Nature and Policy in Iceland, 1400-1800 An Anthropological Analysis of History and Mentality

Summary: In this ambitious study, Kirsten Hastrup offers an analysis of Icelandic Society from 1400 to 1800--a period of remarkable social disintegration and technological decline. Juxtaposing the economic, social, and political orders with concepts of humanity, fate, and nature, her study shows how the dissolution of the ancient order must be attributed to internal factors of culture and mentality, as well as to the external... ones of natural catastrophe and commercial exploitation. The book ends with an invaluable analysis of the nature of causation in history. [read more]