Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 46

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ONCE WERE MEN
without any reference to social and cultural
contexts, and the four groups in question
represent different new steps forward in the
North Atlantic maritime Europeans’ walk
through history (Andersen, 1979). Today
young people have several competing rep-
resentations and ideals of masculinity, all
of them relating to ‘non-masculine’ and fem-
inine identities as well as to the altemative
masculinities.
In the end the differences and similari-
ties among men and masculinities are dis-
cussed and analysed, leading to some con-
cluding remarks on contemporary men’s
identities and cultural capital.
This article is based on the paper Where
have the 'Real Men ’gone? - presented at the
Nordic Youth Education Seminar Social,
Cultural and Individual Capital and Identity
in Mikkeli, Finland April 3-6 2006.
Methodology
A nationwide survey (2003) providing me
with essential quantitative data on Faroese
youth cultures and lifestyles serves as back-
ground material and framework for this
text’s composition and main questions. The
survey in question was a part of my anthro-
pological PhD project. The survey includes
all students from 9lh grade (14-15 years old)
at all the lower secondary schools (compul-
sory) of the Faroe Islands. Around 700 valid
questionnaires were received in my survey,
carried out with the assistance of Mr P.
Weihe, which is an impressive quantitiy in
the Faroe Islands. Semi-structured inter-
views with pupils from 8th grade in two
schools in Thorshavn (2003-4) have also
provided me with minor amounts of valu-
able information for the analysis of con-
temporaiy masculinities.
Faroese youth research is a relatively
new topic with only a few projects in its
repertoire, making it a puzzling task to por-
tray young Faroese men of the past. The data
material shaping this article is therefore a
mix of fíeldwork notes, observations, local
media texts (from television, newspapers
and the internet), and general reflections on
the social and cultural make-up of the Faroe
Islands anno 2006. My historical perspec-
tive draws from well-known historical and
ethnographic documents from the Faroe Is-
lands - scientific and popular books, arti-
cles, essays, songs, ballads and other
sources.
This text is discussing selected parts of
the data from my PhD research, but is also
a portrait of my personal reflections on cer-
tain societal issues characterizing Faroese
society today. The empirical material openly
presented in my text is very limited, too light
to justify all my general points, and I con-
sider the text to be a qualified starting-point
for future in-depth research on young men’s
identities and cultural capital i the Faroe Is-
lands. It raises more questions than it pres-
ents answers. I try out some basic theories
by deduction, hoping to contribute to the un-
derstanding of the relation between late-
modem society and masculine identities in
the Faroe Islands.
Premodern society
Faroe Islanders were usually described as
físhermen and sailors, sometime farmers,
even whalers, but almost never as modern