Rickie Lette

The aim of this essay is to identify different ways in which historians can conceptualise and analyse the effect of encounters between people of different cultures in historical research, and examine their strengths and weaknesses. It surveys both traditional approaches, and new perspectives which provide alternative pathways for such research.

We asked contributors to the current issue of Parergon to give us some additional insights into their research and the inspirations for their articles. In this post, Rickie Lette, who recently completed his PhD in history at the University of Tasmania, talks about his piece, “John Harrison: A Case Study of the Acculturation of an Early Modern Briton” (doi:10.1353/pgn.2019.0005).

See the full blog at https://www.anzamems.org/?p=10132

This thesis was prepared in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Britons began regularly voyaging to Morocco, or West Barbary as it was commonly known, from the early 1550s, and within a few decades England had not only developed an extensive trade with the country, but also close political relations; as a result, the histories of Morocco and England became closely tied until the late seventeenth century. While diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries have been relatively well, but not extensively, studied, understanding of the situation of Morocco within British history has been overshadowed by the predominance of scholarship which has focussed on relations from the more limited perspectives of the threat posed to English shipping and coastal communities around the British Isles from ‘Barbary’ corsairs, Christian captivity, and the hostile encounters which marked the English occupation of Tangier. However, it is contended that when this relationship is re-examined from a more holistic perspective by combining elements usually treated in isolation, together with close attention to the impact of experiential engagement — an aspect which has received little detailed attention outside of captivity narratives — new perspectives on Anglo-Moroccan relations are revealed. Only then is it possible to properly evaluate the meaning of Morocco to early modern Britons and British history.

This thesis examines the impact that direct contact with Morocco and Moroccans had on the attitudes and actions of early modern Britons concerning them. It seeks to identify the psychological responses which experiential engagement elicited, and the circumstantial and personal factors which contributed to the different reactions of individuals. Furthermore, rather than simply regarding English policies concerning Morocco as contingent factors, this study attempts to understand the extent to which personal responses elicited by, and the knowledge Britons acquired through, direct experience actually helped shape diplomatic and commercial relations. By doing so, it shows that the encounter of Britons with Morocco between 1625 and 1684 was both a humbling and enlightening experience for them. There was no general turn to increasing prejudice and antipathy against the people associated with a desire to dominate them and expand England’s nascent empire, as has been argued by other scholars. Instead, the thesis demonstrates that early modern Britons not only possessed a well-developed capacity to consciously accommodate cultural difference in furthering their interests, but some were also susceptible to subconscious processes of positive acculturation in their encounters with other peoples. Moreover, the behaviour of Britons in Morocco was more likely to be based on pragmatism and cultural self-consciousness, than driven by incipient imperial and colonial aspiration.

A copy of the thesis can be provided on request for genuine research purposes.

This thesis was prepared in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History.

The thesis examines the perceptions of thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan friars concerning Islam and Muslims, and the extent to which their perceptions demonstrate the existence of a normative ideology influenced by the needs of crusading. It also explores the relationship between the individual context of each author and similarities and differences between their respective perceptions. It reinforces other recent studies that demonstrate that medieval people perceived both Islam and Muslims in a variety of ways. In doing so, it reveals the profound influence that engagement with Arab-Muslim culture had on the perceptions of mendicant friars in the thirteenth century. It also demonstrates the value of an alternative approach to the examination of Christian-Muslim relations that addresses problems of extremes of fragmentation and generalisation which are problematic in this field of study.

This thesis was prepared in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Britons began regularly voyaging to Morocco, or West Barbary as it was commonly known, from the early 1550s, and within a few decades England had not only developed an extensive trade with the country, but also close political relations; as a result, the histories of Morocco and England became closely tied until the late seventeenth century. While diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries have been relatively well, but not extensively, studied, understanding of the situation of Morocco within British history has been overshadowed by the predominance of scholarship which has focussed on relations from the more limited perspectives of the threat posed to English shipping and coastal communities around the British Isles from ‘Barbary’ corsairs, Christian captivity, and the hostile encounters which marked the English occupation of Tangier. However, it is contended that when this relationship is re-examined from a more holistic perspective by combining elements usually treated in isolation, together with close attention to the impact of experiential engagement — an aspect which has received little detailed attention outside of captivity narratives — new perspectives on Anglo-Moroccan relations are revealed. Only then is it possible to properly evaluate the meaning of Morocco to early modern Britons and British history.

This thesis examines the impact that direct contact with Morocco and Moroccans had on the attitudes and actions of early modern Britons concerning them. It seeks to identify the psychological responses which experiential engagement elicited, and the circumstantial and personal factors which contributed to the different reactions of individuals. Furthermore, rather than simply regarding English policies concerning Morocco as contingent factors, this study attempts to understand the extent to which personal responses elicited by, and the knowledge Britons acquired through, direct experience actually helped shape diplomatic and commercial relations. By doing so, it shows that the encounter of Britons with Morocco between 1625 and 1684 was both a humbling and enlightening experience for them. There was no general turn to increasing prejudice and antipathy against the people associated with a desire to dominate them and expand England’s nascent empire, as has been argued by other scholars. Instead, the thesis demonstrates that early modern Britons not only possessed a well-developed capacity to consciously accommodate cultural difference in furthering their interests, but some were also susceptible to subconscious processes of positive acculturation in their encounters with other peoples. Moreover, the behaviour of Britons in Morocco was more likely to be based on pragmatism and cultural self-consciousness, than driven by incipient imperial and colonial aspiration.

The document is embargoed until April 2020. However, the contents listing and introduction are included in the attached file, and consideration will be given to providing copies on request for genuine research purposes.

The Gilbertine Order was the only Christian religious order created in England, established at a time of renewed interest in monastic life. While new forms of religious vocation were emerging, they were principally intended to meet the aspirations of men, not women. It is within this context that Gilbert of Sempringham established a new institution, unusual for its time, which integrated women religious with male clerics and lay brothers. This article analyses the process of institutionalisation of the order, and explores the ways in which issues of gender influenced its development.

A commonly accepted interpretation of how Christians and Muslims perceived and responded to each other during the medieval period remains elusive. While broad surveys have established the existence of dominant perspectives and trends, smaller-scale studies are revealing that responses could be much more complex and nuanced. This article attempts to negotiate a middle ground to examine the perceptions of Islam and Muslims of three mendicant friars. The study demonstrates that direct encounters with Muslims, and their customs, practices, and beliefs, or active engagement with Greco-Arabic philosophy, or both, provided these three men with new means to rationalise the reality of Islam and its followers, breaking the bonds of traditional ideological responses and enabling them to produce novel and more informed perspectives on both. It indicates the potential impact that inter-cultural engagement may have had on the inter-religious perceptions of mendicant friars in the latter part of the thirteenth century.

The important role that the Mediterranean played in England’s development as an imperial power in the early modern period has begun to be appreciated, but more work is required to properly historicize the interactions which occurred during this time and understand their impact. This article argues that to do this it is necessary to move beyond generalized interpretations and examine the impact of encounter at the individual level. Moreover, through examining the experiences of one such sojourner, it demonstrates how a focus on acculturative change can provide novel insights into the consequences of historical encounters between European and non-European peoples.

Dawson, Mark S., Bodies complexioned: Human variation and racism in early modern English culture, c. 1600-1750, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2019; hardback; pp. 280; 13 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £80.00; ISBN 9781526134486. While unique phenotypic traits are evident among dispersed populations, the concept of race is essentially a social construct and its appropriateness is contested because of its association with the cultural politics of racism. But the fact remains that the term was in reasonably common usage from the early sixteenth century, although without the sinister connotations it later acquired. It is generally accepted that it was not until around the early eighteenth century that the modern concept of race began to develop as a powerful and widespread means to justify discrimination. Although it is easy to find earlier examples of race-based denigration and discrimination, by and large distinctions were made between peoples by Europeans on the basis of cultural differences. But when and how did the immutable interpretations of difference associated with racial discrimination begin to replace the relatively permeable barriers to acceptance presented by ethnocentrism? This is the issue which Mark Dawson explores in Bodies Complexioned. In doing so, he challenges the view that two factors impeded the acceptance of racial stereotyping. The first of these was inertia of belief in humoralism, whose supposedly mutable impact on bodily disposition conflicted with the essentialism of racism. The second factor was that for racism to take hold it had to supplant ethnocentrism. That entailed overcoming belief in monogenesis, Christian universalism, and the importance of socio-cultural factors in how Europeans assessed themselves and others. Over six chapters Dawson presents evidence to support his thesis that it was unnecessary for one form of discrimination to supersede another, instead humoralism itself become the basis of intra-societal discrimination which was then adapted to accommodate learnings from the encounter of Britons with other peoples. Consequently, the purview of this paradigm of embodied prejudice expanded outwards and become an antecedent of modern racism. In the first four chapters Dawson seeks to demonstrate how widespread this thinking was and what conclusions English people came to concerning the meaning of bodily difference. Something that stands out in these chapters is the impressive range and number of sources which Dawson draws upon, which sets this work apart from many other studies on the early development of racial prejudice in England.