Manu Braithwaite-Westoby
I am a postdoctoral researcher from Aotearoa/New Zealand. I completed my PhD in Old Norse literature and language at Sydney University in 2023, where I subsequently worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of English. My main area of focus is on the society, culture, literature and language of medieval Scandinavia, though I have an incipient interest in archaeology and art history. A career highlight so far would be developing and teaching an undergraduate course on medieval literature (that explored Old Norse, Old and Middle English, and Old French textual sources) together with another colleague.
My research in WIVA centers on perceived links between the cultures of Iron/Viking age Scandinavia and pre-contact Aotearoa/New Zealand (1200-1800) through comparison of a variety of sources: archaeological, ethnographical, historical, literary, etc. Polynesia has long been a fertile ground for archaeological research and I am not the first to notice the somewhat obvious parallels with Scandinavia, let alone prehistoric communities elsewhere. This distinction could probably be attributed to Te Rangi Hiroa who gave his seminal ethnography the title ‘Vikings of the Sunrise.’ In the decades since its publication a few attempts have been made that compare Scandinavia and Polynesia directly, showing that there is value in a comparative approach. None so far, however, have concentrated on Aotearoa/New Zealand where there is an impressive wealth of evidence, both indigenous and scholarly/academic. In the first year of my postdoc project I will focus on conflict and violence, exploring how this manifested in society, either physically in the form of fortresses and weapons, and ideologically, such as in proscribed codes of behaviour, especially the concept of revenge. In year two the focus will move to a comparison of mythology and ritual.
Although we cannot speak of a Viking ‘diaspora’ of the Pacific comparative studies as a methodology have been used by archaeologists for several decades. Sometimes it is only through consideration of another culture that certain details start to emerge or that we even begin to ask the relevant questions, which I believe will be the case with my project. I hope that by engaging with the material from pre-contact Aotearoa/New Zealand I will be able to offer new interpretations of some aspects of Viking Age Scandinavia, for example regarding warfare in society, that are currently unclear. I also hope my study will be result in some new ways of perceiving the mental universe of the Vikings, a kind of experimental archaeology that requires creative ways of thinking and problematizing.
Long term I hope that my work will not only inspire other comparative projects but also encourage mutual interest among researchers in Scandinavia and the Pacific. As areas that have often been viewed as peripheral or marginal, there is much that we can learn from each other from a historical and socio-cultural point of view.