Morgana McCabe
MA Archaeology & Spanish (Glasgow)
MLitt Historical Archaeology (Glasgow)
PhD Candidate
Room: 322 Gregory Building
Telephone: +44 (0) 141 330 3925
Fax: +44 (0) 141 330 3544
Email: m.mccabe.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Title (Provisional)
Liminal Faces and Places: the feared other in the archaeological landscape
This research is supported by The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
Abstract
My research considers the placement and perceived capacities of 'feared others' within the landscape. Using the Scottish Reformation as a backdrop for this study, I am looking at three types of feared, liminal entities:
1) Witches (living, human women)
2) Unbaptised infant dead (dead, sub-human agents)
3) Demonic animals (animals attributed magical agency/abilities)
4) Fairies (imagined, non-human agents)
Morgana explains her research
To understand the experience of living in a world populated by so many dangerous beings, I am investigating the role of material culture and landscape in propagating, perpetuating, negotiating and alleviating fears about magic and witchcraft. In doing so, I consider the boundary between the holy and unholy and ways in which it could be exploited differentially by individuals, depending on their own interpretation of what was frightening and dangerous and what was not. One example of this boundary exists in the 'holy well': visited by some, condemned by others. Material culture examples of dealing with this boundary include objects reserved for physical discipline.
The permeable boundary between 'holy' and 'unholy' reveals a deep divide between doctrinal prescription and folk belief and encompasses many pre-Reformation practices and sites. By investigating the Reformation, not as an intellectual shift, but as an embodied experience focused around concerns over salvation and damnation, my research aims to assess to what degree Scottish reform was slower, more contested and more complex than previously appreciated.
My research approach is interdisciplinary and combines documentary study, landscape analysis, material culture studies and phenomenological inquiries with performance theory and storytelling.
Research Interests
Archaeology of religious change; the Reformation; embodiment; animality; deviant entities in the archaeological record; the art/science boundary.
Supervisors
Recent/forthcoming Publications
McCabe, M. 2009 Review of Deviant Burial in the Archaeological Record, Edited by Eileen Murphy, in The Kelvingrove Review, 4 [online].
Available at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_134275_en.pdf
McCabe, M. 2010. Review of 'What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture', by Arthur Asa Berger, in Folk Life, 48 (2), 204-206.
McCabe, M. 2011. Review of 'Material Cultures, Material Minds: The Impact of Things on human Thought, Society and Evolution' by Nicole Boivin. Folk Life, 49 (1), 92-94.
McCabe, M. 2011. Review of 'After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past' by Rodney Harrison and John Schofield. Archaeology Review from Cambridge 26 (1), 157-161.
McCabe, M. 2011. Translating the past: bridging the gap between the early post-Reformation Scottish subject and archaeology's audiences. Internet Archaeology 30. [online].
McCabe, M. and J. Novotny (forthcoming) Review of 'The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies' edited by Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry. Folk Life.
McCabe, M. (forthcoming) Review of ‘The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, and Memory in Early Modern Britain and Ireland’ by Alexandra Walsham. Archives.
McCabe, M (in prep) Death before life, life after death: infant burial grounds in early modern Scotland.
McCabe, M. (in prep) Identifying the infant burial grounds of early modern Scotland.
Conference Papers
McCabe, M., J. Novotny and R. Younger. Why archaeologists should ‘Like’ Facebook: The case study of Love Archaeology. Annual Meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG). University of Birmingham, 14th-16th December, 2011.
Being is believing: between ‘religion’ and ‘folk belief’. 33rd Annual Conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG). University of Birmingham, 14th-16th December, 2011.
Sensing the witch in early modern Scotland. Sensory Worlds. Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities (University of Edinburgh), 7th-9th December, 2011.
Dealing with night terrors: material evidence of the witch in early modern Scotland. Society of Folk Life Annual Conference. The Lit and Phil, Newcastle, 8th-11th September, 2011.
How to hunt for witches: new archaeological engagements with the Scottish Reformation and witch-hunts. European Reformation Research Group Annual Conference. Barkollo, Newcastle, 31st August - 2nd September, 2011.
The Unwritten Reformation: an interdisciplinary approach to the Scottish Reformation. School of Historical Studies Postgraduate Forum conference. University of Newcastle, 17th May 2010.
The devil among them: Scottish sinners and the shameful sackcloth, 1560-1730. Poster submitted to the Wrapping the Body Conference, University College London, 20-21st May 2010.
A Distant God: Reformation and material practice in early modern Scotland. European Association of Archaeologists 16th Annual Meeting. Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, 1st-5th September 2010.
Liminal Faces and Places: the feared other in the archaeological landscape. Poster at the Scottish Theoretical Archaeology Group Annual Conference, University of Glasgow, 23rd October 2010.
Through the backdoor to salvation: infant burial grounds in the early modern Gaelhealtachd. The 32nd Annual Conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group. University of Bristol, 17th-19th December 2010.
Invited Papers
Invited Seminar. Human-witch-animal... the Reformation of being and body. School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle. 17th February 2011.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Peer Reviewing (postgraduate workshop)
The Archaeology of the Scottish Reformation (ACE)
Interpreting Archaeology (Level 2)
Archaeology in the Modern World (Level 1)
The Archaeology of Scotland (Level 1)
Additional Information
2011 – present General Editor, Love Archaeology Magazine.
2010 - adminstrator, Love Archaeology At Glasgow University (Facebook page).
2010 – current Member of ScARF panel on archaeology of the Modern period.
2010 – current Member of the Parkhead and Dalmarnock Community Heritage Project.
2010 – current Co-organiser of the 3rd and 4th Annual conferences of the Scottish Theoretical Archaeology Group.
2009-2010 Lead Editor The Kelvingrove Review (based at the University of Glasgow): Issue 5.
2009-2010 Editorial board member of online journal eSharp (based at the University of Glasgow): Issues 13-15.
Acknowledgements
To the family of Sue Green for their generosity in awarding the Sue Green Bursary Scholarship