From Nat Geog, via Cronaca, news that Philippe Aries was at least partly wrong:
Members of the London-based Society of Thames Mudlarks look very different today from the Victorian street children the group takes its name from. Where ragged waifs once searched for bits of bone and coal to sell, men in overalls, gloves, and rubber boots now comb the River Thames foreshore with metal detectors.
[…]
Dating from as early as the 13th century, items [found] include tiny cannons and guns, metal figurines, and miniaturized household objects such as stools, jugs, cauldrons, and even frying pans complete with little fish.
[…]
“In the 1960s French historian Philippe Aries claimed that there wasn’t really such a thing as childhood in the Middle Ages and that parents didn’t form emotional attachments with their offspring, regarding them as economic providers or producers for the household,” [said Hazel Forsyth, curator of post-medieval collections at the Museum of London.]
[…]
“His views had a lot of currency. And for very many years, people believed this,” Forsyth said, noting that it has only been recently, with discovery of ancient childhood items by contemporary treasure hunters, “that we’ve challenged this received wisdom.”
Similar posts
- Alectryon, the Ancient Greek model for our cuckold’s horns?
With a field study of the nymphomaniacs of Goa and brief notes on the early history of composite grafts. - Arsing around in 16th century Spain
Vaguely re this, I was surprised to find that medieval Spanish local legal codes are thick with arse. Fueros sometimes proscribe - The Holy Boys
Xavi Caballé has read a book which suggests that the 18th century predecessors of the Norfolk Regiment were thus called because - Bollocks in 16th century Spanish writing
Where arse turns up regularly in jokes, proverbs and stories, bollocks–cojones–in CORDE’s version of sixteenth century Spain seem to be confined - Symbols of French nation and state: rooster vs eagle in the 18th & 19th century corpus
With some vague rabbitings on my silence and the rebirth of the humanities.
Comments