Planting new ideas: A feminist gaze on medieval castles
Date
2021-01Author
Dempsey, Karen
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Dempsey, Karen. (2021). Planting new ideas: A feminist gaze on medieval castles. Château Gaillard: Études de castellologie médiévale, 29 : Vivre au château, 85-98.
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Abstract
The theme of the Château Gaillard 29 Conference “Vivre au
Château” is very timely: studies of medieval castles have great
potential to generate meaningful archaeologies, including
biographies and life cycles as well as social meanings of
architecture, landscapes and material culture. This article
takes an inclusive (or feminist) archaeological approach
to two castles in Ireland, offering an alternative to narratives of power or bodily prowess. The first is Adare, a large
baronial castle located in mid-southwestern Co. Limerick,
and the second is Lea, Co. Laois, found within the western
borderlands of the Anglo-Norman heartland in Leinster. The
castles are geographically distant but both form part of the
ancestral landholdings of the Geraldines in Ireland. Different
questions are asked of women’s daily life and their gendered
roles, utilising excavation results, an ecological survey, as
well as evidence from allegorical prayers, inscribed slates and
studies of medieval gardens and relict plants. Explorations of
daily life are important and play a crucial part in revealing
how social values were constructed, enacted and reflected.
In order to attend to the daily sphere, we must integrate
people, places and things within our scholarship to enrich
our understanding of the medieval world.