Marketing the Past

• Published in: Archaeological Dialogues
• Main Author: Löfgren, Orvar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1996
• Subjects: Archeology; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Geography, Planning and Development; sami; Lapland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1380203800000696; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1380203800000696

In 1992 a public quarrel started at the opening of the new Stone Age Museum in Swedish Lapland. Were the early local inhabitants from 5000 years ago to be called Swedes or Sami (Lapps)? A couple of years later the newly excavated Viking trading post Birka was presented as an example of an early multi-ethnic Swedish community, with a message of peaceful coexistence among Swedes and immigrants. Modern concepts like ‘identity’ or ‘multi-ethnic society’ do not travel very well through history, but any historical reconstruction will be characterized by projecting contemporary ideas, hopes or anxieties back into the past.