SC - Re: Babies and diapers

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/18/99 1:58:52 AM Eastern Standard Time, stefan at texas.net
writes:

<< I think I remember the comment. And I've got the book around here,
somewhere.
 The problem is locating it. The book was wonderful and by using various odd
 records such as court records filled in many questions on childhood and later
 stages in medieval life, especially the life of peasants. I remember it's
 comments disproving the ideas of extended families. Most of the info was
 drawn from records in England in a single century or two. >>


I know Barbara Hanawalt's book The Ties That Bound has a lot of this sort of
information in it.  She works off of the coroner's rolls (in England during
most of the Middle Ages, any accidental death had to be investigated to
determine the circumstances, and there were coroners appointed for each shire
who had the responsibility to do this).  In some cases the information is
surprisingly complete - who found the body first, any information that might
help determine the cause, eyewitness reports, etc.  It's quite fascinating.
Babies frequently died as a result of cradle fires, as a result of chickens
scratching/dropping coals into the cradle which was situated next to the
hearth for warmth.  They also died when they were accidentally dropped into
the fire (often by drunken mothers), when spits broke and dumped pots of
scalding liquids on them, and when pigs came into the house and mauled the
baby.
She doesn't just focus on babies.  She looks at causes of accidental death of
all ages over the course of the year and the course of the day, as well as the
occupations or jobs that were being done at the time of death.  There's an
amazing amount of info here, in little snapshots, about peasant life.  For
instance - women frequently used straw to get the coals into a good fire in
the morning.  Some of them fell off the ladders they had placed against the
haystack to climb to the top to get straw to start the fire, and that's how we
know that they used straw.

Brangwayna Morgan
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