Readings and discussions will include:
Overlords Peoples and conquests in "barbarian" Europe. Early medieval slavery, captivity, and serfdom. Origins of the word "slave" in the practice of enslaving pagans.
Spear Side Against Spindle Side Male privilege in marriage, divorce, inheritance, sexual double standard and shame-killings, rape-abductions. Convents and female 'enclosure.' A Gothic Medea.
Conversion by Decree Destruction of "idols" and sanctuaries, penalties on pagans. Canon law, Diana and the interpretatio romana. The pagan sea of popular culture. Official anti-Semitism, aristocratic church ties.
Culture Wars Church councils crack down on diviners and folk ceremonies. Pagan icons. The Noce di Benevento. Missionaries on the pagan frontier in Netherlands and Germany. Brigid, Walburga, Mary. Goddesses disguised as saints. Indexing paganism for destruction.
Kings versus Witches The Haliorunnae. Czech wisewomen in power. Early witch persecutions. Striae, slander, and the Salic Law; Visigothic and Lombard witch laws. Women's sorcery: potions, ligatura, and sexual politics.
Herbs, Knots, and Contraception Birth control in Augustine and Caesarius; in Spain and Ireland. Herbalists and midwives. Penitential manuals on contraception, abortion, women's potions and magic; rape of bondswomen and the sexual double standard.
The First Reich Franks of the (Un)holy Roman Empire. Pagan Vasconia, heathen Saxony, and how Muslims got lumped together with them. Witch-burnings and female ordeals (literally and judicially). "Witch and whore": Carolingian sexual politics and court intrigue. The cloister walls.
The course will also feature webcasts (live visual presentations) on the Matronae Stones; Gaulish and British and goddesses of late antiquity; the sheila-na-gigs; the Goddess Veiled; and possibly others, to be voted on by course members.
We'll be looking at a range of social issues, always with women at the center. Things look very different that way.
Max Dashú
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