This session proposes to explore how women constructed complex political networks through objects during the Early Middle Ages, between the 5th and the 11th century.

Those entanglements between women, artefacts and the social environment constitute a new way to conceptualize the gendered construction of identity. Through objects made, commissioned or donated, women shaped their identity in relationship with men (craftsmen or beneficiaries of donations) and women.

Our session proposes to use the tools of history and archaeology to understand those gendered networks and the connection between women and artefacts. In this context, it can therefore include jewellery, textiles, manuscripts, seals, or even objects in a fragmentary state such as certain relics. This deliberately broad definition makes it possible to include any form of material expression, at the varions stages of production and life of the artefact.

We invited the participants to present reflections on the users’ manipulations wich generated and/ or reinforced networks, from production to use, repair, recycling, and disposal. This approach can be particularly fruitful for the Middle Ages. In a context vhere the majority of authors are men, objects constitute a privileged means of expression for women, sometimes as a complement to male texts. Therefore, this session aims to offer new ways to understand gender by focusing on materiality and exchanges.

Le premier évènement en ligne de l’axe des cultures matérielles du Laboratório de Estudos Medievais, FFLCH, Universidade de São Paulo et co organisé avec le LaMOP, aura lieu le 26 octobre 2022.

Nous proposerons des interventions de spécialistes sur le thème de l’approche interdisciplinaire des objets au prisme du genre, de l’Antiquité au Moyen Âge. Attention, les horaires sont à l’heure du Brésil (il convient donc d’ajouter 5h pour la France).

Notre but est de proposer aux étudiants de découvrir et de s’approprier des outils techniques et théoriques dans leurs recherches. Nous avons souhaité l’ouvrir à l’international afin de stimuler les contacts – et pourquoi pas les projets – entre les chercheurs/institutions.

Programme :

9h00: Julie Renou, Introduction 
9h30: Florent Comte (3D engineer in archaeological sciences), “The contribution of 3D technologies to research in Archaeological Sciences” 
10h30: Break
11h00: Justine Audebrand (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, LaMOP), “Charismatic Objects, Family and Gender during the Early Middle Ages”
12h00: Lunch break
13h00: Lucie Jardot (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, LaMOP), “Women’s Seals: Objects for Understanding and Reassessing Female Power in the Middle Ages”
14h00: Coline Ruiz Darasse (CNRS, Ausonius), “Nata uimpi, How Writing Comes to Women in Gaulish”