Bjørnar Olsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3591995 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bjørnar Olsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bjørnar |
| FAMILY NAME | Olsen |
| SIGNATURE | OLSEN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | UiT The Arctic University of Norway |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 874 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Archaeology, Language, and the Question of Sámi Ethnogenesis
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their historical presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical an…
Living With Ghosts: Soviet Heritage in the Russian North
Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and protected for their uniqueness, monumentality, beauty and/or historical and cultural significance. Heritage, thus, is almost by definition something unquestionably valuable and good, and of outmost importance for our wellbeing and identity. This paper takes a different position and asks what happens if we question heritage’s status as a selected reserv…
Excavating War and Idleness: The Case of Sværholt
For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in presenting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary…
The Case Study in Archaeological Theory
The case study is a familiar yet generally taken-for-granted element of archaeological theory. Typically, it is viewed as a kind of 'proof of concept,' an essential way to demonstrate the value of a particular theoretical approach, if not theory in general. In this article, we examine the case study as it has been used in archaeology, exploring its different manifestations and situating them within a wider discussion of the role of cases and exam…
Archaeological Theory, Christmas Pork and Red Herrings: Reply to Comments
After Interpretation: Remembering Archaeology
In the light of some significant anniversaries, this pa- per discusses the fate of archaeological theory after the heyday of postprocessualism. While once considered a radical and revolutionary alternative, post- processual or interpretative archaeology remarkably soon became normalized, mainstream and hegem- onic, leading to the theoretical lull that has charac- terized its aftermath. Recently, however, this consen- sual pause has been disrupted…
Modern Ruins: Remembrance, Resistance, and Ruin Value
(In)significantly Soviet: The heritage of Teriberka
Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth rests heavier on some places. Teriberka is such a place, a small coastal settlement on the Kola peninsula. Once a prosperous Soviet fishing harbour it now epitomizes the depression and despair on the post-Soviet Russian periphery. Though post-Soviet seems quite misplaced here, because Soviet is still conspicuously present in Teriberka. Omnipresent, in fa…
Modern Ruins: Remembrance, Resistance, and Ruin Value
From wild to domestic reindeer – Genetic evidence of a non-native origin of reindeer pastoralism in northern Fennoscandia
Theory adrift: The matter of archaeological theorizing
At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have suggested that archaeological theory and theorizing is changing course; turning to metaphysics; leaning towards the sciences; or, even is declared dead. Resonating with these concerns, and drawing on our fieldwork on a northern driftwood beach, this article suggests the need to rethink fundamental notions of what theory is - its morphological being - a…
The return of what?
For the last 170 years or so the study of things has been close to a categorical imperative to archaeologists. No object was too small, too inconspicuous, fragmented or soiled to become a matter of archaeological concern. At times this was a very solitary and not very honourable assignment. The intellectual climate of the twentieth century barely nourished sincere academic engagement with objects and spurred internal disciplinary doubts about its…
Archaeology, symmetry and the ontology of things. A response to critics
This article responds to recent critiques of ‘symmetrical archaeology’. It addresses three common claims: (1) that symmetrical archaeology fails to see a difference between living and non-living entities, (2) that symmetrical archaeology makes no room for humans and other living things, (3) that symmetrical archaeology lacks any sincere ethical concern for things. This article demonstrates how these claims are based on common misunderstandings or…
Index of Place Names
Index of Personal Names
Changing Views on the Origins of the Sámi
This chapter takes a closer look at the discourse regarding the origins of the Sami from the seventeenth century to the present day. It discusses how people have arrived at different answers to this question, and points to some of the circumstances that have caused a change in opinions. Finally, the chapter shows how cultural-historical research looks at this question today and presents the author's view on the emergence of Sami ethnicity. An imp…
General Index
Epilogue
Chronology
Economic Specialization and Ethnic Consolidation: Northern Hunting Societies in the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages
In this chapter, the author looks closer at development in the Sami areas through the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages. The author captures some of the regional variation that characterized the hunter-gatherer communities and their relations with surrounding ethnic groups. Before examining the different processes within the Sami area during the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages, the author also looks at the neighboring societies, mainly the G…
Missionaries and Shamans: Sámi Religion and the Campaign Against it
This chapter first presents some main features of the missionary efforts towards the Sami from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. It then analyzes the written sources and the surviving material culture to give an overview of some basic features of pre-Christian Sami religion and cosmology. Already from the end of the High Middle Ages, the population in the boundary zones of the Sami settlement area had been exposed to Christian influence …
Colonization, Contacts and Change, 1200–1550
This chapter focuses on how Sami areas were integrated into economic and political networks that were controlled by powers outside of northern Fennoscandia and seen how Sami society reacted to these new conditions. The rise of reindeer herding is one of the most discussed issues in Sami cultural history. The explanations of the origin of reindeer pastoralism that have traditionally found most favor in Nordic research have stressed external factor…
Introduction
Table of Relations
This chapter presents the table of relations discussed in the book Hunters in Transition. The book provides a new outline of the early history of the Sami and discusses issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding. It provides a new synthesis of Sami history to a broader, English-speaking audience and follows previous work in Norwegian, but the …
Preliminary Material
Archaeology: The Discipline of Things
Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past. Literally the "scie…
Material culture after text: Re-Membering Things
Why have the social and human sciences shown such disinterest in material culture? How has this neglect affected archaeology? How do things and materiality at large relate to human beings and 'social life'? These questions are addressed in this article which also critically examines social constructivist and phenomenological approaches to material culture. Arguing against the maxim that 'all that is solid melts into air', it is claimed that to un…
Keeping things at arm's length: A Genealogy of Asymmetry
This paper discusses why things have become marginalized in the social sciences and addresses some major intellectual traditions considered the main suspects for this deportation. It also explores what is claimed to be a crucial link between those very philosophies and central approaches in recent material culture studies. The paradoxical outcome of this effective history is that the ontology responsible for the displacement of things also to a l…
Theory adrift: The matter of archaeological theorizing
At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have suggested that archaeological theory and theorizing is changing course; turning to metaphysics; leaning towards the sciences; or, even is declared dead. Resonating with these concerns, and drawing on our fieldwork on a northern driftwood beach, this article suggests the need to rethink fundamental notions of what theory is - its morphological being - a…
Hunters in Transition: An Outline of Early Sámi History
After Interpretation: Remembering Archaeology
In the light of some significant anniversaries, this pa- per discusses the fate of archaeological theory after the heyday of postprocessualism. While once considered a radical and revolutionary alternative, post- processual or interpretative archaeology remarkably soon became normalized, mainstream and hegem- onic, leading to the theoretical lull that has charac- terized its aftermath. Recently, however, this consen- sual pause has been disrupted…
Hermeneutics and Archaeology: On the Philosophy of Contextual Archaeology
In this paper we situate and discuss critically Ian Hodder's contextual archaeology in relation to a broader tradition of philosophical hermeneutics. We argue that Hodder's position comes close to the romantic conception of interpretation developed by German philosophers and historians. Central to this position is the equation of meaning and intention, context and origin, making historical understanding a transaction between the creative consciou…
Archaeology, symmetry and the ontology of things. A response to critics
This article responds to recent critiques of ‘symmetrical archaeology’. It addresses three common claims: (1) that symmetrical archaeology fails to see a difference between living and non-living entities, (2) that symmetrical archaeology makes no room for humans and other living things, (3) that symmetrical archaeology lacks any sincere ethical concern for things. This article demonstrates how these claims are based on common misunderstandings or…
In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects
In much recent thinking, social and cultural realms are thought of as existing prior to—or detached from—things, materiality, and landscape. It is often assumed, for example, that things are entirely 'constructed' by social or cultural perceptions and have no existence in and of themselves. Bjornar Olsen takes a different position. Drawing on a range of theories, especially phenomenology and actor-network-theory, Olsen claims that human life is f…
Imaging Modern Decay: The Aesthetics of Ruin Photography
Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also fill the glossy pages of art books and popular magazine issues, and are increasingly appropriating more prominent spaces in scholarly publication on modern decay and abandonment. While its popularity speaks to its attractiveness, this proliferating ruin imagery has also become the target of harsh criticism from both concerned scholars and people affe…
Bilder fra fortida? Representasjoner av samisk kultur i samiske museer
Europas representasjoner av andre kulturer har vært et av de sentrale tema i den kritiske kulturforskningen siden slutten av 1970-tallet (f.eks. Said 1978, Todorov 1984, Young 1990, Hall 1992). Temaet ble for alvor brakt på banen da forfattere og intellektuelle fra den ikke-vestlige verden begynte å ta til orde mot de etnosentriske og rasistiske forestillinger som de mente preget Europas møte med «de andre». Dette igangsatte en lang rekke kritisk…
Saqqaq housing and settlement in southern Disko Bay, West Greenland
In 1995 and 1996 archaeological investigations were carried out by a joint Nordic research project in the southern Disko Bay area, West Greenland. The project focussed on Paleo‐Eskimo spatial organization, particularly the arrangements of dwelling structures. This paper presents some results from surveys and excavations of Saqqaq sites, and discusses issues related to Paleo‐Eskimo house forms and settlement organization. It is argued that conside…
(In)significantly Soviet: The heritage of Teriberka
Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth rests heavier on some places. Teriberka is such a place, a small coastal settlement on the Kola peninsula. Once a prosperous Soviet fishing harbour it now epitomizes the depression and despair on the post-Soviet Russian periphery. Though post-Soviet seems quite misplaced here, because Soviet is still conspicuously present in Teriberka. Omnipresent, in fa…
From wild to domestic reindeer – Genetic evidence of a non-native origin of reindeer pastoralism in northern Fennoscandia
Archaeology, hermeneutics of suspicion and phenomenological trivialization
The point of departure for this debate (and the SAA forum) was the question 'does archaeological theory exist?' Matthew Johnson's answer is wisely mixed, but mostly negative. Archaeological theory does not exist, he tells us, because there is hardly any distinctive archaeological way of theoretical thinking 'to which most or even the largest group of archaeologists would willingly or knowingly subscribe' (p. 117). I shall not spend much time on J…
Momenter til et forsvar av tingene
Arkeologien er tingenes disiplin par excellence. Det var en gang da arkeologene elsket gjenstandene – noen vil kanskje til og med huske en viss besettelse. Men i takt med tingenes fallende intellektuelle kurs ble også arkeologenes kjærlighet satt på prøve. I denne artikkelen forsøker forfatteren å forklare hvorfor ting og materialitet fikk et så dårlig rykte i menneskevitenskapene – eller sagt på en annen måte: å forklare sviket mot tingene
Excavating War and Idleness: The Case of Sværholt
For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in presenting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary…
The Case Study in Archaeological Theory
The case study is a familiar yet generally taken-for-granted element of archaeological theory. Typically, it is viewed as a kind of 'proof of concept,' an essential way to demonstrate the value of a particular theoretical approach, if not theory in general. In this article, we examine the case study as it has been used in archaeology, exploring its different manifestations and situating them within a wider discussion of the role of cases and exam…
Archaeological Theory, Christmas Pork and Red Herrings: Reply to Comments
Sarnes Internat: Archaeological Aesthetics
Boarding schools used to be a common feature in the vast but sparsely populated region of Finnmark in northernmost Norway. For many these schools became a second home, a home away from home, and many of the desolate school buildings thus house childhood memories of generations. One such institution is the now abandoned and ruined school building at Sarnes in the municipality of North Cape. Closed down as an internat school in the 70s the building…
Manker’s list. Museum collections in the era of deaccessioning and disposal
During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have affected museums worldwide. At the root of the debate lies the ever more pressing problem with overstocked collection; the consequence of decades and even centuries of allegedly far too liberal and eclectic collecting and acquisition practices. This paper presents some alternative views and argues in favor of such liberal collecting. Taking as its starting point a …
Creating prehistory: Archeology museums and the discource of modernism
In the 19th century a number of new scientific disciplines made their appearance in Europe. Among these was archaeology, a discipline concerned with mans very distant past. Archaeology unfolded in a space created by the collapse of the pre-modern, biblical conception of history. This breakdown had left a void which archaeology, along with several other evolutionary disciplines, were able successfully to fill. By the end of the 19th century a vast…
Archaeology, Language, and the Question of Sámi Ethnogenesis
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their historical presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical an…
Det arkeologiske museum. Momenter til en kritikk
The Archaeological Museums - Some Critical Points Archaeology's public identity is inextricably linked to museums and museum practice. The museum exhibitions constitute the main point of contact between archaeology and the public. In official scholarly and political discourse the social role of the museum is claimed to be that of the protection and conservation of prehistoric material and the presentation of knowledge about the past to the public…
Arkeologiska liv – om att leva arkeologiskt, red. Jarl Nordbladh
I de seinere år har den vitenskapelige diskurs fart stadig sterkere biografiske islett. Der klassiske positivistiske vitenskapsidealer om et strent skille mellom forskeren og privatpersonen er gått tapt
Boknotiser
Feministisk museumskritikk. Nytt om kvinneforskning fra Norges forskningsråd Sekretariat for kvinneforskning Eva Persson: Utställningsform Eileen Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and their visitorsGeir Vestheim: Museum i eit tidsskifte Camera archaeologica. Rapport fra et feltarbeid Tonte Hegard: Hans Aall - mannen, visjonen og verketMichael Ames: Cannibal tours and glass boxes Inga Lundstrom & Jenny-Rita Næss: Bevarandearkeologi. Ett ämnes syn pa sitt …
Manker’s list. Museum collections in the era of deaccessioning and disposal
During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have affected museums worldwide. At the root of the debate lies the ever more pressing problem with overstocked collection; the consequence of decades and even centuries of allegedly far too liberal and eclectic collecting and acquisition practices. This paper presents some alternative views and argues in favor of such liberal collecting. Taking as its starting point a …
Bilder fra fortida? Representasjoner av samisk kultur i samiske museer
Europas representasjoner av andre kulturer har vært et av de sentrale tema i den kritiske kulturforskningen siden slutten av 1970-tallet (f.eks. Said 1978, Todorov 1984, Young 1990, Hall 1992). Temaet ble for alvor brakt på banen da forfattere og intellektuelle fra den ikke-vestlige verden begynte å ta til orde mot de etnosentriske og rasistiske forestillinger som de mente preget Europas møte med «de andre». Dette igangsatte en lang rekke kritisk…
Creating prehistory: Archeology museums and the discource of modernism
In the 19th century a number of new scientific disciplines made their appearance in Europe. Among these was archaeology, a discipline concerned with mans very distant past. Archaeology unfolded in a space created by the collapse of the pre-modern, biblical conception of history. This breakdown had left a void which archaeology, along with several other evolutionary disciplines, were able successfully to fill. By the end of the 19th century a vast…
Det arkeologiske museum. Momenter til en kritikk
The Archaeological Museums - Some Critical Points Archaeology's public identity is inextricably linked to museums and museum practice. The museum exhibitions constitute the main point of contact between archaeology and the public. In official scholarly and political discourse the social role of the museum is claimed to be that of the protection and conservation of prehistoric material and the presentation of knowledge about the past to the public…
Momenter til et forsvar av tingene
Arkeologien er tingenes disiplin par excellence. Det var en gang da arkeologene elsket gjenstandene – noen vil kanskje til og med huske en viss besettelse. Men i takt med tingenes fallende intellektuelle kurs ble også arkeologenes kjærlighet satt på prøve. I denne artikkelen forsøker forfatteren å forklare hvorfor ting og materialitet fikk et så dårlig rykte i menneskevitenskapene – eller sagt på en annen måte: å forklare sviket mot tingene
Hermeneutics and Archaeology: On the Philosophy of Contextual Archaeology
In this paper we situate and discuss critically Ian Hodder's contextual archaeology in relation to a broader tradition of philosophical hermeneutics. We argue that Hodder's position comes close to the romantic conception of interpretation developed by German philosophers and historians. Central to this position is the equation of meaning and intention, context and origin, making historical understanding a transaction between the creative consciou…
Saqqaq housing and settlement in southern Disko Bay, West Greenland
In 1995 and 1996 archaeological investigations were carried out by a joint Nordic research project in the southern Disko Bay area, West Greenland. The project focussed on Paleo‐Eskimo spatial organization, particularly the arrangements of dwelling structures. This paper presents some results from surveys and excavations of Saqqaq sites, and discusses issues related to Paleo‐Eskimo house forms and settlement organization. It is argued that conside…
Material culture after text: Re-Membering Things
Why have the social and human sciences shown such disinterest in material culture? How has this neglect affected archaeology? How do things and materiality at large relate to human beings and 'social life'? These questions are addressed in this article which also critically examines social constructivist and phenomenological approaches to material culture. Arguing against the maxim that 'all that is solid melts into air', it is claimed that to un…
Scenes from a Troubled Engagement: Post-Structuralism and Material Culture Studies
Archaeology, hermeneutics of suspicion and phenomenological trivialization
The point of departure for this debate (and the SAA forum) was the question 'does archaeological theory exist?' Matthew Johnson's answer is wisely mixed, but mostly negative. Archaeological theory does not exist, he tells us, because there is hardly any distinctive archaeological way of theoretical thinking 'to which most or even the largest group of archaeologists would willingly or knowingly subscribe' (p. 117). I shall not spend much time on J…
Keeping things at arm's length: A Genealogy of Asymmetry
This paper discusses why things have become marginalized in the social sciences and addresses some major intellectual traditions considered the main suspects for this deportation. It also explores what is claimed to be a crucial link between those very philosophies and central approaches in recent material culture studies. The paradoxical outcome of this effective history is that the ontology responsible for the displacement of things also to a l…
Years of Theoretical Engagement: A Conversation with Ian Hodder
Ian Hodder was born in Bristol, England, in 1948. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in prehistoric archaeology from the University of London in 1971, and his PhD from Cambridge University in 1975. He was a lecturer at the University of Leeds from 1974 to 1977, after which he returned to Cambridge where he worked as lecturer, reader and finally professor from 1996 to 1999. He has also been visiting professor at the Van Giffen Institute of Amsterdam, …
In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects
In much recent thinking, social and cultural realms are thought of as existing prior to—or detached from—things, materiality, and landscape. It is often assumed, for example, that things are entirely 'constructed' by social or cultural perceptions and have no existence in and of themselves. Bjornar Olsen takes a different position. Drawing on a range of theories, especially phenomenology and actor-network-theory, Olsen claims that human life is f…
In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects
In much recent thinking, social and cultural realms are thought of as existing prior to—or detached from—things, materiality, and landscape. It is often assumed, for example, that things are entirely 'constructed' by social or cultural perceptions and have no existence in and of themselves. Bjornar Olsen takes a different position. Drawing on a range of theories, especially phenomenology and actor-network-theory, Olsen claims that human life is f…
Archaeology: The Discipline of Things
The “science of old things,” archaeology is marked by its care, obligation, and loyalty to things, from ancient cities in the Mexican heartland and megalithic monuments in Britain to the perfume jars of the ancient Greek city-state and Leica cameras. This book seeks to understand the diverse practices that arise through this disciplinary commitment to things.
Archaeology: The Discipline of Things
Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past. Literally the "scie…
Reclaiming Things: An Archaeology of Matter
Late twentieth-century social and cultural research was heavily impacted by what became known as the linguistic or textual turn. Well into a new millennium we have for some time now with equal conviction and enthusiasm been told about another twist: the (re)turn to things. This chapter critically examines this repatriation campaign and discusses some of the causes for the previous neglect of things in the social sciences. The main objective, howe…
Index of Place Names
Index of Personal Names
Changing Views on the Origins of the Sámi
This chapter takes a closer look at the discourse regarding the origins of the Sami from the seventeenth century to the present day. It discusses how people have arrived at different answers to this question, and points to some of the circumstances that have caused a change in opinions. Finally, the chapter shows how cultural-historical research looks at this question today and presents the author's view on the emergence of Sami ethnicity. An imp…
General Index
Epilogue
Chronology
History (27 works) · Archaeology (22 works) · Art (20 works) · Sociology (17 works) · History (15 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Archaeological Research and Protection (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Geography (10 works)