This thesis offers an archaeological and ethnographic examination of the coin-tree custom, which is essentially what its name suggests: the practice of inserting coins into trees. These trees are often in the form of logs or stumps, and they are commonly located beside well-traversed footpaths in rural/semi-rural areas. The custom can be traced back to the 1860s in Scotland, but has experienced a late 20th/early 21st-century renaissance, with clusters of coin-trees emerging across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. No previous academic attempt has been made to either catalogue these structures or contextualise the practice; it is the aim of this thesis, therefore, to do both. Proffering a catalogue of 197 individual coin-trees distributed across 34 sites (detailed in the appendices), this thesis draws on a wide range of resources in order to elucidate the custom: literary works, both historical and contemporary; the empirical data of the coin-trees themselves; and the ethnographic material of over 200 participant interviews. The history of the custom is traced, including a consideration of why it has experienced a recent resurgence – particularly at a time popularly conceived of as a ‘secular age’. The questions of how and why people participate are examined in detail, revealing a mutability to the ‘meaning’ of the custom, and a consideration of the future and heritage of the coin-tree structures themselves is also offered. The thesis closes with a suppositional vignette: what would an archaeologist find if she uncovered a coin-tree site in the future? How would she interpret the remains? And what does this reveal about archaeological methodologies, ritual interpretations, and the relationship between folklore and material culture?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:697740 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Houlbrook, Ceri |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/coining-the-cointree-contextualising-a-contemporary-british-custom(369d0851-57b9-43ab-9611-cbf478713620).html |
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