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 |
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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-a | Gifts at the Courts of Henry IV and John the Fearless: The Cultures of Social and Political Networking (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - Artefacts, Language and Literature - Middle English, Mentalities |
Paper 1504-b | Experiencing Material Goods in Late Medieval England: Clashing Cultures of Evaluation (Language: English) 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. |