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IMC 2004: Sessions

Session 1504: Reading Material Cultures: Being Interdisciplinary with Plate, Jewels, and Cloth

Thursday 15 July 2004, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Canterbury Centre for Medieval & Tudor Studies, University of Kent
Organiser:Elisabeth Salter, Canterbury Centre for Medieval & Tudor Studies, University of Kent
Moderator/Chair:Andrew F. Butcher, Aberystwyth University
Respondent:Jane C. Grenville, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Paper 1504-aGifts at the Courts of Henry IV and John the Fearless: The Cultures of Social and Political Networking
(Language: English)
Andrew Boyle, Faculty of Modern History, University of Oxford
Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - Artefacts, Language and Literature - Middle English, Mentalities
Paper 1504-bExperiencing Material Goods in Late Medieval England: Clashing Cultures of Evaluation
(Language: English)
Elisabeth Salter, Canterbury Centre for Medieval & Tudor Studies, University of Kent
Index terms: Anthropology, Daily Life, Language and Literature - Middle English, Mentalities
Abstract

This session integrates clashes of culture with interdisciplinarity. Boyle compares the construction and perception of symbolic gifts at two royal courts, examining the artistic, cultural and intellectual significance of these objects for establishing and maintaining social and political networks. Salter, in contrast, focuses on the experience of luxury goods by ordinary individuals, and offers a new approach to theorising detailed contemporary descriptions of material culture. Both speakers present, for response, issues of interdisciplinary interpretation arising from clashes between methods for analysising: 1) textual (written) evidence concerning material culture, and 2) actual objects.