Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early Modern Germany

An evocation of the lost worlds of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germans.

Norbert Schindler (Author), Pamela E. Selwyn (Translated by)

9780521650106, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 October 2002

328 pages, 10 b/w illus. 1 map
23.6 x 16.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.648 kg

'… [Schindler] seeks to understand the violence of the past as much as possible on its own terms with attempts to explore the ways in which it made sense to its protagonists.' Historical Journal

When this volume first appeared in German it inspired a whole generation of young scholars. Schindler recreates the lives of both the poor and excluded; the milieu of the burghers; and the rumbustuous lifestyles of the Counts von Zimmern. A true archivist, he evokes the lost worlds of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century people. He investigates popular nicknames, snowball fights, carnival rituals, even what people did at night-time before the advent of lighting. A final essay deals with an extraordinary late set of trials for witchcraft, in which over 200 people died. Translated into English for the first time, the volume contains a new Foreword by Natalie Zemon Davis and a new introductory essay setting out the key influences of Schindler's work. Norbert Schindler is the leading exponent of historical anthropology in the German-speaking world. A founding member of the German journal Historische Anthropologie, Schindler teaches at the University of Salzburg.

Introduction: revisiting the elusive quarry: popular culture in early modern Germany
1. Habitus and lordship: the transformation of aristocratic practices of rule in the sixteenth century
2. The world of nicknames: on the logic of popular nomenclature
3. Carnival, church and the world turned upside-down: on the function of the culture of laughter in the sixteenth century
4. 'Marriage weariness' and compulsory matrimony: the popular punishments of pulling the plough and the block
5. Nocturnal disturbances: on the social history of the night in the early modern period
6. The origins of heartlessness: the culture and way of life of beggars in late seventeenth-century Salzburg.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]