Bourdieu och Arkeologi – Struktur och praxis bland gropkeramiker på Västerbjers, Gotland

Abstract

With the point of departure in three main objectives the purpose of the thesis is to examine the potential of the reasoning and concepts of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) in an analysis of an archaeological material. Earlier attempts to use his reasoning in archaeology have not in a sufficient way considered the complexity of these reasoning. The thesis presents an attempt to adapt and convey these reasoning to enable an archaeological analysis and interpretations about social structure and practice of the Middle-Neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) as these matters comes to expression within the burial site at Västerbjers, Gothem parish, Gotland. By examining the potential and the sustainability of Bourdieu’s epistemology and theoretical concepts on an archaeological material, the aim of the thesis is on a specific level to achieve a developed knowledge and understanding of the structure and practices such as these may have been constituted at the PWC site of Västerbjers, Gotland. . On a general level, the aim of this study is to contribute to a development of the methodological resources of the archaeological discipline. The results are presented in a summarizing compilation of the compositions of symbolic capital of how individuals group together in different sectors of practice, and how these individuals relate to the general group structure among people of Västerbjers. It is concluded that: Bourdieu’s reasoning, when they are adapted to fit the archaeological context, enables an achievement of qualified understanding concerning society, groups and individual identity and thereby a possibility to visualize intangible, immaterial relationships. This kind of implementation of an adjustment of Bourdieu’s concepts on an archaeological material constitutes a pilot study. The argumentation in this thesis therefore has a more discursive and reflexive character, as no earlier methodological model have been available that could be applied. The outline of the thesis is divided into six parts (part I – VI) with an English summary.