1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450068003321

Autore

Stuart Kathy

Titolo

Defiled trades and social outcasts : honor and ritual pollution in early modern Germany / / Kathy Stuart [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 1999

ISBN

1-107-11743-7

1-280-16011-X

1-139-14612-2

0-511-11774-4

0-511-06641-4

0-511-06010-6

0-511-32924-5

0-511-49696-6

0-511-06854-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 286 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in early modern history

Disciplina

305.5/0943

Soggetti

Social classes - Germany - History

Occupations - Germany - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-280) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: defiled trades -- ; pt. I. The Meaning of Dishonor in Early Modern Society. ; 1. Medieval versus early modern dishonor. ; 2. Honor, status, and pollution -- ; pt. II. The Dishonorable Milieu. ; 3. The status of executioners and skinners, 1500-1700. ; 4. Living on the periphery of dishonor -- ; pt. III. Paradoxical Dishonor: Punishment and Healing. ; 5. The infamous fur coat, or the unintended consequences of social discipline. ; 6. The executioner's healing touch: health and honor in early modern German medical practice -- ; pt. IV. Artisanal Honor and Urban Politics. ; 7. Guardians of honor: artisans versus magistrates. ; 8. Honor and dishonor in the eighteenth century. Conclusion: dishonor and the society of orders.

Sommario/riassunto

This book presents a social and cultural history of 'dishonourable people' (unehrliche Leute), an outcast group in early modern Germany.



Executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber-surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs were among the 'dishonourable' by virtue of their trades. This dishonour was either hereditary, often through several generations, or it arose from ritual pollution whereby honourable citizens could become dishonourable by coming into casual contact with members of the outcast group. The dishonourable milieu of the city of Augsburg from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reconstructed to show the extent to which dishonour determined the life-chances and self-identity of dishonourable people. The book then investigates how honourable estates interacted with dishonourable people, and how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within honourable society.