Memory, State, and Past Remembering in East Central and Northern Europe

Analysing the mechanisms that lead to the formation of early state forms, this book defines the role of gifts, religious belief systems, prestige, and reciprocity within segmentary and chiefdom societies in East and Northern Europe. Volume II explores the concept and the idea of memory, commemoration and material culture related to the power of memory and functioning of medieval state observed in sources. This book discusses how gift and elite exchange gained significant importance over the early and high middle ages and encompassed, at the level of symbolic communication, the Christian perspective on power rituals as well as the sacred dimension of its legitimisation and manifestation. This book provides an interdisciplinary study of medieval elites, Saints and Kings through material culture and memory across medieval Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Bohemia and Rus. An ideal resource for students of medieval East Central and Northern Europe, medieval material culture and memory more broadly.