Prostitution and Subjectivity in Late Medieval Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Page
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Case ◽  
Medieval Germany

Prostitution played a major role in structuring medieval gender relations. Prostitutes were seen to be an example of extreme female sinfulness which all women risked falling into, while at the same time prostitutes themselves were seen to play a vital social role in many towns by providing a sexual outlet to unmarried men. This book is the first full-length study of medieval prostitution to focus primarily upon how gender discourse shaped the lives of prostitutes themselves. It is based on three legal case studies from the late medieval empire which examine constructions of subjectivity between the period c.1400–1500. This period saw the rapid rise of tolerated prostitution across much of western Europe and the emergence of the public brothel as a central institution in the regulation of social order, followed by its equally rapid suppression from the early 1500s. By analysing how individuals interacted with cultural discourses surrounding the body, sexuality, and sin, the book explores how the concepts that defined prostitution in the Middle Ages shaped individual lives, and how individuals were able—or not—to exert agency, both within the circumstances of their own lives, and in response to official attempts to regulate sexual behaviour.

scholarly journals Humour in Sports Coaching: ‘It’s a Funny Old Game’

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 744-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nicholas Edwards ◽  
Robyn L Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Ethnographic Film ◽  
The Social ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Sports Coaching

The primary purpose of this article was to investigate the use and manifestation of humour within sports coaching. This was particularly in light of the social significance of humour as a critical component in cultural creation and negotiation. Data were gathered from a 10-month ethnographic study that tracked the players and coaches of Senghenydd City Football Club (a pseudonym) over the course of a full season. Precise methods of data collection included participant observation, reflective personal field notes, and ethnographic film. The results demonstrated the dominating presence of both ‘inclusionary putdowns’ and ‘disciplinary humour’, particularly in relation to how they contributed to the production and maintenance of the social order. Finally, a reflective conclusion discusses the temporal nature of the collective understanding evident among the group at Senghenydd, and its effect on the humour evident. In doing so, the work contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the social role of humour within sports coaching.

CHARTRES SCHOOL IN THE 12TH CENTURY CULTURAL RENAISSANCE: SUBSTANTIVE PRIORITIES AND EVOLUTION VECTORS

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Michael A. Kornienko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Chartres Cathedral ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Cultural Renaissance ◽  
History Of

The author analyzes the prerequisites for the formation of a theological and philosophical school, founded in 990 by Bishop Fulbert in Chartres, which flourished during the years of the Episcopal ministry of Yves of Chartres (1090–1115), a recognized intellectual center of Western Europe. The role of the Chartres Cathedral School as a citadel of metaphysical, cosmological and natural-scientific Platonism in the era of early scholasticism is revealed. The philosophical orientation of the Chartres school (orientation to the ideas of Neoplatonism), as shown in the work, is the result of a combination of the ideas of Plato, aristotelism, stoicism, pythagoreanism, Eastern and Christian mysticism and religion. The body of ideas characteristic of the Neoplatonism tradition is analyzed, the account of which is essential in understanding the specifics of the Chartres school ideological platform: the ideas of a mystically intuitive knowledge of the higher, the stages of transition from “one and the universal” to matter, the idea of comprehension of pure spirituality. The thesis is substantiated that the time of the highest prosperity of the Chartres school, its highest fame is the XII century, which went down in the history of civilization as the era of the cultural renaissance taking place in France. The specificity of the 12th century renaissance, as shown in the study, lies in the growing interest in Greek philosophy and Roman classics (this also determines the other name of the era – the Roman Renaissance), in expanding the field of knowledge through the assimilation of Western European science and the philosophy of the ancient Greeks. The thesis in which the specifics of the entry of Greek science into the culture of Western Europe is also identified. This entry was carried out through the culture of the Muslim world, which also determined the specifics of the cultural renaissance of France of the XII century. Radical changes are revealed that affect the sphere of education and, above all, religious education; the idea of reaching the priority positions of philosophy and logic is substantiated – a situation that has survived until the end of the Middle Ages. This situation, as shown in the work, was facilitated by the rare growth rate of the translation centers of Constantinople, Palermo, Toledo. It is shown that scholasticism in its early version is oriented towards religious orthodoxy. In the teaching of philosophy, the vector turned out to be biased towards natural philosophy, which was due, as shown in the work, to the spread of the ideas of Aristotle and Plato. In its educational program, the school synthesized the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. Elements of natural philosophy are inherent in the works of Bernard of Chartres, Gilbert of Poitiers, Thierry of Chartres representing the Chartres school. Deep studies on the problem of universals ensured the invasion of logic in the field of metaphysical constructions of the Chartres school.

Kings and Knights at Play in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teofilo F. Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Early Modern Spain ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
To Come

This chapter examines tournaments. The origins of tournaments in Western Europe can be traced back to classical sources and to a sparse number of references to events that looked like tournaments in the Central Middle Ages. While these early mentions provide interesting glimpses of the genealogy of fictitious combat, it was the twelfth century that truly saw the formal beginnings of these traditions of artificial warfare that would hold such a powerful grip on the European imagination for many centuries to come. Closely tied to courtly culture and in a symbiotic relationship with the great outburst of courtly literature that took place in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, the tournament sank deep roots in England, France, the Low Countries, and parts of Germany during the twelfth century, and then developed elaborate rules of engagement and pageantry in succeeding centuries.

THE USE OF BODY METAPHOR IN DESCRIBING THE SOCIAL IN CHRISTINE DE PIZAN’S “THE BOOK OF THE BODY POLITIC”

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-50
Author(s):  
Pavel Bychkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Order Scheme ◽  
Body Metaphor

The article analyzes «The Book of the Body Politic» (1404–1407) by Christine de Pizan to show how she updated the metaphor of body politic traditional for the Middle Ages, and what were the reasons for the creation of this treatise. In it, Christine excluded the clergy from the tripartite social order scheme: in the political body the sovereign replaced the pope and the clergy. Instead of the Church playing the leading role as the ‘soul’ of society, the author introduced humanistic concepts of "good arising from the virtue" and "morals". Christine also included the third estate in the political life of a kingdom, providing its stratification and hierarchization, and giving a profound description of its role in the body politic. The metaphorical concept of " body politic" broke away from the ecclesiastical and mystical connotations and took root in the secular, political-philosophical tradition.

National Consciousness as a Factor of the Socio-Economic Development of Russia in the 17th — 19th Centuries

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6 (104)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Ilya Ilyin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
The Public ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Property Wealth ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Original Concept

Capitalist relations in Russia emerged and developed in the 17th — 19th centuries. These relations were superimposed on the specific features of the public consensus that was achieved in 16th century and predetermined the particularities of the national socio-economic model. The origins of this model goes back to the religious and ethical discourse of the 15th century, as well as to the understanding of the foundations and nature of Russian statehood of the 15th — 16th centuries. All these features led to the formation of certain attributes of national consciousness and had a significant impact on the nature of socio-economic institutions. The humanistic values of the Russian Middle Ages had arisen out of Orthodoxy. The collective humanism of the state and its religious and ethical mission gave a minor role to the development of individualistic principles, which, on the contrary, were of great significance in Western Europe. This article shows a set of historical and spiritual factors that have played an important role in the formation of specific national consciousness characteristics. The authors make an attempt to analyze the influence of such factors on the nature of the national socio-economic model and its development in Russia in the 16th — 19th centuries. The article proposes an original concept according to which, in the course of the historical development of Russia, the most important economic categories (property, wealth, labor, capital, economic activity) obtained not only an economic, but also a kind of ethical interpretation, that is, they can be considered both as economic concepts and as cultural and moral phenomena. The methods of identifying historical and spiritual dominant factors that influenced the formation of the Russian socio-economic model give new opportunities to study national peculiarities. These methods allow clarifying the historical and cultural institutional potential for creating an effective economic policy in Russia and other countries.

Late Medieval Heresy: New Perspectives. Studies in Honor of Robert E. Lerner, ed. Michael D. Bailey and Sean L. Field. Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages Series. Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press and Boydell & Brewer, 2018, xiii, 267 pp.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 457-459
Author(s):  
Linda Burke
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Heresy ◽  
The Middle Ages

This highly readable Festschrift provides new insights into “the staggering variety of things a person could believe or do” in order to be persecuted as a heretic in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Western Europe, as noted by Barbara Newman (248). The author-editors chose to focus this wide-ranging volume on relatively neglected figures, largely passing over the well-cultivated field of Wycliffe and the Hussites (4–5). Contributors have honored Professor Lerner’s example by their choice of a focused theme for the collection (11): the emphasis on manuscript sources (9–13), and a recognition of historiography as inevitably entwined with contemporary issues (vii, 11).

Joanna Miles, The Devil’s Mortal Weapons: An Anthology of Late Medieval and Protestant Vernacular Theology and Popular Culture. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2018, xv, 400 pp.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 500-502
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Middle Ages

As recent scholarship has increasingly realized, all our traditional paradigms regarding historical or cultural epochs are the results of long academic debates and represent the outcome of extensive negotiations. What we have traditionally identified as the Middle Ages and as the Renaissance or the era of the Protestant Reformation, suddenly no longer seems to be so neatly separated. In fact, much of the public discourse in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially with respect to religious issues, morality, and ethics, continued well beyond 1500 and even extended into the seventeenth century, as mirrored, for instance, by Shakespeare, who certainly reveals many medieval elements in his writings.

The Classification of Style

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Bosse
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Body ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Dances ◽  
Ballroom Dance ◽  
High Degree

This chapter introduces the reader to to the tenets of ballroom dance by focusing on the various classificatory systems used in social dances. It begins with a discussion of the “ballroom umbrella” and the wealth of symbolic resources it encompasses, first by considering dancesport and social dancing, followed by an analysis of International and American styles of ballroom performance. It then examines four themes that emerge from classificatory systems: an emphasis on a high degree of specialization in performance; the demonstration of control over the body and its movement; the rationalization of movement and the ideas articulated by it, especially as mediated by language and other symbols; and an association with Western Europe. The chapter suggests that dance classifications also function as social classifications that serve to stratify individuals and groups according to their perception of the social order. More specifically, they articulate the betwixt-and-between-ness that characterizes the American middle class.

Writing the History of Merovingian Gaul

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-76
Author(s):  
Agnès Graceffa
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Political Realities

The Merovingian period has long been contested ground on which a variety of ideologies and approaches have been marshaled to debate the significance of the “end” of antiquity and the start of the Middle Ages. Particularly important to these discussions has been the role of this period in shaping national identity across western Europe; interpretations of the Merovingians have varied as political realities have changed in Europe, going back, in some cases, as far as the late medieval period. This chapter focuses mainly on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but offers examples as early as the seventeenth century as to how the Merovingian period has been harnessed for a large number of purposes and how these sometimes polemical interpretations have encouraged or stymied our understanding of this period.

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