Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

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Paul Courtney
important recent trend, infl uenced by American school of
‘new historicist’ literary scholars, has been towards studying
art as ‘texts’ within specifi c social and political contexts; especially
the use of art in legitimising the power of oligarchic
elites48. New historicism is heavily infl uenced by both Foucault
and Geertz. Its post-modernist emphasis on discourse analysis
has also infl uenced the recent work of archaeologist
Matthew Johnson, notably his study of the architecture of
Kenilworth Castle49.
In the decorative arts the impact of rising middle class as mass
consumers of luxury and other goods has become a major
focus. Both scholars associated with the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London (and its innovative taught MA course), as
well as economic historians, have been examining trade networks,
innovation, marketing and consumer markets50. Inspired
by the work of Peter Th ornton51 interior design of the homes
of European elite and bourgeoisis has also been a major thread
in recent research52.
2.3 Economic and local history
(Britain and beyond)
Th e period 1880-1920 saw economic history appear as a distinct
sub-discipline of history as scholars across Europe tried
to break free of the institutional dominance of constitutional
history. In Britain an early concern with the social condition of
the working class was refl ected in the historical work and activism
of Richard Tawney53 and such non-university as the Webbs
and Hammonds54. A major concern of post-1945 economic
historians has been the study of economic growth, especially
the origins and socio-economic impact of the Industrial
Revolution55. Th e subject was to fi nd especially fertile ground
in the 1960s as the university system expanded rapidly in the
UK and many specialist economic history departments were
founded; though, since the 1980s many such departments have
been absorbed within general history schools. In the 1950s and
1960s, close connections grew up between a number of medieval
economic historians in Britain, notably Rodney Hilton
and Maurice Beresford, and the archaeologists who pioneered
medieval and post-medieval archaeology56. Th e fi rst synthesis
of British post-medieval archaeology was written by David
Crossley57, an economic historian by training, whose special
interest has been early-modern technology and industry.
In the 1980s revised fi gures calculated for economic growth in
18th-century Britain suggested a slower level of growth than
48 Greenblatt 1991; Jardine 1996b; Gallagher &
Greenblatt 2000.
49 Johnson 2002.
50 Mitchell 1997; Berg & Cliff ord 1999; Young
1999; Snodin & Styles 2001; Berg 2005.
51 Th ornton 1978; Idem 1984.
52 Brown 2004; Ajmar-Wollheim & Dennis 2006.
53 Tawney 1926.
54 Feske 1996; Weaver 1997.
55 Harte 1971; Cannadine 1984.
56 Courtney 2006.
57 Crossley 1990.
58 Craft s 1985; Wrigley 1989.
59 Berg & Hudson 1992.
60 See also Berg 1994.
61 Crozet 1996; Van der Wee 1996.
62 Berg 2005; Blondé et al. 2005; Blondé et al.
2006.
63 Pollard 1981; Duplessis 1997.
64 De Vries & Van der Woude 1995.
65 Mendels 1972; Medick 1976; Houston & Snell
1984.
previously supposed and thus a more evolutionary model of
economic and industrial transformation58. In response, Maxine
Berg and Pat Hudson argued that the national statistics used
underestimated growth59. Th ey reappraised the period 1700-
1830 as a series of multiple transformations which aff ected specifi
c regions and industries at diff ering time, but which cumulatively
revolutionised the economic and social fabric of British
society as a whole60. On the Continent research on industrialisation
has been particularly strong in Belgium and France
which were the next countries to experience industrialisation61.
Modern economic history studies not only the production and
distribution of goods but emphasises retailing and household
consumption62. Recent work has also tried to place industrialization
both within the context of specifi c regions and simultaneously
the wider framework of European economic modernization63.
Th e Netherlands, for example, transformed from a
‘feudal’ to a modern economy without ever experiencing an
Industrial Revolution64.
A controversial area of historical research has been on the
interaction between western European marriage patterns,
household structure and proto-industrialisation65. Th e increasing
role of women and children in the work-place has been
seen as crucial to industrial growth by Jan de Vries and Maxine
Berg66. However, research on specifi c industries has indicated
that women could also be marginalised in the work place by
technical innovation67. Archaeological analysis of household
organisation, production and consumption could add a new
perspective to these complex debates. André van Holk, for
example, has noted that fi nds assemblages on Dutch polder
ship-wrecks indicate a change from hired to family labour in
the 17th century68.
Archaeologists have begun to follow historians, literary scholars
and economists in utilising colonial, post-colonial and
development-theory to understanding the relationship between
the industrial world and the colonial Th ird World69. Colonial
and post-colonial theory has been increasingly applied to the
European periphery especially by American scholars working
on native and planter settlements in Ireland70. However, Audrey
Horning has warned that the oversimplistic application of a
binary paradigm has masked complexity and ambiguity in the
relationship between coloniser and colonized71. Th e increasing
number of Irish post-medieval archaeologists is also beginning
to widen the debate72. Uneven economic development is also
oft en associated with colonial and post-colonial situations but
is also found more widely, even within developed regions73.
66 de Vries 1993; Idem 1994; Maxine Berg 1993.
67 Van Nederveen Meerkerk 2007.
68 van Holk 1996; Idem 1997.
69 Funari et al. 1999a; Given 2004; Gosden 2004;
Lucas 2004; Hicks 2007.
70 Delle 1999; Klingelhofer 1999; Idem 2003;
Orser 2004.
71 Horning 2007.
72 Myles 2006; Donnelly et al. 2008.
73 Smith 1984; Harvey 1996; Courtney 2009b.