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

Kiril Petkov (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

358 Seiten

2003
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-13038-8 (ISBN)

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This study of the medieval rites of peace and reconciliaton highlights the role of ritual as a strategic device in the attempts of the medieval church and state to monopolize political sovereignty and order individual identities around an hegemonic value system.

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.

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).

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

Erscheint lt. Verlag	9.5.2003
Reihe/Serie	Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples ; 17
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Gewicht	805 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Sozialgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	90-04-13038-1 / 9004130381
ISBN-13	978-90-04-13038-8 / 9789004130388
Zustand	Neuware