Archaeology and Pre-Christian Religion in Scandinavia

Jennbert, Kristina

doi:10.37718/csa.2000.07

csa

2021

DOI: 10.37718/csa.2000.07

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Archaeology and Pre-Christian Religion in Scandinavia

Kristina Jennbert

Abstract: Archaeological research on pre-Christian religion has increased greatly during the last two decades. Studies of ritual and religion appear frequently in scholarly, popular and antiquarian publications of the 1990s. Selected publications in Scandinavian archaeology are presented in order to characterise and discuss different approaches. Central theoretical and methodological questions are discussed, as well as the co-operation with other humanistic disciplines.

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Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

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Bronze Age Archaeology and Cosmology: Dialogues at the Crossroads

Kaul

2017

ACAR

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The article is a historiographical exposé on lifelong scientific dialogues between Klavs Randsborg and the author that have shaped the current understanding of Nordic Bronze Age beliefs. Through the demonstration of wide‐ranging contacts across Europe and beyond – till Egypt and Mesopotamia, the article shows how these interactions have nourished the Nordic cosmology and tastes and impacted local ideologies. Metals, amber and glass were not only coveted commodities but engines of lively communication networks.

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Bronze Age Archaeology and Cosmology: Dialogues at the Crossroads

Kaul

2017

ACAR

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The Concept of Religion in Current Studies of Scandinavian Pre-Christian Religion

Lindberg

2009

Temenos

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In recent Swedish studies of Scandinavian pre-Christian religion of the late Iron Age, various scholars have questioned the utility of the concept of religion in this field. According to these scholars, the concept of religion obscures the specific character of religions of the small-scale non-literate societies of the pre-Christian Age. In the article, I critically examine suggestions that we abandon the academic concept of religion and replace it with an emic concept, or a concept derived from an emic context. I further argue that this strategy implies an inappropriate dualistic opposition between Scandinavian pre-Christian religion and so-called world religions. I conclude with a critical evaluation of problematic formulations of religious change and variation, presented by the same scholars who criticize the use of the academic category of religion. I try to draw attention to certain problematic implications of these demands. I conclude that we should continue to employ the concept of religion in connection with the religious worlds of pre-Christian societies. The strategy proposed by these scholars may turn out to be merely one more way of imposing misconceptions on this period.

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Old Customs

Nordberg

2018

Temenos

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Although they highlight the Norse (religious) term siðr ‘custom’ and its cognates, some researchers of pre-Christian Scandinavia suggest that the concept of religion involves a Christocentric discourse and should be used cautiously, or even only for Christianity. Some scholars therefore recommend a categorical distinction between pre-Christian (religious) siðr and Christian religion. This paper contributes to this ongoing discussion. I argue that while it is meaningful to highlight the term siðr and its cognates, the distinction between pre-Christian siðr and medieval Christian religion is problematic. 1) While siðr had various meanings in vernacular language, the current debate emphasises only its religious aspect, thus turning the indigenous term into an implicit etic concept. 2) The word siðr and its cognates were also used in medieval Scandinavian languages as designations for Christianity, and hence, the categorisation of pre-Christian siðr and medieval Christian religion is misleading. 3) The distinction between popular siðr and formal religion is fundamentally based on the two-tier model of popular/folk religion–religion. 4) The vernacular (religious) word siðr in the sense of ‘religious customs, the religious aspects of the conventional way of life’ and the heuristic category of (lived) religion are in fact complementary in the study of religion in both Viking and medieval Scandinavia.

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Archaeology and Pre-Christian Religion in Scandinavia

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Bronze Age Archaeology and Cosmology: Dialogues at the Crossroads

Bronze Age Archaeology and Cosmology: Dialogues at the Crossroads

The Concept of Religion in Current Studies of Scandinavian Pre-Christian Religion

Old Customs

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