Denna text specificerar gotländska kyrkomålningar som föreställer Tjuvmjölkerskor. Syftet med studien är att skapa en förståelse för medeltida människors syn på tjuvmjölkerskor och hur de påverkade det medeltida samhället. Studien använder ett ikonografiskt tillvägagångsätt för att studera målningarna och hur tjuvmjölkerskorna framställs. En rumslig analys utförs även för att undersöka målningarnas placering inne i kyrkorummet. Kyrkan under medeltiden såg den kvinnliga sexualiteten som ett hot, ett sätt för henne att manipulera män och utföra onda handlingar. Kyrkan använde tjuvmjölkningsmålningarna som en metod att skrämma och påminna befolkningen om rätt och fel, men även om bestraffningen som skulle åläggas vid samröre med djävulen. Tjuvmjölkerskan avbildades som en vanlig kvinna med vardagliga föremål under medeltiden, vilket ökade rädslan att en tjuvmjölkerska kunde vara vem som helst. Hennes handlingar och bestraffning avslöjar dock hennes identitet. Tjuvmjölkerskan bidrog därför med oro och rädsla i det medeltida samhället. / This text specifies Gotland church paintings depicting milk stealing women. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of medieval people's view of milk stealing women and how they influenced the medieval society. The study uses an iconographic approach to studying the paintings and how the milk stealing women are depicted. A spatial analysis is also used to examine the location of the paintings in the church room. The medieval church saw female sexuality as a threat, a way for women to manipulate men and perform evil deeds. The church used the thief milking paintings as a method of scaring and reminding the population of right and wrong, but also of the punishment that would be imposed when associating with the devil. The milk stealing woman is depicted as an ordinary woman with everyday objects in the Middle Ages, which increased the fear that a milk stealing woman could be anyone. However, her actions and punishment revealed her identity. The milk stealing woman therefore contributed to anxiety and fear in middle age society.

A recognition system is required between pinniped mothers and pups. For otariids this is especially important since females frequently leave their pups for foraging and must reunite on return. Pups must deal with these fasting periods during maternal absence and consequently may attempt to obtain allomaternal care from unrelated females. This research on the New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) at Ohau Point, Kaikoura, New Zealand, quantified mother-pup recognition behaviour during reunions, individuality of pup calls used by mothers to recognise their pup, and the occurrence of allosuckling as a possible recognition error by females and as a strategy employed by pups to gain allomaternal care during their mothers' absence. A combination of behavioural observations, morphometry, VHF radio telemetry, acoustics and DNA genotyping were employed to study these topics. Postpartum interaction behaviours between mothers and pups appeared to facilitate development of an efficient mother-pup recognition system, involving mainly vocal and olfactory cues that were utilised during reunions. Greater selective pressure on pups to reunite resulted in an asymmetry of searching behaviour between females and pups during reunions. The vocalisations of pups were stereotypic, especially those features of the fundamental frequency and frequency of the lowest harmonic, which are likely to facilitate recognition of a pup by their mother. Pups attempted to steal milk from unrelated females more often during maternal absence and appeared to modify the intra-individual variation pattern of a feature of their vocal signatures over this period, which may assist attempts at allosuckling under nutritional stress. Fostering was demonstrated to occur despite costs to filial pups and possible costs to female reproductive success and may be attributed to development of erroneous recognition between females and non filial pups, or kin selection. This study provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge of recognition systems between pinniped mothers and pups, of alternative pup strategies under nutritional stress and of the rare occurrence of fostering in otariid pinnipeds.

A recognition system is required between pinniped mothers and pups. For otariids this is especially important since females frequently leave their pups for foraging and must reunite on return. Pups must deal with these fasting periods during maternal absence and consequently may attempt to obtain allomaternal care from unrelated females. This research on the New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) at Ohau Point, Kaikoura, New Zealand, quantified mother-pup recognition behaviour during reunions, individuality of pup calls used by mothers to recognise their pup, and the occurrence of allosuckling as a possible recognition error by females and as a strategy employed by pups to gain allomaternal care during their mothers' absence. A combination of behavioural observations, morphometry, VHF radio telemetry, acoustics and DNA genotyping were employed to study these topics. Postpartum interaction behaviours between mothers and pups appeared to facilitate development of an efficient mother-pup recognition system, involving mainly vocal and olfactory cues that were utilised during reunions. Greater selective pressure on pups to reunite resulted in an asymmetry of searching behaviour between females and pups during reunions. The vocalisations of pups were stereotypic, especially those features of the fundamental frequency and frequency of the lowest harmonic, which are likely to facilitate recognition of a pup by their mother. Pups attempted to steal milk from unrelated females more often during maternal absence and appeared to modify the intra-individual variation pattern of a feature of their vocal signatures over this period, which may assist attempts at allosuckling under nutritional stress. Fostering was demonstrated to occur despite costs to filial pups and possible costs to female reproductive success and may be attributed to development of erroneous recognition between females and non filial pups, or kin selection. This study provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge of recognition systems between pinniped mothers and pups, of alternative pup strategies under nutritional stress and of the rare occurrence of fostering in otariid pinnipeds.

This thesis focuses on the significance of blood and the perception of the body in both learned and popular culture in order to investigate problems of identity and social exclusion in early modern Europe. Starting from the view of blood as a liminal matter, manifesting fertile, positive aspects in conjunction with dangerous, negative ones, I show how it was believed to attract supernatural forces within the natural world. It could empower or pollute, restore health or waste corporeal and spiritual existence. While this theme has been studied in a medieval religious context and by anthropologists, its relevance during the early modern period has not been explored. I argue that, considering the impact of the Reformation on people’s mentalities, studying the way in which ideas regarding blood and the body changed from late medieval times to the eighteenth century can provide new insights about patterns of social and religious tensions, such as the witch-trials and persecutions. In this regard the thesis engages with anthropological theories, comparing the dialectic between blood and body with that between identity and society, demonstrating that they both spread from the conflict of life with death, leading to the social embodiment or to the rejection of an individual. A comparative approach is also employed to analyze blood symbolism in Protestant and Catholic countries, and to discuss how beliefs were influenced by both cultural similarities and religious differences. Combining historical sources, such as witches’ confessions, with appropriate examples from anthropology I also examine a corpus of popular ideas, which resisted to theological and learned notions or slowly merged with them. Blood had different meanings for different sections of society, embodying both the physical struggle for life and the spiritual value of the Christian soul. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 develop the dualism of the fluid in late medieval and early modern ritual murder accusations against Jews, European witchcraft and supernatural beliefs and in the medical and philosophical knowledge, while chapters 5 and 6 focus on blood themes in Protestant England and in Counter-Reformation Italy. Through the examination of blood in these contexts I hope to demonstrate that contrasting feelings, fears and beliefs related to dangerous or extraordinary individuals, such as Jews, witches, and Catholic saints, but also superhuman beings such as fairies, vampires and werewolves, were rooted in the perception of the body as an unstable substance, that was at the base of ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes.