Cursing, Crisis and Customary Knowledge in Early Modern English Townships

Karen O’Brien is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a social historian of comparative socio-legal history and criminology. Within a range of global, thematic and temporal contexts, and in an appraisal of the requests of the weak to the powerful, her publications investigate legal sources such as petitions and depositions to ascertain how people transcend the hardships of daily life, principally by appealing to the law for justice. Her research is internationally influential in the field of petitioning and her forthcoming research and publications address the wide-ranging area of customary knowledge in international comparative historical context.

• 1, ​Cursing in Early Modern Townships .- 2. Spoken Transgression and the Courts .- 3. Economic Fluctuation .- 4. Customary Knowledge, Magic, and Cunning in Local Context .- 5. Narratives of Desperation .- 6. Conclusion.