essay
The Icelandic family sagas as totemic artefacts
Social approaches to Viking studies • Glasgow • Published In 1991 • Pages: 11-17
By: Durrenberger, E. Paul.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is a structural analysis of the Icelandic sagas. The author suggests '…that the sagas are neither art nor history, but articulations of what Lévi-Strauss (1966) calls a 'totemic operator', an overarching classification system which organizes all experience into an integrated whole in terms of which one can locate anyone or anything relative to all other being, things, events, and forces. It defines nature, the human place in nature, and any person's place in the natural and human order. Its logic is one of classification and analogy' (p. 12).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Comparative evidence
- Verbal arts
- Ethnopsychology
- Ethnosociology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Early Icelanders
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2004
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Europe
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Scandinavia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2002
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ninth-thirteenth centuries AD
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- general Iceland
- NotesAdditional notes
- E. Paul Durrenberger
- For bibliographical references see document 5: [Sampson]
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- gb 91006825
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Icelanders