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This book chapter investigates transnational cultural encounters that cross the established research areas of Northern European, Nordic, and Scandinavian Studies. Using approaches from Scandinavian research on coastal communities and cultural spaces, the article examines cultural transfer between Norway and Scotland through trade and exchange during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interdisciplinary and transnational approach adopted throughout the paper suggests new perspectives in researching coastal communities in Britain, as part of a wider understanding of cultural encounters between the communities of the North.

Cet article porte sur le rôle du bateau en tant que médiateur des cultures tangible et intangible dans la région de l’Atlantique nord, en comparant la représentation des bateaux et les collections maritimes conservées dans les musées dédiés aux folklores écossais et norvégien. Il explore les similarités et les différences des définitions de la côte comme « lieu maritime » par le biais d’objets, et s’intéresse plus particulièrement aux récits et aux aspects d’une mémoire commune influençant la formation de traditions culturelles régionales et nationales. En liant la théorie du transfert culturel aux études sur la culture matérielle, et à l’aide de l’approche microhistorique de l’Alltagsgeschichte, nous comparerons la façon dont les habitants des Shetland et les Norvégiens occidentaux ont participé à la construction et à leur identification à la culture côtière [kystkultur] par l’entremise d’objets maritimes et narratifs.

This article explores intercultural links between the coastal communities of the North Atlantic region by discussing the cultural and social history of Norwegian objects displayed in regional heritage collections in Orkney and Shetland. The relationship between Norway and the Northern Isles of Scotland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially trading links, is considered using the bentwood box as a way of accessing both tangible and intangible knowledge. Different types of traditional wooden boxes from Shetland, Orkney, Norway, and Iceland are compared using a microhistorical approach, which enables us to consider Norway and Scotland both as individual “ethno-territories” and as part of continuously changing networks of social and cultural contact across the North Atlantic.