Cathy directs the list to read the following with a request for comments:
The Medieval Child: an Unknown Phenomenon?
by
Sophie Oosterwijk
It seems inconceivable that, in a period when the most popular
image was that of the Madonna and Child, there was little or no
understanding of or affection for children in everyday life, yet such is
the popular misconception about medieval childhood. ...
The notion of medieval indifference towards children certainly
did not originate with the late French historian Philippe Ariès and his
1960 book L'enfant et la vie familiale sous l'ancien régime, but it was his
theory that childhood was a concept which was not 'discovered' until much
later that stirred up a heated debate on the nature of childhood in the
past <1>. While many scholars may have come to feel that Ariès's ideas have
already received sufficient criticism, others have continued to propose
even more controversial and bleak pictures of childhood life in the past;
according to one psychohistorian, "The history of childhood is a nightmare
from which we have only recently begun to awaken" <2>.
Lloyd deMause replies: Since this last quotation is from my 1974 work "The
Evolution of Childhood," I should respond to the criticism by Oosterwijk in
this article of my conclusions.
Despite Oosterwijk's saying that "the medieval popularity of the Virgin and
Child could only have worked if people recognized...the bond of affection
between mother and child," I have found no mother in the middle ages who
would not have been thrown into jail today for extreme neglect, for tying
up the baby in swaddling bands for a year or more, for feeding it little,
for beating it, and for a dozen other abusive practices that were universal
at the time. Oosterwijk gives no evidence to counter my hundreds of
primary sources cited in "Evolution" and in later work during the past 25
years. Those who are interested in deciding for themselves can read the
full text and references for "Evolution" and for my current book in process
"Childhood and History" on <www.psychohistory.com>
I will also be pleased to send my article "On Writing Childhood History"
refuting attacks on my "childhood was a nightmare" thesis and citing dozens
of associates who have published full books, dozens of scholarly articles
and doctoral studies of medieval autobiographies that confirm my
conclusions to anyone who emails me their postal address.
Lloyd
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