BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Ordinary seamen\, bodily knowledge and Royal Navy sex crimes trial
 s\, 1688–1783 - Seth LeJacq (Johns Hopkins University)
DTSTART:20121127T170000Z
DTEND:20121127T183000Z
UID:TALK40293@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Murray Jones
DESCRIPTION:This paper uses the records of Royal Navy courts martial to in
 vestigate the ways in which ordinary seamen monitored for and generated bo
 dily knowledge related to sexual activity. Sex crimes trials as well as tr
 ials for a variety of other offences reveal that the men of the lower deck
  kept a close watch for the signs of sexual activity\, employing a rich se
 miotics to read space\, the material world of the ship\, and each others' 
 bodies. The navy solicited this knowledge only infrequently\, but when it 
 did (usually in trials dealing with homoerotic activity) seamen offered mo
 re complex and ambiguous views towards proscribed sexual activity than has
  been appreciated. They also evinced substantial faith in their abilities 
 to offer authoritative knowledge relating to the signs of such activities.
  Courts martial boards often agreed\, and were willing to extend condition
 al authority to a remarkably wide range of men in trials - complicating pr
 evious interpretations of the role of naval surgeons as acknowledged 'expe
 rt witnesses' in these circumstances. I argue that prosecutions depended h
 eavily on these sorts of lower-deck knowledge\, and that they uncover deep
  tensions in shipboard life and offer us a remarkable window into some asp
 ects of plebeian bodily and sexual knowledge in the eighteenth century.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR