05/10/2023
OPEN ACCESS🏆
Bear and Human: Facets of a Multi-Layered Relationship from Past to Recent Times, with Emphasis on Northern Europe, ed. Oliver Grimm (Brepols, October 2023)
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503606118-1
Bears have, throughout human history, been admired and feared by humans in equal measure, with an interrelationship between the two species identifiable from pre-modern times through a wealth of material items, as well as from cult sites, sacral remains, images, and written sources. This unique interdisciplinary volume draws together sixty-four contributions by experts from across a range of fields in order to shed light on the complex connections between bears and humans in a period extending from the pre-modern into modern times, and across an area stretching from England into Russia. From bear biology (represented by work from the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project) and archaeo(zoo)logy to art history, and from history of religion to philology, the research gathered across this three-volume set explores a wide-range of subjects. Among them are the bear in biology, bears and animal agency, bear remains in graves and churches, the role of bears in religious beliefs (including berserker and bear ceremonialism), bears in literature, the philology underpinning why bear is a taboo word, and the image of the bear in rock art, as well as political iconography up to the present day. Together, these wide-ranging but closely thematic texts combine to produce a ground-breaking new work that will prove fundamental in understanding the human connection with this remarkable animal.
CONTENTS (a lot of medieval material inside, esp. Book 3):
Book 1
Foreword by Oliver Grimm
Chapter 1 – Bear and human
Facets of a multi-layered relationship –introduction, discussion and synthesis
“Bear and human” – introduction, discussion and synthesis -- Oliver Grimm
Chapter 2 – Bears in biology (Europe)
Conservation status and distribution of the brown bear in Europe -- Andreas Zedrosser and Jon E. Swenson
The history of the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project – a formidable success story -- Jon E. Swenson and Sven Brunberg
The management of brown bears in Sweden, Norway and Finland -- Michael Schneider, Andreas Zedrosser, Ilpo Kojola and Jon E. Swenson
Genetics of brown bears in northern Europe -- Alexander Kopatz
Hibernation ecology of brown bears in Sweden -- Andrea Friebe, Jon E. Swenson and Andreas Zedrosser
The social system of a “nonsocial” species, the brown bear -- Andreas Zedrosser, Shane C. Frank, Jennifer E. Hansen, Sam M. J. G. Steyaert, J. E. Swenson
S*xually selected infanticide as a mating strategy in brown bears -- Andreas Zedrosser, Sam M. J. G. Steyaert and Jon E. Swenson
Bears – fact and fiction about bear hunting and intelligence -- Oliver Grimm, Andreas Zedrosser and Jon E. Swenson
Chapter 3 – Bear hunting (Europe)
Bear hunting in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, viewed from the perspective of art history and contemporary textual sources -- Richard Almond
Chapter 4 – Animal agency (northern Europe)
Posthuman bears: Sight, agency, and baiting in Early Modern England -- Liam Lewis
Chapter 5 – Bears in long-term archaeo(zoo)logical studies (northern Europe)
Brown bears in burials and entertainment in later prehistoric to modern Britain (c. 2400 BC – AD 1900s) -- Hannah J. O’Regan
Bears and humans in Sweden – 10,000 years of interactions from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages -- Ola Magnell
Zooarchaeological brown bear (Ursus arctos) finds in eastern Fennoscandia -- Kristiina Mannermaa, Tuija Kirkinen and Suvi Viranta-Kovanen
The history of the brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) in the northern German lowlands -- Ulrich Schmölcke
In the company of bears: The role and significance of the bear from the perspective of the Holocene hunter-gatherer-fishers of the East European Plain forest zone (10th–3rd millennium BC) -- Ekaterina A. Kashina and Anastasia A. Khramtsova
Chapter 6 – Bears in archaeo(zoo)logical, focused analysis (northern Europe)
The White One: How to frame the narrative of the world’s oldest intact polar bear skeleton, specimen S10673 from Finnoy, southwestern Norway, in a museum display -- Kristin Armstrong Oma and Elna Siv Kristoffersen
The bear minimum. Reconsidering ursine remains and depictions at Pitted Ware culture (c. 3200–2300 BC) sites in Sweden -- Tobias Lindström
The Kainsbakke bears and changing patterns in the human-bear relationship through the Danish Mesolithic and Neolithic -- Lutz Klassen and Kristian Murphy Gregersen
Bears and the Viking Age transition in Sweden -- John Ljungkvist and Karl-Johan Lindholm
Book 2
The occurrence of Ursus arctos in relation to other faunal remains in burials during the Late Iron Age (560/70–1050 CE) in Uppland, Sweden -- Hannah Strehlau
Bear bones from the Viking Age cult place at Frösö church – the unifying factor in bear-human relationships in Viking Age Jämtland, northern Sweden -- Ola Magnell
Bear claws in Iron Age burials on Gotland, Sweden – a first survey -- Jane Jordahl, John Ljungkvist and Sabine Sten
Claws in Late Iron Age graves (c. 550–1100 CE) and bones in a castle (post 1500) – Ursus arctos in the Aland archipelago -- Rudolf Gustavsson and John Ljungkvist
The power of the paw. Multi-species perspectives on the bear claw burial tradition in a long-time perspective in South Norway -- Anja Mansrud
Bear skin burials revisited: Norway and Sweden, mainly Migration Period -- Oliver Grimm
Sámi bear graves – results from archaeological and zooarchaeological excavations and analyses in the Swedish part of Sápmi -- Elisabeth Iregren
Sámi bear graves in Norway – hidden sites and rituals -- Ingrid Sommerseth
Bear bones at Saami offering sites -- Marte Spangen, Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Tiina Äikäs and Markus Fjellström
Bear skin trade in the late 1st/early 2nd millennium AD – what do we know from Russian sources? -- Andrei V. Zinoviev
The bear cult in medieval Novgorod, based on archaeological finds -- Elena A. Tianina
Evidence of bear remains in a cremation burial in the Moscow region (Burial 5, Kremenye burial ground on the upper river Oka, 12th century) -- Alexander S. Syrovatko, Natalia Svirkina and Liudmila Plekhanova
Chapter 7 – Bears in the history of religion (northern Europe)
Bears in Old Norse religion with specific references to the berserkir -- Olof Sundqvist
“The Bear Ceremonial” and bear rituals among the Khanty and the Sami -- Hakan Rydving
The songs and rituals of the Finno-Karelian bear hunt: Gifts, seduction and mimesis in the forest -- Vesa Matteo Piludu
The Finno-Karelian bear feast and wedding: The bruin as a guest of honour of the village -- Vesa Matteo Piludu
The Finno-Karelian bear skull rituals: Bringing the bruin home to ensure its regeneration -- Vesa Matteo Piludu
The human-bear relationship among swidden cultivators and forest peasants in Savonia, Finland, and central Scandinavia -- Marja-Liisa Keinänen
Karhurokka – traditional bear meat soup and other bear meat recipes from Finland -- Tuija Kirkinen
Bear skins as a church offering -- Teppo Korhonen
Bears in churches: Skins, paws, and claws from Norway -- Jahn Bore Jahnsen
Book 3
Chapter 8 – Bears in literary studies and the history of ideas (northern Europe)
Bears, kennings and skaldic poetry -- Maria Cristina Lombardi
The role of bears in Old Norse literature – a bestiary concept? -- Agneta Ney
The bear in popular belief, legend and fairy tale -- Klaus Böldl
Killer bears and bear killers in 19th-century Sweden -- Karin Dirke
From monster to endangered animal: Three bear stories by Selma Lagerlöf -- Claudia Lindén
Bears as pares: Some notes on bear stories in Zapinejie (Arkhangelskaya oblast, northern part of the Russian Federation) and the tendency to equality in human-bear relations -- Andrey V. Tutorski
Chapter 9 – Bears in philology (northern, central and eastern Europe)
Bjornestad, Bjornbasen, and Godfardalen: Bear/human relations as referred to in place names from southwestern Norway -- Inge Særheim
Germanic “bear” and Germanic personal names before c. AD 1000 with elements referring to “bear” -- Robert Nedoma
The Slavic word for “bear” -- Jürgen Udolph
Chapter 10 – Bears in image science (northern Europe)
Stone Age amber bear figurines from the Baltic Sea area -- Daniel Groß and Peter Vang Petersen
The bear in Late Iron Age and Viking Period Scandinavian art – a survey -- Sigmund Oehrl
Bears in Swedish imagery, AD 1000–2000 -- Asa Ahrland and Gert Magnusson
Chapter 11 – Bears in Classical Antiquity
Bear und human in Greco-Roman antiquity -- Florian Hurka
Bears in Early and Middle Byzantine art (330–1204) -- Martina Horn
Chapter 12 – Further reading: Bears in a broader perspective
The role of bears in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in southern Germany, with a focus on the Hallstatt period -- Melanie Augstein
Tracking former royal dignity: The bear in medieval German literature -- Sabine Obermaier
“The Bear’s Son Tale”: Traces of an ursine genealogy and bear ceremonialism in a pan-European oral tradition -- Roslyn M. Frank
The bear in European folktales – with a special focus on Scandinavian variants -- Angelika Hirsch
The role of the bear in the Russian folk tale: Personage, plot type, and behavioural scenarios -- Inna Veselova
Bears bring spring: An anthropological view on the role of the bear in middle European winter feasts -- Jet Bakels and Anne Marie Boer
What are those bears doing there? On a painting from early Italian art -- Henk van Os
Bear-human interactions: Archaeological and ethnographic investigations in North American indigenous cultures -- Kerry Hull
Bears in the starry sky -- Ernst Künzl
