Decolonizing the English Past: Readings in Medieval Archaeology and History

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Biddick
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Disciplinary Practices ◽  
Peasant Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One ◽  
Medieval Archaeology ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
Farming Households ◽  
European Colonizer

Historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and sociologists are accustomed to categorizing the inhabitants of the rural farming households of medieval England as peasants without questioning the disciplinary implications of imposing such a category on historical subjects. Foundational categories, such astheworker,thepeasant,thewoman, become so familiar that they appear natural and divert us from studying the historical and power-charged processes involved in their constructions, past and present. The century-old debate over views of medieval English peasants as bound statically by custom, on the one hand, or as dynamically diverse or mobile, on the other, perhaps expresses embedded disciplinary tensions in the historic division of labor between anthropology (including archaeology) and history. From their disciplinary formation in the early modern period, anthropology and history together have constructed and guarded an imaginary but nevertheless potent boundary between the historical and the primitive, a boundary that divided the European colonizer from the non-European colonized and that within Europe divided the historical past from the traditional past. Who gets an anthropology and who gets a history therefore becomes a question of historic and power-charged disciplinary practices. As a foundational category, “peasant” straddles both disciplines and both divisions of the past, historical and traditional.In this essay, I wish to examine the powerful yet unacknowledged ways in which these disciplinary practices inform medieval peasant studies. I shall focus especially on the study of the material culture of the medieval English peasantry. Both history and archaeology claim the medieval English peasant to justify disciplinary narratives.

The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Cultural Tourism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Medieval Archaeology ◽  
The Hill

The Middle Ages are all around us in Britain. The Tower of London and the castles of Scotland and Wales are mainstays of cultural tourism and an inspiring cross-section of later medieval finds can now be seen on display in museums across England, Scotland, and Wales. Medieval institutions from Parliament and monarchy to universities are familiar to us and we come into contact with the later Middle Ages every day when we drive through a village or town, look up at the castle on the hill, visit a local church, or wonder about the earthworks in the fields we see from the window of a train.This Handbook provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between ad 1066 and 1550. Sixty entries, divided into ten thematic sections, cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive. This is a rich and exciting period of the past and most of what we have learnt about the material culture of our medieval past has been discovered in the past two generations. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research and describes the major projects and concepts that are changing our understanding of our medieval heritage.

Mind, Time, and Material Engagement

2020 ◽  
pp. 104-120
Author(s):  
Lambros Malafouris ◽  
Chris Gosden
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Becoming ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Material Engagement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

The study of material culture is changing the way we perceive and study the past, as well as how we understand the process of human becoming. This chapter proposes that a focus on the phenomenon of material engagement provides a productive means to situate and integrate evolutionary, historical, and developmental processes. The material engagement approach brings with it a relational conceptualization of human cognition as profoundly embodied, enacted, extended, and distributed. This conceptualisation opens the way to, on the one hand, reanimate the importance of history and development in the study of human cognitive evolution, and on the other hand, allow a new approach to historical analysis, one in which minds and things play a more central role. Specifically, we explore some of the implications of the view that humans and things coconstitute each other for understanding the processes by which human cognitive abilities develop and change in different cultural and historical contexts.

scholarly journals THE DEPENDENCE OF THE APPEARANCE OF CERTAIN TYPES OF BUILDINGS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF EXISTENCE OF SOCIETIES(with the examplesof historical and architectural processes that have taken and are taking place on the territory of Ukraine)

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-188
Author(s):  
Yu. N. Denysenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Design Ideas

For a better understanding of architectural processes taking place today in-depth analysis and search of useful achievements the creation of objects of material culture of the past and their introduction in our days, for successful attempts to predict thecourse of history, civilization, society, urban planning, architecture, art, required a comprehensive analysis of factors of influence on the specified development, which took place in the historical past, takes place in our time can take place in the future. Our time of the domination of ideology of enrichment, the actual service utilizing architecture and design ideas for the commercial benefit of certain customers, leads to losses of valuable historical material heritage, leads to the creation of objects of material culture that are not only useful, but often very dangerous both for people and for the environment. For a better understanding of why such processes are characteristic of our time than were the differences in the approaches to urban, architectural and other design industries in the past, will change, and what to expect and strive for in the future, need to better understand the influence of society on the features of formation of certain types of buildings and structures in certain times and certain States.The article examines the impact previously identified by the author types of companies, classified according to the principles of their existence on processes of emergence and dominance of certain types of buildings and structures (on the example of the development of societies and States located on the territory of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs on the territory of modern Ukraine, which are quite revealing to illustrate the viability of the concept). Although even a superficial analysisof the development of societies in other European countries also points to the similarity of historical and architectural processes that had and have a place (with certain national differences) and confirm the validity of the proposed concept.Distinguishing in previous works four basic types of necessities of people and functions of society, and also four types of principles of existence of society, the author proposes to use four types of society, according to main principles of their existence.An author considers that for the names of the marked types of societies it is better to use the names of the Indian castes. Therefore exactly the names of the Indian castes better than the names of public classes represent principles of existence and ideology bothseparate groups people and separate societies.

scholarly journals Representation of image of the past in modern Russian historical fiction films

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-26
Author(s):  
Natalia Aleksandrovna Lysova
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Historical Fiction ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Time Accuracy ◽  
Historical Past

This article examines the problems of representation of images of the past in modern historical fiction film and TV series. The relevance of the topic is substantiated by current popularity of this genre of cinematography among audience. The younger generation refers to the historical fiction films as an easy-to-grasp source of information on the historical facts, events, processes and personalities. However, such trend carries a threat of disorientation of mass audience regarding the historical past. The article analyzes the concept of “image”, “artistic image”, “image of the past” and their specific features in the context of the subject of research. Attention is turned to complexity of interrelation of the concept of “historical film” and the introduced into mass media terminology stable lexical construct “pseudohistorical film”. The combination of two approaches became the foundation for this research: culturological approach allowed viewing the degree of representation of images of the mast in historical fiction cinematography; while multifaceted nature of the subject of research and versatility of theoretical and empirical materials suggest referring to interdisciplinary approach. Based on the analysis of modern historical fiction feature films and TV series, the author highlights the criteria that allows assessing the adequacy of image of the past and historical reality depicted on the screen. Such criteria include: veracity of reconstruction of material culture of a specific historical period; events and occurrences, social and historical processes of the reproduced historical time; accuracy of interpretation of mentality of a particular cultural-historical period; original view of the film creators upon history; original understanding and interpretation of historical processes, events and phenomena, etc. Within the framework of this article, emphasis is made on the first two criteria.

scholarly journals Artistic Modelling of History in the Literature and Non-Fiction of a Post-Totalitarian Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1Sup1) ◽  
pp. 228-237
Author(s):  
Yuliia Laskava ◽  
Volodymyr Bondarenko ◽  
Olena Shulga ◽  
Mykola Stasyk ◽  
Olga Stadnichenko
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Postmodern Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Artistic Interpretation ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Past

An artistic interpretation of historical facts is quite relevant in the literature and non-fiction of a post-totalitarian society. Prose works on historical themes are valuable and interesting in that they create an illusion for readers to be present in a certain period of historical time, and it is the artistic modeling of events that makes priceless facts of history completely disappear. The historical past is an inexhaustible material that word artists have been referring to for centuries, creating the best examples of fiction. Prose texts of historical subjects are perceived by each next generation in a new way, historical events and phenomena are interpreted from different angles, the activities of famous figures of the past are widely covered. Non-fiction literature is a kind of literature that is on the verge of artistry and documentary. The main non-fiction genres are a diary, autobiography, biography, memoirs, confession, letters, etc. On the one hand, non-fiction literature claims to recognize the author’s subjective truth about him in her texts; on the other hand, only the reader can either, demonstrating full confidence in the author, call this text documentary, or admit the presence of poetry and aesthetics in the work and tilt the scales in the direction of artistry. The material for observation and research of the phenomenon of artistic modeling are works that allow us to trace the most common, in our opinion, models of correlation of historical and artistic consciousness in postmodern literature and non-fiction of a post-totalitarian society.

Affective medievalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Prendergast ◽  
Stephanie Trigg
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Historical Past

This book destabilises the customary disciplinary and epistemological oppositions between medieval studies and modern medievalism. It argues that the twinned concepts of “the medieval” and post-medieval “medievalism” are mutually though unevenly constitutive, not just in the contemporary era, but from the medieval period on. Medieval and medievalist culture share similar concerns about the nature of temporality, and the means by which we approach or “touch” the past, whether through textual or material culture, or the conceptual frames through which we approach those artefacts. Those approaches are often affective ones, often structured around love, abjection and discontent. Medieval writers offer powerful models for the ways in which contemporary desire determines the constitution of the past. This desire can not only connect us with the past but can reconnect present readers with the lost history of what we call the medievalism of the medievals. In other words, to come to terms with the history of the medieval is to understand that it already offers us a model of how to relate to the past. The book ranges across literary and historical texts, but is equally attentive to material culture and its problematic witness to the reality of the historical past.

Towards a post-colonial artefact analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Van Oyen
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Colonial Archaeology ◽  
Change Of Perspective ◽  
The One

AbstractThis paper argues that material culture should be brought even more to the forefront in post-colonial archaeology. At present, post-colonial analyses start from a baseline of pinned-down, delineated things as processed through artefact analysis, to proceed to interpretations of how these things were used in fluid, multidirectional, ambivalent social and cultural interactions. But what if thingsthemselvescan be fluid rather than bounded? Can we look into the various ways in which things were defined in the past, and the various relations they enabled? Such a change of perspective can also help redress the imbalance within post-colonial studies between, on the one hand, consumption as the field in which meaning is negotiated and, on the other hand, production as offering merely a template for the inscription of that meaning. A case study of so-called pre-sigillata production in southern Gaul articulates the benefit to be gained from considering these issues.

scholarly journals Remembering the Past in Early Modern England: Oral and Written Tradition

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 233-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Fox
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Important Case ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Written Word ◽  
The One

For students of the interaction between oral and written forms of communication the early modern period provides an important case study. England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was far from being an oral society; and yet it was not a completely literate one either. On the one hand, old vernacular traditions had long been infused and supplemented, or corrupted and destroyed, by the written word; on die other hand, only a certain part of the population could read and write or ever relied on the products of literacy. Indeed, as Keidi Thomas has suggested, ‘it is the interaction between contrasting forms of culture, literate and illiterate, oral and written, which gives this period its particular fascination’.

Al-Rasm al-ʿUthmānī: Towards Correct Pronunciation and the Preclusion of Ambiguity

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-171
Author(s):  
Nāṣir Al-Dīn Abū Khaḍīr
Keyword(s):  
Specific Pattern ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Correct Pronunciation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

The ʿUthmānic way of writing (al-rasm al-ʿUthmānī) is a science that specialises in the writing of Qur'anic words in accordance with a specific ‘pattern’. It follows the writing style of the Companions at the time of the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān, and was attributed to ʿUthmān on the basis that he was the one who ordered the collection and copying of the Qur'an into the actual muṣḥaf. This article aims to expound on the two fundamental functions of al-rasm al-ʿUthmānī: that of paying regard to the ‘correct’ pronunciation of the words in the muṣḥaf, and the pursuit of the preclusion of ambiguity which may arise in the mind of the reader and his auditor. There is a further practical aim for this study: to show the connection between modern orthography and the ʿUthmānic rasm in order that we, nowadays, are thereby able to overcome the problems faced by calligraphers and writers of the past in their different ages and cultures.

TARP DVIEJŲ KOLONŲ: XVIII A. PABAIGOS – XIX A. PRADŽIOS VILNIAUS MASONŲ KASDIENYBĖ SIMBOLIKOJE

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-163
Author(s):  
Daiva Milinkevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
The Past ◽  
Secular World ◽  
National Characteristics ◽  
Conservative Christian ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Craft Guilds

The Age of Enlightenment is defined as the period when the universal ideas of progress, deism, humanism, naturalism and others were materialized and became a golden age for freemasons. It is wrong to assume that old and conservative Christian ideas were rejected. Conversely, freemasons put them into new general shapes and expressed them with the help of symbols in their daily routine. Symbols of freemasons had close ties with the past and gave them, on the one hand, a visible instrument, such as rituals and ideas to sense the transcendental, and on the other, intense gnostic aspirations. Freemasons put in a great amount of effort to improve themselves and to create their identity with the help of myths and symbols. It traces its origins to the biblical builders of King Solomon’s Temple, the posterity of the Templar Knights, and associations of the medieval craft guilds, which were also symbolical and became their link not only to each other but also to the secular world. In this work we analysed codified masonic symbols used in their rituals. The subject of our research is the universal Masonic idea and its aspects through the symbols in the daily life of the freemasons in Vilnius. Thanks to freemasons’ signets, we could find continuity, reception, and transformation of universal masonic ideas in the Lithuanian freemasonry and national characteristics of lodges. Taking everything into account, our article shows how the universal idea of freemasonry spread among Lithuanian freemasonry, and which forms and meanings it incorporated in its symbols. The objective of this research is to find a universal Masonic idea throughout their visual and oral symbols and see its impact on the daily life of the masons in Vilnius. Keywords: Freemasonry, Bible, lodge, symbols, rituals, freemasons’ signets.

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