history-450-1000/making-early-me societies-conflict-and-belonging-latin-west-3001200?format=HB Pl... more history-450-1000/making-early-me societies-conflict-and-belonging-latin-west-3001200?format=HB Place of Publication: Cambridge Reviewer: Edward Roberts This collection of ten articles was inspired by an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Manchester in 2005 on 'The Peace in the Feud: History and Anthropology, 1955-2005'. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Max Gluckman's seminal Custom and Conflict in Africa, which included a chapter on 'The Peace in the Feud', originally published as an article in Past & Present earlier in the same year. Through study of traditional African societies, Gluckman argued that seemingly endless cycles of vengeance and violence were in fact held in check by custom, suggesting that 'conflicts in one set of relationships, over a wider range of society or through a longer period of time, lead to the reestablishment of social cohesion'.(1) Gluckman explicitly sought to engage medieval historians since they grappled with the same question of how order could be maintained in societies with weak governing institutions. His challenge was met by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, who cited Gluckman in his important 'The Bloodfeud of the Franks' (1959). It has long been supposed that the two met while both held chairs at the University of Manchester in the 1950s. Though their purported encounter has been somewhat mythologized as a key stimulus in the eventual 'anthropological turn' in early medieval studies in the 1980s (2), Gluckman's influence on medieval historians of feud and violence over the last half-century is undeniable. The present volume was thus conceived in the spirit of continuing the conversation between history and anthropology, though readers may be surprised to find no contributions from anthropologists themselves. Certainly, the imbalance is to be attributed in part to the untimely passing of several of the original conference's participants, including Mary Douglas, to whose memory the book is dedicated. Yet one also detects a mild frustration that the conversation has been too one-sided, perhaps because many anthropologists no longer see the relevance of Gluckman's approach. As noted in the book's introduction, 'History seems forever to be "drawing" on Anthropology. Why not the other way round?' (p. 15). Making Early Medieval Societies is indeed a compelling case for further dialogue. The essays here employ a variety of historical and anthropological approaches to explore conflict management, the power of tradition and the applicability of the 'peace in the feud' in the Latin West between the fourth and 12th centuries. The papers, as Conrad Leyser outlines in a succinct introduction, challenge several well-worn historiographical
I cannot have remained in this tortured state for more than three months; it seemed impossible th... more I cannot have remained in this tortured state for more than three months; it seemed impossible that anyone could bear so many ills together. I am amazed at myself now, and think of the patience which His Majesty gave me as a great mercy, for it clearly came from the Lord. It was a great help to my patience that I had read the story of Job in the Morals of St Gregory, which the Lord seems to have used to prepare me for this suffering. The life of Teresa of Avila by herself ' That Teresa of Avila should have suffered, both physically and spiritually, comes as no surprise to a modern audience. We expect her, indeed, to have played upon her vulnerability in recounting both her relationship with the divine and with her human friends and adversaries. A generation of work on female religious experience in the pre-industrial West has taught us that women often seek authority for their religious experience precisely, and paradoxically, by stressing their weakness.2 What Teresa reminds us, however, is that the rhetoric of suffering was derived not only from a lexicon of frail womanhood: it was possible to appeal to the Fathers of the Church specifically, to Gregory the Great and Augustine of Hippo3 as paragons of vulnerability.
... Conrad Leyser. Worcester College, Oxford. conrad.leyser{at}worcester.ox.ac.uk. ... drawn up i... more ... Conrad Leyser. Worcester College, Oxford. conrad.leyser{at}worcester.ox.ac.uk. ... drawn up in due form, John invalidated all of the ordinations made by Pope Leo, John's replacement ... in fact somewhat confused: the witness of the Invectiva in Romam, P[atrologia] L[atina], cxxix, 836 ...
To talk about grace properly is to adduce the dependence of the slave on his master, or the way t... more To talk about grace properly is to adduce the dependence of the slave on his master, or the way the footman clings inseparably to his patron or lord. … Just as it is unfitting for a helmsman's rower to fail him, or a bishop's attendant, or a commander's soldier, so it is fitting that grace and its foster child, obedience, should be linked inseparably together through servitude.
history-450-1000/making-early-me societies-conflict-and-belonging-latin-west-3001200?format=HB Pl... more history-450-1000/making-early-me societies-conflict-and-belonging-latin-west-3001200?format=HB Place of Publication: Cambridge Reviewer: Edward Roberts This collection of ten articles was inspired by an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Manchester in 2005 on 'The Peace in the Feud: History and Anthropology, 1955-2005'. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Max Gluckman's seminal Custom and Conflict in Africa, which included a chapter on 'The Peace in the Feud', originally published as an article in Past & Present earlier in the same year. Through study of traditional African societies, Gluckman argued that seemingly endless cycles of vengeance and violence were in fact held in check by custom, suggesting that 'conflicts in one set of relationships, over a wider range of society or through a longer period of time, lead to the reestablishment of social cohesion'.(1) Gluckman explicitly sought to engage medieval historians since they grappled with the same question of how order could be maintained in societies with weak governing institutions. His challenge was met by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, who cited Gluckman in his important 'The Bloodfeud of the Franks' (1959). It has long been supposed that the two met while both held chairs at the University of Manchester in the 1950s. Though their purported encounter has been somewhat mythologized as a key stimulus in the eventual 'anthropological turn' in early medieval studies in the 1980s (2), Gluckman's influence on medieval historians of feud and violence over the last half-century is undeniable. The present volume was thus conceived in the spirit of continuing the conversation between history and anthropology, though readers may be surprised to find no contributions from anthropologists themselves. Certainly, the imbalance is to be attributed in part to the untimely passing of several of the original conference's participants, including Mary Douglas, to whose memory the book is dedicated. Yet one also detects a mild frustration that the conversation has been too one-sided, perhaps because many anthropologists no longer see the relevance of Gluckman's approach. As noted in the book's introduction, 'History seems forever to be "drawing" on Anthropology. Why not the other way round?' (p. 15). Making Early Medieval Societies is indeed a compelling case for further dialogue. The essays here employ a variety of historical and anthropological approaches to explore conflict management, the power of tradition and the applicability of the 'peace in the feud' in the Latin West between the fourth and 12th centuries. The papers, as Conrad Leyser outlines in a succinct introduction, challenge several well-worn historiographical
I cannot have remained in this tortured state for more than three months; it seemed impossible th... more I cannot have remained in this tortured state for more than three months; it seemed impossible that anyone could bear so many ills together. I am amazed at myself now, and think of the patience which His Majesty gave me as a great mercy, for it clearly came from the Lord. It was a great help to my patience that I had read the story of Job in the Morals of St Gregory, which the Lord seems to have used to prepare me for this suffering. The life of Teresa of Avila by herself ' That Teresa of Avila should have suffered, both physically and spiritually, comes as no surprise to a modern audience. We expect her, indeed, to have played upon her vulnerability in recounting both her relationship with the divine and with her human friends and adversaries. A generation of work on female religious experience in the pre-industrial West has taught us that women often seek authority for their religious experience precisely, and paradoxically, by stressing their weakness.2 What Teresa reminds us, however, is that the rhetoric of suffering was derived not only from a lexicon of frail womanhood: it was possible to appeal to the Fathers of the Church specifically, to Gregory the Great and Augustine of Hippo3 as paragons of vulnerability.
... Conrad Leyser. Worcester College, Oxford. conrad.leyser{at}worcester.ox.ac.uk. ... drawn up i... more ... Conrad Leyser. Worcester College, Oxford. conrad.leyser{at}worcester.ox.ac.uk. ... drawn up in due form, John invalidated all of the ordinations made by Pope Leo, John's replacement ... in fact somewhat confused: the witness of the Invectiva in Romam, P[atrologia] L[atina], cxxix, 836 ...
To talk about grace properly is to adduce the dependence of the slave on his master, or the way t... more To talk about grace properly is to adduce the dependence of the slave on his master, or the way the footman clings inseparably to his patron or lord. … Just as it is unfitting for a helmsman's rower to fail him, or a bishop's attendant, or a commander's soldier, so it is fitting that grace and its foster child, obedience, should be linked inseparably together through servitude.
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