This course is an exploration of the social aspects of European civilization in the early modern period. The topics to be covered include, European material culture, family and community structure, social conflict and religious beliefs, as they evolve from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The student will encounter early modern European education and culture, peasants and agrarian cults, and rural and urban popular culture. There will be assigned reserved reading, and an occasional handout.
Attendance is mandatory.
Schedule WEEK 1. Concepts of order and the material and supernatural worlds 2. Life and society in the local community Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre 3. Family, sex and marriage Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre 4. Women and religion Brown, Immodest Acts 8.