From: d0mof@dtek.chalmers.se (Marcus Gustavsson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Assimilationspolitik av finnar i Sverige
Keywords: flow of nature
Date: 3 Nov 92 20:22:19 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology


	It is nice to see your concern for a dying people Jarmo. However,
it seems you haven't heard of all that many such examples. Therefore I'll
try to point at some other cultures that have disappeared.

	Let's start some thousand years ago. If we look at Sweden at that
time we will find that there were a great many different tribes. A not too
stupid guess would be that the amount of tribes were on level with the
number of landskap. If we take a closer look we'll find that there were
actually many different, shall we call it subtribes, within a landskap.
Take V{sterg|tland as an example, linguistic studies in the 20th century
could find traces of far more than 10 dialects.

	Today we have only one, or at most three tribes in Sweden, so where
are the others? Maybe that's not so interesting to find out, but more
interesting is why did they disappear and was it really something deliberately
planned by those still surviving?

	Well, a look then at our changing environments, gives us the idea
that a culture has to change with the times, if it is to survive. Of
course, it still has the same language, but in a way it has died. Nothing
strange in this, everything old dies eventually.

	Take the west Swedish fishing culture as an example, for centuries
this culture had its very special way of life, centered on the sea. Its
view of life and death was very fatalistic, the sea giveth and taketh away.
The language was quite different from the normal Swedish, more easily
understood by similar people from the Frisian islands to Norway, than
by inland Swedes. There are still some of these people left, but their
future is behind them.

	There is an abundance of examples like this. It's very sad indeed
that this happens, but in the choice between dying a little bit and moving on,
well I think you get my idea.

	I'm going to try a cheap shot now so just tell me if you don't
like the thought and I'll refrain from uttering it again. How does
Finland compare to Sweden in this respect? Our friend Nitty-Jussis
ancestors must have come from Finland in the late 16th or 17th century, not?
Then we should expect that his way of living thrives there, shouldn't we?
I'd like to ask also if the Finns really have been so opressed as you are
saying? I'd like to venture that historically the people of Bohusl{n,
Halland, Sk}ne and Blekinge have seen much more atrocities than Finns in
Sweden.

	I'd like to end with an advice from another public fool. It is
no good to try to make people feel bad about anything, it only spawns more
evil thoughts. I suggest you try to tell us how life really were for
the people from Finnskogarna and why they disappeared. At least I hope
that the Swedes didn't shoot Nitty-Jussi.

	-Mof
	
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