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E-book
Author Stuart, Kathy.

Title Defiled trades and social outcasts : honor and ritual pollution in early modern Germany / [by] Kathy Stuart
Published Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, [2000]
©2000

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Description 1 online resource (x, 301 pages) : illustrations
Series Cambridge studies in early modern history
Cambridge studies in early modern history.
Contents Introduction : defiled trades -- Part I. The meaning of dishonor in early modern society ; Medieval versus early modern dishonor -- Honor, status, and pollution -- Part II. The dishonorable milieu ; The status of executioners and skinners, 1500-1700 -- Living on the periphery of dishonor -- Part III. Paradoxical dishonor : punishment and healing ; The infamous fur coat, or the unintended consequences of social discipline -- The executioner's healing touch : health and honor in early modern German medical practice -- Part IV. Artisanal honor and urban politics ; Guardians of honor : artisans versus magistrates -- Honor and dishonor in the eighteenth century -- Conclusion : dishonor and the society of orders
Summary This book presents a social and cultural history of 'dishonourable people' (unehrliche Leute), an outcast group in early modern Germany. Executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber-surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs were among the 'dishonourable' by virtue of their trades. This dishonour was either hereditary, often through several generations, or it arose from ritual pollution whereby honourable citizens could become dishonourable by coming into casual contact with members of the outcast group. The dishonourable milieu of the city of Augsburg from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reconstructed to show the extent to which dishonour determined the life-chances and self-identity of dishonourable people. The book then investigates how honourable estates interacted with dishonourable people, and how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within honourable society
Bibliography Includes glossary, footnotes with bibliographical references, selected bibliographical references, and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Social classes -- Germany -- History
Occupations -- Germany -- History
Occupations
Social classes
Germany
Genre/Form History
Instructional and educational works.
Matériel d'éducation et de formation.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780511068546
0511068549
128016011X
9781280160110
Other Titles Honor and ritual pollution in early modern Germany