Hilma Granqvist

Hilma Granqvist (1890-1972) was a Swedish-Finnish anthropologist who conducted long field studies of Palestinians. She was a student of Edward Westermarck.

tudies

In the 1920s Granqvist arrived at the village of Artas, just outside Bethlehem 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 till 1931 documenting all aspects of village life. In so doing she took hundreds of photographs." [ [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/535/cu1.htm Other Palestines] 24 - 30 May 2001 Al-Ahram Weekly Online]

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) [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20050630085338/http://www.palestinecostumearchive.org/pc_background.htm Palestinian costume – background] ]

References

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)

External links

* [http://www.helsinki.fi/akka-info/tiedenaiset/english/granqvist.html Biography]