Dr Claire Collins
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medpreg.bsky.social
Dr Claire Collins
@medpreg.bsky.social
620 followers 210 following 21 posts
Medievalist: pregnancy & childbirth / social history / medicine / magic / folklore | Work: The Folklore Society & University of Reading | She/her | Views own |
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medpreg.bsky.social
This display on Ngám - spider divination - which can be used to answer questions such as the best treatment for an illness or the identity of thieves and also adjudicate witchcraft accusations, is a reminder that accusations of witchcraft are not exclusively a phenomenon of the past.
Display from the 'Oracles, Omens an Answers' exhibition. The information board explains that 'the most popular form of divination in Cameroon in Central Africa involves tarantula-like spiders or land-crabs. The spiders, called ngámbi, live in holes in the ground. When consulting, ngám diviners place a stick and a stone near a spider's hole, which is covered with some marked leaf cards. As it emerges from its hole, the spider moves everything around and the resulting pattern is interpreted by the diviner.'
December 29, 2024 at 7:25 PM
medpreg.bsky.social
Saw three brilliant, free exhibitions at @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social today: 'Write Cut Rewrite', 'Oracles, Omens and Answers' and 'Magna Carta 1225'. 'Write Cut Rewrite' is only on until 5 Jan, but the others are on until the end of April. visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/events-exhib...
A photograph of a dragon volvelle, used to calculate eclipses, in the manuscript Arch. B b.7. Peter Apian, Astronomicum Caesareum, 1540. From the 'Oracles, Omens and Answers' exhibition. A photograph of one of the displays in the 'Write Cut Rewrite' exhibition, showing some of the works of Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley to illustrate how they 'helped each other in their literary undertakings'.
December 29, 2024 at 7:25 PM
medpreg.bsky.social
Received some lovely books for Christmas 😊📚 @magicnotwitches.bsky.social @witchesetc.bsky.social @HettaHowes
A pile of three books on the arm of a sofa, in front of a Christmas Tree. 'Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials by Marion Gibson', 'Cunning Folk' by Tabitha Stanmore and 'Poet Mystic Widow Wife' by Hetta Howes
December 29, 2024 at 5:53 PM
medpreg.bsky.social
We had a beautiful performance by @overslizzie.bsky.social at @folkloresociety.bsky.social last night. Liz played songs from her forthcoming solo album, 'Nightjar', and was accompanied by Dave Tomlins, who also plays on the album. 'Nightjar' is out in spring. Cover art is by Jennifer Binnie.
Album cover for 'Nightjar' Liz Overs and Dave Tomlins performing at The Folklore Society. Dave Tomlins is playing guitar in the foreground and Liz Overs is playing the shruti box
December 14, 2024 at 11:56 PM
medpreg.bsky.social
A great Stenton Lecture last night from Carole Rawcliffe, after an afternoon of great papers at the Stenton Symposium: 'The Senses in Hight Medieval to Early Modern Medicine'. Much food for thought ahead of @folkloresociety.bsky.social & @ucc.bsky.social's 2025 conference 'Folklore & the Senses'
Programme for the Stenton Symposium, 21 November 2024 Poster for the Stenton Lecture, 21 November 2024 Call for Papers for The Folklore Society and the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork's conference 'Folklore and the Senses'
November 22, 2024 at 9:57 PM