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E-book Fraternal Bonds in the Early Middle Ages

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Penilaian

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Until recently relations among siblings did not attract much interest among scholars studying the history of the early medieval family. They were mentioned primarily in discussions of marriage strategies used to safeguard the interests of family groups and in analyses of relations between families linked by marriage. Fraternal relations appeared as a research topic almost exclusively in studies dealing with political history, mainly those concerning power struggle, the best known example of which was the fratricidal conflict among Louis the Pious’s descendants. Questions about the definition of the fraternal bond, about what it was and how it was perceived, almost never appear in historical studies. It could be said that fraternal relations were regarded as so obvious and immutable that they escaped scholars’ attention. Consequently, the question of models and ideas of fraternal relations has not been studied in any detail either.We can point to several reasons behind this neglect of the position and role of brothers in kin groups. First of all, what was all-important in the development of research into the history of the family, and not only in the early Middle Ages, was the input of cultural anthropology from the time when the discipline was dominated by the structuralist-functionalist methodological orientation. This influence was particularly evident in French- and English-language historiography. The emphasis put on the analysis of kinship structures and the search for models explaining their functioning in studies conducted by anthropologists in the 1960s and 1970s stimulated interest in the topic also among historians.1 Even if George Duby and Karl Schmid, who in the 1950s defined new directions and methods in the study of the history of the family, had not yet read the works of great anthropologists, over the following decades it was precisely the methodological proposals of anthropology that encouraged many scholars, including medievalists, to take a closer look at the question of kinship, strategies of marital exchange, etc.2 What made these proposals attractive was the fact that, as the structuralists argued, a multifaceted study of kinship was key to understanding basically all aspects of the functioning of human society, including its spiritual, economic, and political life. However, anthropologists focused generally on two main topics: recognizing filiation structures (kin groups) and strategies of building links between kin groups through relationships between men and women belonging to different kin groups.3 Consequently, like anthropologists, historians, too, studied relations among siblings generally in the context of an exchange of women and goods between groups of brothers or in that of limitations of this exchange stemming from biological links between people (the question of marital exo- and endogamy).4The structuralist inspirations and the resulting belief in the existence of universal models explaining the patterns in the development of social institutions contributed to the spread in historiography of a model of transformations of the family from broad structures of bilateral kinship of the early Middle Ages to the strictly agnate family of the high and late Middle Ages, with the principle of primogeniture being more or less rigorously observed. A turning point came apparently around the year 1000, when the break-up of the post-Carolingian social order was finally completed. The concept was formulated in the 1950s and 1960s.5 It was based on findings of German scholars in the prosopographic Freiburg School, gathered around Gerd Tellenbach.6 A decisive influence on its form came from the works of Karl Schmid,7 although, in fact, this scholar never aspired to be the author of a general theory of the development of family structures in post-Carolingian Europe. Methodologically innovative research, using as its source basis obituaries and other commemorative sources, made it possible to capture processes which until then had eluded scholars—processes such as the consolidation of patrilineal family structures, the weakening of the female line in the building of the family’s position, and the privileged treatment of the eldest sons at the expense of their younger brothers when it came to inheritance.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

940 PIE f

Penerbit

London : Arc Humanities Press., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

264 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781802701234

Klasifikasi

940

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

HIstory of Europe

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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