SHOR · Social History of Riding in Late Medieval Spain and the Early Modern Americas (13th-16th c.)

Social History of Riding in Late Medieval Spain and the Early Modern Americas (13th-16th c.)

This project focused on horse riding as a social practice in late medieval Spain and its expansion into the Americas (13th-16th c.). This specific equine-human relationship was fundamental to almost all aspects of premodern societies. By approaching horse riding as a social practice, the critical evaluation and further development of current social practice theory was a key component of the project. The projects helps to understand the major transformations experienced by Iberian society in the early modern era as well as the challenges posed by the expansion into the «New World». By choosing an untraditional focus on the late medieval and early modern period, the project deconstructed the still predominant caesura of 1492 in historical research. By critically challenging traditional narratives, this study brought the largely unknown riding and horsemanship knowledge of medieval Spain in fruitful discussion with early modern transformations of the social and cultural significance of riding in particular and of social inclusion and exclusion in Spain’s territories in general. This pioneering project, however, also contributes to the current methodological discussion of social practice theory and puts the concept of bodily «routines» to the test. By shifting the main research interest from riding culture to the social significance of this specific human-animal interaction and co-movement, recent developments in German and Anglo-American social theory could prove highly fruitful. Social practice theory can be understood as a significant turn away from grand narratives of society and also away from human-only agents. Recent methodological and heuristic developments highlight the analytical potential to detect societies’ social border regimes. Methodologically, this theoretical approach allows the inclusion all kinds of agents that constitute or challenge what is to be understood as the social. The overarching research question was how to expand our knowledge on the social importance of animals and to put the modern, post-enlightenment differentiation of culture/nature and human/non-human into historical perspective. During the MSC Action this research interest was addressed in various forms. The project has succeeded not only in establishing research links between German- and English-speaking practice theorists, but also in attracting a wider public through various forms of publication.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз