Mentalidades - History Lab

Testamentary practices of Salamancan servants (1601-1650)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

Attitudes to death are a reflection of the mentality of the time. Between 1601 and 1650, the 106 wills compiled by the author for the socio-professional group of servants in Salamanca give us a clear picture: the majority of servants were women (75% as opposed to 25% men). Despite the predominance of women, only 2.5% were able to sign, while in the male group this rises to 23%. Women were more likely to make offerings (47.5%), to leave their master as executor (57.7%) and their soul as heir (57.5%). The deep religiosity that permeated Ancien Régime society was also evident among male servants. Indeed, up to 38.5% offered their inheritance to their soul to ensure their welfare beyond the earthly life through masses and offices for the souls. It was also common for them to ask to be accompanied at their funeral by a clergyman or by a religious institution, such as the confraternities.

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Burial place of the Salamancan servants (1601-1650)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The servants of Salamanca between 1601 and 1650 were predisposed to be buried in the church, followed by places not yet determined, convents or hospitals. This attitude to death is conditioned both by the mentality of the time and by the socio-economic characteristics of the group to which they belonged. Why in the Church? The motivations identified by the author reflect, firstly, the family conscience, as their ancestors were buried there, and secondly, the lower economic cost, as it was cheaper than the other options. Those buried in convents either had a relationship of dependence on them, being servants of these institutions, or had devotions to certain religious orders, which is why there was a higher percentage of men than women who chose this option: 26.9% compared to 22.5%. However, many of the testators (23.75% of women and 34.6% of men) did not specify the place of burial, leaving the choice to their executors, where relatives and masters were the most common choices.

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Family Structures in the Kingdom of Valencia, 18th-19th Centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:27 +0000

The different family models had regional and local variables. In the latter case, we find the examples of the municipalities of the current Valencian Community. By differentiating between urban and rural areas, we can see how solitary households were greater in the cities than in the countryside, and consequently, and inversely, complex households were more common in rural areas than in urban areas. The established confluence of the conjugal/nuclear family model meant that they dominated in both spheres with similar percentages. These data are reinforced when a semi-urban population, between the countryside and the city, such as Vinaròs, shows an intermediate trend in its results. Valencian families, as in the rest of Spain, were conditioned by the economic level and mentality of the localities. Wealth, property ownership, access to resources and the possibility of social advancement shaped the family model.

The post Family Structures in the Kingdom of Valencia, 18th-19th Centuries first appeared on History Lab.

Motherhood throughout history

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

The video is part of the Research Group on Literary Sources for the History of Women of the Complutense University of Madrid, accessible from the web of didactic/divulgative resources on the History of women and gender relations in Spain, and deals with motherhood throughout History from an interdisciplinary perspective through the interventions of prestigious specialists such as Gloria Franco Rubio, Pilar Díaz Sánchez, Cristina Segura Graiño, María Jesús Fuente Pérez and María Soledad Arredondo Sirodey. With a duration of 23 minutes, the aim is to bring this type of research on cross-cutting issues such as motherhood to students, teachers at different levels of education and the general public. For other videos of the research group see the website https://www.ucm.es/historiamujeresgeneroesp/

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The history of women in the Prado Museum. Educational guide

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

According to the presentation made by the Museo del Prado itself, the Didactic Guide is based on the need to promote the association of museums and educational institutions to create joint strategies to overcome gender inequalities through a critical approach to the history and theories of art. The project is part of “Didactics 2.0 Museums in Feminine”, a project that is the result of joint work between a team from the Feminist Research Institute of the Complutense University of Madrid, the e-Women Association and the teams from the Museums participating in the project: Museo del Prado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Museo del Traje and Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí. The itineraries prepared by Antonia Fernández Valencia, Marián López Fernández Cao and Asunción Bernárdez Rodal address two basic themes: Women and power and Women’s jobs. According to these authors, although they are clearly related to each other, we can say that they have a profoundly complementary character from a social point of view, since the first one basically includes the works and biographies of women from royal and noble houses, while the second one, even including some examples of women from these groups due to their political activity, focuses essentially on the works of women from the middle and working classes. Both itineraries choose different works that put us in contact with different aspects of women in history and can lead us in turn to different themes of the History of Spain in the Modern Age. They are divided into several blocks: Discourse on motherhood, devotion, power and women’s knowledge; Queens and regents in Hapsburg Spain; Our daily work; Family portraits; and Women with their own name. With a clear methodology in terms of objectives and content, as well as the keys to analysis that are of most interest, in each section there is a section of proposed activities and complementary activities for students. And at the end, a series of appendices are added which deal with aspects related to the portraits, questioning the social situation or abounding in lines of conceptual work which can be expanded on later by resorting to other primary sources or historiography.

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Women’s lives through ceramics and sumptuary arts

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

Didactic guide that aims to provide work material for teachers and students interested in opening up new avenues of reflection based on active participation and critical questioning of the history and theories of art with the inclusion of the gender perspective. From the collections of the Museo Nacional de Cerámica Gonzalez Martí, which houses a series of objects that refer us to different spheres of artistic reflection and cultural production, the aim is to raise questions about gender equality. Objects that speak to us from the power of accumulation and wealth to different forms of reproduction of everyday life and care, from the most intimate spheres to the presence of the public sphere. The itinerary proposed by the authors – Asunción Bernardez Rodal, Antonia Fernández Valencia and Marián López Fernández Cao – responds to the need to give greater visibility to women’s work and their participation in both material and symbolic life throughout history. The itinerary we propose has two lines of development: on the one hand, it aims to highlight the importance of women in artistic creation in general and in ceramics in particular, questioning above all the traditional role of women in art, which has been above all that of being models for artists. Secondly, the analysis of social space as significant places where gender relations are expressed. Although the chronological approach of the guide is long-term, the Modern Age has an important presence. The project is part of “Didactics 2.0 Museums in Feminine”, a project that is the result of joint work between a team from the Feminist Research Institute of the Complutense University of Madrid, the e-Women Association and the teams from the museums participating in the project: Museo del Prado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Museo del Traje and Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí

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Surveillance of sexuality. The prison for adulteresses. Calle de Atocha, 87 (Madrid)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

The video, 4.33 minutes long, is part of “Madrid, Ciudad de las Mujeres”, a cultural and touristic application where the traces of women in the city of Madrid are recovered http://madridciudaddelasmujeres.es/. As the video recounts, the galleys and hospices of Madrid have, since the beginning of modern times, been a place of reclusion and torture for a whole series of women who did not comply with the established rules. These included poor women, “rogues”, “fortune tellers”, prostitutes and adulteresses. As we entered the 18th century and under enlightened and charitable precepts, the quality and diversity of places of confinement for women diversified, with houses of seclusion and repentance where many women who practised prostitution would end up apart from society and subjected to a regime of beatitudes. Touched, veiled and living under a strict rule that they would only leave to get married or take religious vows. They were also places of confinement for a wide variety of petty crimes such as stealing clothes or vagrancy, and moral offences such as adultery or the highly punishable female adultery. A hospice was founded in the building at Calle de Atocha, 97, in Madrid, which also housed the Colegio de San Nicolás de Bari at the beginning of the 18th century, an institution for women who, “forgetful of their honour or conjugal fidelity, incurred in some crime of impurity”. The video tells the story of some of these condemned women.

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