Leikin asia : Näkökulmia varhaisnuorten romanttiseen seurustelukulttuuriin

The subject of my research is the romantic dating culture, the practice of 'going with', among preadolescents ('tweens') in Finland during the 1990s. Preadolescence is a cultural construction of the post-industrial period, experienced by school students between the ages of 7 to 13. Deemed by researchers as a shallow, unchallenging and uninteresting period, it has been shadowed in previous studies by early childhood and puberty. This study combines paradigms of the folkloristic research of children's lore, which began in the 1970s, with those of later, turn-of-the-century girls study. The phenomena of romantic girl culture are studied in several ways, through ample and varied subject materials collected in different places at different times. The research material was collected directly from schoolchildren through interviews, questionnaires and the observations of preadolescents' behavior in discos, among other methods. Part of the material consists of reminiscent thematic writings and parts have been quoted from tween message boards. A general picture of romantic preadolescent dating culture is formed in this study from five previously published articles and a summary. The influence of western culture, with its respect for relationships, is evident in tween dating culture. Seven- to thirteen-year olds use the elements of the society around them to construct an appropriate way for themselves to 'go out' with someone. Many expressions in preadolescent dating culture are contrary to the models of adult relationships. For example, a couple isn't necessarily expected to meet each other even once, or the other party, the boy, doesn't even need to know he's dating someone. Girls organize and experience relationships by playing card fortune-telling, calculating 'Love Percentages', and other methods. Categorizing tween dating culture and its related emotional qualities from an adult point of view as simply a play is one example of the hierarchical system of generations where childhood emotions, actions and conceptions of reality aren't valued as highly as the 'real life' of adults. Lowest on the totem pole are little girls, who in this study get their voices backed up by the researcher's adulthood and research-based sisterhood. Keywords: childhood, children's lore, dating culture, girls and boys, girls study, fortune-telling games, preadolescence/tweens

Burnt area mapping in insular Southeast Asia using medium resolution satellite imagery

Burnt area mapping in humid tropical insular Southeast Asia using medium resolution (250-500m) satellite imagery is characterized by persisting cloud cover, wide range of land cover types, vast amount of wetland areas and highly varying fire regimes. The objective of this study was to deepen understanding of three major aspects affecting the implementation and limits of medium resolution burnt area mapping in insular Southeast Asia: 1) fire-induced spectral changes, 2) most suitable multitemporal compositing methods and 3) burn scars patterns and size distribution. The results revealed a high variation in fire-induced spectral changes depending on the pre-fire greenness of burnt area. It was concluded that this variation needs to be taken into account in change detection based burnt area mapping algorithms in order to maximize the potential of medium resolution satellite data. Minimum near infrared (MODIS band 2, 0.86μm) compositing method was found to be the most suitable for burnt area mapping purposes using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. In general, medium resolution burnt area mapping was found to be usable in the wetlands of insular Southeast Asia, whereas in other areas the usability was seriously jeopardized by the small size of burn scars. The suitability of medium resolution data for burnt area mapping in wetlands is important since recently Southeast Asian wetlands have become a major point of interest in many fields of science due to yearly occurring wild fires that not only degrade these unique ecosystems but also create regional haze problem and release globally significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere due to burning peat. Finally, super-resolution MODIS images were tested but the test failed to improve the detection of small scars. Therefore, super-resolution technique was not considered to be applicable to regional level burnt area mapping in insular Southeast Asia.

The Miocene of Western Asia; Fossil mammals at the crossroads of faunal provinces and climate regimes

Being at the crossroads of the Old World continents, Western Asia has a unique position through which the dispersal and migration of mammals and the interaction of faunal bioprovinces occurred. Despite its critical position, the record of Miocene mammals in Western Asia is sporadic and there are large spatial and temporal gaps between the known fossil localities. Although the development of the mammalian faunas in the Miocene of the Old World is well known and there is ample evidence for environmental shifts in this epoch, efforts toward quantification of habitat changes and development of chronofaunas based on faunal compositions were mostly neglected. Advancement of chronological, paleoclimatological, and paleogeographical reconstruction tools and techniques and increased numbers of new discoveries in recent decades have brought the need for updating and modification of our level of understanding. We under took fieldwork and systematic study of mammalian trace and body fossils from the northwestern parts of Iran along with analysis of large mammal data from the NOW database. The data analysis was used to study the provinciality, relative abundance, and distribution history of the closed- and open-adapted taxa and chronofaunas in the Miocene of the Old World and Western Asia. The provinciality analysis was carried out, using locality clustering, and the relative abundance of the closed- and open-adapted taxa was surveyed at the family level. The distribution history of the chronofaunas was studied, using faunal resemblance indices and new mapping techniques, together with humidity analysis based on mean ordinated hypsodonty. Paleoichnological studies revealed the abundance of mammalian footprints in several parts of the basins studied, which are normally not fossiliferous in terms of body fossils. The systematic study and biochronology of the newly discovered mammalian fossils in northwestern Iran indicates their close affinities with middle Turolian faunas. Large cranial remains of hipparionine horses, previously unknown in Iran and Western Asia, are among the material studied. The initiation of a new field project in the famous Maragheh locality also brings new opportunities to address questions regarding the chronology and paleoenvironment of this classical site. Provinciality analysis modified our previous level of understandings, indicating the interaction of four provinces in Western Asia. The development of these provinces was apparently due to the presence of high mountain ranges in the area, which affected the dispersal of mammals and also climatic patterns. Higher temperatures and possibly higher co2 levels in the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum apparently favored the development of the closed forested environments that supported the dominance of the closed-adapted taxa. The increased seasonality and the progressive cooling and drying of the midlatitudes toward the Late Miocene maintained the dominance of open-adapted faunas. It appears that the late Middle Miocene was the time of transition from a more forested to a less forested world. The distribution history of the closed- and open-adapted chronofaunas shows the presence of cosmopolitan and endemic faunas in Western Asia. The closed-adapted faunas, such as the Arabian chronofauna of the late Early‒early Middle Miocene, demonstrated a rapid buildup and gradual decline. The open-adapted chronofaunas, such as the Late Miocene Maraghean fauna, climaxed gradually by filling the opening environments and moving in response to changes in humidity patterns. They abruptly declined due to demise of their favored environments. The Siwalikan chronofauna of the early Late Miocene remained endemic and restricted through all its history. This study highlights the importance of field investigations and indicates that new surveys in the vast areas of Western Asia, which are poorly sampled in terms of fossil mammal localities, can still be promising. Clustering of the localities supports the consistency of formerly known patterns and augments them. Although the quantitative approach to relative abundance history of the closed- and open-adapted mammals harks back to more than half a century ago, it is a novel technique providing robust results. Tracking the history of the chronofaunas in space and time by means of new computational and illustration methods is also a new practice that can be expanded to new areas and time spans.

”Totuuden ja oikeuden asia” : Eesti Muinsuskaitse Selts ja Viron historian uudelleensynnyttäminen vuosina 1987–1991

Neuvosto-Viron yhteiskunnassa tapahtui 1980-luvun loppupuoliskolla muutoksia, jotka johtivat virolaisten suurempaan toimintavapauteen. Osana uuden kansalaisyhteiskunnan muotoutumista Viroon syntyi historialle omistautunut joukkoliike, joka järjestäytyi loppuvuodesta 1987 historiaseuraksi nimeltään Eesti Muinsuskaitse Selts. Huomattava osa myöhemmän itsenäisen Viron poliittisesta eliitistä osallistui järjestön toimintaan. Seura oli luonteeltaan sekä poliittinen toimija että Viron historiaa tutkiva kansalaisjärjestö. Tutkielmani tarkastelee kumpaakin mainittua osa-aluetta historiaseuran toiminnassa. Tutkielmani tärkein alkuperäislähde on historiaseuran vuosina 1988 1991 julkaisema kerran kuukaudessa ilmestynyt aikakausilehti Muinsuskaitse Seltsi Sõnumid, jonka sivuilla käytyä keskustelua Viron historiasta, politiikasta ja Eesti Muinsuskaitse Seltsin toiminnasta tutkielmani pääosa tarkastelee. Aiempi historiantutkimus on ainoastaan sivunnut historiaseuran roolia Viron itsenäisyyden palauttamisessa. Eesti Muinsuskaitse Selts oli kansallismielinen järjestö, jonka poliittiset vaatimukset perustuivat voimakkaasti Viron kansallisesta historiasta muodostettuihin tulkintoihin. Kansallismielisten tavoitteena oli alkuvuodesta 1989 lähtien organisoida vuosien 1918 1940 tasavallan kansalaisiin tukeutunut liikehdintä, jonka oli puolestaan tarkoitus palauttaa sotienvälisen tasavallan itsenäisyys. Kansalaisliikehdintä muodosti vuoden 1990 alussa Viron kongressin, jonka syntyyn historiaseura vaikutti keskeisellä tavalla. Tutkielmani päätavoite on tarkastella historiaseuran ja sen ympärillä toimineen historialiikehdinnän tekemiä tulkintoja Viron historiasta. Vuosien 1987 1991 aikana historiaseura käynnisti Virossa ilmiön, jota kutsun historian uudelleensynnyttämiseksi. Neuvostohistorian käsitykset korvattiin kansallisromanttisella tavalla tulkita maan historiaa, joka tuki kansallismielisten poliittisia tavoitteita. Historiaseura toteutti osin tietoista historiapolitiikkaa. Ilmiötä on perusteltua kutsua uudelleensynnyttämiseksi, koska mahdollisimman laajasti noudatettiin vuosien 1918 1940 tasavallan perinteitä. Keskeisimmän osan neuvostoaikana kiellettyjen tulkintojen tuomisessa takaisin julkiseen käyttöön muodosti Viron vapaussodan (1918 1920) muiston elvyttäminen. Tärkein historiakulttuuriin liittynyt toimintamuoto oli tuhottujen muistomerkkien uudelleenrakentaminen. Historiaseuran huomio kohdistui myös presidentti Konstantin Pätsin (1874 1956) kunnianpalautukseen. Päts nostettiin kansallissankarin asemaan, vaikka hänen muistoaan varjosti vuosien 1939 1940 itsenäisyyden menetyksen aiheuttama kansallinen trauma. Viron kansallinen historia esitettiin tavalla, joka legitimoi itsenäisyyden palauttamista sekä korosti jatkuvuutta, vapaustaistelua ja itsenäisyyden välttämättömyyttä osana Viron historian kehitystä. Neuvosto-Viron ja Neuvostoliiton historian tarkastelussa korostettiin tapahtumia, joiden julkinen käsittely ei ollut aikaisempina vuosikymmeninä ollut mahdollista. Keskeiselle sijalle nostettiin monimuotoiseksi koettu punainen terrori sekä Molotovin Ribbentropin sopimus. Vuosina 1988 1991 käsitys Viron miehityksestä vahvistui. Kansallismieliset vähensivät rikolliseksi ja laittomaksi kokemansa neuvostovallan legitimiteettiä korostamalla neuvostojärjestelmän vihamieliseksi kuvattua luonnetta virolaisia kohtaan. Keskeisin päätelmäni on, että Eesti Muinsuskaitse Seltsin ja historialiikehdinnän suorittama historian uudelleensynnyttäminen mahdollisti Viron tasavallan itsenäisyyden palauttamisen vuonna 1991 siinä muodossa kuin se toteutettiin.