- Name: Eseld an Goarnic
- Project Title: The Mother and the Other Early Midwifery as Liminal Space
- Location: Shire of Mountain Freehold
- EK Wiki: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/wiki/Eseld_An_Goarnic
- Category: Research/experimental archaeology
As a scadian and a museum professional, I am interested in the minutiae of everyday lives, as well as in how ordinary material items can become extraordinary in context. In my research this past year into the witch trials of the early Protestant Reformation, I noticed a curious thing: many objects whose possession was considered evidence of witchcraft were, in fact, well-established midwifery tools. I became fascinated by this Rorschach test of early modern material culture: items considered sacred or profane depending on one’s biases. For Artifacts of a Life 2025, I researched and recreated eight objects that were mentioned both in midwifery texts and witch trial records.
The Protestant Reformation saw previously holy objects reframed as popish or pagan. For example, the use of birth girdles (prayer-inscribed belts wrapped around a woman’s body for protection in labor) was explicitly permitted by the Roman Catholic Church, but the 1530s sacking of the monasteries saw most of them seized and destroyed; those who continued to use them after their fall from grace were cast as suspicious and even criminal.
This project explores how the same objects, under different cultural lenses, acquire dramatically different meanings. All eight of my pieces were considered holy to some and wicked to others. Through researching and recreating them, I have demonstrated how, much as the laboring mother hovers between two states, the midwife herself occupies a similarly precarious cultural space.
Overall Documentation: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/images/b/bc/The_Mother_and_the_Other_Early_Modern_Midwifery_as_Liminal_Space.pdf
Girdle documentation: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/images/5/5d/Birth_Girdle_Documentation.pdf
Garb & supplies documentation: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/images/b/bd/English_Midwifery_Garb_%26_Supplies.pdf