The Farm as a Social Arena (eBook)

Liv Helga Dommasnes, Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, Alf Tore Hommedal (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2016 | 1. Auflage
324 Seiten
Waxmann Verlag GmbH
978-3-8309-8552-5 (ISBN)

Infos

'The Farm as a Social Arena' focusses on the social life of farms from prehistory until c. 1700 AD, based mainly, but not exclusively, on archaeological sources. All over Europe people have lived on farms, at least from the Bronze Age onwards. The papers presented here discuss farms in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Germany. Whether isolated or in hamlets or villages, farms have been important elements of the social structure for thousands of years. Farms were workplace and home for their inhabitants, women, men and children, and perhaps extended families - frequently sharing their space with domestic animals. Sometimes important events such as feasts, religious services and funerals also took place here. The household thus became a multi-faceted arena, which brought together a variety of community members that both shaped - and were shaped by - its social dynamics. At times work and other activities defined by the social arena that was the farm even affected long-term developments of society as such.
With contributions by: Birgitta Berglund, Timo Bremer, Timothy Carlisle, Liv Helga Dommasnes, Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, Alf Tore Hommedal, Karen Milek, Emma Nordström, Kristin Armstrong Oma, Helge Sørheim and Inger Storli.

Inhalt

Book Cover 1
Imprint 4
Preface 5
Contents 7
Introduction: The farm as a social arena (Liv Helga Dommasnes) 9
What is a farm? 10
Former research on the farm in Norway 11
Recent developments 13
The farm as a social arena 14
Papers and approaches 15
Why the farm? 19
Bibliography 20
Sheep, dog and man. Multi-species becomings leading to new ways of living in Early Bronze Age longhouses on Jæren, Norway (Kristin Armstrong Oma) 23
Abstract 23
Zusammenfassung 23
Changed way of living, changed way of building 24
Three-aisled longhouses – the research discourse of indoor stalling 25
Bronze Age house typology in relation to Rogaland houses 26
Finding a house shared by humans and animals 30
Did animals live in the Early Bronze Age houses of Rogaland? 31
Historical accounts of keeping sheep in Western Norway 34
Situating the Bronze Age farm in the wider environment 35
Faunal remains from Forsandmoen and Kvåle 36
Sheep in Bronze Age Europe – general trends 37
Wool textiles in graves 39
Primacy of sheep in Rogaland 40
Sheep and their social strategies 41
The domination discourse unbound 42
Trust, socialisation and habituation embedded in the architecture 43
Bibliography 46
Unlocking identities. Keys and locks from Iron Age farms in eastern Sweden (Emma Nordström) 53
Abstract 53
Zusammenfassung 53
Introduction 54
Material, method and outline of the study 55
Vallhagar 57
Granby-Hyppinge 63
Locked doors and chests in the Icelandic Sagas 67
The keys to the farm 70
Unlocking identities 72
Acknowledgements 73
Understandings – burial practice, identity and social ties. The Horvnes Iron Age burials, a peephole into the farming society of Helgeland, North-Norway (Birgitta Berglund) 77
Abstract 77
Zusammenfassung 77
The puzzling Horvnes burials 78
The Horvnes burials and the farming society 79
The magnate farm Sandnes 80
The Horvnes graves: Burial practices, analyses and presentations of the buried individuals 83
The Horvnes East grave: burial practices, analyses and presentations of the buried individuals 91
Towards a new understanding of the Horvnes burials 96
New perspectives of the Iron Age farming society and burial customs at the coast of Helgeland 101
Acknowledgements 102
Bibliography 102
Individual lifeworlds and social structured societies in Merovingian settlements from the Munich Gravel Plain (Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann) 105
Abstract 105
Zusammenfassung 105
Introduction 105
Farms and settlements 108
The main source for social structure of early medieval society: Graves 116
Contemporary written sources 119
Conclusion and closing remarks 120
Bibliograhpy 121
One thousand years of tradition and change on two West-Norwegian farms AD 200–1200 (Liv Helga Dommasnes and Alf Tore Hommedal) 127
Abstract 127
Zusammenfassung 127
Introduction 127
The monuments 134
Becoming European 144
Tradition, change and bases of power 152
Some conclusions 161
Bibliography 163
A shattered farm: Changes in making space from pagan to Christian Norway (Kristin Armstrong Oma) 171
Abstract 171
Zusammenfassung 171
From pagan to Christian farms 172
From space to place 172
Animals and their changing ontological status 179
Posthumanism – or prehumanism? Animals in the pagan Norse universe 181
From pagan to Christian – changes in ontological status 183
Animals in the early Christian theology 183
Changes in the nature of being? 184
Bibliography 187
House, farmyard and landscape as social arena in a time of transition (Helge Sørheim) 191
Abstract 191
Zusammenfassung 191
Research focus and approaches 192
What creates the social character? 192
Iron Age and Medieval houses and farm in Norway, a short review 193
Tradition, conservatism? – why was the corner-timbering technique not used earlier? 196
Routines, rituals, habitus 198
Territories, space, home and building tradition 199
Borders, roles 200
The house and social levels 202
Interior of the house 204
The new farm plan 207
The towns 209
Conclusion 210
Between chiefdom and kingdom. A case study of the Iron Age farm Borg in Lofoten, Arctic Norway (Inger Storli) 219
Abstract 219
Zusammenfassung 219
Introduction: Borg farm and its people 219
Some comments on archaeology and archaeologists 221
The archaeology of Borg 223
Borg I 224
Rich farms and their location 227
Court sites in Lofoten 230
The hall and its meaning 232
A possible high seat 234
On the scent of a line of princes? 236
From Borg to Iceland? 238
Borg between chiefdom and kingdom 239
Bibliography 240
Constructing society in Viking Age Iceland: Rituals and power (Timothy Carlisle and Karen Milek) 245
Abstract 245
Zusammenfassung 245
Introduction 246
The role of ritual performance in Viking Age belief systems 248
Possible structured house deposits at Aðalstræti 16, Reyjkjavík 252
Possible structured house deposits at Hofstaðir, Mývatnssveit 256
Possible structured house deposit at Vatnsfjörður, Westfjords 259
Structured house deposits in a social perspective 262
Conclusions: Structured house deposits, domestic space, and society 265
Bibliography 266
The social structures of High Medieval rural settlements. An example from the Northern Rhineland, Germany (Timo Bremer) 273
Abstract 273
Zusammenfassung 274
Introduction 275
The rural space of the northern Rhineland in the High Middle Ages 277
Archaeological excavations in Pier, its backcountry and the environment 279
The settlement formation in the research area before the High Middle Ages 280
High Medieval settlement structures in Pier 283
Sociological interpretation of the High Medieval features 289
Conclusions 292
Bibliography 293
“Being a vicar at the end of the world”. The priesthood at Alstahaug vicarage in North-Norway presents its identity through the household and daily life before AD 1750 (Birgitta Berglund) 297
Abstract 297
Zusammenfassung 297
The approach 298
Archaeological excavations and written sources 301
How did the priesthood present itself through the delights of the table? 304
Cooking pots and pans 308
How did the priesthood present itself through personal items? 314
How did the priesthood present itself through the buildings? 316
Concluding remarks and perspectives – presenting, producing and maintaining identity 318
Epilogue 320
Bibliography 320
Authors and editors 323

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.12.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
• ISBN-10: 3-8309-8552-5 / 3830985525
• ISBN-13: 978-3-8309-8552-5 / 9783830985525