The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard

Time, Ritual, and Sexual Commerce in London

Sondra L. Hausner

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780253021243
• eBook ISBN: 9780253021472
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Comparative Religion

Every month, a ragtag group of Londoners gather in the site known as Crossbones Graveyard to commemorate the souls of medieval prostitutes believed to be buried there—the "Winchester Geese, " women who were under the protection of the Church but denied Christian burial. In the Borough of Southwark, not far from Shakespeare's Globe, is a pilgrimage site for self-identified misfits, nonconformists, and contemporary sex workers who leave memorials to the outcast dead. Ceremonies combining raucous humor and eclectic spirituality are led by a local playwright, John Constable, also known as John Crow. His interpretation of the history of the site has struck a chord with many who feel alienated in present-day London. Sondra L. Hausner offers a nuanced ethnography of Crossbones that tacks between past and present to look at the historical practices of sex work, the relation of the Church to these professions, and their representation in the present. She draws on anthropological approaches to ritual and time to understand the forms of spiritual healing conveyed by the Crossbones rites. She shows that ritual is a way of creating the present by mobilizing the stories of the past for contemporary purposes.

INDEX

The page numbers in Index represents the print page number and will differ with the eBook page numbers

acceptance: of class; of critique; as cure; of the mainstream; of marginality; of materiality; of prostitution, (see also prostitution); of religious belief. See also diversity; inclusion; integration

activism; anticapitalist, (see also capitalism); civic, (see also Crossbones Graveyard); feminist, (see also feminism); and identity; John Constable, (see also Constable, John); resolution; sex workers; sixties. See also social change

actors: John Constable; and prostitutes. See also theaters

adaptation: Church of England; Crossbones group

agency: individual; and morality; of narration; of the nation state, (see also Elizabeth I, Queen of England); within prostitution; within ritual, (see also ritual); social process. See also individual; selfhood

alterity: community within; contemporary; and dominance; Elizabethan England, (see also Elizabeth I, Queen of England); manipulable character; power of; shaman, (see also shamans); Southwark, (see also Southwark); Southwark Cathedral. See also counterculture; outcast; periphery; social opposition

ancestors. See also memorialization

Anglican Church. See Church of England

animals. See also bear-baiting; shamans

anthropology: activist; contemporary parallels; England; gender; myth; prostitution; Radical Anthropology Group; religion; ritual; ritual theory; society; Southwark; temporal frames. See also culture; human mind; religion; time

art: artists; contemporary; Crossbones Garden handicraft; Elizabethan period; English language; experience of; London art world; passion; as prayer; and ritual; secular character; sixties; social movement; Southwark; Tate Modern. See also theaters

Arthur, King of England

Asad, Talal

asceticism: contradictions; and gender; mental illness; naked Himalayan; South Asian. See also chastity; purity

Augustine, Saint

authority: Catholic; ecclesiastical; juridical; national

awareness: activist, (see also activism); of alterity, (see also alterity; counterculture; outcast); heightened; of narrative effect; of otherness; pragmatic; of prostitution, (see also prostitute). See also consciousness; healing; human condition; narrative

Bankside: Bankside Open Spaces Trust; The Book of the New South Bank; brothel closure; brothel regulation; capital relations; classical antiquity; contemporary; medieval; poverty; Reformation; The Southwark Mysteries; theatre; Winchester Geese; Winchester Palace. See also London; Southwark

Barron, Caroline

Bate, Jonathan

bear-baiting

Bell, Catherine

belonging; and nationalism; possessions

Bennett, Judith

bishops: Archbishop of Canterbury; female; religious practice; and St. George; of Winchester (see Winchester, Bishop of); of Worcester. See also Church of England

blame. See also shame

body: burial; communion ritual; corporation; gender; healing; institutional; as livelihood; materiality; memorialization; national; rhythm; social insertion; society. See also experience; phenomenology; senses; tangibility

Book of the New South Bank, The

bordello. See brothels

border: border region; Elizabethan; heuristic; River Thames; of society, (see also alterity; counterculture; outcast); Wales. See also periphery

brothels: in Bankside; closure of; female management; legality of; materiality; as protection; regulation of; A Survey of London; during war; Winchester Geese, see prostitute; Winchester Goose. See also ordinance of prostitution; prostitution; stews; theaters

Brundage, James

Burghart, Richard

burial: archeological site; Crossbones Graveyard; inequality of; of Shakespeare. See also death; memorialization

Calvinism

Camelot. See also Arthur, King of England

canonical debate. See church; prostitution

capitalism: commodity capitalism; foreign capital; incipient (see Elizabeth I, Queen of England); property values; relations of; resistance to, (see also Constable, John; social opposition); sexual repression (see exchange); the Shard; triumph of; Weberian analysis. See also trade; transnationalism

Carlin, Martha

cash. See money

categories: of the human mind; religious; social position; versus practice

Catholicism: acceptance of; break from; confrontations regarding; foreign-trained clergy; indifference to; marriage to; Mary I, (see also Mary I, Queen of England); plots to reinstate; St. George, see George, Saint

centralization. See also Winchester

Charles I, King of England

charter: of Edward III; prostitution; tribal

chastity. See also asceticism; purity; sexual repression; virginity

Chaucer, Geoffrey

church: as institution; medieval; and prostitution; and sexuality; Southwark Cathedral (see under Southwark); and women. See also Church of England; Protestantism; Reformation; religion

Church of England: birth and consolidation; cemeteries, (see also burial); female bishops; flexibility of; prostitution regulation (see brothels; prostitution); and sexuality (see church); Southwark Cathedral (see under Southwark)

cited writings: The Book of the New South Bank; The Canterbury Tales; Charter of Edward III; Crossbones poem; Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight; The Division of Labor in Society; The Faerie Queen; Henry IV, Part 2; Henry V; Henry VI, Part 1; John Stow; medieval ordinance; Mind Games; On Order; The Recent Historiography of the English Reformation; Richard II; Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice; Royal proclamation; Southwark Cathedral website; The Southwark Mysteries; Structural Anthropology; A Survey of London; Troilus and Cressida

collective: effervescence, (see also Durkheim, Emile); experience; institutions; justice; levels; memory; of outsiders; resistance; social order; thinking; unconscious. See also community

commerce: City of London; collective thinking; sexual commerce, (see also prostitution). See also capitalism; economy; exchange; merchants; trade

commodity: body as; capitalism, see capitalism; exchange, (see also under exchange); market; tangibility; trade policies, see trade

community: within alterity; binding of; civic; healing of; inclusiveness; for memorialization; mindfulness; protection of; The Southwark Mysteries community organization; theatre; threat to. See also culture; mainstream

consciousness: of alterity; bodily; cultural; experimentation with; heightened; John Constable; meditative; nationhood; self-consciousness, (see also awareness); social; temporal. See also mimesis; oscillation

Constable, John: activism; The Book of the New South Bank; personal history; philosophy; resistance to capitalism; as shaman, see Crow, John; The Southwark Mysteries; vision. See also Crossbones ritual; Crow, John

corporation: birth of; corporate identity; proliferation of; Transport for London; versus corporeal

counterculture: Crossbones group, (see also Cros...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction Set and Setting
• One The Myth of the Winchester Goose
• Two Medieval Bankside
• Three Shamanism and the Ritual Oscillation of Time
• Four The Virgin Queen and the English Nation
• Five Southwark, Then and Now
• Conclusion Making the Present
• Epilogue Crossbones Garden
• Permissions for Text and Photographs
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index