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THINGS TO AT LEAST KEEP IN MIND
OR: WERE PEOPLE IN THE PAST REALLY STUPID?
So Were They Really Stupid? Looking to make sense
of the world (If it was not Demons then what was it?) VOLTAIRE
Were they religious (faith) or was it a belief system?
How many went to church?
NOTE The ‘Church’ as a power play
What would the historian of 200 years in the future make of some of today’s situations and beliefs?
A) Alien Abduction B) Astrology C) Sitting under Pyramids D) Extra Sensory Perception E) ‘Certain’ Alternative Medical
Treatments F) Conspiracy Theories
Clothes Also Suit the Climate
HUGE IMPACT OF DISEASE
Spread of Medieval Disease
STATISTICS: ALL WE KNOW IS THAT THEY ARE WRONG IF THE WRITER DOES
NOT QUALIFY THE STATISTICS: BEWARE
1691 AND MY CLASS
POPULATION STATISTICS
War Dead Influenza Ireland
UK POPULATION
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
Dateline 1900-1960
MIL
LIO
NS
Males
FemalesNOTE
Data based on Census Information.Census every 10 years in years ending in 1.i.e. 1901, 1911, 1921
Government Statistics Must be Accurate eh! Census every 10 years ‘In-Between’ years estimated on trends Estimated to be + or - 5% at best. Depends on honesty and accuracy of the
collector. Depends on ‘everybody’ taking part. Almost all historical statistics open to
doubt THEY ARE A TREND AND INDICATION OF
CHANGE
Who Would not Answer the Statistical Analysis? Criminals Illegals Can’t be bothered Not home on the date Those that have anything to hide or just
view it as intrusion. Who is the Householder?
THE FURTHER WE GO BACK IN TIME THE MORE ‘DODGY’ THE STATISTICS
MASLOW’s HIERARCHY OF NEED
TRY NOT TO PUT MODERN DAY CONCEPTS INTO HISTORY I.E. Cruelty (People and Animals) Feminism The Vote Victorian Restrictions Sex (Agnes Sorrel: Mistress
Charles VII of France) Breasts were for feeding babies.
A Society of child death, no social security and a knowledge of what sex was for.
So allure was very important.
HOW DID THE MASS OF THE POPULATION LIVE?Breugal - Hogarth
We have little idea Very much a ‘rough and
tumble’ life tied to agricultural work and seasons.
Until the Industrial Revolution apart from a few illustrations did not appear on the landscape
Individual visibility in historical records depends to a great extent upon wealth, social status and literacy. The English Family 1450-1700. p2
Administration of the Poor Law
SOMETIMES EVIDENCE ARISES (Not sure about the glamorous image)
GUNNA dress found in a peat bog in Jutland.
Small lengths of material stitched together to form a sack like gown
THE DESERVING POOR AND THE RESIDIUMFrith (Railway) – Gustave Dore 1872 – Filde (Applicants for admission to a casual ward)
MARRIAGE: NOT ‘LOVE’ – A CONTRACT Children a ‘welfare’
resource: No social security. 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law
compelled children to look after destitute parents.
Life long mutual support mechanism
High proportion of marriages were re-marriages
Marriage important to keep skilled business within the family. Run farms. Look after children
AFTER ALL: TODAY MARRIAGE IS VERY DIFFERENT
AVERAGE LENGTH OF MARRIAGE IN WESTERN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
YEAR 2000: 15 Years
Mid Victorian Europe 1860-1880 (Mainly British Data)
15 Years
JACK THE RIPPER 1888Elizabeth Stride (Long Liz)
4 out of 5 over 40 No Teeth All had been married
(21 children) Whitechapel an
immigrant, dock area hell hole. Yiddish spoken widely.
NOTE Married Women’s Property Act 1882
EAST END FASHIONS
DEPENDS ON YOUR PLACE IN SOCIETY At the top essential
to determine true inheritance. Once this is secure then each person can ‘more or less’ go their own way.
No DNA tests. NOTE 30%
MARRIAGE FOR MOST PEOPLE Late marriage until they had the ability
to survive financially Because of this many would never marry ‘Nuclear family’ Eliz. England mean age of marriage,
women 26,men 28 Sharing of work: Agriculture, proto
industry.
FOR THE GENTRY JANE AUSTEN: (Wrote the only real novel in history) Not a historical novel: a Chronicler of her times.
Story of the novel is Mrs. Bennet’s quest to marry off her Five educated daughters.
Today is reads like she was mad but her great concern was what would happen to the girls if they remained unmarried.
Dickens Wharton
Certain Paintings at a certain time are very useful if we know the story.Renoir, Pierre-Auguste: Le Moulin de la
Galette 1876 The girl in the striped
dress in the middle foreground was said to be Estelle, the sister of Renoir's model, Jeanne. Another of Renoir's models, Margot, is seen to the left dancing with the Cuban painter, Cardenas. At the foreground table at the right are the artist's friends, Frank Lamy, Norbert Goeneutte and Georges Rivière who in the short-lived publication L'Impressionniste extolled the Moulin de la Galette as a page of history, a precious monument of Parisian life depicted with rigorous exactness. Nobody before him had thought of capturing some aspect of daily life in a canvas of such large dimensions.
WHILE ON THAT SUBJECT: STUDY OF CLOTHING CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE (14 years or 30 years?) (Artistic License)
ACCURACY OF CARTOONS IN WHO WORE WHAT AND HOW1867 & 1909 - Dana Gibson Granddad & Rival Beauties
MERE ‘ILLUSTRATORS’ A VERY IMPORTANT SOURCE
NUANCES OF 1850s PARISIAN SOCIETY (INGRES) Princess de Broglie 1853 Born an aristocrat
Baronne James de Rothschild 1844-48
‘Arriviste’ Flounces on skirt hemline too frivolous; jewelry too complicated, ostrich plumes much too ostentatious and like a vulgar hat. (Hats not be worn with evening dress)
Shocks to the System– I am going to rouge my knees and roll my stockings down: All that Jazz .
ALL THAT JAZZ
WOMENS WORK (ALWAYS UNDERSTATED AND UNDER-RECORDED: AGRICULTURE?: HOME WORK)
0102030405060708090100
19011911192119311951
PERCENTAGE
WHO WRITES THE BOOKS?AND FOR WHOM? M COLLINS His opinions are shaded by age,
gender, place of birth, places lived etc Globe and Mail April 08 “------------- book
shocked a whole generation of men” Up until the 1960s text books were written by
a very very small group of people for a small group of people.
Since then a small group is writing for a reasonably large group.
BUT everybody is biased, everybody is shaped by their own culture.
QUESTION THOSE SOURCES Use all sources as a guide to making up
your own mind. What is the experience of these writers? What is their social class? What is their education? What are their political beliefs. (Note
Irving, Hobsbawm.) Do they really know very much or are
they just regurgitating the same old sources?
SO WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED FASHION? A way of behaving that is temporarily adopted by a
discernable proportion of members of a social group because that chosen behaviour is perceived to be socially appropriate for the time and the situation. (Sproles, quoted in Curran 1991)
Louis XIV “Fashion is the ‘mirror of history’, it reflects political, social and economic changes rather than mere whimsy”
Lord Chesterfield - Dress is a very foolish thing and yet it is a foolish thing for a man not to be well dressed according to his rank and way of life.
WOAD to WESTWOOD
PERCEPTIONS CHANGE James Laver (V&A) 1937 Laver’s Law
10 years before its time Indecent 5 years before its time
Shameless 1 year before its time Daring
Fashionable
1 year after its time Dowdy 10 years after its time Hideous 20 years after its time Ridiculous 30 years after its time Amusing 50 years after its time Quaint 70 years after its time Charming 100 years after its time
Romantic 150 years after its time Beautiful
But all fashions can go just a bit too far!
On the face of it there appear to be two obvious reasons behind clothing, let alone fashionable clothing.
a) Warmth. However Tierra del Fuego early European travellers and natives, No clothes but backing away from fire perspiring heavily.
b) Modesty. Well many periods in European history not too modest with breasts falling out or handkerchiefs stuffed into underwear, codpieces and public exercise of bodily functions. It really does appear that modesty in dress goes hand in hand with culture.
But in our society today clothes and fashion play a much larger part in life than is generally recognised.
We dress up for interviews-why? There are norms of dress for various functions. However, even the person who says he has no interest whatsoever is affected by fashion.
Would the accused standing in the dock in his borrowed suit, wear something really out of fashion? Not talking about a three cornered hat here—he would not even wear the suit fashion of ten years ago.
And yet in that very same court he is faced with:
Judge Wig a Queen Ann period Barristers George Third wig (60
years later) KC/QC A Tudor gown.
SO Bring your arguments and opinions
to class and in your work. For heavens sake do not think you
have to agree with me. Talk about your work with me. Bring your experiences and those
of your family to class. ENJOY YOURSELF
THINGS TO AT LEAST KEEP IN MIND
OR: WERE PEOPLE IN THE PAST REALLY STUPID?