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- Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sunic!ugle.unit.no!alf.uib.no!rmanne-pc.kj.uib.no!nkjrm
- From: nkjrm@taxus.uib.no (Rolf Manne)
- Subject: Re: The Finns of Sweden
- Message-ID: <nkjrm.30@taxus.uib.no>
- Sender: usenet@alf.uib.no (Bergen University Newsaccount)
- Organization: University of Bergen
- References: <1992Nov19.153649.11960@ericsson.se>
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 09:50:01 GMT
- Lines: 21
-
- In article <1992Nov19.153649.11960@ericsson.se> etxonss@ufsa.ericsson.se (Staffan Axelsson) writes:
-
- > When the Finns came to Finnskogen, they brought an outstanding technique
- > of farming called burn-beating (svedjebruk) i.e. burning down the woods
- > and grow seeds in the ashes. Since the Finns were the masters in this
- > area they managed to stay together and this enabled them to keep their
- > language and their customs. However, in the 1960's, more advanced
- > farming techniques developed causing the assimilation process to speed up.
-
- I assume you mean the 1860's. The late 1860's was the last period of famine
- in Europe. I learnt at school that the situation was really bad in areas
- where farming was poor (Northern Sweden and Finland). This may have hurt
- the Forest Finns particularly.
-
- More recently, I have read somewhere that the bad weather 1865-70
- may have been due to a volcano explosion in present-day Indonesia
- (not Krakatoa which was later) which threw so much dust into the upper
- atmosphere that the global temperature was reduced for a couple of years.
-
- Rolf Manne
- Rolf.Manne@uib.no
-