Vardagens landskap : lokala perspektiv på bronsålderns materiella kultur

In the thesis the author discusses how materiel culture changed when it was incorporated into a local society. The discussion is based on graves, rock carvings and bronze items in south Scandinavia during the periods Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, 2350-500 BC.

The thesis? starting point is a praxis perspective. The meaning of artefacts and monuments depended upon how they were used. The use of the same material culture varied from one local society to another. Therefore material culture with similar form and shape gained specific local meanings when objects were incorporated into various contexts in south Scandinavia. This perspective is developed in three studies:

First I identify two different sorts of landscape use. One is a functional-biographical landscape use. The other is a historical-symbolic landscape use. In the former perspective, the focus is on how material culture is often shaped from local raw material. The local raw material was extracted or collected from a landscape with a history, and the raw material's biography becomes integrated into that of the material culture. In the latter perspective the focus is on how people created new meanings for material culture, by combining old and new material expressions.

Secondly I discuss regional diversity. The focus is on differences in material culture in different geographic areas. First I discuss differences within regions, and thereafter I address boundaries between regions. When I study differences within a region my starting point is Anthony Giddens? concept of regionalization which means that people do different things at different places in for example a landscape. Hence different ideas and values can be attached to different places. When I discuss differences between regions I use ideas from the anthropologist Fredrik Barth and I argue that material culture can be used both to signal a specific identity and to signal values with a large geographic distribution.

Thirdly I discuss the relations between monuments and different places in the landscape. A monument has an exact location in the landscape, but the raw material of which it consists, as well as its general form and architecture, can evoke associations to other places at various distances. Monuments are multi-spatial.

The thesis ends with a discussion of how landscape archaeology and praxis theory can contribute to revitalizing the link between archaeological research and cultural heritage management.