Religious Authority of Mediaeval Women : Food and Fast as Means of Controlling a Woman’s Body or Expressing Self
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Traditional patterns introduce women in Christian medieval culture as regulated members of hierarchically ordered society and in this sense food and fast are understood as influential means of regulation and control of a woman's body. Within the methodological frame of historical anthropology, this case study shifts the understanding of food and body towards introducing them as feminine ways of expression of piety, deep faith, and religious authority. In this sense food itself is grasped not only as a highly elaborated symbol but as an influential and effective agent of social stratification, communities’ formation, finding and expressing feminine own social and religious autonomy. The paper reconsiders several cases illustrating how the same body and food turns to be a multifunctional means of negotiating women's place and roles in the Late Middle Ages, how it may be analysed using actor-network theory. |
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