Welcome to CAHD
The Centre for Agrarian Historical Dynamics (CAHD) is a privately funded research institute attached to the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland.
The field of research is the history of agricultural societies (prehistoric, ancient, medieval and modern) as a form of human societies which is fundamentally distinct from both hunter-gatherer and industrial societies. However, the emphasis is not on descriptive or narrative history but on analysing the various elements of such societies (families, stratification, land-use, urbanization etc.) and how they interact and evolve together. These societies are considered as dynamic entities, evolving and changing through internal realignments and interaction with other similar or different societies.
Although the subject matter is agricultural societies, where most people earn their living through farm work, CAHD is not just concerned with agriculture as such but with the whole nature of societies based on agriculture, including political, social, economic and ideological elements and how they interact together. This is what we mean by "agrarian historical dynamics".
CAHD is a new institute (established 2007) and it is our hope that it will grow and prosper as it works to enhance the scientific research of human societies of the past. Currently, two researchers are employed, the historians Árni Daníel Júlíusson and Axel Kristinsson.
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