medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I find that among my students who are doing duel majors in history and
education that the Aries thesis is alive and well. I suspect that in one of
their child development classes there is a text book with said ideas. But I
also think in persists for the same reasons lots of other myths of the Middle
Ages persist. It provides modernists something with which to measure their
"progress" against. We've moved beyond those barbaric medievals and developed
a loving family. When you get into 18th-century family historiography there is
a lot of discussion of how with the help of Rousseau, (like women ever needed
his help) women discovered the joys of breast feeding and the pleasures of
motherhood. To be sure this move was among elite women whose identities as
mothers had often been tenuous because of their other responsibilities.But
this change seems to imply to many that medieval people didn't love their
children.
Kit
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 15:38:45 -0900
[log in to unmask] wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> This is an area in which a lot of good and interesting work is
> currently being done, and Aries thesis, though still widely accepted
> (for some reason), has been laid to rest by new research. The field is
> poised, in my view, to go beyond Aries, finally.
>
> In addition to Orme's Medieval Children, for broad approaches to the
> issue see John Boswell's The Kindness of Strangers (Pantheon, 1988),
> Shulamith Shahar's Childhood in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 1990). For
> England, see Barbara Hanawalt's exemplary work, especially Ties that
> Bound (Oxford, 1986) and Growing Up in Medieval London (Oxford, 1993)
> and Ronald Finucane's Rescue of the Innocents (St. Martins, 1997).
> Sally Crawford's excellent Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England (Sutton,
> 1999) deals with the earlier period.
>
> If you'd like to see a collection of (mainly English) texts that
> directed toward children (one measure of their value), might I be
> forgiven a blatant bit of self promotion by suggesting an anthology I
> put together, Medieval Literature for Children (Routledge, 2003--and I
> *didn't* pick the title).
>
> Best from Anchorage,
>
> Dam
>
> _________________________________________
> Daniel T. Kline
> Associate Professor of English
> U of Alaska Anchorage
> Anchorage, Alaska 99508
> 907-786-4364 | [log in to unmask]
> hosting.uaa.alaska.edu/afdtk/ect_main.htm
>
> "Fortunately, I keep my feathers
> numbered for just such an emergency."
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Evan May <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Friday, January 7, 2005 9:07 am
> Subject: Re: Question on Status of Children
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>> culture
>> This idea is addressed in detail, and convincingly
>> demolished, in Nicholas Orme's book 'Medieval
>> Children', which i recommend most highly.
>>
>> Evan May
>>
>> > I have read that during the early middle ages the
>> > status of children in
>> > Europe was not high and they were not considered
>> > "real people" until they were
>> > adults (what age?) Can anyone on this list comment
>> > on this? Was it a low status?
>> > What time period? When did it change? Any idea why?
>> > I am postulating that
>> > it began to change when the devotion to the Holy
>> > Child Jesus became popular but
>> > I'd like to have any ideas.
>> > Thanks,
>> > Ann
>> >
>
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