The Nationalization of Culture Orvar Lofgren

Lofgren , Orvar 1989 : Th e Nationali zation of Cultur e. - Ethnologi a Europ aea XIX: 5-23 .

Although na tional.ism is an exa mple of a cultur al fol'ce which in many cases has overrul ed 0U1er, traditional identit ies and loyalties in 19th and 20th centur y 11ociety, the st udy of n ationalism has not been focused very much on th e culLw:al praxis of naLional identity formation and harin g. As a result , the ideology and politics of nationali sm are far better unders tood than the creation of Hungari an­ ness and wedi.shness. This paper discusses some approaches in the national-cultur e buildin g of very­ day life, using mainly Swedish examples. The focus is also on nati onal cult ur e as a battle ar ena, where different interest groups use argum ents about national unity or heritage in hegemonic struggles. Different types of "nationalization processes" are discussed, as for example ways in which certain cultural domains come to be defined as national, how .al space is transformed into cultural space , or the way in which every new gener­ ation not only is nationalized into a given heritage but also creates its own version of a common, national frame of reference.

Docent, fil .dr. Orvar Lofgr en, Department of Europ ean Ethnology, Lund Uni ­ versity, Finngatan 8, S-22362 Lund.

gary. In Budapest Tamas Hofer had, together Revisiting the national project with a group of colleagues, analysed the con­ is of special interest to that struction of a Hungarian and branch of anthropology within which most of the crucial role of folk culture in this process, in the following essays were produced : European Ake Daun and Billy Ehn, among ethnology, a discipline born in the nineteenth others, had been studying Swedish mentalities century as a child of nationalism and Herder's and changing self-representations , especially Volksgeist. European ethnology and folklore in the light of the recent waves of immigration developed with the more or less explicit goal of to (cf. Daun & Ehn 1988). In Lund a salvaging and assembling "national" folk cul­ group including Jonas Frykman and myself tures . This strongly ideologically charged pro­ had worked on a project concerning class for­ ject also included ideas about folk mentalities mation and culture-building in nineteenth­ or national character. and twentieth-century Sweden, where one of Later gen erations of ethnologists faced the our main tasks was to scrutinize ideas about a task of critically deconstructing these pioneer modern and homogeneous Swedish national attempts at creating a national folk heritage, culture and to look at the extent to which cli­ and it is only after such a purge that it has ches and notions of national homogeneity con­ become possible to return to the question of cealed a cultural differentiation based upon national identity and culture with new theor­ factors like class, gender and generations (see etical perspectives. Lofgren 1986). This collection of papers was born out of this These various approaches of deconstructing recent ethnological interest in new perspec­ and reconstructing national culture-building tives on the making and remaking of national had led all ofus towards an interest both in the cultures. The starting point was a collabora­ ways in which national rhetoric had been used tion between researchers in Sweden and Hun- as an argument in hegemonic conflicts be-

5 tween competing interests and classes in Hun­ "Symbols and reality in national culture: The n garian and Swedish society during the last cen­ Hungarian case". Here the cultural battle over tury (Do some Hungarian/Swedes claim to be who represents the true Hungarian identity more Hungarian/Swedish than others?), but has been carried out within a very different also in the question of how behind this ideologi­ social structure. He discusses the various cal facade of national unity, an actual national­ paths developed in attempts to construct a ization of shared cultural understandings and Hungarian identity and heritage through uses knowledge had been established. To what ex­ of folk culture and the competing interests in­ tent, for example, do Swedes or Hungarians of volved in these processes. today share common frame of reference com­ A neglected field of study is the strong mod­ pared with the situation fifty or a hundred ern connection between and nationalism. years ago? In his paper, "National feeling in sport", Billy It became evident that the cultural politics of Ehn discusses the national rhetorics of sport nation building and the process of nationaliz­ and the ways in which they express national ing culture are best studied within a compara­ sentiments and loyalties, using material tive framework, in order not to be blocked by mainly from Swedish sport journalism . the occupational disease always threatening Katalin Sink6's paper "Arpad versus Saint scholars looking at their native culture: what Istvan: Competing interests in the figurative we in Sweden call "home-blindness". representation of Hungarian history" looks at This collection of essays is the first result of a processes of confrontation and negotiation be­ joint discussion of Hungarian and Swedish re­ tween competing national heroes, symbolizing search into the making and remaking of na­ two different sets of ideas about Hungary and tional cultures. 1 Hungarianess, which have been used by differ­ Ake Daun's contribution, "Studying national ent groups for different purposes over the cen­ culture by means of quantitative methods" turies. mainly deals with the methodological problems Lena J ohannesson discusses a different of studying contemporary culture on a national genre of figurative representations in her pa­ level combining qualitative and quantitative per "Anti-heroic heroes in more or less heroic approaches. Drawing from an ongoing re­ media". She looks at the ways in which Swed­ search project he discusses various strategies ish anti-heroes have been portrayed in 20th for locating basic themes and personality traits century media and the ways in which these on a national level, trying to avoid the pitfalls national images are comments on "Swedish" of earlier grandiose speculations about "na­ virtues and vices. tional character". Food seems to have a magic position in the Jonas Frykman's paper "Social mobility and maintenance of an national identity among ex­ national character" looks at ideas about what patriots, who long to feel the tastes of the old is seen as "typically Swedish" and relates them . Lists of what is "typical" Swedish of­ to the culture-building of Swedish intellectuals ten include food-items. In her paper, "From in the making of the modern welfare . It is peasant dish to national symbol: An early de­ their style of life and outlook on the world that liberate example", Eszter Kisban traces a very has often been expressed in terms of "national marked Hungarian example of the making of a character". He analyses the social and cultural and the ways in which this Hun­ conditions under which such images of culture garian symbol has been used in cultural poli­ and personality are produced - a society with a tics as well as in the tourist industry market­ high degree of mobility. ing of Hungarian culture. His analysis of a national setting, where pro­ gressive intellectuals have dominated the dis­ course on national culture and "Swedishness" New dialogues can be compared to Peter Niedermii.ller's paper The scope of the papers indicates the new kind on class and national culture in Hungary, of interdisciplinary dialogues developed in the

6 field of study of national culture and identity. This early twentieth-century version of a · For a long time this kind of dialogue was poorly royal command may illustrate the first analyt­ developed. Although there were some attempts ical problem, that of working with concepts at cross-disciplinary exchanges, a fairly con­ which cannot easily be moved around in his­ ventional division of labour existed, in which tory. An adjective like "national" or "Swedish" historians concentrated on nationalism as a has totally different connotations for different political and ideological phenomenon, whereas epochs and different social groups. The twen­ anthropologists mainly worked within the con­ tieth-century message of the importance of be­ ceptual framework of ethnicity, mostly with an ing Swedish would have made very little sense emphasis on synchronic perspectives . This tra­ to Gustav Vasa's peasant subjects. Swedish­ ditional division is, however, slowly disinte­ ness is a quality which can hardly be used grating , as historians become more interested transhistorically, at least not without a dis­ in as cultural formations and anthro­ cussion of how this elusive trait is defined or pologists have begun to interest themselves in redefined in different historical settings. the cultural politics of nation-building. 2 In the same way we have an extensive de­ Up till a few years ago research on national bate on the concept of nationalism. Should it be identity was to a great extent focused on the reserved for the ideological and political move­ ideology and politics of nationalism, often ments from the late eighteenth century on­ within a framework of exposing nationalism as wards, as a product of the intellectual climate a type of false consciousness. There were so of the American and French revolutions? Is it many myths of national culture, so much ide­ possible or meaningful to talk about national­ ological rhetoric waiting to be scrutinized and ism in medieval England or sixteenth-century exposed. (A fairly typical example of this genre Sweden? It seems to me reasonable to make an is Ernest Gellner's book "Nations and Nation­ analytical distinction between the concepts of alism" from 1983.) This was a necessary phase and nationalism in this comparative of research which now enables us to look in a context, as representing two different cultural more detached way at nationalism as a cul­ paradigms in nation-building. The wider con­ tural phenomenon and as a historical process. cept of patriotism is based upon the love of (See, for example, the much more nuanced ap­ God, King and Country by subjects of the state, proach found in Benedict Anderson's influen­ whereas the idea of nationalism is based upon tial discussion of the origins and spread of na­ ideas about a "Volksgemeinschaft", a shared tionalism from 1983.) history and culture, a common destiny, an idea In spite of the expanding literature we still of equality and fellowship, which means that live with an underdeveloped and ambiguous nationalism contains political dynamite and analytical framework, as Philip Schlesinger can thus be used both to mask class interests has pointed out in his critical survey of current or to fight them . research (1987); concepts like national iden­ In the following I will concentrate on the tity, culture, mentality or heritage are still period of the nineteenth and twentieth centu­ vaguely defined . ries: the grand centuries of nationalist ideology and nation-states as opposed to the earlier era of the absolute . I will mainly focus Being national? on the problem of the making and constant When entering the Nordic museum, a nine­ remaking of national identity and culture, as teenth-century child of Swedish nationalism, an arena of contestation between different in­ you first encounter the imposing statue of the terests. Swedish king Gustav Vasa, often seen as the sixteenth-century founder of the Swedish na­ tion state. Under his stern gaze is a carved Do-it-yourself nationalism? motto directed to the visitor : "Be Ye Swedish!" "The , the and (Warer Swenske!) the National Emblem are the three symbols

7 A middle-class family on the beach with the Swedish flag hoisted on the top of the tent, photo from the 1920s. Private flags were then still a rather exotic sight, or as a rural answer to a questionnaire on the use of this national symbol put it in 1940: "In my childhood towards the end of the nineteenth century the Swedish flag was an almost unknown concept. It was a good bit later into the next century that I started to see the blue and yellow flag among upper-class types and in vicarages ... Hardly anybody thought of the flag as a symbol of the nation but rather as something tied to royalty, militarism and well-to-do people. The result was that the flag did not become popular among the less well-to-do and it still isn't, because the tradition is tenacious" (quoted after Bii:irnstad 1976: 48). On the whole the national flag became a popular symbol rather late in Sweden. Brav e attempts were made to create a national holiday, called ''The day of the Swedish flag" from 1916, but this national celebration has remained a rather empty, official ritual with none of the popular fervour of the fourth or the fourteenth of July. Interestingly enough , while offical flag-waving is rather limited (and often joked about) in the Scandinavian , the private use of national flags is today more common here than anywhere else in the world. Flagpoles are found everywhere, next to summer houses, in caravan camps as well as in suburban gardens, and the flag is hoisted on all kinds of occasions , from family birthdays to Midsummer parties.

through which an independent country pro­ nationalism is that it is an international ideol­ claims its identity and sovereignty and, as ogy which is imported for national ends. Look­ such, they command instantaneous respect ing back at the pioneer era of Western national and loyalty. In themselves they reflect the en­ culture-building we may view this ideology of tire background, thought and culture of a na­ nationalism as a gigantic do-it-yourself kit . tion" (after Firth 1973: 314). Gradually a set of ideas is developed as to what elements make up a proper nation, the ingre­ This quote from a pamphlet published by the dients which are needed to turn state forma­ Indian Government in the 1960s illustrates the tions into national cultures with a shared sym­ ways in which a common symbolic language of bolic capital. The experiences and strategies of nationhood is taken for granted today. creating national languages, heritages and The interesting paradox in the emergence of symbolic estates, etc. are circulated among in-

8 tellectual activists in different corners of the English. But for centuries "What is really Ger­ world and the eventual result is a kind of man?" had not been laid to rest" (Elias 1939/- check-list: every nation should have not only a 1978: 6). common language, a common past and destiny, but also a national folk culture, a national If there is a certain chameleonic vagueness character or mentality, national values, per­ about the concept of nationalism, it is still usu­ haps even some national tastes and a national ally contained within the field of meanings de­ landscape (often enshrined in the form of na­ noting ideology, doctrine or political move­ tional parks), a gallery of national myths and ment. The use of the concept of national iden­ heroes (and villains), a set of symbols, includ­ tity is, however, more ambivalent, and it is ing flag and anthem, sacred texts and images, probably in the development of this concept etc. This national inventory is produced mainly that ethnicity theory can make its most fruit­ during the nineteenth century, but elaborated ful contribution, namely in the focus on iden­ during the twentieth. tity as a dynamic process of construction and The process in which national projects are reproduction over time, in direct relation or made transnational, and recycled or remade in opposition to specific other groups and inter­ different setting and at different times is still ests: it is this dynamic and dialectical approach with us, as new nations continue to be born to identity management that is important here within the same basic nineteenth-century par­ (cf. Schlesinger 1987). adigm. It is thus an irony that th~ liberating During the last decade ethnicity studies force of nationalism in developing countries have stressed the ways in which ethnic bound­ can be seen in a way as the ultimate victory of aries may change over time, how ethnic mark­ colonial hegemony, as the nation-building is ers and symbols are created and communi­ often carried out along truly Western lines. cated and how different criteria of identity can The late-comers to this process of nation­ be selected in different situations. (There is, of building also have_ to live with the ironic com­ course, the risk that this focus on the strategic ments of the pioneers. For the latter their own aspects of ethnicity management overstates national identity has had time to be trans­ the fluidity, malleability and manipulatory as­ formed from an ideological construction to a pects of ethnic identity.) given, natural fact, and in their ridiculing of National identity can thus be seen as a spe­ late-comers' attempts to create national sym­ cific form of collective identity. Like ethnic bols (mainly in the Third World) the "old" na­ identity, it can be both latent and manifest: tions fail to see the parallels to their own past. activated in special situations, confrontations Ernest Gellner has touched on this problem or settings, dormant in others . which is sometimes boiled down to the deroga­ In what ways are national identities differ­ tive maxim "I am a patriot, he is a nationalist ent from ethnic ones, and not only a specific and they are tribalists" (Gellner 1983: 87). variation on the ethnicity theme? It is evident that a force like nationalism often uses eth­ nicity as a basis for constructing national cul­ Constructing national identity tures, but it can also be argued (in some cases) Gellner's quote underlines the fact that some that an ethnic identity can be a by-product of national ideologies have been naturalized so nation-building. National identity can also be early that they are rarely questioned today. superimposed on traditional ethnic cleavages, Norbert Elias has pointed at the same problem turning Finns and Swedes into fellow country­ in his comparison of French and German self­ men in Finland, or producing true Americans representations: out of a mosaic of immigrants. We need to devote more attention to the ways in which "The questions "What is really French? What national identity in a gradual process comes to is really English? have long since ceased to be a transcend and subordinate other loyalties, be matter of much discussion for the French and they regional, ethnic, or based upon class, gen-

9 Towards the end of the nineteenth century the northern province of Dalecarlia came to be seen as the typical Swedish peasant heritage. Urban intellectuals made pilgrimages to this rather atypical piece of Sweden , where peasants still wore folk costumes, lived in large villages and maintained colourful rituals. "Dalecarlia with its solid people, its cottages, its old traditions, which still survive up here ... where everything speaks Swedish as in no other region, and nowhere else does one feel so happy and proud of being Swedish as there", exclaimed one of the visitors in 1899 (quoted in Rosander 1987: 315). The reason that Dalecarlia was chosen as the cradle of Sweden was not only the picturesque peasant life still surviving in the region but also because Dalecarlian culture fitted the middle-class mythology of "the old peasant society". There was no large rural proletariat to disturb the image of a happy village Gemeinschaft, and here one found the stereotypes of a freedom-loving, individualistic, and principled peasantry, embodying honesty , honour and love of traditions , living a simple life in close contact with nature . In short, the Dalecarli­ ans represented the kind of cultural ancestors the new progressive middle-class intellegentia wanted to have. It is therefore no coincidence that the first building brought to the new open air museum Skansen in Stockholm (opened in 1891) was taken from Dalecarlia . Outside the cottage, museum guides pose in the Dalecarlian dresses, which were later developed into something of a national for the urban middle class (Photo : Nordiska museet). der or religion. How is it that national identity national fellowship. His by now almost classic often works so well as an inclusive symbol? definition of the nation runs: Unlike ethnic identities national ones are always directly linked to problems of state for­ "It is an imagined political community and mation and state discourse. They are produced imagined as both inherently limited and sove­ and reproduced within a very special institu­ reign. tional framework, which sets them apart from It is imagined because the members of even other types of identity constructs. the smallest nation will never know most of Benedict Anderson has discussed national their fellow-members, meet them or even hear identity in terms of "imagined communities" of of them, yet in the minds of each lives the

10 image of their communion" (Anderson 1983: this background it is hardly surprising that the 15). cult of Scandinavianism became a Swedish speciality, or even a kind of substitute nation­ In a discussion of Anderson's thesis Michael alism. The national anthem talks about the Harbsmeier has argued that his use of the an­ "mountainous North" and the national folk thropologist Victor Turner's communitas con­ museum was named the "Nordic Museum". cept is too broad, it does not help us to under­ Without analysing this national culture stand the very specific nature of "the national building as a contrasting project we cannot ex­ community", as opposed to the communitas of plain the different strategic uses made, for ex­ religious groups or empires . He develops An­ ample, of folk culture in the nineteenth-cen­ derson 's framework by arguing that national tury Scandinavian context . It is no coincidence identity is, unlike many other forms of social that the authentic Norwegian peasant was to identity, totally dependent upon the imagined be found in the remote mountain valleys of or real approval of this identity as a national Telemark and his Swedish counterpart in Da­ otherness by others, i.e. other nations (Harbs­ lecarlia, or that true Finnish folk culture sur­ meier 1986: 52). vived in the forests of Karelia. 3 The fact that national identity is always de­ For Hungary Tamas Hofer has analysed a fined as a contrast or a complement to other similar process of stereotyping (see Hofer n .d.). nations, is illustrated by the nineteenth-cen­ The Hungarian peasant of the plains was cre­ tury Scandinavian national movements. Nor­ ated as a national contrast to the Austrian wegian nationalism was born , not in Norway, mountain peasant . Hofer has also discussed but among Norwegian students and intellec­ the ways in which a national peasant folk cul­ tuals in towards the end of the ture was used by different groups for hege­ eighteenth century. The Norwegian national monic ends at different points in Hungarian identity came to be profiled against the centu­ history - for example, the elaborate use of folk ries of Danish rule and the enforced union with culture as national symbolism during the Stali­ Sweden from 1814. It is no coincidence that it nist era of the 1950s. This was the great period was the historical period of up to 1300, before for "state folklorism" in Eastern , when the union with , that came into focus smiling factory girls paraded in peasant cos­ in the creation of a Norwegian cultural heri­ tumes and the image of the "traditional folk" tage : Norwegians were above all Vikings (cf. was used in appeals for national unity by the 0sterud 1987). In the Finnish national move­ new rulers. Today, as Eszter Kisban points out ment, folklore became even more important. in her paper, the tourist industry is one of the The search for a Finnish folk literature and the chief marketing agencies for such stereotypes emphasis on Finnish as a of national folklore. was a counter to the former Swedish domina­ The anthropologist Michael Herzfeld has ex­ tion and the new Russian rule after 1809. This plored the cultural politics of folklore in his construction of a national Finnish folk culture studies of the remaking of a Greek national was a task mainly carried out by the Swedish­ identity after the end of Turkish rule in the speaking intellectual elite, who in this process nineteenth century, a process in which the had to become even more Finnish than the Greek cultural heritage had to be purified of all peasantry itself (cf. Hanko 1980). Eastern elements and appear in a manner In nineteenth-century Denmark the con­ which conformed to European stereotypes of struction of a national heritage and a national the true, classical Greek nation (see Herzfeld identity was above all profiled against the 1987). arch-enemy in the south, , while Even the American immigrant nation devel­ Swedish nationalism of this era really lacked oped a search for its own "folk culture" at the an arch-enemy or rather the threat of a dom­ beginning of the twentieth century, when col­ inating neighbour, as the traditional fear of lectors and scholars roamed the Appalachian Russian intervention had diminished. Against mountains in search of an "Elizabethan cul-

11 ture" whose bearers spoke like Shakespeare representation: one's own identity is con­ and plaited baskets while singing medieval trasted with those who are more Southern and ballads . This traditional culture had to be sal­ easy-going (but less dependable) and those who vaged and reproduced in order to stem the are Northerners and less easy-going than one's disintegrating forces both from the modern fellow countrymen. There seems to be a tend­ world and the new waves of proletarian im­ ency in many settings to produce an image migrants (Whisnant 1983). which is based upon an idea of the golden Examples like these illustrate the ways in mean. "We English are not as warm and hot­ which folk culture becomes nationalized (and tempered as the French or the Spaniards, but also sacralized). A correct, authorized and more dependable and efficient; on the other timeless version of folk life is produced through hand, we are not as rigid or controlled as the the processes of selection, categorization, relo­ Germans or the Scandinavians." 4 Ideas about cation and "freezing". One of the most interest­ emotional control or lack of it seem very cen­ ing parts of this process is what is left out, tral in these kinds of stereotypes, where north (more or less unconsciously) disregarded orig­ and south often stands for the cultural opposi­ nored as not being worthy of entering the tion of cold and warm. Another striking fea­ showcases of the new national museums or the ture of these stereotypes are their gender bias. pages of the folklore heritage publications. Although das Vaterland is usually symbolized It is, however, important not to reduce these by a national mother - , , processes of the nationalization of folk culture and Mother Svea (of Swe­ to one of just "inventing traditions". Here we den) - the typical Swede, Dane or German is have a much more complex pattern of accomo­ usually a man. dation, reorganization and recycling, in which But national stereotypes also reflect chang­ different interest groups have different claims ing geopolitical conditions, as for example in at stake. (Cf. the discussion of the ways in the altered ways in which Hungarians have which Swedish and Hungarian intellectuals viewed the Austrians, from the period ofHabs­ used the folk culture as a strategy of cultural burgian dominance to the contemporary sit­ politics in the contributions below by Nieder­ uation, or the manners in which Danes have miiller, Sinko, and Frykman.) defined Swedes over the last century (and vice­ If national peasants were produced in con­ versa). There is always an element of under­ trast to competing national images of other dog-topdog argumentation in the ways na­ nations, the same process of profiling is found tional pride or national identity are expressed in the creation of national stereotypes: the in relation to neighbourhood nations, be they typical Swede or Hungarian is usually profiled defined as Big Brothers or Little Sisters. 5 (consciously or unconsciously) against a coun­ To conclude, one may argue that the con­ terpart and it is interesting to note that the struction of national identity is a task which stereotype tends to change with the object of calls for internal and external communication. comparison. In order to create a symbolic community, iden­ In relation to the happy-go-lucky nations of tity markers have to be created within the the Mediterranean, Swedes define themselves national arena in order to achieve a sense of as grey and boring, obsessed with order, punc­ belonging and loyalty to the national project, tuality and the control of emotions, character­ but this identity also has to be marketed to the ized by a total lack of spontaneity and esprit­ outside world as a national otherness. Such de-uie. If the comparison is made in relation to projects of self-presentation and self-definition Finns or Russians, other qualities are stressed, can be analysed in many cultural arenas dur­ because these Northern neighbours are often ing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stereotyped as even greyer and more boring: (An example of the latter is the big world exhi­ they even make the Swedes look a little bohe­ bitions from 1851 and onwards, where nations mian. On the whole there is an interesting have peddled their self-images; cf. the discus- metaphor of North and South in national self-

12 sion in Benedict 1983, Rydell 1984 and Smeds civil religion, which is laden with definitive 1983.) value traditions. Here we have absolute com­ mitments to freedom, patriotism, equality, self­ government, and so on. At the other end of the National culture spectrum is the vocabulary of our national dis­ National identity and national culture are of­ course, by no means empty of content but ten used as interchangeable concepts. Here I nonetheless value-neutral in the sense that it would like to argue for the need to keep them is used to support all the conflicting values that apart, reserving the concept of national culture arise in public discourse ... Between these two for that kind of collective sharing which exists extremes lies the vast middle domain of culture on a national level or within a national cultural proper. Here are the concrete politics, customs, space. Rather little research in this field has technologies, and legends that define and de­ studied what is actually shared on a national termine our current attitudes and actions and level and how it is shared. our institutions. Here we find constant change, It is quite clear that communication is a cru­ growth, conflict. This realm determines the cial problem here: how are these imagined texture of our national life" (Hirsch 1987: 102). communities shaped and held together over time, how is the social and political space of the nation also transformed into a cultural space: a Hirsch's categorization can be questioned, but common culture? This sharing is done in differ­ his aim is to look at the domain of vocabulary, ent ways and on different levels . or rather what he terms the cultural literacy of Let us think about the various ingredients a given nation: "the whole system of widely which may be contained in the vague concept shared information and associations" (p. 103), of national culture. First of all, I think we have the kind of cultural competence needed to be to distinguish between "The National Culture" able to take part in public discourse. Where he and an everyday national sharing of memories, goes wrong is in his insistence that this na­ symbols and knowledge. "The National Cul­ tional cultural capital belongs to a general ture" which the French historian Maurice mainstream culture which stands above class Agulhon (1987) has also termed "The national interests and power relations. The problem of school culture" (or la Grande Culture) is a nor­ hegemony and contestation is brushed away mative cultural capital: What Every French­ and his ultimate aim, thus, becomes rather man Should Know. This is the kind of knowl­ futile, namely a list of 4,500 dates, places, peo­ edge which is dished out in school, carrying the ple, events, books, phrases and sayings that authorized seal of the official public culture. make up the American common culture. The making of this kind of normative cultural This attempt at standardization mirrors a heritage is an interesting study in itself. The given social position, reflecting the perspective boundaries between ideas about what every of a middle-class, middle-aged WASP. The Swede ought to know and what all Swedes whole project again illustrates the difficulty of actually share tend, however, to become rather separating normative and descriptive ap­ blurred. proaches to what constitutes a national culture An interesting example of this confusion of a or shared knowledge. descriptive and normative approach to na­ Let me illustrate this dilemma further by tional culture is found in the recent study Cul­ quoting a couple of less ambitious attempts at tural Literacy: What Every American Needs to defining national sharing. First T. S. Eliot's Know (Hirsch 1987). Hirsch starts out by try­ classical list of English institutions: ing to delineate what actually is shared on a national level, using the USA as his case: "Derby-day, the Henley regatta, Cowes, Au­ "Suppose we think of American public culture gust the 12th, a cup final, the greyhound races, as existing in three segments. At one end is our the Fortuna game, the dart board, Wensley-

13

• b The patterns of national sharing are also demonstrated in images and visual cliches which became saturated with symbolic meaning. This process of cultural condensation is very marked in the development of national sceneries. One of the best Swedish examples of this is the view of the little red cottage in the meadow at the edge of the lake, a landscape reproduced on scores of postcards and travel brochures. This image evokes a range of associations and connotations, which may produce profound homesickness or ironic comments - reaction which are hard for the outsider to grasp. dale cheese-, cabbage boiled in cloves, pickled tural traits, made for other insiders. They are beetroots, churches in nineteenth-century lists of key symbols or key events which prob­ Gothic and Elgar's music" (Eliot 1949: 30). ably have a rich field of cultural connotations and evoke shared memories of similar situa­ Here is a Swedish version from 1985: tions. They both claim to have captured the essence or spirit ofEnglishness or Swedishness, "To be Swedish is to have experienced the but they reflect one version of or perspective on Swedish summer in all its glory, it is Christmas what constitutes the typical or essential in the morning, it is the high school graduation. It is national culture. This is England and Sweden to have been dressed up for the last day of described through the cultural lenses of two school and to have seen the sun set over the (male) intellectuals. edge of the forest, it is to have lit the Advent If we ask other persons to make up lists like candles and to have read Elsa Beskow and these, we will get a wide range of variations seen the king. It is to have walked across a with some common focus, but above all there is barrack square and to have stood by a grave" a tendency for people to pick very visible na­ (Nordstedt 1985). tional traits: public rituals, family feasts, fa­ vourite dishes, key symbols and images. It is Both these examples are insider's list of cul- the "Sunday Best" version of the national cul-

14 ture which is often described, and it is interest­ to us that we do not even consider them as ing to reflect upon how such symbolic compres­ typically Swedish. They are easier for an out­ sions of national culture are created and sider to observe. Concepts like Swedishness changed over time. You will hardly get the and Englishness, for example, imply that there same list in 1920 as in 1988. Eliot's use of is a certain cultural praxis as well as style that Elgar can be taken as one example of this grad­ is contained within the national boundaries. ual selection. In 1972 another fellow country­ It is interesting to think about what people man states that "Elgar is loved by the English actually mean when they talk about a person people as one of the greatest English compos­ behaving in a "very Swedish" way or looking ers and also for his unique expression of the "very British". People often find it difficult to deep intangible feelings of England" (quoted actually verbalize these traits: they will say after Crump 1986: 164). vaguely that there is something very Swedish But as Jeremy Crump has shown in his ana­ about the way he carries his body, eats his lysis of the reception of Elgar, his music gradu­ meal, expresses certain feelings or laughs at a ally became defined as typically English joke. lnstangible traits like this make up one through being performed on ceremonial occa­ elusive part of a national cultural capital, or sions and also by being put to patriotic use rather - to continue with Bourdieu's terminol­ during the First World War. ogy - a national habitus or a set of dispositions. The selection of items for such "Top Ten" lists When people talk about Swedishness, they of national symbols will often include small talk about this kind of imponderabilia, rather details or seemingly trivial elements, which than about "cultural heritage" or la Grande are symbolic representations or distillations of Culture. Swedishness then denotes not so central ideas or patterns of behaviour. They much what people talk about but their way of have, as Billy Ehn has put it, "a high specific talking: the styles in which a problem is ad­ cultural weight". He points out that images of dressed, an argument is carried on or a conflict Swedishness can be evoked in memories of the resolved (or suppressed). tastes and smells emanating from the tradi­ To conclude: a concept like national culture tional midsummer meal of pickled herring, is in acute need of deconstruction: what kinds new potatoes and cold aquavit: "a phenomenon of knowledge of shared understandings is this which mirrors a whole cultural universe, im­ national capital made up of, which parts of this ages of summer, festivity, pleasure and nation­ capital are highly visible, which forms are less hood" (Ehn 1983: 14). articulated or tangible? Are we talking about The impact of such events depends not only what all Swedes know or what they ought to on their being very visible rituals, but also on know? It seems important to distinguish be­ their sensual or emotional quality. The com­ tween, on the one hand, the symbolic capital mon national memories and understandings that is defined as national and patriotic and, on are sometimes more strongly articulated in the other hand, the knowledge and experiences non-verbal forms, in shared smells, sounds, which happen to be contained within national tastes and visions. Raymond Williams has boundaries: the inside jokes, associations, ref­ coined the concept structure of feelings for such erences and memories which Swedes under­ elusive cultural phenomena, which cannot be stand and Norwegians don't. In short, how can described in terms of ideology or worldview we categorize these different forms of sharing (Williams 1977). In this sense, some feelings into registers or levels of a "national culture"? are more national than others, i.e. they have a stronger symbolic charge. I would, however, argue that the most im­ How wide is nation-wide? portant aspects of this national sharing are The problem of sharing raises question of com­ anchored in the trivialities of everyday life, in munication and the creation of national arenas the ways in which we can talk about Swedish of interaction. The making of a nation is thus a routines and habits. These traits are so obvious problem very much linked to the project of

15 integration and standardization. Language is a Another new mass medium was the national good example of this. One of the early aims of school book. In Sweden the standard reader for nationalists was to create a national language, the elementary school (Folkskolans li.isebok) often in settings where the spoken or written was used in all Swedish schools from 1868 up word did not respect national boundaries . For to around 1900. Several generations of Swedes, nineteenth-century Norwegian nationalists thus, grew up reading the same texts and look­ the creation of a truly Norwegian standard ing at the same pictures (Furuland 1987). language meant that old influences from writ­ Media like these not only created national ten Danish had to be contested, but also that communities of communication but also pro­ the border between Norway and Sweden had duced gaps or communicative barriers be­ to be made into a linguistic boundary as well, tween, for example, Swedes and Danes . Cul­ in spite of the fact that people on both sides of tural sharing in a sense became less regional that border shared a common dialect. The task and more national but also less international of the linguists was to create a standard Nor­ during the nineteenth century. The Swedish wegian language and the job of the school sys­ elite talked and read more Swedish and less tem was to make sure all Norwegians learned French and Latin, while the peasants were to speak it (cf. 6sterud 1986: 13). All over Eu­ drawn into a national framework of thought rope we can study the same process, which also and action. led to the creation of specific academic disci­ During the twentieth century the mass plines and school subjects , like "Swedish", media have often been seen as the symbol (or "Danish" or "English". (See the discussion of scapegoat) of the internationalization of na­ the Scandinavian case i Teleman 1986 and for tional cultures, but even in the age of satellite Britain, Colls & Dodd 1986.) and rock videos I would argue for a If language became an important medium more differentiated analysis of this phenom­ for national cohesion and belonging (in most, enon . The new media of our century , like radio but far from all nations), the nationalization of and television, have played a crucial role in a culture was very much linked to the creation of further nationalization of culture. Many of the a public sphere by the rising bourgeoisie, who nineteenth-century media still remained class created new arenas and media of debate and based media, and a truly national public dis­ information. We need to study the ways in course was not created until the twentieth cen­ which this kind of public discourse was turned tury . into a national discourse. In two other studies Lofgren 1989 and n.d. I Benedict Anderson has argued for the im­ have looked at this kind of massmediation of portance of what he calls "print capitalism" in national culture: first in the ways in which a producing a national community. He focuses "national nature" is created in nineteenth-cen­ on the role of the new media of newspapers in tury Sweden - a set of sceneries which most the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Swedes learn to recognize as "typically Swed­ and their role in supplying intellectuals with a ish", views packed with national symbolism. forum for national exchanges. In Sweden it is This process of framing and condensing na­ evident that the creation of a multitude of local tional messages in a piece of nature cannot be newspapers had this cohesive effect, in spite of understood without reference to the mass-pro­ the fact that there was no "national" paper in duction of landscape sceneries, from ole­ the nineteenth century (although there were ographs to picture postcards and travel bro­ some magazines). There was a constant bor­ chures and this production of national images rowing and recycling of material between pa­ was also helped by the profileration of texts pers and a debate which made the local doctor and songs about Swedish nature. or bureaucrat out in the province feel that he The other example looks at the very crucial was taking part in a national discourse and role of radio broadcasting in establishing a na­ had a knowledge of what was happening in the tional sharing. I have tentatively argued that national capital. the period of national broadcasting (and later) television with a one-channel system between A good example of the effect of national cul­ about 1930 and 1970 have had an enormous tural barriers is found in the international integrating effect in Swedish culture and world of advertising, where it is often demon­ everyday life. These were decades when (al­ strated that an American or French advertise­ most) all Swedes listened to the same radio ment cannot simply be transplanted into a programmes or later viewed the same TV­ Swedish magazine - it needs to be reworked by shows. a local agency. In the late 1920s and the 30s national broad­ In the same way, consumer culture may also casting gave Swedes a common focus, common be both an internationalizing and a nationaliz­ topics of conversation and frames of references. ing force. One of the really strong cohesive A new kind of imagined community was devel­ national forces in the is to be oped as Swedes all over the country listened in found in consumer patterns and messages (cf. to the same media event, be it the Sunday for example Roland Marchand's study Adver­ service, a transmission or a popular cab­ tising the American Dream, 1985). Consump­ aret. New national personalities were created tion in the USA is in a way very American, and even the weather was nationalized in the with brands, styles and habits which keep the magic chanting of temperatures and winds 50 states together, but also create barriers to from meteorological stations all over the coun­ the outside world. These barrier are often dem­ try. National broadcasting also created a na­ onstrated in the popular jokes about American tional rhythm of listening. People flocked to tourist complaints about the lack American the morning gymnastics, waited eagerly for ways (especially foodways) in foreign coun­ the gramophone hour, gathered for the eve­ tries. The establishment of a number of na­ ning news and went to bed with the national tional chains of shops, motels, restaurants and anthem, which ended each broadcasting day. other commercial institutions has created a The radio created new national traditions, standardized pattern which makes the Cali­ such as the New Year's Eve celebrations. At fornian feel at home in both Idaho and South midnight a mighty community of listeners Carolina . (When the waitress approaches him stood to attention as the church bells from all in such distant territories asking what kind of Swedish cathedrals rang in a new Swedish salad dressing he would prefer with his meal, year. he instantly knows that there are three But even today , with a much more plural­ choices : French, Blue cheese or Thousand Is­ istic media world, we must look at the ways in lands.) which international influences are national­ To conclude: we need to develop a study of ized into a local context as they cross the bor­ nationalizing media, agents, institutions and der. Dallas, Disney and Dynasty have different arenas. How is the nation established as a na­ meanings and play different roles in different tionwide cultural space, as a horizon or com­ national settings. Sweden is, for example, often municative community, and how is the bound­ presented as the most Americanized country in ary towards other nations maintained? Such Europe, but this Americanization has been an analysis must focus on everything from carried out in an extremely Swedish manner. schools and national (military) service to TV­ For a visitor from the USA it is often hard to commercials and fashions, and it must exam­ recognize this American influence in the Swed­ ine the way regional or subcultural worlds are ish way of life: there is what Robert Redfield made national and the way international once termed an interesting process of paro­ messages are creolized. chialization going on in Stockholm as well as in Budapest. Ulf Hannerz has developed the con­ cept of creolization for this local transforma­ The disintegrating nation tion of cultural flows within the world system Another perspective on this communicative in a discussion of American culture (Hannerz process is found in the discourse on the disin­ 1987). tegrating national culture, a discourse which is

2 Ethno logia Europaea XIX.1 17 P'

In 1909 a prize competition for a Swedish national monument was launched. A private donator had written to the king and pointed out that Sweden still lacked such a manifestation, which could demonstrate the Swedish people's gratitude for its country, state and culture and also create a feeling of national unity. Of the 36 contributions, the only one remembered today is Sven Boberg's "Sleep in peace", with Mother Sweden snoring on the throne, flanked by the two heroes king Gustavus Adolphus and Charles the XII, who are squeezed into their boots. The artist suggested that his statue should be positioned in the entrance to the Houses of Parliament, in order to make sure that no one could get in or out. A national monument was never erected in Sweden . 1909 was certainly not the right moment, as the nation witnessed the biggest general strike in European history, and time never again became ripe for this kind of national rhetoric. at least as old as nationalism itself. Nations Many forms of regionalism may function not have always been seen as falling apart, but the as a potential threat to national break-up but forces (or threats) of disintegration tend to rather as a kind of tension which may keep the vary through time. national project alive and vital. In the Scandi­ One constant threat has been defined as re­ navian countries regionalism has often func­ gionalism, but this concept covers a wide range tioned as a stable and more integrating than of relations, which may fluctuate in interesting threatening element in the national landscape. ways from nation to nation and from time to In some ways the province or region has had time . is a good example of highly varied the role of providing a micro-level model for regional movements, changing not only in fo­ patriotism. By learning to love your home re­ cus and intensity but also in their political pro­ gion - one part of the national whole - you file during the last two centuries. prepared yourself for national feelings on a

18 higher level, this was the general idea in school education at the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time in Sweden socialism was often defined as a major threat to national unity, later to be replaced by internationalism or Americanization. We find similar transforma­ tions in other nations, depending on the politi­ cal climate. This genre of popular debate is perhaps bet­ ter analysed as a form of cultural contestation, in which different interest groups accuse other groups (or ideologies) of threatening the na­ tional ideal. Why do some Swedes at certain times define themselves as more Swedish or better nationalists than others? Why is that this kind of discourse is more marked in cer­ tain historical periods? It has , for example , sometimes been argued that Swedes are not very chauvinistic , because national slogans or patriotic appeals are less common here than, for example, in the United States or in . But national arguments In 1935 another national event led to a competition or national feelings are mainly activated in for a monument celebrating what was seen as the situations of uncertainty or anxiety. The in­ first meeting of the Swedish parliament in 1435. This cessant talk about American morals and val­ time the object was a statue of the peasant rebel leader Engelbrekt from that turbulent period of ues in the United States does not necessarily Swedish history, who was used as a national symbol mean that Americans are more patriotic (or by both the right and the left. Many social democrats chauvinistic), but rather that the national chose to see Engelbrekt as a symbol of early demo­ identity has to be constantly reaffirmed be­ cratic and egalitarian strivings, thereby underlining the political parallels between the 1430s and the cause it is a somewhat fragile construction. 1930s. The sculptor Bror Hjorth's contribution ex­ The ethnic mix and fluidity calls for a constant pressed this version of Engelbrekt, who was depicted remaking of America . as a popular leader and forceful agitator, but the In the Sweden of the sixties and seventies official committee found his version too revolution­ flag-waving and patriotic rhetoric were defi­ ary and chose a milder and more conventional image of Engelbrekt. (Cf. the discussion in Johannesson nitely out, at least in intellectual circles, but 1985.) this was a period of national stability. In the political turbulence of the twenties and thirties national rhetoric was a tool of political struggle between the left and the right . The conserva­ programme. One symbolic manifestation of tives argued that the social democrats were this change was the introduction of the na­ unpatriotic and out to destroy both traditions tional flag into the May Day demonstrations and the national heritage. Unlike their coun­ during the 1930s . terparts in France and Britain, the Swedish This was a period when the concept of citi­ social democrats were, however, very success­ zenship became central in the national rhetoric ful in projecting an image of themselves as about the making of a modern nation, popu­ working "in the best interests of the whole lated by modern individuals who had been nation". In a way they wrested the national freed from traditional collective loyalties in or­ argument from the hands of the conservatives der to be nationalized as citizens of the new and made it a part of their National Welfare Modern Sweden. The constant references to

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The caption to this cartoon from 1905 runs: A traitor to his country. The poli ceman: What the hell is wrong with our, sir? -I am sorry, my good constable, but I just wasn't able to stand up any longer when they sang the anth em for the 82nd time. The decades around 1900 was a period of intensive production (and singing) of patriotic songs in Sweden, and community singing had another peak period during the Second World War (and even more so in occupied Denmark, cf. Karlsson 1988: 155ffi. Benedict Anderson has pointed out the strong emotional charge in this kind of national ritual: "No matter how banal the words and mediocre the tunes, there is in this singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image : unisonance . Singing the Marseillaise, Waltzing Matilda, and Indonesia Raya provides occasions for unisonality, for the echoed phychological realization of the imagined community" (Anderson 1983: 132). - A more recent example of this is the key role of patriotic collective singing in the 1988 demonstrations for national revival in the Baltic states. Many of the national rituals, like hoisting the flag, visiting a national shrine of breaking out in song, appeal more to emotions and gut reactions than to intellectual reasoning. Even the most ardent anti-nationalist may find himself fighting a lump in the throat at such occasions.

20 the many rights and obligations of citizenship different Swedes (say, a clergyman, a farm _ a status which only the nation can give its woman and an industrial worker) in 1880, in people - was very typical of this period of na­ 1930 or today . I would maintain that the shar­ tion-building. ing is greater today than in the past, but differ­ Although the social democratic utopia, usu­ ent. Maurice Agulhon has, for example, argued ally called The People's Home was very much that France today is more culturally homogen­ part of a project of modernity with eyes di­ ous than during the nineteenth century, but rected forward rather than to the past, there that the national, symbolic capital (i.e. the pa­ was also an attempt to redefine the national triotic school book culture) has diminished heritage. In the 1930s Swedish democracy was (Agulhon 1987). still a young institution and in shaping a new In the same way national rhetoric tends to national history, great emphasis was placed change . Arguments or language of earlier per­ upon the democratic traditions of Sweden (and iods may sound bombastic, chauvinistic or above all the Swedish peasantry). The ethnol­ even racist to our modern ears, but we have at ogists joined in this redefinition. The tradi­ the same time developed new forms of rhetoric tional villages could now be described as the about the superiority of our own country, cradles of democracy, as "the moulds in which which we do not think of as chauvinistic . In his the Swedish folk mentality had been shaped, paper on sports and nationalism below, Billy the setting in which our people has gained its Ehn points out that nationalistic arguments basic social instincts" (after Johansson 1987: and rhetoric which in other settings or arenas 7). New combinations of national heroes and would sound bombastic flourish in the sport villains were also produced. pages. In the 1930s we can thus analyse how a new national heritage is constructed with new sym­ bols of common ancestry and identity, and the National culture as rhetoric and same type of analysis could be carried out for practice the end of the nineteenth century, when con­ During the last two centuries nationalism has servatives and liberals fought over the true evolved as a strong source of cultural and so­ national values and genuine heritage. (Cf. also cial identity, and so far we have little evidence Patrick Wright's discussion (1985) of the politi­ that it is dying, although it may often be dor­ cal struggle over definitions of the national mant . The symbolic community of the nation heritage between Labour and Conservatives in still produces strong feelings and strong com­ post-war England.) mitments as well as gut reactions oflove, hate, The discourse on national disintegration of­ pride and aggression. Flag-waving or flag­ ten misses the fact that national culture is burning is still, in most settings, no laughing constantly redefined. Every new generation matter. produces its own national sharing and frames In this paper, I have argued for a historical of reference, selecting items from the symbolic anthropology of national cultures, focusing on estate of earlier generations. It is usually not some of the processes which develop, reproduce the nation that is falling apart but rather an and change national identity and culture . This older version of the national ideal. When in­ is a field of study which calls not only for a dignant protests are made about Swedish historical but also a comparative approach. schoolchildren who (supposedly) call the na­ Elusive phenomena like Swedishness or Hun­ tional anthem the "ice hockey song" because garianness are best studied in contrast . they only hear it at international matches, peo­ The comparative study of the ways in which ple forget that only a few generations of nations are turned into cultural formations Swedes have ever learnt to sing it. may benefit from separating three levels. First This constant redefinition of a national sym­ of all, there exists what we could call an in­ bolic and cultural capital can be analysed by ternational cultural grammar of nationhood, trying to trace what kind of sharing has united with a thesaurus of general ideas about the

21 - cultural ingredients needed to form a nation, tional behaviour and virtues; the other has to like the check-list I mentioned earlier. This do with how cultural flows are contained, or­ includes a symbolic estate (flag, anthem, na­ ganized and transformed within the national tional landscape, sacred texts, etc.), ideas borders - how national space becomes cultural about a national heritage (a national history space. This also calls for an analysis of the and literature, a national folk culture, etc.), as ways in which different cultural domains are well as notions of national character, values nationalized, from landscape to sport, or per­ and tastes. This international grammar may haps even de-nationalized at later stages, as in also contain specific ideas about the institu­ the case with national symbols which lose their tional framework. During the nineteenth cen­ power or meaning. tury it was not only a concept of national folk In looking at national culture as process it is culture that was circulated between (mainly) important to avoid a narrative structure based European nations, but also guidelines for the upon an evolutionary or devolutionary per­ proper establishment of institutions like na­ spective, in which nations are born, come of tional folk museums and archives, to name one age or fade away, to name a few common life example. cycle metaphors in studies of nationalism. The international thesaurus is transformed Modern nationalism is a cultural paradigm, into a specific national lexicon, local forms of but all nations do not go through identical pro­ cultural expression, which tend to vary from cesses of making and re-making. Take the nation to nation. In this field we can observe question of timing: when are certain national how national rhetoric and symbols may be lo­ strategies, claims or rhetorics legitimate and cated in different arenas, emphasized in differ­ successful or just futile or even comical?6 The ent historical periods or social situations. The erection of a national monument in Budapest third term, dialect vocabulary, focuses on the in 1896 created a national rallying point, internal divisions within the nation: conflict whereas in Sweden in 1909 the same plans groups and interests using national arguments proved to be a total flop. and rhetoric, sometimes also creating different Nationalism may often be a dormant cul­ styles of national discourse: accusing each tural force, activated only situationally and se­ other of "vulgar nationalism", "unpatriotic be­ lectively. National identity is not always an haviour" or just representing the wrong type of overriding loyalty and there are social groups Swedishness. The definition of the Swedish which may combine a very international and folk heritage of the late nineteenth-century cosmopolitan identity with a sense of national bourgeoisie differed a great deal from that of belonging. the social democrats of the 1930s. In 1882 the Frenchman Joseph Ernest Ro­ Whereas the concept of nationalism is rela­ man gave his classic definition of a nation hav­ tively clearly defined as a political ideology, ing to be something more than a mere customs national culture is a term which often contains union, a true nation must have a soul, he add­ a mixture of normative and descriptive el­ ed in the style of contemporary speech and ements. I have argued for a focus on the every­ continued: day level of cultural sharing, which happens to be contained by national borders: the shared «L'existence d'une nation est (pardonnez moi understandings and frames of references of cette metaphore) un plebiscite de tous lesjours, Swedes or Hungarians. comme l'existence de l'individu est une affir­ In the study of the ways in which culture is mation perpetuelle de vie» (quoted after 0ster­ nationalized we thus have to distinguish be­ gard 1988: 29). tween two processes. One is concerned with the ways in which cultural elements are turned It is this problem of how the nation is reaf~ into symbols or national rhetoric - declared to firmed by its national subjects in "daily refer­ symbolize the essence of the nation or its in­ endums" that perhaps is the least developed habitants or stated as norms about proper na- theme in studies of national culture-building.

22 The national project cannot survive as a mere holm in a colloquium on national mentalities at ideological construction, it must exist as a cul­ Lund University in 1985. 5. The changing Hungarian cultural construction of tural praxis in everyday life. Being Swedish is national identity and the stereotyping of other a kind of experience which is activated in nations were discussed at the seminar in two con­ watching the Olympics on TV, in hoisting the tributions by Gyorgy Csepeli (n.d.) and Judit flag for a family reunion, in making ironic com­ Lendvay (n.d.). For a discussion of the changing stereotypes of Danes and Swedes over the last ments about the Swedish national character century, see the discussion in Lofgren 1986 and (and feeling hurt when non-Swedes make simi­ Linde-Laursen (n.d.). A general discussion of na­ lar remarks), in memories of holiday trips to tional stereotypes is found in the Dutch anthropo­ national sights, or in feelings of being out of logical journal Foocal. Tydschrift uoor Anthro­ place on the wrong side of the national border pologie, April 1986 which presents material from a colloquy on national character. and securely at home on the inside, in the 6. See the discussion of the timing of the claim to sharing of national frames of references, from nationhood in Smith 1986: 8ff. and Gellner 1983. jokes to images. We need to devote a lot more attention to References how this kind of national sharing is produced Agulhon, Maurice 1981: Marianne into Battle: Re­ and reproduced in everyday life, asking how publican Imagery and Symbolism in France 1789- deep, how long and how wide it is - at given 1880. Cambridge Univ. Press. times and in different social settings, and how Agulhon, Maurice 1987: La fabrication de la France: it varies from generation to generation. A problemes et controverses. Anthropologie Sociale et Ethnologie de la France. Colloque du Centre study of this process, thus, calls for an analysis, d'ethnologie frani;aise et du Musee national des not so much of rhetoric but of practice, of the arts et traditions populaires. Mimeograph, . lived national experience. Anderson, Benedict 1983: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of National­ ism. London: Verso. Benedict, Burton 1983: The Anthropology of World's Notes Fairs. San Francisco's Panama Pacific Interna­ tional Exposition of 1915. London: Scholar Press. A version of this paper was presented at the 12th Berggreen, Brit 1989: Da kulturen kom till Norge. International Congress of Anthropological and : Aschehoug. Ethnological Sciences in Zagreb, 24--31 July, 1988, in Biornstad, Arne 1976: Svenska flaggans bruk. Fata­ the session on History and Anthropology, and I am buren, 1976: 43-56. grateful for the stimulating comments put forward Braudel, Fernand 1986: L'Identite de la France I- at this session. Special thanks also to Alan Crozier III. Paris : Arthaud-Flammarion. ' for his help with the translation and his constructive Coils, Robert & Dodd, Philip (eds.) 1986 : English­ remarks. ness: Politics and Culture 1880-1920 . Beckenham: 1. The first workshop on "National culture as proc­ Croom Helm. ess" in Budapest, 1-3 May 1989, also included Crump, Jeremy 1986: The identity of English music: papers by Tamas Hofer and two Hungarian sociol­ The reception of Elgar 1898-1935. In: Cools & ogists, Gyorgy Csepeli and Judit Lendvay, as well Dodd, op.cit., 164--190. as contributions by the Swedish historian Bo Csepeli, Gyorgy (n.d.): The social construction of na­ Ohngren and the ethnologist Anders Lundin. tional identity in contemporary Hungary. Paper 2. The interest in cultural perspectives on nation­ presented at the seminar "National culture as building among historians is expressed in works process: Hungarian and Swedish experienc es", Bu­ like Weber 1976, Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983, dapest May 1-3 1989. Braudel 1986 and Agulhon 1987 (see also the Daun , Ake & Ehn, Billy 1988: Blandsuerige . Stock­ excellent overview in 0stergard 1988), whereas holm: Carlsson. recent examples of anthropologists dealing with Ehn, Billy 1983: Ska vi leka tiger? Daghem sliv ur the cultural politics of nationalism are found in kulturell synvinkel. Malmo: Liber. studies by, for example, Herzfeld 1987 and Kap­ Elias, Norbert 1939/1978: The Civilizing Process: ferer 1988. The History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell. 3. See the discussion on the nationalization ofDale­ Eliot, T. S. 1949: Notes Towards the Definition of carlia in Rosander 1986 and the similar Norwe­ Culture . New York: Harcourt. gian processes in Berggreen 1989 and the general Firth, Raymond 1973: Symbols: Public and Private. discussion in Oinas 1978. London. 4. The metaphor of a north-south dichotomy in na­ Frykman, Jonas & Lofgren, Orvar 1987: Culture tional stereotypes was developed by Tomas Ger- 23 4

Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle­ pology at Home, ed. Anthony Jackson. ASA Mono­ Class Life. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press. graphs 25. London: Tavistock. Furuland, Lars 1987: »Lyssna till den granens sus­ Lofgren, Orvar 1987: Om behovet for danskhed. ning ... « Om en liisebok som folkuppfostrare. Hug, 47: 49-55. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akade­ Lofgren, Orvar 1987: Colonizing the territory of his­ miens Arsbok, 1987: 1-15. torical anthropology. Culture & History, 1987: 1: Gellner, Ernest 1983: Nations and Nationalism. Ox­ 7-30. ford: Blackwell. Lofgren, Orvar 1988: Landscapes and mindscapes. Hannerz, Ulf n.d.: "American Culture: Creolized, Folk, (in press). Creolizing." Paper presented at the Nordic Associ­ Lofgren, Orvar n.d.: Medierna i nationsbygget. ation for American Studies, . Forthcoming in UlfHannerz (ed.): Medier och kul­ Harbsmeier, Michael 1986: »Danmark: Nation, kul­ turell fordndring. tur og kf1n.« Stofskifte 13: 47-74. Marchand, Roland 1985: Advertising the American Herzfeld, Michael 1982: Ours Once More: Folklore, Dream: Making Way for Modernity 1920-1940. Ideology, and the Making of the Modern . Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press. Nordstedt, J. F. 1985: I Sverige. Stockholm. Herzfeld, Michael 1987: Anthropology Through the Oinas, Felix J. (ed.) 1978: Folklore, Nationalism and Looking Glass. Critical Ethnography in the Mar­ Politics. Columbus: Slavica. gins of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University 0stergard, Uffe 1988: Hua er en nationsstat? (Ar­ Press. bejdspapir nr. 12, Center for Kulturforskning, Ar­ Hobsbawm, Eric & Ranger, Terence (eds.) 1983: The hus University). Invention of Tradition. London. 0sterud, 0yvind 1986: »Nationalstaten Norge - en Hofer, Tamas n.d.: Constructing the heritage of Hun­ karakteriserende skisse.« In Det norske samfunn, garian folk culture: symbolic uses of peasant tradi­ ed. Lars Allden et al., pp. 9-32. Oslo: Gyldendal. tions. Paper presented at the seminar "National Rosander, Goran 1986: The "nationalization" of Da­ culture as process: Hungarian and Swedish experi­ lecarlia. How a special province became a national ences". symbol for Sweden. Arv, 42: 93-142. Honko, Lauri (ed.) 1980: Folklore och nationsbyg­ Rosander, Goran (ed.) 1987: Turisternas Leksand. gande i Norden. Abo: NIF. (Leksand sockenbeskrivning, IX.) Johannesson, Kurt 1985: Engelbrekt och upprorens Rydell, Robert W. 1984: All the World's a Fair. Vi­ retorik. Artes, 2: 87-102. sions of Empire at American International Exposi­ Johansson, Ella 1987: »Var stolta siirpriigel: Natio­ tions, 1876-1916. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. nalism i svensk etnologi.« Nord-Nytt 30. Schlesinger, Philip 1987: "On National Identity: Kapferer, Bruce 1988: Legends of People. Myths of Some Conceptions and Misconceptions Criticized." State. Violence, Intolerance and Political Culture Social Science Information 26, 2: 219-264. in Sri Lanka and . Washington: Smith­ Smeds, Kerstin 1983: »Finland pa viirldsutstiillning­ sonian Institution Press. en i Paris 1889.« Historisk tidskrift for Finland Karlsson, Henrik 1988: 0, ddle svensk! Biskop Tho­ 1983: 2: 81-102. mas' frihetssang i musik och politik. (Kungl. Musi­ Smith, Anthony D. 1986: The Ethnic Origins of Na­ kaliska akademiens skriftserie, 59.) tions. Oxford: Blackwell. Lendvay, Judit (n.d.): National Auto- and Hetero­ Teleman, Ulf (ed.) 1986: De nordiske skriftsprakenes stereotypes Concerning Hungary and Hungarians. utvikling pa 1800-tallet, 3. Ideologier og spraksty­ Paper presented at the seminar "National culture ring. Oslo: Nordisk spraksekretariats rapporter 7. as process: Hungarian and Swedish experiences", Whisnant, David E. 1983: All that is Native and Budapest May 1-3 1989. Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Re­ Linde-Laursen, Anders (n.d.): Fra u-land til store­ gion. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press. bror. Danskernes syn pa svenskere og Sverige i det Williams, Raymond 1977: Marxism and Literature. tyvende arhundrede. (Unpublished ms.) Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Lofgren, Orvar 1985: »Kring nationalkiinslans kul­ Wright, Patrick 1985: On Living in an Old Country: turella organisation.« Nord-Nytt 25: 73-85. The National Past in Contemporary Britain. Lon­ Lofgren, Orvar 1986: "Deconstructing Swedishness: don: Verso. Class and Culture in Modern Sweden" In Anthro-

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