IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 235: Materiality and Medieval Travels between Europe and Asia, II: Souvenirs and Gifts

Monday 1 July 2019, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Department for the Study of Religions, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Organiser:	Jana Valtrová, Department for the Study of Religions, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Moderator/Chair:	Rebecca Darley, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London
Paper 235-a	Souvenirs from the East: Materialities and the Representation of Asia in Franciscan Travel Accounts (Language: English) Irene Malfatto, John Carter Brown Library, Rhode Island Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities, Social History
Paper 235-b	Mendicants and Mongols: Material Differences in Perceptions of Ownership and the Value of Things (Language: English) Tessa Hosking, Independent Scholar, Isleworth Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History
Paper 235-c	Testing Rulers' Generosity: Gift Giving and Receiving in Ibn Battuta's Riḥla (Language: English) Aglaia Iankovskaia, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography, St Petersburg / Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest Index terms: Economics - Trade, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Mentalities, Social History
Abstract	The session is part of a tripartite panel focused on material aspects of contacts and travels between medieval Europe and Asia. The second session of the panel aims to explore the materiality of travellers' economy. The travellers' attitudes towards souvenirs as means of 'materialisation' of the East, their handling of gifts, and different perceptions of the value of things will be discussed. The sources examined in the presentations include Franciscan travel accounts of their encounters with the Mongols and Ibn Battuta's Riḥla.