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Norwegian pride: Madison-area immigrants developed dual identities as Norwegians and Americans
(Wisconsin State Journal, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 16--That little ping of recognition could come at any time, and it could relate to anything: Which hand holds the fork, the song you hum when you're hiking, the dessert you like best at Christmas, whether you prefer to raise pigs or sheep, even the way you expect your children to inherit your property.
Many people in the Madison area will experience it this weekend when Stoughton celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day, or Syttende Mai, also known simply as the seventeenth of May.
Perhaps red-white-and-blue Norwegian flags will be hoisted for the day, or some long-lost Norwegian salutation will make it into the daily family chat ("gooo-dahg, stor day bra till meh dei?") And that little vestige of ethnic pride will be the end of it for this year.
Not for Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger, who has just finished his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oslo in the department of archeology, conservation and history.
In what he calls "a study on the transfer of traditions tied to intergenerational land transfers," Joranger in 450-plus pages looks at Norwegian immigrants and their descendants from 1850 to 1980 and what they hold on to. The interesting part about that dissertation is that the focus of his research is right here, in the Norwegian immigrant communities in and around Dane County, especially Blue Mounds.
In interviewing descendants, Joranger said, "they represented people down to the third and fourth generations, and all had in common that Norwegian cultural symbols were part of their lives in some way or other, although not in daily life.
For example, most people had a pride in keeping the family farm in the same family, although at the same time it was a way of making profit, and several held the Lutheran faith in high esteem ... to remain Lutheran is also a tradition in many older Norwegian settlements, including the Mount Horeb area."
Joranger said cultural identity reflects ethnic identity, where "people of Norwegian background express a strong notion that their ethnicity is a primordial and biological condition."
What is interesting in the melding of these identities among immigrants in general and, from Joranger's research, Norwegian, is that immigrant families and descendants developed "complementary identities."
"They retained dual loyalties both to their old world values and to their (new nation). Rather than competing, the allegiance and loyalty both to national and ethnic group embedded pluralism in the fabric of the immigrant," he said.
The Norwegian immigrants were able to find a place in American society, Joranger said, because of the group's emphasis on values that were, or are, "accepted American values such as family, hard work." The marketing of the cultural identity, such as with the Stoughton celebration and the Mount Horeb "Trollway," brings many different types of people into the cultural identity, not just Norwegians.
Joranger's dissertation, recently completed, required him to visit this area and an area in Minnesota, for comparison. He went through land records going back to the first non-native-American inhabitants in Blue Mounds, for example, and traced the inheritance patterns and conditions and how they changed.
Jim Leary, a professor of folklore and Scandinavian Studies and director of UW-Madison's Folklore Program, said study of tradition is important.
"Every person becomes who they are by practicing, modifying, departing from, and inventing traditions.
"Living cultures alter incrementally through what Terje Joranger rightly calls a tension between the old and the new. By tracking continuity and change in ethnic cultural traditions we can come to a clear and very human understanding of just what happens when people from one place move en masse to settle in another. And by looking at many such groups, we can arrive at a richer understanding of the complexities of American life."
And the pigs versus sheep question? One study cited by Joranger found that among immigrants, Swedes and Norwegians preferred to raise sheep, while Irish and "old Americans" preferred pigs.
NORWEGIAN AMERICAN
GENEALOGICAL CENTER IN MADISON
608-255-2224
www.nagcnl.org
IF YOU GO
Stoughton's Syttende Mai festival celebrating the Norwegian Constitution Day starts today and runs through Sunday.
Opening ceremonies start at 6 tonight and will held at a new location this year -- the corner of Division and Main streets.
Saturday's highlights include performances by the Norwegian dancers and the Syttende Mai Run, Walk and Lil' Run. New this year is the Syttende Mai Scavenger Hunt where the first to find the hidden gnome wins a $50 gift certificate and basket of goodies from local merchants. Pick up the first clue at 11 a.m. at the Syttende Mai Headquarters, 248 W. Main St.
Sunday events include a Norwegian worship service at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Lutheran Church and the Large Norwegian Parade starting at 1:30 p.m. down Main Street.
For more information, visit
www.stoughtonwi.com/syttendemai.shtml.
To see more of The Wisconsin State Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Wisconsin State Journal
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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