Magic and medieval society

Magic and Medieval Society presents a thematic approach to the topic of magic and sorcery in western Europe between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries. It aims to provide readers with the conceptual and documentary tools to reach informed conclusions as to the existence, nature, importance and uses of magic in medieval society. Contrary to some previous approaches, this book argues that magic was inextricably connected to other areas of cultural practice and was found across medieval society: at medieval courts; at universities; and within the Church itself. The book also puts forward the argument that the witch craze was not a medieval phenomenon but rather the product of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and demonstrates how the components for the early-modern persecution of witches were put into place.

Harnessing the ancestors: mutuality, uncertainty and ritual practice in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

In the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, chronic economic uncertainty has seen social relations stretched to breaking point. Informants speak of a 'war between men and women'. While grinding poverty, death in the shape of the 'axe' (HIV/AIDS) and suspicion stalk the land, and the project of building the umzi (homestead) falters, hope for the future and with it, trust between people, leaches away. One response to such uncertainty is a turn to ritual. Through a nearly relentless schedule of ritual activity which invokes the ancestors and the Christian deity in various forms, Xhosa people attempt to dam up trust, secure ongoing investment in the rural homestead and sustain ties of reciprocity both among rural people and between them and their urban kin. It is also through the staging of these rituals that women, acting together and in support of each other, are increasingly assertive – often in the face of a violent, rearguard opposition from men - in their efforts to exercise agency over the differentiated, fragmented and fragile social and economic relationships within their homesteads and across their villages.

Technology, ritual and Anglo-Saxon agrarian production: the biography of a seventh-century century plough coulter from Lyminge, Kent

The discovery of an unusual early medieval plough coulter in a well-dated Anglo-Saxon settlement context in Kent suggests that continentally derived technology was in use in this powerful kingdom centuries before heavy ploughs were first depicted in Late Saxon manuscripts. The substantial investment required to manufacture the coulter, the significant damage and wear that it sustained during use and the circumstances of its ultimate ritual deposition are explored. Investigative conservation, high-resolution recording and metallographic analysis illuminate the form, function and use-life of the coulter. An examination of the deposition contexts of plough-irons in early medieval northern Europe sheds important new light on the ritual actions of plough symbolism in an age of religious hybridity and transformation.

Intertextuality, authenticity, and gonzo selves in Anya Ulinich’s 'Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel'

This article traces the intertextual relationships between Anya Ulinich’s graphic novel Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel, Bernard Malamud’s short story ‘The Magic Barrel’ and a number of works by Philip Roth. Through these relationships and her construction of a number of variations on what Miriam Libicki has called a ‘gonzo self’ Ulinich explores the tensions between life and art, fact and fiction, and autobiography and the novel, mediating the aesthetic imperatives of what Roth has called the ‘written world’ and the ethical obligations of the ‘unwritten world’ in order to arrive at an authentic sense of herself as an artist and writer.

Arthur’s refusal to eat: ritual and control in the romance feast

Arthur's refusal to begin feasting before he has seen a marvel or heard a tale of adventure is a recurring motif in medieval romance. Previous comment on this ritual has suggested that the source for such a taboo on eating may be found in earlier narratives in the Celtic languages. This paper argues that, although the ritual almost certainly originates in pre-chivalric society, romance authors adapted and developed it to reflect the courtly-chivalric preoccupations of their own world. Arthur's ritual gesture may be seen as a means of containing and controlling both interior moral threats and exterior physical peril, and is intimately connected to the courtly conception of the feast. This study draws on the evidence of religious writing and courtesy manuals and explores some highly-developed treatments of the motif in romance in order to suggest that literary engagements with Arthur's refusal to eat have much to say about contemporary ideas of ritual and reality as mediated through the symbolically-charged arena of the medieval feast.

Black Forest Magic

Duo Show: John Russell & Dan Mitchell.

The Mobility of Chondroitin Sulfate in Articular and Artificial Cartilage Characterized by (13)C Magic-Angle Spinning NMR Spectroscopy

We have studied the molecular dynamics of one of the major macromolecules in articular cartilage, chondroitin sulfate. Applying (13)C high-resolution magic-angle spinning NMR techniques, the NMR signals of all rigid macromolecules in cartilage can be suppressed, allowing the exclusive detection of the highly mobile chondroitin sulfate. The technique is also used to detect the chondroitin sulfate in artificial tissue-engineered cartilage. The tissue-engineered material that is based on matrix producing chondrocytes cultured in a collagen gel should provide properties as close as possible to those of the natural cartilage. Nuclear relaxation times of the chondroitin sulfate were determined for both tissues. Although T(1) relaxation times are rather similar, the T(2) relaxation in tissue-engineered cartilage is significantly shorter. This suggests that the motions of chondroitin sulfate in data:rat and artificial cartilage different. The nuclear relaxation times of chondroitin sulfate in natural and tissue-engineered cartilage were modeled using a broad distribution function for the motional correlation times. Although the description of the microscopic molecular dynamics of the chondroitin sulfate in natural and artificial cartilage required the identical broad distribution functions for the correlation times of motion, significant differences in the correlation times of motion that are extracted from the model indicate that the artificial tissue does not fully meet the standards of the natural ideal. This could also be confirmed by macroscopic biomechanical elasticity measurements. Nevertheless, these results suggest that NMR is a useful tool for the investigation of the quality of artificially engineered tissue. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 93: 520-532, 2010.

A comunicação do ritual de autossacrifício do corpo: os penitentes de Barbalha - CE

Dissertação apresentada ao Programa de Mestrado em Comunicação da Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul

Navegantes da esperança : análise de um ritual religioso-urbano em Porto Alegre

A Festa dos Navegantes, em Porto Alegre, foi estudada, a partir da noção de ritual desenvolvida pela Antropologia. Para tanto, foi feita a observação sistemática e participanta acompanhada da análise das diversas etapas do ciclo ritual, que tem início na segunda semana de janeiro e término no dia 2 de fevereiro. A transformação da festa de uma manifestação de camadas elevadas e localizada em uma manifestação popular e regionalizada e, ainda, a utilização de símbolos da cultura dominante por grupos dominados como forma desses últimos se aproximarem das camadas superiores foram alguns dos elementos evidenciados ao longo da etnografia.