IMC 2011: Sessions
Session 114: Physical and Mental Disabilities, I: Disability and Poverty in Material and Social Context
Monday 11 July 2011, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Homo-Debilis Project, Universität Bremen |
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| Organiser: | Cordula Nolte, Fachbereich VIII, Institut für Geschichtswissenschaft, Universität Bremen |
| Moderator/Chair: | Bianca Frohne, Institut für Geschichtswissenschaft, Universität Bremen |
| Paper 114-a | Possibilities and Borders: Archaeological Remains from Infirmaries and Their Social Context (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Daily Life, Demography |
| Paper 114-b | St Martin and the (Dis)abled Beggar: The Evolution of a Stereotype in Medieval Culture (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Daily Life, Mentalities, Social History |
| Paper 114-c | Idleness is the Devil's Bolster: On the (In)ability to Work Analysed According to 15th- and 16th-Century Begging Legislation (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Demography, Mentalities, Social History |
| Abstract | Evidence for medieval disability can be traced in a wide variety of sources, here concentrating on material culture, iconography, and documentary records. The archaeological material covers palaeopathological analysis as well as the remains of built structures that may have provided therapeutic facilities or engaged in poor relief. Iconographic conventions, in particular developments in the representation of St Martin dividing his cloak for the beggar, are analysed for their reflection of changing attitudes to poverty and disability. And written documents describing a decline of the physical ability to work illuminate contemporary attitudes towards concepts of work and physical fitness. |