Megan McLaughlin wrote:
>
> An oldie, but still a goodie--Le Roy Ladurie's chapters on the shepherds in
> Montaillou.
>
> >I wonder if I might draw on the generosity of members of this list
> >(as one who is fascinated by discussions on this list, yet who works
> >in another discipline). I have just read Ruth Harris's excellent book
> >on Lourdes. In her opening chapters she characterises the role and
> >status of shepherds in Pyranean society. She describes them as
> >existing in a liminal world, representing vigilance -- the contact
> >between the human and supernatural world occuring when they went in
> >search of straying animals; as solitary as hermits, having expertise
> >in knowledge of stars, fauna, flora and fauna, yet also potentially
> >dangerous -- folklore attesting to acts of terrorisation as they
> >marauded farmlands.
> >
> >I suspect there must be a pretty extensive literature on the place
> >of shepherds in medieval Europe, particularly in mountainous regions,
> >and I wonder if someone might make some suggestions as to useful
> >sources. I'm particularly interested in the role of shepherds as
> >visionaries.
> >
> >
> >with thanks,
> >Pippa Skotnes
> >
> >--------------------------------
> >Pippa Skotnes
> >Professor of Fine Art
> >University of Cape Town
> >--------------------------------
>
> Megan McLaughlin
> Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 309 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801 U.S.A.
> Phone: 217-244-2084
> Fax: 217-333-2297
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
A goodie indeed, particularly if savoured with Leonard E. Boyle's
"Montaillou Revisited: Mentalite' and Methodology" (in "Pathways to
Medieval Peasants", ed. J. A. Raftis, Papers in Mediaeval Studies 2,
Toronto 1981, pp. 119-140). Relish Ladurie's flight of fancy on the
chthonian Virgin Mary of Montaillou, assimilated to the Goddess
Mother/Goddess Earth - a castle-in-the-air built upon a burial place
that (here comes the reviewer's coup de grace) never, never was.
All the best, Luciana
--
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Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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