Det norrländska rummet : Vardagsliv och socialt samspel i medeltidens bondesamhälle

Sammanfattning: This dissertation focus on the social structure in the Norrlandic society during the Middle Ages. In the study of social relations I have proceeded from the way that daily life is expressed in two social spaces: the village and the farm. The social organization of the medieval village has been investigated on the basis of medieval craft and the organization of economic pursuits in the outland. This has been analysed with the focus on the village of Ängersjö in north-west Hälsingland, and it is based on the totality of archaeological remains, settlement development, and an archaeological excavation of a smithy. Apart from this the division of labour and rural craft in medieval agrarian society has been discussed with examples from the province of Hälsingland. The social space of the medieval farm is investigated in the dissertation by surveying the arrangement of the buildings and the use of space. The analyses of the medieval farm space are based on two excavated farm complexes, Björka in Hälsingland and Kyrklägdan in Jämtland. The method has above all entailed the analysis of find distribution.This dissertation has shown that the picture of the social structure in northern Sweden needs to be qualified. This is only possible when one applies a local perspective, which means that several social hierarchies can be distinguished within Norrlandic peasant society. The results of the dissertation have demonstrated the occurrence of social hierarchies at the level of village and farm. These hierarchies can be discerned, among other things, on the basis of a spatial division of activities which can be related to the degree of division of labour in the household, a difference in patterns of consumption between different farms and in the social organization of resource utilization, which was partly governed by a hierarchical structure within the peasant community.