Ritual, Belief and the Dead in Early Modern Britain and Ireland [Paperback]

Sarah Tarlow's interdisciplinary study examines belief as it relates to the dead body in early modern Britain and Ireland.Drawing on archaeological, historical, theological, scientific, and folkloric sources, Sarah Tarlows book addresses new questions about the problem of belief in the past, and provides an original interpretive framework for the archaeological and historical evidence of death in early modern Britain and Ireland. This study discusses the materiality of the dead body, its meaning, and its power.Drawing on archaeological, historical, theological, scientific, and folkloric sources, Sarah Tarlows book addresses new questions about the problem of belief in the past, and provides an original interpretive framework for the archaeological and historical evidence of death in early modern Britain and Ireland. This study discusses the materiality of the dead body, its meaning, and its power.Drawing on archaeological, historical, theological, scientific, and folkloric sources, Sarah Tarlows interdisciplinary study examines belief as it relates to the dead body in early modern Britain and Ireland. From the theological discussion of bodily resurrection to the folkloric use of body parts as remedies, and from the judicial punishment of the corpse to the ceremonial interment of the social elite, this book discusses how seemingly incompatible beliefs about the dead body existed in parallel through this tumultuous period. This study, which is the first to incorporate archaeological evidence of early modern death and burial from across Britain and Ireland, addresses new questions about the materiality of death: what the dead body means, and how its physical substance could be attributed with sentience and even agency. It provides a sophisticated original interpretive framework for the growing quantities of archaeological and historical evidence about mortuary beliefs and practices in early modernity.1. Introduction; 2. Religious belief; 3. Scientific belief; 4.l³