Peasant Categories in the Tenth and eleventh centuries

Abstract

The need for the state to protect its fiscal revenues is presented in the tenth-century legislation as a significant factor underlying the efforts made by the imperial administration to check the growing power of its provincial magnates and to make it more difficult for them to extend their properties at the expense of weaker peasants. In practice the most effective way for the state to maintain its revenues was to ensure through the regular activities of its fiscal officials that peasants who owed tax-payments to the state were not brought under the control of powerful lay and ecclesiastical landowners.     

Saints,rulers and communities in Southern Italy: the Vitae of the Italo-Greek saints (tenth to eleventh centuries) and their audiences

Relations between saints and secular rulers as presented in the Vitae of the Italo-Greek saints in Southern Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries have been treated in terms of identity and difference, namely to measure the degree to which the Italo-Greeks identified themselves with the Byzantine people, thus differentiating themselves from the Latins. In this way, however, the mediating function of the saint, the narrative strategies of the hagiographers and the interaction between the texts and their audiences are ignored. Taking its cue from the frontier character of Southern Italy and the local context of the cults, this paper examines the narrative representations of these relations in order to understand how local communities gathered around a cult to find support and how they perceived the political powers acting in their region. It is argued that in this frontier society multiple local frameworks of power relations rather than identities are represented in the saints' Lives.     

Concubinage and marriage in medieval canon law

The medieval canon law adopted an ambivaient attitude toward concubinage among the laity. While the canonists disapproved of concubinage on moral grounds, they sought to assimilate the status of the concubine to that of the married woman and thus to legitimize concubinous relationships. In this process of assimilation the canonists made use of the institution of clandestine marriage, which created problems of its own. The crucial difficulty lay in constructing a satisfactory system of proof, so that it would be clear whether or not a given couple should be treated as married, or whether they should be considered legally as unmarried. The Council of Trent abolished lay concubinage and clandestine marriage, but thereby created a system of marriage law flawed with defects almost as serious as those experienced under the medieval law.     

Concubinage and marriage in medieval canon law

The medieval canon law adopted an ambivaient attitude toward concubinage among the laity. While the canonists disapproved of concubinage on moral grounds, they sought to assimilate the status of the concubine to that of the married woman and thus to legitimize concubinous relationships. In this process of assimilation the canonists made use of the institution of clandestine marriage, which created problems of its own. The crucial difficulty lay in constructing a satisfactory system of proof, so that it would be clear whether or not a given couple should be treated as married, or whether they should be considered legally as unmarried. The Council of Trent abolished lay concubinage and clandestine marriage, but thereby created a system of marriage law flawed with defects almost as serious as those experienced under the medieval law.     

The conjugal debt and medieval canon law

Marriage in Western European society was the preserve of the Christian Church throughout the later middle ages. The law of the Church played a significant role in the formation of doctrine concerning that institution, including the sexual relationship of spouses. Adopting a debt-model of conjugal relations, the canonists maintained that each partner owed marital coitus to the other. The lawyers emphasized the mutually binding character of this obligation, and consistently dejended the right of spouses to exact their marital due, insisting that this duty could be abrogated only by mutual consent. As heirs to an ascetic patristic tradition, however, the lawyers tended to be suspicious of fleshly pleasure. A peculiar and ambivalent doctrine resulted from this tension between an appreciation of the intrinsic goodness of the married state and a distrust of sex, one of its major constituents.     

The conjugal debt and medieval canon law

Marriage in Western European society was the preserve of the Christian Church throughout the later middle ages. The law of the Church played a significant role in the formation of doctrine concerning that institution, including the sexual relationship of spouses. Adopting a debt-model of conjugal relations, the canonists maintained that each partner owed marital coitus to the other. The lawyers emphasized the mutually binding character of this obligation, and consistently dejended the right of spouses to exact their marital due, insisting that this duty could be abrogated only by mutual consent. As heirs to an ascetic patristic tradition, however, the lawyers tended to be suspicious of fleshly pleasure. A peculiar and ambivalent doctrine resulted from this tension between an appreciation of the intrinsic goodness of the married state and a distrust of sex, one of its major constituents.     

Continuity and change in Norman Italy: the Campania during the eleventh and twelfth centuries

The Campania was a fertile area, with a growing population during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was economically more advanced than most of the rest of southern Italy. This essay examines the impact of the Norman conquest of the south upon this region, with special reference to the settlement pattern and the aristocracy. It concludes that the role of incastellamento in changing the pattern of settlement was relatively limited, and the extensive incastellamento of the Montecassino lands (a product of Norman pressure upon the abbey) cannot be taken as typical. Furthermore, while the Norman conquest led to colonisation by French aristocrats, this did not entirely displace existing Lombard families, and widespread intermarriage led to a blurring of the distinction between Lombards and Normans. The impact of political crises during the twelfth century was also more limited than might be supposed, and continuity rather than change characterised the nobility of the Norman period.     

The election of the tenth President of the Italian Republic

Abstract

The election on the first ballot of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to the Presidency of the Republic came as a surprise. This article explores how it occurred by analysing the criteria usually employed to screen the candidates for President and the misplaced efforts by the secretary of the Partito popolare to win the office for a candidate of his party. An assessment of the powers of the President, in particular those concerning the appointment of the Prime Minister and the dissolution of parliament, is offered with reference to the experience of outgoing President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. The success of Walter Veltroni, secretary of the Leftist Democrats, and of Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance, in persuading the opposition to vote for Ciampi is related to their interest in reigniting a process for the reform of the political system and the construction of a majoritarian and bipolar democracy. President Ciampi may prove to be very helpful in this difficult task, but most of the initiative and responsibility lie with party leaders and members of parliament.     

In enemy hands: the Byzantine experience of captivity between the seventh and tenth centuries

The present paper deals with forced migration experienced by subjects of the Byzantine Empire captured by foreign enemies in the context of warfare between the seventh and the tenth centuries. The focus of the first part is on the scenarios faced by individuals and groups when an enemy had taken control of a settlement or a larger territory. The second part discusses aspects of the role social status and gender played in the process of being taken over and then (possibly but not necessarily) held in captivity. Although one can trace similarities in the way captors treated their captives on different occasions, an overgeneralizing approach can prove misleading, distracting us from the dynamics of the consequences that war and abduction had on both the agency of the victor and the fate of the loser in the early Middle Ages.     

Sexual morality and canon law: The evidence of the Rochester consistory court

Material which survives from the Rochester consistory court during the middle years of the fourteenth century makes it possible to examine the manner in which canon legal theory on offences against sexual morality was implemented in practice. The officials at Rochester were adhering to general canon legal principles by assigning penance according to a ‘hierarchy of sin‘, and they were using the discretion allowed to them to make individual judgments in each case. The use of penances other than penitential beatings was related both to contemporary views on the suitability of different forms of penance for those in authority, and to the actual gravity of an offence. Priests' delicts were regarded more seriously than those of the laity. The court did not display any bias against women when assigning penance, and often treated men more harshly.     

青海省十个五年计划回顾及"十一五"规划编制启示

本文通过对青海省十个五年计划（“一五”-“十五”）的简要回顾,指出中长期规划在全省国民经济和社会发展中具有重要作用。进而提出对“十一五”乃至今后中长期规划编制的几点有益的启示。     

Early medieval landscapes in north‐west Spain: local powers and communities,fifth–tenth centuries

There has been in the last few years a rapid expansion in the archaeology of early medieval societies in the north‐west of the Iberian Peninsula. A large part of this evidence remains unpublished or has been published incompletely. This article considers the historical landscapes of the north‐western Iberian Peninsula in the early medieval period as social constructions, starting with the identification of the systemic relationships between different archaeological entities. The dynamics and articulation of early medieval societies in the Cantabrian area and in the Duero and Tagus basins will be outlined by means of deconstructing their landscapes. To achieve this, a set of variables will be analysed in comparative terms from three regions selected as case studies: Madrid, the Duero basin and the Basque Country. With the aim of explaining these systems diachronically a division between the fifth–eighth and eighth–tenth centuries will be taken into consideration.     

The occluded role of royal women and lost works of pre-Norman English and Irish art (tenth to twelfth centuries)

ABSTRACT

Medieval women's involvement with artworks and building campaigns can sometimes be hidden, particularly when, as with architectural patronage, that involvement is familial and multi-generational; it is also likely to be routinely underestimated by scholars in the absence of the artworks themselves. This paper discusses various interactions between royal women, art and architecture from the turn of the tenth century to the arrival of the Normans in England and the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. Moving to portable objects, the analysis of two lost artworks – Edith of Wilton's alb, described by Goscelin, and Derbforgaill of Mide's chalice given to Mellifont – suggests that historical sources can be more revealing of iconography and meaning than is often assumed. Finally, a brief examination of the Ælfflæd/Frithestan/Cuthbert embroideries shows that these fit the same paradigms as the lost works, and that they may offer some further insight into Ælfflæd's status and fate.     

The canon of the Tibetan Bonpos

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Effects of artificial deformation on cranial morphogenesis in the south central Andes

One of the most interesting issues of the interface between biology and culture is the artificial deformation of the skull. This modification is produced during early morphogenesis through the use of devices that alter the normal growth and development, to obtain a culturally established model. This paper, using a large cranial sample from the South Central Andes (1586 individuals), describes and documents a detailed morphometric study of the changes affecting the vault, cranial base, face, orbits and nasal region resulting from the tabular erect (TE), tabular oblique (TO), circular erect (CE) and circular oblique (CO) deformations with respect to the model without deformation. Data from 17 metric variables were processed by a one‐way ANOVA and LSD test for paired comparisons. All of the deformation types produce significant morphometric divergence in most of the anatomical structures of the skull. The TE exhibits: a restriction of antero‐posterior growth producing expansion in cranial width and height, frontal flattening, shortening of the face and cranial base, widening of the face, increased nasal and orbit height (ORH) and a foramen magnum size increase. The TO exhibits: most change reflected in the widening of the cranial vault, shortening of the cranial base and face, frontal flattening, increased nasal and ORH and foramen magnum size decrease. The CE style exhibits: a decrease in cranial width and strong increase in the cranial height, a reduction in frontal width, expansion of the cranial base and face, increased nasal and ORH, orbital widening and a foramen magnum size increase. The CO style exhibits: a decrease of the cranial vault's width and height, expansion along its length, stretching of the cranial base and face, reduced frontal width, fronto‐malar and biorbitary elongation of the face and further development of foramen magnum. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Critical heritage studies and the legacies of the late-twentieth century heritage canon

ABSTRACT

In recent years an interest in ‘critical heritage studies’ (CHS) has grown significantly – its differentiation from ‘heritage studies’ rests on its emphasis of cultural heritage as a political, cultural, and social phenomenon. But how original or radical are the concepts and aims of CHS, and why has it apparently become useful or meaningful to talk about critical heritage studies as opposed to simply ‘heritage studies’? Focusing on the canon of the 1980s and 1990s heritage scholarship – and in particular the work of the ‘father of heritage studies’, David Lowenthal – this article offers a historiographical analysis of traditional understandings and approaches to heritage, and the various explanations behind the post-WWII rise of heritage in western culture. By placing this analysing within the wider frames of post-war historical studies and the growth of scholarly interest in memory, the article seeks to highlight the limitations and bias of the much of the traditional heritage canon, and in turn frame the rationale for the critical turn in heritage studies.     

Pasolini contro Calvino: culture,the canon and the millennium

This article offers an account of a recent debate in the cultural pages of the Italian press on a polemical work of literary criticism entitled Pasolini contro Calvino, in which the two authors are shown to represent emblematically different attitudes towards literature, cultural institutions and the culture industry in post‐war Italy. The debate surrounding this claim is examined in substance, but also as an illustration of the workings of culture in 1990s Italy.