A new collection of scientific papers entitled “Wood and Man in Northern Europe from Prehistory to the Present Day” has been released as part of the National History Museum of Latvia’s series of scientific publications.
The nearly 300-page volume will be launched on 14 December at 15.00 at the LNVM storage facility on Pulka iela 8.
The collection is a compilation of research presented at an interdisciplinary conference held at the LNVM in September 2022. The conference, “Wood and Man in Northern Europe from Prehistory to the Present Day”, highlighted the constantly dynamic relationship between humans, trees, and forests over a long period of history, showcasing the everyday, legal, and economic aspects of the topic while also viewing it from ecological, aesthetic, and artistic perspectives.
The “Wood and Man in Northern Europe from Prehistory to the Present Day” conference was highly interdisciplinary, and as a result, the authors of the collection include not only historians, archaeologists, and ethnographers, but also geologists and geographers, forestry scientists and wood industry practitioners, anthropologists, literary scholars, folklorists, musicologists, art historians, and researchers from other fields. Both the exhibition and the conference provided a concentrated look at the broad thematic interpretive possibilities of the relationship between man and wood.
Although almost every topic in the collection – sacred trees and forests, the history of export and trade, the making of wooden household objects, the history of Latvian industry, or others – has been touched upon to a greater or lesser extent in researchers' previous work, when brought together, these papers more fully characterise the true versatility of the relationship between humans and wood/forests.
Not only today, but also in previous centuries, there has been a constant need to perceive the forest as a usable resource; however, parallel to this, economic, aesthetic, and even sacral arguments for preserving wood have existed, which have been increasingly and convincingly supplemented by ecological considerations over the last hundred years. The volume vividly highlights examples from the past of the sustainable and full-scale use of wood resources – an excellent understanding of the properties of wood and its diverse applications, smart processing, and the “zero-waste technology” that existed in traditional farming conditions. The papers and research also highlight the quality of life, aesthetic, ethical, even sacral and philosophical arguments that cause us to see more in wood and forests than just a usable resource.
Among the authors of the 27 papers included in the LNVM collection are geologist Dr. geol. Ervīns Lukševičs, historians Gundega Skagale, Dr. hist. Anita Čerpinska, Dr. hist. Mārīte Jakovļeva, archaeologist Dr. hist. Vitolds Muižnieks, ethnographers Jānis Šabanovs, Dr. art. Ieva Pīgozne, Una Bērente, Dr. hist. Mārtiņš Kuplais, art historians Dr. art. Inese Sirica, Anita Meinarte, Anete Ulmane, musicologist Dr. art. Inese Žune, geographer Dr. geogr. Laimdota Kalniņa, dendrochronology specialist Dr. biol. Māris Zunde, industrial history researcher Edmunds Krastiņš, AS “Latvijas Finieris” board member Māris Būmanis, forestry specialist Armands Ķiploks, chemist Indra Tuņa, environmental journalist Anitra Tooma, poet and translator Ivars Šteinbergs, anthropologist Liene Rācene-Riekstiņa, and theatre critic and researcher Kitija Balcare. The compilers of the collection are Sanita Kalna, Head of the LNVM Ethnography Department, and Jānis Šabanovs, Chief Curator of the collection.
The creation of the book was supported by AS “Latvijas Finieris”.
The new edition “Wood and Man in Northern Europe from Prehistory to the Present Day” will be available for purchase at the LNVM shop at Brīvības bulvāris 32.