The Legal Anthropological Turn in Medieval Studies in Scandinavia: The First 25 Years

Kjaer, Lars and Jezierski, Wojtek (2026) The Legal Anthropological Turn in Medieval Studies in Scandinavia: The First 25 Years. Historisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 2002-4827 (In Press)

Abstract

Since 2000, the study of political culture in medieval Scandinavia has been transformed by the application of approaches drawn from social anthropology. What follows is a critical review of what has already been learned – and what we still hope to learn – from the legal anthropological turn in Scandinavia. The review focuses primarily on the central epistemological and methodological approaches of this line of research. These include the distinction between ideology and practice, the focus on the social function of conflict, the extent to which research on stateless societies can inform our understanding of medieval societies, and the ways Scandinavia has been framed.

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