Bloodtaking and Peacemaking

图书信息

作者	Miller, William Ian
出版社	University of Chicago Press
ISBN	9780226526829
出版时间	2009-05-15
字数	92.3万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

Dubbed by the New York Times as "e;one of the most sought-after legal academics in the county,"e; William Ian Miller presents the arcane worlds of the Old Norse studies in a way sure to attract the interest of a wide range of readers. Bloodtaking and Peacemaking delves beneath the chaos and brutality of the Norse world to discover a complex interplay of ordering and disordering impulses. Miller's unique and engaging readings of ancient Iceland's sagas and extensive legal code reconstruct and illuminate the society that produced them.People in the saga world negotiated a maze of violent possibility, with strategies that frequently put life and limb in the balance. But there was a paradox in striking the balance-one could not get even without going one better. Miller shows how blood vengeance, law, and peacemaking were inextricably bound together in the feuding process.This book offers fascinating insights into the politics of a stateless society, its methods of social control, and the role that a uniquely sophisticated and self-conscious law played in the construction of Icelandic society."e;Illuminating."e;-Rory McTurk, Times Literary Supplement"e;An impressive achievement in ethnohistory; it is an amalgam of historical research with legal and anthropological interpretation. What is more, and rarer, is that it is a pleasure to read due to the inclusion of narrative case material from the sagas themselves."e;-Dan Bauer, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

目录

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Spelling

Prologue

1. Introduction: The Institutional Setting and the Ranks of Persons

2. Making Sense of the Sources

3. Some Aspects of the Economy: The Problem of Negotiating and Classifying Exchanges

4. Householding Patterns

5. The Bonds of Kinship

6. Feud, Vengeance, and the Disputing Process

7. Law and Legal Process

8. Peacemaking and Arbitration

Concluding Observations

Abbreviations

Notes

Works Cited

Index