Research Note The Skewed Sex Ratio in a Medieval Population: A Reinterpretation

1986 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204
Author(s):  
Michael Siegfried

Recent studies in social history suggest that the practice of female infanticide was widespread in early medieval society. While much of the work on female infanticide is sound, particularly the anthropological studies which observed the practice first hand, the interpretations of historical data are much less certain. In particular, data from the ninth-century French monastic tax rolls known as the Carolingian polyptychs are assumed to reflect female infanticide (Coleman, 1971; 1974; 1976; de Mause, 1974; Guttentag and Secord, 1983). The data recorded on the Polyptychs are biased in a manner reflecting the Church’s teachings and social functions, giving the impression of a skewed sex ratio favoring males in this population. Anthropological studies lead us to doubt that female infanticide was practiced to the extent suggested by the sex ratio on the polyptychs.

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Anderson ◽  
Robert J. Morris

A case study ofa third year course in the Department of Economic and Social History in the University of Edinburgh isusedto considerandhighlightaspects of good practice in the teaching of computer-assisted historical data analysis.


Millennium ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-387
Author(s):  
Bart Peters

Abstract This study explores the depictions of landscapes and emotions in the ninth-century hagiographies associated with Liudger: the three vitae Liudgeri and Liudger’s own vita Gregorii. The Frisian missionary founded the monastery of Werden, situated near the Frankish-Saxon frontier. It will be argued that previous historiography on early medieval frontiers has predominantly focused on the military nature of frontiers. Here, more cultural or symbolic natures of the Frankish-Saxon frontier will be discussed. The hagiographical narratives will be examined in conjunction with the notion of a frontier as a ‘third space’. The vitae Liudgeri shaped a discourse that legitimated Liudger’s translation to Werden. This resulted in the creation of a new place of Christian worship in the competitive landscape of post-conquest Saxony, as part of the Christianization of the region. Monasteries like Werden were the places where new missionaries were educated who would continue this Christianization. Exemplary emotional behaviour of the saints, narrated in hagiographies, could help instruct this new generation. Altfrid and Liudger tried to dissuade emotions of anger, indicated by ira or furor, with their hagiographical narratives. These two perspectives offer a glimpse into the attempts of a local monastery to stand out in the Frankish-Saxon frontier.


1966 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 82-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Bullough

Prefatory Note.—My interest in Pavia goes back at least to 1951 when I was elected Rome Scholar in Medieval Studies. I began seriously to collect material for the history of the city in the early Middle Ages in the winter and spring of 1953 when I enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Collegio Ghislieri, thanks to the efforts made on my behalf by the late Hugh Last, to whose memory this article is dedicated. The published proceedings of the Reichenau and Spoleto congresses on ‘The early medieval town’ in the 1950s clearly underlined the need for detailed studies of particular towns; but the lack of adequate archaeological evidence discouraged me from attempting such a study of early medieval Pavia. In 1964, however, Dr. A. Peroni, Director of the Museo Civico invited me to read a supplementary paper on this topic to the Convegno di Studio sul Centro Storico di Pavia held in the Università degli Studi at Pavia on July 4th and 5th of that year. The present article is an amplified and corrected version of that paper: I have made no substantial alterations to my account of the ‘urbanistica’ of early medieval Pavia—written for an audience of architects and art-historians as well as of historians—but have dealt more fully with the social history of the city in this period. Professor Richard Krautheimer read a draft of the revised version and made some pointed and helpful comments. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Peroni, not merely for the invitation to present the original paper but also for supplying illustrations and answering queries at a time when he and his staff were engaged in helping to repair the ravages of the Florence floods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-42
Author(s):  
Hana Lewis

The complexities of identifying and understanding settlement hierarchy in early medieval England (c. 5th–11th centuries) is the focus of much debate. Within this field of enquiry, settlement arrangements, architecture, landholding patterns and material culture are commonly used in the identification of a range of settlement types. These include royal complexes, monastic institutions, towns and trading/production sites such as emporia. This same evidence is also used to interpret the status and role of these sites in early medieval England. This paper advances the current understanding of settlement hierarchy through an assessment of rural settlements and their material culture. These settlements have received comparatively less scholarly attention than higher profile early medieval sites such as elite, ecclesiastical and urban centres, yet represent a rich source of information. Through analysis of material culture as evidence for the consumption, economic and social functions which characterise rural settlements, a picture of what were inherently complex communities is presented. The findings further support the need to reassess settlement hierarchy in early medieval England and a new hierarchical model is proposed.  


1970 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E. Reynolds

The treasure manuscriptClm 19414of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich has for many years provided scholars in three fields of study with a rich lode of material. Art historians have found one of the best examples of fourteenth-century GermanBibliae pauperumin this manuscript. Historians of canon law have discovered several books of the early eleventh-centuryCollectio XII Partium. For historians of the barbarian lawsClm 19414contains an excellent witness to theLex Baiuwariorum. The purpose of this article is to bring to light another portion ofClm 19414, a florilegium on the ecclesiastical grades which should be of interest to historians of early medieval canon law, religious instruction, and sacramental theology.


Author(s):  
Laurent Waelkens

AbstractMany scholars consider that medieval trials by ordeal and collective oaths are typical of primitive societies. They occured all over the world and would have been introduced by the Germans in early-medieval Western Europe. These means of proof emerged in the eighth and ninth century, at a time when the administration of justice by the lords and the bishops were intertwined. When comparing them to Roman procedure and the canonists' approach to confession, party oaths and torture, one may consider those 'irrational' proofs as having Roman-canonical origins, as so many other institutions of the time. They should therefore not necessarily be compared to non-European developments.


2003 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 433-441
Author(s):  
Richard Jewell

This note discusses several recent English finds of early medieval ornamental metalwork shown at the Society of Antiquaries on 16 May 2002: most notably, a Romanesque mount with open-work foliate decoration having clear parallels with Norman and Anglo-Norman ornament of c 1100–25. Four ninth-century Anglo-Saxon strapends are also described and illustrated, two of which have decorative features with links to contemporary larger-scale works but rarer within the corpus of strap-ends; the other two being unusual examples of East Anglian niello and silver-wire inlay.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1887-1909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylva Kaupová ◽  
Petr Velemínský ◽  
Petra Stránská ◽  
Milena Bravermanová ◽  
Drahomíra Frolíková ◽  
...  

Social Forces ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-911
Author(s):  
Stephen K. Sanderson ◽  
Seth B. Abrutyn ◽  
Kristopher R. Proctor

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-515
Author(s):  
E. Anthony Wrigley

Historical narrative commonly involves both description and explanation. The nature of the information available to historians gives rise to problems that seldom appear in other disciplines. For example, it is not possible, given the nature of historical data, to conduct controlled experiments to resolve uncertainties concerning the cause of a given event. It is normally the case that the concept of negative and positive feedback is a more appropriate framework for this purpose than causation. Such a framework can be used in discussing the interplay of demographic behavior, urban growth, and occupational change in facilitating England’s escape from the constraints suffered by all organic economies. Comparison of the contrast in this regard between England and continental Europe helps to clarify the nature of the divergence between the island and the continent over a period of 300 years, from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document