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☛ Whose Middle Ages? Remembering Early African-American Efforts to Claim the Past | by Matthew Vernon
African-Americans have long pushed back against the notion that whiteness, and “white medieval history,” are the full story of America’s foundation. African Americans resisted and subverted the dominant myths of the nation. Looking at these acts of resistance can tell us a great deal about alternative—but equally valid—ways of perceiving American history.
To read more about ways in which African Americans strove to strove to forge a more comprehensive, difficult, and ultimately positive conception of the medieval world, read Dr. Vernon’s new book The Black Middle Ages: Race and the Construction of the Middle Ages. It is available through Palgrave McMillan, or on Amazon.com now.
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The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination From Harry Potter to The Hunger Games, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter.
PREORDER HERE | Also available in eBook | Request Exam or Desk Copy
Cover Artist: https://www.paullewinart.com
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I just came across these (via Twitter) and they’re pretty interesting and simple guides to each topic (and include citations/bibliographies)
- Temptation by the Devil: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket-miscellanies-no3-temptation-by-devil
- Sodom: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no5_sodom
- Transgender: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no6_transgende
- People of Colour: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no7_people_of_
- Racism: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no8_racism
- Disability: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no9_disability
- Mobility Aid: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket_miscellanies__no10__mobility
- Temptation by the Devil: https://issuu.com/mxcoman/docs/pocket-miscellanies-no3-temptation-by-devil
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Fun fact: Tenochtitlan fell in 1521. From 1603 onwards, large numbers of honest-to-god fricking Japanese Samurai came to Mexico from Japan to work as guardsmen and mercenaries.
Ergo, it would be 100% historically accurate to write a story starring a quartet consisting of the child or grandchild of Aztec Noblemen, an escaped African slave, a Spanish Jew fleeing the Inquisition (which was relaxed in Mexico in 1606, for a time) and a Katana-wielding Samurai in Colonial Mexico.
Also a whole bunch of Chinese Characters BECAUSE MEXICO CITY HAD A CHINATOWN WITHIN TEN YEARS OF THE FALL OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE.
I love how much this shakes up people’s worldviews, and the way it makes you realize how unnaturally we isolate historical events (and peoples).
For people looking to dig into some research:
Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created [Knopf, 2011], page 324:
The Chinese in Mexico, Robert Chao Romero
The Spanish Expulsion (1492); Judaism in Mexico
**ETA just to make it clear I hate the title of the first book up there ^^ and the overall tone of it-I’m using it to verify information that’s true but the interpretation leaves quite a bit to be desired
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I can’t really understand people who complain about the possibility in “TEO: Skyrim” to marry a same-sex NPC ‘cause “it doesn’t fit with the whole medieval setting of the series”.
Yeah, you’re right, how could Bethesda dare to do something so anachronistic? I mean, the wonderful Middle Ages, such a beautiful period. Remember those old good times when we could marry hot lizards?Yeah
Me neitherAh yes, the Elder Scrolls, the medieval setting complete with orbital space stations, time-traveling cyborg demigods, and magic email.
Plus, institutions very like same-gender marriage did exist in medieval Europe. Up until around the 13th Century, “spiritual brotherhood” ceremonies that were identical to marriages all but in name - including joining hands and reciting prayers at an altar and a ceremonial kiss at the end - were commonly performed between two men. Though prohibitions against the practice began to arise in the early 1300s (prohibitions which in themselves constitute evidence for the prevalence of such ceremonies - you don’t specifically ban something that never happens!), it’s believed that in some regions it persisted well into the 16th Century.
(And that’s without even touching on the matter of pirates…)
For anyone who wants to get their research started with a bang (several of these open as PDF):
People with a History – the history of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people, edited by Paul Halsall
Between Monks: Tales of Monastic Companionship in Early Byzantium, by Derek Krueger
Transgressing the Boundaries of Holiness: Sexual Deviance in the Early Medieval Penitential Handbooks of Ireland, England and France 500-1000, by Christine McCann
The Roman De La Rose and the Thirteenth Century Prohibitions of Homosexuality, by Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran
Remarriage and Ass-F**king: Shifty Byzantine Views of Sex, by Stephen Morris
Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Society, by Stephen O. Murray
Female Sodomy: The Trial of Katherina Hetzeldorfer (1477), by Helmet Puff
Homosexuality in Medieval Iberia – extract from the Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia (2003)
The Questioning of John Rykener, A Male Cross-Dressing Prostitute, 1395 – from the Medieval Sourcebook
The 600 Year Tradition Behind Same-Sex Unions – by Allan Tulchin, History News Network
Personae, Same-Sex Desire, and Salvation in the Poetry of Marbod of Rennes, Baudri of Bourgueil, and Hildebert of Lavardin, by Tison Pugh
Queer Vikings? Transgression of gender and same-sex encounters in the Late Iron Age and early medieval Scandinavia, by Sami Raninen
Homoerotic Liasons among the Mamluk Elite in Late Medieval Egypt and Syria, by Everett K. Rowson
Representing the Negative: Positing the Lesbian Void in Medieval English Anchoritism, by Michelle M. Sauer
Brotherhood of Vice: Sodomy, Islam, and the Knights Templar, by Mark Steckler
Salvation, Sex, and Subjectivity, by Bruce Vernarde
(Un)Natural Love: Homosexuality in Late Medieval English Literature: Langland, Chaucer, Gower, and the Gawain Poet, by Swaeske de Vries
(via mumblingsage)