This essay discusses the issue of the role of women and also whether they could obtain a strong social position during the Viking Age. Moreover, it does discuss the question of how frequent women were present in Viking Age scriptures, art and archaeological artefacts in comparison to our view of women and her position in the modern society. The archaeological material used is in majority that found in Birka, such as burial and habitational findings. These objects, as well as other comparable and similar findings from other places, when put together with written sources, show that women had different roles in the society. She was able to have a strong social role during the Viking Age not only becauseof the status her family had but also because of her own merit depending of her skills and ability.The archaeological findings found in female graves and other findings in the area, suggest a specializing within both textile production and trade for the women.

This master thesis deals with two case studies in environmental archaeology and battlefield archaeology focusing on two major events in the late history of the Swedish coastal town Umeå and its nearby village Sävar. Established in the early 1600's, Umeå was known for its export of timber and import of cereals. The town has suffered from numerous fires, the fire in 1888 being the most devastating. Few written records of the town remain from before the 1900's. The latest war in Sweden's history is documented in historical sources and took place at Krutbrånet, Sävar where the Swedish troops suffered defeat against the russian forces in 1809.

This essay is about the burial rites in the passage graves of Falbygden, Västergötland. My questions were: Can the burial ritual be understood by comparing the material culture inside and outside the tombs? What kind of grave offerings did the dead have? Most peculiar are all these beads of amber, what kind of meaning did they have? Was the position of the body a part of the ritual? The time period is the middle Neolithic.I selected four passage graves to investigate: Hjälmars rör (Falköping 3), Rössberga (Valtorp 2), Näs sn 7:2 Kvättak 5:1 and Frälsegården (Gökhem 94).My conclusion was that there are differences between the material culture inside and outside the tombs. Outside the ritual includes fire, inside the material culture are not burned. The material culture outside is more dominant than the finds inside, although the beads of amber are only represented inside and dominates the findings inside.

This study focuses on single peoples construction of their lifes in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom. It is based on five interviews made with single women and men at the age of 24 to 51 who live by themselves. The queer theory which puts the heteronormativity in question is used as a theoretical framework. Discourse psychology functions as an analytic approach. It focuses on the use of language in the construction of reality in a world of determinant discourses.

AbstractTitle: Who are you? Who am I? ? Charades in the mediated world of today. A study of the construction of identity at Facebook.(Vem är du? Vem är jag? ? Charader i dagens medierade värld. En studie av identitetskonstruktionen på Facebook.)Number of pages: 58 (66 including enclosures.)Author: Mathilda WahlundTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study how people construct their own identities today.

The aim of the study is to examine which present conceptions of sexuality there are in treatment of substance abuse for men. The intention is to examine how staff members in these environments perceive clients? sex and sexuality as well as studying if and in that case how they work with sexuality in treatment. A qualitative method formed the methodological approach and semistructured interviews were carried out for the collection of data. Four staff members from two different treatment institutions for substance abuse were interviewed.

In Malin Kivelä?s novel Du eller aldrig (2006) the reader experiences the world through the body of Aija, the narrator; a middle aged woman living in Helsinki. Aija has no family or other social relations. Hers is a life of strict routine: she spends her time reading, cleaning and studying snowflakes. Critics of the novel have stressed that Aija?s way of narrating creates a strong sense of presence in the text, but also that Aija?s atypical social behavior evokes a sense of loneliness and alienation.

The purpose of the essay is to examine the views on sexuality that guide the Swedish Migration board and court?s judgments and decisions in asylum cases. The essay investigates seven cases from the Swedish Migration court regarding asylum seekers from seven different countries seeking protection in Sweden due to their sexuality and/or gender identity. By applying discourse analysis, along with the theoretical perspectives of Judith Butler and the postcolonial critique of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, the essay discuss what kind of criteria and/or practice is demanded of the asylum seekers to be rendered as trustworthy. The essay concludes that the asylum seekers are considered untrustworthy by the migration authorities when not acting according to a (hetero)normative sexuality.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på vad de föremål från bronsåldern som har klassats som bronssylar har använts till. Genom studier av de bronssylar bronssylar i magasinet på Gastelyckan och med hjälp av Andreas Oldebergs katalog Die ältere Metallzeit in Schweden I har jag kommit fram till att bronssylarnas huvudanvändningsområde är till läderarbeten..

The subject of this master level thesis in historical osteology, is a study of waste management in the medieval town of Lund. The aims of the study is achieved through looking at the taphonomic aspects of bonefragments from the quarter Blekhagen. The study is divided in two separate sections, one that is a litterature study of what is known about waste management, and another one that contains a taphonomic and spatial analysis. Through examination of the taphonomic variables weathering, average weight and trampling and a spatial analysis, I am able to deduce that there are signs of controlled waste management in the material. It is not possible to draw any general conclusions about waste management in the medieval town however.

I ett försök att låta poststrukturalismen närma sig materia, för min studie samman en queer psykoanalytisk syn på subjektskap, presenterad av Judith Butler, med miffoteori, en poststrukturell förståelse av funktionalitet, mestadels influerad av Robert McRuer och Lennard J. Davis, för att undersöka hur ramverket inom vilket subjektskap kan intas påverkas. Studien visar att det normata är kontextuellt definierat, och vidare att subjektskap är beroende av mötet mellan subjektet och en potentiellt funktionshindrande miljö; i vilken subjektet antingen passerar som normat eller inte. Detta rörliga subjektskap påverkas därigenom av faktorer såsom rädslan för det miffoeska, en kapitalistisk syn på medborgarskap samt möjligheten att (undermedvetet) nå en (temporär) position mellan det normata och det miffoeska, vars förhållande även genererar en ökad möjlighet för subversivt motstånd. Vidare menar jag att detta kan sägas utgöra ett ramverk inom vilket det blir möjligt att studera subjektskapet, genererat av maktordningar såsom klass, etnicitet etc..

The purpose of this essay is to see if villages or bigger settlement locations can be found in south-eastern Blekinge during the viking age. There have been many archaeological findings from this period in Blekinge, for example grave findings, ring-forts , old roads and ancient harbors. But no evidence of a village has been found yet. If south-eastern Blekinge is compared with the area surrounding Järrestad on Österlen in south-eastern Skåne and the area surrounding Sorte Muld on Bornholm, many likenesses can be seen. In this essay, the findings in Blekinge will be used as different components when the three areas are compared with each other.

Syftet med denna studie var att försöka få en inblick i hur det är att leva i den komplexa kontexten i att ha en hbt (homo-bi-trans) läggning och att vara kristen. Vi ville på individnivå försöka tolka och förstå genom ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie som baseras på sex halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Vidare ligger studiens fokus på personer som har ett aktivt liv inom den kristna kontexten. De begrepp som genomsyrar hela studien är heteronormativitet, hbt och stigmatisering.

This is a qualitative study based on five semi-structured interviews in Sweden. The aim of the study is to explore what experiences non-monogamous people have of dating and the social support surrounding them. The study investigates what effects norms and normative structures have on non-monogamous dating. This is done through a thematic analysis with queer theory, and the underlying theoretical concepts performativity, heteronormativity, mononormativity, relationship escalator and queer temporalities. To help analyze the social support, we have used Bourdieu's (1986) theory about social capital.

Vad är normalt? Vem äger det samhälleliga tolkningsföreträdet av att vara normal? Vad gör och hur formar ett begrepp som normalitet oss som individer, medborgare och medmänniskor i det att vi försöker konstruera mening och betydelse av vår egen vardag samtidigt som vi försöker förstå vår gemensamma omvärld? Det är vad min magisteruppsats handlar om. Hur det blir exkluderat som utmanar normens tolkningsföreträde av vad som är möjligt att beteckna som normalt när det gäller olika sociala uttryck av kön och sexualitet. Vad händer med ett begrepp som gör motstånd mot en normalitet som konstruerar en viss tillhörighet som mer normal än någon annan? Vad blir den sociala konsekvensen av att det s k normala talar om denna utmaning och detta motstånd i ett offentligt samtal? Det är denna diskussion som utgör fokus i min uppsats i vilken jag studerar det offentliga samtalet om begreppet queer i svensk dagspress och hur det formuleras inom vad jag menar är en heteronormativ samhällelig diskurs, där queer genom att konstitueras som synonymt med den avvikande ofarliggörs i bekräftelsen och reproduceringen av det normala.