Make No Bones About It

The Invention of Homo islandicus

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12113573
AutoresGísli Pálsson (0000-0003-3545-0522, University of Iceland, autor correspondente), Sigurður Örn Guðbjörnsson (University of Iceland)
Ano2011
Volume28
Fascículo2
Páginas119-141
Data de publicação2011-11-28
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoActa Borealia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0800-3831 • E-ISSN: 1503-111X
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08003831.2011.626933
OpenAlexW2061539740
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas21

Emphasizing the shift from textual studies to physical and biological anthropology and the relevant contexts of academic production during the twentieth century, this article explores anthropological discussions of the history and characteristics of Icelanders, Homo islandicus. Our discussion is largely based on the works of several Icelandic scholars and the social memory they represent, the ways in which the past is collectively established and preserved. Drawing upon different takes on nationalist and academic agendas, we argue that the “thought styles” involved differ significantly on method and sources, the relative merits of texts, bones, and DNA material. With each shift in style, the spokespersons in question triumphantly claim they have privileged access to the past: “Make no bones about it!” Thought styles, however, do not develop from thin air; rather, they are intimately connected to the contexts in which they are embedded, both constituting and being constituted by the imagined communities of nations, cultures, and disciplines and their traditions of remembrance and authority

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Icelandic · Linguistics · Nationalism · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Anthropology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy