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Medieval women 'had girl power'

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Robin Barquenast
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« on: September 12, 2007, 01:44:15 am »

Medieval women 'had girl power' 


 

Books, songs and legal documents were studied

A new study by an academic says that "girl power" was alive and kicking around 600 years ago.
Dr Sue Niebrzydowski at Bangor university said medieval women enjoyed a golden era with a greater life expectancy than men.

"We found women running priories, commissioning books, taking early package tours to visit the Holy Land," she said.

She added women were also defending their property and property rights.

Dr Niebrzydowski's research involving middle aged women in the middle ages will be discussed at a conference at the university on Wednesday.

  Middle aged women in the middle ages had far more power and independence than we might first imagine

Dr Sue Niebrzydowski

The medievalist at Bangor's Institute of Early and Modern Studies, studied legal records, literature and songs to build up a picture of life for women between the 12th and 15th Centuries.

Dr Niebrzydowski, whose research is funded by the Royal Historical Society and the British Academy, said: "Women were often widowed by the age of 30 and it gave them greater freedom.

"They could be more sexually liberated as there would be no child as evidence of their fornication or adultery.

'Misconceptions'

"And if wealthy, they could enter the marriage market on their own terms - and for their own reasons, whether economic, for love, companionship or pleasure."

The study's findings will be explored on Wednesday at a conference in Bangor, attended by some of Britain's top female academics in the fields of archaeology, history, language and law.

Dr Niebrzydowski said: "We assume that women in the past had little economic independence or social power and that they were reliant on fathers or husbands for most of their lives.

"But we should be wary of holding too many misconceptions about women's lives in the past.

"It is true that most of the information we have is drawn from art, literature or historical records which relate to wealthier women, but middle aged women in the middle ages had far more power and independence than we might first imagine."

The conference, which runs until Friday, will bring together experts in literature, archaeology, art and history.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/6987874.stm
« Last Edit: September 12, 2007, 01:44:54 am by Robin » Report Spam   Logged

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Volitzer
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« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2007, 03:12:16 am »

Women have power today if they just stop listening to feminists and the Lifetime Network.   Sad
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rockessence
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« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2007, 12:38:48 pm »

By far my favorite woman of that period and indeed always: Hildegard of Bingen the mystic, an incredible artist and composer and healer and much much more.  She even invented an alphabet!

Hildegard of Bingen (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard, was a German magistra who founded two women's communities (Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165) in the 3rd quarter of the 12th century. Although today she has commonly acquired the title of abbess, it is important to note that she never held that title during her lifetime and remained under the jurisdiction of the abbot of her parent monastery at Disibodenberg.

Hildegard of Bingen was an artist, author, counselor, dramatist, linguist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, poet, political consultant, prophet, visionary, and a composer of music. She is the first composer for whom a biography exists and one of her works, the Ordo Virtutem is one of the first known liturgical dramas. Some have mistakenly linked this work as the precursor that led to opera, but there is no plausible link between Hildegard and the Florentine Camerata, the creators of opera.

She wrote theological, naturalistic, botanical, medicinal, and dietary texts, also letters, liturgical songs, poems, and the first surviving morality play, while supervising brilliant miniature illuminations. A biographer, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, described Hildegard of Bingen as a polymath in the 2007 publication, Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen



Here is a link to google images for a scan of her paintings:
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=Hildegard+of+Bingen

Here's a bit of music:
This video begins with the original version of the music just as it was written in the 12th century (in Latin) by the German mystic and visionary, Hildegard von Bingen. Songs of this sort were meant to be sung in churches and cathedrals, where powerful echos and reverberations supply a kind of harmony. The effect here was supplied by a Lexicon MPX1. The harp is a reproduction of the famous brass-strung "Brian Boru" harp from the late medieval period, made by Maine harpmaker, Jay Witcher, in the 1970's. The theremin I used is a Moog Music Etherwave Pro. One more thing, the tunic that I am wearing in the beginning of this video is not a costume. It is a rare piece of genuine clothing surviving from the medieval period, sewn with silver and gold threads around the collar and cuffs, and intended to be worn by a knight.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2007, 12:59:52 pm by rockessence » Report Spam   Logged

ILLIGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM

Thus ye may find in thy mental and spiritual self, ye can make thyself just as happy or just as miserable as ye like. How miserable do ye want to be?......For you GROW to heaven, you don't GO to heaven. It is within thine own conscience that ye grow there.

Edgar Cayce
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