The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard

Presented by: London Fortean Society

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0	LONDON: The Bell
P	Thursday 26th January, 2017
N	7:45pm

Event information

Every month, an iconoclastic group of Londoners gather at a site in Southwark known as Crossbones Graveyard to commemorate the souls of mediaeval prostitutes believed to be buried there – the “Winchester Geese”. This is a pilgrimage site for self-identified misfits, nonconformists and contemporary sex workers who leave memorials to the outcast dead. The ritual interpretation of the history of the site has struck a chord with many who feel alienated in present-day London.

Oxford anthropologist Prof Sondra L Hausner looks at the historical practices of sex work, the relation of the Church to these professions, and their representation in the present, arguing that ritual is a way of creating the contemporary world by mobilising stories of the past