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Old Norse literature abounds with descriptions of magic acts that allow ritual specialists of various kinds to manipulate the world around them, see into the future or the distant past, change weather conditions, influence the outcomes of battles, and more. While magic practitioners are known under myriad terms, the most iconic of them is the völva. As the central figure of the famous mythological poem Völuspá (The Prophecy of the Völva), the völva commands both respect and fear. In non-mythological texts similar women are portrayed as crucial albeit somewhat peculiar members of society. Always veiled in mystery, the völur and their kind have captured the academic and popular imaginati...
This book explores the construction of regional identities in the Early Bronze Age through the temporal variation in burial practice in Southwest Norway. Earthen barrows from the regions Etne, Karmøy, Jæren, and Lista are used as the archaeological source for this study. How historically constituted structures together with external practice form part of an open-ended process of identity construction is investigated. Previous research has often used a set, rigid definition of identity, and earthen barrows along the coast of Southwest Norway have therefore frequently been portrayed as part of a southern Scandinavian culture. These perceptions are not necessarily wrong, but neglect the compl...
The Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cosmological framework and towns were formed. This book examines a central backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia. With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of woodlands and alpine regions and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing standardization of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural areas and central markets. Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and e...
How did the academy react to the rise, dominance, and ultimate fall of Germany's Third Reich? Did German professors of the humanities have to tell themselves lies about their regime's activities or its victims to sleep at night? Did they endorse the regime? Or did they look the other way, whether out of deliberate denial or out of fear for their own personal safety? The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich is a collection of groundbreaking essays that shed light on this previously overlooked piece of history. The Betrayal of the Humanities accepts the regrettable news that academics and intellectuals in Nazi Germany betrayed the humanities, and explores what went...
The notion of a superior ‘Germanic’ or ‘Nordic’ race was a central theme in Nazi ideology. But it was also a commonly accepted idea in the early twentieth century, an actual scientific concept originating from anthropological research on the physical characteristics of Europeans. The Scandinavian Peninsula was considered to be the historical cradle and the heartland of this ‘master race’. Measuring the Master Race investigates the role played by Scandinavian scholars in inventing this so-called superior race, and discusses how the concept stamped Norwegian physical anthropology, prehistory, national identity and the eugenics movement. It also explores the decline and scientific discrediting of these ideas in the 1930s as they came to be associated with the genetic cleansing of Nazi Germany. This is the first comprehensive study of Norwegian physical anthropology. Its findings shed new light on current political and scientific debates about race across the globe.
The Performance of Viking Identity in Museums explores the representations and uses of Vikings in museums across Iceland, British Isles and Norway. Drawing on theories from history, philosophy, museology, and sociology, the book analyses how the Viking myth is used by visitors to make sense of present-day society, culture, and politics and the role of museums in this meaning-making process. Demonstrating that the Viking myth is present in collective memory and plays an important role in the construction and modification of collective, national, and personal identities, the book analyses this process through the framework of museums and their visitors. Identifying museums as places where heri...
"Joseph Paxson Iddings (1857-1920) was a central participant in the rise of theoretical petrology. His scientific autobiography, 'Recollections of a Petrologist,' recounts virtually all of his petrological exploits, as well as the ideas and contributions of many of his contemporaries"--
Critical approaches to public archaeology have been in use since the 1980s, however only recently have archaeologists begun using critical theory in conjunction with public archaeology to challenge dominant narratives of the past. This volume brings together current work on the theory and practice of critical public archaeology from Europe and the United States to illustrate the ways that implementing critical approaches can introduce new understandings of the past and reveal new insights on the present. Contributors to this volume explore public perceptions of museum interpretations as well as public archaeology projects related to changing perceptions of immigration, the working classes, and race.
Inspired by transnational research on medieval state formation, this book presents a comprehensive study of the political incorporation and subsequent judicial and administrative integration of Iceland, the Faroes, Shetland, and Orkney, into the Norwegian realm c. 1195-1397.
Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contact examines the discovery and settlement of The New World hundreds and even thousands of years before Christopher Columbus was born.