Diverse Masculinities in Violence and Warfare: A Case Study of Individuals with Perimortem Weapon-related Trauma Buried at a Dominican Priory in Västerås, Sweden

Abstract

Masculinities can be regarded as performative configurations of practices. The practices in which individuals engage define the concept of masculinity, and at the same time shape the male bodies performing them. Previous research has suggested that the use of physical violence – in the right manner – was an important way of enacting masculinity in medieval northern Europe. Acts of violence can leave identifiable marks on the body, and be detectable in human skeletal remains. This case study analysed individuals with weapon-related trauma, buried at the Dominican priory in Västerås, Sweden (thirteenth to sixteenth century AD). It focuses on ten males with injuries sustained around or shortly before the time of death, and the results are used to examine how masculinities were performed in activities associated with violence and battle, and how warrior masculinities were embodied. The text discusses battle-related activities, such as fighting, fleeing, being injured, healing and dying.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, Anna Kjellström and Sólveig Anna Bóasdóttir for their valuable advice and support, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this text.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse [F19-0410]Berit Wallenberg Foundation [2018.0044]; Västerås Stad [no number]; the University of Iceland Research Fund [no number].