Understanding Disability Throughout History: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Iceland from Settlement to 1936

199 Pages·2021·14.757 MB·English

by  Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir, James G. Rice

Understanding Disability
Throughout History
Understanding Disability Throughout History explores seldom-heard voices
from the past by studying the hidden lives of disabled people before the con-
cept of disability existed culturally, socially, and administratively.
The book focuses on Iceland from the Age of Settlement, traditionally
considered to have taken place from 874 to 930, until the 1936 Law on Social
Security (Lög um almannatryggingar), which is the first time that disabled
people were referenced in Iceland as a legal or administrative category.
Data sources analysed in the project represent a broad range of materi-
als that are not often featured in the study of disability, such as bone col-
lections, medieval literature, and census data from the early modern era,
archaeological remains, historical archives, folktales and legends, personal
narratives, and museum displays. The ten chapters include contributions
from a multidisciplinary team of experts working in the fields of Disability
Studies, History, Archaeology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Folklore and
Ethnology, Anthropology, Museum Studies, and Archival Sciences, along
with a collection of postdoctoral and graduate students.
The volume will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability
studies, history, medieval studies, ethnology, folklore, and archaeology.
Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir is a Professor of Disability Studies at the School
of Social Sciences, University of Iceland. She received her doctorate in dis-
ability studies from the University of Sheffield in 2005. She is the Principle
Investigator for the Disability before Disability project funded by the Icelan-
dic Research Fund.
James G. Rice is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the School of
Social Sciences, University of Iceland. He received his doctorate in anthropol-
ogy from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2007. He is currently
the Lead Researcher in the project “Disability, immigration, and multigener-
ation: intersecting factors in child protection cases,” funded by the University
of Iceland’s research fund.
Interdisciplinary Disability Studies
Series Editor: Mark Sherry, the University of Toledo, USA
Disability studies have made great strides in exploring the power and the
body. This series extends the interdisciplinary dialogue between disability
studies and other fields by asking how disability studies can influence a
particular field. It will show how a deep engagement with disability stud-
ies changes our understanding of the following fields: sociology, literary
studies, gender studies, bioethics, social work, law, education, or history.
This ground-breaking series identifies both the practical and theoretical
implications of such an interdisciplinary dialogue and challenges people in
disability studies as well as other disciplinary fields to critically reflect on
their professional praxis in terms of theory, practice, and methods.
Disability, Intersectional Agency, and Latinx Identity
Theorizing LatDisCrit Counterstories
Alexis Padilla
Disability and Art History From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Ann Millett-Gallant and Elizabeth Howie
Disability Representation in Film, TV, and Print Media
Edited by Michael S. Jeffress
Accessibility Denied. Understanding Inaccessibility and
Everyday Resistance to Inclusion for Persons With Disabilities
Hanna Egard, Kristofer Hansson, and David Wästerfors
Understanding Disability Throughout History
Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Iceland From Settlement to 1936
Edited by Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir and James G. Rice
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/series/
ASHSER1401
Understanding Disability
Throughout History
Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Iceland
from Settlement to 1936
Edited by
Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir
and James G. Rice
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir
and James G. Rice; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir and James G. Rice to be
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for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
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ISBN: 978-1-032-01827-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-01782-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18018-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003180180
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Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of contributors x
Introduction 1
HANNA BJÖRG SIGURJÓNSDÓTTIR AND JAMES G. RICE
1 Disability in Medieval Iceland: Some methodological concerns 12
CHRISTOPHER CROCKER, YOAV TIROSH, AND ÁRMANN JAKOBSSON
2 Beneath the Surface: Disability in archaeological and
osteobiographical contexts 29
STEINUNN KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR AND JOE W. WALSER III
3 One Story, One Person: The importance of micro/bio
research for disability studies 46
SIGURÐUR GYLFI MAGNÚSSON
4 The Peculiar Attitude of the People: The life and social conditions
of one “feebleminded” girl in the early 20th century 58
GUÐRÚN V. STEFÁNSDÓTTIR AND SÓLVEIG ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
5 From a Life With a Different Body to a Recreated Folklore
of Accentuated Difference: Sigríður Benediksdóttir
versus Stutta-Sigga 76
EVA ÞÓRDÍS EBENEZERSDÓTTIR AND SÓLVEIG ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
6 Dis-/abling Absence: Absencepresence as matters that matter 95
ARNDÍS BERGSDÓTTIR
vi Contents
7 Health, Healing, and the Social Body in Medieval Iceland 113
CHRISTOPHER CROCKER AND YOAV TIROSH
8 Physical Impairment and the Spatial Dimensions of Everyday
Life in Rural Households in Pre-industrial Iceland 128
ÓLAFUR RASTRICK
9 Guðmundur Bergþórsson as Creator and Creation: A Folk
Narrative Study of a 17th Century Disabled Poet 146
ALICE BOWER
10 Fictive Osteobiographical Narrative - The Missing Puzzle Pieces 163
HARALDUR THOR HAMMER HARALDSSON
Afterword 181
Index 183
Foreword
Rannveig Traustadóttir
What a privilege it is to write the foreword for this important volume! It is
an excellent contribution to disability studies, at the same time as it brings
into view how a range of scholarly disciplines can provide valuable insights
and perspectives to the study of disabled people’s lives and roles in the past.
The chapters provide a unique historical insight into the lives of disabled
people in Iceland before the term “disability” became a category embedded
in law and a target for various interventions by public authorities. However,
rather than being a history of disability or disabled people in the traditional
sense of “history,” the book offers windows into the lives of individuals with
different impairments at various times and places in Icelandic history; how
they fared, were treated, represented, recorded, and understood. Disabled
people have not enjoyed attention in Icelandic historical accounts. In fact,
their lives have been hidden and forgotten, overlooked, and ignored. A fate
shared with other groups, who were not considered important enough to
account for in historical documents. Thus, the research presented here
shares the endeavour of many other interdisciplinary fields of study, such
as gender studies, queer studies, and various ethnic minority studies, to
recover the history of groups previously ignored. In doing so, this volume
presents, for the first time, insights into the lives and experiences of disa-
bled people in the past in Iceland and their stories that have not been told
before. As it turns out, Iceland is an ideal setting for this kind of historical
“excavation” to discover hidden aspects of history and lives not previously
accounted for. The country’s small population, with its extensive written
records and medieval sagas, have been fruitful grounds for the interdisci-
plinary group of scholars contributing to this volume. Analysing historical
data is challenging and the sources of information are often ambiguous,
complex, and difficult to interpret. An important aspect of this volume is
a much needed and insightful discussion about the methodological chal-
lenges and concerns when exploring disability through different sources of
historical data. These methodological accounts and reflections on how the
contributors employed a variety of methods will be a valuable resource and
viii Foreword
guide for future scholars of disability history. Another important aspect
of many of the chapters is that although disability is the main focus, the
authors have taken an intersectional approach and included additional
aspects, such as gender and class, when analysing what impacted the lives
and stories of the people presented. Although disability studies are at the
centre, this volume is a celebration of collaborative and interdisciplinary
endeavour from a range of scholarly disciplines, coming together in further-
ing our knowledge and understanding of disabled lives. The wide range of
disciplines represented allows for the introduction of different disciplinary
perspectives, a variety of methodological considerations, and the introduc-
tion of different forms of data about disabled people and their lives than is
typically encountered in disability studies. Enjoy!
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge the financial support of
the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannsóknasjóður – Grant number 173655-
051) for which made the “Disability before Disability” (DbD) project and
this book possible. Second, we would like to thank the contributors for their
chapters that comprise this volume, the research was undertaken, and their
participation in a number of interesting workshops and meetings.
There are also numerous people whose assistance was critical for the
success of this volume. At the University of Iceland, we would like to thank
and recognise the institutional support provided to us. In specific, this
includes Anna Maria Wojtynska, Project Manager of the DbD project,
and Hulda Proppé, Director of research at the School of Social Sciences,
both of whom have been with us throughout the duration of the project. We
would also like to acknowledge our colleagues at the Centre for Disability
Studies, Social Sciences Research Institute, University of Iceland: Rannveig
Traustadóttir, Stefán Hardonk, and Snæfríður Þóra Egilson. We would
also like to thank Elín Valsdóttir for her assistance in manuscript format-
ting and preparation.
During a DbD workshop in Hvalfjörður, Iceland, in the spring of 2019,
we presented an initial outline of this volume to the participants for feed-
back and comments. This included the strand leaders, strand members,
and invited external experts. We would like to thank the external experts
in particular for their comments on the book proposal and support at
this time and throughout the duration of the project. This includes: Tom
Shakespeare (Disability Studies); Irena Metzler (History); David Turner
(History); Elaine Gerber (Anthropology); Christina Lee (Viking Studies);
as well as Simo Vehmas (Disability Studies).
At Routledge, we would like to thank Mark Sherry, Series Editor of
“Interdisciplinary Disability Studies,” as well as Claire Jarvis, Senior
Editor for Health and Social Care, and Catherine Jones, Editorial Assistant
for Health and Social Care.