Medical Hermeneutics of Murder. Race,Medicine and Law in a Murder Case from Finnmark, 1911

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the investigation of a murder case in Finnmark in 1911, where four siblings killed their young brother. In the legal investigations following the misdeed, a number of medical experts played a prominent role. Their role was to assess the mental condition of the defendants, but also to make sense of the murder. A specific interpretational mode was called for: a “medical hermeneutics” of the murder. The murder investigation becomes an occasion for discussing medical and juridical interpretations of human agency at the turn of the century, and especially of the role of the concept of “race” in these interpretations. For at least some of the physicians involved, the racial make-up of the ethnic group to which the actors belonged constituted an inevitable part of the context that made the act intelligible. Although the concept of race, and the conceptual frameworks offered by degenerationism and medical psychology to a certain degree made the act intelligible, these interpretational schemes had little to offer in terms of assessing the legal accountability of the defendants. Hence, the case illustrates the profound epistemological limits of medical interpretation in facing a legal case.     

Emotion,Identity, and Death in the Greek Tradition and Beyond

The article examines emotion and identity in the Greek death cult to clarify certain contemporary political phenomena in the Mediterranean where the cult of the dead is a common cultural pattern. Why is this cult so persistent? What is the death cult and how does it manifest itself? The article delves into its importance in Greece, where the author has had several periods of ?eldwork. To illustrate the persistence of this cultural pattern, its characteristic aspects are discussed. Festivals which are dedicated to deceased persons and domestic death rituals are compared with ancient sources. Based on this, a survey of the relationship between the death cult dedicated to deceased mediators, as it is manifested through laments, burials and the ensuing memorial rituals is made. Modern domestic rituals in? uence of?cial rituals, and vice versa. A study of modern cult practices reveals many parallels with the of?cial cult of the ancients, and suggests ways in which modern rituals can illuminate ancient rituals. The article seeks to demonstrate how new ideologies must be adjusted to older rituals and beliefs and how public and domestic rituals are connected. The article ?nally suggests how these similarities might represent a common way of expression within a larger geographical context.     

Identifying with the old or the new state: nation‐building vs. Yugonostalgia in the Yugoslav successor states

The article examines to what degree attachment to a former multinational state which breaks up may complicate national consolidation in new states, as was the case in the Soviet Union and Titoist Yugoslavia. In the former Yugoslavia such attachment is usually referred to as ‘Yugonostalgia’, and various opinions have been expressed about its strength and possible political consequences today. Only in 2011, however, was an attempt made to measure Yugonostalgia quantitatively and analyse this phenomenon comparatively in the various successor states. A large‐scale survey showed that while Yugonostalgics in some countries were less loyal than other citizens towards the new state this was not the case in Serbia. In Croatia, the number of respondents who felt Yugoslav has gone down since independence far more than in any other state; probably a result of a massive public campaign to discredit continued identification with the former state.     

Bites, nibbles, sips and puffs: new exotic goods in Norway in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century

The slow but significant changes in the material culture of European households that took place in the pre-industrial period are visible in several ways, such as in the changing patterns of housing, furnishing and clothing which have been illustrated in several studies. However, most of these studies focus on the pre-industrial economic leaders, often ignoring the changes taking place on the margins of the economic growth centres. This article seeks to rectify this by looking at changes in the material culture in one such 'marginal' country, namely Norway. The goods focused upon in this case are sugar, tobacco and coffee, which are often termed as exotic goods. These were new commodities in the 18th century and precisely because of their novelty and foreign origin, it is in many cases possible to trace how they spread in rural society, as well as how they impacted it. The emphasis has been put on rural areas for the simple reason that this was where the overall majority of Norwegians lived at the time.     

The definition of culture in culture-based urban development strategies: antagonisms in the construction of a culture-based development discourse

Implementing culture-based development strategies is a recent trend in large and small cities all over Europe. The definition of culture and the objectives of cultural strategies are highly contested in the public debate. Analysing the newspaper debates on the establishment of the Cultiva foundation in Kristiansand, Norway, this article discusses how and why the discursive debate on the definition of culture creates different discursive positions in the public debate on culture-based development. In the different discourses on what these strategies should be, there are a number of antagonisms that contribute to defining the relationships and interfaces between the different discursive positions. The main lines of discursive conflict are between urban planners and/or policy-makers who follow a spatial logic that emphasises a comprehensive understanding of territorial planning and cultural workers and/or artists who follow a critical artistic creation logic that emphasises the values that exist in art and the potential of the cultural field for personal development, general education and social criticism.     

Reviews

Hans Christiansson &; Povl Simonsen: Stone Age Finds from Spitsbergen. Acta Borealia B. Humaniora No. 11. Troms?/Oslo/Bergen, Universitetsforlaget, 24 pp., 11 Figs.

Ellen Karine Hougen: Leirkarmaterialet fra Kaupang (The Pottery from Kaupang). Viking XXXIII (1969). 22 pp. 6 Figs. English summary     

Application of Visual Archaeological Landscape Analysis: Some Results

Sverre Marstrander (eds.): Acts of the International Symposium on Rock Art. The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, Oslo. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, Bergen, Troms? 1978. 248 pp.

Helge I. H?eg, Hans‐Emil Lidén, Aslak Liest?l, Petter B. Molaug, Erik Schia, Christina Wiberg: De arkeologiske utgravninger i Gamlebyen, Oslo. Bind I. Feltet ‘Mindets tomt’. Stratigrafi, topografi, daterende funngrupper. (The Archaeological Excavations in Gamlebyen, Oslo. Vol. I. Site ‘Mindets tomt’. Stratigraphy, Topography, Dating Artefact Groups). Universitetsforlaget, Oslo‐Bergen‐Troms?. 265 pp., 9 Pls., 287 Figs. English summary.     

The year of king Harald Fairhair's access to the throne according to Theodoricus monachus

The misunderstanding of vices superbae at Carm. 1. 28. 32 has led to complicated interpretations. This article takes superbae as an interesting instance of enallage adiectivi (approximately?=?poena superbiae tuae). - At Carm. 3. 14. 11 the author discusses nominatis/ ominatis vs. Bentley's conjecture inominatis (adopted by Shackleton Bailey) which he is decidedly in favour of.