Should historians care about symmetry? The example of research into Medieval inquisitional records
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In this paper, I focus on the question whether historians, who deal basically with long dead people, should even though pay attention to symmetry in research. The method of source criticism is an essentially – and, I guess, inevitably – modernist and asymetrical method of data evaluation, but at the same time, it is one of the core elements in the identity of historical scholarship, indeed the most durable and the least questioned. I present critical postcolonial reflections of research into medieval inquisitional records by Renato Rosaldo and John H. Arnold, and I cite some examples where traditional source criticism is clearly insufficient or invalid. However, I also raise a couple of theoretical and practical issues with symmetrical approach in historical research, which I would like to discuss. Most of my examples is taken from my current biographical research in Christian religiosity based on inquisitional records from Italy and South-Western France, 1270-1330. |
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