The Kiss of Peace: Ritual, Self, and Society in the High and Late Medieval West

Erscheinungsjahr 2003
ISBN: 978-90-04-13038-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 358 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 798 g

Reihe: Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples

This book reveals the social logic of the medieval rituals of reconciliation as showcased by the most potent rite, the kiss of peace. Ritual is presented as a contested ground on which individuals, groups, and political and moral authorities competed for and appropriated political sovereignty. The thesis of the study is that by employing ritual and bodily mnemonics as strategic tools, the forces of order and official morality strove to organize personality structures around a hegemonic value system. Researching three analytical fields—the legal bonds of peace, the emotional economy of ritual, and the building of identity—the book highlights the contents and evolution of ritual reconciliation in diverse cultural contexts in the period between the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Petkov, Kiril

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie des Brauchtums und der Traditionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Sub specie osculi

PART ONE. THE LEGAL BONDS OF PEACE
Introduction to Part One
1. The Contest for Supremacy: Ritual and the Law in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
2. Transformations: Legal Ritual and the Evolution of Peacemaking in the Thirteenth Century
3. Withdrawal: The Decline of Legal Ritual in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries and Its Consequences
Conclusions to Part One

PART TWO. THE EMOTIONAL ECONOMY OF RITUAL
Introduction to Part Two
4. Sentiments at Work
5. Discourses and Practices
6. Emotions and Ritual Efficacy
Conclusions to Part Two

PART THREE. BUILDING IDENTITIES
Introduction to Part Three
7. Identity From Without
8. Identity From Within: Self and Person
9. Ends and Networks: Ritual Identity and the Other
Conclusions to Part Three

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kiril Petkov, Ph.D. (1993 and 2002) in History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and New York University, is Assistant Professor of History at Truman State University. He has published on topics of late medieval history and culture and is the author of Infidels, Turks, and Women: The South Slavs in the German Mind, c. 1400-1600 (Peter Lang, 1997).