Swedish Heritage

“A museum can be analyzed as a place where heritage is displayed and negotiated. The term heritage is not innocent.”

Having the country of Sweden be the main context in the analysis of heritage is both ironic and captivating, as the concepts of nationalism, gender and have transformed dramatically over the last century. Sweden, once the native homeland to one of history’s most unrestrained and ruthless seafarer tribes has evolved to become one of the most liberal, accepting, and progressive countries in the world. Throughout Sweden’s evolutionary process, many remarkable social singularities occurred. Some of these occurrences are modernly commendable while others are consensually not. In this examination, the quotes ”A museum can be analyzed as a place where heritage is displayed and negotiated” and ”The term heritage is not innocent” will be analyzed and applied to the perspective of Sweden and Swedish society throughout the years.

The tours of the Skansen outdoor museum and the Nordic museums provided some interesting insight into the history of Sweden as well as many celebrated traditions and customs. As stated in one of the quotes, a museum is a place where culture and heritage is exhibited and celebrated. While it is obvious that the showcasing of heritage is a common purpose of many museums, the content displayed is often idealistic and skewed. The founder of the Nordic Museum, Arthur Hazelius, stated that the purpose of the museum was not only for scientific purposes but also to “ ‘awake and support patriotic feelings’ and ‘to commemorate men and women who have in different ways encouraged patriotic culture and honour’. Even the museum building was planned ‘to instill a strong and powerful feeling and thus contribute to a patriotic awakening’." (Bringeus 1974: Page 10). The notion of heritage in museums being “negotiated” refers to this manipulation or careful selection of the content being displayed in order to achieve a predetermined goal or sentiment. Given that he Nordic museum is an institution that fundamentally aims at promoting patriotic feelings, the unpleasant historical topics of Sweden such as eugenics and forced sterilization will most likely not be flaunted. Additionally, museums such as Skansen ten to romanticize the content they are exhibiting – such as historical eras and lifestyles – without addressing some of the terrible conditions that people faced in those times. While Skansen celebrates the old traditions of Midsummer and the old Swedish country life, it forgets that these times were plagued by mistreatment of women, disease, and extreme poverty. It was wealthy men that mostly celebrated the glorious Midsummer lifestyle.

This idea of promoted patriotism brings the analysis to the concept of “imagined communities.” Imagined communities, as explained by Benedict Anderson, is a political and cultural community that is imagine because “the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.” (Anderson 1996: Page 6). This is not only apparent in Sweden, but in most nations of the world. Patriotism can be a positive movement in a country as it leads to sentiments of belonging, loyalty, and responsibility towards one’s community. However, as record shows, patriotism is not always a positive influence and has often been used as justification for some of history’s most unforgiving atrocities. As explained by Anderson (1996: Page 7):

“…Regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevailing each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.”

Ideas of nationalism can sometimes drive movements of racism, xenophobia, and hate which not only puts the “others” in danger, but also negatively affects those who act on said nationalism. The most famous example of such events was the actions and consequential