Sigurd Erixon

Sigurd Erixon

Sigurd Emanuel Erixon (born March 26, 1888 , † February 18, 1968 ) was a Swedish folklorist and cultural historian .

family

Sigurd Erixon's father died early, but Erixon's mother lived all the longer, most recently near him on the Stockholm peninsula Djurgården , where the Nordiska museet and the Skansen open-air museum are also located. He had three siblings. Erixon and his wife Edit Josefson (1892–1969) could not have children of their own. During the Finnish Winter War , they had a Finnish war child .

Erixon's wife was related to the Masthuggskyrkan architect , Sigfrid Ericson , through whom Erixon met his future wife Edit during the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the city of Gothenburg in 1923. (Sigfrid Ericson was married to Edit's sister Ruth Josefson.)

Life

Erixon is considered a leading figure during the founding of the Swedish subject “ etnologi ” in the first half of the 20th century. A whole generation of scientists see him as their teacher and pioneer. Erixon was " Amanuens " at the Nordiska museet in 1914, and "Intendent" in 1924. (Amanuens and Intendent are the rankings of employees in the Swedish public administration in the field of scientific institutions.) In 1925 he passed the examination for "filosofie licentiat" (fil.lic.) at Uppsala University . (Fil.lic. Is a Swedish academic title that was a prerequisite for obtaining a doctorate, the title was abolished in 1969. The title of the same name, introduced later in the 1980s, is no longer mandatory for a dissertation .) Erixon received an honorary doctorate in 1927 awarded.

Erixon traveled a lot within Sweden. He himself claimed to have been to every parish (Swedish "socks"). His first research trip in the service of the Nordiska museet took place in 1912 and went to the village of Kila in the parish of Hycklinge in Östergötland . The results of this trip ended up in the archive of the Nordiska museet. It wasn't his first fieldwork, however. Three years earlier he had carried out archaeological digs in Blekinge .

Erixon's work in Swedish ethnology was particularly extensive in the areas of building culture and building research as well as within sociology . His work on the subject of development / settlement has led to many important essays and articles in Fataburen , Rig , Ymer and many more. guided. In the monumental work Skultuna bruks historia , 1 (1921) Erixon covers not only the history of the cottage Skultuna (in the town of Västerås ), but also gives a detailed overview of the Swedish History of settlement and settlements, village, Gehöft- and house types, construction and Fences again. He also addressed the social circumstances of the residents.

Here is an example from the planter Matthias Solberg, which Sigurd Erixon considered particularly worth reproducing:

“När åldermannen trummar till samling i byen och bonden icke visste, att det är till oilslag eller drickande denna trumning sker, låter han sin dräng eller komping först förnimma, varom byemännen skola samlas. Kommer push igen och berättar, det de aro samlade att uträtta något Allänt work för byens samfalta räkning, infamous bonden honom gå till samling, men säger pushing, att men hava en bimpel oil att dricka hos någon i byen, saw bonden: bliv du hemma , jag går själv. "

“When the village chief rounded up everyone in the village and the farmer didn't know that the reason for this was tapping or drinking, he first asked his servant to find out why the men of the village should gather. If the farmhand comes back and says that they are being called to work together on the common land, the farmer orders the farmhand to go to the meeting, but the farmhand says that the men are drinking a liter of beer from someone in the village, the farmer says: stay at home, I'll go myself. "

- Arnstberg 1989, p. 39

Why does this quote from the middle of the 18th century fit so well into an ethnological text? On the one hand, certainly because the farmers are busy with something “typically ethnological”, both at the village meeting and at the festival. Second, the peasant is presented as the sovereign of his own court and empire, an image that historians generally do not emphasize.

Erixon also did significant work in the farmers' department of the Nordiska museet, which he led, also organized the handicraft department of the 1923 Gothenburg exhibition and helped organize and structure numerous local museums (Swedish: hembygdsmuseer). In this context he worked on catalogs and guides. He published the large compilations “Svenska Kulturbilder” (1929ff) and “Nordiskkultur” (1931ff).

After the paradigm shift that Swedish ethnology experienced at the beginning of the 1960s, Sigurd Erixon lost more and more importance within the course literature at universities.

Activity at the Nordiska museet

Sigurd Erixon led 1916-1934 which focused on the rural peasant culture field research ventures at Nordiska Museet, after he had until 1955 the Countess Wilhelmina von Hallwyl (1844-1930) donated professorship (Hallwylska professorships) for folklivsforskning museet at Nordiska and Stockholms högskola held. At the Institut für folklivsforskning he had a large group of employees who, among other things, were entrusted with the work for the Swedish atlas for folklore (based on the model of the atlas of German folklore ). This was based on the questionnaire sent to the institute's own sources.

Erixon's interests were wide-ranging, including examining social groups outside of the rural environment, such as dock workers. Sigurd Erixon's archive reflects his scientific interests, orientations and methods through a huge collection and documentation activity. The archive contains around 2500 bundles, making it the largest private archive in Sweden.

Fonts

• Folk furniture culture i svenska bygder (1938)
• Svensk byggnadskultur (1947)
• Atlas över svensk folk culture: material and social culture (1957)

Web links

• Folklivsarkivet och Sigurd Erixon (Swedish)
• Nordiska museet och Sigurd Erixon (Swedish)
• Ynglingalaget Fataburen 1921 (Swedish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl-Olov Arnstberg: Utforskaren. Study i Sigurd Erixon's etnologi . Stockholm 1989, p. 12ff
2. ↑ Karl-Olov Arnstberg: Utforskaren. Study i Sigurd Erixon's etnologi . Stockholm 1989, p. 7th
3. ↑ Karl-Olov Arnstberg: Utforskaren. Study i Sigurd Erixon's etnologi . Stockholm 1989, p. 20ff
4. ↑ Karl-Olov Arnstberg: Utforskaren. Study i Sigurd Erixon's etnologi . Stockholm 1989, p. 125ff
5. ^ Nordiska museet and Sigurd Erixon (in Swedish); Status: October 29, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.