Myth and Materiality in a Woman's World
Shetland 1800-2000
1st Edition
Published on 19. July 2013
264 pages
978-1-84779-358-4 (ISBN)
Description
Shetland has a history unique in Europe, for over the past two centuries it was a place where women dominated the family, economy, and the cultural imagination. Women ran households and crofts without men. They maintained families and communities because men were absent. And they constructed in their minds an identity of themselves as 'liberated' long before organised feminism was invented. And yet, Shetland is a place which was made by the most masculine of societies - those of the Picts, Scots and above all the Vikings - and its contemporary identity still draws on the heroic exploits and sagas of medieval Norsemen. This book examines how against this tradition Shetland became a female place, and offers answers as to how, in this most isolated island community, the inhabitants transgressed and reversed their traditional gender roles. Reconstructing this 'woman's world' from fragments of cultural experience captured in written and oral sources, this book will appeal to scholars in the fields of social and cultural history, social anthropology, gender and women's studies. -- .
More details
Series
Edition
1st Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-84779-358-4 (9781847793584)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2010
Manchester University Press
€27.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
11/2005
Manchester University Press
€125.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Lynn Abrams is Professor of Gender History at the University of Glasgow
Content
- Intro
- i Copyright
- v Contents
- vii List of figures, table and plates
- viii Preface and acknowledgements
- xi Glossary and note on Shetland dialect
- 1. Pasts, peoples, selves
- 2. Stories
- 3. Place
- 4. Work
- 5.Culture
- 6. Sexualities
- 7. Power
- 8. Reflections
- Bibliography
- Index
