tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896297090214944542024-03-12T20:51:45.278-07:00The horse in history and cultureFollowing the highly successful 2009 conference "The Renaissance Horse" at Roehampton University in London, some of the conference participants wanted to set up a space for ongoing discussion of the role of the horse in human history and culture.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-75819772105029798082016-04-27T07:19:00.000-07:002016-04-27T07:20:44.337-07:00New book on the war horse in ancient Greece by Alexandre Blaineau<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0Gl97dYtqv27P3W6yCKAohVD6EXENHkq9NFVjtZJ-nawTcB_N7bWjvDOV7JLSkg5RruoZ1rrOCI9ct3NfdEzNlaG8FN7q-J0IjcAkyFXUXDXxhoJTGMEq1oaT_jziL-aghIsaxAAwEzf/s1600/chevaldeguerre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0Gl97dYtqv27P3W6yCKAohVD6EXENHkq9NFVjtZJ-nawTcB_N7bWjvDOV7JLSkg5RruoZ1rrOCI9ct3NfdEzNlaG8FN7q-J0IjcAkyFXUXDXxhoJTGMEq1oaT_jziL-aghIsaxAAwEzf/s320/chevaldeguerre.jpg" width="205" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
This is a new contribution to the history of equestrian culture in the Greek world. By adopting the angle of the war horse, Blaineau aims to study the relationship between military equitation and the actions of mounted warriors on the battlefields of the Greek world. Thanks to Xenophon (430-355 BCE), whose work often refers to equestrian issues, but also to other available sources (literary, epigraphical, and iconographic), it is possible to reconstruct specific details of equine husbandry, from the type of mounts raised to their integration in cavalry forces. Military horses came for the most part from regions with a marked tradition of horse breeding. Their conformation, given the needs of war (scouting, harassing the enemy, charging) required conscious selection founded on zoological knowledge. Xenophon and others also reveal the degree to which selective breeding practices in the classical period were consciously applied, and Xenophon's description of the ideal horse in his work on equestrian art illustrates an intimate knowledge of horses...<br />
The history of the horse in Greece ... reveals in effect an ensemble of practices, techniques, and knowledge, but also the existence of a form of industry in which farmers, herders, grooms or trainers emerge as key players in the production of effective mounts for the cavalries of the Greek world. <br />
-- Text from listing on <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/cheval-guerre-Gr%C3%A8ce-ancienne/dp/2753541361/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461764540&sr=8-1&keywords=Le+cheval+de+guerre+en+Gr%C3%A8ce+ancienne">Amazon.fr</a>, translated and adapted by Ian MacInnes<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-83281190968634777482015-05-21T06:12:00.000-07:002015-05-21T06:12:11.695-07:00Excellent translation of Grisone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Congratulations to Liz Tobey and Federica Brunori Deigan on the publication of this important translation of Grisone! <br />
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Here's from the editor:<br />
"Federico Grisone published Gli ordini di cavalcare (The Rules of Riding) in 1550, the first manual on manège riding, the ancestor of modern dressage. The Ordini codified a half-century of oral tradition of teaching this art and was a best seller and a welcome aid in educating noblemen at European courts in the art of the manège. Elizabeth Tobey and Federica Brunori Deigan have prepared the first modern edited English translation of the Ordini, which should interest Renaissance scholars and equestrians, and includes an introductory essay, a glossary of equestrian terms, and the transcription of the 1550 Italian first edition.<br />
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Grisone's treatise and the riding masters trained at his riding academy in Naples, Italy, spread the practice of the art of manège riding to courts throughout Europe. Twenty-three Italian editions of the text were published between 1550 and 1620 and the treatise was translated into French, English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Many of the concepts Grisone discusses in his treatise--such as developing contact between horse and rider and collection in the horse--are still major tenets of modern dressage riding. The haute école or High School movements of classical dressage are still practiced today by such traditional academies such as the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria and the Cadre Noir in Saumur, France."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-34094824809379989112014-08-06T12:07:00.001-07:002014-08-06T12:07:17.871-07:00New book from Brill on horsemanship manuals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.brill.com/products/book/great-books-horsemanship-0">Great Books on Horsemanship</a></div>
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Edited by Koert van der Horst</div>
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TEXT FROM BRILL: "This lavishly illustrated encyclopedic reference work brings together and organizes virtually all the great works on horses published in the first two and a half centuries following the invention of printing. It covers over 350 rare books, acquired by the Belgian collector Johan Dejager, ranging from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. A particular emphasis is placed on horsemanship, riding masters, veterinary science, and the cavalry. Biographical accounts of the 175 authors behind the books are included, as well as bibliographical descriptions of the original items. The book also offers a number of insightful essays. Thus, this unique volume invites readers to travel through the assorted historical documents as they collectively shed light onto the unparalleled importance, value, and beauty of the horse."</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-64107153913308136052012-08-02T05:34:00.001-07:002012-08-02T05:34:33.225-07:00Horses in the English Civil War: new book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJ3Tqfjdr_sxtLlZmaqTY0_vSljG5JzUvGpyg_euURGOx0W6fQtlmdI7pYMBKlR4378GkioC9WcUXx3c5iPpEpNjDAtrZHJD1Mgo2wDoK8vAldsOrhD7dPCa07XGXhK6EfnVDwAzQfuG2/s1600/Robinson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJ3Tqfjdr_sxtLlZmaqTY0_vSljG5JzUvGpyg_euURGOx0W6fQtlmdI7pYMBKlR4378GkioC9WcUXx3c5iPpEpNjDAtrZHJD1Mgo2wDoK8vAldsOrhD7dPCa07XGXhK6EfnVDwAzQfuG2/s200/Robinson.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Congratulations to co-editor Gavin Robinson for the publication of his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1409420930"><u>Horses, People and Parliament in the English Civil War</u></a>. <br />
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Here's the book description:<br />
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<blockquote>
Horses played a major role in the military, economic, social and cultural history of early-modern England. This book uses the supply of horses to Parliamentarian armies during the English Civil War to make two related points. Firstly it shows how control of resources - although vital to success - is contingent upon a variety of logistical and political considerations. It then demonstrates how competition for resources and construction of individuals' identities and allegiances fed into each other. Resources, such as horses, did not automatically flow out of areas which were nominally under Parliament's control, but required the construction of administrative systems to make them work. This was not easy when only a minority of the population actively supported either side and property rights had to be negotiated, so the success of these negotiations was never a foregone conclusion. The study also demonstrates how competition for resources and construction of identities fed into each other. It argues that allegiance was not a fixed underlying condition, but was something external and changeable. Actions were more important than thoughts and to secure victory, both sides needed people to do things rather than feel vaguely sympathetic. Furthermore, identities were not always self-fashioned but could be imposed on people against their will, making them liable to disarmament, sequestration, fines or imprisonment. More than simply a book about resources and logistics, this study poses fundamental questions of identity construction, showing how culture and reality influence each other. Through an exploration of Parliament's interaction with local communities and individuals, it reveals fascinating intersections between military necessity and issues of gender, patriarchy, religion, bureaucracy, nationalism and allegiance.</blockquote>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-70863600546894890962011-05-31T06:05:00.000-07:002011-05-31T06:06:38.602-07:00last cavalry charge?Here's an interesting, lighthearted recent blog post on the subject of the last cavalry charge:<br />http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/06/16/the-last-cavalry-charge-in%C2%A0history/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-59010968475514978322010-11-07T03:35:00.000-08:002010-11-07T03:39:03.800-08:00Revising Cavalry[Cross-posted at <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2010/11/07/revising-cavalry/">Investigations of a Dog</a>]<br /><br /><p>Over the summer I read two PhD theses which challenge a lot of preconceptions about cavalry in warfare, one on the Anglo-Saxon period and the other on the First World War.</p> <ol><li>Kerry Cathers, “An examination of the horse in Anglo-Saxon England” (PhD, Reading University, 2002). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adissertation&rft.title=An%20examination%20of%20the%20horse%20in%20Anglo-Saxon%20England&rft.aufirst=Kerry&rft.aulast=Cathers&rft.au=Kerry%20Cathers&rft.date=2002"> </span></li><li>David Kenyon, “British Cavalry on the Western Front 1916-1918” (PhD, Cranfield, 2008). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adissertation&rft.title=British%20Cavalry%20on%20the%20Western%20Front%201916-1918&rft.aufirst=David&rft.aulast=Kenyon&rft.au=David%20Kenyon&rft.date=2008"><br /></span></li></ol> <p>(Both of these can be downloaded free from <a href="http://ethos.bl.uk/">EthOS</a>, although you’ll need to log in and search for them as there are no direct links. Kenyon’s can also be downloaded directly from <a href="https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/3032">Cranfield</a>, which is much easier.)</p> <p>Historians used to assume without question that horses played little part in Anglo-Saxon warfare and society. Kerry Cathers has challenged these assumptions, showing that they are based on very little evidence. The lack of evidence makes it difficult to be certain, but there is enough to suggest that horses were widely used and known by the Anglo-Saxons. Horses were conventionally associated with warriors in Anglo-Saxon culture (Cathers, 181, 306). Although their most well known battles were fought on foot, Anglo-Saxon armies used horses for raiding and for transporting soldiers to battlefields (Cathers, 288-9, 383). The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pictish_Stone_at_Aberlemno_Church_Yard_-_Battle_Scene_Detail.jpg">Aberlemno stone</a> probably represents a battle between the Northumbrians and the Picts, and shows both sides using cavalry (Cathers, 276-82). Cathers also discusses the development of the stirrup and its influence (or not) on medieval warfare. She sides with critics of Lynn White’s view that the stirrup was the fundamental basis of feudalism. Ann Hyland found that Roman cavalry saddles provided a secure seat even without stirrups, and Littauer argued that the stirrup was developed to support the feet and avoid cramp on long journeys (Cathers, 189-90, 267-9). R.H.C. Davis attributed the couched lance to the great horse more than the stirrup, but still ended up privileging cavalry over non-military uses of horses, and deriving feudalism from a fairly narrow technological development. Cathers shows that Anglo-Saxon horses were no smaller than horses in other parts of Europe but that this fact has tended to be covered up by historians’ linguistic biases: referring to Anglo-Saxon horses as “ponies” signifies the idea of a small animal. She was also an early advocate of the idea that there is no such thing as native breeds, and that the idea was invented much later: “Though, as noted, some horse enthusiasts like to push the date of certain breeds back into the furthest reaches of the past, the claim that breeds existed during this period is entirely false and without substantiation ” (Cathers, 160). The spurious idea that the Exmoor pony is an authentic native breed led some historians to assume that Anglo-Saxon horses were similar. I don’t think a big horse would have been necessary for shock charges with the couched lance, because even the mass of a small horse could put a lot of momentum behind the lance. One particularly weird result of historians’ prejudice against the idea of Anglo-Saxon horses is that one place name study assumed that places including the element “wig” must be named after earwigs, and failed to mention the possibility that they could be derived from “wicgela”, an Old English word for stallion! (Cathers, 67-8)</p> <p>If cavalry played a role in English/British warfare earlier than most people thought, they also remained important long after most people think they became obsolete. It might appear that the Western Front from 1916 to 1918 is not a very promising area for studying cavalry, but David Kenyon confounds expectations in even more detail than Stephen Badsey has done. The key to the argument is that although new technology created problems for cavalry it also created opportunities. Barbed wire was as much an obstacle to infantry as it was to cavalry. Neither could attack effectively unless the wire was removed by artillery, tanks or engineers. Machine guns and breech loading magazine rifles increased the firepower of cavalry as well as infantry. Between the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First World War, British cavalry were retrained to fight primarily as mounted infantry, although they were still trained and equipped to charge into close combat when the opportunity arose. In the early years of the First World War, every cavalry regiment had a machine gun section armed with Vickers heavy machine guns, which were transported on pack horses. In 1916 these were replaced with Hotchkiss light machine guns, and the Vickers guns were reorganized into Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry) squadrons (Kenyon, 33). This mobile firepower allowed cavalry to engage enemy machine guns in firefights. For example, when the 7th Dragoon Guards came under fire from German machine guns near Longueval on 14th July 1916, their own machine gun section knocked out the German guns (Kenyon, 60).</p> <p>Although cavalry regiments mostly depended on firepower, changes in technology and tactics made cavalry charges more viable in some circumstances. From the medieval period into the nineteenth century the best way for infantry to resist a cavalry charge was to stand still in a very tight formation, because the horses would usually stop or turn away from an apparently solid object as long as the infantry had the confidence to stand firm. The massive firepower on early twentieth century battlefields made such close formations suicidal. When infantry dispersed to protect themselves from artillery and machine guns, they also made themselves more vulnerable to cavalry charges. On 14 July 1916 some German infantry were dispersed in a field near High Wood, sheltering in shell craters. This was the best way to protect themselves from artillery, which was the most likely threat, but they were charged by a squadron of the 7th Dragoon Guards, which had pushed through a gap in the German front line. Of these German infantry, 16 were killed by lances, 32 captured and the rest ran away (Kenyon, 60).</p> <p>Rapid firing artillery was a much bigger threat than the machine gun. The worst combat casualties for British cavalry horses happened when their riders had dismounted to defend positions which were then shelled by the Germans, as at Monchy-le-Preux in April 1917 (Kenyon, 136). The increasing quantity and quality of allied artillery forced the Germans to abandon linear trenches and switch to defence in depth by the spring of 1917. In this system the front line consisted of a network of outposts rather than continuous trenches, designed to break up attacks gradually and funnel them into killing zones where they could be counter-attacked by reserves. Because the defences were more dispersed there was more room for cavalry to manoeuvre. Cavalry and infantry were able to employ fire and movement tactics which involved one unit suppressing an enemy position with its fire while another unit moved around its flank. Kenyon points out that these tactics had been in the <em>Cavalry Training</em> manual since 1912 (Kenyon, 109-10). When the allies broke through the Hindenburg Line in the autumn of 1918 and began advancing more rapidly, cavalry played a vital role in maintaining contact with the retreating Germans (Kenyon, 269).</p> <p>Opportunities to use cavalry effectively in set-piece attacks were often missed because of failures in command, control and communication. While Kenyon rehabilitates the cavalry, he is critical of Cavalry Corps and its commander, Kavanagh. Having the cavalry divisions in their own Corps under GHQ complicated the chain of command, delayed the transmission of orders and intelligence, and made it hard to co-ordinate cavalry attacks with infantry and artillery. Cavalry divisions worked better when they were integrated into infantry corps attack plans but with the divisional commander free to use his own initiative to reach his objectives. There was also a pressing need for more cavalry squadrons to be attached to infantry divisions and corps for reconnaissance. Kavanagh was perhaps not well suited to command of a corps. His aggressive tendencies served him well as a brigade commander, but were directed at his subordinates more than the enemy once he was a lieutenant-general. The chain of command through Cavalry Corps HQ gave him too many opportunities to interfere with plans and overrule his divisional commanders, who were better placed to know what was going on at the front. Cavalry Corps also lacked the logistical infrastructure and heavy artillery which were found in infantry corps.</p> <p>Despite all the problems, when cavalry were used effectively they were able to double the depth of “bite and hold” operations. Unfortunately, cavalry tended to be wrongly perceived as obsolete by people who didn’t understand them. The prejudiced opinions of a few tank officers have had a disproportionate influence on historians of the First World War. Tanks played a useful role in some battles, but they were much slower than cavalry. Wheeled armoured cars could move faster than tanks on good going but often got stuck in the mud. These problems weren’t effectively solved until the 1930s, when the British Army rapidly mechanized because horses genuinely were becoming obsolete. Erik Lund continues the story over at <a href="http://benchgrass.blogspot.com/2010/10/fall-of-france-4-armoured-division-i.html">Bench Grass</a>, with a look at mounted warfare and the development of the armoured division…</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-57616537018246476252010-11-03T10:27:00.000-07:002010-11-03T10:47:11.475-07:00DNA Study of Thoroughbreds<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/oct/18/3">Punctuated Equilibrium</a> reports on a new DNA study of thoroughbreds which confirms that many foundation mares were British and that disproves claims that TBs have "pure" Arab blood. This data strongly supports Richard Nash's arguments, although I'm not sure that Bower's claim that "In the 17th and 18th centuries it was all about the boys," is quite right. In his chapter in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Culture of the Horse</span>, Nash says that Weatherby started out recording the pedigrees of mares: "The original project of a national stud book was manifestly not to document the paternal influence of a particular group of stallions; indeed, for good and logical reasons, that project was properly gynocentric". He also showed that the influence of mares was uncertain and contested in the 18th century, so not "Originally, animal breeders thought that the important parent was the father and that any mare would do as a mother". There also seems to be some anachronistic mention of "British native breeds", but these weren't really invented until <span style="font-style:italic;">after</span> the thoroughbred. Still, it looks like a really interesting and important study.<br /><br /><br /><ol><br /><li>M. A. Bower et al., “The cosmopolitan maternal heritage of the Thoroughbred racehorse breed shows a significant contribution from British and Irish native mares,” <span style="font-style:italic;">Biology Letters</span> (10, 2010), <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/05/rsbl.2010.0800">http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/05/rsbl.2010.0800</a>. <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Adoi/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0800&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The%20cosmopolitan%20maternal%20heritage%20of%20the%20Thoroughbred%20racehorse%20breed%20shows%20a%20significant%20contribution%20from%20British%20and%20Irish%20native%20mares&rft.jtitle=Biology%20Letters&rft.stitle=Biology%20Letters&rft.aufirst=M.%20A.&rft.aulast=Bower&rft.au=M.%20A.%20Bower&rft.au=M.%20G.%20Campana&rft.au=M.%20Whitten&rft.au=C.%20J.%20Edwards&rft.au=H.%20Jones&rft.au=E.%20Barrett&rft.au=R.%20Cassidy&rft.au=R.%20E.%20R.%20Nisbet&rft.au=E.%20W.%20Hill&rft.au=C.%20J.%20Howe&rft.au=M.%20Binns&rft.date=2010&rft.issn=1744-9561"> </span></li><br /><li>Richard Nash, “"Honest English breed" : the thoroughbred as cultural metaphor,” in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Culture of the Horse</span>, ed. Karen L. Raber and Treva J. Tucker (New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A1403966214&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=%22Honest%20English%20breed%22%20%3A%20the%20thoroughbred%20as%20cultural%20metaphor&rft.place=New%20York%3B%20Basingstoke&rft.publisher=Palgrave%20Macmillan&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft.aulast=Nash&rft.au=Richard%20Nash&rft.au=Karen%20L.%20Raber&rft.au=Treva%20J.%20Tucker&rft.date=2005&rft.isbn=1403966214"> </span></li><br /></ol>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-82868922153651484902010-10-27T17:33:00.001-07:002010-10-27T17:35:20.156-07:00Berea College Hosts Free Symposium on Horses in Art on Saturday, October 30The Berea College Art Gallery at Berea College in Berea, Ky., will present a free public symposium, "The Reign of the Horse: Exploring Cultural Connections Through Equine Images in Art," from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 30, 2010. The symposium has been organized to coincide with the art exhibition, "The Horse in Japan, 1615-1912," on exhibit through November 12 in the Upper Traylor Gallery in the Traylor Art Building at Berea College. The symposium will take place on the Berea campus in Room 218 of the Frost Building. For more information about the symposium, contact symposium organizer, Dr. Elizabeth Tobey at etobey@nsl.org or 540-687-6542 x 11.<br /><br />The dominant theme of the symposium will be on the role of the horse in the development of cultural connections and how widely Kentucky's influence extends throughout the world by virtue of its prominent role in the world of horsemanship. Curator and art historian Dr. Sandy Kita's research on woodblock prints from Japan's Edo period (1615 – 1868) examines the role of the horse in Japan's cultural and military history and in its art. Dr. Kita will discuss how the connections established throughout history continue into the present day, connecting Japanese culture and Kentucky traditions in surprising and significant ways. Dr. Kita is Senior Scholar at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pa.<br /><br />Dr. Ingrid Cartwright will examine connections between equestrian imagery created in the American Revolutionary period and early Republic and the European artistic traditions from which they spring. Dr. Cartwright is an Assistant Professor of Art at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., and is the curator of "Hoofbeats and Heartbeats: The Horse in American Art," which is on view at the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky in Lexington through November 21.<br /><br />Dr. Elizabeth Tobey will discuss the similarity of cultural roles of the horse throughout history, specifically how Italian city states cultivated diplomatic and trade ties with European and Ottoman courts through the equestrian activities of riding, racing, and horse breeding. Her contributions to the exhibition and the symposium will highlight the present-day connections between Kentucky and Japan through the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry. Dr. Tobey is the Director of Research & Publications at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Va.<br /><br />The exhibition features woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), paintings on silk, and a rare Edo-period book on horse ornaments, all with equestrian subject matter. In addition to selections drawn from the permanent collection of the Berea College Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Ore.; the National Sporting Library & Museum; and Mr. and Mrs. Walter and Dörte Simmons have lent works to the exhibition. The show was co-curated by Drs. Kita and Tobey. For more information on the exhibition, call 859-985-3530 or visit <a href="http://www.berea.edu/art/dug/">www.berea.edu/art/dug/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-36507928348287058492010-10-23T08:08:00.000-07:002010-10-23T08:16:03.118-07:00New article by Sandra Swart<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5uoAG2hRIAwSBWDkLZ-4yPfTXhf1Ol1pK7rhprQ-MOmU_25LEzPO-wZPO3pe10Rym1zVlJTT3yA2WZODjpHJcncca-whsjms5xd2mwLFOIGqAZi5bFcVa4jTB1fgyynzxJ6UTrAs4DTVe/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-23+at+11.09.43+AM.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 101px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5uoAG2hRIAwSBWDkLZ-4yPfTXhf1Ol1pK7rhprQ-MOmU_25LEzPO-wZPO3pe10Rym1zVlJTT3yA2WZODjpHJcncca-whsjms5xd2mwLFOIGqAZi5bFcVa4jTB1fgyynzxJ6UTrAs4DTVe/s200/Screen+shot+2010-10-23+at+11.09.43+AM.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531259141007379330" border="0" /></a>Here's a new article by our own Sandra Swart in <span style="font-style: italic;">Society & Animals</span>.<br /><br />Swart, Sandra. “Horses in the South African War, c. 1899-1902.” <span style="font-style: italic;">Society & Animals</span> 18.4 (2010): 348-366.<br />http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/saa/2010/00000018/00000004/art00002<br />http://www.zotero.org/groups/horses_in_history_and_culture/items/154080936<br /><br /> ABSTRACT: This essay discusses the role of horses in war through the lens of their mortality in the South African War (1899-1902). This conflict was the biggest and most modern of the numerous precolonial and colonial wars that raged across the southern African subcontinent in the late nineteenth century. Aside from the human cost, the theater of war carried a heavy environmental toll, with the scorched-earth policy shattering the rural economy. The environmental charge extended to animals. Both sides relied on mounted troops, and the casualties suffered by these animals were on a massive scale. This is widely regarded as proportionally the most devastating waste of horseflesh in military history up until that time. This paper looks at the material context of—and reasons for—equine casualties and discusses the cultural dimension of equine mortality and how combatants on both sides were affected by this intimate loss.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-13652389529045384072010-02-08T04:22:00.000-08:002010-02-08T04:26:56.752-08:00Elspeth Graham at the IHROn Wednesday 10 February 2010 Elspeth Graham will be giving a paper entitled "Horses falling, horses flying: a seventeenth-century royalist's management of death and defeat" to the<br />Psychoanalysis and History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London. The seminar takes place in the Low Countries room and starts at 5.30pm.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-50878702508573316212010-02-07T01:19:00.000-08:002010-02-07T01:42:47.076-08:00First World War horse photosThese are some horse related photos from my collection of First World War photos. Click on the thumbnails to see bigger versions.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenham5thlincs/4327115689/" title="Man and girl on horses by Dr Gavin Robinson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2724/4327115689_9e802dba48_m.jpg" alt="Man and girl on horses" height="240" width="177" /></a><br /><br />Soldier and girl on horses. I think the man is probably a British or South African officer but I haven't positively identified the uniform. This was taken in Windhoek in what is now Namibia, but was then German South West Africa. I assume it was taken some time after the South African invasion in 1915. The horses are a similar size and appear to have identical tack, so I'd guess that the girl has borrowed an army horse to pose for the photo. The message on the back reads: ""With fondest love from Jane".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenham5thlincs/4327845752/" title="Mounted Officer by Dr Gavin Robinson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4327845752_523435fec8_m.jpg" alt="Mounted Officer" height="240" width="154" /></a><br /><br />Mounted British Army officer. The insignia on his cuffs are too blurred to be certain but he's probably a Lieutenant. Bought from the collection of Major Disney, who served in 1/5th Lincolnshire Regiment (the battalion that my great-grandad was in). I don't know when or where it was taken. There's also draught horse and cart in the background.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenham5thlincs/4327113603/" title="Frisky Horse by Dr Gavin Robinson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2693/4327113603_5daf5c91d3_m.jpg" alt="Frisky Horse" height="152" width="240" /></a><br /><br />Soldier leading a very frisky horse! His uniform looks like First World War period, and the seller said it was from an album marked "Mytchett", which is in Surrey and surrounded by army camps. Apart from that I know nothing about it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenham5thlincs/4327112543/" title="Artillery Group by Dr Gavin Robinson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4327112543_9bd1a6d1ca_m.jpg" alt="Artillery Group" height="159" width="240" /></a><br /><br />A group of Royal Field Artillery men, with a draught horse casually grazing in the background on the left. During the First World War the artillery mostly relied on horse drawn transport. Only the biggest, heaviest guns used steam or diesel tractors. The Army Remount Service bought horses from all over the world. In 1918 the British Army had over 1 million animals (of various species, but mostly horses) in service.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-13504241095956200592010-01-02T02:08:00.000-08:002010-01-02T02:13:54.260-08:00Spot the mistakeFrom Anthony R. J. S. Adolph, “Papists' horses and the Privy Council 1689-1720,” <span style="font-style: italic;">Recusant History</span> 24 (1998) pp. 60-1:<br /><br /><blockquote>On 28 March 1696 the Council ordered that the 'Black Stone Horse fifteen hands high valued at one hundred and fifty pounds', seized in the stable of Col. John Cashe of Tottenham, was to be sent to the King's stables in the Mews but on 24 September 1696 an order was made that the Colonel's 'Gelding' - presumably the same horse - was to be restored.</blockquote><br /><br />But presumably if a stallion worth £150 had been gelded while in custody, the owner would have demanded more than just the return of the horse!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-78574824018481581932009-11-14T03:32:00.001-08:002009-11-14T03:37:19.125-08:00Review of The Complete SoldierOver at <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2009/11/14/the-complete-soldier/">my blog</a> I've posted a review of <em>The Complete Soldier: Military Books and Military Culture in Early Stuart England, 1603-1645</em> by David R. Lawrence. The book includes a chapter on cavalry drill books and horsemanship manuals, so might be of interest to some people here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-65686193736876176882009-10-04T17:46:00.000-07:002009-10-04T18:06:59.776-07:00Scold's bridles and the Skimmington Ride (from Bavardess)In a recent posting on <a href="http://bavardess.blogspot.com/">Bavardess</a>, Amanda McVitty gives a succinct account of the scold's bridle and the skimmington ride, both practices that connect the early modern discourse of gender with horses. I'm fairly sure most readers of this blog are aware of this nauseating cultural practice, but Amanda's account is an excellent synopsis. I've been meaning to let this blog in on it. With her permission, I'm crossposting the entire entry here:<br /><br />Begin crosspost... "<br /><h3 class="post-title entry-title"> </h3> <div class="post-body entry-content"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIwSJGxk6p6-Cg74uVewk5UEnbwF80JohkzDhPOgWpQPtPxv0nMVTWHExlsY2G2noKtpdiebSZZeCeq0otG1cgAKT_A4-qHXqhLKv3wgtU6784uV1AYhHc1xBYjQ8ty80kq-CmXJmSE0/s1600-h/woman+in+the+scold%27s+bridle.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 172px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIwSJGxk6p6-Cg74uVewk5UEnbwF80JohkzDhPOgWpQPtPxv0nMVTWHExlsY2G2noKtpdiebSZZeCeq0otG1cgAKT_A4-qHXqhLKv3wgtU6784uV1AYhHc1xBYjQ8ty80kq-CmXJmSE0/s320/woman+in+the+scold%27s+bridle.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385676546930790466" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I’ve been doing some research this month for an encyclopedia entry I’m writing on the ritual of the ‘skimmington’ or ‘skimmington ride’ in early modern England. The skimmington was a form of community censure that in England was primarily aimed at women who transgressed gender norms by dominating or beating their husbands, a transgression that was generally assumed to </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">go hand-in-hand with female sexual infidelity.<br /><br />Accounts of skimmington rituals tend to be embedded in broader analyses of patriarchal authority and social order during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and so the material I’ve been looking for has often appeared alongside discussion of other gendered constructions of crime and punishment, such as the use of the cucking stool to punish women accused of ‘scolding’ and whoring. In a strong strand of continuity from the medieval period</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, such censure persistently conflated uncontrolled or unruly female speech with female sexual disorder, with both forms of specifically female ‘sinfulness’ perceived as threats to proper patriarchal authority and social hierarchy. (Lydia Boose, in the article ‘Scolding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman’s Unruly Member’*, introduces an intriguing reading of the unruly female tongue – represented in the ‘scold’ – as an unauthorised appropriation of phallic authority which carries with it the implicit threat of male castration and a usurpation of man’s ‘natural right’ to rule.)<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzlwxmtsi2BgS6hB_crRYZAXxN-1O_xrGxYfcmG-RNArNlDoz9h58rndDeQP-mjVV-zCV_EbAc8nrjlKvYlfWnd6t2LSonwGyyfxWiIMTbZPDFQ5hSmeMPjM1fE4_tbSpbZWnWpGxbLg/s1600-h/Brank+at+Stockport.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzlwxmtsi2BgS6hB_crRYZAXxN-1O_xrGxYfcmG-RNArNlDoz9h58rndDeQP-mjVV-zCV_EbAc8nrjlKvYlfWnd6t2LSonwGyyfxWiIMTbZPDFQ5hSmeMPjM1fE4_tbSpbZWnWpGxbLg/s320/Brank+at+Stockport.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385676890156571554" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Anyway, I’d been reading through all this material with my usual sense of intellectual curiosity coupled with relative emotional detachment until I ran across a detailed account on the use of the ‘scold’s bridle’ or ‘brank’, a particularly nasty piece apparatus that emerges in records of the late sixteenth century as a tool </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">of coercion to enforce women’s silence. The bridle was a metal contraption that covered or encircled the woman’s head and incorporated an iron bar or ‘gag’ to hold her tongue down, thus preventing speech. The association of the unruly woman with a horse that needs breaking is obvious, and no doubt part of the punishment was the sha</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">me of being reduced to the status of an animal.<br /><br />A woman accused of scolding – basically, any form of unsanctioned female speech that was perceived as unruly or disruptive – had this vicious device forcibly shoved into her mouth and locked around her head. She was then subjected to the ritualised public humiliation of being led or dragged </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">th</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">rough the town, tied up in the public square and pelted with rubbish and excrement, urinated on, and otherwise mocked and degraded. In parts of England, there is also some evidence to indicate that a husband could have his wife bridled and tied up to a hook embedded beside the fireplace in their home.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Scold’s bridles took various forms, but their general design is such that at the least, they would inflict a measure of pain and discomfort. Some versions, which featured spikes or rasps on the gag part that is inserted into the woman’s mouth, would clearly inflict severe pain and damage. A 1653 account from Newcastle talks of a woman being led through the town with blood pouring from her mouth; other accounts allude to teeth being broken or wrenched out, and even of jawbones and cheekbones being cracked. A perilously high price to pay for the ‘sin’ of voicing an opinion.<br /><br />I found these descriptions of the scold’s bridle and its use – numerous of which have been preserved by various nineteenth century antiquarians and folklorists** – deeply unsettling to my normal scholarly sang-froid. In fact, I found them downright chilling. I felt both nauseated and enraged at the extent of physical violation and psychological degradation women may be subjected to in order to enforce a suitably meek and silent feminine demeanour in the face of male authority. When women today express <a href="http://bavardess.blogspot.com/2009/06/gendering-public-space-silencing-and.html">what is often trivialised or dismissed as ‘unreasonable’ or ‘irrational’ anger at attempts to silence them</a>, I think it’s against history such as this that their anger should be read.<br /><br />* Lynda E. Boose, ‘Scolding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman's Unruly Member’, <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakespeare Quarterly</span> 42, no. 2 (1991): 179-213.<br /><br />** Boose includes descriptions from an 1858 account by one T. N. Brushfield of the Chester Archaeological society, and reproduces some of the drawings he made of devices he had turned up in places including women’s work houses and mental institutions. It adds another layer of horror to the history of these devices that by the eighteenth century, although they had largely fallen out of use for the public punishment of mouthy women, they appear to have found a new home amongst the tools of coercion and control behind the walls of state-run institutions wherein were incarcerated some of society’s most marginal and vulnerable members.<br /><br />The images are from 1899’s <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29117/29117-h/29117-h.htm#Page_276"><span style="font-style: italic;">Bygone Punishments</span> by William Andrews</a> , which draws on Brushfield’s earlier work.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">ETA:</span> After I posted this, I remembered a podcast I listened to recently featuring Martin Rediker talking about his book <a href="http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670018239,00.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Slave Ship: A Human History</span></a> (great book, by the way. I thoroughly recommend it). While I’d previously understood on an intellectual level what he meant when he was talking about how personally draining doing this sort of history is, it wasn’t until I read the material on the scold’s bridles that I really understood at a visceral, emotional level what the cost of doing this type of ‘history from below’ – the history of the poor and despised, the marginal and the silenced – can potentially be."<br /><br />-- end cross post Thanks, Amanda!<br /></span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-28590254252732913852009-09-23T12:28:00.000-07:002009-09-23T12:39:12.735-07:00Tickets for 2010 World Equestrian Games go on sale this Friday at noon (EDT)You can <a href="http://www.alltechfeigames.com/">find links to tickets and the schedule here</a>. As I mentioned in a previous post, the games will be at the Kentucky Horse Park. On the grounds of the park is the International Museum of the Horse, always worth a visit. There is also a very nice (and inexpensive) campsite at the park. In case anyone wants to join me, I'm aiming to get my family tickets for the 1-3 of October.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-52725128048012347642009-09-21T02:40:00.000-07:002009-09-21T02:47:17.305-07:00Help needed with horse racing accidents[Cross posted to <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2009/09/21/help-horse-racing-accidents/">Investigations of a Dog</a>.]<br /><br />I’d be really grateful if anyone could help me find more details of a couple of fatal accidents in American horse racing. I’ve picked up various stuff from the web, including YouTube videos, but I really need some respectable printed sources that I can cite in a history journal. Would the stud book contain dates and circumstances of death of the horses involved? Where else could I look?<br /><br />Prescott Downs, Arizona, 26 August 2000. Loose horse Pacific Wind was running the wrong way round the track and collided head-on at full speed with Lot O Love ridden by Stacy Burton. Both horses were killed and Burton was severely disabled by the accident. So far I’ve got a <a mce_href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujFEBsiwNk0" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujFEBsiwNk0">YouTube video</a> and a couple of stories from Google News (<a mce_href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20001130&id=Z6oKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=G00DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6958,4163100" href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20001130&id=Z6oKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=G00DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6958,4163100">here</a> and <a mce_href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20030716&id=EFcLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5FIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6564,2659328" href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20030716&id=EFcLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5FIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6564,2659328">here</a>). The accident is mentioned in <i>Jockey: The Rider's Life in American Thoroughbred Racing</i> by Scott A. Gruender, but it doesn’t say what happened to the horses and doesn’t cite any sources.<br /><br />Churchill Downs, April 2009. I’m not even sure about the exact date but it was at the Kentucky Derby meeting. Sources on the web can’t even agree on the names of the horses or other details. All the reports I’ve seen appear to be derived from one of two common sources. During training a loose horse (Dr or Doctor Rap) galloped into Raspberry Miss (or Kiss) who was standing/walking on the track. Both were brought down. Raspberry M/Kiss died later, but it’s not clear if she was put down or died of her injuries before she was put down. Dr/Doctor Rap apparently survived and didn’t break any bones but was possibly injured in some way. Also not clear if the jockey broke any bones. The video has been removed from YouTube for ToS violation. The only respectable source I’ve got is the <a mce_href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE0D61E3AF93BA15757C0A96F9C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22raspberry+miss%22&st=nyt" href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE0D61E3AF93BA15757C0A96F9C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22raspberry+miss%22&st=nyt">New York Times</a>, and I’m not sure if the report is accurate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-10541518124320041392009-08-21T09:12:00.000-07:002009-08-21T09:17:53.165-07:00Group library updatedI've now added all the horse references I've got so far to the <a href="https://www.zotero.org/groups/horses_in_history_and_culture">Zotero group library</a>. There will probably be more to come soon. If you're not using <a href="http://www.zotero.org/">Zotero 2.0</a> and you know of any books, articles, theses etc. about horses which aren't already in the library you could leave a comment here and we'll add them. But do try Zotero if you can as it's better than Endnote and competely free. Maybe one day we'll have a list of everything by Gervase Markham. Or maybe not...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-51205764424791989242009-08-06T01:21:00.000-07:002009-08-06T01:36:13.740-07:00Horses, War and Gender Update<p>[cross-posted at <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2009/08/06/horses-war-and-gender-update/">Investigations of a Dog</a>]<br /></p> <p>When I started my comeback as a historian in 2006, after a 5 year career break, I wanted to push myself in new directions. Therefore I challenged myself to come up with the most way-out research question possible. What I came up with was: do people construct gender for horses? I decided to look specifically at the roles of horses in war, partly because I’m a military historian, and partly because war is one of the most heavily gendered things in history. I first wrote a <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/24/horses-war-gender/" mce_href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/24/horses-war-gender/">blog post</a> about the project in October 2006, but since then I’ve changed my mind about lots of things. I followed up with <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/11/28/which-war-horse/" mce_href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/11/28/which-war-horse/">two</a> <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2008/07/21/horses-and-gendered-language/" mce_href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2008/07/21/horses-and-gendered-language/">posts</a> about how cavalry drill books specified criteria for good war horses. While the books I looked at didn’t always explicitly say that stallions were always best, there was a definite male bias, and mares were never mentioned. This post is a look at where I’ve got to now, and where I need to go next.</p> <p>In my first post I naively expected animals to be a state of nature where there was only biological sex and no gender. I don’t think this is viable now. I’m increasingly following Judith Butler and Thomas Laqueur in the view that gender versus sex is a false dichotomy. Perceptions of the body are always gendered. Furthermore it now looks hopelessly wrong to assume that non-human species have no culture or gender. Dominance hierarchies can be heavily gendered. Chimpanzees have patriarchal societies in which disputes are often settled by violence, but Bonobos have matriarchal societies in which disputes are often settled by lesbian sex, despite the genetic similarities between the two species (see Joshua Goldstein, <i>War and Gender</i>).</p> <p>This actually leads to a simpler way of putting the question: if humans always perceive each other in gendered ways, why wouldn’t they also perceive animals in gendered ways? In fact there is scientific evidence that humans even perceive inanimate objects in gendered ways! A post at <a href="http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2009/06/metaphorical-thinking.html" mce_href="http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2009/06/metaphorical-thinking.html">Babel’s Dawn</a> mentions an experiment which showed that the grammatical gender of a noun affects how people perceive and describe the physical object which the noun refers to. Genus and sexus are not separate in people’s minds. They bleed into each other in a way which can interfere with perception. This could also have major implications for metaphors. Saying that one thing is like another might cause people to perceive them as the same thing, with serious consequences for how they get treated in reality (we all know about early-modern misogynists who said women were more like animals than men).</p> <p>As I started to read more about early-modern gender I realized that some of my own assumptions about the relationship between gender and biology were specifically modern. While perceptions of the body (and especially the genitals) have always played a part in gender ideology, modern science has made the reproductive organs appear more important than they did before. In early-modern England clothes were probably more important than bodies. This opened up many possibilities for gender swapping. In <i>Agnes Bowker’s Cat,</i> David Cressy looked at the case of a young man who passed as a woman for long enough to gatecrash a lying-in party (one of the few kinds of all female spaces in England at this time). Diane Dugaw wrote a whole book about warrior woman ballads which featured women dressing as men in order to join the army or navy. She showed that this behaviour was possible and not even particularly uncommon in real life (although I now think the differences between ballads and reality might be significant – in ballads the woman was always found out eventually, usually by exposure of the body, although usually not specifically the genitals; in real life they weren’t always found out and sent home; how many more were never discovered at all? Were the ballads a way of dealing with anxiety about this possibility?). If people could change gender by changing their clothes (and since the female soldiers were perceived and treated as male, their gender effectively <i>was</i> male) where does this leave horses?</p> <p>When I read Dugaw I thought that this was a problem because horses didn’t wear clothes, but then at the Roehampton horse conference Erica Fudge reminded us that horses <i>did</i> wear clothes. I had a quick chat with Erica afterwards, and the point I should have got straight to is that although horses did sometimes wear clothes, sometimes they didn’t. Horses sometimes had their genitals on display in public in a way which would have been very unusual for humans. So where does that leave us? Horses can wear clothes, but don’t have to, which seems to open up even more possibilities and raise even more questions. Why don’t displays of horse genitals cause the same anxieties that displays of human genitals cause? (Or do they? Did William Prynne have issues with this?) Is a stallion with big balls on display the epitome of masculinity? Do the trappings of a medieval war horse signify masculinity? Or does covering up the body (especially the genitals) make a horse less masculine? Can a mare in trappings masquerade as a stallion? Does a more masculine horse make the rider look more masculine? How male are geldings? How does the creation of an artificial third sex through routine castration complicate the ideas of male and female? This is why I was asking strange questions about testicles at the conference.</p> <p>As Jennifer Flaherty reminded us at the Roehampton conference, there are lots of representations of war and horses in Shakespeare’s history plays, and lots of interesting ways that they intersect with gender. She told us about the substitution of horses for women, and how horsemanship contributed to masculinity. I think there’s a lot more potential for looking at how the horses themselves are gendered, and especially how their roles in war are gendered. I’m hoping that Jennifer or someone else will have done this, or will be doing it, but I just have a few observations on <i>Henry V</i>:</p> <p>Good war horses usually seem to be referred to as steeds. This is a very masculine word, coming from the Old English for stallion (as does stud) according to the OED.</p> <p>Bad horses are referred to as jades. The OED is vague on the etymology: it might come from a Norse word for mare, but there doesn’t seem to be much definite proof. Jade meaning bad woman seems to appear later than jade meaning bad horse, but the relationship between them isn’t very clear from the OED. In any case one might still connote the other. In the light of the experiment about grammatical gender that I mentioned above, it wouldn’t be surprising if two unrelated meanings of the same word can bleed into each other in people’s minds. After all, this is how puns work.</p> <p>Shakespeare seems to assign a lot of agency to horses. They threaten each other, they neigh for present service, they seem to want to keep fighting when their riders are dead. Does this suggest that horses were imagined to be active participants in combat, and not just transport for their riders? How widespread was this idea? Does it require the horses to be male because only men were supposed to fight?</p> <p>When I started out on this project I was heavily influenced by Joshua Goldstein’s hypothesis that war, gender, and the exclusion of women from combat roles all appear to be more or less universal, and that war and gender shape each other. The more I think about it the more problems I can see with his model. As I pointed out <a href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2008/05/26/war-and-gender/" mce_href="http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2008/05/26/war-and-gender/">here</a>, his assumption that the point of gender roles is to create warriors doesn’t seem to hold for early-modern England, where (according to Alexandra Shepard) manhood was defined mostly by domestic paternalism (where age, wealth, marital status and other things intersected). War and soldiers were often viewed with ambivalence, and it seems to me that a career in the military was no more than a second best kind of masculinity. As Bruce Boehrer pointed out in <i>Shakespeare Among the Animals</i>, the third Earl of Essex turned to soldiering <i>after</i> the failure of his marriages and his humiliation as an impotent cuckold.</p> <p>Goldstein acknowledged that although some form of gender is found in every culture, there are wide variations in the forms it takes and the meanings it has. I suspect that if we look closer we might find similar variations in the forms and meanings of war. Although women have mostly been excluded from combat roles in most cultures at most times, I’m not sure that this translates to a universally rigid boundary between active male and passive female roles. The boundary might sometimes be more or less rigid or in a slightly different place, and there might be very different justifications for it. The exclusion of women from combat roles in early-modern England might not have been as exclusive as in later periods. For example, in <i>War in England</i> Barbara Donagan mentions that codes of conduct from the English Civil War protected women from violence <i>unless</i> they took up arms. One of the excuses the New Model Army gave for the massacre of the “Irish whores” at Naseby was that they were carrying knives.</p> <p>That’s all for now. There’s still obviously a lot to do, and I’m still not entirely sure what that is, so it'll be a long time before I have anything publishable. There’s a whole world of possibilities for looking into gendered perceptions of animals. I’m limiting myself to horses in war to keep it manageable, so there’s plenty of scope for other people to do horses in other situations, and every other species.</p> <ol><li>Bruce Thomas Boehrer, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">Shakespeare among the animals </span> (Palgrave: New York, 2002). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0312293437&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Shakespeare%20among%20the%20animals%20%3A%20nature%20and%20society%20in%20the%20drama%20of%20early%20modern%20England&rft.place=New%20York&rft.publisher=Palgrave&rft.aufirst=Bruce%20Thomas&rft.aulast=Boehrer&rft.au=Bruce%20Thomas%20Boehrer&rft.date=2002&rft.isbn=0312293437"> </span></li><li>David Cressy, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">Agnes Bowker's Cat</span> (Oxford Paperbacks, February 2001). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0192825305&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Agnes%20Bowker's%20Cat%3A%20Travesties%20and%20Transgressions%20in%20Tudor%20and%20Stuart%20England&rft.publisher=Oxford%20Paperbacks&rft.aufirst=David&rft.aulast=Cressy&rft.au=David%20Cressy&rft.date=2001-02-15&rft.pages=368&rft.isbn=0192825305"> </span></li><li>Barbara Donagan, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">War in England 1642-1649</span> (OUP Oxford, February 2008). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0199285187&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=War%20in%20England%201642-1649&rft.publisher=OUP%20Oxford&rft.aufirst=Barbara&rft.aulast=Donagan&rft.au=Barbara%20Donagan&rft.date=2008-02-28&rft.isbn=0199285187"> </span></li><li>Dianne Dugaw, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850</span> (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1996). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0226169162&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Warrior%20Women%20and%20Popular%20Balladry%2C%201650-1850&rft.place=Chicago&rft.publisher=University%20of%20Chicago%20Press&rft.aufirst=Dianne&rft.aulast=Dugaw&rft.au=Dianne%20Dugaw&rft.date=1996&rft.isbn=0226169162"> </span></li><li>Joshua S. Goldstein, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">War and Gender</span> (CUP: Cambridge, 2003). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0521001803&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=War%20and%20Gender%3A%20How%20Gender%20Shapes%20the%20War%20System%20and%20Vice%20Versa&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.publisher=CUP&rft.aufirst=Joshua%20S.&rft.aulast=Goldstein&rft.au=Joshua%20S.%20Goldstein&rft.date=2003&rft.isbn=0521001803"> </span></li><li>Thomas Walter Laqueur, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">Making Sex</span> (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1992). <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0674543556&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Making%20Sex%3A%20Body%20and%20Gender%20from%20the%20Greeks%20to%20Freud&rft.place=Cambridge%2C%20Mass.&rft.publisher=Harvard%20University%20Press&rft.aufirst=Thomas%20Walter&rft.aulast=Laqueur&rft.au=Thomas%20Walter%20Laqueur&rft.date=1992&rft.isbn=0674543556"> </span></li><li>Alexandra Shepard, <span style="font-style: italic;" mce_style="font-style:italic;">Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England</span> (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 2006). </li></ol>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-59672817855476227082009-07-31T10:11:00.000-07:002009-07-31T12:30:00.188-07:00Carriages as Status Symbols<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E360C224-1786-4012-83BD-00F64633481A/0/TR_LordMayorsCoach.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 121px; height: 182px;" src="http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E360C224-1786-4012-83BD-00F64633481A/0/TR_LordMayorsCoach.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Full details of the Museum of London's conference in November</span><br /><h2 id="articleTitle" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Pomp & Power – Carriages as Status Symbols</span></h2><span style="font-family:arial;">are now available on the Museum's website<br /><br /><a href="http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Events/FeaturedEvents/ICC.htm">http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Events/FeaturedEvents/ICC.htm</a><br /><br />Quote: 'The conference brings together experts from around Europe and the USA who will explore different aspects of the coachbuilding trade in London and examine particular coaches made in Britain and Ireland from the 17th to the 19th century. The social history of carriages will be discussed as well as French and British influences on British carriage design.'<br /><br />But sadly, a singular lack of horses in the programme!<br /><br />John Clark<br /><br /><br /></span>John Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02856623388276896994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-33056196795883808152009-07-30T06:33:00.000-07:002009-07-30T06:51:30.390-07:00Group library available for Zotero usersThose who use <a href="http://www.zotero.org/">Zotero 2.0</a> to manage their research and bibliographic citations may be interested in the <a href="http://www.zotero.org/groups/horses_in_history_and_culture">collaborative group library</a> I've set up for us. Anyone can click through and view items in the library, but to get the most out of it, and to contribute items of your own, you will need to set up a Zotero profile and be using Zotero 2.0. If you're not familiar with it, Zotero is a free add-on to the Firefox web browser. It is a bibliographic tool (like Endnote but free) designed by and for academics (George Mason University & the Mellon Foundation). I highly recommend it. <br /><br />I have started the group library by adding several items, but I have not systematically gone through my library for every horse-related source, so the results are still a little eclectic. I'm eager to see what sources others might be able to add.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-62407129498324834592009-07-14T10:06:00.000-07:002009-07-14T10:12:10.558-07:00PublicationHi All,<br />Several of you have been asking about progress regarding a publisher for the collection of essays of the conference. I started to think about it this week and have drafted out a proposal to send to Brill. I have sent a copy to Elspeth Graham, the co-editor, who will be back from a conference tomorrow (I am on my fifth in less than a month at the moment). If you have not sent me in an updated abstract, I would be grateful if you could email it to me ... even if it is the same as the one in the programme. Sara is away on holiday and so cannot send me her electronic copies. Courtesy of Gavin Robinson, we now have a blog foal.<br /><br />Best wishes,<br />Pete EdwardsPete Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02524868660387331142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-24070418982675416032009-07-06T00:38:00.000-07:002009-07-06T00:52:54.759-07:00Dig the New BreedOne of the many interesting things to come out of the conference seemed to be a general agreement that the concept of the breed as we know it today didn't exist in the early-modern period. This is something that I briefly hinted at in my PhD thesis in 2001 so I feel vindicated there. I also remember Kerry Cathers exposing British native breeds as a myth in a paper on Anglo-Saxon horses (and someone in the audience getting extremely stroppy about it!). But now I'm wondering when and why the idea of the breed did emerge. Was the founding of breed societies somehow linked with eugenics and anxieties about racial purity? Did this depend on Darwin changing people's understanding of biology? The idea of pure bloodlines doesn't seem compatible with geohumouralism, for example. I expect Sandra might be able to tell us a lot about these things (if you can overcome your Luddite tendencies ;)). Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-83541522404677102382009-07-04T07:54:00.000-07:002009-07-04T08:08:16.845-07:00New Book: _Horses in Asia: History, Trade and Culture_William Clarence-Smith reports this new book (he's having trouble with his Google log-in)<br /><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 166px; height: 250px;" src="http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/dzo/artikel/101/002/2700_101.jpg?t=1239189460" alt="" border="0" /><br /><h4>FRAGNER, Bert G. - KAUZ, Ralph - PTAK, Roderich - SCHOTTENHAMMER, Angela (Hg.)</h4> <h3><a href="http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/pcgi/a.cgi?ausgabe=index&T=1246719185265%7Bhaupt_akademie=http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/artikel_2689.ahtml?T=1246719185265%7D">Pferde in Asien: Geschichte, Handel und Kultur<br />Horses in Asia: History, Trade and Culture</a></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Abstract</span>: Horses, horse-breeding and horse-keeping, as well as the trade in these animals played an important role in the history of Asia´s pre- and early modern civilisations. However, horses were unequally distributed over the Asian continent and their acquisition was usually associated with different expectations. When the knowledge spread that horses could be profitably used in warfare as well as for overland transportation and for agriculture, this did not only promote trade relations, but also led to the emergence of new cultural links, often between distant sites, both by land and by sea. The contributions to this volume, twenty-one articles in all, are based on a conference entitled "Horses in Asia" that was organised by the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in October 2006. The articles are arranged into four regional sections: (1) Iran and West Asia, (2) Central Asia, (3) the Indian Ocean, (4) and China. They are complemented by a preface and two introductory essays. Each article takes its own approach, while, at the same time, opening doors to related academic fields, the main interest lying in the transfer of horses between different regions.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12899599245861869407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-76769209700479476572009-06-27T13:07:00.000-07:002009-06-27T13:09:36.623-07:00Address for Photos<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3LozVkcRlrLZjxUg28Kq7ojuWwqbApVmkwW1ZcWey93bqVxc1M-2IlUMehq-GE5WGtew4FI82annQM4ANula2jGKlV3iCosbcMZDxrvbbPH_wUOgQPqrW1vAWv2wfqAGEVAb4OQdUEc/s1600-h/epsomtrip+(87).JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352102005411842706" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3LozVkcRlrLZjxUg28Kq7ojuWwqbApVmkwW1ZcWey93bqVxc1M-2IlUMehq-GE5WGtew4FI82annQM4ANula2jGKlV3iCosbcMZDxrvbbPH_wUOgQPqrW1vAWv2wfqAGEVAb4OQdUEc/s320/epsomtrip+(87).JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>I forgot to include the link to the <a href="http://gallery.me.com/ianmacinnes#100153">photos</a>.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>-Liz</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Liz Tobeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16030593842439345006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289629709021494454.post-59000706504714373272009-06-27T12:56:00.000-07:002009-06-27T13:00:02.733-07:00Photos from Liz Tobey Posted to GalleryDear Everyone,<br /><br />I just wanted to let you know that I am in the process of uploading my photos onto the photo gallery on the blogsite. These include photos from the conference and our dinner at Il Forno, photos from the party at Sara's, and the walk through Richmond Park. I am also uploading photos from the trip to Epsom.<br /><br />If anyone would like a CD with my photos on them, please send me an email at <a href="mailto:etobey@nsl.org">etobey@nsl.org</a> and give me a mailing address to which to send the CD.<br /><br />It was great meeting everyone, and thanks to Ian for setting up this site so that we can all stay in touch.<br /><br />Best,<br />LizLiz Tobeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16030593842439345006noreply@blogger.com0