Doctoral Committee
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THE HUMAN HORSE: EQUINE HUSBANDRY, ANTHROPOMORPHIC HIERARCHIES, AND DAILY LIFE IN LOWER SAXONY, 1550-1735 BY AMANDA RENEE EISEMANN DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Craig Koslofsky, Chair Associate Professor Clare Crowston Professor Richard Burkhardt Professor Mark Micale Professor Mara Wade ii Abstract This dissertation examines how human-animal relationships were formed through daily equine trade networks in early modern Germany. As reflections of human cultural values and experiences, these relationships had a significant impact in early modern Braunschweig- Lüneburg both on the practice of horse breeding and veterinary medicine and on the gendering of certain economic resources, activities, and trades. My study relies on archival and cultural sources ranging from the foundational documents of the Hannoverian stud farm in Celle, tax records, guild books, and livestock registers to select pieces of popular and guild art, farrier guides, and farmers’ almanacs. By combining traditional social and economic sources with those that offer insight on daily life, this dissertation is able to show that in early modern Germany, men involved with equine husbandry and horse breeding relied on their economic relationship with horses' bodies as a means to construct distinct trade and masculine identities. Horses also served as social projections of their owners’ bodies and their owners’ culture, representing a unique code of masculinity that connected and divided individuals between social orders. Male identities, in particular, were molded and maintained through the manner of an individual’s contact with equestrian trade and through the public demonstration of proper recognition of equine value. My study ultimately demonstrates that early modern tradesmen each possessed a number of overlapping cultural identities, which together influenced the direction of state policy and popular economic practices in eighteenth century Braunschweig- Lüneburg. A product and a motor for reconstruction after the Thirty Years War, farmers bred and took care of the bulk of the German horse population on a daily basis throughout the early modern period. Farmers developed a new socioeconomic identity as tradesmen-farmers, which depended on emphasizing male farmers’ usage of horses over the much more common, widespread, and traditional usage of oxen in agriculture. This newly developing male trade identity did not recognize a corresponding female trade identity beyond her non-trade specific social rank as wife and general help-mate. While medieval agrarian ideals celebrated German peasant couples working the land together and fulfilling their feudal obligations in joint labor, agrarian ideals of the late seventeenth century came to emphasize the agricultural knowledge and iii skillsets of male farmers in order to leverage and elevate farmers’ social status and reputation as agrarian tradesmen. Mediations both inside and outside of smith guilds between large-smith guildsmen and veterinary practitioners created a wide field of trade-associated titles and social hierarchies, each of which with its own implied set of trade knowledges and skills. The chapters of this dissertation demonstrate that like German farmers, large-smiths, hoof-smiths, and horse doctors had also begun to utilize horses’ bodies as cultural capital by the end of the seventeenth century. Yet, their use of horses to construct trade and masculine identities operated along different economic networks and toward different social purposes than farmers. Although servicing both the general iron-smithing and healthcare needs of humans and cattle prior to the Thirty Years War, it was during the period of economic and social reconstruction during the mid-seventeenth century that German large-smiths across the Lüneburg heath began to place a new emphasis on equine medicine and other equine-centric skillsets as iconic smith trade abilities. Independent and guild-based masters also employed equine-related trade skills as a means through which to expand their personal reputation and social status along with improving their economic prospects through guild hierarchies and marriage. iv Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking the zealous operators of the many libraries, archives, and museums that I have visited in the course of researching this project. Of those, I would particularly like to thank Jill Bepler and the Herzog August Bibliothek as well as the dedicated staffs of the Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek in Hannover, Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover, Staatsarchiv Wolfenbüttel, and city archives of Hannover, Braunschweig, Celle, and Wolfenbüttel. I would like to thank the curators of Utrecht’s Museum Catharijneconvent and of Braunschweig’s Städtisches Museum, who both went far out of their way to aid my guild research. I would next like to thank the surprising number of anonymous benefactors that have aided me in my journeys abroad. Somewhere at the top of this list is a wonderful Portuguese woman in La Sarraz, who not only spared me from sleeping outside in the cold next to my unexpectedly closed village hotel by whisking me away in her car across several mountains to the next closest hotel but who also made sure that someone would drive me back in the morning for free. Thanks then goes to the colorful yet highly informative personal tour of the Stadtkirche St. Marien in Celle that I received from a local woman parishioner. I will always be grateful for the incredible patience and kindness shown to me by Jürgen Schlumbohm on our many meetings at the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte in Göttingen. He was always glad to listen to my latest ideas, even if he felt they were going in the wrong direction. While in Göttingen, I also benefited from the help of Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen and the staffs of both university libraries. My deepest thanks to the allerbeste Wohngemeinschaft, who not only made excellent roommates but close friends. I have rarely enjoyed so many fascinating conversations or unpredictable parties as with Bastian Hinz, Jelana Vajen, and Haik Gregorian. Thanks also goes to their friends Anna, Katherine, and Stephen. The topics and discussions at the GHI’s Animals in History conference were the perfect way to start off two months of pre-dissertation travel. Among others, my thanks goes to Dorothee Brantz, Peter Edwards, Suzanne Hehenberger, Mary Weismantel, Susan Pearson, and Clay McShane for thrilling dinner-table talk. I could almost say the same about the GHI’s Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar this past May. I cannot think of a better way to have reinvigorated the last stage of my writing than through intellectual discussions that one did not v want to end. I hold David Luebke, Nikolas Funke, Stephen Lazer, Jason Strandquist, Hannah Murphy, Laura Kounine, Avraham Siluk, Kornelia Kaschke-Kisaarslan, and the other summer GHI panelists to blame for these last minute improvements. I have been extremely fortunate with the high caliber of intellectual debate and professionalism of my instructors at the University of Illinois. Foremost, I would like to thank my doctoral committee: my Doktorvater Craig Koslofsky, Clare Crowston, Mara Wade, Chip Burkhardt, and Mark Micale, who had the faith to allow me to roam where the research and writing called me. The steady hand and unwavering confidence of Craig Koslofsky has guided me safely through innumerable thorny patches at all stages of my graduate career. Of the countless things I am grateful to Clare Crowston for, I am always surprised at how quickly her love of economic history converted me to the subject. My thanks to Lisa Rosenthal, Ron Toby, Megan McLaughlin, David Price, Anne D. Hedeman, and finally to John Unsworth for reminding me for the last time how exciting taking classes can be. My writing has greatly benefitted from the generous input of several academic groups: Mark Steinberg, Nile Blunt, Rebecca Mitchell, James Welker, and a truly marvelous dissertation writing workshop; Caroline Hibbard, Dana Rabin, John Lynn, John Randolph, Jennifer Edwards, Rachel Smith, and the many other skillful minds of the Early Modern Reading Group, who fostered the first embers of this project; Peter Fritzsche, Harry Liebersohn, Jason Hansen, Amanda Brian, Kristen Ehrenberger, Andrew Demshuk, Jason Tebbe, and the German reading group; and, Jan Langendorf, Elaine Sampson, Tom Bedwell, and the History staff. I cannot possibly remember all the many kindnesses I have received along the way, so I will leave a very unfinished list of those deserving thanks: my younger two academic siblings, Jake Baum and Lance Lubelski; Anita Bravo; Will Tinder; Pia Cuneo; Elana Jakel; Ryan Jones; Ton Broos; Janet G. Broos; Christian Hainds; Rachel Shulman; Bao Bui; Jing Jing Chang; Andy Bruno; Carola Dwyer; and, Claus Larsen. It is not an exaggeration to say that I never would have finished my dissertation without the constant, tireless efforts of my family, Michelle Perugini, Elaine Eisemann, and Peter Eisemann. No matter how busy or ill, they have never once let me down and have always provided ready advice, constructive criticism, and superior editing skills. I am also indebted to the ceaseless love and emotional support provided by the rest of my family, specifically my vi partner Christopher Sobczak, my grandmother June Maag, Natasha Eisemann,