Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 151

NYTT INNAN VISINDI 2001
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impact between the existing and ideas that
people get either through interaction wilh
others or reflections on environmental situ-
ations; and this is what creates the dynam-
ics in a culture and leads to progress and
changes. These dynamics, based on human
interaction, can be examined indirectly by
means of various media influencing each
other, thus forming the future, and is what
we normally call tradition. The concept
“tradition” can therefore be defined as “a
diachronic interaction between ideas, insti-
gated by human interaction or reflections
concerning environmental circumstances,
and the existing that influences the interac-
tion between entities in Ihe culture”.
From the interaction between the exist-
ing and the ideas may result an innovation
that is to be regarded as a signal of cultural
change. By investigating innovations con-
clusions can be made, e.g. concerning the
stage of cultural organisation, rise in the
economy or recession, and social move-
ments in the community studied. An inno-
vation can also be attached to an entity pre-
sent in the cullure, e.g. a thing, and give it
another function without altering its form.
The identification of such events can like-
wise be understood as an indication that the
culture had moved. The identification of in-
novations regarding the boat is one of the
aims of this thesis.
Another purpose is to investigate the mu-
tual interaction between culture and nature,
such as examining how Faroe Islanders
have adapted to the cultural and material
circumstances offered by the sea. From this
view it is possible to obtain information
about the level and type of cultural interac-
tion regarding the environmental situation
at sea in the passage of time. Considering
the boat this view especially concentrates
on to what extent men’s ideas about the en-
vironment at sea are reflected in their men-
tal make-up and to evaluate the stage of cul-
tural interaction in this connection.
With regard to these ideas the research of
tradition in connection with a boat is re-
stricted to include some of these media
through which the interaction front the past
to the researcher passes. Both because the
research is concerned with a process in the
past and is therefore heavily drawn on old-
er collections that have not been published
previously and on memoirs, most of which
have been printed before, the main empha-
sis has been to found the presentation on
the tradition handed down (1) orally, (2) in
writing, (3) through pictures or illustrations
and (4) artefacts, (5) the social life, and to a
certain extent on tradition that has been
preserved (6) in action.
The research has been organised in two
sections. ln the fírst part, chapters 1-4, the
rowing boat is examined and described as a
thing in relation to the cultural histoiical
process. This process is pictured by chap-
ters about boat and boat sizes, boat build-
ing, gear on the boat and contacts and di-
vergence on these matters compared to the
development in the neighboring countries.
In the second part, chapters 5-11, the use of
the boat is investigated and described, also
in relation to the cultural historical process
while especially bearing the process of
modernisation in the 19th and Ihe early
20th centuries in mind. The process is pic-
tured by chapters about the number of