Des bateaux et des hommes: objets interculturels et identité régionale en Norvège Occidentale et dans les Îles Shetland: Of boats and men: intercultural objects and regional identity in Western Norway and the Shetland Islands

This paper analyses the role of the boat as a mediator of both tangible and intangible culture in the North Atlantic region by comparing the representation of boats and seafaring collections in local folk-museum exhibitions in Norway and Scotland. It investigates the similarities and differences in terms of how the coast is defined as a ‘seafaring place’ via objects, particularly the narratives and aspects of communal memory that influence the formation of regional and national cultural traditions. By linking the theory of cultural transfer and material culture studies, and using the micro-historical approach of Alltagsgeschichte, the paper compares how Shetlanders and West Norwegians participate in the construction of and identification with coastal culture or kystkultur by way of maritime objects and narratives