416, Two Archipelagos and two islands at the mirror. Sea-ones (Faroe and Mykines, Denmark), Land-ones (Carnia and Sauris, Italy)

 

Left: Figure 54. Faroese men wearing the traditional islander costume of the eighteenth century in the historic event for the St. Olav National Day (Olavsøka), Tórshavn. You see the traditional, and still used, long poles with nets for fowling: the fleyg; Right: Figure 76. Detail of a fresco, outside a house in Forni di Sopra, depicting the departure of an emigrant

In 1976, Emil Thomsen, the Director of the Faroe Isles Review, wrote in his inaugural editorial: «Their isolated location in the midst of jealous tides and currents made their access from the sea treacherous, and only the most eager of spirit and stout of heart would venture the journey. Only a few years ago the Faroes were so little known outside Scandinavia that many people weak in spelling were inclined to place them somewhere along the Nile instead of the North Atlantic.»

Years later, the Danish Academy in Rome (Det Danske Institut for Videnskab Og Kunst I Rom) suggested a stimulating research idea: to compare, from an historical, political, ethnical, geographical, and economical perspective, the remote location of the Faroe Islands in the Northern Atlantic with a comparable Italian territory. This academic proposal laid the groundwork for an international Italian-Danish seminar, which has culminated today in the publication of this volume.

As anthropologists, we are systematically trained to compare cultural realities belonging to distant societies. This study offered a unique opportunity to mirror the socio-cultural survey carried out in the Faroese Archipelago with a comprehensive cultural recognition of Carnia, a mountainous sub-region of the Alps in North-Eastern Italy.

A Mirror of Cultural Indicators and Shared Realities

By deep-diving into the relevant literature and field data, this comparative analysis identifies a series of significant cross-cultural indicators and problematic areas that bridge these "valley and sea islands":

• Geographical Hardships: Extreme isolation, heavy rainfalls, and historical transport and communication difficulties.
• Linguistic Persistence: The survival across centuries of their own specific languages and a rich oral tradition of "evening fire tales" (including the folkloric presence of trølls and sbilfs).
• Socio-Economic Crises: A shared demographic consistency, past conditions of poverty, and the dramatic waves of temporary or permanent emigration that defined both communities until the late 20th century.
• Identity & Architecture: A powerful community identity, administrative autonomy, and the preservation of a rich, spontaneous vernacular architectural apparatus perfectly integrated with the wilderness.

Core Book Structure • Analytical Framework

A. Foundations and Identities

• An historical, geo-climatic, administrative, ethno-anthropological, and linguistic introduction to both the Faroe Islands and Carnia.
• Deciphering the ethno-cultural identities: the Faroes as a resilient small community-nation versus Carnia’s powerful regional alpine identity.

B. Tradition and Structural Change

• The Faroe Islands: The traditional self-sufficient economy of the bygd (fishing, farming, cultivation, fowling, and the grindadráp ritual) transitioning toward modern deep-sea fishing, industrial shipbuilding, and sustainable tourism.
• Carnia: A modern post-industrial economy keeping tight structural ties with the mountain habitat (wood industry, local handicraft, alpine farming), while progressively opening up to targeted touristic development.

C. The Great Crises and Emigration

• A comparative analysis of the Great Faroese Economic Crisis of the 1990s and its demographic impact, mirrored against Carnia's centuries-old history of systematic seasonal and permanent emigration lasting up to the 1960s and 1970s.

D. Extreme Isolation: Mykines and Sauris

• Mykines (Faroe): A maritime island heavily threatened by depopulation, where the harsh man-environment relationship requires a strict respect for natural patterns and dangerous fishing duties.
• Sauris (Carnia): A mountain "island" valley within the alpine archipelago, showcasing an ethno-cultural and linguistic separateness from the rest of Carnia. Established as a German-speaking community in the 13th century by Bavarian farmers, its four high hamlets (reaching 1,400 meters above sea level) remained so isolated and financially independent that they could not afford an outside road until the Great War, with a standard route built only in 1934.

Core Methodological Indicators & Definitive Table of Contents

To establish a rigorous comparative cross-cultural analysis, this research isolates seven core methodological indicators and reading keys. While the ecological differentiations between an Atlantic archipelago and an Alpine mountain system are manifold, the structural analogies between these two worlds are numerous and striking:

• 1. Geo-historical Margins: A nearly identical surface area (1,399 sq. km for the Fær Øer versus 1,220 sq. km for Carnia). Both "archipelagos" share a deep geographical eccentricity and political marginality regarding their respective capital cities and central government territories. They share a history of past poverty and socio-cultural isolation, lasting up to the 1960s for Carnia, and defined in the Faroes by three turning points: the end of the Royal Trade Monopoly (1856), the British occupation during WWII, and the economic crash of the 1990s.
• 2. Transport & Infrastructure: Historical hardships in transport and communications. The Faroese archipelago lacked a connected internal road network until the 1950s, when modern tunnels and bridges began to pierce the fjords. Conversely, apart from isolated enclaves, Carnia's standard alpine carriage roads were mostly established at the end of the 19th century.
• 3. Demographic Trajectories: An equal numerical consistency of approximately 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants for both regions. However, their migratory patterns differ chronologically: the Faroese experienced a very recent emigration wave triggered by the financial crisis of 1989, while Carnia suffered a secular, structural emigration lasting from the Middle Ages until the 1960s and 1970s.
• 4. Administrative Autonomy: A mirrored political achievement occurring simultaneously in 1948. The Fær Øer obtained Home Rule autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark, while Carnia was integrated into the Special Statute Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
• 5. Ecological Economies: Both traditional economic systems were strictly tied to the constraints of the immediate habitat, and both are currently transitioning toward targeted, sustainable, and eco-compatible forms of cultural tourism.
• 6. Language & Spontaneous Architecture: The survival of specific native languages (Faroese and Carnic Friulian), bilingualism, and linguistic teaching in local schools. Both territories display a powerful vitality of cultural traditions and the persistence of a rich, spontaneous vernacular architectural apparatus.
• 7. Oral Literature & Folklore: The preserving of community performance arts: the ancient Faroese chain dance (Føroyskur dansur) paired against the traditional polyphonic villotta carnica. A very tight man-environment relation has allowed the preservation of a shared "fantastic" folkloric apparatus, populated by trølls in the Atlantic and sbilfs in the Alps.

Table of Contents 

1. Preface

2. An ethno-anthropological approach to two cultural distances

3. Historical-geographical introduction

• 3.1. The archipelago of the Fær Øer
• 3.2. Carnia (Cjargne)
• 3.3. Discussion and Comparative Framework

4. The ethnic-cultural and linguistic identities

• 4.1. Fær Øer: a small "community-nation"
• 4.2. Carnia: a strong regional identity
• 4.3. Discussion

5. Man-environment relationship

• 5.1. In the Fær Øer: the sea and the islands
• 5.2. In Carnia: the wood and the mountain
• 5.3. Discussion

6. The two economies between tradition and change

• 6.1. Fær Øer: the bygd and the traditional community subsistence economy
  • 6.1.1. Fishing and grindadráp (the community whale hunting), fowling, cultivation and breeding
  • 6.1.2. The changing economy: oceanic fishing, shipyards, and tourism
• 6.2. Carnia: the traditional economy and alimentary self-sufficiency
  • 6.2.1. The Carnian modern economy and the wood: industry and craftsmanship; tourism
• 6.3. Discussion

7. The great existential crises of yesterday

• 7.1. The great Faroese crisis of the 1990s and the subsequent emigration
• 7.2. Carnia as a land of temporary and permanent emigration up to the 1960s and 1970s
• 7.3. Discussion

8. Two “islands” at the mirror: Mykines (Fær Øer) and Sauris (Carnia)

• 8.1. Mykines (Fær Øer): Extreme maritime isolation, avian resources, and community survival.
• 8.2. Sauris (Carnia): The alpine enclave, high-altitude hamlets, and the preservation of German-Bavarian linguistic separateness.

9. Bibliography

• 9.1. Fær Øer
• 9.2. Carnia

ARCHIPELAGOS AND ISLANDS AT THE MIRROR. SEA-ONES (FAROE and MYKINES, DENMARK), LAND-ONES (CARNIA AND SAURIS, ITALY)

E-Book, paper version in colour, I and II ed., and in black and white, 111 pages, 90 notes, 105 images (66 belong to the Photo Library of the A.)

• 
  E-Book
  https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07217YHJ8
• Colour I Ed.
  https://www.amazon.it/dp/1521472084
• Colour II Ed.

  https://www.amazon.it/dp/1731551932
• "black and white"
  https://www.amazon.it/dp/1095009621

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