In this thesis, I demonstrate the significance of feudal law to European populations and how it functions as a source of maintenance of peace and stability of land tenure.
The Harsh Life on the 15th Century Croatia-Ottoman Empire Military Border: Analyzing and Identifying the Reasons for the Massacre in Cepin
April 4, 2012 By
Turkish intrusions into what is today the continental part of Croatia began in 1391 and continued throughout the 15th, and the beginning of the 16th century when a large part of continental Croatia was incorporated into the Turkish Empire.
Going native, becoming German: Isotopes and identities in late Roman and early medieval England
March 8, 2012 By
In these accounts, the individual and the group were biologically constituted
in the sense that all the ‘people’ were descended from a common ancestor. Identity and belonging were carried and delivered in the blood; individuals were born into the people.
Sex Differentials in Frailty in Medieval England
February 1, 2012 By
The sample used for this study comes from the East Smithfield Black Death cemetery in London. The benefit of using this cemetery is that most, if not all, individuals interred in East Smithfield died from the same cause within a very short period of time.
Nations and National Identities in the Medieval World: An Apologia
January 30, 2012 By
Let us start with the concept and term ‘nation’ itself. In much modern discourse ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ have been given period-specific and pre- eminently political forms.
Feuding in Viking Age Iceland’s Great Village
January 29, 2012 By
My premise is that we come closest to understanding early Icelanders through a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, by focusing on their well-documented perception of themselves as a community and, on theother hand, through anthropological and historical analyses of the forces that shaped this perception.
The Culture of Death in late Medieval and early Renaissance Italy
January 17, 2012 By
An attempt will be made to show that it is precisely during this period that certain fundamental changes in the conception of and attitudes towards death took place, changes that can be seen as the starting points of a long process that would eventually lead to the medical and utterly despiritualized view of death prevalent in the contemporary Western world.
The Paleodemography of the Black Death 1347-1351
January 1, 2012 By
The Black Death of 1347-50 has fascinated both researchers and lay people for over six hundred years1. The medieval epidemic had profound consequences both culturally and demographically and it did much to shape human history.
Sacred, secular, or sacrilegious? prehistoric sites, pagans and the Sacred Sites project in Britain
December 23, 2011 By
This paper introduces our Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights Project (www.sacredsites.or.uk), now in its fifth year, and explores issues and tensions developing within today’s Britain around prehistoric
‘sacred sites’ and ‘heritage’, and their appropriation by a wide range of interested or concerned
groups.
Slavery and the slave trade in pre-colonial Africa
November 15, 2011 By
Slavery and the Slave Trade have been age old institutions and practices in almost every continent in the world.
Medieval Dreams: A Sample of Historical and Psychological Criticism
September 11, 2011 By
Deep into the Middle Ages, in Western Europe a small group of clergymen, mainly monks, had a monopoly on recording dreams in writing
THE WILL AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL CATALONIA AND LANGUEDOC, 800-1200
July 31, 2011 By
THE WILL AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL CATALONIA AND LANGUEDOC, 800-1200 Taylor, Nathaniel Lane PhD Philosopy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April (1995) Abstract Some three thousand men and women of Languedoc and Catalonia (southwestern France and northeastern Spain) from before the year 1200 speak to us through their testaments. This volume of testamentary evidence is unmatched in […]
The Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis and Black Death plague epidemic in medieval Denmark: a paleopathological and paleodietary perspective
July 10, 2011 By
The Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis and Black Death plague epidemic in medieval Denmark: apaleopathological and paleodietary perspective Yoder, Cassady J. PhD Thesis, Texas A&M University, August (2006) Abstract The medieval period of Denmark (11th-16th centuries) witnessed two of the worst demographic, health, and dietary catastrophes in history: the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis (LMAC) and the Black Death […]
The Destruction of the Fox Preacher: A Reading of the Borders of the York Minster Pilgrimage Window
January 25, 2011 By
The Destruction of the Fox Preacher: A Reading of the Borders of the York Minster Pilgrimage Window Pfau, Aleksandra York Medieval Yearbook, ISSUE No. 1, (2002) Abstract Images of a fox preaching to a flock of birds, at least one of whom he plans later to devour, fill the margins of medieval religious manuscripts and marginal […]
Sandpipers as grave gifts in the Early Middle Ages
January 23, 2011 By
The early medieval pre-Christian inhabitants of the northern coastal area of the Netherlands may have perceived a similar link between the human soul and waders.
Dietary Decadence and Dynastic Decline in the Mongol Empire
January 23, 2011 By
Dietary Decadence and Dynastic Decline in the Mongol Empire Smith, Jr., John Masson Journal of Asian History, vol. 34, no. 1, (2000) Abstract Most Mongol rulers lived short lives. Those in the Middle East died, on average, at about age 38, and the successors of Qubilai (Khubilai) in the Far East at 33 (adding in Qubilai […]
Knights in Love: Don Quixote and Tirant lo Blanc
January 23, 2011 By
Knights in Love: Don Quixote and Tirant lo Blanc Mira, Joan Francesc Paper given at Readings in Catalan fiction Conference (2006) Abstract The discussion of two classics of European literature such as Don Quixote and Tirant lo Blanc in the presence of an American public perhaps entails some sort of introduction to the stories of medieval […]
LABELING AND OPPRESSION: WITCHCRAFT IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
January 11, 2011 By
LABELING AND OPPRESSION: WITCHCRAFT IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE Campbell, Mary Ann (Washington University) Mid-American Review of Sociology, V ol. III, No.2 Abstract The attempt here is to understand the social conditions and processes through which witches were labeled, hunted and persecuted in Europe during the Middle Ages. An historical analysis, utilizing anthropological accounts; Church doctrines and handbooks […]
Feasting with “Kings” in an Ancient Democracy: On the Slavic Society of the Early Middle Ages (Sixth to Seventh Century A.D.)
December 26, 2009 By
Feasting with “Kings” in an Ancient Democracy:On the Slavic Society of the Early Middle Ages (Sixth to Seventh Century A.D.) Curta, Florin Essays in Medieval Studies, vol. 15 (19998) Abstract One of the most persistent stereotypes about the early medieval history of Eastern Europe holds that the Slavs, at the time of their migration, were […]
A Response to Kathleen Biddick
December 21, 2009 By
A Response to Kathleen Biddick Aers, David Essays in Medieval Studies, vol. 11 (1994) Abstract Kathleen Biddick’s paper is characteristically inventive. Ranging across a wide range of current writings in a multiplicity of fields in cultural and post-colonial studies, it is full of suggestive comments on their potential relevance to medieval studies. It is a […]
Becoming Ethnographic: Reading Inquisitorial Authority in The Hammer of Witches
December 21, 2009 By
Becoming Ethnographic: Reading Inquisitorial Authority in The Hammer of Witches Biddick, Kathleen Essays in Medieval Studies, vol. 11 (1994) Abstract What kind of complicit relationships to “evidence” and to “truth” might contemporary microhistories of inquisitorial archives enjoy with late medieval/early modern inquisitorial discourse? What do Carlo Ginzburg and Guido Ruggiero have to do with the […]
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