Identitet i praktik - Identity in Practice

12 su m m A r y : id e n t i t y in pr Ac t i c e. lo c A l, r e g i o n A l A n d pA n-r e g i o n A l A s p e c t s o F t H e no r t H e r n
local phenomenon as potters from nearby and contemporary
settlements reproduced different technological
styles, site specific traditions that were practised, taught
and learned throughout several generations in local communities
of practice.
The observation of local continuity in ceramic craft is
the starting point for a further discussion of what scenarios
that would allow specific technological choices to be
reproduced among consequent generations of artisans
at the same settlement. As the size of finger imprints
in pottery in Mälardalen/Bergslagen and elsewhere indicate
that the vessels often were made by women, it is
suggested that girls were taught pottery craft by their
mothers, but also that a matrilocal rule of post-marital
residence kept the group of potters intact over time.
It is further suggested that engagement in the cultural
practice of this community of practice where grandmothers
taught mothers who taught daughters who taught sisters,
gave birth to an idea of a common identity based
both on descent and on cultural practice. The common
ancestry from an historical or fictitious foremother may
have given rise to an idea of matrilinear descent.
The stone industry of the Funnel Beaker Culture
of Mälardalen and Bergslagen is characterised by a production
of thin-butted greenstone axes, round-butted
axes, polygonal battle-axes, saddle-querns, axe polishing
stones, and small tools made of quartz flakes. Apart
from the locally produced stone implements the find
inventories often include exotic artefacts in the form of
point- and thin-butted flint axes originating in the TRB
of Southern Scandinavia, and slate knives and points
from the Early Neolithic Slate Culture of Northern
Scandinavia.
Petrographic studies of porphyrite debitage found
at a couple of neighbouring TRB sites in western Mälardalen
suggest that the inhabitants of each settlement
had access to a porphyrite dyke each for local production
of thin-butted axes. Even so, many of the finished axes
found at the same settlements were made of non-local
porphyrite, suggesting a socially motivated circulation of
axes – socially motivated since the acquired axes were
more or less identical to the ones locally produced. Data
on production of saddle-querns also suggest a local
production of this tool. The locally produced knobbutted
polygonal battle-axes of Mälardalen correspond
to Zápotocký’s type KIII and KV. The same types of
battle-axes also occur in the rest of Central Sweden and
in Southern Norway, while the battle-axes of, for example,
Scania and Denmark were designed according to
different norms. The type of polygonal battle-axe that is
most similar to the axes of Mälardalen and Bergslagen,
are the KIB axes of the Mondsee-group in Austria.
The Funnel Beaker pottery of Mälardalen and Bergslagen
is considered to be both continental, regional and
Fu n n e l Be A k e r cu lt u r e
local depending on perspective, as argued above. The polygonal
battle-axes can also be considered a continental
type, as they occur throughout the wider Funnel Beaker
Culture during the Early Neolithic. No purely local traits
have been recognised in the design of the battle-axes,
neither is the Mälardalen and Bergslagen region distinguished
by battle-axes of a specific type. Rather the
battle-axes can be considered to be pan-regional, with
quite distinct types being common for several neighbouring
regions. While the battle-axes may have been
produced in local communities of practice, the stone smiths
in different, geographically dispersed communities shared
several norms dictating how battle-axes should be
designed; traditions that were reproduced beyond the
local communities on a pan-regional scale.
There is only one known grave find where a polygonal
battle-axe can be associated with a skeleton determined
as to sex, the male grave from Dragsholm, Denmark. If
one consider previous and subsequent periods the pattern
is the same, battle-axes tend to appear in male graves.
For the sake of argument I will assume that it was men
that produced these axes as well. The scenario explaining
the local traits in pottery craft discussed above suggested
that communities of female potters of the same descent
group were kept intact by a matrilocal rule of postmarital
residence. In consequence, the adult males at the same
settlements ought to be married spouses from different
homesteads and villages within and beyond the region of
Mälardalen and Bergslagen, where as all males born at the
same settlement left it upon marriage to move in with the
woman’s family. As long as these moves upon marriage
were kept within the wider region of Central Sweden and
Southern Norway, the men from other localities gathered
at their new settlements still shared a common tradition
of how to design polygonal battle-axes.
It is worth emphasising that these norms and traditions
did not exist prior to the advent of the Early
Neolithic, rather they were created, negotiated and reproduced
within and beyond local communities of practice
connected by long-distance networks. For the group
of men with different geographical origins, the design
of the battle-axes may have served as a reification of a
social identity that included both the place and region of
birth, and the place and region where these men came
to reside after marriage; a sense of belonging embodied
in the production of polygonal battle-axes.
The designs of the Swedish-Norwegian polygonal
battle-axes were created and reproduced within a social
setting with a wide geographical scope. Still this social
milieu was not without limits. To the north of Mälardalen
and Bergslagen lived groups who chose not to
produce any polygonal battle-axes. In the encounter with
hunter-gatherers of Central and Northern Scandinavia,
the battle-axes may have been one component in a lar-
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