Xenia von Tippelskirch, Humboldt Univ. zu Berlin; Elisabeth Fischer, Univ. Hamburg in Kooperation mit dem Forschernetzwerk „EMoDiR – Early Modern religious Dissents and Radicalism und dem Centre Marc Bloch“
Zeit: 30.11.-02.12.2016
Ort: Berlin
In early modern Europe, religious affiliation was often communicated through specific gestures and special items of clothing. One can find numerous examples in which religious boundaries and attributions were defined via the description of body practices. We only have to consider the polemical attacks against suspected sexual practices, the discussions about the practice of self-mortification, the flogging of religious dissidents, or, more specifically, the debates about Quakers, who only took off their hats for religious services and not for social superiors.
The importance of body practices in Christian Europe can be traced back to the significance of ritual gestures in the liturgical context, to the tradition of imitating the tortured body of Christ, to the discourses of purity, and to the societal norms that regulated sexual practices. Physicians and theologians fought for sovereignty over the interpretation of bodily phenomena. At the same time, we encounter bodies in Policey-regulations: Read more and source … (Web)