Women, Children and Men:
Families in Historical Perspective
History 249/Women's Studies 247--Block 5, 2005-6
Carol Neel (Palmer 233E, cneel@coloradocollege.edu, 719.389.6527)
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS
This course treats family structures, gender roles, and perceptions of human development throughout the European past, with comparative attention to families of other historical cultures and to the relational patterns of non-human primate communities. It asks how human beings--women, children, and men--are defined by the biological, social, and/or cultural bond we label "family." It inquires further how notions of familial connection have changed across time, and how sexualities, marriage, and childhood have in turn been shaped by differing family and household circumstances. In emphasizing the experience of women and children while viewing men in their familial context, this course will attempt to redress both the relative silence of non-males, non-elites, and non-adults in the western historical record and historians' consequent neglect of the human majority.
This is is a huge task and we can here only make a beginning. First we will ask what "family" means in the early twenty-first century and how the recent past--the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries--has framed contemporary understandings of familial relations. We will then return to ancient Mediterranean models of gender and sexual beahavior, and survey major developments in the history of marriage and childhood in the European medieval and early modern periods. Occasionally we will break orderly chronology and Western geographical focus to introduce topics of transhistorical interest, such as prostitution or child death and abortion. Finally, we will address the nurturance of children in modern America. Throughout our discussion, we will compare periods and cultural contexts with respect to the relationship between ideals and realities of household, marriage, and childrearing. In all our conversations, we will note now the family historian reconsiders well-known sources and uncovers new evidence in order to describe the private lives of the past's ordinary people.
Common readings will gather students' varied historical experience in group discussion. Each class member will
Because this course is largely discussion-based, final assessment will be based on both in-class participation and written work, with discussion, research paper, and other written assignments (taken together) weighted equally.
COURSE MATERIALS
The following works are available for purchase in the Colorado College Bookstore. Although some of these texts are available in other editions or translations, members of the class will find it useful to read and comment on versions with identical texts and pagination. Because discussions will require constant reference to texts--and because most students will want to mark important passages in their own copies--students should use their own copies of each work.
Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories. Trans. J. D. Duff. New York: Signet Books, 2003.
Hallett, Judith P. and Marilyn B. Skinner, eds. Roman Sexualities. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Bennett, Judith. Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Balestracci, Duccio. The Renaissance in the Fields. Trans. Paolo Squatriti and Betsy Meredith. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
Ozment, Steven. When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Hulbert, Ann. Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice about Children. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
The following further works will be available on the internet or distributed in class in photocopy form:
Boswell, John Eastburn. "Expositio and Oblatio: The Abandonment of Children in the Ancient and Medieval Family." American Historical Review 89 (1986): 10-33. (accessible through JSTOR)
Marie de France. "Guigemar." Lais of Marie de France. Trans. Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995. Pp. 30-59. "Le Fresne." Pp. 73-91.
Sheehan, Michael M. "Choice of a Marriage Partner in the Middle Ages: Devlopment and Mode of Application of a Theory of Marriage. Repr. in Medieval Families: Perspectives on Marriage, Household, and Children. Ed. Carol Neel. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Pp. 157-191.
Eiki, Hoshino and Takeda Dosho. "Mizuko Kuyo and Abortion in Contemporary Japan." In Religion and Society in Modern Japan: Selected Readings. Ed. Mark R. Mullins et al. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1993. Pp. 171-190.
Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999. Pp. xi-26, 288-317.
Houby-Nielsen, Sanne. "Child Burials in Ancient Athens." In Children and Material Culture. Ed. Joanna Sofaer Derevenski. London: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 151-166.
Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. Trans. Robert Baldrick. New York: Vintage Books, 1962. Pp. 9-61.
Herlihy, David. "Family." American Historical Review 96 (1991): 1-16. (accessible through JSTOR)
SCHEDULE OF CLASS DISCUSSIONS AND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
On the first day of the block, class will meet in the morning (9 AM) in Palmer 233A. Thereafter, unless otherwise announced or noted below, it will meet at 1 PM. The instructor will introduce common readings, suggest appropriate study questions, and identify collateral reading for discussion leaders. All readings will be completed by the class session for which their discussion is listed; no written work will be accepted late without prior excuse. Entire works are assigned unless specific pages or sections are listed.
WEEK 1 (January 23): Sex, Gender and Family
Monday AM introduction: doing family history
PM film: Redford, Ordinary People
Tuesday Discussion: Redford and Tolstoy, "Family Happiness," in Death of Ivan Ilych
Wednesday Discussion: Wolters, "Invading the Roman Body"; Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions," in Roman Sexualities
Thursday Discussion: Skinner, "Ego mulier"; Richlin, "Pliny's Brassiere", in Roman Sexualities
Friday SHORT ESSAYS DUE AT INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES WITH INSTRUCTOR
WEEK 2 (January 30): Adults and Children
Monday Discussion: Marie de France, "Guigemar" and "Le Fresne"; Sheehan
Tuesday AM film: Armstrong, Little Women
PM discussion: Armstrong, Little Women and individual research reports
BRIEF PROSPECTUS OF INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH PROJECTS DUE IN CLASS
Wednesday Discussion: Boswell, "Expostio and Oblatio"; Mullins et al., "Mizuko Kuyo and Abortion"; Hrdy
Thursday Discussion: Bennett 3-76, 145-157
Friday Discussion: Balestracci
WEEK 3 (February 6): Women, Men and Marriage
Monday Discussion: Ozment, GROUP A 1-99; GROUP B
Tuesday INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES WITH INSTRUCTOR
Wednesday Discussion: Houby-Nielsen; Hulbert [ix]-62
Thursday Discussion: Hulbert 63-96, 191-255, 360-370
Friday NO CLASS MEETING--WRITING DAY
3 PM RESEARCH ESSAYS DUE
WEEK 4 (February 13): Framing Family History
Monday AM film: Coppola, Godfather
Discussion: Coppola, Ariès, Herlihy
Tuesday NO CLASS MEETING--WORKGROUPS AND EXAM PREPARATION
3 PM EXAM ESSAYS DUE FOR EXCHANGE WITHIN EXAM GROUPS
4/5 PM: TWO SMALL-GROUP ORAL EXAMS
Wednesday REMAINING SMALL-GROUP ORAL EXAMS