Temporary freedoms? Ethnoarchaeology of female herders at seasonal sites in northern Europe

This article investigates the socio-cultural role of temporary habitation sites associated with short-distance transhumance in upland and outland pastures of northern Europe. Comparing recent archaeological fieldwork with neglected ethnohistorical information, the author discusses the extraordinary social and sexual freedoms which unmarried young people–particularly young women–experienced in summer pastures of post-medieval Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Shieling sites and booley sites were places where female-specific traditions of work and leisure were reproduced seasonally with minimal male interference. However, this autonomy was ultimately curtailed by the economic importance of what young women were doing in the hills, namely, looking after dairy cows and ewes. Adult males maintained subtle control over the architecture of seasonal sites and formed a noticeable presence in uplands thanks to occasional industrial activities. Seasonal transhumant sites demonstrate that temporary places in so-called ‘marginal’ landscapes can greatly enhance the study of social practice in non-elite rural communities.