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Unit 13 Family and Household Section 1 Unit Materials Questions To Consider Question 1. How can we use the study of families and households to explore broad political, economic, or ideological themes in world history? Question 2. What kinds of evidence do historians use to recover family and household histories? Question 3. What are some of the ways that family and household structures have varied across cultures and changed over time? Question 4. What is the relationship between family/household and political order? What is the relationship between family/household and religion? The Big Picture How is this topic related to Increasing Integration? The experience of living in a family or household integrates nearly all humanity. Families and households provide a nearly universal setting that meets basic human needs — from birth to death — around the world. How is this topic related to Proliferating Difference? At the same time, the exact structure of families and households vary widely, and reflect the different cultural and historical settings in which they occur. In addition, family and household structures change over time, creating differences between past and present forms. Unit Purpose ß Families and households are socially constructed units that provide individuals with their most intimate and personal means of ordering the world. ß Families and households are universal in world history. Their specific forms, however, vary widely through time and across space. 1 ß Families and households influenced, and were influenced by, larger societal forces such as politics, religion, and economics. 2 Unit Content Overview An individual’s earliest and most profound experience of the world takes place at home. The experience of family life leaves a distinctive and lasting imprint, and shapes our understanding of how the world outside the home works. However, the meaning and nature of family and household varies widely across cultures and over time. Like the concepts of gender and community, families were socially and culturally constructed, not biologically determined. Yet whatever their form, familial units were used by peoples around the world to construct the order of their lives at home and they influenced — and were influenced by — the hierarchies of social and political life in the wider world. This unit explores how families and households — the most intimate and basic social organizations — intersected and interacted with ideas, institutions, and communities from ancient times to about 1750. Too often, historians have ignored the private, daily realm of human activity in favor of large-scale political affairs and the actions of “great men.” Recently, however, world historians have approached family differently: as evidence for the variety and commonality of world history, as models for ordering the world, as evidence of the dynamic nature of the past, and as a way to bring the ordinary and familiar into global perspective. While reconstructing the history of families can be difficult, historians have learned to mine rich sources that frequently document the ways families and households functioned in the past, including oral testimony, mythology, genealogies, life histories, legal codes, archaeological excavations, language, and literature. Historians have found that families and households are universal in world history, but that their specific form is a product of culture and historical change. Moreover, the historical record as represented by official documents — such as codes of law — merely reports the prescribed or dictated ideal behavior; actual historical practices often differed greatly from ideals. Finally, families interacted with and were influenced by various large structures — political, economic, and ideological. Indeed, the dynamism of historical change is evident not only in the rise and fall of rulers, states, and empires but also in the shifting patterns of family and household over time and across cultures. Unit References Steven Ozment. When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983). David Herlihy, “Family,” The American Historical Review, 96 (1991) 1–16. Sarah Shaver Hughes and Brady Hughes, eds., Women in World History: Readings from 1500 to the Present (London: M.E. Sharpe, 1997). 2 vols. Patricia B. Ebrey, “The Chinese Family and the Spread of Confucian Values,” in The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and Its Modern Adaptation, ed. Gilbert Rozman, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 45–83. Tamara K. Hareven, “The History of the Family and the Complexity of Social Change,” The American Historical Review 96 (1991), 95–124. Hugh Cunningham, “Histories of Childhood,” The American Historical Review 103 (1998), 1195–208. 3 Global Historical Context ß Time Period: 500 BCE–1750 CE ß Family units are nearly universal in world history. By studying these units, world historians explore the familiar patterns of kin groupings and family social relations while placing these patterns in larger regional, cultural, and global contexts. In other words, studying family groups allows world historians to probe the social, political, and economic frameworks within which families in different parts of the world develop. These frameworks, in turn, help world historians understand the role gender plays in family relationships, and how gender ideologies are formed in the wider context of social relations. Studying families provides world historians with unique perspectives on the global past, and reminds us that although the global patterns we talk about may be vast, most people experienced these patterns on a daily basis through their roles as family members. AP Themes ß Examines change and continuity by exploring the ways in which family structures changed over time in Europe, China, and the Islamic world. ß Explores systems of social and gender structure by focusing on how family groupings reflected the wider gender ideologies of their home societies, and how gender ideologies did not always reflect actual family relationships. ß Discusses cultural and intellectual developments by looking at the ways in which families were influenced by the cultural traditions and beliefs of the wider society. Related Units ß Unit 2. History and Memory: How are history and memory different? Topics in this unit range from the celebration of Columbus Day to the demolition of a Korean museum to the historical re-interpretation of Mayan civilization. This unit explores the ways historians, nations, families, and individuals capture, exploit, and know the past, demonstrating the dynamic nature of historical practice and knowledge. It is related to Unit 13 because it addresses the ways in which history and memory are frequently constructed within the context of individual family units. ß Unit 4. Agricultural and Urban Revolutions: What do historians know about the earliest farmers and herders, and the evolution of cities? Newly emerging evidence about the “cradles of civilization” is examined in light of the social, technological, and cultural complexity of recently discovered settlements and cities. This unit is related to Unit 13 because as societies became more complex, the role of women and the nature of families and households also changed dramatically. ß Unit 6. Order and Early Societies: How do diverse political structures and relationships distribute power and material resources? Through the rise of the Chinese Empire, Mayan regional kingdoms, and the complex society of Igbo-Ukwu, this unit considers the origins of centralized states and alternative political and social orders. It is related to Unit 13 because it examines methods of ordering the world, in addition to the families and households. 4 ß Unit 16. Food, Demographics, and Culture: What role has food played in human societies? Studying the production and consumption of food allows historians to uncover hidden levels of meaning in social relationships, understand demographic shifts, and trace cultural exchange. This unit examines the earliest impact of globalization including changing cuisine, environmental impact, and the rise of forced labor as a global economic force. It is related to Unit 13 because, like the variety in family and household organization, distinctive cultural foodways arise against a background of larger global patterns and processes. Section 2 Video-Related Materials Video Segment 1: Confucian Views of Family and Household in China This segment examines the tightly woven connection between Confucianism and family life in Imperial China, from the second century BCE to the sixteenth century. During the latter Han dynasty (in the first and second centuries CE) the ideas of Confucius and his followers began to dominate all realms of Chinese social and political life. For Confucius, the family, not the individual or the community, was the fundamental unit of society. In the Confucian ideal, families were to be strictly hierarchical: old over young, and male over female. In addition, Confucianism idealized the extended family, and encouraged families to favor sons over daughters. By around 1000 CE, Confucian ideals had intertwined with law codes of the state to define the family from an official and legal perspective. But, as in other cultures, additional factors played a greater role in shaping the actual experience of family life: economic realities, regional customs, and individual personalities. Many people could not afford to live in extended families, and the practice of infanticide — especially of infant girls — became common. Moreover, although women were supposed to be subordinate to men, their role in educating sons, in running households, and even in arranging marriages is just one example of the many differences between prescription and reality in Chinese family life. Video Segment 2: The Early Islamic Family and Household This video segment focuses on the spread of Islam through West Asia beginning in the seventh century CE. The early Muslim community in West Asia developed its practices by melding the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings with Arab tribal customs already in place. As this new faith spread throughout parts of Africa and Eurasia, many aspects of family life began to change. For the most part, although Islam portrayed women as honorable individuals, both the Qur’an and the Shari’a — the Muslim holy book and system of laws, respectively — reinforced male dominance. Indeed, because Islamic law recognized descent through the male line, the social and sexual lives of women were subjected to the strict control of male guardians in order to preserve the legitimacy of heirs. The family was a highly valued institution in Islam, and was considered the most important social, economic and political unit of the community. Within the family, marriage was the primary relationship. As a reflection of these concerns, households in Islamic societies were set up with two concerns in mind: the right of the family to keep its affairs private, and the necessity of following the prescriptions of Islamic law and religious practices with regard to women. However, as historians trace the impact of Islam on families and households over many centuries, they have discovered that the relative weight of these concerns depended on how jurists and legal scholars have interpreted and reinterpreted the Qur’an and the Shari’a in the context of their own societies and cultures. 5 Video Segment 3: The European Family and Household from Ancient Rome to Early Modern Europe This case study looks at European households from Ancient Rome to the early modern period. In so doing, it demonstrates the many ways that families and households were greatly influenced by political and economic forces in the wider society. Over the centuries, many factors shaped family life in Europe, including state legal codes, Christianity, and urbanization. In early Rome, for example, legal codes dictated much of what went on inside households. With the rise of Christianity, the patriarchal traditions of these codes were reinforced by endowing them with religious authority. By the twelfth century, the Church influenced many of the intimate details of family life — from marriage to sexuality. Historians have also learned a great deal about the treatment and rearing of children within European families. In the past, scholars assumed that parents of the medieval period viewed their children as small adults. Recently, however, scholars have used medical texts, art, and literature to demonstrate that medieval parents in fact had a great deal of affection and love for their children. European families changed in many ways between the Roman and the medieval period as a result of economic changes. Indeed, by the thirteenth century, capitalism, urbanization, and the use of cash were all on the rise. As a result, the role of the household as a hub of economic activity declined as families moved from rural areas to cities and became more dependent on local markets. Perspectives on the Past: The Challenge of Historical Interpretations of Family and Household How have historians interpreted the nature of childhood within European families in the past? Historian Jerry Bentley argues that historical scholarship has varied widely on this matter: Some scholars believe that families have treated children the same way through the ages, giving them special attention and affection. Others believe that until the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, parents treated children as small adults and made no effort to shield them from life’s difficulties. Video Details Who Is Interviewed ß ß ß Jerry H. Bentley Linda Walton Richard Bulliet Primary Source Materials Featured in the Video: ß ß ß ß ß Christoforo Fioravanti, Italian traveler Ban Zhao, Chinese woman scholar Li Qingzhao, Chinese woman poet Gu Ruopu, Chinese woman Sakhawi’s, Muslim biographer Program Contents Begins 00:00 01:33 05:32 Ends 01:32 05:31 11:44 11:45 18:28 Contents Show tease, show opening credits Program overview/introduction Video Segment 1. Confucian Views of Family and Household in China Video Segment 2. The Early Islamic Family and Household 6 18:29 24:54 24:55 26:03 26:04 28:25 Video Segment 3. The European Family and Household from Ancient Rome to Early Modern Europe Perspectives on the Past: The Challenge of Historical Interpretations of Family and Household Show close and program credits 7