Saga - 2002, Qupperneq 92

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CHRISTINA FOLKE AX
Medick, Hans, „Mikro-Historie", Sozialgeschichte, Alltagsgeschichte, Mikro-Historie:
eine Diskussion. Ritstjóri Winfried Schulze (Göttingen, 1994), bls. 40-53.
Medick, Hans, „"Missionaries in the Rowboat"? Ethnological Ways of Knowing
as Challenge to Social History", The History ofEveryday Life: Reconstruct-
ing Historical Experiences and Ways of Life. Ritstjóri Alf Liidtke
(Princeton, 1995), bls. 41-71.
Ólafur Stefánsson, „Um Jafnvægi Biargrædis-veganna á fslandi", Rit þess Is-
lenzka Lærdómslistafélags. 7.1786 (Kaupmannahöfn, 1787), bls. 112-93.
Summary
This article takes as its point of departure the assumption that Icelandic
society is culturally homogenous. With the help of a microhistorical
analysis of court cases and the life courses of the population in the local
district Seltjamarneshreppur, 1750-1830 three cultural profiles are distin-
guished among the common people. These are cailed respectively, „better-
offfarmers", „outcasts" and „town-dwellers". The better-off farmers are charact-
erised by a good economic situation and a large household. They paid
their rent and taxes when due and now and again had a positive balance
in their account with the local merchant. Their farms often remained in
the family. The same pattem was repeated in the following generation,
and children of these families often married into other families of the
same status.
In contrast to the better-off farmers, the progress of the outcasts is gen-
erally difficult to trace. They lived their entire lives on the brink of exis-
tence and moved frequently. Their children did the same, or else died,
often before reaching adulthood. When we do nm across them in written
sources, they have often run afoul of the law, or died in poverty. The out-
casts can thus be said to a considerable degree to represent the opposite of
the better-offfarmers.
The townspeople are tied to Reykjavík and in many ways are not unlike
the better-off farmers, as they show a certain degree of initiative and gen-
erally managed to look after themselves reasonably well. What distin-
guishes the two profiles is that the townspeople stay in town and do not
pursue agriculture, although this can be a possibility. Their housewares
and clothing also follow Danish/foreign models as is the custom for the
„better classes" in Reykjavík. On the basis of the above, we must conclude
that it is possible to describe Icelandic society at the end of the 18th as cul-
turally complex.