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Voices on Birchbark : Everyday Communication in Medieval Russia / Jos Schaeken.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Schaeken, J.
- Series:
- Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics 43.
- Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics ; v. 43
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Inscriptions, Russian (Old)--Russia (Federation)--Novgorodskaia oblast’.
- Inscriptions, Russian (Old).
- Bark inscriptions--Russia (Federation)--Novgorodskaia oblast’.
- Bark inscriptions.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource.
- Place of Publication:
- Leiden, Boston : BRILL, 2019.
- Summary:
- In Voices on Birchbark Jos Schaeken explores the major role that writing on birchbark – an ephemeral, even ‘throw-away’ form of correspondence and administration – played in the vibrant medieval merchant city of Novgorod and other cities in the Russian Northwest. Birchbark literacy was crucial to the organization of Novgorodian society; it was integrated into a huge variety of activities and had a broad social basis; it was used extensively by the laity, by women as well as men, by villagers as well as landlords. Voices on Birchbark is the first book-length study of this unique corpus in English. By examining a representative selection of birchbark texts, Jos Schaeken presents fascinating vignettes of daily medieval life and a holistic picture of the pragmatics of communication in pre-modern societies.
- Contents:
- Preliminary Material
- Notes on Translation, Transliteration, Terminology, and References
- Historical and Geographical Context
- Sites and Distribution
- Dating and Periodization
- Writing Technology and Practice
- Users and Literacy
- Intersections between Birchbark Writing and Graffiti
- Language and Communication
- Preliminary Remarks
- Commerce and Finance
- Law and Administration
- Estate Management
- Family Life and Household Management
- Learning to Read and Write
- Church, Religion, and Folk Belief
- Witnesses to History
- Non-Slavic on Birchbark
- Introduction
- The Orality Factor
- The Role of the Messenger
- Communicatively Heterogeneous Letters
- Social Networks
- Some Final Thoughts
- Color Plates
- References
- Index of Birchbark Documents
- Index of Subjects.
- Notes:
- Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9789004389427
- 9004389423
- OCLC:
- 1048941877
- Publisher Number:
- 10.1163/9789004389427 DOI
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