FRONTIER RESEARCH IN TORNEDALEN

Abstract

This chapter highlights frontier research in Tornedalen. In view of the general alignment of the research carried on by ethnologists, it is a matter of course that a concentration of interest to regions with administrative boundaries of such a marked character as, for example, national frontiers may often give a sharper relief to the problems considered. The interest in questions around such boundaries here leads to inter-Nordic collaboration. This is what has happened in Tornedalen, the frontier zone between Finland and Sweden. The problems around a frontier dividing a coherent settled area make themselves felt in all sectors of human community life, and, they cannot be investigated by a single discipline. The national frontier in Tornedalen divides a uniform linguistic area. Parts of Swedish Norrbotten are now the only homogeneous Finnish-speaking area outside of Finland, and they, thus, constitute a very valuable area for studies in the Finnish language. As Tornedalen unites Finland and Sweden, a Fenno-Swedish research group is a natural starting point. The frontier problems obviously constitute a central task for research. There is probably not a better field for such a task in the whole of Europe.