Seasons as Rhythms on the Kemi River in Finnish Lapland

Abstract

This article argues for an approach to the seasons as rhythms that emerge in the articulation of human and non-human processes. First, it contrasts two anthropological conceptions of the seasons, as temporal blocks and as rhythmic dynamics, and subsequently indicates how life on the Kemi River conforms more to the latter approach. It goes on to show that the seasons exist in the context of many other rhythms, for instance those of discharge and water level in the river. Finally, it explains how river dwellers not only adapt to the rhythms of river and landscape, but in practising their activities they also shape these rhythms. Therefore, the seasons and the plethora of longer and shorter rhythms of which they form part are simultaneously ‘social’ and ‘natural’.

Keywords:

• Seasonality
• Lapland
• rivers
• rhythms
• resonance

Acknowledgements

The development of this argument has greatly benefited from comments and suggestions by Jeanne Feaux de la Croix, Tim Ingold, Andrew Whitehouse and two anonymous reviewers. The research has been supported by Angus Pelham Burn and the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Lapland Fund and Paavo Koskinen Fund).