Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Síða 38

Ragnar Edvardsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Noah Zagor & Matthew Waxman
Sheep fleeces needed for
Household household consumption wethers ewes total adult sheep
Sr. Bjami 48 21 24 45
Brandur 38.4 5 5
Table 3. Estimation of woolen requirements, against probable production at Finnbogastaðir.
prompting negative comments from
Danish officials and improving great
farmers (see Hastrup 1997 and
Durrenberger & Pálsson 1989). Many
tenant farmers in Iceland had to fulfill
certain duties in addition to rent pay-
ments (usually made in money and in
kind, as at Finnbogastaðir) including dif-
ferent forms of labor service (Sr. Bjami
and Brandur were fortunate to escape
these requirements at Finnbogastaðir). In
the NW, tenants often had to man boats
that belonged to the owner of the farm. In
other places there were ferry duties, or
other required services. Failure to meet
all obligations of rent and service led to
eviction, which could result in the
breakup of the household if not starva-
tion.
By the 18th century, tenant house-
holds needed to produce cash (or its
equivalent in store credit) as well as food
in order to survive. Rent payments often
required money as well as butter (as at
Finnbogastaðir), and the small collection
of imported ceramics and single kaolin
pipe fragment recovered in 1990 suggest
the occasional purchase of the imported
luxuries so regularly denounced (as
unsuitable for the poor) in contemporary
sermons. Woollen clothing and bedding
were also household requirements that
may not have been met by local produc-
tion. Several 18th century sources (esp.
Skúli Magnússon (1784)) allow a rough
calculation of the amount of wool needed
to provide for the needs of an individual
and many sources provide closely com-
parable estimates of the washed clip of
Icelandic sheep (Orri Vésteinsson pers
comm 2003). While such calculations
cannot be precise, a comparison of the
estimated household woolen require-
ments vs. probable production provides
some grounds for assessing the situation
of the 18th century households at
Finnbogastaðir (Table 3).
While Sr.Bjami may have been able
to clothe his household from his own
flocks (or come close most years),
Brandur faced an insoluble shortfall.
Neither tenant could have relied upon
surplus wool production to generate sig-
nifícant cash income. Note that
Brandur's household kept no wethers at
all, and thus seems to have forgone spe-
cialized wool production entirely. Thus
small tenant farmers needed to generate
some surplus above the bare nutritional
needs of the household to purchase goods
they did not produce themselves and ful-
fill their many social obligations. Like
many members of small-scale societies
in the modem circumpolar north, these
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