I spied this book on a friend’s bookshelf last Monday, and I flipped through it, half-watching the Steelers lose. In the Table of Contents I could see how the chapters focus on different subgroups, social groups, and subcultures of the Medieval Era. I seem to recall chapters on “deviants” and “outcasts” that looked pretty interesting to me. I was told that I could borrow it – it’s “a bit boring”, I was told. However, I won’t have the time to read it right away. The subject interests me, especially after reading Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Penitentiary (I might not have that title exactly correct), by Michael Foucault, back about 9 or 10 years ago. The ‘spectacle of corporeal punishment’ is a subject that is very relevant today, especially when viewed from a historical perspective, and an anthropological perspective. We are still fighting “just wars” and deciding whether or not it is okay to torture our “war criminals”. Also, religion and politics are still (will they ever not be?) intertwined, which sometimes makes me recall my lessons about the Medieval Era, the Plague, and the Inquisition. I also grew up in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and the Salem Witch Trials are a part of the history of that area. So, on a more casual level, the subject of Middle Age culture and ways of thinking and believing are a reflection of how we think and believe today.

- docrivs