The way we feel about being touched – and the way we touch others – are shaped by our personal and generational affective history. Touch inequalities are often transmitted through generations too, a new study shows.
Researchers at UEF and the University of Tampere analysed touch biographies written by ordinary Finnish people of various backgrounds, where they narrate their lives through the ways in which they have touched, been touched, experienced touch and been socialised to touch.
“The Finnish affective history is shaped by war years and childcare ideals, where the absence of a caring touch was prominent,” University Lecturer Taina Kinnunen from the University of Eastern Finland says.
Years of oppression under Russian rule at the turn of the 20th century, followed by a post-independence civil war in 1918 and finally by wars against Russia in 1939–1944 were great tragedies for Finnish families. Moreover, a childcare ideal advising parents to ignore their babies’ cries and to feed them according to a strict schedule was commonly adhered to in Finland up until the 1940s and 50s.
“Remarkably, many older authors describe having suffered from affective coldness and a lack of touch. However, this kind of affective pattern was probably the only way to survive the hard times. The need to manage alone developed into a social virtue,” Kinnunen explains.
Collective affective traumas have continued to haunt younger generations despite the rise of significantly different pedagogical trends and common habits of touching.