Landscape organization, identity and change: territoriality and hagiography in medieval west Cornwall

Abstract

From a starting point of contextualizing landscape research both socially and spatially, the need to recognize evolving ideas of territoriality and processes of territorialization in landscape studies is focused upon. The development of the parochial framework in west Cornwall is considered within the context of political change and social transition. Through a detailed examination of hagiographies and related saintly legends, territorial and organizational development of ecclesiastical authority is firmly placed within contemporary experiences of landscape, linguistic politics and relationships with a particular past. Bourdieu's notion of habitus is used to explain how aspects of continuity and deep memory may have been at the very heart of these organizational developments, which saw forces of change rooted within the conservative and familiar nature of hagiographical writing.