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Historisk tidskrift 128:3 • 2008

Innehåll (Contents) 2008:3

Uppsatser (Articles)

Stora nordiska kriget i en dagbok och ett brev. Homosocialitet och hushåll i den svenska armén

Maria Sjöberg

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

The Great Nordic War in a diary and a letter: homosociality and household in the Swedish army

This article discusses gender relations during the Great Nordic War. Based on a diary and a letter it illustrates two co-existing and seemingly frictionless princi- ples for the organisation of army life. Formally the regiment was an exclusively male organisation. In practice the regiment also contained the families and hous- eholds of the soldiers, including their wives and children.

The concepts of household-system and homosociality are brought to bear on these different principles of organisation. The household-system shows how the army was dependent on the support of soldiers’ wives who helped and sometimes replaced the soldiers in their tasks. Conditions of marriage and norms governing masculinity and femininity were preconditions for this organisation. Homosocia- lity shows the conditions of male solidarity in the army and the effects of this solidarity.

The article also makes a source-critical point by asking why military sources are silent about the presence of women and children in the field. The diary and the letter used here shows that field camps were peopled by soldiers’ wives and children who left few traces in official sources, and therefore in traditional nar- ratives of war. The silence about the families of the soldiers can be explained by the homosocial character of the army. Between themselves, men formulated an order of war that excluded women despite their obvious presence. Because his- torians seldom ask questions to which their sources provide no answer, they have unintentionally adopted a homosocial conception of war as an exclusively male dominion. The use of alternative sources can correct this conception.

Keywords

gender, Swedish army, household, homosociality