Histoire de la famille et histoire des mentalités

This year's Distinguished Historian, Professor Jean-Louis Flandrin of the Université de Paris 8 - Vincennes and the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, surveyed the state of his major field of interest, the inter-relationship between family and psychological history. These are relatively new fields, and the links between them are comparatively unexplored as a result. Yet, in spite of some false starts, much has been accomplished, the work-in-progress contains great promise and the possible avenues for future work are almost limitless. Much will be achieved if the crossfertilization of the various disciplines continues.The author then reviews the sub-fields of family history, and cites those works, both published and unpublished, which appear to offer fresh insights and/or research approaches. Problems and weaknesses are also considered. For example, while Georges Duby's book, Le chevalier, la femme et le prêtre is highly praised as a pathfinding study which should be the inspiration for much future work in the area of the study of the evolution of Christian marriage, Professor Flandrin outlines his reservations regarding certain of Duby's theses. Similarly, the work of Edward Shorter and Elizabeth Bandinter receives more than passing criticism. Professor Flandrin devotes the greatest amount of comment to the topic of the quality and nature of interfamily relations over time - a topic which, he concludes, has roused much sterile and unproductive debate but which is richly documented in the sources and ought to be the object of considerable research in the future. Other topics of comment includea) the size and structure of the domestic unitb) the nature of family tiesc) the intermarriage of family membersd) the various motivations for marriage over timee) the evolution of the notion of a Christian marriagef) the mores surrounding sexual relations within marriageg) feelings between and among family membersThe author concludes with a warning of the need to be sensitive to the variety of interpretation possible in assessing historical behaviour which may vary widely from our own contemporary cultural norms

La beauté, le désir & le goût: essai d'analyse historique du corps

A história da sexualidade esteve restrita durante muito tempo a ser apenas uma história da repessão; como se o desejo fosse todo natural e a repressão somente cultural. Ou se houvesse em toda cultura, mais ou menos abertamente, um erotismo que contribuísse para estruturar as pulsações naturais, que acendesse o desejo e a excitação.  O historiador da sexualidade também tem que estudar esse erotismo: procurar nos séculos a fio não apenas os fantasmas sexuais mas os objetos do amor que a cultura propôes à pulsação dos homens e das mulheres

The Decline of Remarriage: Evidence From German Village Populations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Family reconstitution data for fourteen German village populations permit the examination of remarriage during the eighteenth and nineteenth cen turies. The results provide compelling evidence for a secular decline in the tenden cy to remarry. Pronounced age and sex differentials in the likelihood of remar riage were evident: widows were far less likely to remarry than widowers, and the probability of remarriage declined rapidly with age, particularly for women. The probability of remarriage was also inversely associated with the number and age of children. There were, however, no clear differences in either the probability of remarriage or its tendency to decline over time among major occupational groups. The decline in remarriage probabilities was caused in part by declines in adult mortality, which gradually raised the ages of surviving spouses to levels at which remarriage has historically been rather unlikely. However, age-specific marriage probabilities also declined, affecting both men and women and all oc cupational groups, suggesting the presence of a social change of wide scope. Some comments on possible factors contributing to the decline of remarriage are presented. The need for a comprehensive explanation of remarriage trends and differentials remains an important challenge for family historians.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68212/2/10.1177_036319908501000103.pd

French Roadmap for complex Systems 2008-2009

This second issue of the French Complex Systems Roadmap is the outcome of the Entretiens de Cargese 2008, an interdisciplinary brainstorming session organized over one week in 2008, jointly by RNSC, ISC-PIF and IXXI. It capitalizes on the first roadmap and gathers contributions of more than 70 scientists from major French institutions. The aim of this roadmap is to foster the coordination of the complex systems community on focused topics and questions, as well as to present contributions and challenges in the complex systems sciences and complexity science to the public, political and industrial spheres

Em torno da mesa do rei: artefatos, convivialidade e celebração no Rio de Janeiro joanino

Este artigo aborda um aspecto relevante do ritual das refeições na corte de D. João VI, no Rio de Janeiro: a prataria de mesa. Isto é, objetos de luxo destinados a servir e a consumir os alimentos. Com base em um inventário de bens de mesa enviados do Rio de Janeiro para Lisboa junto com o monarca em seu retorno a Portugal, em 1821, este artigo procura refletir sobre as funções e possíveis usos desses objetos, assim como sobre a importância desse universo material para o funcionamento, representação e celebração da Casa Real portuguesa na sua nova sede. O artigo argumenta que a presença e o uso de baixelas de prata de serviço, mas também de grande aparato, nas refeições públicas da família real pode contribuir para se repensar a imagem de uma corte pobre e sem brilho recorrentemente reforçada na historiografia do período joanino.This article discusses a specific issue of the royal dinner's rituals at the Court of Rio de Janeiro: the silver service: some luxury artifacts of different forms specially made to serve and consume food. Based on a inventory of these silver objects and also on a stock of table linen which were shipped to Lisbon, along with the royal family in 1821, The article intend to explore the functions and utilities of those objects at the table, as well as, analyze the importance of this material universe for the functioning, representation and celebration of the Portuguese Royal House in its new headquarters.The article argues that the use and even the exhibition of the banquet silver in public ceremonies may contribute to change a rather depreciative image of poverty the royal court in Brazil, which has being explored by the historiography for more than a hundred years

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema