No description available.

No description available.

The Highland Clearances have featured in many historical analyses over the past thirty years and have particularly attracted the attention of socio-economic historians interested in the study of agricultural changes, their causes and multi-faceted impact on the Highland region and society. Yet it seems that the increasingly refined knowledge that the period now enjoys has hardly percolated down to the popular interpretation given of the events. The present study concerns itself with the popular representations of the Highland Clearances which, to a large extent, are consensual and are revealing of the collective attitudes towards the period, especially in the crofting districts. The first part concentrates on the historiographical background of the period since the nineteenth century, so as to establish the fund of knowledge gradually accumulated on the times, the standpoints adopted by the various historical currents and the evolution in historical methods and perspective. To convey the collective perception on the Clearances, three areas are selected: twentieth-century Scottish fiction, political writings and the museum world. Through the individual analysis of each, the themes, elements and viewpoints which have been given priority, will emerge. The popular representation of the Clearances yields as much information on the way people see their past as on current attitudes and concerns since it is, more often than not, recycled to fit a particular reading. It is also, because of its consistency and its recurrence, a mark of the significance of the period in the collective memory and sense of identity of the inhabitants of the crofting districts.

De svenska torparna var en delmängd av det obesuttna folket, en samhällsklass som var särskilt utbredd under 1700 och 1800-talen. Torparna ägde ingen egen mark utan fick i stället bo i små och enkla torp på någon annans mark i utbyte mot betalning, antingen i pengar eller dagsverke. Torparna, särskilt de i Harbo, var oftast tvungna att ägna sig åt många olika sysslor för att få ekonomin att gå ihop. Det arkeologiska intresset för torp har traditionellt sett inte mötts med särskilt mycket entusiasm, till stor del på grund av de är relativt moderna och därför inte ansetts lämpliga att undersöka arkeologiskt. Över de senaste decennierna har denna uppfattning långsamt börjat skifta, med flera forskare som ägnar sig åt fälten historisk och samtidsarkeologi. Denna uppsats fokuserar på två torp i Harbo socknen och ämnar att belysa torparnas sociala position utifrån kyrkoböcker och historiska kartor. Utöver detta kommer torplämningarna att undersökas i person för att avgöra bevaringen av dessa, samt för att notera eventuella ytterligare fynd på platsen. Slutligen kommer jag diskutera resultaten av undersökningen såväl som värdet av att studera torp arkeologiskt. / The Swedish crofters were a subset of the unpropertied people, a social class especially prevalent during the 18th and 19th centuries. The crofters owned no ground of their own but were instead allowed to live in small and simple crofts on someone else’s land in exchange for payments, either in form of money or labour. The crofters, especially true for the ones in Harbo, usually had to delve into many different occupations to try to make ends meet. The archaeological interest for crofts has traditionally not been met with much enthusiasm, in large because of them being relatively modern and therefore not seen as fit for archaeological evaluations. Over the past decades this sentiment has slowly begun to change, with many scientists devoting themselves to the subfield of historical and present-day archaeology which places a particular focus on these remains. This essay focuses on two crofts in Harbo socknen and aims to shed light on the crofters’ social position and existence using written church records and historical maps. Moreover, the remains of the crofts will be examined in person as to study the preservation of these, as well as to note eventual additional findings. Finally, I will discuss the findings of my study as well as discuss the importance of the archaeological study of crofts.

Jag gör ett urval genom tid och rum och visar det jag funnit intressant, märkligt och vackert. Det är inte min avsikt att transformera, restaurera eller renovera. Jag vill istället väcka intresse, synliggöra och förmedla en bild av en arkitektur som oftast tas för givet; i det vanliga, alldagliga och oansenliga finns det en historia att berätta. / I unravel pieces of Swedish building history from different places in time and space, and show what I have found interesting, strange and beautiful. It is not my intention to transform, restore or renovate. Instead, I want to evoke interest, visualize and convey an image of an architecture that is often taken for granted; in the ordinary, plain and commonplace, there is a story to be told.