Saeters in the Norse eastern settlement of østerbygden in southwest Greenland

Sammendrag

Artiklen indledes med en kort gennemgang af Østerbygdens udforskning (Tabel I). Frem til 1986 er der påvist 408 lokaliteter med een eller flere norrøne ruiner, hoved‐sagelig beliggende i relativt let tilgængeligt terræn fra 0–200 m.o.h.

I 1974 påbegyndtes et nordisk arkæologisk projekt med henblik på en systematisk udforskning af Østerbygdens udvikling. Som projektområde valgtes Qodlortoqdalen i det indre af Tunugdliarfikfjorden. Undersøgelserne i årene 1974–79 resulterede i, at antallet af registrerede norrøne ruiner i projektområdet blev mere end en fordoblet; blandt andet blev der fundet en række nye lokaliteter i højlandet (op til 400 m.o.h.), der af forfatteren tolkes som sætre.

Med udgangspunkt i det norske materiale defineres tre typer sætre: Helsætre, mælkesætre og høsletsætre. De nyfundne lokaliteter forsøges sat i relation til disse sætertyper (Tabel II).

Ved en nyvurdering af tilgængeligt arkivmateriale udskilles yderligere 44 lokaliteter i Østerbygden som sandsynlige sætre, hvor helsætrene hovedsagelig findes i de tættest bebyggede områder omkring Tunugdliark‐fik‐ og Igalikqfforden, mælkesætre i knap så tæt bebyggede områder, medens høsletsætre ikke uventet navnlig findes i de marginale områder.

Et væsentligt problem i forbindelse med denne nytolkning er imidlertid, at der mangler arkæologiske og naturvidenskabelige undersøgelser af de behandlede lokaliteter. Tolkningen som sætre bygger således udelukkende på en vurdering af de enkelte lokaliteters beliggenhed i terrænet, udformning og ressourcemuligheder.

Fremtidige undersøgelser må afklare problemerne omkring datering og de enkelte ruiners funktion.     

Domestic Secrets: women and property in Sweden, 1600–1857

This article explores and analyses narratives in social report-books in the context of structural rationalization during the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, which entailed large movements of people both in Sweden and Finland (as it did in other countries of Western Europe). The characteristics of the report-books are that they claim to depict the truth and to give voices to marginalized people with the aim to contribute to social change. The analysis dwells not only on the content of the books, but also on the narrative techniques employed. It is discussed how the authors were tied to their political context and the general discourse of social critique in their rendering of voices. The main questions of this article are: whose voices were paid attention to and how was home narrated and represented?

One kind of narrative content links home attachment to roots in a rural context, where home centres on reproduction of families, territorial claims and nature hugging. It is established through rhetoric of nature and timelessness, fathers passing inheritance on to their sons and a desire for a non-alienated existence in an archaic landscape. The narrative techniques used are based on an invisible narrator and on a travel narration with questions and answers. It is mainly male voices that are paid attention to. Female voices are to some extent heard but marginalized. Female bodily practices and habits are connected to positions as wives and daughters. The fisherman, the hunter, the woodlander and the farmer, are (re)presented as threatened male positions and therefore male bodies will in a near future be out of place. These narratives are framed by a patriarchal discourse where bodies are naturalized and made straight.

Quite another kind of narrative content is forward-looking, dealing with voices in a suburban context. The montage as a narrative technique is systematically used there, combining text and image. The didactic montage is intended to be educational, to enlighten people with the aid of pointers. This calls for activity on the part of the reader/observer, who is supposed to be given the impression of having interpreted the meanings independently. It is based on consciousness-raising as a feminist method for change. This narrative of home is about societal participation and resenting and resisting patriarchal distinctions such as public/private. It is framed by a feminist discourse where bodies are denaturalized and orientated at finding space for the displaced body to expand.     

Population,Households and Fisheries in the Parish of Hvalsnes,Southwestern Iceland, 1750–1850

Abstract

This is an in-depth study of the parish of Hvalsnes, a small fishing community situated on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland, during the period 1750–1850. The study is inspired by the nordic Coastal Region Project carried out in the 1990s, focussing on the relationship between economic factors and household size and structure. With reference to the concept of ecotype, Hvalsnes is compared to a few farming communities in southern and western Iceland as regards a number of economic and demographic factors. Among the features characterizing the Hvalsnes community was the large proportion of crofter and cottar households in relation to those of independent farmer-fishermen; the former constituted a valuable workforce for the commercial cod fisheries on the abundant Reykjanes banks. At the same time, the study reveals that during the winter season the operation of the fishing fleet was highly dependent on seasonal migration from farming areas. In this perspective Hvalsnes appears to be an Icelandic parallel to Lofoten in Norway. A closer view of the techniques and social organization of fishing in the parish discloses significant differences between its three individual sections. It is argued that these differences help to explain why some sections suffered more, in economic and demographic terms, than others from the natural catastrophes and political changes which took place towards the end of the eighteenth century. However, these changes did not alter the general condition of the landless population: cottars by the seaside and living-in servants in the countryside. Among these groups many individuals continued now as before their seasonal migration between the two ecotypes. Tentatively, it is argued that the seasonal exchange of workforce between fishing and farming communities contributed to an efficient use of the labour capacity of their members.     

Coroners' Inquests in an English County, 1600–1800: A Preliminary Survey

Abstract

This article is a preliminary investigation of the work of county coroners in Cheshire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, drawing on the coroners' inquests found in the records of the Court of Great Sessions at Chester. It provides a brief guide to the overall work of the coroners, focusing on the categories of murder, manslaughter, infanticide, accidental death and death by visitation of God. It then goes on to discuss the decision-making processes which coroners and inquest juries were involved in, raising questions about how verdicts finding various categories of death were arrived at. It also includes a brief discussion of the social background of the Cheshire coroners, and also of their possible involvement in county politics, and the possibility that the office enjoyed an enhanced reputation over the later eighteenth century. It adds to a growing body of work on the history of the coroner, but is based on unusually rich archival sources. These sources demonstrate that coroners' inquests and related documentation often provide unexpected evidence on the broader themes of social and cultural history.     

Irish wayside and churchyard crosses 1600–1700

Abstract

This paper provides a list and distribution map of one hundred 17th-century Irish wayside and churchyard crosses together with some indications of their morphology and iconography. Seventeenth century market crosses are not included here as these will be discussed elsewhere. This list, however, can only be considered preliminary as publication of archaeological surveys for each county may increase the numbers at present known and perhaps slightly alter the distributional pattern presented here.     

Trapped in clichés: masculinity,films and tourism in Iceland

When the Icelandic television series ‘Trapped’ was aired it instantly garnered worldwide attention. The main character, a rugged Icelandic man, is presented as being one with the harsh cold landscape. This article demonstrates how visual materials, like ‘Trapped,’ have become extremely important in the presentation of Iceland to the outside world, as well as working to present Iceland as a tourism destination. Furthermore, we evidence how ‘Trapped’ identifies with the Nordic noir genre. Our analysis shows that the series ‘Trapped’ and recent Icelandic films rest on the strong and entrenched association of Icelandicness with maleness, while also reflecting on existing stereotypes about Iceland and the Icelandic people as being exotic, both of which have become reanimated through the tourism industry. Thus, visual material such as ‘Trapped’ constitutes a part of, and becomes in and of itself symbolic of recurrent masculinity in Iceland. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of framing the ‘official’ production of locations as tourism destinations by both state and commercial industries in relation to other cultural productions that often also engage with mobile historical stereotyping and commercial attempts at nation branding.     

Money and robbers, 900–1100

To robbers and thieves money is more tempting than other commodities. There was more money in Europe in 1100 than in 900. So we should expect, other things being equal, an increase in robbery in these two centuries. This expectation is confirmed by a survey of recorded cases; and it finds further corroboration in the fortunes of hagiographical motifs relating to thieves.     

Fishing Booths and Fishing Strategies in Medieval Iceland: an Archaeofauna from the of Akurvík,North-West Iceland

Abstract

Excavations in 1990 in North-West Iceland documented a stratified series of small turf structures and associated midden deposits at the eroding beach at Akurvík which date from the 11th–13th to the 15th–16th centuries AD. The site reflects a long series of small discontinuous occupations, probably associated with seasonal fishing. The shell sand matrix had allowed excellent organic preservation and an archaeofauna of over 100,000 identifiable fragments was recovered. The collections are dominated by fish, mainly Atlantic cod, but substantial amounts of whale bone suggest extensive exploitation of strandings or active whaling. This paper briefly summarizes the excavation results, presents a zooarchaeological analysis of the two largest radiocarbon dated contexts, and places the Akurvík collections in the wider context of intra-Icelandic and inter-regional trade in preserved fish. Analysis of the Akurvík collection and comparison with other Icelandic collections from both inland and coastal sites dating from 9th to 19th centuries AD both reinforces evidence for an early, pre-Hanseatic internal Icelandic fish trade and supports historical documentation of Icelandic participation in the growing international fish trade of the late Middle Ages.