The wheeled cauldrons and the wine

Grapes appear rather early in temperate Europe: even in the cool north of Sweden, their pips occur in the Neolithic. With grapes go wine, and with wine go the artefacts of wine, amongst them the cauldron on wheels — a grand and an odd artefact type of Bronze Age Europ

Reforming habitus: Identity and the revival of the Estonian Swedish cultural heritage on a former collective farm in NW Estonia

In August 1991 Estonia became, once again, an independent nation. The subject of this thesis is an investigation of the subsequent processes of reforming habitus, or in other words the changing aspects both of everyday life and of a deeper sense of identity, in relation to the Soviet past and to the new state. More specifically, the thesis investigates the local project of restoring the Swedish cultural heritage in Estonia, in the context of the social life on a former collective farm, which, for historical reasons, was the centre of the revival. The Swedes formed Estonia's third largest minority group before the war, totalling some 8,000 people, primarily fishermen and farmers. They did not form a coherent minority until the 1920s, when interest from Sweden led to various measures to preserve the Swedish cultural heritage in Estonia, and to improve the condition of the people. During the war, the majority of the people were evacuated to Sweden, and the ones who remained rapidly became assimilated to avoid discrimination. The present revival of the culture is analysed in this thesis in the context of other aspects of Estonian identity. Throughout the thesis, the relationship between the collective farm and the larger entities of Estonia and Sweden, is central to the analysis. Following the introduction, and a discussion of place, methodology, and context, the thesis presents a historical overview, addressing the question of the cultural heritage of the Estonian Swedes, roughly from the 1870s to the Second World War. This is followed by an analysis of Soviet notions of culture, looking particularly at the objectification of ethnicity and traditional culture. The thesis then moves to the local and ethnographic, beginning with a semiotic analysis of the post-Soviet changes, followed by a chapter on the restitution of the pre-war festivities, and the abolition of the Soviet ones. Finally, two chapters deal specifically with the restoration of the Swedish cultural heritage, beginning with an analysis of the events of the revival, followed by a consideration of its economy, looking specifically at exchange, consumption, and aid. The reformations of the present, including the contemporary process of decollectivisation, is predominately a process of normative and collective change, which tends to be presented as a national movement towards 'normality'. The conclusion, therefore, focuses on the notion of the 'normal', looking at the meaning of the aspiration towards normality in the context of the post-Soviet changes

Empty spaces and the value of symbols: Estonia's 'war of monuments' from another angle

Taking as its point of departure the recent heightened discussion surrounding publicly sited monuments in Estonia, this article investigates the issue from the perspective of the country's eastern border city of Narva, focusing especially upon the restoration in 2000 of a 'Swedish Lion' monument to mark the 300th anniversary of Sweden's victory over Russia at the first Battle of Narva. This commemoration is characterised here as a successful local negotiation of a potentially divisive past, as are subsequent commemorations of the Russian conquest of Narva in 1704. A recent proposal to erect a statue of Peter the Great in the city, however, briefly threatened to open a new front in Estonia's ongoing 'war of monuments'. Through a discussion of these episodes, the article seeks to link the Narva case to broader conceptual issues of identity politics, nationalism and post-communist transition

Linné

Han är en av de mest berömda naturforskarna genom tiderna, men idag är Carl von Linné kanske främst ihågkommen som "blomsterkonungen". Han var upphovsman till sexualsystemet för indelning av växtvärlden, men kontexten är till stora delar bortglömd och Linnés förhoppning att återskapa en kolonial imperieekonomi inom det nordliga hemlandets gränser har kanske inte tidigare varit så känd. Vetenskapshistorikern Lisbet Rausing har med sin Linné. Natur och nation (Linneaus. Nature and Nation, 1999) skrivit den första biografin över Linnés storslagna och egendomliga ekonomiska projekt: att "lära" te, saffran och ris att växa på den arktiska tundran och göra bufflar, marsvin och älgar till tamdjur på svenska gårdar. Rausing återskapar den intellektuella och sociala miljön runt Linné en tid präglad av territoriella förluster och återkommande hungersnöd, en tid då den så kallade kameralistiska skolan inom ekonomin drömde om att ersätta importvaror med inhemsk produktion och skapa självförsörjande stater. Med sin tro på naturen som Guds outtömliga förrådshus blev Linné en självklar deltagare och med tiden ledargestalt i dessa ansträngningar. Rausing kastar nytt ljus över Linnés liv och gärning, men skildrar också hur hans tidiga - och i grunden misslyckade - försök att sköta ett lands ekonomi enligt vetenskapliga principer var en föregångare till senare idéer som har kommit att känneteckna moderniteten

Of all foods bread is the most noble: Carl von Linné (Carl Linneaus) on bread1

Carl von Linné was interested in dietetics, which in his time covered all aspects of a healthy life. As a utilitarian he understood the importance of private economy and paid attention to bread in many of his publications. Two texts, Ceres noverca arctoum and De pane diaetetico, were wholly devoted to bread and bread-making. Linné classified different types of bread, and described their nutritional value and health-related aspects, as well as milling, baking and storing, in detail. While discussing the food habits of social classes Linné accepted as a fact that the peasants and the poor should eat less tasty bread than the rich. The less palatable bread had, however, many nutritional and health advantages. Linné paid much attention to substitutes for grain to be used in times of famine, an important topic in eighteenth century Sweden. He regarded flour made of pine bark or water arum roots as excellent famine food, was enthusiastic about the new plant, maize, but considered potato only as a poor substitute for grain. Linné and his followers praised bread not only as the core component of diet, but also for its versatile role both in health and in disease