Tropes and Isotopes: A Relational Approach to Mobility in the Nordic Bronze Age

This paper introduces the concept of multi-locality as a relational approach to past gendered mobility and identities. Multi-local individuals are identified through strontium isotope analyses when the isotopic ratios are seen to change over the course of an individual life. The study is focused on the social institutions intersecting with mobility and a wish to examine how mobility is related to age and gender in multi-local individuals. A focus on when and why mobility occurs in life adds a much-needed social perspective on mobility to supplement the current dominating focus on provenance. By introducing five cases of multi-local individuals from the Nordic Bronze Age, it is demonstrated that several social institutions could cause age-related gendered mobility patterns. It is proposed that many of these institutions were shared between the gender categories of female and male, such as marriage, fosterage, trade and socio-political mobility (e.g. ritual activity and xenia). In conclusion, it is suggested that additional kinship models could be considered for the Nordic Bronze Age in addition to the predominantly accepted model of patrilocal exogamy.