medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In a message dated 28/09/2005 15:41:58 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
>> for those interested in gendered space, you might
>> also look at Roberta Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture: the
Archaeology of Religious Women
> >(London: Routledge, 1994)
<This book offers a detailed "iconography" of north-south directions, based
on the
author's finding that something like 35% of cloisters in English monasteries
for
women were on the north side of the church, as opposed to the "old chestnut"
that
most cloisters in men's houses were on the south side. In fact, the
percentage of
cloisters on the north in English monasteries for men (at least among
Benedictine
houses) was virtually the same. Her conclusions should thus be used with
some
caution.>
My understanding is that she argues that women tended to orient their
quarters in this way even when the lie of the land, and the principles of drainage,
suggested otherwise, whereas male quarters were so aligned to the north
_only_ when the lie of the land dictated it.
As will be clear from my previous message, I have not yet read Gilchrist
(it's in the post to me), and in any case I am in no position to judge the
matter -- which is why I raise the point here.
Susan
[log in to unmask]
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