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Carolingian Domesticities

  • Rachel Stone
    ,
  • Judith Bennett
    ,
  • Ruth Mazo Karras
Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Abstract

Carolingian ideas of "home" and "family" encompassed a wide range of meanings from physical buildings to kin and free and unfree dependents. Kinship ties played a vital role, both socially and politically, and marriage practices reflected that; Carolingian reforms respected parents' strategies concerning their children's marriages. The Frankish economy was structured around nuclear households, from peasant tenancies to the huge estates presided over by noble men and women. Male and female activities in both production and consumption were partially, but not completely gender-specific. Dowries provided some economic independence for women, but female wealth often depended on contingent factors such as family size and the attitudes of male relatives. The ordered conjugal household was an important image in Carolingian moral thought, with married women holding a subordinate, but honored position. Frankish ideology focused more on elite women's role in the management of dependents and social networks than on purely "housewifely" activities.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Original language

English

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/01/2013

Publication status

Published - 01/01/2013

Publisher

Oxford University Press, India, United States, United Kingdom

ISBN (Print)

9780199582174

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622288

Host publication title

The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe

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