Denial or Acceptance? Medieval Attitudes Towards Death
$5.95
6 word format
document in english
history 500-1789
presentation
published 03/06/2008
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 0 times
SummaryIn recent times, the study of death –both in modern times and throughout history—has begun to interest historians, who have gone about their research in a variety of ways. One work in this area of study is The Hour of Our Death by Philippe Aries, which has become a foundation work in the subject, puts forth the notion that people in past times had a lesser emotional involvement in death than the people of present times. A similar sentiment is echoed in Aries’ Centuries of Childhood, this time in regards to parents’ feelings toward their children, which adds further dimensions to Aries’ hypothesis that peoples’ attitudes towards life cycles such as birth and death were neither intensely emotional nor remarkable in past times. It is only in modernity that these sentiments have evolved into what they are regarded as today. Because of the importance of his work and thesis, later generations of medieval historians have addressed them in their research, often disputing Aries’ thesis, methodology, and assumptions.
Table of Contents
- Aries organizes the book into five sections: the tame death, the death of the self, remote and imminent death, the death of the other, and the invisible death.
- Aries uses a variety of sources, from wills and clerical documents to tombstones.
- Banker's sources for this book include the statutes and testaments of the individual confraternities on which he focuses.
- Geary's organization of the book is far different from that of either Banker or Aries.
- In a somewhat different approach than the above works, Jean-Claude Schmitt's Ghosts in the Middle Ages.
Latest in the category history 500-1789 From the same author
knowledge network