Anna Lihammer - Medan mörkret faller

Today is my birthday and even though I have other things I really need to do, I spent all morning reading.

I have long thought about reading the mystery books by Anna Lihammer because people say that they are good and Medan mörkret faller (While the darkness falls) was elected best mystery debute of 2014. Beside, Anna is a colleague of mine, being a Swedish archaeologist and Medan mörkret faller is set in 1934.

The time setting in the 1930's made me draw lots of parallels to the books and TV series about the Honourable Phryne Fisher. Mostly the episode The Blood of Juana the Mad, because Lihammer's book is about somewhat the same themes and is also about a gruesome murders among medical staff in a university milieu.

The story is a reaction to Lihammer gaining the knowledge about skull collections in Sweden, but also the fact that in 1934 the Swedish parliament voted for a law about compulsory sterilization of people who weren't considered fit enough for "carrying on the Swedish race". The law remained in place until 1976.

I really enjoy this book and I think it is very evident that Lihammer is an archaeologist. She dwells into the time period, making it come alive just like in the books/TV series about Phryne Fisher.
She also talks about how human bodies (both alive and dead) are treated like objects. Of course this is something archaeology deals with all the time and which I think we need to discuss more than we do.

Det var inte första gången någon reagerade på hans utseende, det hände ofta och det var inte alltid negativt. Men intresset brukade inte så tydligt göra honom till ett samlingsvärt objekt, uppmätt och liksom klart för sortering (Not for the first time, did someone react to his appearance, it happend often and not always in a negative way. But the interest seldom so obviously made him into a collectable, measured and ready to be sorted.)

~ Anna Lihammer, Medan mörkret faller

The book also reminded me of an episode of History Cold Case. It also dealt with human bodies as collectables and study objects and discovered a story about a child who probably was killed because of human bodies being coveted for the study of medicine. It is a terrible, dark side to the more recent past of Sweden and many other Western countries. Evil done in the name of science. One might wonder how people can become so cold blooded, but I do not think it is so strange somehow. It all has to do with who you define as human.

Den nya tiden. Den moderna tiden. Han undrade hur många av besökarna som skulle passa in där. Och vad som skulle hända med dem som inte gjorde det, för visioner brukade förr eller senare leda till att de som inte kunde uppfylla dem sorterades bort. Ju storslagnare visioner, desto hårdare sortering.  (The new time. The modern time. He wondered how many of the visitors would fit in there. And what would happen to the ones who did not, because visions sooner or later used to led to the ones who could not fulfill them being sorted out. Greater visions led to harder sorting)

~ Anna Lihammer, Medan mörkret faller

The Swedish law of compulsory sterilization is actually one expression of this sorting, scientific racism another and Lihammer builds up the book plot surrounding this question of who are defined as humans. It is dark and gruesome and really horrible. A dark past that is poking on the present still.

A Sami hat and how it affected my view of culture

Photo by Elisabeth Eriksson, Nordiska museet

I have not posted in awhile due to a deadline of a grad school application on Monday (August 1st 2016). My PhD project involve Viking colonialism and therefore the concept of culture is at its center. It has a long tradition in archaeology and has from time to time been slightly misused, but more on that later, because first I want to tell you a little story.

The hat in the photo above is part of the Sami exhibition Sápmi at Nordiska museet (Nordic Museum) in Stockholm and it had a great influence on my view of cultural interactions. It is a traditional Samish hat intended to be borne by a little girl and it dates to the 1930's (or maybe 1940's, I do not remember the exact date the guide told us.). It is traditional in every way, but an older lady taking the same tour as myself seemed really surprised by the images from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) in the front. She claimed it was not Sami, but the tour guide informed her that the Sami people did not live in any kind of vacuum either in the 1930's or today. They are just as much a part of the modern world as anyone else and like we are influenced by other cultures, so are they.

I had been influenced by Postcolonial Theory before this incident, so I was used to the hybrid concept of culture that they talk about, but I think this was the time when I realised how to define the term and also how it probably is best to view it.

The concept of culture as we know it today is actually to a greater extent a product of European imperialism and the foundation of the nation state in the 19th century. The archaeologist Bruce G. Trigger has made a very good overview both on the origin and development of the concept in his book A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd edition 2006, Cambride) which I found to be fruitful both for archaeologists and others. With time it was combined with Charles Darwin's theories about evolution given the concept a biological foundation. The borders of a culture was also equalled to the borders of a Nation State proclaiming its origin in a homogenous, biological entity (or a race). The biological evolution shown by Darwin was also used as model for cultural evolution and they were classified in a hierarchical structure from simple to complex (Of course with Western cultures on top!). (In a post from about a month ago I discussed how this imperialistic perspective also has shaped our view of the Stone Age.) This "biological" definition of culture has really had some terrible consequences throughout the last 200 years and I think it is about time that we talked about this issue.

What most people do not know is that Sweden was actually sort of "the inventor" of Scientific Racism as a academic discipline. The first institute in the world was opened in Uppsala in 1922 and was then spread across the world, not least to Nazi-Germany. So it has had really terrible consequences indeed...

Back to the Sami children's hat from the photo above. It is one of those artefacts that really can show us how cultures interact. It is made according to Sami tradition, but its use of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs makes it unique because it shows how traditions changes in the meeting with influences from some place else. Snow White was a popular children's movie when it first came out in 1937 just as any Disney film of today is. Therefore it should not be so surprising that even a Sami girl has seen it and probably liked it (Why would the maker otherwise include it in the hat?). To me it shows that cultures is much better seen as entirely social. I think it is ongoing negotiations of what works socially in different settings. Anything that carries a social value will be picked up and only the phenomena that looses their social value will disappear. It gives us a much more flexible and open-minded view of cultures which hopefully will not cause any trouble for anyone in the future.

And on that note: To me the biggest problem with Snow White on the Sami hat is that Snow White seems to be much smaller than the dwarfs...


Photo from http://digitaltmuseum.se/011023761482?query=m%C3%B6ssa%20samisk&pos=7

Miss Fisher and human skulls

I have been wanting to do a Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries episodes analysis in order and this is not an entirely thorough analysis of episode 2x08 The Blood of Juana the Mad, but a small comment on an aspect of the episode that I have been thinking about. It might also be a little too confusing since I am really exhausted tonight. I have just started excavating a Viking Age burial ground and even though I am happy as can be over it (Burials and the Viking Age are my favourites!!!), this is something that I thought and wondered about. The thoughts might also derive from the fact that I am exposed to bones and skeletons (even more than usual!) because of my current work situation.

Hugh Collins finding the skull

The episode is about the murder of Professor Katz at the university and Phryne's best friend, the doctor Elizabeth MacMillan, calls in both her and Detective Inspector Jack Robinson to investigate. A human skull comes to play a rather important part in solving the case. I will not spoil who's skull it is or what part it plays in the investigation, because that is not really relevant in this case.

I am not an expert on early 20th century history, especially not in Australia. However, I think I know a thing or two about bones. I have studied Osteology and as an archaeologist I do come into contact with them a lot in my professional life. Lately I have also been interested in the skull collection of Anders and Gustaf Retzius since I have gained an interest in the more recent past from my research about colonialism and European imperialism.

As a human body decompose, it kind of falls apart in a rather predictable way. Among other things, the lower jaw gets detached from the skull, having been attached to the skull only by muscles and soft tissues. In the episode 2x08, The Blood of Juana the Mad however, on the skulls left on display in the university, all the lower jaws are left attached. There is even a moment, when Phryne breaks them apart and Professor Bradbury gets irritated because of it.

I have been trying to find out what the norm for lower jaws in osteological collections was at the time. I have not been able to find much information about it, but based on photos and oral and written sources I have manage to find out that normally the skulls were the main focus of cranial collections and the lower jaw were not seldom left out. If the skulls were put on display, the lower jaw often accompanied it by being placed underneath. It was attached (with a metal thread) if the whole skeleton was put together for displaying and research purposes and the like. Taken away from the rest of the jaw might still be attached to the skull.

There are no good enough pictures of the skull important for the plot to see if there are any metal threads attached to it. When Mac is handling it in the picture above, the lower jaw is definitely attached to the skull in question. When it comes to the jaw Phryne breaks apart there seems to be some sort of metal screw to it in the middle of the upper jaw. If this was used to hold the lower jaw is not clear. They obviously knew the skull and lower jaw to be seperated in episode 2x02, Death comes knocking. This was also a buried body and not one on display.

This probably is not exactly relevant to anything and it certainly does not say anything about the case or episode, but it got me thinking because it was something that might go against my schooling and thought about.