ABSTRACT: This special issue of Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études scandinaves au Canada is the result of a number of sessions organized by guest editors Yoav Tirosh and Simon Nygaard for the 2018 International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds and supported by the Memory and the Pre-Modern North network. This introduction serves to contextualize the study of collective memory within the field of Old Norse as well as introduce some of the key theoretical concepts discussed in the issue. The formation and transmission of collective memory in pre-literate and literate societies are explained, with an eye towards the cognitive elements at play. Finally, the issueʼs articles are discussed, as is the logic of the compilation. This special issue hopes to expand the already thriving field of collective memory studies in Old Norse, building upon the work already done and offering new directions forward.
This article questions the prevalent account of North Germanic tonogenesis, which proposes that at the outset, Accent 2 was characterized by a double-peaked melody close to the one found in central Swedish today (Riad 1998, Kingston 2011). The spreading patterns observed in the data analyzed here are difficult to reconcile with this hypothesis. My analysis instead offers support in favor of the alternative hypothesis that the phonetic roots of the accentual contrast are to be found in a difference in timing between single peaks, specifically, peak delay in plurisyllabic domains, but not in mono-syllables due to lack of space. The variation observed in the single peak Dalarna varieties today, from robust timing differences in the south to absence or only partial implementation of the tonal contrast in the north, strongly suggests that the accentual contrast has been spreading northwards through incremental peak delay in Accent 2 words. I argue that this situation mirrors the initial stages in the development that, through additional peak delay, eventually resulted in a double-peaked Accent 2 melody in central Scandinavia. At the same time, the older single peak patterns are still retained in Dalarna and scattered around the geographical margins of Norway and Sweden.*
In the previous chapter we reported the results of a quantitative study of the rise of definite and indefinite articles in North Germanic. While the statistical data give us some picture of the grammaticalization processes—for instance, demonstrating that the grammaticalization of the definite article began with topicalized discourse referents—a qualitative analysis of the corpus is needed to elaborate on and clarify the picture. In the present chapter we will therefore return to the models of grammaticalizations of both articles which were presented in Chapter 1. We begin with a discussion of the model of grammaticalization of the definite article, and its limitations, with particular attention to the developments from one stage to the next, in particular the unclear path from direct to indirect anaphora as well as from indirect anaphora to larger situation use. We argue that these steps can be explained in terms of referent accessibility, and will give examples to support our claims.We then turn to the model of grammaticalization of the indefinite article and its applications. A proposal encompassing both models will be discussed in 5.5.
Research Highlights: The European Union’s last large intact forest landscapes along the Scandinavian Mountain range in Sweden offer unique opportunities for conservation of biodiversity, ecological integrity and resilience. However, these forests are at a crossroad between intensified wood production aimed at bio-economy, and rural development based on multi-functional forest landscapes for future-oriented forest value chains. Background and Objectives: We (1) estimate the area of near-natural forests potentially remaining for forest harvesting and wood production, or as green infrastructure for biodiversity conservation and human well-being in rural areas, (2) review how forest and conservation policies have so far succeeded to reduce the loss of mountain forests, and (3) discuss what economic, socio-cultural and ecological values that are at stake, as well as different governance and management solutions. Materials and Methods: First, we estimated the remaining amount of intact mountain forests using (1) the Swedish National Forest Inventory, (2) protected area statistics, (3) forest harvest permit applications and actually harvested forests, (4) remote sensing wall-to-wall data on forests not subject to clear-felling since the mid-1950s, (5) mapping of productive and non-productive forestland, and (6) estimates of mean annual final felling rate. Second, we review policy documents related to the emergence of land use regulation in north Sweden, including the mountain forest border, and illustrate this with an actual case that has had significant policy implementation importance. Results: There is a clear difference between the proportions of formally protected productive forestland above the mountain forest border (52.5%) and north Sweden in general (6.3%). A total of 300,000 ha of previously not clear-felled mountain forest outside protected areas remain, which can support novel value chains that are not achievable elsewhere. Conclusions: The mountain forests in Sweden provide unique conservation values in the European Union. Since the beginning of the 1990s, policy regulations have been successful in limiting forest harvesting. Currently, however, mountain forests are a battle ground regarding intensification of forest use, including logging of forests that have never been subject to clear-felling systems vs. nature conservation and wilderness as a base for rural development. The ability of mountain municipalities to encourage sustainable rural forest landscapes must be strengthened.
In this paper we provide an overview of new knowledge on oxygen depletion (hypoxia) and related phenomena in aquatic systems resulting from the EU-FP7 project HYPOX (“In situ monitoring of oxygen depletion in hypoxic ecosystems of coastal and open seas, and landlocked water bodies”, www.hypox.net). In view of the anticipated oxygen loss in aquatic systems due to eutrophication and climate change, HYPOX was set up to improve capacities to monitor hypoxia as well as to understand its causes and consequences. Temporal dynamics and spatial patterns of hypoxia were analyzed in field studies in various aquatic environments, including the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, Scottish and Scandinavian fjords, Ionian Sea lagoons and embayments, and Swiss lakes. Examples of episodic and rapid (hours) occurrences of hypoxia, as well as seasonal changes in bottom-water oxygenation in stratified systems, are discussed. Geologically driven hypoxia caused by gas seepage is demonstrated. Using novel technologies, temporal and spatial patterns of watercolumn oxygenation, from basin-scale seasonal patterns to meter-scale sub-micromolar oxygen distributions, were resolved. Existing multidecadal monitoring data were used to demonstrate the imprint of climate change and eutrophication on long-term oxygen distributions. Organic and inorganic proxies were used to extend investigations on past oxygen conditions to centennial and even longer timescales that cannot be resolved by monitoring. The effects of hypoxia on faunal communities and biogeochemical processes were also addressed in the project. An investigation of benthic fauna is presented as an example of hypoxia-devastated benthic communities that slowly recover upon a reduction in eutrophication in a system where naturally occurring hypoxia overlaps with anthropogenic hypoxia. Biogeochemical investigations reveal that oxygen intrusions have a strong effect on the microbially mediated redox cycling of elements. Observations and modeling studies of the sediments demonstrate the effect of seasonally changing oxygen conditions on benthic mineralization pathways and fluxes. Data quality and access are crucial in hypoxia research. Technical issues are therefore also addressed, including the availability of suitable sensor technology to resolve the gradual changes in bottom-water oxygen in marine systems that can be expected as a result of climate change. Using cabled observatories as examples, we show how the benefit of continuous oxygen monitoring can be maximized by adopting proper quality control. Finally, we discuss strategies for state-of-the-art data archiving and dissemination in compliance with global standards, and how ocean observations can contribute to global earth observation attempts.
Sociologists have argued that musical taste should vary between social groups, but have not considered whether the effect extends beyond taste into uses of music and also emotional reactions to music. Moreover, previous research has ignored the culture in which participants are located. The present research employed a large sample from five post‐industrial global regions and showed that musical taste differed between regions but not according to education and employment; and that there were three‐way interactions between education, employment, and region in the uses to which participants put music and also their typical emotional reactions. In addition to providing partial support for existing sociological theory, the findings highlight the potential of culture as a variable in future quantitative research on taste.
Epidemiological studies have consistently shown that population health varies significantly by welfare state regime. However, these studies have focused exclusively on the welfare states of Europe, North America and Australasia. This focus ignores the existence of welfare states in other parts of the world, specifically in East Asia. This study therefore investigates whether the association between population health (Infant Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy at birth) and welfare state regimes is still valid when the welfare states of East Asia are added into the analysis. It also examines whether population health is worse in the East Asian welfare states. Infant Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy at birth as well as GDP per capita and social and health expenditures as a percentage of GDP were examined in 30 welfare states, categorised into six different regimes (Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Bismarckian, Southern, Eastern European and East Asian). ANOVA analysis showed significant differences by welfare state regime in the magnitude of IMR, LE, SE, HE and GDP per capita. However, when controlling for GDP per capita in the ANCOVA analyses, only Life Expectancy (R(2)=0.58, adjusted R(2)=0.47, p<0.05) and Social Expenditure (R(2)=0.70, adjusted R(2)=0.61, p<0.05) differed significantly by welfare state regime. 47% of the variation in Life Expectancy was explained by welfare state regime type. Further, the East Asian welfare states did not have the worst health outcomes. The study concludes by highlighting the need to expand comparative health analysis both in terms of the range of countries examined and also in terms of incorporating other societal and public health factors-towards a 'public health regime' analysis.
The adventus Saxonum is a crucial event in English protohistory. Scholars from a range of disciplines dispute the scale and demographic profile of the purported colonizing population. The 5th-7th century burial ground at West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, is one of the few Anglian cemeteries where an associated settlement site has been identified and subjected to extensive multidisciplinary postexcavation study. Skeletal and grave good evidence has been used to indicate the presence of Scandinavian settlers. A small, preliminary study using lead and strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel, mineralized in early childhood, from Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (n = 8), Iron Age (n = 2), and Early Anglo-Saxon (n = 32) skeletons, was carried out to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that lead provides dissimilar types of information in different time periods. In post-Roman England, it appears to reflect the level of exposure to circulated anthropogenic rather than natural geological lead, thus being a cultural rather than geographical marker. Consequently, only strontium provides mobility evidence among the Anglian population, whereas both isotope systems do so in pre-Roman periods. Strontium data imply the presence of two groups: one of "local" and one of "nonlocal" origin, but more work is required to define the limits of local variation and identify immigrants with confidence. Correlations with traditional archaeological evidence are inconclusive. While the majority of juveniles and prehistoric individuals fall within the "local" group, both groups contain juveniles, and adults of both sexes. There is thus no clear support for the exclusively male, military-elite invasion model at this site.