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

我的项目考察了1600-1750年间英国中下级农村妇女与动物的身体和文化互动，应用动物史上最近建立的方法重新探索早期的现代女性。动物是一种有用的方法，因为它们在实践和表现上照亮了女性日常生活的许多不同方面，为了解当代女性气质的构建提供了一个未经探索的窗口。我正在通过有偿工作和家政劳动，以及她们对宠物的照顾，以及通过物质文化的各个方面，特别是关注食物和厨房用具，来考察妇女与动物的身体关系。我还在调查女性在文化和流行思想中通过语言与动物的联系，比如动物性的侮辱和亲切的词语，以及女性与动物超自然联系的更广泛的背景，不仅仅是女巫和她的猫。我使用了广泛的主要来源，包括法庭记录、账簿、民谣、文学文本、图像和实物。在我的项目的第一年，我将探索次要背景和印刷的主要来源；在第二年，我将研究档案来源；在第三年，我将专注于实物和重写章节。

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.