statistics and comparisons the changing life of the people chapter 20
TRANSCRIPT
Statistics and Comparisons
The Changing Life of the People
Chapter 20
Marriage and IllegitimacyPre-1750 Post-1750
• Average age of marriage 27 in English village, 25 for women and 27 for men in France
• 1 to 2% of births illegitimate, but 20 to 30 percent of women pregnant at the time of marriage
• Marriage at an earlier age (no specific statistics cited)
• 20 to 30% of births illegitimate, rates higher in cities than in rural areas
• Peer pressure to marry after conceiving to limit illegitimacy and encourage marriage
• Embarrassment people into conforming to community standards– Riding stang (ex. wife who bossed her husband
around, person who stole from a community garden)
– Throwing vegetables at a house (craftsman accused of shoddy workmanship)
– Insulting midnight serenades a.k.a. charivari (public official accused of corruption)
Infant Mortality
• Less women nursing their own children – so children not getting mother’s immunities and women quickly having more children
• Foundling hospitals created to take unwanted children– 100,000 foundlings in Europe admitted annually– 20-30% of Parisian children abandoned (one third of those
by married couples)– St. Petersburg had a foundling hospital housing 25,000
children– 50% of children in foundling hospitals died in one year,
90% died before adulthood
Attitudes about Children
Common Practices• Less emotional
attachment, perhaps because of high mortality rate
• Children wet nursed • Children seen as little
adults, with the capacity to act like adults
• Children punished often• Many children abandoned
to foundling homes
Enlightenment figures • Urged emotional
attachment• Advocated maternal
nursing• Allowing children to dress
and behave naturally• Increased funding to
foundling homes – popular charity for middle class women
Literacy1600 1800
• 1 in 6 literate in Scotland and France
• 1 in 4 literate in England
• 90% Scottish males literate
• 66% French males literate
• 50% English males literate
Prussia was the first to make grammar school compulsory (Under Frederick William I) but there was not enough money to fund the program effectively
EntertainmentRich Lower Class
• Salons
• Fairs• Spectator Sports (boxing, horseracing)
• Carnival
• Female gatherings to talk, sing & sew
• Male gatherings at the tavern
• Fairs• Spectator Sports
(boxing, horseracing)• Bloodsports
• Carnival
Ri
Diet• Poor – roughly ground wheat/rye bread, peas,
beans, vegetables in season, fruit in the summer months as the 18th century progressed this grew to include corn, squash, tomatoes, and potatoes
• Urban artisans – variety of meats, vegetables and fruits with bread and beans still forming the bulk of the diet
• Rich – “rapacious carnivores” with rich meat and fish dishes with sauces, sweets, cheeses, nuts and an enormous amount of overdrinking
Consumer Society
• More people gaining enough disposable income to buy “stuff”
• Upper classes become the trendsetters, everyone else tries to copy
• Centered in NW European cities