Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe

Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe PDF Author: Janet Laughland Nelson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description

Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe

Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe PDF Author: Janet Laughland Nelson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description


The Dangers of Ritual

The Dangers of Ritual PDF Author: Philippe Buc
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400832497
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Central to current understandings of medieval history is the concept of political ritual, encompassing events from coronations to funerals, entries into cities, civic games, banquets, hunting, acts of submission or commendation, and more. ''Ritual?'' asks Philippe Buc. In The Dangers of Ritual he boldly argues that the concept shouldn't be so central after all. Modern-day scholars, gently seduced by twentieth-century theories of ritual, often misinterpret medieval documents that ostensibly describe such events, in part because they fail to appreciate the intentions behind them. The book begins with four case studies whose arrangement--backward from texts on tenth-century kingship to fourth-century representations of Christian martyrdom--allows for the line of development to be peeled back layer by layer. It then turns to an analysis of the formation of the intellectual traditions that contemporary historians have employed to interpret medieval documents. Tracing the emergence of the concept of ritual from the Reformation to the mid-twentieth century, Buc highlights the continuities yet also the profound transformations between the early medieval understandings and our own, social-scientific models. Medieval historians will find this book an indispensable resource for its insights into methodological issues crucial to their discipline. As Buc demonstrates, only rigorous attention to the contexts within which authors worked can allow us to reconstruct from medieval documents how ''rituals'' might have functioned. Ultimately, he argues, too swift an application of contemporary models to highly complex textual artifacts blinds us to the specificities of early medieval European political culture.

Rituals of Power

Rituals of Power PDF Author: Frans Theuws
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004109025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
13 papers by 16 leading archaeologists and historians of late antiquity and the early middle ages break new ground in their discussion, analysis and criticism of present interpretations of early medieval rituals and their material correlates. Some deal with rituals relating to death, life cycles and the circulation in other contexts of objects otherwise used in the burial ritual. Others are concerned with the symbolism and ideology of royal power, the formation of a political ideology east of the Rhine from the mid-5th century onwards, and penance rituals in relation to Carolingian episcopal discourse on ecclesiastical power and morale. All deal with the creation of new identities, cultures, norms and values, and their expression in new rituals and ideas from the period of the Great Migrations through the Later Roman Empire down to the society of Beowulf and the later Carolingians.

Family, Friends and Followers

Family, Friends and Followers PDF Author: Gerd Althoff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521779340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
A study of how bonds of kinship, friendship and lordship shaped medieval European political life.

Ritual and Politics: Writing the History of a Dynastic Conflict in Medieval Poland

Ritual and Politics: Writing the History of a Dynastic Conflict in Medieval Poland PDF Author: Zbigniew Dalewski
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047433378
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Referring, by way of example, to the chronicler's story about a dynastic conflict in medieval Poland, this book offers an insight into the modes of using ritual as an effective tool of political action in the Middle Ages—both in the practice of political entreprising, and on the level of narrative information about that practice—and then reflects about the nature of the relationship between the reality of the written account and the reality of the practical activities described in it. It demonstrates the ways in which the reality of the narrative account and the reality of practics—ritual-in-text and ritual-in-performance—overlaid and interlaced one another, and exercised a mutual impact, thereby jointly creating a framework within which, in the earlier and high Middle Ages, political activity took place.

Rituals, Performatives, and Political Order in Northern Europe, C. 650-1350

Rituals, Performatives, and Political Order in Northern Europe, C. 650-1350 PDF Author: Wojtek Jezierski
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503554723
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This multidisciplinary volume draws together contributions from history, archaeology, and the history of religion to offer an in-depth examination of political ritual and its performative and transformative potential across Continental Europe and Scandinavia. Covering the period between c. 650 and 1350, this work takes a theoretical, textual, and practical approach to the study of political ritual, and explores the connections between, and changing functions of, key rituals such as assemblies, feasts, and religious confrontations between pagans and Christians. Taking as a central premise the fact that rituals were not only successful political instruments used to create and maintain order, but were also a hazardous game in which intended strategies could fail, the papers within this volume demonstrate that the outcomes of feasts or court meetings were often highly unpredictable, and a friendly atmosphere could quickly change into a violent clash. By emphasising the conflict-ridden and unpredictable nature of ritual acts, the articles add crucial insights into the meanings, (ab)uses, and interpretations of performances in the Middle Ages. In doing so, they demonstrate that rituals, far from being mere representations of power, also constituted an important mechanism through which the political and religious order could be challenged and transformed.

Begging Pardon and Favor

Begging Pardon and Favor PDF Author: Geoffrey Koziol
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801423697
Category : Dispute resolution (Law)
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
Koziol uncovers the dense meanings of early medieval rituals of supplication in France, illuminating the complex changes in social relations and political power in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Christianization and Commonwealth in Early Medieval Europe

Christianization and Commonwealth in Early Medieval Europe PDF Author: Ristuccia
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Rulers and Ruling Families in Early Medieval Europe

Rulers and Ruling Families in Early Medieval Europe PDF Author: Janet L. Nelson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429516347
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
First published in 1999, the ideas and practices involved in early medieval royal family politics are the central theme of this collection of papers by Janet L. Nelson. She first examines King Alfred of Wessex (871-99) in the context of Anglo-Saxon conditions and in comparison with his Carolingian contemporaries. When tension and conflict within the royal family are highlighted, she argues that Alfred’s talents and political thought emerge the more impressively. A second group of papers deals with the reign of Charles the Bald (840-77): his patronage of learning and his interest in Spanish martyrs are set in political context, while contemporary historiography is considered as a form of counsel and critique. The third section reflects Nelson’s growing interest in the political importance and gendered roles of royal women. Consecration rites are analysed as ritual expressions and factors in the shaping of the queenship, while two final papers also examine the making and unmaking of Frankish kings and princes.

Medieval and Early Modern Ritual: Formalized Behavior in Europe, China and Japan

Medieval and Early Modern Ritual: Formalized Behavior in Europe, China and Japan PDF Author: Joelle Rollo-Koster
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004475834
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
The essays in this volume transcend Eastern and Western geographical boundaries during a loosely defined medieval and early modern period, ranging from Carolingian Europe to Qing China, and pull rituals out of their geographical contexts. Cultural history binds these essays together. This volume permits readers to compare ritual in religious and secular contexts, in the East and West, and to focus on the purposes of ritual, without being caught up in localism or historical jingoism. The various essays are organized chronologically and thematically; they focus on ritual and gender, law, identity and political legitimization. They cover topics as varied as the spatial appropriation of surfaces and territories, charity, carnival, women's magic, the Jesuits, graffiti, theater, business, medicine, Qing imperial ceremonies, Chinese princesses coming of age, spiritual reconciliation, and the Great Western Schism. Contributors include: Catherine Bell, Virginia A. Cole, Andrée Courtemanche, James L. Hevia, Michael W. Maher, S.J., Véronique Plesch, Marguerite Ragnow, Martha Rampton, Eric C. Rath, Dylan Reid, Kathryn Reyerson, Joëlle Rollo-Koster, and Ann Waltner.