Paper short abstract:

Through the lens of glíma, a traditional form of wrestling in Iceland, and with a focus on the male body, this paper explores how heritage constitutes subjects in present times and contrasts its technology with that of national culture, an earlier metacultural relationship that helped to create the modern national subject at the dawn of the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

Glíma is a traditional form of wrestling brought to Iceland from Scandinavia some time before the 13th century. In one form or another, glíma has been practiced continuously to this day, but as an organized sporting event, it is only one century old. With a view to recreating Iceland's medieval Golden Age, the young men involved in the Youth Movement in the early years of the 20th century chose as their sport a practice with saga roots and within a few years it was labeled Iceland's national sport.

With nationalistic fervor fading in the second half of the twentieth century, the time was ripe for the concept of cultural heritage to come along and help reform our relation to glíma. In its early 20th century forms, the national sport of glíma illustrates how cultural practices constitute modern national subjects. In the 21st century, glíma has taken on a different set of connotations as it has been translated into the language of cultural heritage. This new language of heritage creates the conditions for another sort of subject to emerge, one that is less universal than the modern national subject of one hundred years ago and more dispersed, reflexive, and ironic. I propose to explore in particular the kinesthetics of these subjects of heritage and the ways in which people engage with the present through tactile replications of past grips, embraces, and tumbles.