English Women's Physical and Cultural Interactions with Animals, 1600-1750

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My project examines lower and middling rural English women's physical and cultural interactions with animals in 1600-1750, applying recently established methods in the history of animals to explore early modern womanhood afresh. Animals are a useful approach as they illuminate many different aspects ofwomen's daily lives, in both practice and representation, offering an unexplored window into contemporary constructions of femininity. I am examining women's physical relationships with animals through both paid work and domestic labour, and their care for pets, as well as through aspects of material culture, particularly focusing on food and kitchenware. I am also investigating women's associations with animals in culture and popular thought through language, such as animalistic insults and terms of endearment, as well as looking at the broader context of women's supernatural connections with animals, beyond just the witch and her cat. I am using a broad range of primary sources, including court records, account books, ballads, literary texts, images, and physical objects. In the first year of my project, I am exploring the secondary context and printed primary sources; in year two I will examine archival sources; and in year three I will focus on material objects and redrafting chapters.