Animals in an Urban Context. A Zooarchaeological study of the Medieval and Post-Medieval town of Turku

The aim of this study is to explore the role and importance of different animal species in Turku through an analysis of osteological data and documentary evidence. The osteological material used in this study is derived from two town plots in Turku dating from the 13th century to the 19th century. The osteological material deposited in Turku represents animals bred both in the town and in the surrounding landscape. Animal husbandry in SW-Finland can also be examined through a number of historical documents. The importance of animals in Turku and its hinterland are closely connected and therefore the roles of the animals in both urban and rural settings are examined. The study has revealed the complexity of the depositional patterns in medieval and post-medieval Turku. In the different areas of Turku, characteristic patterns in the osteological material and different deposit types were evident. These patterns are reflections of the activities and therefore of the lifestyles practiced in Turku. The results emphasise the importance of context- awareness in the study of material culture from archaeological sites. Both the zooarchaeological and historical sources indicate that cattle were important in animal husbandry in Turku from the Middle Ages up to the 19th century. Sheep were the second most common species. When taking into consideration the larger size of cattle, the dominance of these animals when it come to meat consumption seems clear even in those phases where sheep bones are more abundant. Pig is less abundant in the material than either cattle or sheep and their importance for subsistence was probably fairly modest, albeit constant. Goats were not abundant in the material. Most of the identified goat bones came from low utility body parts (e.g. skulls and lower extremities), but some amount of goat meat was also consumed. Wild species were of minor importance when it came to consumption practices in Turku. The changes in Turku’s animal husbandry patterns between the medieval and post medieval periods is reflected in the change in age of the animals slaughtered, which was part of a wider pattern seen in North- and Central Europe. More mature animals are also present in the assemblages. This pattern is related to the more pronounced importance of cattle as a manure producer and a draught animal as a result of the intensification of crop cultivation. This change seems to occur later in Finland than in the more Southerly regions, and indeed it did not necessarily take hold in all parts of the country.

Immateriellt kulturarv som begrepp och process : folkloristiska perspektiv på kulturarv i Finlands svenskbygder med folkmusik som exempel

Cultural heritage has become something of an in-word in recent times. Intangible cultural heritage, however, is a category that has received relatively little attention. This folkloristic study focuses on intangible cultural heritage as concept and as process. Folkloristics as a scholarly branch emphasizes non-material culture. Consequently, there is a big potential in bringing existing knowledge of folklore together with current scholarly theories concerning cultural heritage in order to expand the understanding of intangible cultural heritage. In this thesis cultural heritage is regarded as a symbolic construct, which is spoken of and discussed in specific ways. The study of intangible cultural heritage (Swe. kulturarv) as concept focuses on this area. For a cultural component to be experienced as intangible cultural heritage it is, however, not enough to discuss it in those terms. Instead, cultural heritage status needs to be acted out during lengthy processes. This is demonstrated by the study of intangible cultural heritage as process. As a consequence performativity appears crucial to an understanding of cultural heritage – when a sufficient number of people speak and act as if a cultural component has a special status, it will also be perceived as cultural heritage. In this dissertation intangible cultural heritage is studied through cultural analysis, more specifically through discourse analysis. The usage of the concept intangible cultural heritage within cultural organizations, in scholarly use and in the Swedish-speaking press in Finland is examined. Traditional music in the Swedish-speaking districts of Finland is used as a case study of intangible cultural heritage as process. The examination concerns how traditional music, an intangible cultural component, has been discussed, transformed, standardized and objectified in a cultural heritage process. Cultural heritage is generally used as a token of value so that certain cultural components, both intangible and tangible, which are discussed in terms of cultural heritage are perceived to be valuable and should therefore be safeguarded. Intangible cultural heritage depends on performance, that is practitioners use their bodies to act out their traditional knowledge through song, handicraft, storytelling and so on. Intangible cultural components can be transmitted to other individuals in a performance situation, and they can also be documented. In Finland documentation and subsequent filing in archives have been associated with safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. If the aim of safeguarding is to uphold traditional practices, which is the case for among others UNESCO’s programs aimed at intangible cultural heritage, other efforts are called for: forms of safeguarding that support performance and transmission.

Itse tehty moderni. Gramofoni, polkupyörä ja valokuvaus suomalaisten elämässä 1880-luvulta 1940-luvulle

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan aineellista modernia ja materiaalisen kulttuurin muutosta Suomessa 1880-luvulta 1940-luvulle tutkimalla sitä, miten kolme kansainvälistä teknologiaa, gramofoni, polkupyörä ja valokuvaus, otettiin Suomessa käyttöön ja millaisia paikallisia ilmiöitä niiden ympärille kehittyi. Tutkimus koostuu johdanto- ja yhteenveto-osan lisäksi kuudesta artikkelista, joissa käsitellään seuraavia alateemoja: itse tehtyjä polkupyöriä, käyntikorttikuvien käyttöä maalaiskodeissa, maaseudun pyöräilyä ja sen muistelemista, vuoden 1929 gramofonikuumetta, valokuvausta teknisenä harrastuksena sekä maalaisia gramofonin käytön tapoja. Tutkimuksen lähteinä on käytetty laajoja muistitietoaineistoja, sanoma- ja aikakauslehtiaineistoja, arkistoaineistoja, aikalaiskirjallisuutta ja museoesineitä. Lähteistä on etsitty mikrohistoriallista lukutapaa noudattaen johtolankoja gramofoniin, polkupyörään ja valokuvaukseen liittyneihin käytäntöihin. Esitän, että muistitietolähteet, muiden lähteiden kanssa ristiinluettuina, antavat hyvän mahdollisuuden sellaisten arjen käytäntöjen tarkasteluun, joiden tutkiminen muiden lähteiden perusteella olisi vaikeaa tai mahdotonta. Tutkimuksessa käytetyistä teoreettisista kehyksistä niin teknologian sosiaalinen rakentuminen, arjen historia, materiaaliseen kulttuuriin liittyvä teoriapohja, kulutuskulttuurin tutkimus kuin käytäntöteoriatkin kannustavat tarkastelemaan sitä, miten käyttäjien toiminta muokkaa ja määrittää teknologiaa. Näiden teoriasuuntausten pohjalta olen tätä tutkimusta varten kehittänyt itse tehdyn modernin ja kansankeksinnön käsitteet, jotka tarkentavat katseen ajallisesti ja paikallisesti tyypillisiin teknologian muokkauksen ja määrittelyn tapoihin sekä paikalliseen teknologiseen kekseliäisyyteen. Itse tehdyn modernin käsite auttaa hahmottamaan materiaalisia muutoksia ja pysyvyyksiä ajanjaksolla 1800-luvun lopulta toiseen maailmansotaan. Suomalaiset muovasivat omanlaisensa modernin, jossa uutuudet ja muutokset sulautuivat osaksi sitkeinä jatkuvia ja hitaasti muuttuvia maalaisyhteiskunnan toimintatapoja ja muokkasivat niitä vähitellen. Itse tehty moderni sekoitti omavaraisuutta ja kulutuskulttuuria, käsillä tekemiseen perustuvaa taitavuutta ja kursseilla sekä koulutuksessa saavutettua teknistä tietoa, paikallisia aineksia ja kansainvälisiä vaikutteita. Puhumalla kansanomaisista keksinnöistä olen halunnut korostaa tällaisten yhdistelmien mahdollisuutta ruohonjuuritasolla ja massatuotettujen laitteiden sovittamista osaksi pitkälti itse tehtyä ja omavaraista esinemaailmaa.

In pursuit of an intercultural dimension in EFL-teaching : exploring cognitions among Finland-Swedish comprehensive school teachers

This thesis is about the educational purpose of foreign language teaching (FLT) in an increasingly internationalised world.The past 20-30 years have witnessed a fundamental rethinking of the aims of FLT, entailing a shift in emphasis from linguistic competence over communicative competence to intercultural competence. The growing emphasis on cultural issues, called for by research and international curricular documents, places new demandson language teachers. The overall aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge about the attitudes of teachers at the upper level of the Finland-Swedish comprehensive school towards the treatment of culture in English foreign language (EFL) teaching. The questions in focus are: 1) How do teachers interpret the concept"culture" in EFL-teaching?, 2) How do they specify the cultural objectives of their teaching? and 3) What do they do to attain these objectives? The thesis strives to reveal whether or not language teaching today can be describedas intercultural, in the sense that culture is taught with the aim of promotingintercultural understanding, tolerance and empathy. This abductive and largely exploratory study is placed within a constructivist and sociocultural framework,and is inspired by both phenomenography and hermeneutics. It takes its starting-point in language didactics, and can also be regarded as a contribution to teacher cognition research. The empirical data consists of verbatim transcribed interviews with 13 Finland-Swedish teachers of English at grades 7-9. The findings are presented according to three orientations and reviewed with reference to the 2004 Finnish National Framework Curriculum. Within the cognitive orientation, "culture" is perceived as factual knowledge, and the teaching of cultureis defined in terms of the transmission of knowledge, especially about Britain and the USA (Pedagogy of Information). Within the action-related orientation, "culture" is seen as skills of a social and socio-linguistic nature, andthe teaching aims at preparing the students for contacts with people from the target language areas (Pedagogy of Preparation). Within the affective orientation, which takes a more holistic approach, "culture" is seen as a bi-directional perspective. Students are encouraged to look at their own familiar culture from another perspective, and learn to empathise with and show respect for otherness in general, not just concerning representatives of English-speaking countries (Pedagogy of Encounter). Very few of the interviewed teachers represent the third approach, which is the one that can be characterised as truly intercultural. The study indicates that many teachers feel unsure about how to teach culture in an appropriate and up-to-date manner. This is attributed to, among other things, lack of teacher insights as well as lack of time and adequate material. The thesis ends with a set of recommendations as to how EFL could be developed ina more intercultural direction.

A simple culture system for time-lapse video recording of bovine embryos

Selostus: Yksinkertainen viljelymenetelmä naudan alkioiden aikaviivenauhoitusta varten

Optimizing anther culture for barley breeding

Selostus: Ponsiviljelymenetelmän optimointi ohranjalostuksen käyttöön

The effect of genotype on anther culture response of cultivated and wild oats

Selostus: Genotyypin vaikutus kauran, kuorettoman kauran ja villikauran ponsiviljelyvasteeseen