Problems of Comparing Rural Societies in Early Medieval Western Europe

The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages

Historians of the early Middle Ages (c. 600–c. 1050) have long used material remains and archeological evidence to learn about that era. Over the last four decades, material culture studies have become a prominent area of historical research, particularly for cultural historians. Recent early medieval studies have followed this trend. In addition, religious and economic studies of the so‐called “Dark Ages” have drawn from material sources. Object‐driven social history has been less popular, but recent work, especially on Francia and Anglo‐Saxon England, demonstrates that such projects offer new findings on a period whose texts rarely address social relations and everyday life directly. Material culture therefore offers rich research possibilities for early medieval social history.

Sven Meeder. The Irish Scholarly Presence at St. Gall: Networks of Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages. Studies in Early Medieval History. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2018. Pp. 187. $114 (cloth). - Volume 57 Issue 4

Anthropos , Seite 451 - 472

A Revolutionary Narrative of European History: Bonneville's <i>History of Modern Europe</i> (1789–1792)

The aim of this article is to review the academic writings on medieval history published by Korean scholars in 2013 and 2014. Although the historiography regarding the periodization of medieval history remains debated, the era generally is divided into three periods: the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. This paper assesses research articles and books on political, economic, social, cultural, and church history, aiding in the analysis of the outcomes and significance of this research.BR Based on this review, the following conclusions can be drawn. First, although insufficient research on the Early Middle Ages was conducted in the past, the number of articles on this period has increased during the past two years. Secondly, scholars have attempted to pioneer new fields of study and to uncover novel historical sources, helping to broaden the field of western medieval history. Finally, many scholars have sought to reinterpret established theories, particularly the conventional Eurocentric view of medieval history.BR Similarly, scholars have contributed to expanding the study of medieval history in Korea for past two years and actively interacted with foreign scholars. These international academic exchanges encourage Korean researchers to develop their research activities at the international level.

Why did weeds matter in the Carolingian empire? What was their special significance for writers in eighth- and ninth-century Europe and how was this connected with the growth of real weeds? In early medieval Europe, unwanted plants that persistently appeared among crops created extra work, reduced productivity, and challenged theologians who believed God had made all vegetation good. For the first time, in this book weeds emerge as protagonists in early medieval European history, driving human farming strategies and coloring people's imagination. Early medieval Europeans' effort to create agroecosystems that satisfied their needs and cosmologies that confirmed Christian accounts of vegetable creation both had to come to terms with unruly plants. Using diverse kinds of texts, fresh archaeobotanical data, and even mosaics, this interdisciplinary study reveals how early medieval Europeans interacted with their environments.

Zubin Mistry’s Abortion in the Early Middle Ages, c.500–900 seeks to uncover the cultural significance of abortion in early medieval societies. While evidence about pre-modern attitudes to abortion in early medieval Western Europe is fragmentary, Mistry manages to summon a range of sources, all condemning the practice. In excerpts of canon laws, penitentials, sermons, saints’ lives, and biblical commentaries, he reads deeply into the context that occasioned authoritative statements on abortion. The resulting monograph is the first to comprehensively gather all of the authoritative fragments on abortion in continental Western Europe from the period and to consider their cumulative effects, addressing how they relate to one another to reflect, if not a cohesive discourse on abortion, then at least the “thought-worlds” of their authors. Abortion in the Early Middle Ages firmly establishes that reactions to the practice of abortion were situational, rooted in specific historical circumstances, and unrepresentative of contemporary abstract concerns about fetal “life.”

Why is early medieval history, or indeed any pre-modern history, important?', asks Ian Wood in the preface of this fascinating book.The problem was raised for him in 2003 when the then education secretary Charles Clarke appeared to dismiss the value of 'medievalists'.Clarke claimed later that he was actually referring to antiquated models of education; nevertheless, the systematic defunding of the Humanities by governments in the UK and elsewhere has left history professors and others very much on the defensive.Wood enters the debate here by proposing, fairly, that medievalists must rely on a better defence than the need to police the facts from careless amateurs.He proceeds by exploring the observation that history is almost always political, and that study of the early Middle Ages has often been part of wider discourses and events in society.The focus of the book is on the ways that different writers from c. 1700 onwards have interpreted the Fall of West Rome and the rise of successor kingdoms in the fifth and sixth centuries.(This is the early Middle Ages in its Late Antique guise, sans Charlemagne.)He starts by outlining early 'Germanist' and 'Romanist' positions -Boulainvilliers representing the first because he saw the Germanic Franks as a force for liberation against the oppressive Roman state, and Abb du Bos standing for the Romanists because he argued that Frankish influence was limited, especially in Armorica and Provence.In these early exchanges, it seems that some people wrote reflecting the anxiety about the erosion of noble rights under Louis XIV, while others wrote implicitly in defence of monarchy.Rights and class dominated discussion, as one might expect in a world which would soon be reshaped in response to revolutions.Napoleon, we learn, once ordered the Comte de Montlosier to write a new history of France and was disappointed when what he got was anticlerical, supported a hereditary monarchy, and calmly explored the merits of both the Germanist and Romanist arguments.Balanced scholarship and political agendas did not always mix well.And so, as Wood's subject matter races into the nineteenth century, it continued.Much here, unsurprisingly, concerns Germanism and its opponents.It is to Wood's credit that he keeps his account of the foundation of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica relatively brief despite its great reputation, and sets it alongside debates surrounding Jacob Grimm and the then recently rediscovered Beowulf to emphasize the wider growth in philology.He also does well to highlight the importance of Felix Dahn's novel, Ein Kampf um Rom

Ethnicity and identity have formed a major focus in late antique and early medieval archaeology and history. Wide-ranging debates between the so-called Vienna and Toronto Schools have had massive impacts beyond early medieval history, as has the famous project, The Transformation of the Roman World.1 Here, a new paradigm emerged, slowly substituting the previous ‘decline-and-fall’ ideas of the antique world with that of ‘transformation’. The study of late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the Roman West is thus very much entangled with research on identity, ethnicity, and grand narratives, such as transformation or decline, ‘Germanic’ or barbarian invasions. These influential concepts and ideas should not be underestimated in the study of art and visual culture as they too frame the historical scenes in which art history is set. Since the mid-2000s, there have been new debates, mostly (but not solely) triggered by Heather, Ward-Perkins, and Halsall.2 The question of the extent to which ethnicity has played a significant role in the use of material culture, and to which it can thereby be identified in the archaeological record, has been widely, and often intensely, debated across late antique and medieval archaeology.3 The research on art and visual culture, however, embarked on a different tangent. Largely ignoring recent debates in history and archaeology, most scholars still emphasise the function of early medieval art and images as fostering perceptions of ‘Germanic’ identity, ethnicity, or religion.4 But why does the ‘Germanic’ remain such a pervasive terminology?

Founded around the beginning of the eighth century in the Sabine hills north of Rome, the abbey of Farfa was for centuries a barometer of social and political change in central Italy. Conventionally, the region's history in the early Middle Ages revolves around the rise of the papacy as a secular political power. But Farfa's avoidance of domination by the pope throughout its early medieval history, despite one pope's involvement in its early establishment, reveals that papal aggrandizement had strict limits. Other parties - local elites, as well as Lombard and then Carolingian rulers - were often more important in structuring power in the region. Many were also patrons of Farfa, and this book reveals how a major ecclesiastical institution operated in early medieval politics, as a conduit for others' interests, and a player in its own right.

The Irish Scholarly Presence at St. Gall: Networks of Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages<b>.</b> By SvenMeeder. Studies in Early Medieval History. London: Bloomsbury. 2018. x + 187 pp. incl. 6 b/w ill. £91.80 (hardback); £50.49 (eBook). ISBN 9781350038677.

Malaria impairs human reproduction, augments excess mortality, and lowers productivity. It can exercise a debilitating effect so profound that it defines regions. The disease is an essential element in histories of places and periods in which it was endemic. Although many European regions are thought to have had a long association with malaria, evidence for the disease, the parasites that cause it, and the mosquitoes that transmit it, is thin before 1900. Malaria's early medieval history is opaque. This paper clears up contours of malaria's occurrence in Frankish Europe. It surveys sources relevant to its study and establishes guidelines for retrospectively diagnosing the disease. It argues that malaria was plentiful north of the Alps before 1000 and that it influenced demographic trends where it was endemic.

PART I: STATES 1. Introduction 2. Geography and Politics 3. The Form of the State PART II: ARISTOCRATIC POWER-STRUCTURES 4. Aristocracies 5. Managing the Land 6. Political Breakdown and State-Building in the North PART III: PEASANTRIES 7. Peasants and Local Societies: Case Studies 8. Rural Settlement and Village Societies 9. Peasant Society and its Problems PART IV: NETWORKS 10. Cities 11. Systems of Exchange Conclusion Bibliography Index

The Kamakura period in Japan (1185-1333) was the first time that aristocratic rule in Kyoto was confronted by a competing warrior power in Kamakura, known as the Kamakura Bakufu. Historians in recent decades have cogently redefined this period as a transitional age between Japan's classical and medieval periods, but in their studies have restricted historical analysis to documentary evidence while rejecting the value of more belletristic texts. This dissertation engages critically with a wider range of source material, including texts often categorized as literature, to investigate cultural and social implications of the Kamakura-period that cannot be gleaned from documents. In particular, my study engages with the history of warrior and courtier relations seen in the lead-up, outbreak, and aftermath of a war known as the Jokyu Disturbance of 1221. In this event, the powerful retired emperor Go-Toba instigated a war against Hojo Yoshitoki, the de facto leader of the newly emergent Kamakura Bakufu. Disastrously defeated within the span of a month, Go-Toba and his sons were all sent into exile by the Bakufu, which emerged from its victory more powerful than before. The shock waves Go-Toba's defeat sent through medieval society reveal the complexity of thirteenth-century Japan, characterized by divided loyalties, overlapping networks of interpersonal ties, and changing perceptions of social identity. By explaining, justifying, or condemning Go-Toba's actions in 1221, medieval writers explored new ways of understanding imperial authority, loyalty and honor, and the roles of court and warrior government, providing deeper insight into early medieval Japanese history.