Sacred and Secular compared – How did the treatment of relics and ordinary bodies differ in the Middle Ages?
In my talk, I will focus on late medieval relic bones and analyse them as things, material entities that where treated in certain ways, and compare these practices with the treatment of secular bodies. My discussion revolves around three concepts. The first is fragmentation, the second violence, and the third authenticity. I start with anthropological views on fragmentation as communal activity, and proceed to the theological justifications for the cult of relics. I will then present scientific analyses of relics, and continue to the conceptions of violence in regard to the handling of relics. I will argue that the violence done on the human fragments, and the contrast the relics establish with the reliquaries, can be seen as a material means of negotiating the physical and cultural boundaries of the human and divine bodies, and their relations to the social body. My talk will refer specifically to the relic treasure of Turku Cathedral in Finland, a collection of almost 100 objects, rediscovered in the 20th century. For more than a decade, these have been the subject of an interdisciplinary research project, the world’s largest scientific relic study to date, allowing for a range of important aspects of medieval relic practices to be explored.
Date:
27 February 2019, 17:00 (Wednesday, 7th week, Hilary 2019)
Venue:
Keble College, Parks Road OX1 3PG
Venue Details:
Gibbs Room
Speaker:
Professor Visa Immonen (University of Turku (Finland))
Organising department:
School of Archaeology
Organiser:
Georges Kazan
Part of:
Oxford Relics Cluster Seminar
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Laura Spence
