IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 731: Reading Texts, Reading Bodies: The Practical Literacy of Material Entanglements
Tuesday 4 July 2023, 14.15-15.45
| Organiser: | Miente Pietersma, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Catrien Santing, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| Paper 731-a | The Eye Guiding the Hand Guiding the Blade: Interaction between Body and Mind in Late Medieval Fighting Manuals (Language: English) Index terms: Literacy and Orality, Medicine, Military History, Science |
| Paper 731-b | Recipes for the Good Life: From Hairdye and Gin to Prayers (Language: English) Index terms: Literacy and Orality, Medicine, Science |
| Paper 731-c | Of Hands, Hooves, and Health: Writing about Human-Equine Care Work (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Literacy and Orality, Medicine, Social History |
| Abstract | This session builds on entanglements as a key notion in the histories of knowledge and the body. What constitutes a human or animal body depends not just on bio-essentialism or cultural discourse, but also on the tools and technical expertise used to interact with it. Different knowledge traditions should then be seen as informing different 'practical literacies' of interacting with bodies, which in turn yield different entanglements. Miente Pietersma asks how late medieval manuals for martial arts aimed to stimulate the interaction between mind and body through practice sessions, for example. Catrien Santing will look at the diverse ways texts inspired practices of 'the good life', from using hair dye to gin. Isabelle Schuerch focuses on the way riding manuals and equine medical texts conceptualised practical entanglements of human-equine care work. |