Acting as Catherine: writing the history of female performers

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-60
Author(s):  
Susannah Crowder
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Manuscript Illumination ◽  
Family Identity ◽  
Elite Group ◽  
Female Performance ◽  
Medieval Chronicles ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material

Female performers exist in a shadowy and illusory state, fashioned as such by our histories. Medieval chronicles systematically exclude women, inhibiting an understanding of them as actors in Metz and beyond. Yet the performing women of the 1468 Catherine of Siena jeu staged an interplay among personal devotion, political affiliation, and gendered notions of urban sanctity; this multiform and yet cohesive undertaking becomes fully visible through the triangulation of new material and familiar narrative evidence. This chapter first uncovers the distorting effects of written histories upon the Saint Catherine actor and constructions of female performance. It then turns to the archives and material culture to reveal the hidden family identity and social status of the actor: the role transformed its player permanently, positioning her as the living symbol of the saint within Metz. The patron, named Catherine Baudoche, also secured a lasting connection to the saint by referencing her personal foundations at the Dominicans. It aligned her with an elite group of regional women who promoted Catherine of Siena through liturgy, architecture, and manuscript illumination. The Saint Catherine jeu thus situates the actor and patron amid a community of practice that depicted women at the forefront of shared devotions to Saint Catherine within the urban, public sphere.

POWER MATERIALIZED: THE DART-THROWER AS A PAN-MESOAMERICAN STATUS MARKER

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Graphic Communication ◽  
Highly Effective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
High Social Status

AbstractThroughout the deep history of Mesoamerica, the dart-thrower (a.k.a. atlatl) played a vital utilitarian and symbolic role. Although it was a highly effective tool exploited for practical purposes such as hunting and warfare, ample evidence exists which reveals its association with themes of authority, power, and prestige. The survival of ornamented dart-throwers, as well as the context in which the implement appears in Mesoamerican material culture and forms of graphic communication, reveal its role in the production and assertion of high social status. This argument will be supported by archaeological and ethnographic evidence which demonstrates that the dart-thrower served as a pan-Mesoamerican symbol of power beginning no later than the Middle to Late Formative period and continuing through the Conquest.

Gustav Klemm, Cultural History, and Kulturwissenschaft

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
German Culture ◽  
High Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
Cultural Science ◽  
History Of Culture

This chapter examines a new material-based history of German culture and looks at how a study of material culture had since evolved into “cultural history.” It traces the history of culture in nineteenth-century Germany, at the same time puzzling out the ambiguity of such a category as it was applied during the period. Encompassing both high culture and low, the popular and the elite, cultural history has often seemed borderless and indefinite—leading even its admirers to “search” for it or to see it as a “problem.” The chapter then turns to a study of Gustav Friedrich Klemm (1802–1867), the most important of the cultural historians of the 1840s and 1850s. His General Cultural History (1843–1852) and General Cultural-Science (1855) are both significant works in the field.

New Light on Medieval Nubia

1965 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. ◽  
M. Shinnie
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Artistic Development ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
New Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
Medieval Nubia ◽  
New Evidence

The importance of the Christian states of Nubia in medieval times has hitherto been under-estimated by historians of Africa. There is now sufficient information to show that they played a significant part in the history of the Nile valley for some 800 years. Not only did the existence of Christian states impose a barrier to the expansion of Islam, but the Dongola kingdom at least was at times an important force in the politics of the area.The recent campaign of excavations made necessary by the building of the Aswan dam has provided much new information about the material culture of the period, and shows a much higher artistic and social development than earlier emphasis on ecclesiastical monuments had suggested. Nubia is now seen to have had a highly developed civilization with considerable urban development. Detailed study of the pottery has made possible more precise dating of buildings and objects, as well as showing periods of increased and decreased trade with Egypt.The discovery of important frescoes in the cathedral at Faras makes it possible to study the artistic development, and also adds new material for a study of the eastern, particularly Persian, influences already suspected in Nubian art. Information about domestic life is made available by the excavations at Debeira West, the first predominantly domestic site to have been excavated, whose material remains provide new evidence on diet, crafts and agriculture.

scholarly journals Fortified Settlements in the Eastern Baltic: From Earlier Research to New Interpretations

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 13-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valter Lang
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Forest Belt ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
East European ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
European Forest ◽  
The Baltic

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian] A brief history of research and earlier interpretations of fortified settlements east of the Baltic Sea are provided in the first part of the article. The earlier research has resulted in the identification of the main area of the distribution of fortified settlements, the main chronology in the Late Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages, and their general cultural and economic character. It has been thought that the need for protection – either because of outside danger or social tensions in society – was the main reason for the foundation of fortified sites. The second part of the article adds a new possibility of interpreting the phenomenon of fortified settlements, proceeding from ethnogenesis of the Finnic and Baltic peoples. It is argued that new material culture forms that took shape in the Late Bronze Age – including fortified settlements and find assemblages characteristic of them – derived at least partly from a new population arriving in several waves from the East-European Forest Belt.

Myriad Aspects of Secular Thinking on Malayali Cuisine

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-206
Author(s):  
SAJITHA M
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Healthy Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civilized Society

Food is one of the main requirements of human being. It is flattering for the preservation of wellbeing and nourishment of the body.  The food of a society exposes its custom, prosperity, status, habits as well as it help to develop a culture. Food is one of the most important social indicators of a society. History of food carries a dynamic character in the socio- economic, political, and cultural realm of a society. The food is one of the obligatory components in our daily life. It occupied an obvious atmosphere for the augmentation of healthy life and anticipation against the diseases.  The food also shows a significant character in establishing cultural distinctiveness, and it reflects who we are. Food also reflected as the symbol of individuality, generosity, social status and religious believes etc in a civilized society. Food is not a discriminating aspect. It is the part of a culture, habits, addiction, and identity of a civilization.Food plays a symbolic role in the social activities the world over. It’s a universal sign of hospitality.[1]

Makna Budaya Nama Motif Kain Bentenan Minahasa

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Lahama
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive

Bentenancloth is a Minahasa traditional fabric cloth which is the only craft of weavingfrom Minahasa people that has a very long journey of history. The existence ofthis cloth cannot be separated from the cultural and historical activities ofMinahasa tribe, where this cloth reflects the symbol of social status andbecome the part of life principal acted by the Minahasa people.Theobjectives of this research are to describe : 1) The name of motifs and lingualmeaning of Bentenan  cloth, 2) Thecultural meaning behind the Bentenan cloth motifs.This research conduct in theform of qualitative-descriptive. The data taken from the books contains aboutthe history of Minahasa especially the Bentenan cloth, proposed by the formerresearchers and the culture expert of Minahasa. Fromthe result, it can be conclude that cultural meaning behind the name ofBentenan cloth motifs reflects the whole aspects of life especially theirbelieves on something considered being exist around them. The cultural meaningfromeach motifs carryingessential norm that people should know whether it isallowed to do and whether is not.KeyWords : The cultural meaning, The motifs in Bentenan cloth.

Epistemic Crisis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
First Year ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Media And Politics ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Ecosystem

This chapter describes the contours of the epistemic crisis in media and politics that threatens the integrity of democratic processes, erodes trust in public institutions, and exacerbates social divisions. It lays out the centrality of partisanship, asymmetric polarization, and political radicalization in understanding the current maladies of political media. It investigates the main actors who used the asymmetric media ecosystem to influence the formation of beliefs and the propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere, and to manipulate political coverage during the election and the first year of the Trump presidency, , including “fake news” entrepreneurs/political clickbait fabricators; Russian hackers, bots, and sockpuppets; the Facebook algorithm and online echo chambers; and Cambridge Analytica. The chapter also provides definitions of propaganda and related concepts, as well as a brief intellectual history of the study of propaganda.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Fitter
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social History ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Measure For Measure ◽  
History Of

Introducing the relatively recent discovery by the ‘new social history’ of an intelligent and sceptical Tudor popular politics, incorporated into the functioning of the state only precariously and provisionally, often insurgent in the sixteenth century, and wooed by discontented elites inadvertently creating a nascent public sphere, this chapter discusses the varied types and fortunes of plebeian resistance. It also surveys the leading ideas of the new historiography, and suggests the need to rethink the politics of Shakespeare’s plays in the light of their exuberant or embittered penetration by plebeian perspectives. Finally, it examines Measure for Measure in the light of its resistance to the polarizing, anti-populist climate of the late Elizabethan ‘reformation of manners’.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Early Modern History ◽  
History Of Collecting ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Renaissance

This chapter explores the material culture of everyday life in late-Renaissance Paris by setting L’Estoile’s diaries and after-death inventory against a sample of the inventories of thirty-nine of his colleagues. L’Estoile and his family lived embedded in the society of royal office-holders and negotiated their place in its hierarchy with mixed success. His home was cramped and his wardrobe rather shabby. The paintings he displayed in the reception rooms reveal his iconoclastic attitude to the visual, contrasting with the overwhelming number of Catholic devotional pictures displayed by his colleagues. Yet the collection he stored in his study and cabinet made him stand out in his milieu as a distinguished curieux. It deserves a place in the early modern history of collecting, as his example reveals that the civil wars might be a stimulus as much as a disruption to collecting in sixteenth-century France.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Lombardi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
The State ◽  
Women Readers ◽  
History Of Reading ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Cultural Events ◽  
Visual Models ◽  
Woman Reader ◽  
History Of ◽  
Female Literacy

This chapter explores a more concrete and historicized figure of the woman reader. It explores the forces that make her appear and disappear, and surveys the state of knowledge on medieval female literacy, and the documentary evidence on women readers. It investigates typically female modes of reading (such as the educational, the devotional, and the courtly) and the visual models that were available to vernacular authors to forge their imagined textual interlocutor. It shows how the protagonist of this book is the product of two cultural events within the history of reading and the material culture of the book: the raise of literacy among the laity and women in the years under consideration, and a changed scenario insofar as theories and practices of reading are concerned.

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