Hilma Granqvist
Encyclopedia
Hilma Granqvist was a Swedish-speaking Finnish
anthropologist who conducted long field studies of Palestinians. She was a student of Edward Westermarck.
in the then British Mandate of Palestine as part of her research on the women of the Old Testament. She had gone to Palestine "in order to find the Jewish ancestors of Scripture. What she found instead was a Palestinian people with a distinct culture and way of life. She therefore changed the focus of her research to a full investigation of the customs, habits and ways of thinking of the people of that village. Granqvist ended up staying until 1931 documenting all aspects of village life. In so doing she took hundreds of photographs."
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
anthropologist who conducted long field studies of Palestinians. She was a student of Edward Westermarck.
Studies
In the 1920s Granqvist arrived at the village of Artas, just outside BethlehemBethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
in the then British Mandate of Palestine as part of her research on the women of the Old Testament. She had gone to Palestine "in order to find the Jewish ancestors of Scripture. What she found instead was a Palestinian people with a distinct culture and way of life. She therefore changed the focus of her research to a full investigation of the customs, habits and ways of thinking of the people of that village. Granqvist ended up staying until 1931 documenting all aspects of village life. In so doing she took hundreds of photographs."
Example of wedding song, recorded by Granqvist
"God knows that our outfit today
A hundred ‘royal’ robes which we have cut
For the bride to whom we are betrothed.
God knows – today is our outfit
A green and a ‘royal’ [malak] dress we have bought
For the bride to whom we are betrothed!
Ten jackets [taqsireh] have we bought
For the beloved ones in order to appease her"
(Granqvist: Marriage conditions in a Palestinian village, vol.2 1931: p.42)
Publications
- 1931: Marriage conditions in a Palestinian village : I. 200 p. Ill. Helsingfors : Societas Scientiarum Fennica
- 1935: Marriage conditions in a Palestinian village : II. 366p. Ill. Helsingfors : Societas Scientiarum Fennica
- 1947: Birth and childhood among the Arabs: studies in a Muhammadan village in Palestine, Helsingfors; Söderstrøm Reprinted 1975, New York : AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-57447-5
- 1950: Child problems among the Arabs : studies in a Muhammadan village in Palestine, Helsingfors : Söderstrøm
- 1965: "Muslim death and burial : Arab customs and traditions studies in a village in Jordan," 287 p. Helsingfors : Societas Scientiarum Fennica
- 1981: Portrait of a Palestinian village : the photographs of Hilma Granqvist editor : Karen Seger ; with a foreword by Shelagh Weir, 175 p. Mainly ill. London : Third World Centre for Research and Publishing ISBN 0-86199-006-4
About Hilma Granqvist
- Jarkko Willman (1997): Ideal och verklighet: Hilma Granqvists studier av "Kvinnorna i Gamla testamentet" åren 1921-1925 Åbo : Åbo Akademi ISBN 952-12-0033-2, (In Swedish)