Swedish fermented herring as a marker of rural identity: the Alfta surströmmingsskiva

ABSTRACT

The Alfta surströmmingsskiva is the largest event celebrating the Swedish specialty of fermented herring, surströmming. The fish ferments naturally and the smell has been described as the most repulsive in the world. With material from qualitative interviews, a questionnaire and participatory fieldwork I analyze the cultural importance of this event and the food itself. Food and identity have been much researched and the case at hand contributes by displaying a case of how a “challenging” food is used in this context. In this example, surströmming becomes a participatory symbol of regional rural identity. Ingesting it expresses the cultural values of simplicity, egalitarianism, the natural, belonging and community and a rural counterculture. This is done in a direct opposition to urban values, represented by the capital Stockholm. The result is that taste and commensality is construed as a political event.

KEYWORDS:

• Surströmming
• rural identity
• belonging
• Norrland
• commensality
• counter-culture
• regionalism
• disgust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For instance, in 2018 Aftonbladet reports that a Norwegian school was evacuated because of the smell (“350 norska elever skickades hem – på grund av surströmming” 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mathias Ephraim Nygaard

Mathias Ephraim Nygaard (PhD Aberdeen) is associate professor at the Newman Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, where he teaches religious studies and philosophy. At present his main research interests are sacrifice, religious ecstasy, and death and dying. He has done research in Scandinavia, Germany and Japan.