THE POSSIBILITIES OF CHARTING MODERN LIFE A Symposium for Ethnological Research about Modern Time in Stockholm March 1967 EDITED BY SIGURD ERIXONt assisted by GRETA ARWIDSSON and HARALD HVARFNER PERGAMON PRESS OXFORD · LONDON · EDINBURGH · NEW YORK TORONTO - SYDNEY - PARIS · BRAUNSCHWEIG Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford 4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W.l Pergamon Press (Scotland) Ltd., 2 Ü 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1 Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523 Pergamon of Canada Ltd., 207 Queen's Quay West, Toronto 1 Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 19A Boundary Street, Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W. 2011, Australia Pergamon Press S.A.R.L., 24 rue des Écoles, Paris 5e Vieweg & Sohn GmbH, Burgplatz 1, Braunschweig Copyright © 1970 Pergamon Press Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Pergamon Press Ltd. First Edition 1970 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 78-78907 Printed in Hungary 08 013308 8 SIGURD ERIXON: IN MEMORIAM JOHN GRANLUND Institute of Folklife Research, the Nordiska Museet and the University of Stockholm SIGURD ERIXON, professor of Scandinavian and comparative folklife research at the Nordiska Museet and Stockholm University, died on the 18th February 1968. He was born at Söderköping in Östergötland on the 26th March, 1888. In 1914 he was appointed an assistant at the Nordiska Museet, in 1922 assistant keeper of the peasant department of the same museum, in 1924 head of the department of culture history at the open-air museum of Skansen, and in 1929 head of the department of peasant culture of the Nordiska Museet. He was also university teacher and exam- iner in his subject from 1927, in which year he passed his filosofie licentiat- examination at Uppsala University. In 1934 he was appointed professor of Nordic ethnology (from 1945 called Nordic and comparative folklife research) at the Nordiska Museet and Stockholm University. Also after his retirement in 1955 he was very actively engaged in research work and the organizing of new research enterprises. With the death of Sigurd Erixon ended the career of a scholar and teacher of unusual proportions. From his youth he belonged to the type of students who made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the Scan- dinavian languages, not through armchair studies, but as recorders in the field, of Swedish dialects, often with their native regions as points of departure. This linguistic training in connection with studies of archaeol- ogy and with archaeologic field work as well as complementary studies in the history of Swedish art under the guidance of its nestor Johnny Roosval, provided the fundamental basis for Sigurd Erixon's own inde- pendent and multifaceted field researches in the new area, Scandinavian ethnology. From the beginning two lines may be discerned in Sigurd Erixon's scientific work. On one side his studies follow a formal typologie trend and resulted in investigations of Swedish types of villages, farm layouts, houses, furniture and home equipment, house building details, such as corner joint techniques in log building and door-jambs, tools and imple- ments of different kinds etc. He always tries to locate every different type in time and space and also, whenever this was possible, in its social vii viii JOHN GRANLUND milieu. On the other side he may also be called an adept of culture anthro- pology, that line which departs from the Germano-American ethnographer Franz Boas and his great contemporaries and which aimed at penetrating the whole culture complex of society. Sigurd Erixon applied such views, though naturally with national limitations, already in 1912 in his first field work in the parish of Kila in Östergötland, published after comple- mentary investigations in 1946 under the title of "Kila, en östgötsk skogs- by". Its most monumental expression this line found in "Skultuna bruks historia" (History of the brass works of Skultuna), the first part of which was printed in 1921, the second in 1935, the third (written by Erik Falk) in 1953, and the fourth (written by Sven Ljung in cooperation with Sigurd Erixon) in 1957. A fifth volume was to deal with the living condi- tions and wages of the brass workers of Skultuna and was in course of preparation, when the pen fell from the hand of this indefatigable re- searcher. "Skultuna bruks historia" can never be taken as a model by those who intend to write a doctor's thesis, but unintentionally, owing to its author's original working methods, it nevertheless provides an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the urban and rural complex repre- sented by this Central Swedish industry, that is to say, the mutual rela- tions between the cultures of an industrial and rural region under the influence of directive rules from the central administration. If we keep to these two main lines, the life of Sigurd Erixon as a re- searcher becomes a unit. It cannot be described in all details here. We see him first as the energetic museum official, collecting objects and docu- ments apt to illustrate the past. When in 1943 the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography conferred upon him the distinguished J. K. Wahlberg medal in gold, special reference was made to his intensive contributions in connection with the preparations for the Jubilee exhi- bition of Gothenburg in 1923. This work had been started by Sigurd Erixon already in 1918 for the sections of handicrafts, industry and rural life at the Exhibition. As collaborators he took a number of young students; many of them later on became academic teachers and heads of institutions. With great eagerness they crisscrossed the West Swedish provinces and enriched the Museum of Gothenburg with invaluable collections of material objects and records. Such collecting and recording work was at that time the first and last duty of every museum man. It has often been remarked that around 1900 the study of national history had become almost a duty, which in a way may be related to the regionalism that was a constituent element of the Romantic currents IN MEMORIAM ix of that time. By that time, however, the romantic view on history was already gliding over into a sturdy realism. Like his friend Sigurd Wallin, head of the department for urban and upper social classes at the Nordiska Museet, and the great contemporaries Sigurd Curman, State antiquary of Sweden 1923-1946, and Johnny Roosval, prominent representative of modern art research in Sweden, who put on record town buildings, churches, vicarages and manor houses, Sigurd Erixon intended his inventories of rural building culture in villages and farms to be a contribution to the preservation of cultural monuments and traditions. Nowadays the initiative in this respect does not lie with the Nordiska Museet, as was often the case in earlier times. With its vast collections this museum now is rather a storehouse of information in the service of public activities in this field, which were and in many ways still are supported by interested private institutions and persons. Sigurd Erixon's appointment as an academic teacher already in 1927 involved a new initiative. The docentship in folklife research at Uppsala university was out of function owing to the illness of its holder. The chair of Nordic and comparative folklife research at the Nordiska Museet, constituted in 1918, was purely a research institution and its holder did not teach. For a long time special permission was necessary for passing an examination in this subject of study. It was Sigurd Erixon who created the intimate and effective contacts between the Nordiska Museet and the present Stockholm University, which in 1934 led to an agreement according to which the professorship was combined with regular teaching and examina- tion at the university. The position was further strengthened by the creation in 1941 of the still existing Institute for folklife research in Stockholm. Sigurd Erixon was not only a renewer in his field of study. He was also a successful editor of many scientific publications, such as Folk-Liv which with its 30 volumes has made Swedish ethnology respected in Europe and also in the United States, Nordisk Kultur with 30 volumes, Svenska Kulturbilder with 12 volumes, Li í och Folkkultur with 8 volumes, the journal Laos with 3 volumes and many more. It was Sigurd Erixon's unique capacity as an organizer which above all made all this learned activity possible. Long before he had founded the Institute for folklife research, which made Villa Lusthusporten a stronghold for researchers from far and near, he had in 1916 started the Village Research section of the Nordiska Museet. It was during the latter half of the 1920's trans- formed into the Ethnologic Research department of the museum which from 1926 obtained financial support from a special public fund and from July 1st 1938 more permanent state allowances. ÷ JOHN GRANLUND Sigurd Erixon was a highly dynamic personality, his character was that of an individualist, a leader and "entrepreneur". His production of weighty scientific works is most comprehensive. In scientific reviews, such as Fataburen, Rig, Ymer, etc., he has published a great many papers, always characterized by new viewpoints and rich source material. In his large general surveys we may find many statements and conceptions which not always are the results of a cogent logic but very often the fruit of intuition. He once said to me when I was a young amanuensis : "To draw the correct conclusions from a small material, that is where the skill comes in." In his great aperçus he has often given proofs of this skill. In the carto- graphic work "Atlas over Svensk Folkkultur" the overwhelming quantity of registered data sometimes seems to have been brought together at the expense of its quality. After the end of World War II Sigurd Erixon intensified his international activities, which had long before been a main interest with him. They were in a way focused on the Commission internationale des arts et traditions populaires (CIAP) which had been founded in Prague in 1928, under the sponsorship of the Institut international de coopération intel- lectuelle of the League of Nations. To the projects which were realized through the CIAP belong two important volumes of the International Dictionary of Regional European Ethnology and Folklore, as well as the journal Laos. A point of culmination with regard to the position of Swedish ethnology in Europe was the International Congress of European and Western Ethnology in Stockholm in August 1951, which was held in the name of the CIAP. CIAP was formally dissolved at Athens in 1964 but Erixon's international activities were continued through the so-called "Hässelby group" consisting of leading ethnologists from Western and Eastern Europe and with participants also from the United States. Its aims were threefold : to prepare a handbook of European ethnology, to arrange yearly conferences, and to publish the review Ethnologia Europaea, three issues of which have appeared up till now. Three conferences have been arranged hitherto: the first at Hässelby near Stockholm in 1965, the second at Julita in 1966, and the third at Utstein kloster in Norway in 1967. For the symposium of Lissabon in July 1968 a publication in honour of Sigurd Erixon and printed as an issue of Ethnologia Europaea was being prepared. It will now be published in his memory. Sigurd Erixon and many of his generation grew up within and created around them a kind of pioneering spirit, we might call it the "Gründer- zeit" of ethnology. They have left us in charge of a great and responsible heritage to administer and pass on to those who will follow. INTRODUCTION AT ITS regular session on 12 March 1966 "The Nordic Council for Anthropological Research", Stockholm, decided to arrange a symposium for modern anthropological research. This was held at the Wenner-Gren Centre in Stockholm on 7-11 March 1967. The Committee appointed to realize the symposium considered that general ethnology should be given the same possibilities as European regional ethnology, with regard both to theoretical questions and to the exemplification of the material. It was not considered appropriate to make too strict a division between theoretical questions and concrete investigations. The task for this working symposium was to discuss the possibilities of applying the same methods for the study of the present as have hith- erto been applied in the ethnology concentrated upon history, and to consider whether new approaches to the problems and new methods were needed which might perhaps be contrary to the historical ones. For the European folklife scientist the situation has been rather radi- cally changed in many respects, for example through the greater depen- dence of modern culture on central control and influences from outside, the rapidity with which innovations are accepted, the adjustment or elimination of local boundaries, and, finally, profound modifications in the psychological field, in the social structure formerly existing and in culture itself. In some ways the situation is the same for general ethnology (anthropology), even if the non-European peoples are contributing more self-evident information on account of their dependence on local condi- tions and natural assets. One desideratum is that modern ethnological methods should be more closely defined, and that the treatment of local working fields should be discussed, for example through the recording of changes in a par- ticular field in stages by marking off suitable dates. To this must be added the increased need for research by individuals, with grouping and com- parisons. In this connection the modern neighbour sciences ought to be considered and a delimitation towards them indicated. The problems involved are to a great extent international, and with regard to the North the European perspectives will be decisive. SIGURD ERIXON xi ADDRESS OF WELCOME I BEG herewith to bid the Symposium of The Nordic Council for Anthro- pological Research,* on the subject "Anthropological Research on the Present", a hearty welcome. We shall for some days devote ourselves to lectures and discussions on a subject of lively concern to us all, that is, the relation of our sciences to the modern era and even to the actual pres- ent. From the lectures sent in it is already apparent that we are not al- together in agreement but are in part of divided opinion. It is to be hoped, however, that we are not so egocentric or fanatical that we have not a good deal to learn from one another. The questions we shall be discussing are as a matter of fact extreme- ly important and may to a certain extent assume decisive importance. Let us then set to work with purposeful will and earnestness, but also in the spirit of goodwill and respect for each others' opinions and results that has hitherto generally prevailed among us, at least where it has been a matter of responsible contributions. We have a fine Nordic tradition to maintain in this connection. May this tradition keep us in good humour even if ideas clash and some shots are fired. In my opinion it should be possible for this symposium to become a sort of roll-call and inspection of the researchers. Irrespective of whether our heart inclines to the one or other quarter, we should ventilate a series of problems with tolerance and understanding. That it is I who bid you welcome may perhaps be regarded as an indi- cation that our researchers do not only demand to hear the views of the young and the youngest. SIGURD ERIXON ETHNOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PRESENT SIGURD ERIXON t THE investigation of the age in which we live constitutes a natural part of folklife research and has been carried on as long as such research has exist- ed. As a rule, however, it is the retrospective slant that has been predom- inant. What has been taken as the point of departure has been a present- day stage whose duration has been dependent on actions and decisions of a particular kind, and this stage has then been compared with older conditions. In our country it is the legislated agrarian reform of 1827, the enactment concerning compulsory elementary school as from 1842, the extension of the freedom of trade and production in various respects as from 1846, the advent of the railways in 1856, the victorious advance of industrialism as from the 1870's, the general adoption of monetary economy and so forth that have been regarded as the decisive milestones. The study of these periods has been carried on more or less purposefully, or they have at all events been made the object of lively attention. The ethnologists, however, look upon the period after the First World War as the introduction to the present, while the real contemporary stage does not begin until the end of the Second World War. As long as evolutionism dominated also the views of the humanists it was origins and the uniformity of the chains of development that play- ed the leading role. After this the theory of cultural circles gave rise to a sharpened historical interest, while among British writers the somewhat older behaviourism, like social psychology in other quarters, placed the main stress upon the study of living persons. On the whole, reflections of all this are observable also in Scandinavia. For the anthropologists it was, of course, easier to meet with primi- tive conditions in actual life and their field-work was therefore carried on rather undisturbed by the general development in Europe, with its under- mining of tradition. The folklife researchers had to stick to more back- ward fringe regions and enclaves more in the nature of survivals in vari- ous localities to be able to capture communities and culture-complexes of ι 2 SIGURD ERIXON more unchanged character. I may refer to my investigation of Kila village on the border between Östergötland and Smâland in 1912-13. Fifteen years later, on the occasion of a visit to the same place, the village lands had been partitioned by the land-surveying authorities, the peasants had left the district and the social milieu had become so radically changed that I was questioned by the inhabitants concerning the earlier conditions obtaining in the village as if I had been the bearer of the tradition. 1 The more historically oriented science of ethnology is characterized by, inter alia, interest for the development of the living conditions and cultural changes and the dating of this development. The dating of a building, an object, a custom, a form of community, a religious conception is and has been one of our specialities. In this way we try to place the phenomena in question in their temporal context. This has been supple- mented with the establishing of their localization and their social level, all of which we have referred to as the three ethnological dimensions. It is probably scarcely necessary to expatiate hereon the versatility of the folklife researchers' Scandinavian inventories and their different contri- butions. Here, in the 1920's, the students of folklife continued their collecting and their researches without devoting particular attention to the stra- tum of contemporary life. It was only in the 1930's that they began more consciously to tackle problems pertaining to the here and now. But the folklife researchers carried on their work on different fronts. I expressed by views on this subject in an article "Folklife research in our time from a Swedish point of view" (Gwerin, Vol. Ill) in the year 1962 : About 1950 we came to the conclusion that the great collecting phase in our country must be wound up. The reason for this was, amongst other things, that the genuine traditional material had become more and more diluted, the general social and cultural conditions had been changed in a decisive way. Our nation-wide inventories, which had already yielded good harvests, had lost their character of salvage actions. We are not here called upon to try to follow the way in which the older French sociology gradually permeated opinion, the way in which in Bri- tain social anthropology grew up with new manifestos and little by little also the investigation of local modern realities in various parts of the world, or how in western Europe, Germany and the U.S.A. sociology gradually began to concentrate its main interest on contemporary phenomena. 1 Sigurd Erixon, Kila En Östgötsk Skogsby. En byundersökning, 1912-13, Institutet for Folklivsforskning Stockholm, Lund, 1946. Concerning the village investigations to which this work led, see also: Bebyggelseundersökningar, Fataburen, 1918.