The idea for this special issue is rooted in discussions connected to the multidisciplinary workshop of 'Austmarr VI: Religion, Language, Practice', organized in Helsinki at the end of 2016, but it was not planned as conference proceedings per se. Austmarr Network meetings offer a venue for presenting work in progress rather than more or less ready papers, and the lectures connected with this meeting’s workshop were oriented towards discussion rather than publication. The idea behind the collection was instead built on working not simply with the concept of 'interdisciplinarity', but with a broader phenomenon of which interdisciplinarity is a part, a phenomenon which has no label of its own and thus becomes simultaneously obscured in the shadow of interdisciplinarity. This aspect of the thematic issue’s focus is linked to comparativism, in the broad sense of bringing things together and looking for patterns of sameness and difference or how one thing may help shed light on another, a methodological tool that intersects with interdisciplinarity and the broader phenomenon with which it is connected. The contributions gathered here include introductions to, and discussions of, methodologies that truly unite distinct disciplines or that triangulate analyses of different types of data emblematic of different fields.
Author(s): Joonas Ahola, Kendra Willson (eds.)
Series: The Retrospective Methods Network (RMN) Newsletter. Interdisciplinary and Comparative Methodologies, 14
Publisher: University of Helsinki
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 180
Editor's Column 6
INTERDISCIPLINARY AND COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGIES. EXPLORING CIRCUM-BALTIC CULTURES AND BEYOND
Interdisciplinary and Comparative Methodologies: An Introduction / Frog, Joonas Ahola and Kendra Willson 7
Theory and Methodology for Assembly Site Identification and Analysis / Alexandra Sanmark 17
'Thegns' in the Social Order of Anglo-Saxon England and Viking-Age Scandinavia: Outlines of a Methodological Reassessment / Denis Sukhino-Khomenko 25
Castrén's Lectures on Finnish Mythology: Methodological Reflections / Joonas Ahola and Karina Lukin 51
Great Goddess Theory in Ancient Germanic Studies / Joseph S. Hopkins 70
'Runo' Revisited: Borrowing and Semantic Development / Kendra Willson 77
On the Analogical Comparison of Performance Environments: Lament Poetry's Soundscape as a Case Study / Eila Stepanova and Frog 91
COMMENTS, PERSPECTIVES AND REPORTS
Scandinavian–Finnic Language Contact and Problems of Periodisation / Johan Schalin 112
Archaeological and Lexical Relevant Indicators of South Sámi Prehistory / Minerva Piha 123
In the Hollow of 'Tursas'? – An Overview of an Archaeological Work-in-Progress in Southwest Finland / Sami Raninen 131
'Jómsvíkinga saga' – Recent Research: Focus on Genre / Sirpa Aalto 136
Russian Laments of the Vologda Region in Modern Records: Distinctiveness and Relations to Other Traditions / Elena Jugai 140
New Research on Skolt Saami Laments / Marko Jouste 151
CONFERENCES AND EVENTS
Conference Report – Austmarr VI: Religion, Language, Practice, with a Workshop on Late Iron Age Mortuary Behaviours / Kendra Willson 154
Conference Report – Austmarr VII: Crossing Disciplinary Borders in Viking-Age Studies: Problems, Challenges and Solutions / Joseph Ryder 156
Conference Announcement – Austmarr IX: 'Genius loci' in the Prehistory of the Baltic Sea Region / Vykintas Vaitkevičius 160
Conference Report – Folklore and Old Norse Mythology / Jesse Barber 161
Conference Report – Network of Early Career Researchers in Old Norse: Trends and Challenges in Early Career Scholarship Workshop / Luke John Murphy 166
Conference Announcement – Methodology in Mythology: Where Does the Study of Old Norse Religion Stand, and Where Can We Go from Here? – The 2019 Aarhus Old Norse Mythology Conference / Eldar Heide 168
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Contacts and Networks in the Baltic Sea Region: 'Austmarr' as a Northern 'Mare nostrum', ca. 500–1500 AD (Maths Bertell, Frog and Kendra Willson (eds.)) 169
Atlantic Outlooks on Being at Home: Gaelic Place-Lore and the Construction of a Sense of Place in Medieval Iceland (Matthias Egeler) 170
Viking Law and Order: Places and Rituals of Assembly in the Medieval North (Alexandra Sanmark) 173
PHD DISSERTATION PROJECTS
Communicative Registers, Enregisterment and Indexicality in Viena Karelian Kalevala-Metric Poetry (working title) (Tuukka Karlsson) 176
MASTER’S THESES
Óðinn: A Queer 'týr'? A Study of Óðinn’s Function as a Queer Deity in Iron Age Scandinavia (Amy Jefford Franks) 178
CALLS FOR PAPERS
The Formula in Oral Poetry and Prose: New Approaches, Models and Interpretations 179
