Rave på högfjället

Abstract

On the basis of participant observation of a three day rave at a Norwegian mountain hotel, I pose the question: what can compel 600 youths up in a mountain to dance for three days? In the article a few possible explanations are discussed. One is that the self-organized rave culture can be seen as a subcultural attempt to compensate for shortcomings in today's western society — e.g. the scarcity of attractive adult examples and the lack of meeting places for ideological dialogue. Supported by research in developmental psychology, I interpret the abandoned dancing as a striving for integration, an active birdging of opposites. Pairs of opposites which the young ravers attempt to join are: body—soul, past—future, the primitive—the highly technological, female—male, and daughter—mother. In the article I have mainly dwelled on the dichotomy female—male. I conclude by suggesting that the upgrading of the physical, which is what the house-culture is built on, also contains a deeper dimension of "the feminine" — the female body is no longer exclusively young, strong and aggressive (as in the eighties), but may also be motherly.