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Role of Motherhood in History: Factors Neglected by Patriarchal and Feminist Scholars

Author: 
Year:
Pages:256
ISBN:1-4955-0395-X
978-1-4955-0395-5
Price:$199.95
“The issues raised here deserve close attention. If the maternal role in the cultural preparation of sons, and therefore in the transmission of culture across generations, has been largely overlooked, as I believe it has, then the time has come to ignore it no longer. It has important implications, perhaps unwelcome ones, some will feel, for the way we think about our schools and our families, and how we go about nurturing and advancing our civilizational heritage.”
-Dr. Margaret King
The Author

Reviews

“This work builds clearly upon previous scholarship by the author and others, so it is a well-worn path, making her analysis more intense and knowledgeable. It is a fascinating study exploring the activity of mothers in the cultural formation of their offspring… The work provides a wonderful historical landscape in human history…”
-Dr. Glen Reynolds,
University of Sunderland

Table of Contents

Preface
The Maternal Monopoly
Ancient motherhood
The maternal vocation in Christian Europe
Modern maternalism
The maternal monopoly challenged
Obsessions of the Learned
The medical tradition
The clerical tradition
The legal tradition
Pedagogues
Blood and milk
The School of Infancy
Language lessons
Songs, stories, and old wives’ tales
Maternal Circles
Communities of women
The childbirth scene
Pollution and purification
Healing and mourning
Cruel Mothers
The Medea complex
Contraception and abortion
Abuse, neglect, and betrayal
Child preference
Golden boys
Bibliographical note
Index