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Chapter Fourteen - Becoming the Warrior: Constructed Identity or Functional Identity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Christian Horn
Affiliation:
Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Kristian Kristiansen
Affiliation:
Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
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Summary

The warrior' is often presented as an unproblematic concept, yet the ideas and interpretations behind it are seldom fully examined. What is meant and understood by the term is subject to considerable variation – ranging anywhere between describing those engaging in combat to indicating the symbolic role. Several key assumptions are often made, explicitly or implicitly, of the 'warrior': most frequently, that this person is male, of an elite social class, and that this is their sole or dominant identity. Research into the weapons of northern Britain during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1250 – 750 BC) indicates that this might not be an accurate representation, and has often been subject to oversimplification. This paper will discuss the construction of a warrior identity: who might create one and why, and how it might be developed and expressed. The possibility is presented that this identity is not necessarily related to functional activity, and is one of many identities an individual could adopt. Some of the most visible Late Bronze Age phenomena, primarily weapon hoard deposition and the 'killing' of weapons, may partially have served as a mechanism to balance multiple identities in both the public and private domains.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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