The process of gift-giving is something that occurs all around the world, and most people are both givers and receivers of gifts. While receiving a gift is often associated with joyous feelings, purchasing and giving a gift may not generate the same feelings. The worries of giving a gift may include anguish of finding the right gift for the right person, and not to mention it shall be appropriate given the situation. This paper aims to describe consumer attitudes in various gift-giving occasions. To give another perspective the paper also discusses and describes the term of self-gifting, when the giver and receiver is the same person - you.

The purpose of this essay was to find out if it is possible to:? Detect different groups of gender among children in grave materiel and church art and if that was the case, in what way?? What different groups of children can be seen in these two categories?? What does the material say about children's position in society? The time span is from early Christian time to 17-th century and the geographical region is Sweden and Denmark. I got my information from published literature and different pages on the Internet. The conclusions were that gender among children can be detected in both types of material but different groups were not ?visible? to the same degree.

Moldova is one of Europe?s poorest countries with a struggling business environment and an unpredictable political situation. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the implications of corruptions and why networks have come to play a key role in the Moldovan culture and if the formations of network are due to heritage or an effect of functionalism. The focus of the study is also to explain how the networks develop and the formation and maintenance of loyalty and trust among the members of the network. The study is of a qualitative nature that uses a key informant sampling method to get access to members of different business networks.

It is a well known archaeological concern that the remains of human bones left from the bronze age and early iron age Scandinavia are not nearly enough to represent the estimated population of the time. Furthermore the bones of each find rarely represent a whole individual. The majority of the bones must have been disposed of somewhere else, possibly scattered in running waters or in the fields, where they have evaporated or are securely hidden from archaeological excavations.This thesis deals with the grave concept and the problem in using a word that is so very clouded by its modern, western meaning. It also offers an alternative explanation to why the bones are handled the way they are and why they are found in such awkward contexts..

 The intention of this paper is to explore the contacts between the Swedish province of Scania and Southeastern Europe in the Migration Period. This has been done through comparative studies of four object categories. Parallels to glass, horse trappings, jewellery with inlays and sword decorations found in Scania have been studied in southeastern and centralEurope, as well as the cultures of peoples involved in the Migration processes. The conclusion is that contacts were upheld in several ways: through trade, exchange, alliances and gifts. Old trade routes along the Vistula were used in the south-easterly direction to the Pontic area but were changed to the Moravian Gatein the latter half of the period, while westerly routes probably worked most of the time.

This essay examines how four archaeology scholars reason about gender. I have used a qualitative method in making this study of their dissertations.  The aim is to obtain a deeper understanding of gender identity in prehistory, gaining a broader appreciation of how this might be expressed through archaeological material. This essay takes its theoretical departure from postprocessual thinking, where gender perspectives, including feminist and queer theories are in focus. The result of this study shows that the scholars have a postprocessual, structuralistic theoretical perspective in common, and that they use stereotypical identity-descriptions.

This paper deals with archery in the Viking Age settlement of Birka and in particular the presence of Euro Asiatic, steppe nomadic archery equipment at the Birka Garrison and one Birka grave. The equipment contains for example closed quivers and a bow case. This paper also contains a discussion of archery battle techniques and tactics in Viking Age Birka and the implications of the above mentioned equipment to this discussion. The analysis insinuates the importance and status of archery in 10th century Birka..

On the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea there have been 18 archaeological find of bronze swords and five finds of bronze miniature swords and they have been dated to the bronze age periods II-VI. They have been found as ritual hoard offerings, as treasure hoards and in graves. These finds will be put in relation to each other and the bronze age landscape they have been found in. The purpose of this is to see if there is a pattern to be seen, if a specific sword-type can be found in a grave or hoard or if there?s a pattern to be seen in there placement in the landscape relating to other bronze age sites.

This essay investigates, on the basis of the medieval letters, diplomas, how the medieval monasticism contributed to the maintenance of the Danish society's gender structures. The theoretical starting points for the study are gender and class structures and Marcel Mauss presented gift - giving theory. Finally, a continuous comparison is made with Catharina Andersson's results in her dissertation, in which she examines the social structure in the Swedish medieval society. The primary material in the study is the Danish diplomas. 41 diplomas were found relevant for this study.

This essay studies the funnel-beaker ceramic in connection with the megalith graves in South Scandinavia. In my work I have described the nature of ceramics and looked on the crockery types and ornamentation and then discussed the use of the material in a ritual perspective. In the first part I have focused on the critical aspects you have to think about when you do a study like this one. In the second part of this essay I have done a case study, with the ceramic material, in three passages graves in the area of Falbygden, Western Sweden and studied the ceramic material and the nature of it in South Scandinavia as well. Then in the third I discussed the potential use, there is two, of the ceramic material in general of South Scandinavia and looked at it in a ritual perspective..

This thesis deals with the importance of boar tusks to the people at the Middle Neolithic settlement of Ajvide, Eksta parish on Gotland. The thesis discusses various issues concerning the Ajvide swine and their tusks, such as the question of domestication and the various functions ascribed to tusks. In order to cast light upon these questions the result of a study of all the tusks found on Ajvide thus far as well as their respective grave context is presented. The study also includes an osteological analysis of the tusks. Furthermore, ethnoarchaeological comparisons are made with Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu; contemporary societies presumed to share common traits with Middle Neolithic societies on Gotland and where swine and their tusks likewise assume a prominent position..

The aim of this essay is to see if there are any relationship between the four Megalithic graves, and the newly excavated dwelling site in Resmo socken on Öland. The Megalithic graves on Öland consist of one dolmen and three passage graves. Is the excavated site a settlement? Since there are no signs of housing constructions, I will also explore other possible purposes of the site. What surprised the excavators was the concentration of pits that contained ceramics, flints and burned bones.

Fish-head pendants are one of the characteristic Gotlandic Late Iron Age artefacts. This object has been rather neglected and mainly considered as an insignificant embellishment, normally worn as a neck-collar and seen as an artefact include in the typical Gotlandic set of female jewellery.The fact that the fish-head pendant has a very long life span, which stretches from grave-finds in the Early Vendel Age to hoards in Viking Age as well as secondary usage as brooches in the Early Middle Ages, makes the artefact an excellent starting point for discussions on social practices and change through material culture. It's shown in this study that, contrary to previous beliefs, the normal usages for fish-head pendants is as solitary pendants and not as neck-collars. Neck-collars is shown to have an intricate relation to inhumations for young individuals, whereas solitary pendants are found in cremation deposits for adult individuals, something that relates to a fixed social practice mainly in the period 700-900 AD and that develops from the cremation funeral practice. This particular social practice relates to aspects of attraction and protection and continues in to the 10th century outside of funeral structures, which is shown by the composition of hoard-finds from the 10th century, but is totally absent when the pendants is given a secondary usage as brooches in the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century.

Background: To be a parent to a child dying of cancer affect not just the parents themselves, but the whole family. Experiences of fear, powerlessness and anxiety surrounds them. Nurses need knowledge about parents? experiences to help and support these parents adequately. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe parents? experiences of losing a child to cancer, from diagnosis to the child?s death.

This essay consider ritual death during the ironage, and through a presentation of historical and archaeological sources. Considered ritual death I think we should study both historical and archaeological sources, to get a vider view and a new perspective. To make the essay easier to understand I have split up the early and the late Iron Age in the discussion. In order to study the ritual death I have shown archaeological examples like bogsacrifices in the early ironage, and decapitated victims in the Viking society. The victims have been considered as slaves by some archaeologist.