From revenant legends to the regulation of burial space; from martyrologies to accounts of murder... more From revenant legends to the regulation of burial space; from martyrologies to accounts of murder; and from the danse macabre to funerals both lavish and simple, this volume examines how communities dealt with their dead as continual, albeit non-living members.
International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 2018
This article explores Johnson’s concepts of indigenizing and extending through the lens of Europe... more This article explores Johnson’s concepts of indigenizing and extending through the lens of European pow-wow. Drawing on his argument that “identifying practices of indigenousness…are imagined through global media and often expressed in their forms” it begins with an overview of historical European representations of American Indians: representations that were virtually global at the time, and have led to the ubiquitous image of the Indian (or possibly indian warrior using the hyperreal simulation argument put forward by Vizenor). Such representations dominate the European pow-wow scene, where individuals don Indian garb and dance at social events, many of which are open to the public. The article then focuses on the English pow-wow scene, contrasting it with parade Hobbyism. Here individuals dress up as indians for public commemorations on Bonfire Night (November 5th annually). Both groups can be understood as conforming to Johnson’s extending narrative: the “circulation of religiou...
This chapter explores the impact of European-produced toy “Indians” on understandings of North Am... more This chapter explores the impact of European-produced toy “Indians” on understandings of North American Indian peoples and their lifeways1 by drawing on the cognitive theory of stereotyping. Stereotyping refers to socioculturally shared mental images that, in simple terms, assists us in comprehending our world. Through examining European-produced toy “Indians” through the lens of stereotyping theory, an exploration can be made of the potential cognitive ideas that European children develop about North American Indian peoples.
Chrisina Welch introduces this special issue of Fieldwork and Religion on religion, death and ber... more Chrisina Welch introduces this special issue of Fieldwork and Religion on religion, death and bereavement.
This short article contextualizes a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments of the late- Me... more This short article contextualizes a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments of the late- Medieval/early-Modern era, known as transi imagery. It explores 37 English carved cadaver monuments (ECCMs) dating from between c. 1425 to 1558. By examining vernacular theology, perceptions of purgatory, and understandings of the body post-mortem, it supports current scholarly writing that these ECCMs were pedagogical in nature, prompting prayers from the living to comfort the deceased in purgatory. However, it controversially argues that ECCMs additionally provided a visual reminder to the living that purgatorial suffering was not just spiritual, but also physical during the wet stage of death (the period before the corpse became skeletal). Further, by drawing on fieldwork, this article provides the first comprehensive guide to the carved cadaver monuments that can be found in England.
From revenant legends to the regulation of burial space; from martyrologies to accounts of murder... more From revenant legends to the regulation of burial space; from martyrologies to accounts of murder; and from the danse macabre to funerals both lavish and simple, this volume examines how communities dealt with their dead as continual, albeit non-living members.
International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 2018
This article explores Johnson’s concepts of indigenizing and extending through the lens of Europe... more This article explores Johnson’s concepts of indigenizing and extending through the lens of European pow-wow. Drawing on his argument that “identifying practices of indigenousness…are imagined through global media and often expressed in their forms” it begins with an overview of historical European representations of American Indians: representations that were virtually global at the time, and have led to the ubiquitous image of the Indian (or possibly indian warrior using the hyperreal simulation argument put forward by Vizenor). Such representations dominate the European pow-wow scene, where individuals don Indian garb and dance at social events, many of which are open to the public. The article then focuses on the English pow-wow scene, contrasting it with parade Hobbyism. Here individuals dress up as indians for public commemorations on Bonfire Night (November 5th annually). Both groups can be understood as conforming to Johnson’s extending narrative: the “circulation of religiou...
This chapter explores the impact of European-produced toy “Indians” on understandings of North Am... more This chapter explores the impact of European-produced toy “Indians” on understandings of North American Indian peoples and their lifeways1 by drawing on the cognitive theory of stereotyping. Stereotyping refers to socioculturally shared mental images that, in simple terms, assists us in comprehending our world. Through examining European-produced toy “Indians” through the lens of stereotyping theory, an exploration can be made of the potential cognitive ideas that European children develop about North American Indian peoples.
Chrisina Welch introduces this special issue of Fieldwork and Religion on religion, death and ber... more Chrisina Welch introduces this special issue of Fieldwork and Religion on religion, death and bereavement.
This short article contextualizes a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments of the late- Me... more This short article contextualizes a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments of the late- Medieval/early-Modern era, known as transi imagery. It explores 37 English carved cadaver monuments (ECCMs) dating from between c. 1425 to 1558. By examining vernacular theology, perceptions of purgatory, and understandings of the body post-mortem, it supports current scholarly writing that these ECCMs were pedagogical in nature, prompting prayers from the living to comfort the deceased in purgatory. However, it controversially argues that ECCMs additionally provided a visual reminder to the living that purgatorial suffering was not just spiritual, but also physical during the wet stage of death (the period before the corpse became skeletal). Further, by drawing on fieldwork, this article provides the first comprehensive guide to the carved cadaver monuments that can be found in England.
Carved cadaver monuments are a specific form of Transi art produced during the late Medieval, and... more Carved cadaver monuments are a specific form of Transi art produced during the late Medieval, and thus Roman Catholic, era in much of Northern Europe. These recumbent Memento Mori tombs are regularly described in terms of rotting cadavers or putrefying corpses however, it was not necessarily an aspect of their initial creation that the English carved cadavers were displayed in putrefaction. As can be seen here, the carved body is not rotting, but rather resembles an emaciated person very recently deceased, laid naked inside an open burial shroud or winding cloth. The now anonymous cadaver from Feniton in Devon is in remarkably good condition; a damaged nose is not unusual given he has survived the iconoclasms of the Reformation, and the Civil War, as well as the heavy-handed Victorian restructuring of churches. Like all the English monuments in this style, he was a specific individual, a named member of the social elite, and we can be sure of this because these monuments were hugely expensive; the equivalent cost today would be in the region of a top of the range luxury sportscar! Like all of these monuments, he protects his modesty with a carefully positioned hand, and he has his mouth and eyes open (some have their eyes half open or slited open, but none appear to have closed eyes and therefore are not imaged sleeping); in many ways he looks like a fresh corpse. Keying marks for gesso are evident on the shroud cloth; these texture marks fixed a very thin plaster layer to cover the stone, and the gesso plaster was then painted, although very little evidence of this remains of this. The paint was fixed onto the gesso with organic substances like egg white, and as this decomposed, the paint would have fallen off; few extant examples retain much evidence of polychroming but a conserved example, that of John Baret, a wealthy merchant from Bury St. Edmunds, found evidence of flesh coloured tones on the body, with red and green veining. Baret commissioned his sculpture whilst he was alive; it is mentioned in his will of 1463, and he was not alone in this – several wealthy individuals commissioned during their lifetime, a life sized effigy of them naked and emaciated, lying in their open burial shroud. But why? Why would someone of social status with civic or indeed clerical, standing, as another such individual was Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, chose to have their wasted self, exposed to public gaze? I argue that a potent mix of vernacular theology, and Roman Catholic belief in purgatory, help us answer this question.
In this paper I will contextualise a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments (transi) of th... more In this paper I will contextualise a subset of Northern European cadaver monuments (transi) of the Late-Medieval era, and explore the extant 40 English carved cadaver memorials (herein ECCMs) dating from between c1420/25 to 1558; all bar two are carved from a single piece of stone, all bar one memorialise high ranking clerics or male members of the wealthy land-owning and mercantile classes, and all image an emaciated and naked (apart from a strategically placed hand or piece of shroud cloth) recently dead individual, often largely anatomically correct despite pre-dating Vesalius, the father of anatomy. By examining late-medieval vernacular theology, and perceptions of purgatory, and speculating on understandings of the body post-mortem, my paper will support current scholarly writing that these sculptures were pedagogical in nature, prompting prayers from the living to comfort the deceased in purgatory. However, I will also suggest that they providing a visual reminder to the living that purgatorial suffering was not just spiritual, but also physical during the stage that anthropologist Robert Hertz has described as the 'wet stage of death'; the stage before the corpse became fully skeletal. Thus, I will argue then that these are sculptures commissioned to project the spiritual humility of those with material excess; a necessary quality when 'it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God' (Matt 19:24). I will also note their potential importance to the study of pre-Vesalian anatomy, a currently marginalized topic. By examining the viscerality of these often realistic depictions of a cadaver, through Paul Messaris' concept of iconicity (the emotion elicited from gazing at an image), alongside the medieval Northern European notion of post-mortem sentience (the concept that the dead can in some sense perceive), I hope to present the what, why and how of these unusual forms of late-medieval English mortuary art. Without going into too much detail, I wish to give a general overview of the 40 extant ECCMs before exploring their theological and anatomical aspects. I should note there are a further 3 of these cadaver sculptures in Wales (all are single, all are anonymous, 1 is clerical and 2 of the laity) but there are none in Scotland. Thus in total, there are 43 extant carved cadaver sculptures in Britain, with only 1 known to have been destroyed; all that remains is the upper effigy of an archbishop.
Z. Murat (ed.), English Alabaster Carvings and their Cultural Contexts, 2019
English alabasters played a seminal role in the artistic development of late medieval and early m... more English alabasters played a seminal role in the artistic development of late medieval and early modern Europe. Carvings made of this lustrous white stone were sold throughout England and abroad, and as a result many survived the iconoclasm that destroyed so much else from this period. They are a unique and valuable witness to the material culture of the Middle Ages.
This volume incorporates a variety of new approaches to these artefacts, employing methodologies drawn from a number of different disciplines. Its chapters explore a range of key points connected to alabasters: their origins, their general history and their social, cultural, intellectual and devotional contexts.
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This volume incorporates a variety of new approaches to these artefacts, employing methodologies drawn from a number of different disciplines. Its chapters explore a range of key points connected to alabasters: their origins, their general history and their social, cultural, intellectual and devotional contexts.