Tending the ‘Contested’ Castle Garden

Sowing Seeds of Feminist Thought

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6045136
AutoresK Dempsey (0000-0001-9025-3535, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume31
Fascículo2
Páginas265-279
Data de publicação2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCambridge Archaeological Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0959-7743 • E-ISSN: 1474-0540
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0959774320000463
OpenAlexW3128231746
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas55

Medieval women are typically portrayed as secluded, passive agents within castle studies. Although the garden is regarded as associated with women there has been little exploration of this space within medieval archaeology. In this paper, a new methodological framework is used to demonstrate how female agency can be explored in the context of the lived experience of the medieval garden. In particular, this study adopts a novel approach by focusing on relict plants at some medieval castles in Britain and Ireland. Questions are asked about the curation of these plants and the associated social practices of elite women, including their expressions of material piety, during the later medieval period. This provides a way of questioning the ‘sacrality’ of medieval gardening which noblewomen arguably used as a devotional practice and as a means to further their own bodily agency through sympathetic medicine

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Elite · Filial piety · Middle Ages · Period (music · Piety · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law