The family, love, and suicide in early modern Geneva

Analysis of criminal proceedings and death records for early modern Geneva reveals an explosion in suicides after 1750. New attitudes toward courtship, marriage, and the familly contributed to this dramatic increase, as unprecedented numbers of people took their lives because of family concerns, such as marital breakdown, unhapppy love stories, and deaths of family members. Greater interest in the companionate marriage was central to these changes. After 1750, marriage, even more than parenthood, offered immunity to suicide, as married people were underrepresented among those who took their lives. Although men constituted the large majority of suicides, women and men shared the growing emphasis on conjugal sentiment, which cut across class lines.     

Economic autonomy and male authority: female merchants in modern Italy

This paper examines the social role of 'mercantesse' (entrepreneuses), women who, in contemporary Italian society, were the owners of manufacturing and trading activities. The first part is dedicated to the legal aspects, with particular reference to the institution of marital authorization and to the various social standing of three very different personae: the female merchant, the partner wife and the merchant-wife. The second part compares the regulatory aspects of this activity with the concrete reality, on the basis of census data and registrations at the Chambers of Commerce. Generally, the trends which come to the fore are unexpected ones, and are characterized by both the recognition of important and not exclusively economic power, as well as the legal, economic and social limits which conditioned not only access to this kind of activity but also the way in which it was carried out.     

Neandertals,early modern humans,and rodeo riders

In 1995 Berger and Trinkaus (J. Archaeol. Sci. 22, 841–852) proposed that the anatomical distribution of Neandertal trauma, with a predominance of upper body lesions, reflected close-quarter ambush hunting as dictated by the available Middle Paleolithic weaponry (the “Rodeo rider” hypothesis). The necessity for mobility among these Late Pleistocene foragers, as a factor possibly reducing the number of preserved lower limb injuries, was considered as an alternative explanation. The accumulating data on Upper Paleolithic injuries and Middle Paleolithic weaponry, considerations of differential skeletal susceptibility of minor trauma, and evidence of interhuman violence, plus the importance of mobility for Late Pleistocene human existence, suggest that hunting injuries may explain only part of the pattern. The purpose of this note is not to resolve to ultimate factors behind the anatomical distribution of traumatic lesions among the Neandertals (or early modern humans). It is 1) to emphasize that there are multiple probable contributing factors other than close-quarter ambush hunting due to the limitations of Middle Paleolithic weaponry, and 2) to open the discussion to alternative interpretations.     

Women,work, property and gender in early modern Europe

Natalie DAVIS & Arlette FARGE eds, A History of Women in the West, III. Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1993, ISBN 0–674–40372‐X.

Merry E. WIESNER, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, ISBN 0–521–38459–1 hardback, 0–521–38613–6 paperback.

Hilary MARLAND, ed., The Art of Midwifery. Early Modem Midwives in Europe, Routledge, London, 1993, ISBN 0–415–06425–2.

Amy Louise ERICKSON, Women and Property in Early Modem England, Routledge, London, 1993, ISBN 0–415–06267–5.     

Communities and pacta in early medieval Italy: jurisdiction,regulatory authority and dispute avoidance

This paper considers in turn the pacta between the Carolingians and the Venetians, the Carolingians and the papacy, and between Benevento and Naples. It compares and contrasts these documents (or series of documents) which in effect deal with the relationships between entire communities in early medieval Italy. By putting the agreements relating to the papacy and Venice into their local political contexts, it argues that these agreements tended to aim at regulating the relationship between these communities and establishing stable, peaceful and politically acceptable relationships rather than at establishing political dominance of one over the other.     

Modern human,early modern human and Neanderthal limb proportions

The limb proportions of 686 subjects (461 men and 225 women) from five ethnic groups (White, Inuit, Gurkha, Bantu, San) have been compared. Stature, limb and skeletal measurements were taken directly from the subjects by one observer. The brachial and crural indices of the Whites were markedly smaller (lower) than those of the other populations. The crural indices of the Inuit were similar to those of the two African populations, but this may be an artefact from relatively small numbers for the Inuit population. There is no sexual dimorphism for the brachial index, but men have larger (higher) crural indices than women, a finding which probably relates to the relatively broad pelvises and consequently long femurs of women. The two African populations have long limb lengths standardized for height compared to the Gurkha and Inuit populations, with the Whites intermediate. This finding is consistent with Bergmann's thermoregulatory rule. The correlations between distal abbreviation and limb abbreviation for both the upper and lower limbs are poor and negative. Relatively long limbs tend to have smaller distal segments than relatively short limbs and for the legs this may constitute a safeguard for the integrity of the medial and cruciate ligaments of the knee. For these five modern populations distal abbreviation cannot be used as a proxy for limb abbreviation and there is no justification for linking distal abbreviation with climatic selection. Skeletal data relating to nine Neanderthal and 25 early modern humans have also been analysed. The analysis confirms marked limb and distal abbreviation for the Neanderthals compared to early and contemporary modern humans, but this conclusion presupposes that the taxonomic classes are correct and that limb proportions were not used originally as a class discriminant. For these archaic populations there is a moderate positive correlation between lower limb abbreviation and distal abbreviation, but the numbers are small and the confidence intervals very wide. In view of the findings for modern populations, and until more relevant fossils are available, it is probably unwise to use the crural index as a proxy for limb abbreviation in archaic populations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Grassroots authority in rural Guangdong during late Qing and early Republican times

Gongju, or public offices, controlled by the local gentry class, were the grassroots authorities in rural Guangdong during the late Qing. These offices maintained their own armed forces and usually had powers of administration, tax collection, and self-defense, as well as judicial powers. They were considered the extension of prefecture and county governments. With the authorization of the prefecture and county governments, these offices had the power to deal with important legal cases. Although they came under attack during the 1911 Revolution, these offices were able to recover quickly in different forms. In the late Qing era, local gentry with official titles earned in middle-level or lower-level civil service examinations took the leadership roles in such grassroots offices, but they were replaced by people who had direct control over the armed forces during Republican times.     

Neostoicism and the early modern state

Jacob Talmon and Michael Oakeshott represent two opposite tendencies in the anti-totalitarian world view. Both thinkers share many central features of this broad intellectual trend, such as the equation between the Soviet and Nazi regimes, Anglophilia and the rejection of the utopian quest. Yet this basic agreement should not distract us from significant differences in attitude and temperament. Talmon, like most other critics of totalitarianism, was strongly affected by the atmosphere of a profound intellectual and political crisis in Europe, and he regarded the danger of totalitarianism to be an inherent aspect of modernity itself. His liberalism was that of ‘fear’. By contrast, for Oakeshott, who believed in the strength of liberal, and specifically British, civilisation, totalitarianism was merely a child of resentment, a parasitic force with no positive message of its own. He thus displayed a greater measure of confidence in the fortunes of liberal modernity.