Book Series Women of the Past, vol. 4

Gendering the Nordic Past

Dialogues Between Perspectives

Unn Pedersen, Marianne Moen, Lisbeth Skogstrand (eds)

  • Pages: approx. 280 p.
  • Size:216 x 280 mm
  • Illustrations:9 b/w, 16 col., 10 tables b/w.
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2025


Pre-order*
  • € 110,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-60887-7
  • Paperback
  • Forthcoming (Jul/25)
image/svg+xml
Open Access


Engaging with core aims such as mapping representation of gender and diversity in the past and increasing awareness of how this interplays with the present, the volume constitutes a crucial contribution to the wider trend of rejuvenating academic interest in questions of past gender and identity.

BIO

The contributors to this volume constitute a mixture of established and early career researchers, thus achieving a balance of perspectives and approaches. The collective publication record for our contributors include high-ranking journals and significant impact articles.

The editors have a proven track-record of working together on other, similar projects (including book projects) and are moreover all closely involved in the project from which the book originates.

Summary

The idea of the Nordic nations as champions of gender equality is firmly rooted in today’s perceptions of society. But how does such a modern comprehension influence our perceptions of history? Does our understanding of gender impact on our perceptions of the past? And do the ways in which we gender the past have an effect on our present identities?

From the Stone Age to the Early Modern period, and from warriors and queens to households and burials, this groundbreaking volume draws together research conducted as part of the project Gendering the Nordic Past, an inter-Nordic collaboration aimed at (re)evaluating and revitalising the field of gender studies in the region. The chapters gathered in this volume, contributed by archaeologists and historians, theologians, art historians, and specialists in gender studies, aim to offer novel perspectives on the ways in which we gender the past. While many of the chapters focus explicitly on the Nordic countries, comparisons are also drawn with other regions in order to provide both internal and external views on the role of the collective past in present Nordic identities. The result, presented here, is an essential dialogue into the importance of gender in creating and maintaining past identities, as well as a new understanding of how the identities that we construct for the past can relate to heritage narratives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1. Gendering the Nordic Past: Dialogues Between Perspectives
Unn Pedersen, Marianne Moen, and Lisbeth Skogstrand

The Nordic Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age

2. Settlement, Technology and Transmission of Knowledge: Early Mesolithic Family Structure as a Key to Understand Long-term Social Stability and Non-change
Ingrid Fuglestvedt

3. Why Patrilocal Female Exogamy? A Critical View on Kinship in The Nordic Bronze Age
Lene Melheim

4. A Network of Girls: Marriage Alliances in Roman Period Scandinavia
Lisbeth Skogstrand

5. ‘Body, Doorway that You Are’: Gendering in Fourth to Sixth Century AD Voss and Hardanger
Elisabeth Aslesen

6. Golden Revelations: Revisiting the Richly Furnished Graves of the Migration Period in Southern Norway
Marie Dave Amundsen

7. Women, Warriors and the Negotiation of Identity in Migration Period Scandinavia
Ingunn Røstad

The Viking Age

8. Another Story? Returning to the Oseberg Ship Burial
Unn Pedersen

9. A Völva or Seiðmaðr in Finland? Cultural Creolization as a Problem for Interpretations
Anna Wessman, Frog, and Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson

10. Gender and Relationality in the Viking Age: Mortuary Archaeology Beyond Grave-goods
Sarah Croix

11. The Spaces in Between: Exploring the Interpretative Potential of Ungendered Graves
Marianne Moen

The Nordic Middle Ages and Beyond

12. Textiles and Texts: Gendering the Medieval Church
Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir

13. Gender and Ornamental Practices, c. 1000–1350: Re-assessing the Interpretative History
Ragnhild M. Bø

14. Gender and Work under the Arctic Circle: Household Perspective on Early Modern Economies in the North
Hilde Sandvik

15. Dissolving Dichotomies: On the Necessity of Integrating Saami, Nordic, and Feminist Gender Archaeology
Marte Spangen

The Nordic Past in Perspective

16. Gender in Migration Narratives of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe
Martin Furholt and Stefan Burmeister

17. A Case Study of the Turin Satirical-Erotic Papyri: Historical Bodies, Mundane Resistance and Alternative Worlds
Reinert Skumsnes

18. Changing Gender Ideologies in Early Iron Age Athens
Søren Handberg