Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael
In the early middle ages, a community of Irish monks constructed a monastery outpost on the lonely Skellig Michael just offshore of County Kerry. These skelligs served as a mysterious boundary land where the known met the unknown, the worldly wrangled with the spiritual, and the very parameters of h...
Published in: | Irish Journal of Sociology |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
SAGE Publications
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0791603521999957 |
id |
crsagepubl:10.1177/0791603521999957 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crsagepubl:10.1177/0791603521999957 2023-05-15T15:56:55+02:00 Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael Wrenn, Corey Lee 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0791603521999957 en eng SAGE Publications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ CC-BY-NC Irish Journal of Sociology volume 29, issue 2, page 137-159 ISSN 0791-6035 2050-5280 General Social Sciences journal-article 2021 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 2022-04-14T04:36:20Z In the early middle ages, a community of Irish monks constructed a monastery outpost on the lonely Skellig Michael just offshore of County Kerry. These skelligs served as a mysterious boundary land where the known met the unknown, the worldly wrangled with the spiritual, and the very parameters of humanity itself were brought into question. Amid a period of great transition in Irish society, the monks willfully abandoned the luxuries of developing Western civilization on the mainland (and on the continent more broadly) to test their endurance through religious asceticism on a craggy island more suitable to birds than bipeds. This article reimagines the Skellig Michael experiment as a liminal space, one that troubles premodern efforts to disassociate from animality in an era when “human” and “animal” were malleable concepts. As Western society transitioned from animist paganism to anthropocentric Christianity and Norman colonial control, the Skellig Michael outpost (which survived into the 1300s) offered a point of permeability that invites a critical rethinking of early Irish custom. This article applies theories of liminality and Critical Animal studies to address the making of “human” and “animal” in the march to “civilization,” arguing that species demarcation and the establishment of anthroparchy has been central to the process. Article in Journal/Newspaper Craggy Island SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Craggy Island ENVELOPE(-60.317,-60.317,-62.467,-62.467) Irish Journal of Sociology 29 2 137 159 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
General Social Sciences |
spellingShingle |
General Social Sciences Wrenn, Corey Lee Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
topic_facet |
General Social Sciences |
description |
In the early middle ages, a community of Irish monks constructed a monastery outpost on the lonely Skellig Michael just offshore of County Kerry. These skelligs served as a mysterious boundary land where the known met the unknown, the worldly wrangled with the spiritual, and the very parameters of humanity itself were brought into question. Amid a period of great transition in Irish society, the monks willfully abandoned the luxuries of developing Western civilization on the mainland (and on the continent more broadly) to test their endurance through religious asceticism on a craggy island more suitable to birds than bipeds. This article reimagines the Skellig Michael experiment as a liminal space, one that troubles premodern efforts to disassociate from animality in an era when “human” and “animal” were malleable concepts. As Western society transitioned from animist paganism to anthropocentric Christianity and Norman colonial control, the Skellig Michael outpost (which survived into the 1300s) offered a point of permeability that invites a critical rethinking of early Irish custom. This article applies theories of liminality and Critical Animal studies to address the making of “human” and “animal” in the march to “civilization,” arguing that species demarcation and the establishment of anthroparchy has been central to the process. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wrenn, Corey Lee |
author_facet |
Wrenn, Corey Lee |
author_sort |
Wrenn, Corey Lee |
title |
Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
title_short |
Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
title_full |
Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
title_fullStr |
Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
title_full_unstemmed |
Beehives on the border: Liminal humans and other animals at Skellig Michael |
title_sort |
beehives on the border: liminal humans and other animals at skellig michael |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0791603521999957 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0791603521999957 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-60.317,-60.317,-62.467,-62.467) |
geographic |
Craggy Island |
geographic_facet |
Craggy Island |
genre |
Craggy Island |
genre_facet |
Craggy Island |
op_source |
Irish Journal of Sociology volume 29, issue 2, page 137-159 ISSN 0791-6035 2050-5280 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 |
container_title |
Irish Journal of Sociology |
container_volume |
29 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
137 |
op_container_end_page |
159 |
_version_ |
1766392569700286464 |