Sunday, 6 November 2016
Michaelmas Term Meeting Approaches!
Our Michaelmas Term Meeting is in only a few days! On Thursday 10 November at 8 pm, our brilliant speakers Eleanor Barraclough and Aisling Byrne will discuss 'changing landscapes' in medieval literature. There will be maps, monsters, and other marvels – and, as always, rather a lot of free wine.
Dinner with the speakers for Society members will be at 6 pm before the meeting at Marco's New York Italian on the High Street! To sign up for dinner, email caroline.batten@new.ox.ac.uk; spaces are going fast, so book in quickly.
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
TRINITY TERM MEETING: GLOBAL HISTORY!
Our Trinity Term Meeting in association with the Byzantine Society sparked lots of discussion from medievalists and Byzantinists alike!
"Everyone else is going global, and we don't want to be left behind!" said Catherine Holmes, speaking about the Global Middle Ages project, a worldwide research collaboration to talk about the swath of time that makes up the 'Middle Ages' across the world, from Rome to Kerala. She spoke at length about "why a global Middle Ages makes sense" and what the project means.
Dr. Holmes explained that as scholars, we have a responsibility to find roots, parallels, and differences between medieval and modern phenomena; specialization is a recent development in academia rather than an inherent feature, and Europe wasn't always the centre of things. G-MAP uncovers different histories and moves away from traditional ideas about what the 'Middle Ages' included. Communities in the Middle Ages had porous boundaries: people, goods, and ideas moved back and forth more than we previously imagined, shedding new light on religious activity and state formation.
Dr. Holmes said that G-MAP focuses on things like plural burials: for example, a grave found on the Swedish island of Helgo containing a Buddha probably made in Kashmir, a North African ladle, and an Irish crozier.
The Helgo Buddha
She discussed a synagogue 'library' in old Cairo whose contents indicated the Jewish community was widespread and communicated with one another to some degree; the distribution of Chinese pottery across the Indian Ocean area and the Islamic world, particularly showing up on the Swahili coast in the 9th and 10th centuries, used to decorate houses. She did offer a caveat, however: we cannot claim intense interaction between all parts of the globe during all parts of the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of the 'Global Middle Ages' requires experimentation to decide which "tools and toys" are most productive, and whether our current periodization is accurate or too Western-centred.
Shards of Chinese pottery excavated on the Swahili coast, British Museum
She then offered a case study: six copper plates dated to 849 CE and discovered in Kerala, in southwestern India. One plate describes a set of trading privileges given to merchant associations; another sets up a grant for a church. They include four languages, five scripts, and five world faiths. The plates are proof of the significant scale of the vibrant early medieval Indian Ocean trade. What we don't know, and maybe can't know? Whether the plates reflect a world where people felt they were 'encountering' each other; whether those encounters were collective. Dr. Holmes warned us against applying our modern sense of the word 'global' onto these interactions. The presence of large empires operating at the time is missing from the Kerala plates - the focus is instead on the local chieftain, who is able to grant these rights.
Dr. Holmes talked more broadly about the need to collaborate with other scholars in other fields on global history projects: we may need new tools to deal with the period between 500 and 1500 CE. The use of Chinese pottery to decorate a Swahili house indicates that we may need to develop new ideas about the relationship between local and global forces, about change, rupture, and movement in medieval communities. Some of this global interaction may have lead to the intensifying of connections, but also foreclosed certain options – an increase in religious identity politics, for example. She concluded, in the question session, by acknowledging that 'medieval' is a Eurocentric word and possibly problematic – but it is used for convenience to designate a vast and varied time period.
One set of the Tharsipalli plates, Kerala, 849 CE
Dr. Conrad Leyser then spoke about the Middle Ages as an era of 'faith': faith in terms of religion, certainly, but also faith in terms of allegiance, to family or empire. Dr. Leyser explained how the idea of faith and allegiance changed in western Europe during the rise of Latin Christendom.
We were told that, in the ancient Mediterranean, the family was a legal and religious unit devoted to ancestor worship; adoptions were made when biology failed. By the thirteenth century, however, a distinction was made between nature and culture in the Latin west: family was defined by blood descent – while the Church was a group of celibate men whose genealogy was ritual and metaphorical, i.e. the priesthood. This split may be due to religious reforms in the eleventh century which officially prohibited priestly marriage and simony. Property was divided by blood or institution, but not both. The idea of the priesthood as men without blood families was unusual across Eurasia at that point in history – priests are essentially those who conduct sacrifice, as a remedy for being born of woman, for having a blood genealogy. Priests were imagined as family men well into the late Carolingian Empire; they were considered to be different from monks and nuns, and a rivalry existed between the two modes of religious commitment.
Charlemagne in a portrait by Albrecht Dürer
The religious reforms of the eleventh century were essentially answering in the affirmative the question of whether priests were going to make themselves invulnerable to the charge of having family interests, and become a purely sacrificial order. 'Faith' became a relationship to an institution, rather than an individual relationship with the divine –– unlike in medieval Islamic communities, Dr. Leyser pointed out, where faith rests on a personal bond with God without a sacrificial system, and the question of blood versus culture manifests instead in the struggle between Sunni and Shi'a over the caliphate, or in early medieval China, in the rivalry between Daoist priests and Buddhist monks. The rise of Confucianism moved China towards culture and away from blood as the defining principle of family, whereas the Latin West moved increasingly towards defining family purely by blood.
Confucius, 551-479 BCE
Dr. Leyser concluded by pointing out that there is great value in thinking comparatively, across cultures and across time spans. This is also not, he points out, a story of 'modernization', of how we came to the 'modern' way of viewing things, as the act of balancing blood ties with other kinds of social bonds is a question that we still address.
Our year concluded on an excellent note! Keep watching the blog this summer for updates on OMS activities next year, and our usual drinks party will take place in Week 1 of Michaelmas Term to kick everything off for the academic year 2016/17. If there are topics you would like to see addressed at an OMS Term Meeting, email your webmaster at caroline.batten@new.ox.ac.uk and your ideas will be brought before the committee!
"Everyone else is going global, and we don't want to be left behind!" said Catherine Holmes, speaking about the Global Middle Ages project, a worldwide research collaboration to talk about the swath of time that makes up the 'Middle Ages' across the world, from Rome to Kerala. She spoke at length about "why a global Middle Ages makes sense" and what the project means.
Dr. Holmes explained that as scholars, we have a responsibility to find roots, parallels, and differences between medieval and modern phenomena; specialization is a recent development in academia rather than an inherent feature, and Europe wasn't always the centre of things. G-MAP uncovers different histories and moves away from traditional ideas about what the 'Middle Ages' included. Communities in the Middle Ages had porous boundaries: people, goods, and ideas moved back and forth more than we previously imagined, shedding new light on religious activity and state formation.
Dr. Holmes said that G-MAP focuses on things like plural burials: for example, a grave found on the Swedish island of Helgo containing a Buddha probably made in Kashmir, a North African ladle, and an Irish crozier.
She discussed a synagogue 'library' in old Cairo whose contents indicated the Jewish community was widespread and communicated with one another to some degree; the distribution of Chinese pottery across the Indian Ocean area and the Islamic world, particularly showing up on the Swahili coast in the 9th and 10th centuries, used to decorate houses. She did offer a caveat, however: we cannot claim intense interaction between all parts of the globe during all parts of the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of the 'Global Middle Ages' requires experimentation to decide which "tools and toys" are most productive, and whether our current periodization is accurate or too Western-centred.
She then offered a case study: six copper plates dated to 849 CE and discovered in Kerala, in southwestern India. One plate describes a set of trading privileges given to merchant associations; another sets up a grant for a church. They include four languages, five scripts, and five world faiths. The plates are proof of the significant scale of the vibrant early medieval Indian Ocean trade. What we don't know, and maybe can't know? Whether the plates reflect a world where people felt they were 'encountering' each other; whether those encounters were collective. Dr. Holmes warned us against applying our modern sense of the word 'global' onto these interactions. The presence of large empires operating at the time is missing from the Kerala plates - the focus is instead on the local chieftain, who is able to grant these rights.
Dr. Holmes talked more broadly about the need to collaborate with other scholars in other fields on global history projects: we may need new tools to deal with the period between 500 and 1500 CE. The use of Chinese pottery to decorate a Swahili house indicates that we may need to develop new ideas about the relationship between local and global forces, about change, rupture, and movement in medieval communities. Some of this global interaction may have lead to the intensifying of connections, but also foreclosed certain options – an increase in religious identity politics, for example. She concluded, in the question session, by acknowledging that 'medieval' is a Eurocentric word and possibly problematic – but it is used for convenience to designate a vast and varied time period.
Dr. Conrad Leyser then spoke about the Middle Ages as an era of 'faith': faith in terms of religion, certainly, but also faith in terms of allegiance, to family or empire. Dr. Leyser explained how the idea of faith and allegiance changed in western Europe during the rise of Latin Christendom.
We were told that, in the ancient Mediterranean, the family was a legal and religious unit devoted to ancestor worship; adoptions were made when biology failed. By the thirteenth century, however, a distinction was made between nature and culture in the Latin west: family was defined by blood descent – while the Church was a group of celibate men whose genealogy was ritual and metaphorical, i.e. the priesthood. This split may be due to religious reforms in the eleventh century which officially prohibited priestly marriage and simony. Property was divided by blood or institution, but not both. The idea of the priesthood as men without blood families was unusual across Eurasia at that point in history – priests are essentially those who conduct sacrifice, as a remedy for being born of woman, for having a blood genealogy. Priests were imagined as family men well into the late Carolingian Empire; they were considered to be different from monks and nuns, and a rivalry existed between the two modes of religious commitment.
The religious reforms of the eleventh century were essentially answering in the affirmative the question of whether priests were going to make themselves invulnerable to the charge of having family interests, and become a purely sacrificial order. 'Faith' became a relationship to an institution, rather than an individual relationship with the divine –– unlike in medieval Islamic communities, Dr. Leyser pointed out, where faith rests on a personal bond with God without a sacrificial system, and the question of blood versus culture manifests instead in the struggle between Sunni and Shi'a over the caliphate, or in early medieval China, in the rivalry between Daoist priests and Buddhist monks. The rise of Confucianism moved China towards culture and away from blood as the defining principle of family, whereas the Latin West moved increasingly towards defining family purely by blood.
Dr. Leyser concluded by pointing out that there is great value in thinking comparatively, across cultures and across time spans. This is also not, he points out, a story of 'modernization', of how we came to the 'modern' way of viewing things, as the act of balancing blood ties with other kinds of social bonds is a question that we still address.
Our year concluded on an excellent note! Keep watching the blog this summer for updates on OMS activities next year, and our usual drinks party will take place in Week 1 of Michaelmas Term to kick everything off for the academic year 2016/17. If there are topics you would like to see addressed at an OMS Term Meeting, email your webmaster at caroline.batten@new.ox.ac.uk and your ideas will be brought before the committee!
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Graduate Presentation Day FINAL PROGRAMME!
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow at ST JOHNS COLLEGE at 13:00!
Sunday, 24 April 2016
TRINITY TERM MEETING!
Look for our poster in the term booklet! And, as always, if you would like to join us for dinner at Marco's New York Italian on the High Street with the speakers beforehand, email your Communications Officer at caroline.batten@new.ox.ac.uk. This term we're talking trade, religion, and power in the global Middle Ages, in cooperation with the Byzantine Society!
Friday, 4 March 2016
Call for Papers: OMS Graduate Research Presentation Day!
All the excitement of a conference, all the helpful advice of a work-in-progress seminar. Come present your research –– all post-graduates working in the medieval period are welcome, especially first year students.
Sunday, 21 February 2016
Medievalism(s)
The OMS
gathered this past Thursday to beat the ubiquitous Fifth-Week blues with
a lively and fascinating discussion of medievalism –– the study of the
use of medieval narratives, characters, settings, and aesthetics in
post-medieval art, architecture, media, and culture. (That's a
mouthful.)
Dr. David Matthews, senior lecturer in Middle English at the University of Manchester, started the evening with a talk on "Industrious Medievalism" –– not only the medievalism of the Industrial Revolution, but also medievalism in structures and things that are functional, such as the Woodhead train tunnel pictured above. Dr. Matthews explained his interest in the ethics of medievalism –– whether it was liberating, revolutionary, conservative, nostalgic –– its promotion of certain values, and its ability to be of use to people.
Dr. Matthews reminded us to be aware of the anachronism inherent in a train tunnel designed to look like a medieval tower; the steam engine, which looks outdated to us, would have looked distinctly modern to a mid-19th century viewer, and probably very much at odds with the tunnel from which it's emerging. But the tunnel serves a purpose: it deflects attention from the modernity of the train running through it. The crenelated tower is part of a reassuring, nostalgic idiom; as Dr. Matthews pointed out, we tend to find more humanity in anything that came before a given, disliked trend (see: some Baby Boomers' dislike of Millenial use of technology to communicate and date). But medievalism has more to do with modern perceptions and values than with actual medieval cultural artifacts; the Derwent Dam, built in 1916, drowned two actual medieval villages, but imitates a medieval fortress in design:
Dr. Matthews then turned to the ethics of medievalism. Medievalism, with its hearkening back to monarchical and feudal forms of social organization, provides an alternative set of ethics to capitalism; it's bound up, too, with green ethics, supposedly gesturing towards a time when man lived in greater harmony with nature. Its nostalgic idealism, however, is essentially conservative. Such great names as Tolkien, Lewis, and Morris gestured toward such idealism in their works (for a good example of Tolkien's ideas about industry, check out the unsavory descriptions of Saruman's iron forges). But Dr. Matthews argued that medievalism doesn't always bear the kind of moral weight artists, authors, and politicians place on it; it has no inherent moral utility. Indeed, medievalism, by its nature, cannot resolve the questions and problems of progress –– technological and otherwise –– because it is essentially concerned with reiterating the past.
Dr. Carolyne Larrington, a Teaching Fellow of St. John's College here at Oxford, discussed a specific, and very successful, example of medievalism: the hugely popular TV series Game of Thrones, based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Your friendly webmaster will, of course, write about this topic with complete objectivity, because she is in no way invested in the series and is certainly not awaiting April with bated breath, freaking out about whether Jon Snow is dead and eagerly anticipating Tyrion's next move.
Dr. Larrington argued that one of the great successes of George R. R. Martin's books lies in the author's structural understanding of how medieval societies work –– or don't, as the case may be. The strengths of the world of Game of Thrones lie in the cultures of Westeros: King's Landing is a portrait of a late medieval city, with a well-developed court culture, crafts industries, and public markets. "But where is the civil service in King's Landing?" Dr. Larrington asked. "Who's policing the streets? Where are the lawyers?
Winterfell, on the other hand, seems to mimic an Anglo-Saxon kingdom: highly militarized, lacking in the chivalric court culture of the Red Keep, and dependent upon the personal loyalty of retainers and bannermen to their lord. The Ironborn have been compared to the Vikings, but, as Dr. Larrington noted, bear more similarities to the popular image of Vikings than to actual Scandinavian peoples of the Middle Ages. The Dothraki are based on Mongol society under Genghis Khan, with a capital city (Vaes Dothrak in Essos, Karakorum in the Övörkhangai province of Mongolia) famed as a thriving cultural centre improbably placed in the middle of a desert. However, Dr. Larrington counts Essos as a failure in the Game of Thrones universe, due to the obvious Orientalism in its presentation.
Dr. Larrington pointed out the ways in which Game of Thrones is concerned with social organization, and the practicalities of medieval communities and proto-states: the Iron Bank of Braavos draws the viewer's attention to the economic underpinning of the the relationship between Westeros and Essos, and the monetary cost of kingship. The rise of the "Sparrows" in King's Landing addresses the balance of power between church and state, and the relationship of the monarch to religious institutions. Indeed, much of Game of Thrones is devoted to interrogating how kingship, good and bad, works; Aragorn, as Larrington wittily noted, wasn't required to have a tax policy. Religion, too, is questioned in the world of Game of Thrones: the miracles of R'hllor may be real, but his priests inspire terror.
Dr. Larrington pointed out the ways in which Game of Thrones is concerned, too, with power struggles –– noting that Petyr Baelish, one-time Master of Coin and the closest thing King's Landing has to a civil servant, is similar to a certain Geoffrey Chaucer in his initially quiet political rise, and that Martin addresses power imbalances in the world of gender, looking at the particular, and often highly dangerous, challenges of being a woman in the sorts of societies that populate Westeros. It also deals with the possibility of redemption, by refusing to engage in black and white morality. Game of Thrones may, however, ultimately be successful because the medieval world is what Dr. Larrington called a 'familiar other' to us: a culturally accepted backdrop for fantasy stories. We owe many of our institutions –– European statehood, universities, romantic love –– to the Middle Ages. The romantic, chivalric dream of late-medieval courts, knights and tourneys is certainly still alive in our culture; brutal warrior societies (complete with sidelined female characters) have recently been made popular by shows like Vikings and The Last Kingdom. Popular-culture medievalism certainly won't be disappearing any time soon.
Next up? A graduate student presentation day to kick off Trinity Term, followed by our Trinity Term Meeting on Global History, in partnership with the Byzantine Society! Keep an eye on our blog, Facebook group, and Twitter for updates.
Dr. David Matthews, senior lecturer in Middle English at the University of Manchester, started the evening with a talk on "Industrious Medievalism" –– not only the medievalism of the Industrial Revolution, but also medievalism in structures and things that are functional, such as the Woodhead train tunnel pictured above. Dr. Matthews explained his interest in the ethics of medievalism –– whether it was liberating, revolutionary, conservative, nostalgic –– its promotion of certain values, and its ability to be of use to people.
Dr. Matthews reminded us to be aware of the anachronism inherent in a train tunnel designed to look like a medieval tower; the steam engine, which looks outdated to us, would have looked distinctly modern to a mid-19th century viewer, and probably very much at odds with the tunnel from which it's emerging. But the tunnel serves a purpose: it deflects attention from the modernity of the train running through it. The crenelated tower is part of a reassuring, nostalgic idiom; as Dr. Matthews pointed out, we tend to find more humanity in anything that came before a given, disliked trend (see: some Baby Boomers' dislike of Millenial use of technology to communicate and date). But medievalism has more to do with modern perceptions and values than with actual medieval cultural artifacts; the Derwent Dam, built in 1916, drowned two actual medieval villages, but imitates a medieval fortress in design:
Dr. Matthews then turned to the ethics of medievalism. Medievalism, with its hearkening back to monarchical and feudal forms of social organization, provides an alternative set of ethics to capitalism; it's bound up, too, with green ethics, supposedly gesturing towards a time when man lived in greater harmony with nature. Its nostalgic idealism, however, is essentially conservative. Such great names as Tolkien, Lewis, and Morris gestured toward such idealism in their works (for a good example of Tolkien's ideas about industry, check out the unsavory descriptions of Saruman's iron forges). But Dr. Matthews argued that medievalism doesn't always bear the kind of moral weight artists, authors, and politicians place on it; it has no inherent moral utility. Indeed, medievalism, by its nature, cannot resolve the questions and problems of progress –– technological and otherwise –– because it is essentially concerned with reiterating the past.
Dr. Carolyne Larrington, a Teaching Fellow of St. John's College here at Oxford, discussed a specific, and very successful, example of medievalism: the hugely popular TV series Game of Thrones, based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Your friendly webmaster will, of course, write about this topic with complete objectivity, because she is in no way invested in the series and is certainly not awaiting April with bated breath, freaking out about whether Jon Snow is dead and eagerly anticipating Tyrion's next move.
Dr. Larrington argued that one of the great successes of George R. R. Martin's books lies in the author's structural understanding of how medieval societies work –– or don't, as the case may be. The strengths of the world of Game of Thrones lie in the cultures of Westeros: King's Landing is a portrait of a late medieval city, with a well-developed court culture, crafts industries, and public markets. "But where is the civil service in King's Landing?" Dr. Larrington asked. "Who's policing the streets? Where are the lawyers?
Winterfell, on the other hand, seems to mimic an Anglo-Saxon kingdom: highly militarized, lacking in the chivalric court culture of the Red Keep, and dependent upon the personal loyalty of retainers and bannermen to their lord. The Ironborn have been compared to the Vikings, but, as Dr. Larrington noted, bear more similarities to the popular image of Vikings than to actual Scandinavian peoples of the Middle Ages. The Dothraki are based on Mongol society under Genghis Khan, with a capital city (Vaes Dothrak in Essos, Karakorum in the Övörkhangai province of Mongolia) famed as a thriving cultural centre improbably placed in the middle of a desert. However, Dr. Larrington counts Essos as a failure in the Game of Thrones universe, due to the obvious Orientalism in its presentation.
Dr. Larrington pointed out the ways in which Game of Thrones is concerned with social organization, and the practicalities of medieval communities and proto-states: the Iron Bank of Braavos draws the viewer's attention to the economic underpinning of the the relationship between Westeros and Essos, and the monetary cost of kingship. The rise of the "Sparrows" in King's Landing addresses the balance of power between church and state, and the relationship of the monarch to religious institutions. Indeed, much of Game of Thrones is devoted to interrogating how kingship, good and bad, works; Aragorn, as Larrington wittily noted, wasn't required to have a tax policy. Religion, too, is questioned in the world of Game of Thrones: the miracles of R'hllor may be real, but his priests inspire terror.
Dr. Larrington pointed out the ways in which Game of Thrones is concerned, too, with power struggles –– noting that Petyr Baelish, one-time Master of Coin and the closest thing King's Landing has to a civil servant, is similar to a certain Geoffrey Chaucer in his initially quiet political rise, and that Martin addresses power imbalances in the world of gender, looking at the particular, and often highly dangerous, challenges of being a woman in the sorts of societies that populate Westeros. It also deals with the possibility of redemption, by refusing to engage in black and white morality. Game of Thrones may, however, ultimately be successful because the medieval world is what Dr. Larrington called a 'familiar other' to us: a culturally accepted backdrop for fantasy stories. We owe many of our institutions –– European statehood, universities, romantic love –– to the Middle Ages. The romantic, chivalric dream of late-medieval courts, knights and tourneys is certainly still alive in our culture; brutal warrior societies (complete with sidelined female characters) have recently been made popular by shows like Vikings and The Last Kingdom. Popular-culture medievalism certainly won't be disappearing any time soon.
Next up? A graduate student presentation day to kick off Trinity Term, followed by our Trinity Term Meeting on Global History, in partnership with the Byzantine Society! Keep an eye on our blog, Facebook group, and Twitter for updates.
Monday, 15 February 2016
Friendly Reminder, Revised
Lovely medievalists and medieval aficionados,
Our pre-meeting dinner on Thursday is no longer at Quod - we're branching out! We'll be at Marco's New York Italian on the High Street. Take a look at the menu and, whether you're joining us for dinner or not, get excited for our wonderful speakers and, of course, all the free wine.
Our pre-meeting dinner on Thursday is no longer at Quod - we're branching out! We'll be at Marco's New York Italian on the High Street. Take a look at the menu and, whether you're joining us for dinner or not, get excited for our wonderful speakers and, of course, all the free wine.
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