Pigs in the Flesh and Fisc: An Early Medieval Ecology*

Kreiner, Jamie

doi:10.1093/pastj/gtx031

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Grimm's () article on animal health is unusual in that, by using animal paleopathology to explore diseases, diet, trauma, and care of domestic animals, it focuses on the animal experience. Kreiner (, p. 5) looks at pigs as “unruly commodities” who influenced the development of Merovingian economic policy.…”

Section: Medieval Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fudge (), drawing on Despret (2016), asks us to look for the fainter signs of cooperation, which is a form of agency often obscured by human assumptions about animal passivity and stolidity. By examining intelligent and varied pig behavior (along with geography, economy, and livestock management), Kreiner () emphasizes the agency of pigs and shows their influence in the early Middle Ages.…”

Section: New Medieval Animal Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Where are the wild things? Animals in western medieval European History

Taylor¹

2018

History Compass

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Despite the humanities' “animal turn,” the historiography of western European medieval animals is limited. Social historians have examined specific (usually economically important) species, and cultural historians have analyzed the symbolism of animals in the Middle Ages, but few are interested in the animals themselves. Drawing on the highly interdisciplinary field of Critical Animal Studies and other fields of history, I suggest ways that medieval historians could embrace the animal turn to study the experiences of real animals and animal–human entanglements of the Middle Ages.

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Section: Medieval Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: New Medieval Animal Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where are the wild things? Animals in western medieval European History

Taylor¹

2018

History Compass

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“…Animals as Material Culture in the Middle Ages (Pluskowski 2007), and Kreiner (2017) study of pigs' influence on Merovingian economic culture and administration. 6 Additionally, multiple journals have published article clusters and special issues on the intersection of CAS and mediaeval studies, e.g., New Medieval…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everything but the Squeal: The Politics of Porcinity in the Livre des Propriétés des Choses

Gins

2021

Religions

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Mediaeval encyclopaedias described nonhuman animals in terms of their corporeality and cosmic significance by combining zoological and theological knowledge. Such descriptions were therefore prescriptions of normative parameters for how animals were supposed to function within Christian society, rather than objective observations. As mediaeval conceptualisations of species were highly malleable, particular animals that shared no biological relation could be considered kin, and animals who behaved against their prescribed nature could become a different animal altogether. This paper investigates how several species were implicated in the mediaeval invention of what it meant to be (like) a pig. My counter-hegemonic reading of the Livre des propriétés des choses, a fifteenth-century French encyclopaedia, draws attention to how late mediaeval Christian scripts of porcinity simultaneously defined the nonhumanity of pigs and of ‘other’ humans. These render the idea of the pig inseparable from what it meant to be human. I contend that the Livre des propriétés des choses employs discourses of porcinity to self-define and -stabilise particular notions of human identity by debasing and othering human and nonhuman animals with seemingly porcine traits. Additionally, I underline how such fabrications of humanity are often mired in practices that devaluate and harm real animals, including other humans. Mediaeval studies need to further address the crucial roles of animal suffering in human history. This way, historians can add valuable insights to present debates about anthropocentrism and its devastating socio-ecological consequences.

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