Networks of Meaning and the Social Dynamics of Identity. An Example from Early Anglo-Saxon England

Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries

“…Girdle hangers are bronze T-shaped or open-worked key-like objects, some with impressed Downloaded from manchesterhive.com © Copyright protected it is illegal to copy or distribute this document decorative elements on them; they date to the sixth century (Chadwick Hawkes, 1973;Hines, 1997;Hines and Bayliss, 2013: 370). Chatelaines are more elaborate girdle hangers, with a mixture of objects hanging from a chain or loop, which date from the sixth and seventh centuries (Chadwick Hawkes, 1973;Felder, 2015). Most cosmetic items are not reliably dated, for example, tweezers (Dickinson, 1976: 220-4;Hines and Bayliss, 2013: 370).…”

“…As archaeologists working in contemporary theoretical paradigms, we tend to look for the individual through discourses and cultural performances around personhood, material culture, gender or age (Fowler, 2004;Lucy, 1997;Martin, 2014;Felder, 2015). In part this research priority is driven by a twenty-rst century perspective, which focuses on social questions through a lens of contemporary individualism.…”

“…And was weapon ownership, practice and use more common in some social or economic groups than others? (Sayer et al, 2019;Brunning, 2017;Martin, 2014;Felder, 2015). Were people who used weapons routinely associated with them?…”

A Double-edged Sword: Swords, Bodies, and Personhood in Early Medieval Archaeology and Literature

“…It is a status symbol, a badge of class or group membership, and, since it takes practice to use, it changes the person it encounters (Kopytoff, 1986). Swords are transformative and used alongside other material culture in the construction and performance of an individual (Martin, 2014; Felder, 2015; Harrison, 2015). Similarly debates about personhood encapsulate the aesthetic body, material, and semiotic relationships (Fowler, 2010a).…”