Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- 1 Archaeology and the Life Course
- 2 Experiencing Age: the Medieval Body
- 3 Clothing the Body: Age, Sexuality and Transitional Rites
- 4 The Medieval Household: the Material Culture of Everyday Life
- 5 The Medieval Church and Cemetery: The Quick and the Dead
- 6 Medieval Lives: People and Things
- Appendix 1 The Medieval Ages of Man: natural, humoral, temporal and material associations of age
- Appendix 2 Excavated Medieval Cemeteries Discussed in the Text
- Appendix 3 Indicative Age Profiles Based on Excavated Medieval Cemeteries
- Appendix 4 Children's Clothing and Dress Accessories from Burial Contexts in Britain: infants to 15-year olds
- Appendix 5 Sexual Signs: medieval dress accessories incorporating sexual imagery
- Appendix 6 Dress Accessories Associated with May Festivities
- Appendix 7 Love Gifts: dress accessories associated with courting and betrothal
- Appendix 8 Apotropaic Materials: dress accessories, domestic and devotional objects
- Appendix 9 Charms: devotional inscriptions on excavated objects and dress accessories
- Appendix 10 Devotional Inscriptions on Medieval Finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
- Appendix 11 Priests' Burials from Medieval English Parish Churches and Hospitals
- Appendix 12 Grave Goods associated with Aged Skeletons from Medieval English Parish Churches and Hospitals
- Appendix 13 The Classification of Grave Goods from Medieval Burials
- Appendix 14 Infant Burials from Domestic Contexts in Medieval England
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Medieval Lives: People and Things
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- 1 Archaeology and the Life Course
- 2 Experiencing Age: the Medieval Body
- 3 Clothing the Body: Age, Sexuality and Transitional Rites
- 4 The Medieval Household: the Material Culture of Everyday Life
- 5 The Medieval Church and Cemetery: The Quick and the Dead
- 6 Medieval Lives: People and Things
- Appendix 1 The Medieval Ages of Man: natural, humoral, temporal and material associations of age
- Appendix 2 Excavated Medieval Cemeteries Discussed in the Text
- Appendix 3 Indicative Age Profiles Based on Excavated Medieval Cemeteries
- Appendix 4 Children's Clothing and Dress Accessories from Burial Contexts in Britain: infants to 15-year olds
- Appendix 5 Sexual Signs: medieval dress accessories incorporating sexual imagery
- Appendix 6 Dress Accessories Associated with May Festivities
- Appendix 7 Love Gifts: dress accessories associated with courting and betrothal
- Appendix 8 Apotropaic Materials: dress accessories, domestic and devotional objects
- Appendix 9 Charms: devotional inscriptions on excavated objects and dress accessories
- Appendix 10 Devotional Inscriptions on Medieval Finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
- Appendix 11 Priests' Burials from Medieval English Parish Churches and Hospitals
- Appendix 12 Grave Goods associated with Aged Skeletons from Medieval English Parish Churches and Hospitals
- Appendix 13 The Classification of Grave Goods from Medieval Burials
- Appendix 14 Infant Burials from Domestic Contexts in Medieval England
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
What did medieval objects do?
This final chapter explores the diverse intersections between human and object biographies in medieval life, drawing from the case studies that were examined in the preceding chapters. Two themes are employed to interrogate the role of material practices in bringing together the lifecycles of people and things. The first reviews the ontological boundary between objects and people, considering the circumstances in which the perceived status of people and objects is exchanged. The use of anthropomorphic objects as human proxies is also examined, in addition to how things are ‘animated’ by the acts of naming and inscription. The second addresses the metaphoric connections between the lifecycles of people, objects and buildings, investigated through the contrasting practices of disposal and curation. The meanings of ‘special deposits’ and heirlooms are examined in the respective contexts of the medieval household, the church and the grave. These strands are drawn together in a concluding discussion on the significance of materiality in medieval memory practice and life course rituals.
In this chapter, agency is considered as a causal capacity that is not restricted to people (see Chapter 1.3). Over the past decade the field of material culture studies has become thoroughly saturated with ‘agency’; agency is observed in objects, buildings, food, clothing, sound, light, colour and all varieties of inanimate things (e.g. Tilley et al. 2006). This philosophical turn has been influenced by the anthropological analysis of art by Alfred Gell (1998), and other recent perspectives (e.g. Latour 2005).
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- Medieval LifeArchaeology and the Life Course, pp. 216 - 252Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012