Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Side 94

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Side 94
George Hambrecht Revolution he does suggest that these findings might show that improving ani- mal husbandry can be traced back earlier than previously thought. Denmark experi- enced the expansion of agricultural lands and new agricultural techniques in the 17th century, though it is argued that this expansion led to a grave ecological crisis in the 18th century (Kjærgaard, 1994). Behind the Agricultural Revolu- tion there was an overall concentration on the harnessing and controlling of nature. This went well beyond the biblical prec- edent of the creation story in Genesis by emphasizing the ability to engineer nature and cull the unproductive ele- ments from it (Worster, 1994, chp 2). In the context of agriculture this engineering was most often termed “improvement” (Dalglish, 2003, chp 5). Though the nature of improvement changed accord- ing to the point of view of the agents involved, generally speaking land, crops and animals were manipulated in order to increase their value and productivity through an application of literate, orderly “enlightenment” principles of formal- ized planning, systematic record keeping, and the application of simple numerical statistics. Early Modem Icelanders were not strangers to this improving impulse. Alongside the 1780 Icelandic manual of agricultural improvement, Atli, by Bjorn Halldorsson, there are eighteenth-century private “improving” journals of farm- ers from throughout Iceland (Ogilvie, McGovern, personal communication). There is also a significant spike in barley pollen seen in soil samples dated to the 17th century taken from Skálholt (Einars- son, 1962). These data might indicate an attempt at growing barley in the Skálholt area, another potential indication of an improving impulse, in this case from the same community that raised and slaugh- tered these exceptional cattle. The idea of improvement is often associated with the rise of capitalism and the profit motive, but the Bishop’s beef cattle are a difficult fit for this model. It would be hard to understand the introduc- tion of these polled beef cattle and the arti- ficial polling of native cattle as motivated by profit and the accumulation of capital. It is possible that the Bishops intended to stimulate a market for beef in Iceland, but this is very unlikely. It is more likely that these cattle management decisions were inspired the desire to reinforce the high status of Skálholt through conspicuous beef consumption and to signal partici- pation in the new set of European stand- ards for appropriate behaviors of landed elite farm managers, re-emphasizing elite intellectual and social connections with the outside world. The bishop’s cattle thus appear to have been intended to enhance social rather than financial capital. Their presence at Skalholt looks backwards to longstanding patterns of chiefly display and consumption as much as ahead to the oncoming world of commerce and moder- nity. The bishop’s cattle, like early mod- ern manor and school of Skalholt itself thus stand between two worlds, and their bones tell a story more rooted in social change and changing world-view than in biology or subsistence economy. References Amorosi, T. and McGovern, T. 1993 The 1987-88 Archaeofauna from Viðey, Iceland. Arbaersafn Museum of the City of Reykjavik, Reykjavik, Ice- land. Corsi, Pietro 1988 The Age of Lamarck. University of California Press, Ber- keley. 92

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