Intangible Lund 2016. 319 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-7545-324-8. Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On the local and re- gional level, many more food traditions are listed.  With this book on “Women’s Voices”, the histor- Many aspects are treated in this book. Food ian Eva Helen Ulvros presents thirteen women’s memories, diets, politics, innovations and technolo- fates and narratives from the time when modern gy, the trivialization of luxury, gender roles, cook- Sweden emerged, ranging from the latter part of the ery books, boredom, values – indeed, virtually any- eighteenth century to the present day. The author’s thing that can go under the name of Swedish food ambition, according to the preface, is to show how culture. Perhaps I miss something about how Swe- hard-working and enterprising women contrast dish food culture has been influenced by immigra- themselves with tenacious old ideas about women tion, since Sweden is known to be more multicultur- being weak and helpless. Since the women here are al than, say, Finland, a trend that started back in the able to speak for themselves, to a high but varying 1950s. What does Swedish food culture mean in to- degree, they also stand out as planning, thinking, day’s globalized world? The great mobility, also in- and acting subjects. cluding tourism, must have an effect on cultural The book is divided into three chronologically or- choices to the same extent as the iron range, the ganized sections. Each section begins with a de- mincer, and the paraffin lamp once had. tailed presentation of the structures that determined At the beginning of the book the author gives in- women’s opportunities during the specific period, structions as to how the book is envisaged as being and the changes that took place. These divisions are read. He points out that the chapters are free-stand- explicit, sometimes even over-explicit, and informa- ing, and although they are arranged in a logical or- tive. This facilitates the interpretation of the der they can also be read in any order. Yet the book women’s narratives. The chapters with the individ- entices the reader to enjoy it from cover to cover; in ual women are also interspersed with the author’s format and design it resembles a novel. It suits as comments on the conditions applying to the bedtime reading but works just as well on the train women’s lives, and the setting in which they lived. to work. When you read it from beginning to end These comments often give useful and interesting Reviews 253

guidance in the reading, but at times in a slightly of- Wilhelm Faxe, later bishop of Lund, but for his ficious tone that gives the feeling of a textbook in fiancée he is “my own tender little Faxe who is so history. There is nothing intrinsically wrong in this, sweet” – is one of the women to whom a reader to- depending on what the intended target group is, but day can come close through her extant letters. for a reader who is most interested in the women’s Several of the letters contain descriptions of prep- fates and the way they write, the author’s explana- arations for the forthcoming wedding and home- tions can sometimes obscure the view and mar the making. She has to order furniture and porcelain, reading experience. clothes and confectionary for the wedding, but the The first part comprises the period from the late question of servants also had to be settled before the eighteenth to the early nineteenth century; the sec- wedding, and in this case Agneta reveals a shocking ond part covers the latter part of the nineteenth cen- (for us) contempt for people of lower social rank. tury; and the third part deals with the twentieth cen- She describes the housekeeper as a “kitchen ani- tury. The youngest woman in the book was born in mal”, and on one occasion she expresses delight that 1944. The book ends with a short summary where her fiancé has employed a kitchen maid with the the author reflects on how women’s conditions words: “Many thanks to you for the captured beast.” changed during time covered by the book. She notes Whether Agneta’s view of the servants was repre- that there is still inequality between the sexes but sentative I cannot say, but the other women’s letters ends with the hope that “we shall soon live in a express a similarly harsh attitude to the servants. world where no one needs to feel any limitations be- Calling them “animals” appears, at least to me, to be cause we are women or men, but that we ourselves unusually disdainful even for Agneta’s time. This can choose how we want to live our lives.” relationship to the servants leads one’s thoughts to In the first section we meet five women from the diary of Märta Helena Reenstierna from roughly southernmost Sweden, all born and active in Skåne the same time. The authoritative lady of Årsta could and Blekinge. These women all belong to the bour- admittedly record her strong dislike of maids acting geoisie, which is explained by the state of the carelessly and drinking spirits, or farm labourers not sources. It was bourgeois women who could read performing their tasks properly due to drunkenness, and write, and therefore it is only these women’s and she has no qualms about firing servants if she words that are preserved, quite simply. The fact that does not trust them, but the general impression of they all come from the same limited part of Sweden everyday life on the Årsta estate is that she views can be explained by Ulvros’s previous research, for the servants as co-workers, for better or worse. example, the doctoral dissertation Fruar och mam- Calling them “animals” appears to be going much seller: Kvinnor inom sydsvensk borgerlighet 1790− further than scolding staff for doing their work 1870 (1996). The title of that dissertation is honest, badly. with its reference to the southern Swedish bourgeoi- The women’s letters not only record plans and sie, whereas the present book promises a more gen- musings about practical responsibilities, but can also eral Swedish perspective with its subtitle meaning overflow with emotional expressions. Henriette “Life Stories from the Emergence of Modern Swe- Schmidt and her fiancé Oscar Winberg exchanged den”. I shall return later in the review to this obvious letters during their engagement, and 198 of these let- geographical bias. ters survive. They are obviously inspired by contem- In this first section, then, we meet women from a porary romantic literature, as revealed in their emo- bourgeois environment, who write about everything tional outbursts. “Oscar, Oscar! That is now the from strong feelings and romance to concrete every- name of the sun of my life, illuminated by it, for me day worries about housekeeping, servants, and other there is no more night on earth, its warming rays matters. These women are daughters of officials, will chase away any cloud that arises on the sky of clergymen, and merchants. With one exception, my life, for I am, I shall be, happy beyond words.” their marriage takes them to a good social and eco- Oscar is no worse: “My Henriette! I came, so I nomic position. The main source material consists thought, closer and closer to you, I called your of letters written by these women to their fiancé, name, Henriette! Until my fire burned on your lips, husband, or some other close relative. Agneta Lind- until my eye died against yours, after that there was man – who is about to marry the consistory notary, no need for any talk, until our hearts beat against 254 Reviews

each other, love’s never known, heavenly Every- schooling she authored stories for children, social thing…”. Oscar and Henriette also spice their letters reportage, accounts of folklife, and debating articles with literary allusions, as when Henriette compares on the women’s question and popular education. her Oscar to the character Astolf in P. D. A. Atter- She and her husband Claes Wigström, whose jobs bom’s Lycksalighetens ö, or likens herself to included a time as prison director, had a powerful Ingeborg in Esaias Tegnér’s Frithiofs saga. We also social commitment; for a period they were in charge follow Henriette and Oscar during their brief mar- of a poor-relief institution, and they also founded a riage (Henriette died before she was 29) and get a folk high school in accordance with Svend Grundt- picture of family life, in which Oscar was a loving vig’s ideas. Eva Wigström propagated for women’s and highly present father of the two children. This right to education. But perhaps she is best remem- short marriage is one of several examples showing bered as a folklife researcher. In 1878 she began col- that sickness and premature death were realities of lecting fairytales, legends, folk beliefs, and customs life. in Skåne. She also did collecting in other provinces, No less tender, but more intimate physical ex- chiefly in southern Sweden. The section about Eva pressions of love can be seen in the letters between Wigström is mostly based on printed literature about Helena Winberg and her husband Johan Ulric. her, and on her own articles on various topics, but Among other things, he was a member of parliament Ulvros also gives us examples from Eva Wigström’s who spent long periods in Stockholm. During his diary entries from when she was recording folklore. absences the spouses wrote to each other about their In these notes it is Eva Wigström the folklorist who great longing for each other, which included physi- is talking to us, but she remains more anonymous as cal yearning. “If you were lying in my bed it would a private person. Ulvros thinks that Eva Wigström, be twice as nice,” Helena writes, and her husband despite her pioneering work as a folklorist, has not urges his “little wife” to have a couple of good mat- attained the same obvious place in the research tra- tresses stuffed “for us to inaugurate when I come dition as the male folklife scholars at the same time, home, and thereby if possible increase the pleasure and she explains this partly with reference to her of our intimacy” and he goes on: “and so, my lovely sex, that she was self-taught and thus lacked a plat- little, chubby Lena, in a few weeks, and this is no form at universities and museums. As a comparison eternity, I will be in your arms, beside your breast, one could mention another productive folklorist at beside your everything.” Ulvros generously treats us roughly the same time, Gustaf Ericson in the parish to quotations from the letters, but she also consist- of Härad in Södermanland. He too was virtually ently comments on each quotation, which makes it self-taught but he did outstanding work collecting easy to follow the women’s fates and understand the folklife material in his native district, records now in conditions governing their lives. A running theme is the archives of the Department of Dialectology and the different roles offered to men and women in the Folklore Research in Uppsala, and partly in the ar- bourgeoisie of the time, and this is something the chives of the Nordic Museum. They were both out- author reminds us of repeatedly. side academic circles and both intensively engaged In the second part of the book, covering the latter in the self-assumed task of preserving peasant tradi- part of the nineteenth century, three women speak. tions for posterity. There the similarities end, per- By this time women’s opportunities for education haps, for whereas Eva Wigström was well off all her and a professional career have improved significant- life, Gustaf Ericson was a pauper who made great ly, and modern Sweden is developing quickly. Of social and economic sacrifices for what he saw as these three women, two have been inscribed in Swe- his call. Without in any way saying whose work was den’s cultural history, Eva Wigström, the Scanian most valuable, I would say that Eva Wigström, un- author and folklife researcher, and Lina Sandell, like Gustaf Ericson, is nevertheless inscribed in the best known for writing some of our most frequently history of ethnology. sung hymns (Tryggare kan ingen vara, Blott en dag, Lina Sandell, daughter of a clergyman from ett ögonblick i sänder, Bred dina vida vingar, and Fröderyd in the middle of Småland, was perhaps many more), but also as an editor. more low-key than Eva Wigström in her commit- Eva Wigström, née Pålsdotter, was the daughter ment to women’s rights, but she complained about of a big farmer, and although she never had a proper the criticism of “womenfolk who study”, she was in- Reviews 255

fluenced by the writings of Fredrika Bremer, and entitled Psykologiska självbekännelser (“Psycho- she earned her own living, both as an independent logical Confessions”) were published posthumous- writer and as editor for the Swedish Evangelical ly in 1971, after both his wife and two sons from the Mission, a movement within the Church of Sweden marriage he entered, despite his sexual orientation, founded by Carl-Olof Rosenius. Alongside her work were no longer alive. In these diaries he openly re- as editor she wrote hymns and poems. Spirituality veals his homosexuality, which he had also con- and piety followed Lina Sandell throughout her life. fessed to his wife, tells of homosexual liaisons in his In her actions, if not so much in her words, Lina youth, and suggests that same-sex marriage ought to Sandell was a champion of the women’s cause. The be permitted. I cannot imagine the possibility that a Swedish Evangelical Mission was influenced by professor of history does not know what the name Herrnhutismen, in which the equality of the sexes Pontus Wikner stands for, and I find it strange that was an explicit principle. She was self-supporting, the knowledge of Wikner’s homosexuality is not so it was not obvious that she would say yes when used here to contribute to an understanding of poor the wholesaler Oscar Berg, preacher, advocate of Elisabeth’s suffering. temperance, and a brother in the faith, proposed to The last part of the book deals with the twenti- her. She nevertheless accepted, but she went on eth century, and here we have five women raising working, which was very unusual for a married their voices in a century that brought completely woman. Lina Sandell, who thus became Lina Berg, new opportunities for women’s professional work was an interesting woman with an interesting life in and independence. With reforms, not least of all in which she made fascinating choices. She and her education, accessibility to academic studies has in- husband were influential and well-known figures in creased, and as a consequence social mobility. This Stockholm. Her biography is presented here, based is reflected in the women’s narratives, as several of on other works about Lina Sandell, but despite occa- them have climbed the class ladder. In this part the sional quotations from her letters and diaries, we do book finally moves northwards, from Götaland to not come close to Lina as a person. As a reader I feel Svealand, and here we also find a woman who was curious and frustrated – is there nothing more to say born and lived in Lapland. Now we meet Ebba about Lina Sandell? Can we not get closer to her and Asp-Andersson, whose long life-journey took her her everyday life, as in the case of the women in the from the home of a landless agricultural labourer in first part of the book? Västmanland, to qualify as a teacher through hard The third and last woman in the second part is work and sacrifice, becoming involved in politics Elisabeth Schmidt, whom the reader meets through and fervently participating in the public debate. the diaries she wrote as governess in a vicarage in Now it is possible for more people to travel, and Bohuslän. This section has the same character as the Ebba takes advantage of this. She makes sure to first part of the book. We follow Elisabeth in what see much of the world, albeit at a rather advanced she sees as a thankless and toilsome life as a govern- age. ess, we understand what she experiences and feels. The only woman representing Norrland is Hen- During her time at the vicarage she meets a friend of ny Johansson, who comes from the mountains the clergyman’s family several times, a visitor from where her parents were settlers. Henny’s life is a far away, Pontus Wikner, an academic from Uppsa- stark contrast to the lives of the bourgeois women la. Elisabeth fell in love with Wikner, and much of at the start of the book. Most of her life was spent the diary is about her profound feelings for him, and in extreme poverty, and although the twentieth the disappointment that they were not fully recipro- century in general brought new possibilities for cated, even though he does not appear to have been women, she was stuck fast as a social and econom- completely indifferent. Since much of the story of ic underdog. Elisabeth concerns her unhappy love, it is surprising The last women in the book are upwardly mobile that Ulvros makes no mention whatever of the obvi- people who took advantage of the possibility to pur- ous reason for Wikner’s coolness. Pontus Wikner, sue higher education that was extended to more reader in theoretical philosophy at Uppsala Univer- people through the welfare state. They made sure of sity and later professor in Oslo, has become a getting an academic degree, and one of them reports figurehead for the gay movement, since his diaries, on what it meant to be among the early female 256 Reviews

priests, specifically a hospital chaplain; another Norrland, or in northern towns like Härnösand or woman became a gender researcher, and the third a Umeå, must have been rather different from circum- professor of business administration. stances in Skåne and Blekinge. Eva Helen Ulvros’s ambition with this book is to Reading is also disturbed by careless errors. I use women’s voices and narratives to describe the have already mentioned the surprising fact that there emergence of modern Sweden over two hundred is no explanation of who Pontus Wikner was. In the years. The book is entertaining and interesting read- chapter about Ebba Asp-Andersson it is stated that ing, and people who want to know more will find Ebba suffered a “devastating blow” in the summer assistance in that each narrative has its own list of of 1965 when her son died. In November that year sources and further reading. Several of the stories Ebba had urged him to take a holiday in the Canary give profound insight into women’s living condi- Islands, and just before Christmas he was killed in a tions in different times, allowing us to come close to plane crash in Tenerife. He was buried on 23 De- the individual in everyday joys and sorrows, as well cember. Why the summer of 1965? Could this mis- as thoughts about existential issues. The collection take not have been corrected by careful proofread- of narratives is not cohesive, however; it fails to ing? The same Ebba was in the crowd that gathered hold together because of the methodological prob- outside August Strindberg’s home on the corner of lem of material that is so diverse in character. The Drottninggatan and Tegnérgatan in Stockholm to last two parts, with the exception of Elisabeth mark his last birthday. Strindberg died one month Schmidt’s diary-based description of life as a gov- later, Ulvros writes. It might be Ebba’s mistake, but erness in a clergyman’s family, are mostly based on a few simple keystrokes would have found the infor- already published biographical accounts. These mation that Strindberg’s birthday was on 22 January women thus speak only indirectly, and they remain and he died in the middle of May 1912, roughly four rather inaccessible, at a distance from the reader. months later. Further, anyone looking for ULMA This is a choice that the author has made, but it is (Uppsala landsmålsarkiv) may have to look for a not a self-evident choice. In the folklore archives, as while, since the archive has not been called that for in other archives, it would have been perfectly poss- many years. Dialekt- och folkminnesarkivet i Upp- ible to find primary material about women’s lives, sala (DFU) is its name today, as the reader could which could have given the book a completely dif- have been informed. Finally, I reacted a few times to ferent character. It is regrettable that Ulvros did not the choice of some highly anachronistic words. How take the opportunity to bring other, hitherto an- is it possible in a text today to call deaf people onymous, women’s narratives out of the shadows of dövstumma (“deaf-mute”), a word that ceased to be the archives instead of reprinting previously pub- used in official texts in the 1950s, and a word that lished texts. It would also have been possible to add the Swedish National Association for the Deaf firm- interesting material by interviewing the two young- ly advises against? Being deaf does not entail any est women. inability to produce sounds. Åderförkalkad (“with Yet another necessary criticism is that there is ab- hardened arteries”) is another such word that one is solutely no comment on the fact that the women in seldom forced to read as a designation for a person the book cannot be said to represent Sweden as a whole. Both central Sweden and Norrland are very with dementia. It is understandable that the words sparsely represented, and it is typical that the only may be used in the primary texts, but that is no rea- woman from Norrland is an example of life in son for using them in the comments. poverty among new settlers! A reader who already I find it a pity that the good intentions of this has preconceived ideas about Norrland will only book partly fail on account of the flaws described have them confirmed. I can imagine a defence of the above. Having said that, I must stress that the book first part of the book exclusively describing bour- is definitely pleasurable and informative reading geois women in our two southernmost provinces: about women’s lives and conditions over a long pe- that bourgeois culture was expressed in the same riod. This applies in particular to the first part of the way regardless of geography. I would object to that collection. imagined defence. Conditions in, say, the capital, or Katarina Ek-Nilsson, Uppsala in the industrial communities of central Sweden and Reviews 257

Eighteenth-Century Midwives exceptional cases that they can be answered with the Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen, De frimodiga. Barnmors- aid of the source material. Here the author goes to kor, barnafödande och kroppslighet på 1700-talet. earlier research which is used here to contextualize Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland no. 804, Hel- the midwives’ and other people’s everyday lives, singfors 2016. 230 pp. Ill. ISBN 978-951-583- but unfortunately this interrupts the account without 343-3. telling us very much about the main characters – the trained midwives. Since these parts are predomi-  This book starts in 1682 at the royal castle in nantly descriptive they do not add any new knowl- Stockholm, with Queen Ulrika Eleonora giving birth edge about the topics they cover. I cannot let go of to her second child. The midwife was Catharina the thought that the source material carries much Went, who had been trained and licensed in Ham- more information about the midwives and their lives burg. She was a professional midwife who shared than what the author lets us share about these “bold” the privilege of male master craftsmen: she was en- women” – de frimodiga. titled to have a sign outside her home. The mid- The chief merit of the book is the description of wife’s sign could depict a cherub-like, round- the midwife profession and examples of individual cheeked baby, a stork, the formerly obligatory birth- midwives and their work. In 1711 Swedish author- ing chair or an enema syringe. Midwives were or- ities issued new and more extensive regulations ganized in a guild and were relatively well paid. for midwives in Stockholm. The regulations were Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen studies Finland’s and also to be applied in other parts of the kingdom. Sweden’s first trained midwives in the eighteenth They required a two-year apprenticeship, passing century and the training they underwent. The focus an examination supervised by the Board of Medi- is on the practice of the midwife profession: who cine, taking a professional oath, receiving a diplo- took care of what in obstetric care, who performed ma and the right to hang a midwife sign outside examinations at the request of the courts and in what the house. capacity, and how tasks and actions were distributed Midwife training was the most all-round and de- among the professional spheres of the midwife, the manding training a woman could have in the eight- barber-surgeon, and the physician. Based on this, eenth century in Sweden and Finland. Four particu- the author seeks to ascertain the midwives’ authority larly important things which they had to be able to and exercise of power and how they viewed their do were: to perform an internal examination, to help professional identity. The aim is to shift the perspec- the baby’s head out, to look after the placenta, and tive from an assumption about women’s subordina- to turn a foetus that was lying in the wrong position. tion in society that has long dominated gender histo- Untrained helpers and barber-surgeons could not do ry, towards women’s agency, their possibilities and the first and last of these. It was also important for a strategies within the framework of the structural midwife to know about the behaviour and properties subordination. The source material consists of the of the vagina and the uterus, as well as the anus and archives of public authorities, midwives’ written ac- the bladder. The trained midwives’ knowledge and counts, population registers, estate inventories, and methods are close to the outlook we have on the pro- court records. fession today. By today’s standards, they can in Interwoven in what can be called a profession many respects be regarded as privileged, and they study we find details about the midwives’ lives and had a clear professional identity based on their train- the conditions for women in general, but also for ing. children and men. What was childbirth like in older The educational ambitions can be viewed in con- times, who was present at the delivery, what role did nection with the Enlightenment ideal of useful menstruation play for girls and women, what was knowledge being the nation’s chief source of happi- social and sexual intercourse between women and ness. The women were encouraged to do as men men like? Other topics considered are infant mortal- did: to seek knowledge out of personal interest, and ity, the view of breastfeeding, infant care, birth con- to make use of their reason. The teachers and deci- trol, and other associated themes – as covered in the sion makers do not appear to have perceived it as a kroppslighet or “corporeality” of the title. These are problem or a conflict that women who were under interesting and important questions, but it is only in the legal guardianship of their husbands left the 258 Reviews

family to go to the capital for their training. The The journey to Stockholm and the stay there en- women themselves do not seem to have regarded tailed an expensive investment. The cost was reading books and attending lectures as being un- covered by the town, the industrial estate, or the thinkable or unsuitable. On the other hand, it cannot parish that wished to employ the midwife. Careful have been easy for them to assimilate the anatomical deliberations were necessary before a decision was and medical knowledge in the textbooks – the ones made, but conflicts often arose about unforeseen ex- that were used were written by the city medical of- penses – it cost more than expected. The annual rent ficer Johan von Hoorn, who renewed and developed for a furnished room in Stockholm was 33 riksdaler, the training of midwives. The trainee midwives and food, heating, and cleaning cost between 6 and lacked prior medical knowledge but they did master 7 daler a month. Then there was the registration fee reading, writing, and arithmetic. of 40 skilling for the professor of obstetrics; exam- At first it was only women who were married ination fees cost one daler and the practice hospital and who had had children themselves who could be took 24 skilling, 16 skilling had to be given to the admitted to the training. In Sweden it became pos- hospitals’ poor relief fund, the seal and the certifi- sible in 1795 for unmarried and childless women to cate cost 8 skilling. All this was equivalent to the take the training. The majority of the would-be cost of fifteen barrels of rye or five oxen; three bar- midwives were recruited from among bourgeois rels of rye were enough for a big family for one wives in their thirties and forties – forty was re- year. The average wage of a town midwife was just over 100 silverdaler a year, in Finland. Over and garded as a good age. The explanation for the ab- above this they received large sums from private cli- sence of women from the urban working class or ents; but a doctor earned three times as much. The from rural areas – the women who later filled the registered midwife at the Stockholm Public Mater- midwife training programmes – is that they could nity Clinic had an annual salary of 360 daler silver- not write, according to the author. Peasant women mynt and a house that went with the job, where the could read but not write, and as office holders the employer provided lighting and firewood. Estate in- midwives had to be able to write and use their own ventories show that midwives could become quite signature to confirm their testimony and sign cer- rich and live in relative prosperity for someone be- tificates provided to courts and parishes. Not many longing to the lower bourgeoisie. documents written by midwives survive, however. Besides deliveries, the midwife’s job included Their job applications appear to have been written performing examinations, testifying at trials for sus- by professional scribes. pected infanticide, rape, incest, sexual deviation, A woman who went to Stockholm to train as a and adultery. Here she exercised public power and midwife had to have authorization from her future had a clearly defined legal role in relation to phys- employer, the town or parish that paid for the icians and barber-surgeons; the former focused on travel and the education. There is no evidence that the victim, performed autopsies, and examined inju- the woman was obliged to have her husband’s per- ries, while the midwife examined the woman who mission, but the woman herself was always present had given birth. at the decision on authorization. The women came The author partly succeeds in her aim and gives from the countryside to Stockholm and had their many examples of women’s agency and strong posi- instruction and exams in the stateliest baroque tion, but she does not discuss this explicitly, and buildings of the capital. The midwives were taught hardly even comments on it, merely providing ex- by the country’s most respected and knowledge- amples. The concluding chapter with theoretical am- able people in the field, professors of obstetrics, bitions, referring to the historians Joan Scott and and by the most experienced midwives. They sat Yvonne Hirdman, is not allowed to affect the their examination in Wrangelska Palatset on Rid- presentation. The author finds that many of the con- darholmen and teaching was done in private homes clusions of gender historians and researchers in and at Sweden’s first hospital, Serafimerlasarettet women’s studies are difficult to apply to the mid- on Kungsholmen, established in 1732. There was wives and that the midwives’ history is not general- also a practice hospital in Sparreska Palatset, a ly applicable to eighteenth-century women. The palace on Riddarholmen. midwives cannot be defined in terms of a lack of Reviews 259

professional identity and training, nor in the usual disasters hit the country, and Danish rule with its terms of female subordination. My question is: trade monopoly was detrimental to the economy. What do the trained midwives and their social con- The country had the highest infant mortality rates ditions represent? What breakpoints exist and what in Europe, and faced a constant population decline. boundaries are transgressed? A deeper analysis is In addition to that, society was very socially strati- lacking here. fied. Most Icelanders were literally born serfs, Inger Lövkrona, Lund tethered to a farmland system where the landowner controlled access to sea and owned most of the fishing fleet. Fishing was carried out as a complement to other Seawomen of Iceland farm work, at the seaside farms and at remote out- Margaret Willson, Seawomen of Iceland. Surviving stations. Cod and halibut were the most commercial- on the Edge. University of Washington Press, Seattle/ ly valued catch, but the fish of subsistence was the Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 2016. 274 lumpfish. The boats used were small, undecked pp. Ill. ISBN 978-87-635-4484-9. rowing boats without sails. Although they mostly stayed close to shore, the cold waves and rocky  In Iceland, women for centuries have had a deep coasts of Iceland made fishing a risky business, knowledge of the sea and a close relationship to it. causing many causalities. Landing the catch was a Seawomen steered and commanded boats and held particularly hazardous moment, since the coast respected positions within their communities as both lacked proper harbours and breakwaters. crew and foremen. And they have always partici- Since the farmhand’s fishing share went to his or pated in passing on this maritime knowledge from her contracted farmer, farmers valued good sea- generation to generation. But today women are fad- farers, regardless of gender. Hence men, women and ing from the profession. Why is that? And why is it children all worked together in the catching of fish that there is so little awareness of the Icelandic and the related duties on shore. In some parts of Ice- women who fished in the past? land it was considered good luck to have a woman, In Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge or even better a pregnant woman, on board. Some the anthropologist Margaret Willson sets out to dis- women (as well as men) were also known to be cover the buried heritage of Icelandic seawomen. In fiskin, i.e. having supernatural ability to “attract” her quest for knowledge she takes the reader on a fish. Most women worked as deckhands, but there journey of discovery where we get to know dozens were also several female foremen and women who of fishing women, past and present, with fascinating owned boats, which was linked to a considerable stories to tell. The author starts off with an interest power position in Icelandic society. in the only previously well-known female fisher in Although fishing was a demanding task, there Iceland’s history (foreman Thurídur Einarsdóttir, were women who really enjoyed being at sea. For born in 1777), only to discover the amazing records the farmhands, seasonal fishing at the outstations of hundreds of fishing women. The second half of was a particularly coveted assignment, as it offered the book sheds light on how processes of modern- an escape from harder farm duties and, to a certain ization and neo-liberalization have resulted in extent, meant loosened control. At the outstations, women’s systematic exclusion from sea work and there was also a fair chance to catch more valuable today’s fishing industry. A theme running through fish, and independent deckhands could make good the study is the observation that whilst Iceland still money, since men and women received an equal identifies itself as a fishing nation, the heritage of share of the catch. In a preserved poem by Thurídur seawomen is almost totally ignored. Jónsdóttir, who fished for many seasons in the early As is clear from the analysis, Iceland’s pro- 1800s, her love for the austere outstation at Dritvík (nicknamed Vík) is beautifully worded: cesses of “progress” is not an all-embracing suc- cess story, but neither is there reason to be nostal- Rowing from Vík’s a life of ease, gic about the heyday of female fishers. During the In virtues rich, Vík has no price 1700s and 1800s a large part of the population In Vík, God will always please, struggled with poverty and famine. Several natural For Vík is just like Paradise. 260 Reviews

In the mid-1800s fishing began to take precedence per cent of the registered fishing crews on large- over farming. The Danish crown relaxed social and vessel fishing boats in Iceland are women. It is in- importation restrictions, the economy prospered and teresting to note that whilst principles from the 1720 Iceland moved towards an increased emphasis on a law giving women an equal share of the catch still home for every family. As a result boat ownership stand, meaning that women can earn a lot of money diversified, and the numbers, designs and sizes of going to sea, most of them stay with low-wage shore the fishing boats increased considerably. The new jobs, processing the fish. As stressed by the author, boats caught more fish, and the processing of fish on current notions of gender and the sea are at work, shore had to keep up. In fishing families specific discouraging female seamen: “Since fishing in cur- jobs developed: those going out to sea took care of rent-day Iceland is generally considered a male oc- the boat and the fishing, while others who remained cupation too difficult and dangerous for the modern on shore processed the fish. The sea work became woman, women who wanted to fish now faced this established as the work mostly of men, but the fami- major barrier of attitude before they even got to the ly or farm still worked together as a unit, making no actual demands and dangers of the sea: the resist- distinction between the value of the individual la- ance of a society that, after erasing their historic ex- bour for sea and shore work. istence, now deemed them incapable of seamanship. Through time, however, roles in the new society In this new twentieth-century reality, the sea had be- became increasingly defined by gender, with that of come a male realm completely separate from a fe- a housewife rising in the national perception as the male shore. This even made the concept of a sea- feminine ideal. “Modern”, partly imported, attitudes woman something alien, out of place.” effectively transformed the Icelandic perception of This change is also notable in history writing. Be- women from one in which a woman can be an equal fore the 1870s, accounts constantly applaud sea- and capable seafarer into one in which seawomen women for their courage, their ability to get fish, are unacceptably unfeminine, and might cause bad and their physical and emotional strength. But in the luck once they set foot on board. Also, with the 1900s an interesting transformation of the past be- growing population, there were now enough men to gins: as a women’s role becomes more closely tied cover fishing jobs. So, reminiscent of what hap- to home, accounts of seagoing women increasingly pened to women after World War II, as the need di- present the women as unacceptable. As Willson puts minished, the previous tacit acceptable and even ex- it: “The most effective way to curtail the sea- pectation of a woman’s ability to fill those sea roles women’s presence is simply to erase them from his- evaporated. tory and, as much as possible, from the present. And In the early 1980s the situation for fishing this is what Iceland has largely done… The erasure women became even more challenging, as Iceland of seawomen from the country’s collective memory initiated a policy of fisheries privatization, the is so complete that even current seawomen are kvóti system. The rights to fish were divided into a mostly unaware of the rich history of their fore- number of privately own “shares” that could be bears.” traded and used in any area. This made way for As might be mirrored in the previous quotations, larger companies, running their business from a the writing in Seawomen of Iceland is accessible and few big harbours. Most women from coastal com- intriguing. It is characterized by a strong overt au- munities thereby lost a natural connection to fish- thorial presence, and the great engagement of the ing. Not being familiar with the skipper and the author infects the reader. There is no doubt that the crew turned out to be a constant disadvantage for story is based on solid research, but it is also very women aiming at a career at sea, since it made it narrative. For instance, every other historic sea- harder for them to get their first jobs and since they woman mentioned in the book is so skilled, brave, risked various sorts of harassment. Also, the boats wise and good hearted that they seem like characters begun to stay out longer, making it difficult to in a saga. One reason for this is that the historic fish- combine sea work with parenting. ing women were not mentioned in the accounts un- In recent years, the number of women engaged in less they did something extraordinary. But still I get commercial fishing has dropped dramatically. To- a vague feeling that some of the examples and con- day, only about 300 people, or a little more than four clusions might be a bit loaded and (maybe?) selec- Reviews 261

tive. The work draws on various kinds of sources, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian research on fash- and my only criticism is that I sometimes get some- ion from the perspectives ethnology, anthropology, what confused over their credibility. art history, fashion studies, service studies and the The publication strengthens several important history of ideas. The aim of the book is to show the arguments outlined in other studies. I think of how role of fashion as a way to represent oneself in the women often are overlooked in maritime history, global world as well as to position individuals both and how they nevertheless are found to have economically, socially and culturally. As the editors formed part of it – as shown in Tytti Steel’s thesis point out in the introduction, fashion is a matter of on female dock workers in Finland in the extended positioning. It is about the need or the chance to in- 1950s, and my own study on female presence in dicate belonging to or distinction from some group, the early modern navy. I think of living and work- style or time. The book focuses on how fashion is ing conditions in maritime homosocial spaces, and made in everyday practices in both the private and how the Icelandic seawomen’s testimony reaffirms professional sphere, in the past and present. These many of the observations made in Ingrid Kaijser’s everyday practices include both the consequences research on seafaring women in the twentieth cen- and the expressions of current ideas and hierarchies tury. Finally, Lena Sommestad’s thesis on the mas- that together make the market of fashion. culinization process in skilled dairy work in Swe- The articles in the first part of the book, “Organi- dish springs to my mind, as another example of sera och arbeta” (To organize and to work), study how industrialization has forced women into sub- how the fundamental preconditions and logics of the ordinate positions in the workplace. Above all this market of fashion characterize professional work in there is the fascinating issue of forgetting and re- the fashion industry. As fashion is usually mainly membering, and the importance of history and rep- explained from the consumers’ perspective, this part resentation, which is topical both in the humanities of the book discusses the actual work in fashion de- and in the public debate. sign. The second part, “Förhandla och navigera” (To I am very glad I came across this intriguing eth- negotiate and navigate), focuses on the consumers nographic narrative. It offers a glimpse into Ice- and users of fashion. The articles shed light on the land’s fascinating history and society, and it raises norms and ideals that characterize the consumption questions about what parts of the past and the pres- of fashion. In the final part of the book, “Skärnings- ent we are ignorant of today, unwittingly erasing punkter och översättningar” (Intersections and from our collective memory. translations), fashion is analyzed as a phenomenon Mirja Arnshav, Stockholm in the borderlines of art, culture and commercialism. In this book review, I focus on the second part of the book, the consumption and use of fashion, which are the most typical perspectives to cultural and À la Mode. Fashion between Art, Culture social phenomena in ethnology. The section starts and Consumption with an article by historian Agneta Helmius, who À la mode. Mode mellan konst, kultur och kommers. analyzes the discussion about sprätthöken, the fash- Ida de Wit Sandström & Cecilia Fredriksson (eds.). ionable dandies, in weeklies in 18th-century Sweden. [Co-published with the Centre for Oresund Region Also in those days, fashion was seen as a feminine Studies at the University of Lund. Makadam Förlag, practice, and the “sprätthöken” challenged the con- Göteborg/Stockholm 2016. 340 pp. Ill. ISBN 978- temporary norms and ideas of masculinity because 91-7061-216-9. they did not meet the requirements of a moral and sensible man.  Fashion is no longer a subject of art historical or Historical perspectives to fashion as a cultural sociological theorizing alone; in recent decades, and social phenomenon are also brought up by cul- fashion studies has established itself as a multidis- tural historian Anne-Sofie Hjemdahl and ethnologist ciplinary field that includes several research per- Carina Sjöholm. Hjemdahl shows in her article how spectives. The anthology À la mode. Mode mellan ready-to-wear clothes became an important part of konst, kultur och kommers, edited by Ida de Wit the Norwegian housewife movement in the 1920s. Sandström and Cecilia Fredriksson, presents current As the foreign ready-to-wear industry started to take 262 Reviews

over the Norwegian market, the housewife move- the form of a confession and a personal awakening ment took an active role in promoting the Nor- to live a new kind of life. Traditional forms of con- wegian ready-to-wear industry. Hjemdahl discusses sumption are also challenged in the Facebook sec- how fashion was used to give meanings to and mate- ond-hand shopping groups that are discussed by rialize the “Norwegian”: the choice of fashion was Hanna Wittrock. In her article, she shows that the presented as a political and moral question. Carina consumption of fashion in these Facebook groups Sjöholm’s article focuses on the role of movies and differs very much from the ideas typically associat- film stars in consuming fashion in the 1940s and ed with fashion in postmodern society. In the Face- 1950s. As the consumer society was established in book groups, consumers are interested in the pro- Sweden in the postwar era, movies had an important duction process of fashion, and the meaning of the role in representing and spreading fashion, as she group as a social community is as important as points out. Through film posters and the newly shopping. emerged stars and movie culture, the fashions worn The articles in this section give many insights on and advertised by the stars became familiar also to the use and consumption of fashion in the past and those people who did not see the actual films. Film present. They also represent a wide variety of re- stars were also important idols for fashions in dress, search material and methods used in the study of hairstyles and make-up. fashion, such as interviews, written oral history ma- The other four articles in this section discuss cur- terial, weeklies, archival material and Internet mate- rent phenomena, such as new ways of shopping and rial collected with netnographic methods. The edi- consuming fashion, as well as the relationship to tors write in the introduction (p. 21) that they hope fashion of two groups that have often remained on that the book would inspire readers to regard, think the margins studies of fashion and consumption, and understand fashion through the several ap- namely men and ageing women. proaches and empirical materials represented in the “It is hopeless to buy clothes when you get old” is book. However, the approaches and materials that the title of Karin Lövgren’s article. On the basis of are used are not thoroughly described in the articles, interviews, she studies how age is made and negoti- which means that tips regarding the use of the mate- ated with clothing. The article shows how aging rial and methods in question have to be sought women deal with and think about clothes, their somewhere else. body, ageing and buying clothing. Men’s relation- Another deficiency of the book is also that the ship to their body, fashion and age is discussed by concept “fashion” is explained only shortly. It is fashion researchers Trine Brun Petersen and Maria said in the introduction (p. 9) that fashion is “a way McKinney-Valentin, who in their article study the to configure individuality, society and context meaning of beard for ordinary men today. The through aesthetic means”. The use of the concept is article is based on interviews made with 20- to not contextualized in any academic discussion about 70-year-old men. The article discusses the meanings fashion, clothing, dress or appearance. As the edi- of beard for masculinity and age, and shows how tors point out in the introduction, fashion has in re- every generation of men gives new meanings to cent years established itself as an expanding field of beard. research that is studied in many academic disci- The consumption of fashion has, at least since the plines. It would have been helpful for students or re- days of Thorstein Veblen, been criticized as idle. searchers interested in the study of fashion if the Nowadays, such phenomena as “don’t buy anything editors had given background information about the for a year”, the idea of sustainable development and fashion studies the book represents. As dress histor- the KonMari method challenge the traditional fash- ian Lou Taylor (Fashion and Dress History 2013: ion cycles and consumption by criticizing conspicu- 23–25) has recently noted, all the new approaches in ous consumption, unnecessary shopping and the fashion and dress studies have not made the study of never-ending fashion cycles. the topic any easier because they all have developed Ethnologist Cecilia Fredriksson focuses in her ar- their own methodologies and specific interests. Also ticle on the current phenomenon or lifestyle based their definitions are far from clear since they differ on the idea of consuming or buying as little as poss- from one university and scholar to the other. Now it ible. She shows how this lifestyle phenomenon takes is not clear which academic approaches the book À Reviews 263

la mode aims to cover and which academic discus- the individual narratives in detail and does not have sions to contribute to. The same also applies to indi- any ambition to present a general survey of the vidual articles. worldview of young Christian Swedes. Arja Turunen, Jyväskylä It turns out that young people active within the Equmenia Church represent quite a broad spectrum of the population in Sweden. Both believers and Young People Finding Community non-believers are found among them. Why would a Maria Zackariasson, Gemenskapen. Deltagande, non-believer take an active part in a religious, deep- identitet och religiositet bland unga i Equmenia. ly Christian, movement? There are many answers to Molin & Sorgenfrei Förlag, Farsta 2016. 232 pp. this question, but most of them are united by a disin- ISBN 978-91-87515-25-5. clination to be the “normal” kind of kid, for whom hedonism, experimenting with alcohol and drugs,  Nowadays many associations complain that and sexual freedom seem characteristic. On the young people are not interested in their activities. other hand, the interviewees are also anxious not to Most of them are said to consist of retired people. be regarded as so well-behaved that they seem bor- This also raises questions about young people’s in- ing. terest in society at large. A question often heard is, Zackariasson refers to the evaluation of the par- will they in due course take responsibility for their ents of the young people when they joined the country or for the world? Another concerns the Equmenia Church. Most of the youngsters were problem of lacking training in how to maintain de- very happy, whereas others who had not themselves mocracy, one of the most appreciated values in been active within any kind of Christian work were Swedish politics. uneasy and felt strange. The relationship between Among other topics, the activities of young the active young person and his or her leaders also people interested Maria Zackariasson. She studied has a chapter of its own in the book, for if democra- the international Attac network and young people cy appears to be in danger among young people in who take great responsibility for their future. In her our society this must be even more so in a Christian new book she concentrates on religiously active environment with its seeming authoritarian leader- young Swedes. Her starting point is that religious ship. people often are regarded somewhat self-centred A characteristic of this book is the author’s thor- and introvert. She asks whether this also is true ough use of her material. Every perspective found in among young people and, if so, how it affects their the interviews gets its place and context in the book. ego image, their view of democracy and their re- Zackariasson finds expressions about how the sponsibility for their milieu. young people get engaged in Equmenia and how Zackariasson conducts her investigation by the they stay engaged, what expectations they have or help of twenty-two deep interviews with young what expectations they think that outsiders or other adults who are engaged in the Swedish Equmenia members of Equmenia have of them, but also what Church, which is a combination of three free churches: the Baptists, the Methodists and the causes conflicts and how to find respect for one an- Svenska Missionskyrkan. Besides worship, Equ- other. Equmenia is certainly an association in which menia offers a lot of engagement, for instance scout- young people learn leadership, compromise, respect, ing, music, and popular adult education. Her theor- and many other skills needed in society and general etical starting point is constructed with ingredients life. To some of them the belief in God is the reason from youth research, the sociology of religion, the for their work. To others their engagement simply study of emotions, and intersectionality. The ego gives them a nice hobby. Some of these young image and the image of the Christian actor in the people did not really want to lead worship or have a surrounding world are central topics in the book. place in an administrative body but when asked to Being an ethnologist (folklorist) Zackariasson con- perform they might be flattered to such a degree that centrates on the way the interviewees express them- they do not refuse. This certainly trains their perse- selves, the nuances in their narratives, and the per- verance besides gives them administrative and per- spective-from-within, which means that she refers to forming skills. 264 Reviews

Zackariasson must be a very skilful interviewer. theoretical viewpoints into her text. This makes the Her interviewees have told her quite a lot of read interesting for it turns out that Christian en- non-conventional and very frank facts about them- gagement to a great extent resembles engagement in selves. Very open discussions about sex and drugs other kinds of associations. Zackariasson finds that are mentioned in the interviews. Some of the young the engagement in Equmenia fosters the participants people found the conversations informative and re- to meet different kinds of people, to carry responsi- warding, whereas others might be somewhat embar- bility for other humans, for the environment, to ob- rassed. Some of them admitted that they participated serve administratively correct behaviour and to take in Equmenia just for fun, for friendship, for not on obligations for society in general. However, this wanting to be a “normal” young person. They even is not an automatic and conflict-free process, but an told her that worship, the most central activity in a individual expression of development through sev- Christian church or a Christian movement, might be eral kinds of reflections about human terms and con- disgusting, and that they were afraid to take part in ditions, not least in relationship to the central Chris- this act because of some peculiar traits there. Com- tian values that may be accepted or rejected. Other mon prayers, glossolalia and other kinds of emotion- values than these can be regarded as more precious. ally influential behaviour were too much for some In this way Zackariasson grapples with quite a num- participants, whereas others loved exactly those ber of all the prejudices that exist about the young parts. people of today. All through the book the author weaves relevant Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo