Rags to Riches: An Archaeological Study of Textiles and Gender in Iceland, AD 874 -1800.

该项目将进行一项为期三年的研究，探索从维京时代(约874-1050年)到19世纪初冰岛的性别、纺织品和社会，使用来自冰岛各地12个考古遗址的博物馆藏品。直到大约1750年，纺织品及其生产一直是冰岛经济运行的核心。虽然饲养、放牧和剪羊毛主要是由男性承担的任务，但将剪下的羊毛转化为纱线、布料和成品是女性的工作。认为他们的劳动产品构成了这个社会运行的基础，这并不是不恰当的。在中世纪和中世纪后的冰岛，羊毛纺织品是法定货币，所有其他商品都是用来计价和交易的。债务、税款、什一税和外汇都是用毛布支付的。详细的法律规定了不同类型的羊毛织物的质量和结构，用于不同类型的交换或以不同的汇率交换，但是妇女共同努力确保质量，管理自己的家庭？S生产，并创造了持久的财富。妇女还负责将布料转化为衣服，并通过这个过程生产日常生活中最基本的物品--衣服、毯子、帐篷和其他实用物品--在小冰河时代，缓冲了冰岛人免受气候变化和通常是恶劣条件的影响。在这个过程中，他们还建立了风格，用来展示家庭相对于其他人的地位；通过标记性别、年龄和婚姻状况，从视觉上确认个人的地位；并将冰岛人与国际风格和新出现的地区和国家身份的象征联系起来。通过对冰岛博物馆目前收藏的纺织品收藏品的详细分析，该项目将记录和分析妇女的角色和妇女参与纺织生产的情况，这样做将有助于在北阿尔坦半岛建立性别考古学。这些收藏品是过去一个世纪从这个亚北极岛屿各地的考古遗址中发现的。通过探索全岛范围内的纺织品生产和使用，它将记录进口纺织品和染料在冰岛境内的作用，以及纺织生产中的“妇女工作”对冰岛？S国内和国际商业的影响。通过这一方法，将揭示冰岛不同社会制度层面上的女性--S在冰岛家庭中的权力，为北大西洋的社会考古研究提供宝贵的贡献。最后，通过探索妇女在将国产和进口纺织品转变为服装时所做的决定，该项目将调查她们在建立和改变个人、家庭、地区和国家认同的标志方面所发挥的作用，以及她们在面对北大西洋日益加剧的全球气候变冷时可能做出的决定。该项目将把冰岛妇女和妇女工作带入北大西洋研究的前沿，将她们作为将妇女重新引入整个北方考古研究项目的典范，并为有关妇女在传统社会中的隐藏角色以及她们在引导变革和保护传统方面的作用的全球讨论做出贡献。

This project will conduct a three-year study exploring gender, textiles and society in Iceland from the Viking Age (ca. 874-1050) until the early 19th century, using museum collections from 12 archaeological sites from across Iceland.Until ca. 1750, textiles and their production were central to the operation of the Icelandic economy. While raising, herding, and shearing sheep were tasks primarily undertaken by men, the transformation of sheared wool to yarn, cloth, and finished products was women's work. It is not inappropriate to suggest that the products of their labor formed the basis on which this society ran. Woolen textiles were legal currency in medieval and post-medieval Iceland, against which all other commodities were valued and traded. Debts, taxes, tithes and foreign exchanges were paid in woolen cloth. Detailed laws regulated the quality and construction of different types of woolen cloth for use in different types of exchange or for exchange at different rates, but it was women working together who ensured that quality, regulated their own household?s production, and created its durable wealth.Women were also in charge of transforming cloth into clothing and, through that process, produced the most essential items of daily life - clothing, blankets, tents, and other utilitarian items - that buffered Icelanders against a changing climate and often-severe conditions during the Little Ice Age. In the process, they also established styles used to demonstrate households' status vis-à-vis others; to visually affirm individuals' status by marking gender, age and marital status; and to link Icelanders to international styles and to emerging emblems of regional and national identity.Through a detailed analysis of textile collections now held in Icelandic museums, recovered over the past century from archaeological sites in all parts of this subarctic island and spanning 1100 years, this project will document and analyze women's roles and women's involvement in textile production, In so doing, it will help to establish an archaeology of gender in the North Altantic. By exploring textile production and use, through time, on an island-wide scale, it will document the roles of imported textiles and dyes within Iceland and the ways that "women's work" in textile production influenced both Iceland?s domestic and international commerce. Through this approach, it will shed new light on women?s power within Icelandic households at different levels of the social system, providing a valuable contribution to social archaeological research in the North Atlantic. Finally, by exploring the decisions that women made in transforming textiles - both domestic and imported - into clothing, this project will investigate the roles they played in establishing and changing markers of individual, family, regional, and national identity as well as decisions they may have made when facing increasing global climate cooling in the North Atlantic. This project will bring Icelandic women and women's work to the forefront in North Atlantic research, use them as a model for reintroducing women into archaeological research programs across the North, and contribute to global discussions about the hidden roles of women in traditional societies and their roles in guiding change and preserving tradition.