Social approaches to Viking studies

About this book

Social Approaches to Viking Studies deals with various themes drawn from social history and social theory, particularly from anthropology. Historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists from Scandinavia and North America discuss early medieval Scandinavian societies, deriving their inspiration and analytical approaches from structuralism, cosmology, feminism, economic anthropology, and Marxism, among others. The effects of nationalism and Victorian gender ideologies on past historical writings are explored and new directions for future work are suggested. Whether discussing Icelandic Family Sagas or Westland bronze cauldrons, all the contributors explore social meanings in, and organisation of, Viking societies in new and stimulating ways.