NORWEGIAN LIFE AND SOCIETY NORINT 0500 ASPECTS OF CULTURE AND
IDENTITY 16.03.2015 MARIT MELHUUS
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No such thing as one culture or one identity Cultures are
continually evolving Anthropologists use case studies. Small facts
speak to large issues Look at everyday, practices, events,
phenomena Locate underlying values My examples: Food Nature Dress
Kinship/ Gender Focus: Resonance in Norwegian society Specific
connotations
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The Cases Food: the Norwegian matpakke or packaged lunch
Nature: the Norwegian Trekking Association: Den norske
turistforening (DNT) Dress: the BUNAD Kinship/Gender: Biotechnology
Act and Assisted Conception
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tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are Food tied
to identity. Runar Dving. 1999. Matpakken. Den store norske
fortellingen om familien og nasjonen in Relgionsvitenskapelig
tidsskrift. (Matpakken: The Big Norwegian Narrative about the
Family and the Nation.) MATPAKKA
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Matpakka consists of a couple of slices of whole grain bread It
is made at home It is packed in thin, wax paper
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Matpakken is the result of a public policy. Started with
introduction of a school breakfast in 1920s Issue: health and
nutrition Value of raw food, over cooked food Raw food is real
food: natural, clean, healthy Produced the natural person
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Matpakken typical of ethnic Norwegians Matpakken tied to
nautre: belongs to outdoors Matpakken tied to major state
institutions: kindergartens and schools Part of everyday life Food
practices are structured by ideas of work and leisure time Story of
matpakke is about effort and reward Encapsulates the relationship
between the family and the state.
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Hungry children eat their matpakke Design matpakke Traditional
matpakke Aftenposten 11.03.2014
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Nature and outdoor activities Domesticating the wild The
Norwegian Trekking Association Den Norske Turistforeningen DNT
Ween, Gro and Simone Abram. 2012. The Norwegian Trekking
Association: Trekking as Constituting the Nation in Landscape
Research. 37:2.
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DEN NORSKE TURISTFORENING (DNT) (The Norwegian Trekking
Association) DNT largest environmental organization in Norway.
Established in 1868 200.000 members 50 branch offices 430 lodges 20
000 km of marked trails 6500 km of way-marked skiing tracks
Expression: g p tur aldri sur epitomizes Norwegian attitudes to
being outdoors (Go for a walk, never glum)
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Main claim: embodied mobility of trekkers implies an ongoing
ordering that weds individual bodies to prescribed ideals of
nation, nature and environmentalism DNT makes the mountains and
wilderness available DNT arranges and encourages a way of moving in
nature DNT standardizes certain nature practices DNT affirms
experiences of what Norwegian nature is
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Technologies of ordering: Way marking Path-making Guiding
Standardize Norwegian nature Control movement/walking in nature
Create a sense of Norwegian Nature
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Institutional developments also wed trekking and the wild to
the nation Mountain Law 1920 Outdoor Recreation Act 1957 National
Parks wilderness protection 1960s and 70s Creation of commons -
everyone has access to nature Highlands transformed to roaming
lands Legal decisions aestheticized and standardized national
property Nature redefined as national and not local
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Making Nature Available Mapping the T trails Creating networks
of paths Build cabins Much work based on dugnad: Volunteer work The
whole country becomes inscribed The wild is tamed The red T is a
mark of non-urbanity
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Fjellvettssregler Rules of Mountain Wisdom 1.Be prepared
2.Leave word of your route 3.Be weatherwise 4.Be equipped 5.Learn
from the locals 6.Use map and compass 7.dont go solo 8.Turn back in
time: theres no shame in turning back 9.Conserve energy and build a
snow shelter if necessary
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Fjellvetts regler and the idea of outdoor recreation converge
around an idea of equality Nature is there for all You meet as
equals regardless of background Nature practices are important to a
sense of norwegianess Nature is perceived in a way that may be
specific to Norwegians
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Traditionalism and Neoliberalism: The Norwegian Folk Dress in
the 21 st Century Thomas Hylland Eriksen THE BUNAD First published
in 2004. Erich Kasten (ed) Properties of Culture Culture and
Properties. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag
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THE BUNAD
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What is the bunad? Bunad is a festive folk costume Tied to
specific region Product of Norwegian nationalism Confirms Norwegian
identity as essentially rural Worn on formal occasions
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Morality attached to bunad Who can wear it? Who can make it?
Question of authenticity Challenged by enterprising
Norwegian-Chinese to most people it is the quality that counts, not
who has done the embroidery
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KINSHIP AND GENDER How do people reckon kin? Blood thicker than
water Blood a shared substance Kinship based on a biological model
of shared substance Kinship has to do with belonging and
identity
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Bioctechnology and Assisted Conception Norwegian Biotechnology
Act Example of state policy regulating how people may procreate and
form a family Assisted conception method in vitro fertilization
Permits conception outside the womb Robert Edwards won Nobel Prize
in medicine in 2010 Challenges our ideas of natural conception
Destabilizes notions of motherhood and fatherhood
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Norwegian Biotechnology Act Prohibits egg donation Permits
sperm donation but with known sperm donor Does not permit surrogacy
Sperm and egg are treated differently People who need treatments
not permitted in Norway travel abroad Law prompts reproductive
tourism or cross-border reproduction
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Intention of the law is to maintain certainty about who the
mother is and who the real father is Mother is one and not to be
fragmented: birth mother, genetic mother In law: mother is the one
who gives birth
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Fatherhood is uncertain in nature Fatherhood established
through pater est, by recognition or claim or by proof (DNA)
Anonymous sperm donation conceals the true father Child has the
right to know its origins Origin is defined as biological
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Differential treatment of sperm and egg have been grounded in
natural differences between mother and father Today these arguments
are losing their force. Gender discrimination and equal access to
treatment for men and women winning ground.