Historians traditionally have viewed the emergence of Denmark as a nation-state through western European primary sources, inferring a fragmented, politically divided region between AD 800 and AD ...1050. Conversely, archaeologists using local-scale, single-site data argue for unification by ca. AD 800. An alternative is offered, combining regional-scale archaeological methods (rank-size analyses) and consideration of western and northern European texts. This approach reveals that as disparate polities unified, the "homelands" of ruling dynasties came under control quickly, while peripheral areas remained largely autonomous. To incorporate peripheral areas, rulers manipulated the location and function of political and economic centers. Local resistance to change is reflected in slow, uneven unification, interregional elite competition, and eventually, armed rebellion. The apparent discrepancies between historic and prehistoric data are no error; in fact, they mirror the inherent conflicts of this profound social transformation.
Despite modern notions of cultural homogeneity in southern Scandinavia, substantial ethnic differences characterized its Iron Age and early Medieval populations. Creation of a unified state from ...earlier social formations ignited rifts leading to social disorder, rebellion, and uprising during a transitional era when upper and lower classes felt these changes most sharply. Ethnohistoric evidence preserves a record of ritualized public performances by state and local leaders, revealing relationships that shifted between fear, negotiation, challenge, and defiance. This is compared against archaeological evidence of widespread, rapid changes in settlement organization in some regions, and relative stability in others, interpreted as outcomes of unsuccessful and successful challenges to state authority. Groups electing to use violent conflict in challenging the state, who also had histories of inter-group interaction, were better able to preserve autonomy than those attempting legalistic arguments and 'rational' negotiations. Data are interpreted in light of ethnographic case studies and contemporary social theory.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1996.
Typescript. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 563-619).
