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The UC Research Repository collects, stores and makes available original research from postgraduate students, researchers and academics based at the University of Canterbury.
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Women on the walls : representations of female saints and biblical figures in English wall paintings, 1100-1400.
(2020) Comeau, Jane
Paintings on the walls of English medieval churches were a vital aspect of conveying religious thought to a diverse and often uneducated audience. Representations of women within these paintings were carefully tailored to convey certain messages to their specific audiences and provide vital insight into medieval perceptions of women, both lay and saintly. This dissertation examines surviving paintings of St Margaret, St Katherine and Eve to explore how their images functioned in this uniquely public context. Wall paintings of the two female saints are compared to their depictions in the circulating hagiographical literature. Although they faithfully represent the narratives found there, violence and drama is overemphasised, in order to discourage laywomen from identifying too strongly with these figures of transgression. There are far fewer surviving paintings of Eve, and so this dissertation presents case studies of these scant remains, including a series of twelfth-century images found at St Botolph’s church in Hardham. Competing medieval ideas of Eve’s sinfulness are found to be reflected in these paintings. Additionally, their positioning within the various churches in which they appear offer important insights into how the image of Eve was employed to reinforce theological lessons, provide guidance and function as a symbol. This dissertation concludes that representations of women in wall paintings were complex and often contradictory, but that they were uniquely shaped by their role in the public sphere of medieval life. Women in wall paintings functioned not necessarily as moral figures presenting a cautionary tale or lessons on how to live, but as tools of the Church and the societal elite.
Ko wai mātou? : recording Ngāi Tahutanga in Mantell’s Census.
(2020) Gibbs, Eleni
Whakapapa is who Ngāi Tahu are. This dissertation problematic nature of recording of Ngāi Tahu identity and whakapapa through the first colonial attempt to do so Mantell’s census of 1848 and 1853. The nature of recording and the historical record has failed to adequately represent my ancestor, Mereana Teitei Haberfield and her whānau, in the way that they and their Ngāi Tahu community saw them at the time, to the extent that three of her children were erased from the record. The conflicting knowledge systems and understandings of what it means to be Ngāi Tahu at play within Mantell’s census went on to permeate throughout the processes that define Ngāi Tahu identity following the establishment of the Native Land Court as the authority for Ngāi Tahu whakapapa whilst working alongside the Ngaitahu Claims Committee in 1925. The tensions between the legal record and Ngāi Tahu lore that began with the recording of Mantell’s Census in the mid-nineteenth century continue on today as we consider Ngāi Tahutanga within the context of rangatiratanga in the post-settlement era.
A history of New Zealand’s Scandinavian and German migrants from the 1874 Gutenberg voyage.
(2020) Church, Joanna
Past literature has previously neglected to focus on and analyse New Zealand’s Scandinavian and German colonial migrants who settled in Canterbury and other regions of New Zealand outside Norsewood and 70 Mile Bush. This dissertation aims to fill this historiographical gap by examining the lives and cultural practices of the migrants who emigrated on the ship Gutenberg, which brought migrants to Lyttelton in 1874. The decision of the Central Government to bring non-British migrants to the colony and the push and pull factors which encouraged the passengers to migrate are explored, while the inclusion of migrant biographies illuminates the personal side to their stories. Secondary sources are used to show the wider context of late nineteenth century New Zealand. The selected primary sources, including newspapers and parliamentary debates, demonstrate the feelings of New Zealand society toward the presence of Danes, Swedes and Germans, and also provide valuable biographical information. The dissertation finds that the passengers often remained in Canterbury, working as farm labourers or completing projects under treasurer Julius Vogel’s Public Works Scheme. While this represented the majority, a select few, such as poet and librarian Johannes Andersen, managed to pursue more academic careers in cities. The migrants quickly adapted to speaking English, and some even went as far as anglicizing their names to fit into the dominant colonial society, but their religious practices, including Danish and German language church services, remained a strong part of their identity.
Signs of the sacred? Pilgrim badges and popular religion in England, 1340- 1450.
(2020) Martinka, Rebeka
Pilgrim badges, or pilgrim signs, as contemporaries referred to them, were mass-produced, wearable objects made out of metal that depicted saints and their relics. They originated in the twelfth century and remained popular in England until the Reformation. The aim of this dissertation is to explore popular religion in England between 1340 and 1450 through a quantitative analysis of pilgrim badges, focusing on their ritualistic use and the way saints were represented on them. Pilgrim badges had many different functions in medieval society from being a symbol of the pilgrim’s identity to their amuletic usage for healing and protection. Although the scholarship focuses mostly on badges’ healing powers, it is necessary to consider their purpose from different perspectives and also acknowledge their role in private devotion and the commercial aspects of pilgrimage. A particularly important aspect of pilgrim signs was their ability to transmit holiness and provide miraculous cures for those who interacted with them. An examination of the water rituals connected to badges indicates that these objects blurred the boundaries between magical and religious healing. A quantitative analysis of iconographical trends on the badges of Thomas Becket and Mary of Walsingham can deepen the current understanding of the healing power of badges and their importance in pilgrimage rituals. Badges that were direct copies of other miraculous objects were thought to possess some of the power of the original. This dissertation demonstrates that the cult of saints was vital in making religion more accessible for the non-elites who were more concerned with the practical efficacy of rituals and objects than the theory behind them.
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To protect, to detest, to reflect : animal representation in 1930s forest and bird.
(2020) Everingham, Elizabeth
This thesis aims to contribute to New Zealand’s environmental history by examining the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society’s magazine Forest and Bird and its representations of animals in the 1930s. The current historiography of the society, known today as Forest and Bird, is relatively limited. This thesis aims to broaden the historiography by focusing specifically on how contributors used different techniques in their treatment of different animals. It responds to the invitation to join in the conversation of human and animal relations in New Zealand, put forward by Annie Potts in A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in our Culture, History and Everyday Life. Separated into three chapters, the thesis analyses representations of New Zealand’s native birds, introduced or ‘pest’ species, and the role of humans. Chapter One identifies the use of exoticism to encourage protection of New Zealand’s wonderful, unique, and beautiful birds. Protection is further encouraged through the metaphors of friendship and citizenship. Chapter Two moves the conversation to introduced species, and argues that the Native Bird Protection Society and its contributing writers actively utilised language of disgust, destruction and the metaphor of the enemy to encourage action against these animals. Finally, Chapter Three examines the role humans had to play in this context, arguing that the same processes of categorising are evident in representations of humans of the past, present and future in Forest and Bird. The thesis demonstrates the categories used for depicting humans and animals are dependent upon context and often contradictory.