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Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France by Matthew Gerber (review)

Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France by Matthew Gerber (review) Reviews 243 Gerber, Matthew, Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012; hardback; pp. x, 288; R.R.P. £45.00; ISBN 9780199755370. There is no necessary reason for defining a family as a group of people closely related by blood solely legitimated by the vows of monogamous marriage. Cultures with different mores have existed and can do so. When, for whatever social reasons, compulsory exclusion of extramarital children from the family is accepted as not merely the norm but as a structure to protect legitimate members of the family from any other rights or claims and when adoption was rare if not impossible, it has a distinctive political outcome. It creates a perilous situation for those who were located outside the bonds of wedlock. A mind-set that stigmatizes illegitimacy moreover, once established, is peculiarly hard to dislodge and becomes tied up with the religious and political structures that direct the fate of nations. Professor Gerber, drawing on an impressive array of neglected archival material, some of which is summarized in useful appendices, has found a new and illuminating way of examining the effects of this social `given' on the life of both individual http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Parergon Australian & New Zealand Association of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Inc. (ANAZAMEMS, Inc.)

Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France by Matthew Gerber (review)

Jack, Sybil M.
Parergon , Volume 29 (2) – Feb 14, 2012
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Publisher
Australian & New Zealand Association of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Inc. (ANAZAMEMS, Inc.)
Copyright
Copyright © The author
ISSN
1832-8334
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Abstract

Reviews 243 Gerber, Matthew, Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012; hardback; pp. x, 288; R.R.P. £45.00; ISBN 9780199755370. There is no necessary reason for defining a family as a group of people closely related by blood solely legitimated by the vows of monogamous marriage. Cultures with different mores have existed and can do so. When, for whatever social reasons, compulsory exclusion of extramarital children from the family is accepted as not merely the norm but as a structure to protect legitimate members of the family from any other rights or claims and when adoption was rare if not impossible, it has a distinctive political outcome. It creates a perilous situation for those who were located outside the bonds of wedlock. A mind-set that stigmatizes illegitimacy moreover, once established, is peculiarly hard to dislodge and becomes tied up with the religious and political structures that direct the fate of nations. Professor Gerber, drawing on an impressive array of neglected archival material, some of which is summarized in useful appendices, has found a new and illuminating way of examining the effects of this social `given' on the life of both individual

Journal

Parergon – Australian & New Zealand Association of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Inc. (ANAZAMEMS, Inc.)

Published: Feb 14, 2012

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