On Identifying Chivalric Culture. An Outline of Research Issue

The article is an attempt to capture the chivalric culture on the basis of various activities of the nobility, as reconstructed by an analysis of written records as well as artefacts discovered mainly in Silesian castles during archaeological research. In order to objectify the results of this research, the concept of habitus proposed by sociologist of culture Pierre Bourdieu and his continuators was used. This approach redirects focus to the question of a range of capitals – economic, social, cultural, and others – which were at the disposal of the lord of the castle, discernible on the basis of the analysis of archaeological materials and written records. The possibility of converting them into symbolic capital is identified here with the culture of chivalry.