Images of Contemporary Iceland: Everyday Lives and Global Contexts

by Gisli Palsson (Editor), E. Paul Durrenberger (Editor)

Overview

The Anthropology of Iceland presents the first perspectives on Icelandic anthropology from both Icelandic and foreign anthropologists. The thirteen essays in this volume are divided into four themes: ideology and action; kinship and gender; culture, class, and ethnicity; and the Commonwealth period of circa 930 to 1220, which saw the flowering of sagas. Insider and outsider viewpoints on such topics as the Icelandic women's movement, the transformation of the fishing industry, the idea of mystical power in modern Iceland, and archaeological research in Iceland merge to form an international, comparative discourse.

Individually and collectively, by bringing the insights of anthropology to bear on Iceland, the native and foreign authors of this volume carry Iceland into the realm of modern anthropology, advancing our understanding of the island's people and the practice of anthropology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587291777
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	01/01/1996
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	285
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

 E. Paul Durrenberger, professor of anthropology at the University of Iowa, has done fieldwork in Thailand as well as Iceland. Gisli Palsson, professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland, has worked in both Iceland and the Cape Verde Islands.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface 1. Introduction Part I. Contested Images of Nature 2. Whale-Siting: Spatiality in Icelandic Nationalism 3. A Sea of Images: Fishers, Whalers, and Environmentalists 4. The Politics of Production: Enclosure, Equity, and Efficiency Part II. Nation and Gender 5. Housework and Wage Work: Gender in Icelandic Fishing Communities 6. The Mountain Woman and the Presidency 7. Motherhood, Patriarchy, and the Nation: Domestic Violence in Iceland Part III. Nature and Nation 8. Premodern and Modern Constructions of Population Regimes 9. Every Icelander a Special Case 10. Literacy Identity and Literacy Practice 11. The Wandering Semioticians: Tourism and the Image of Modern Iceland Contributors References Index

Editorial Reviews

The eleven essays in this volume focus on Iceland's shifting, continually manufactured present rather than its stereotypical past. Contributors, primarily anthropologists from the US and Iceland, look at the changing images of Iceland as well as the forces critical for this change: the chaotic flow of images and identities in the global context, cultural constructions of gender and landscape, the politics of custom and history, and the plurality of viewpoints. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

…this book succeeds admirably in its primary goal: to introduce current work on an anthropologically little-known area, and thereby, as the editors put it, to 'advance an understanding of Iceland's people and the practice of anthropology.'”—American Ethnologist

“…thoughtful and well presented and written…a great asset for anyone interested in Icelandic society and culture…a pioneering work on the anthropology of Iceland, dealing both with contemporary and historical issues.”—Ethnos

From the Publisher