Mary Hartman's "riddle" is what are the origins of the Western family pattern. She begins with an introduction of discussing how single young women, and men, during the middle ages were making their own decisions, rather than being directed by a collective household. Hartman argues the degree of autonomy that existed in late medieval households in northwestern Europe was different than their counterparts. With this in mind, Hartman introduces her "new hypothesis for when, how, and why the northwestern Europe adopted a unique set of household arrangements" (pg. 78). She acknowledges there are many theories on this and discusses many of them throughout the chapter. Hartman's approach to discover the origins begins by looking at the two basic models for households of fixed agricultural societies: the dominant early-marriage model and the late-marriage model. The second model, she believes, points to how northwestern Europe differed.
Just as the plow helped establish the early-marriage model, the underpopulated and underexploited lands in northwestern Europe led to the less common late-marriage model there. The need in a peasant household for labor led to the delay of marriage for women. Late marriage for women Hartman claims, was the most enduring of all the features of the western family pattern; and if this were first feature in the western pattern, the other features become less of a riddle and easily explained.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with Joanna's analysis of the Hartman reading. However, I don't fully understand Hartman's claim of why the late marriage of women is the most lasting and influential origin of the Western family pattern. Maybe I am not reading enough into her work, or maybe she could delve further into the matter.
I found it interesting when Hartman began to describe the process of late marriage. She talks about the involvement that the men and women had in selecting their future spouse. They would gather their resources and start a nuclear family. This family would reside in the house alone, instead of with relatives. We discussed in class the importance and necessity of living with all the in laws in earlier generations. This most definitely sets them apart. (Page 6)
Post a Comment