Women 's Rights Within The Viking Age

Were the Vikings barbaric, or were they civilized? The Vikings were a civilized and organized culture. The Vikings’ political system was essential to the Vikings’ everyday lives by giving them a stable lifestyle and a reliable colony.Traditions and religion were an important part of the Vikings’ culture. Their interaction with the environment was crucial to survival in the Vikings and their civilization. Interacting with the environment, the Vikings managed to locate and design food and shelter. The civilized traits in the Vikings’ world were demonstrated through its political, culture, and interaction with environment.

Man has always traveled. Some travel for the adventure, others to achieve a long term goal. The Vikings for example traveled in long boats able to travel the earths most treacherous waters. They came from Scandinavia and already stormed through Europe making new cities by doing this. Now they decide to head west across the Atlantic unsure of what dangers may unfold. The Vikings land in America. Their leader, Thorvald Erikson was a brave explorer and wanted to make America their home. The vikings thought that they were first people to set foot here. Little did they know that a tribe known as the Innu had been here long before the vikings. The Innu were descendants of the first pioneers who came to America 19,000 years before. America was caught

Did you know there is a great controversy with today’s society, putting men over women? It is sparking debates across the world on why men are thought to be stronger and be able to do more activities than women. There is an ongoing debate between men and women on equality. Beowulf and contemporary culture assert their masculinity through physical strength, financial wealth, honor, perseverance, reputation, and intelligence.

During the medieval times, women were not seen as they are today. Although in the world today there are still those who are full of misogyny, it was much more common and intense during this time period. Women during the middle ages had specific roles assigned to them in society. These roles depended on the type of women they were, whether it be a peasant, noble woman, or an evil temptress. These roles that women have served have shown up in numerous stories from the middle ages including: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife’s Lament.

Drawing on Joan Scott's "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" and on Alice Kessler-Harris's "Just price, Free Market and the Value of Women", the following questions will be answered, How has the 'equality' of women and men been expressed according to both Scott and Kessler-Harris? Why 'gender' has become a "useful category of historical analysis" for historians? How different (other) historians view 'gender'? What are Kessler-Harris's views on the "equality," "comparable worth" and "equal pay?" Lastly, the importance of the two articles will be highlighted as it relates to the contribution to gender studies.

Some aspects of the lifestyle ancient civilizations lived almost seem appalling or intolerable when compared to the very developed and carefully shaped the world inhabited today. One of these characteristics of previous societies that prove to be rather challenging to conceive in current times consists of the lack of rights, privileges, and equity women had. Society maintained this assumption of a man’s superiority up until the women’s rights movement of the early twentieth century; yet with the two sexes essentially equal in America today, imagining a restricted life as a female proves unfathomable. Looking back at the history of human kind, men almost always subdued women and treated them as property. When focusing on the first

In the Anglo-Saxon times women did not have a major hero role. They just mainly did the things women usually do when the men are out which are them raising the children, educating, managing the house, being hostess, and divorcing. Beowulf is a great example of what times were like back in that time period.

Additionally, the sexual division of labor was given more attention and there was recognition of the importance of the female contribution given to sustaining early modern human society. As a result of the research, the gatherer female emerged and in many ways surpassed the male hunter as the foundation of early modern human society. The female gatherer trumped the male hunter. Ultimately, the work of the feminist anthropologists was significant because it discredited the male-centric theory of the 1960’s, emasculated the role of man, but provided a more balanced and accurate perspective regarding the role of women in early human society.

and summer. (Mowat 1965) Fortunately for the Vikings, shifting patterns in ocean thermohaline circulation during the Medieval Warm Period increased surface temperatures by 1.5 °C in the North Atlantic. (Sharpe 1991) The resulting reduction in drift ice and stormy weather by 800 CE ultimately facilitated fast and reliable passage across the North Sea. Clearer weather conditions and better visibility also improved navigation by sight that Scandinavian seafarers relied upon for judging the speed, direction, and location of their ships in relation to distant landmasses when calculating their projected course. (Mowat 1965) Furthermore, the weakened polar vortex altered prevailing winds so that spring easterlies and autumnal westerlies perfectly

Though this was the most common way women in Viking society obtained notoriety, some were well known for different reasons. The Oseberg “queen”, buried with an ornately-decorated ship and high-quality goods was one of the richest buriest of the Viking Age, showcasing her prestige. There was also the grave of the Pagan Lady of Peel Caste, which was discovered in a Christian cemetery on the Isle of Man. To this date, it is one of the richest Viking burials for a woman found outside of Scandinavia. The Pagan Lady of Peel’s grave is solid proof of powerful women and of a high status during the Viking Age.

Where would we be at if we didn't have women in the world? Thats the question that didn't cross anyones mind in Anglo-Saxon times. Even during this time period males were dominant. The males were the dominant ones in society. They played the role of central leaders who were to protect and provide for their families. In Anglo-Saxon literature males were written so much that it overshadow the women and all the roles they played in society. Women served many roles such as the “peace weaver”, cupbearer, motivators, and memory keepers.

Archaeology is the study of material culture for anthropological purposes. Sometimes, that purpose is specifically for analyzing gender activities and roles within a specific culture. Even though people are born with a biological sex, there is nothing natural about gender, because gender is a social construct which varies with culture and time periods. Anthropologists and archaeologists value gender analysis because it not only shows relationships between genders, but also

“The position of women in the Sagas is, indeed, higher than that which they enjoy in classical literature; but it is based on a purely commonsensible and unemphasized respect for the courage or prudence which some women, like some men, happen to possess. The Norsemen, in fact, treat their women not primarily as women but as people. It is an attitude which may lead in the fullness of time to an equal franchise or a Married Woman’s Property Act, but it has very little to do with romantic love.” The Scandinavian Late Iron Age is represented by pre 1960’s archeology as deeply and inherently male, with male aggressiveness and the ideal presented to the public, leaving little room for alternative gender roles in the popular imagination.

When you think of the Vikings, chances are you think of horned helmets, raids, and bloody battles. But on the other side of the spectrum, there are the women of Nordic culture. Women are mostly thought of as looking like Viking warriors fighting alongside their men. But that was hardly the case. In reality, women were important in many other ways. They were treated very differently than other women in different European cultures at that time.

Though not much is known about pre-historic man or woman, I have to guess that the struggle to stay alive alone must have taken all of early man’s time both day and night. Based on this thought, it is hard for me to imagine how roles outside the main task of staying alive would have been divided by gender. Women and men both probably foraged for edible foods and probably hunted together in pairs I would guess. Since groups were small I imagine roles were shared equally. As the groups became larger, more organized and more advanced in agriculture, gender roles probably became more prominent. In early times, a woman’s primary role became childbearing and keeping the home environment, whether it be in a cave, mud hut or other structure.