Abstract
Medieval society was a society of collectivities in which identity came from membership in particular groups. 1 Many of these groups-knights, monks, apprentices, guildspeople-underwent particular initiation ceremonies that marked their selection or separation from the rest of society. 2 In knighthood, for example, the ritual of dubbing admitted one into a military elite. For men of the aristocracy, it also marked a coming of age, the attainment of manhood. The entrance into a university, into the elite intellectual world, also marked the acceptance into a masculine subculture. The ritual process of initiation into that subculture reveals a great deal about medieval ideas of what it meant to be a man-as distinguished from a boy, from a woman and also from a beast.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities |
Subtitle of host publication | Men in the Medieval West |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Pages | 189-213 |
Number of pages | 25 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781136528408 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781138799028 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 1999 by Jacqueline Murray. All rights reserved.