Kinship in the Viking Diaspora

The North Atlantic Viking diaspora in the medieval period has been of increasing interest to scholars, yet is an area that remains poorly understood. Through the lens of kinship relations, this book broadens understanding of the subject by testing the Norse North Atlantic against the modern sociological concept of diaspora. Using different theoretical approaches to social memory, social networks, oral history, migration and diaspora, the study draws upon the disciplines of history, anthropology and archaeology to interrogate a wide range of primary material, including medieval Icelandic textual sources like �slendingab�3k, Landn�mab�3k, the �slendingas�gur and the law codes, Gr�g�s. By focussing primarily on Iceland as the locus of Norse diasporic memorialisation and the Icelandic Family Sagas (�slendingas�gur) as repositories of social memory, it takes a fresh look at the role of kinship relations in the social processes of migration, settlement and the creation of identity. Divided into two sections, the first part of the book investigates the functioning of kinship relations across the Norse colonies of the West (Iceland, Greenland and V�-nland), whilst the second part looks at the settlements in the East (mainland Scandinavia, Ireland and the British Isles). Focusing principally on the functioning of social memory - both remembering and forgetting - and its implications for the Icelanders' conception of the Norse North Atlantic. The book argues that, in spite of strongly emerging individual identities across the Norse North Atlantic colonies, especially in Iceland, there were overarching cultural and familial affiliations that are reflected in the manner in which the maintenance and honouring of kinship relations transcended political boundaries. In so doing the book provides the first full study, using a multi-disciplinary approach, to establish the Norse North Atlantic as a socially functioning, viable, kinshipbased diaspora.

Diaspora vikinga din Atlanticul de Nord din perioada medievala a fost de un interes tot mai mare pentru eruditi, totusi este o zona care ramane putin inteleasa. Prin prisma relatiilor de inrudire, aceasta carte extinde intelegerea subiectului prin testarea nordului nordic al Atlanticului impotriva conceptului sociologic modern al diasporei.