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6 years ago in History , Plant & Animal Biology By Joshna

Are there studies on horses and equine culture in Early Modern England?

For my dissertation on material culture and status symbols in the 16th-17th centuries, I need to engage with scholarship on equines beyond just their economic or military use. I'm particularly interested in how horses functioned in social ritual, literature, and as markers of identity, but I'm struggling to find comprehensive secondary sources.

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By Sal Gray Answered 5 years ago

You've touched on a rich and growing subfield. I would recommend starting with the foundational work of Peter Edwards, The Horse Trade of Tudor and Stuart England, and Horse and Man in Early Modern England. For cultural symbolism, look at Donna Landry's Noble Brutes: How Eastern Horses Transformed English Culture. My own research has also benefited from archaeological reports on stable sites and probate inventories, which reveal the practical, everyday integration of horses into domestic life and social aspiration.

 

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