Icelandic Virtue Society at the End of the Nineteenth Century: Characteristics, Influence, and Decline

Icelandic social structure in the nineteenth century was characterised by widely accepted virtues to which all inhabitants were expected to conform and ensure compliance by others. These virtues moulded people’s interactions, and they created norms and barriers against conduct that was considered to violate them. The social philosophy of rural Nordic societies in the nineteenth century was based on the Lutheran hierarchy: in local communities it was the role of priests to maintain the true faith and its correct understanding, and to ensure that farmers did the same within their homes. Co-operation between officials and heads of household was considered vital for maintaining peace and order in each community, but it also had the function of keeping subjects quiet. The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of rapid transformation which included changes in the social structure as well as to moral standards. Some of the causes can be described as natural and social disasters — several unusually cold years, a major volcanic eruption and mass migration from the country — while other factors included rapid developments in industrial structure, education, urbanisation, democratic reforms, and more. By the turn of the nineteenth century the previously dominant moral standards were being challenged and had already started to shift. This article is about these changes. Early in his academic career, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930– 2002) used the theoretical concept of doxa in his research of societies in Algeria and Béarn in southwest France, both pre-capitalistic holistic societies with a strong emphasis on virtue. Doxa can be described as a collection of basic views and beliefs in how society should be, and what is acceptable behaviour and conduct. The term refers to default social habits and interactions — versions of reality that will not be questioned. The greatest threats to doxa are disasters. This includes not only natural disasters (e.g., hard times), but also, and more significantly, social disasters (e.g., mass migration). Both factors were inherent in Iceland in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In my doctoral thesis, on which this article is partly based, I put forward the concept of virtue society (Icelandic, dyggðasamfélag) to describe the moral standards, based on the Lutheran hierarchy, that dominated in Iceland during most of the nineteenth century. Iceland was, up through the last quarter of the century, a virtue society pillared by strong doxa; it was also a rural society that had developed slowly from the beginning of the century until the last quarter. In the article I argue that urbanisation and migration in interplay with increased general participation in free associations by the Icelandic public were major factors in changing the society’s moral standards in the last years of the nine teenth century. By the turn of the century these standards became more individualistic as the public was breaking free from the moral and cultural hegemony of the old ruling classes which, until that time, had been able to preserve the old doxa, its holistic view, its accepted virtues, and submission of its subjects.