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 |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2020
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Online Access: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/ https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/13/0791603521999957.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/3/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/1/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.docx https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 |
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ftkentuniv:oai:kar.kent.ac.uk:86657 2023-05-15T15:56:55+02:00 Beehives on the Border: Liminal Humans and Other Animals at Skellig Michael Wrenn, Corey 2020 application/pdf application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/ https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/13/0791603521999957.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/3/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/1/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.docx https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 en eng SAGE Publications https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/13/0791603521999957.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/3/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/1/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.docx Wrenn, Corey (2020) Beehives on the Border: Liminal Humans and Other Animals at Skellig Michael. Irish Journal of Sociology, 29 (2). pp. 137-159. ISSN 0791-6035. E-ISSN 2050-5280. (doi:10.1177/0791603521999957 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957>) (KAR id:86657 </86657>) cc_by_nc HM Sociology Article PeerReviewed 2020 ftkentuniv https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 2023-03-12T19:18:56Z 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 University of Kent: KAR - Kent Academic Repository Craggy Island ENVELOPE(-60.317,-60.317,-62.467,-62.467) Irish Journal of Sociology 29 2 137 159 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Kent: KAR - Kent Academic Repository |
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ftkentuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
HM Sociology |
spellingShingle |
HM Sociology Wrenn, Corey Beehives on the Border: Liminal Humans and Other Animals at Skellig Michael |
topic_facet |
HM Sociology |
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 |
author_facet |
Wrenn, Corey |
author_sort |
Wrenn, Corey |
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 |
2020 |
url |
https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/ https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/13/0791603521999957.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/3/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/1/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.docx https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957 |
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ENVELOPE(-60.317,-60.317,-62.467,-62.467) |
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Craggy Island |
geographic_facet |
Craggy Island |
genre |
Craggy Island |
genre_facet |
Craggy Island |
op_relation |
https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/13/0791603521999957.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/3/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf https://kar.kent.ac.uk/86657/1/WRENN%20-%20%20Skellig%20Michael%20-%20ISA%20-%20Revision%203%20-%20Feb%202021.docx Wrenn, Corey (2020) Beehives on the Border: Liminal Humans and Other Animals at Skellig Michael. Irish Journal of Sociology, 29 (2). pp. 137-159. ISSN 0791-6035. E-ISSN 2050-5280. (doi:10.1177/0791603521999957 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0791603521999957>) (KAR id:86657 </86657>) |
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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 |
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1766392569519931392 |