Contemporary Families

Singly and Cichelli's artile on Contemporary Families argues that the new family order is characterized by the individual. Rather than the old family model in which family life was a collective concern, the family is now a place where the individual "searches for support from one's close relatives for the affirmation of one's identity."

Singly and Cichelli also argue that the European family has reconciled the individual with the "inegalitarian social order" perpetuated by the family in a general sense. The authors suggests that a study of social reproduction and personal fulfillment leads to an understanding of "the transformations that are under way in contemporary families.

The article divides the transformation of the family into different categories that shed light on the development of European families. One such category is that of education in contrast to social status as an asset in relationships. The contemporary family now allows the degree of the individual to determine their value in a relationship rather than the social rank of their parents. In a sense, the contemporary couple "trades" valuable degrees rather than social rank in the formation of a long term relationship. Interestingly enough a significant portion of the authors' evidence comes from novels and literature from the late nineteenth century to more contemporary literature.

The more compelling evidence however, comes from statistics gathered from surveys taken by different countries, especially France and Italy. With their evidence and arguments combined Singley and Cicchelli make the valid point that the European family of today is greatly based on the individual's development--including that of the child. While parents are responsible for creating opportunities for their child in competition with other families, the parent also assumes a more unattached role. Children are allowed to seek their personal identity, in fact, the parent is expected to help reach that latent personality.

An insightful conclusion is made by the authors. They recognized the great changes that have take place even in the last thirty to forty years and then pose the question of whether the current form of family life will actually last--what will be the next "contemporary family"?

"Households and Families: Structure and Flux" by Alan Duben and Cem Behar

Duben and Behar used information from the 1885 and 1907 censuses of Istanbul and other areas of Turkey to discuss marriage and family patterns in pre-WWI Turkey. Their main conclusion was that Turkey followed the southeast marriage pattern in a some ways, yet resembled northwestern Europe in other ways. Men and women married relatively early in Istanbul, with the men about ten years older than the women. However, when married the new couples generally left their parent's house and started their own household free from their parent's influence. Extended families still had close ties with young couples but the men were free to make their own decisions for their families. In consequence of young couples moving out, households tended to be quite small which defies Hartman's arguments the SE Europe had more numerous family groups. Duben and Behar do agree with Hartman that the age at marriage is the key to many other aspects of domestic life. They also point out that patterns in Istanbul and rural Anatolia (Turkey) were quite different, with rural Anatolia conforming more to Hartman's idea os SE Europe. The Hainal line is mentioned in reference to the fact that Turkey supports Hainal's ideas in a few ways and does not support it in other. Duben and Behar shed some light on Europe as a whole by discussing Turkey in particular. The example of Turkey shows how no family pattern fits across the board - each culture had its own peculiarities.

Moral Panic and Hollan's Libertine Youth of the 1650's and 1660's, Benjamin Roberts and Leendert F. Groenendijk

The look at the Dutch moral panic is informative. The author’s thesis is that the Dutch moralists were incorrect in accusing the Dutch youth of decadency. The authors are able to show that the youth were decadent. They show that the moralists had a political agenda. They even show that the youth weren’t beyond Dutch societal limits.

While the thesis is informative, I dislike the bias of the authors. This bias is most in evidence in how the authors judge the morals by today’s standards. For example, the moralists slandered women for indecency, and accused them of nudity. The authors defend the women by explaining “most likely, the only nudity these women were guilty of was wearing sleeves shortened to the elbow.” In another instance the authors are explain how moralists hated long hair on men. They give examples of the older generation having long hair when they were young, and explain this double standard by supposing the “aged men…were probably jealous of [the] young men.” Both of these conclusions suffer from two weaknesses. First, a “most likely,” and a “probably” screams improper research. These assumptions may be correct, but there is no evidence. Second, the authors do not address how the culture would have seen sleeves to the elbow, or how whether thinning hair was disdained. In both of these examples the authors assume that what seems plausible by today’s standards was true of the standards of 1650’s Amsterdam.

Independent but Not Alone: Family Ties for the Elderly. By:Susannah R. Ottoway

Ottoway examines the role of the family in caring for their elderly. She discusses that there were great affections between parents and children even through their older years. She finds through many different journals and diaries that most of the extensive, primary care that was done by the family was mainly during times of sickness or injury. Beyond the occasional extensive care for aged parents there was also an expectation of affection and assistance as well as for the elderly parents to continue caring about their adult children’s well being. Wills were a very prominent source to show of the care that elderly parents’ had for their children children even after death.

Another aspect Ottoway explored was co-habitation of aged parents with their adult children. Many of her statistics come from parish records from which she is able to find that most elderly parents did reside with their family, yet there was still a decent percentage that did not. Many of these were often the poor who needed the assistance the most, but did not have children that could support them in ways they needed, especially financially.

Further more, there was a great importance of grandchildren and even other extended family in the support and care of elderly family members. This care for elderly in some cases extended beyond family ties in certain cases. But overall the argument that Ottoway expresses is that family ranging from adult children, grandchildren, and other extended kin did play a very key role in the assistance of their aged family members. However, the extent depended on large regional variations as to the extent of assistance. This argument fits under the themes of age and family relationships because it discusses in depth the role of family relations of the elderly.

This argument is valid and supported through many forms of primary sources. Ottoway also involves other secondary sources that contradict her arguments in which she is able to successfully refute their claims. The point that is made of large variation is also an important side note to her claims, but also makes her claims more difficult to concretely display, which is common of most studies of family across large regional areas.

'Without the cry of any neighbours': A Cumbrian family and the poor law authorities, c. 1690-1730 by Steve Hindle

This article dealt primarily with social welfare in the late 1600s and early 1700s, and how far scholars have come since Lawrence Stone's original ideas on the subject in 1977. Poor people often had to petition for financial relief and support from the parish. Even though it was easier for the elderly and the widows, obtaining this support was difficult and resulted in minimal finances.

Hindle uses the example of one Ann Bowman to demonstrate just how the system worked. Bowman lived in the small English farming town of Kirkoswald, and spent about twenty years as a widow with five living children. In fact, Ann's husband Robert was still alive when she was first put on the parish weekly pension roles in 1690. The parish took Ann off the roles several times over the years, claiming that she had a daughter who could support her and thus spare the doners' money. Ann always appealed, claiming that she could not work, that her daughter who lived with her did not make enough to support her, and that she lived too far from anybody else to live off of begging for neighborly charity. It is worth noting that neighbors were often more responsible for providing charity to poor households than extended family. Widows were expected to either work or beg into old age. Ann fought this and claimed that she couldn't because of her oldest son's mental illness and "increasing disability" (page 155).

Tensions were obviously strong between the parish and "moochers" like Ann who were believed to still be able to find ways of providing for themselves. Some people, such as Ann, stood up for themselves and persisted in fighting for 'fair' weekly pensions.

How Northwestern Europe was Strange: Marriage, Households, and History

In the first Chapter of The Household and the Making of History, Mary Hartman shows the link between the age of marriage, household structure, gender roles and how Western Europe progressed from what she called a "backward periphery on the western fringes"(pg 1) into one of the more advanced areas of the world. She argues that while in most social arenas men were the dominate players, but that through domestic arenas, and thus women, many of modern history's best features are the result of marriage and the household system. Despite the generally excepted notion of very young marriages in the medieval era, Hartman argues that people actually tended to marry at an older age. She says that by marrying later many women first worked outside of their homes and when they did get married the couple tended to pool their resources and start their own nuclear family. Hartman claims that streamlined households would explain, in part, why the economical changes that led to industrialization occurred. towards the end of the chapter Hartman once again reminds us that she believes that women helped shape the world and history just as much as men did, and that women are not often given the credit they deserve in the writing of history.