23 research outputs found
Negotiating normativities: âOdin from Lejreâ as challenger of hegemonic orders
This article focuses on some bodily features of the figurine called âOdin from Lejreâ. Some corporal characteristics convey an ambivalent touch to the interpretation of the miniature. So, for example, shows the clothing close resemblance to the late Iron Age female dress. This, combined with facial attributes that have been interpreted as a moustache, can be seen as a negotiation of the contemporary hetero-normative gender order. Moreover, the eyes of the figure demonstrate certain irregularities, maybe signifying differences in the visual capacities of the eyes. This corporal exceptionality in relation to (todayâs) notions of body-normativity may imply that the Viking Age abled body sometimes was extended to include reduced visual capacity. The processing of both gender-normativity and body-normativity in one and the same precious item, may imply that the high-ranked setting of Lejre included performative practices that were negotiating both heteronormative and body-normative hegemonic orders
Viking Mortuary Citations
Introducing the European Journal of Archaeologyâs special issue âMortuary Citations: Death and Memory in the Viking Worldâ, this article outlines the justification and theoretical framework underpinning a new set of studies on Viking-age mortuary and commemorative practice as strategies of mortuary citation. The contributions to the collection are reviewed in relation to strengths and weaknesses in existing research and broader themes in mortuary archaeological research into memory work in past societies
Introduction to âBinary Bindsâ: Deconstructing Sex and Gender Dichotomies in Archaeological Practice
YesGender archaeology has made significant strides toward deconstructing the hegemony of binary categorizations. Challenging dichotomies such as man/woman, sex/gender, and biology/culture, approaches informed by poststructuralist, feminist, and queer theories have moved beyond essentialist and universalist identity constructs to more nuanced configurations. Despite the theoretical emphasis on context, multiplicity, and fluidity, binary starting points continue to streamline the spectrum of variability that is recognized, often reproducing normative assumptions in the evidence. The contributors to this special issue confront how sex, gender, and sexuality categories condition analytical visibility, aiming to develop approaches that respond to the complexity of theory in archaeological practice. The papers push the ontological and epistemological boundaries of bodies, personhood, and archaeological possibility, challenging a priori assumptions that contain how sex, gender, and sexuality categories are constituted and related to each other. Foregrounding intersectional approaches that engage with ambiguity, variability, and difference, this special issue seeks to âde-containâ categories, assumptions, and practices from âbindingâ our analytical gaze toward only certain kinds of persons and knowledges, in interpretations of the past and practices in the present
Oscar Montelius och kvinnans frigörelse
Oscar Montelius, förgrundsgestalten i svensk arkeologi och den typologiska metodens fader, var pÄ sin tid djupt engagerad i arbetet för kvinnans frigörelse. Han var en flitig skribent som ville ge lÀsarna »en riktigare bild» av kvinnans emancipation
Viking Age Hair
A study of hair in the Viking Age. The article draws on medieval Icelandic and Scandinavian texts for interpretation. Further information is taken from pictoral representations of viking hair styles and decoration, hairdressing artefacts, figurines and actual remains of hair
Affective interventions and âthe hegemonic otherâ in runestones from VĂ€stergötland and Södermanland, Sweden
In the eleventh century AD, the Scandinavian countries were in the final stage of the process of conversion to Christianity. Local and regional processes of negotiations towards a Christian hegemony took various courses in different parts of Scandinavia. There are few substantial indications that social tensions resulted in violence. Rather, archaeological evidence indicates a gradual change. This paper highlights how these processes of negotiations were expressed by counter-hegemonic groups that took advantage of the affective affordances of runestones. By raising specific runestones, these non-Christian groups were part of an agonistic political process, as described by the political philosopher Chantal Mouffe