Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England

The inclusion of animal remains in funerary contexts was a routine feature of Anglo-Saxon cremation ritual, and less frequently of inhumations, until the introduction of Christianity during the 7th century. Most interpretation has focused either on the animal as symbolic of identity or as an indication of pagan belief, with little consideration given to the interaction between these two aspects. Animals were a fundamental and ubiquitous part of early medieval society, and their contribution to mortuary practices is considered to be multifaceted, reflecting their multiple roles in everyday life. This project considers the roles of animals in mortuary practice between the 5th-7th centuries across five counties in eastern England – Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex – in both cremation and inhumation rites. Animal remains have been recognised in 5th to 7th century burials in eastern England from an early date, and the quality of the existing archives (both material and written) is investigated and discussed as an integral part of designing a methodology to effectively summarise data across a wide area. From the eastern England dataset, four aspects of identity in mortuary practice are considered in terms of their influence on the role of animals: choice of rite (cremation/inhumation); human biological identity (age & gender); regionality; and changing expressions of belief and status in the 7th century. The funerary role of animals is argued to be based around broadly consistent cosmologies which are locally contingent in their expression and practice.Arts & Humanities Research Council Studentship under the Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme with Norwich Castle Museum as the partner organisation

Animal offerings in ritual, economic and social contexts in Britannia

Animals were central to ritual activity at religious sites in Britannia, in sacrifice, iconography, structured deposition and feasting. While animal remains from shrine and temple sites have been regularly studied, there have been few attempts to integrate them with their ‘secular’ landscape context. Recent theoretical developments offer an opportunity to bridge that gap and better contextualize ritual and religious acts involving animals. Using the recently published South Wiltshire Temple, we argue that all animals, from major domesticates to wilder or more exotic animals such as deer, chickens and (figural representations of) leopards were invested with meaning through everyday practices and associations. These meanings accordingly influenced their use within ritual practices. Collectively, the ritualized deposition of animals may provide insights into the experience of the Roman world, providing a case study of how practice theory and glocalization can combine to produce innovative insights into Britannia

Wild to domestic and back again: the dynamics of fallow deer management in medieval England (c.11th-16th century AD)

This paper presents the results of the first comprehensive scientific study of the fallow deer, a non-native species whose medieval-period introduction to Britain transformed the cultural landscape. It brings together data from traditional zooarchaeological analyses with those derived from new ageing techniques as well as the results of a programme of radiocarbon dating, multi-element isotope studies and genetic analyses. These new data are here integrated with historical and landscape evidence to examine changing patterns of fallow deer translocation and management in medieval England between the 11th and 16th century AD

Explaining differential protest participation: novices, returners, repeaters, and stalwarts

Protest participation scholarship tends to focus on the special characteristics of novices and the highly committed, underplaying the significance of those in between. In this article, we fill a lacuna in the literature by refocusing attention on four different types of protesters: novices, returners, repeaters, and stalwarts. Employing data from protest surveys of demonstrations that took place in seven European countries (2009-2010), we test whether these types of protesters are differentiated by biographical-structural availability and/or psychological- attitudinal engagement. Our results suggest that biographic availability distinguishes our four groups, but not as a matter of degree. Few indicators of structural availability distinguish between the groups of protesters, and emotional factors do not distinguish between them at all. Some political engagement factors suggest similarity between novices and returners. This confirms the need to avoid treating protesters as a homogenous group and reinforces the importance of assessing the contributions of diverse factors to sustaining “protest politics.

Explaining differential protest participation: Novices, returners, repeaters, and stalwarts

Protest participation scholarship tends to focus on the special characteristics of novices and the highly committed, underplaying the significance of those in between. In this article, we fill a lacuna in the literature by refocusing attention on four different types of protesters: novices, returners, repeaters, and stalwarts. Employing data from protest surveys of demonstrations that took place in seven European countries (2009-2010), we test whether these types of protesters are differentiated by biographical-structural availability and/or psychologicalattitudinal engagement. Our results suggest that biographical availability distinguishes our four groups, but not as a matter of degree. Few indicators of structural availability distinguish between the groups of protesters, and emotional factors do not distinguish between them at all. Some political engagement factors suggest similarity between novices and returners. This confirms the need to avoid treating protesters as a homogenous group and reinforces the importance of assessing the contributions of diverse factors to sustaining "protest politics."

Explaining differential protest participation: novices, returners, repeaters and stalwarts

Scholarly work on protest participation has tended to focus on the special characteristics of first-timers and the highly committed, underplaying the significance of those in between. In this article, we fill a lacuna in the literature by refocusing attention on four different types of protesters – novices, returners, repeaters and stalwarts. We test whether these four types of protesters are differentiated by biographical/structural availability and/or psychological/attitudinal engagement. We employ data from protest surveys of six May Day and four climate change demonstrations that took place in seven European countries (2009-2010). Our results suggest that biographic availability distinguishes our four groups, but not straightforwardly as a matter of degree. Few indicators of structural availability distinguish between the groups of protesters, and emotional factors do not distinguish between them at all. Whilst some political engagement factors distinguish between the groups as a matter of degree, others suggest similarity between novices and returners. This confirms the need to avoid treating protesters as a homogenous group and reinforces the importance of assessing the contributions of diverse factors to sustaining ‘protest politics’