Freezers full of gold : Living well with landscape in rural Northern Sweden
The modern chest freezer has significantly altered food storage practices in Sweden. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Arjeplog (rural Northern Sweden/ Swedish Sápmi), this article investigates how the chest freezer plays a crucial role in more-than-human networks of food, sustainabil...
| Published in: | Kulturella Perspektiv – Svensk etnologisk tidskrift |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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The Nordic Museum
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-198895 https://doi.org/10.54807/kp.v32.2173 |
| Summary: | The modern chest freezer has significantly altered food storage practices in Sweden. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Arjeplog (rural Northern Sweden/ Swedish Sápmi), this article investigates how the chest freezer plays a crucial role in more-than-human networks of food, sustainability, and living well in the local community. Among participants of this ethnographic study, most of the protein stored in freezers was hunted or foraged from the local landscape, and participants felt “rich and content†with freezers full of “natural†food. Building on theories of new-materiality and the more-than-human, I examine the relationships between moose, freezer, forest, and the body, arguing that the chest freezer is not a static object of symbolic meaning but a vibrant actor in these networks of “the good lifeâ€. This paper is an empirically grounded contribution to studies of freezing practices and landscape relations in Northern Sweden. Moderna frysboxar har förändrat matförvaringen i Sverige. Baserad pÃ¥ ett tretton mÃ¥nader lÃ¥ngt fältarbete i Arjeplog (Norrland/Sápmi), undersöker den här artikeln hur toppmatade frysboxar spelar en viktig roll i merän-mänskliga nätverk av mat, hÃ¥llbarhet, och “det goda livet†i det lokala samhället. Det mesta av proteinet som lagrades i frysarna av deltagarna jagades eller plockades frÃ¥n det lokala landskapet, och deltagarna kände sig “rika och nöjda†med frysboxar fyllda av “naturlig†mat. Genom att utgÃ¥ frÃ¥n teorier om nymaterialism och det mer-än-mänskliga, undersöker jag relationerna mellan älgen, frysboxen, skogen, och kroppen. Jag hävdar att frysboxen inte är ett statiskt föremÃ¥l utan en levande aktör i dessa nätverk av det goda livet. Artikeln är ett empiriskt grundat bidrag till studier om frysning och landskapsrelationer i norra Sverige. |
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