Archaeological and Historical Materials as a Means to Explore Finnish Crop History

ABSTRACT

In Northern Europe, barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has been cultivated for almost 6000 years. Thus far, 150-year-old grains from historical collections have been used to investigate the distribution of barley diversity and how the species has spread across the region. Genetic studies of archaeobotanical material from agrarian sites could potentially clarify earlier migration patterns and cast further light on the origin of barley landraces. In this study, we aimed to evaluate different archaeological and historical materials with respect to DNA content, and to explore connections between Late Iron Age and medieval barley populations and historical samples of barley landraces in north-west Europe. The material analysed consisted of archaeological samples of charred barley grains from four sites in southern Finland, and historical material, with 33 samples obtained from two herbaria and the seed collections of the Swedish museum of cultural history.

The DNA concentrations obtained from charred archaeological barley remains were too low for successful KASP genotyping confirming previously reported difficulties in obtaining aDNA from charred remains. Historical samples from herbaria and seed collection confirmed previously shown strong genetic differentiation between two-row and six-row barley. Six-row barley accessions from northern and southern Finland tended to cluster apart, while no geographical structuring was observed among two-row barley. Genotyping of functional markers revealed that the majority of barley cultivated in Finland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was late-flowering under increasing day-length, supporting previous findings from northern European barley.     

The Magnetic Field Model Applied to Swedish Settlements

To study the reason for changes in the population of urban settlements and sparsely populated districts we need an approach on a regional geographic level that will combine various theoretical elements and which, taken together, will provide an interdisciplinary platform. The identity of a place is created by specific local factors as well as by social and economic processes occurring both in the place itself and in the urban system. We can use indications showing how local and regional urban systems function in order to ascertain why one urban settlement grows while another stagnates, why a sparsely populated district in one region flourishes while other districts languish. Using the decision-making point of view adopted by households and businesses will help us to achieve our aim.
The starting point of the model employed—called the magnetic field model—is the fact that an attraction field of positive factors forms in and around places with a growing population. The aim of this paper is to show that a regional geographic analysis can be made from a number of indicators of significance for the development of populations in urban settlements and sparsely populated districts. Naturally these indicators can—and should—be queried, added to and assessed when other, similar investigations are carried out.     

Non-economic Bases of Economic Behaviour: The Consumption,Investment and Exchange Patterns of Three Emigrant Communities in Kerala,India

This article takes issue with the rational choice approach that views the economy as an autonomous realm where isolated individuals make maximizing choices in terms of their personal preferences. The argument made is that income generation, consumption and exchange form a holistic complex that must be studied in its unity and that the economy and individual economic behaviour are articulated with a social context. This is demonstrated by evidence (collected through fieldwork) on the differences in the use of remittances by three villages in Kerala, India, which have experienced large scale migration to the Middle Eastern countries. In the three cases, it was the way in which income earned from international migration was perceived, together with the variation in ethnic structures, that explained the similarities and differences in their consumption, exchange and investment patterns. In each case, it was the larger ethnic structure that conditioned (1) the types of activities into which the money was channelled; (2) the range of people who were the beneficiaries of migrant remittances; (3) the patterns of reciprocity or charity practised by the migrants; (4) the selection of the trade-off point between community status and economic accumulation; and; (5) the groups of individuals who gained or lost economic control.     

THE CREATIVE LANDSCAPE OF THEATRE–RESEARCH COOPERATION: A CASE FROM TURKU,FINLAND

This article continues the discussion on creativity in human geographical research. Drawing on Alain Badiou's writing on “two theatres”, I argue that the theatre–research cooperation as a landscape in motion can bring about creative landscapes. In this article, I discuss a collaborative project of participatory research and theatre that tested drama as a tool for urban planning. In the beginning of the project, theatre appears as a tool of inclusive exclusive politics: the research aims to deal with inter‐cultural relations in a hypothetical planning situation and, further, on theatre's potential to motivate those who usually do not participate in planning. Thus, this initial setting is the first theatre in which the elements of a constellation are seen as static. However, during the process, there were moments of doubt, dealing with the representational politics of multiculturalism. Contrary to Badiou's first theatre, in the second theatre the elements are vivid and capable of breaking the state of a situation. This rupture occurs in the second theatre w hen the spectators feel uncomfortable in their seats, or here when the participatory researcher feel their aims generate an inconvenience. It is in the event that theatre changes from being of the state to saying something about the state. This change represents a rupture in thinking, and brings forth the creative landscape of the theatre–research cooperation.     

The educational work of a National Museum: creating knowledgeable young citizens in Ottawa,Canada

ABSTRACT

This article explores the geographies of education at the National Museum of Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Through an analysis of the spatialization of children’s museum education, we highlight how the museum sought to inculcate in young Canadians knowledges about their country, its people, and natural resources. We situate children’s museum education within the broader context of Canadian nationalism, other museum activities, and public education in the capital. Focusing on the design and material organization of the museum, we highlight how the space of the museum, from the objects on display to the imposing grandeur of the building, sought to impress upon students the importance of the knowledge it conveyed. Finally, we illustrate how the museum’s programming aimed to provide children with knowledge of their national heritage, building citizenship through claims of development as destiny.