Kulturmøte i museal tekstilsamling. Et innblikk i kvinneliv og -virke på Sunnmøre ca. 1800 til tidlig 1900‐tall

Summary In my thesis, I write about cultural meeting in the Sunnmøre Museum textile collection, and women’s life and work in the Sunnmøre region ca. 1800 to early 20th-century. I have searched for traces of cultural meetings in the material, by using a micro-history-perspective and Ragnar Pedersen’s form-and-function method called “The scythe”. I have registered and analyzed 22 garments from the museum to find out if a cultural meeting has taken place. Has Danish and European fashion influenced how the garments look like, and what they are made of? Which traces are to be found in the fabric and cut? Where do the traces come from? Are various social groups represented in the material, and does the garments display inequalities on the basis of social status? What other cultural meetings turn out in the material? The answers give a glimpse of women’s life and work in the Sunnmøre region in the 19th century, where especially cotton and the sewing machine turns out to be cultural meeting phenomenon. With The scythe-method I have split up the material in features in a hierarchy, to find different degrees of norms trough a descriptive presentation of the garments and an analysis of the presented material. In conclusion, I find that there are several cultural meetings in the material, as well as the transition from traditional to fashion costume in the Sunnmøre region