Annotated Bibliography

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“Ridings, Rough Music and the "Reform of Popular Culture" in Early Modern England, ” is an academic journal, written by Dr Martin Ingram and published in 1984 in the journal, “Past and present” about popular customs and culture such as charivari in 16th and 17th century. The following essay will discuss the Ingram’s core arguments, histographical background, how he agrees or disagrees with other scholars, the use local sources and the reliability of them. The core argument of Ingram’s essay is to question the work of other historians such as, Peter Burke and Keith Wrightson, with relation to the level of disparity of cultural differences, between the elite and the mass social groups, and to provide evidence that culture activities between…show more content…
This approach to the history of the period is characterised by its broad based treatment of the early modern period across the whole of Europe, and Ingram in his article questions the general consensus of this extensive approach by concentrating his analysis of evidence of particular countryside locations in England, where the practice of Charivari continued. He argues, unrelentingly and unaffected by shifts in opinions and practices of the cultural elites in the country, as evidence that such a divergence in society did not in fact take place. His argument is that a consistency can broadly be traced through the early modern period, particularly in more rural areas, in which such cultural practices continued to flourish. Ingram focuses in particular on the cultural practice of charivari in order to make this point and to establish…show more content…
Ingram notes that there were similarities between charivaris customs and ‘shame punishments’ which were officially discharged by ‘urban tribunals and the Star Chambers,’ and the punishment by parliament staff in 1621 of ‘Sir Francis Mitchell’ thus providing a link between social justice by the mass of the populace and legal justice conducted by the elite and hierarchy of society. Acknowledging the perimeters of using artistist works as sources, as outlined in the next paragraph, Ingram has included evidence from plaster panels of the ‘Great Hall, Montacute House, Somerset’ built ‘for Sir Edward Phelips, the house was a statement of wealth, ambition and showmanship,’ Ingram’s arguments are further substantiated by eluding to the political stance and the puritan revolution that charivaris was not only curtailed to the social mass. Although, erring on the side of caution, Ingram also uses literary references to strengthen his

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