Focusing on fieldwork: Edvard Westermarck and Hilma Granqvist – before and after Bronislaw Malinowski

The purpose of this essay is to look at the results of two Finnish fieldworkers, with the history of the social anthropological research as background. By Finnish norms Edward Westermarck's academic career was impressive, but his pupil Hilma Granqvist was obliged to work mostly outside the academic world. Both of them did their fieldwork in countries, where the Islamic religion had a strong influence. Westermarck worked in Morocco, and Granqvist in Palestine. All in all both Westermarck and Granqvist made a strong contribution to research with the methods that were available to them. Prior to Malinowski doing his fieldwork Westermarck emphasized the importance of learning the local languages and of getting thoroughly acquainted with the environment, in which one did research. Granqvist independently took the initiative to report results of observations, and to give statistical information about the society, where she did her research. Both published a lot and our evaluation should not be blinded by differences in style or ways to record the results

The religious message in action - a case study

We understand a religious message to be the product of a religious movement. In studying such a message, it is very much to the purpose to place it in the context in which it operates. The cultural and social context of a religious message is some religious movement. Hence, the message should be examined against that framework. Each message has a certain structure, and its detection is of prime importance. Messages are not only part of the tradition, but themselves unique in their respective communicative situations. Thus, in our view, structural analysis does not have analytical use-value unless the message's symbols are set into their communicative context. The aim of this paper is dual: On the one hand, we intend to analyze and clarify the structure of a religious message of the Laestadian movement, how the message operates, also how the members of that movement respond to the codes of the message, and what kind of functions it fulfills; on the other, to develop and test an analytical model which would combine structural and interactional analysis

Två akademiska öden: K. Rob. V. Wikman, mentor, Börje Haussen, skyddsling

Det akademiska fältet kännetecknas av en tävling som innebär att många är kallade men få utvalda. De fasta professorstjänsterna är alltid för få och det akademiska erkännandet ännu mer sällsynt. De akademiska disciplinerna står under ständig förändring, nya vetenskapsgrenar växer fram och de gamla får sin ställning omvärderad. I det följande vill jag belysa etableringen av den moderna sociologin genom att se på två akademikers vetenskapliga öde. Den finländska eo. professorn K. Rob. V. Wikman blev något av en mentor åt den svenske docenten Börje Hanssen. Åldersskillnaden mellan dem var 30 år (Wikman 1886–1975, Hanssen 1917–1979)

Weber's Thesis on the Protestant Ethic: A Micro- and Macrosociological Perspective

No abstract availabl

The Orientation of Professors towards Science and Religion

No abstract availabl