Norwegian Woods (OT)

Slash and burn shifting cultivation

The terminology in shifting or swidden literature is often confusing and inconsistent. I would recommend Spencer's comments (Spencer 1966 6) and Appendix B, (Spencer 1966 175).[1] which treats this terminology with English literature using "slash-and-burn or shifting cultivation". Shifting cultivation means change of place, and the cultivation refers most often in older literature to a simpler agriculture than the meaning of the word "agriculture" today. "Swidden" is rarely used in current literature, and is completely omitted in several recent dictionaries.


The clan

The heads of swidden family groups or clans (noite) had to have, at all times, an overview of their own clan's activities in order to put together these three parameters (according to their own experiences and conscious thought.

The time frame covers the first three cues of removal of the existing vegetation, which is controlled by man. The next three deal with the new vegetation, crops, and regrowth of new forests.

The time between harvest and regrowth varies from direct transition to regrowth through a number of years with a second use of swidden (vuoma) to never regrow, i.e. direct transition from the crop (pühä) to a permanent farm place / settlement (Piha).

Natural influences noite need only register and take into account in assessment: climate with rain, wind, temperature, drainage conditions, soil type, topography, flora and fauna, but he mastered his seeds brought for planting.

Noite coordinate so that all valves within the clans function: technology with adequate treatment of the area at the right time, cutting, burning, and social order. Runic poetry was a faithful helper in the exploitation of past experience and knowledge, and poems thankfully have the ability to survive generations.

Swidden cultivation requires a large number of people in the group to survive as an operational unit. It is a complex cycle of synchronized processes performed by individuals and / or groups in binding cooperation.

Such production union is often called a clan, extended family, kind, thiod, ätt, or tribe; in Russian plemja, rod; in Persian tauma, and Sanskrit jana, kula-. The village name in today's Finno-Ugric languages is küla. The word küllä is a reinforced yes: those that say yes and agree. Each man in swidden society had significance as a participant in the community, not as a person.


Mythology

Finnish mythology and the belief in supernatural forces, beings, and effects, can be traced primarily from the swidden manager ( noita ). He had the people's respect, and everyone accepted his assessment and obeyed his commands. The clan’s existence depended on his knowledge and decisions.

Missionary priests have often concluded from such loyalty that noitas practice witchcraft and possess supernatural powers; this was effective because people believed blindly in noita. But many of the priests did not truly understand what noitas’ power over the people actually consisted of. People's loyalty stemmed from the old days of noitas’ ability to lead cultivation. Could he not guide satisfactorily, he was promptly deposed, exiled or killed. Priests’ sermons about the Christian religion and promise of eternal life or suffering and destruction in the opposite case were not enough for swidden culture. The Incarnation was a completely alien thought, as well as eternal life as something desirable. The numerous Finnish runes / poems says that he who molests other clan’s selections or swidden plots should not be allowed to go back to nature, ordered to wander around forever.

Per Martin Tvengsberg

In Finland, Vappu is one of the four biggest holidays along with Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Midsummer (Juhannus). Walpurgis witnesses the biggest carnival-style festival held in the streets of Finland's towns and cities. The celebration, which begins on the evening of 30 April and continues to 1 May, typically centres on copious consumption of sima, sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages. Student traditions, particularly those of the engineering students, are one of the main characteristics of Vappu. Since the end of the 19th century, this traditional upper-class feast has been appropriated by university students. Many lukio (university-preparatory high school) alumni (who are thus traditionally assumed to be university bound), wear a cap. One tradition is to drink sima, a home-made low-alcohol mead, along with freshly cooked funnel cakes.

In the capital Helsinki and its surrounding region, fixtures include the capping (on 30 April at 6 pm) of the Havis Amanda, a nude female statue in Helsinki, and the biennially alternating publications of ribald matter called Äpy and Julkku, by engineering students of Aalto University. Both are sophomoric; but while Julkku is a standard magazine, Äpy is always a gimmick. Classic forms have included an Äpy printed on toilet paper and a bedsheet. Often, the magazine has been stuffed inside standard industrial packages, such as sardine cans and milk cartons. For most university students, Vappu starts a week before the day of celebration. The festivities also include a picnic on 1 May, which is sometimes prepared in a lavish manner, particularly in Ullanlinnanmäki in Helsinki city.

The Finnish tradition is also a shadowing of the Socialist May Day parade. Expanding from the parties of the left, the whole of the Finnish political scene has adopted Vappu as the day to go out on stumps and agitate. This includes not only political activists. Other institutions, such as the state Lutheran church, have followed suit, marching and making speeches. Left-wing activists of the 1970s still party on May Day. They arrange carnivals. And radio stations play leftist songs from the 1970s.

Traditionally, 1 May is celebrated by a picnic in a park. For most, the picnic is enjoyed with friends on a blanket with good food and sparkling wine. Some people, however, arrange extremely lavish picnics with pavilions, white tablecloths, silver candelabras, classical music and extravagant food. The picnic usually starts early in the morning, where some of the previous night's party-goers continue their celebrations undaunted by lack of sleep.

Some student organisations reserve areas where they traditionally camp every year. Student caps, mead, streamers and balloons have their role in the picnic, as well as in the celebration as a whole.

Havis Amanda is a nude female statue in Helsinki, Finland. It was sculpted by Ville Vallgren (1855-1940) in 1906 in Paris, but was not erected at its present location at the Market Square in Kaartinkaupunki until 1908.

Havis Amanda is one of Vallgren's Parisian Art Nouveau works. It is cast in bronze and the fountain it resides in is made of granite. She is a mermaid who stands on seaweed as she rises from the water, with four fish spouting water at her feet and surrounded by four sea lions. She is depicted leaning backwards as if to say goodbye to her element. Vallgren's intention was to symbolize the rebirth of Helsinki. The height of the statue is 194 centimetres and with the pedestal it stands 5 metres tall. According to Vallgren's letters the model for the statue was a then 19-year-old Parisian lady, Marcelle Delquini.

Vallgren himself simply called the work Merenneito (English: The Mermaid), but it quickly started to get additional nicknames. The Finland-Swedish newspapers dubbed it Havis Amanda and the Finnish Haaviston Manta or simply Manta. Havis Amanda is the common name used in brochures and travel guides.

It was unveiled on September 20, 1908. The work drew a lot of criticism at first, especially from women. Its nakedness and seductiveness were considered inappropriate. Not all groups objected to the nudity per se, but putting it on a pedestal was thought to subjugate women by making them appear weak and create sexual objectification and belittling of women (equal and common suffrage was introduced in Finland in 1906). Some women's rights groups criticised the look of the figure as plain and some even as "a common French whore", lacking pristine and innocence. The sea lions, with their human tongues hanging out, were said to represent men lusting after the mademoiselle. Vallgren considered himself a worshipper of women. Many in the cultural elite of Finland considered Vallgren an outsider and had judged his work even before it was finished. A good friend of his, Albert Edelfelt, was instrumental through his influence in getting the work ordered. Thanks to a small group of mainly Finland-Swedish supporters, the work gradually started gaining wide acceptance and natives started seeing it as the spirit of the city. Today it has been consistently voted the most important and most beautiful piece of art in Helsinki.

Every year on Vappu, Manta serves as a centrepiece for the celebrations. Students of the local universities put a cap on the statue in an elaborate ceremony. For many it is a "must see" event.

There is also an urban legend that Havis Amanda patronizes men's sexual potency. Some men believe that washing one's face with water from one of Havis Amanda's fountains and shouting thrice "Rakastaa!" (Finnish verb "love") increases men's sexual ability.