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The political Stone Age: prehistoric ethnicities and Finnish national narratives
Archaeology, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki.
Responsible organisation
2023 (English)In: Fornvännen, ISSN 0015-7813, E-ISSN 1404-9430, Vol. 118, no 4, p. 205-219Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The article examines depictions of the Stone Age in two Finnish books aimed at both archaeologists and the public: Suomen kansan esihistoria (1894) by Väinö Wallin (Voionmaa), a historian and Social Democratic politician, and Suomen muinaisuus (1931) by A. M. Tallgren, the first professor of archaeology at the University of Helsinki. The Stone Age is examined from the viewpoint of identifying narratives related to the idea of the Finnish nation and the concept of Finnishness. The analysed texts reveal different strategies of connecting the Stone Age to the Finnish past, depending on the authors’ respective opinions about the ethnicity of the Stone Age population. These opinions were affected by notions of cultural and racial hierarchies and the pressure to construct a national past. Late 19th-century–early 20th-century discussions and tensions regarding Finns, Sámi, and Scandinavians were reflected onto the past, and even the remote, ethnically ambiguous Stone Age was not left outside history politics. Some lasting “historical master narratives” about the Stone Age in Finland were created during the early 20th century, which continue to affect its depictions even today.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2023. Vol. 118, no 4, p. 205-219
Keywords [en]
Nationalism; Narrative; History of archaeology; Stone Age; Finland
National Category
Archaeology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:raa:diva-8456OAI: oai:DiVA.org:raa-8456DiVA, id: diva2:1820386
Available from: 2023-12-18 Created: 2023-12-18 Last updated: 2024-04-15Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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  • asciidoc
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