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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 9260
[Archaeology]
Date Posted:
2/29/2004
3:24:07 pm EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 7,348
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Comments: 6
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Analysis Of Roman Epitaphs Alters Concept Of 'Family'
Author: University of Calgary Source: University of Calgary (Canada)
Title: ANALYSIS OF ROMAN EPITAPHS ALTERS CONCEPT OF 'FAMILY'
If ancient Romans observed Family Day, their celebrations would have included wet nurses, slaves and possibly many others who had no blood relationship, according to new University of Calgary research.
A landmark analysis by classicist Dr. Hanne Sigismund Nielsen of more than 4,500 inscriptions on Roman tombstones shows that our concept of the Roman family needs to be broadened to include much more than just parents, grandparents and children.
"Roman families did not at all look like our family structure today," says Nielsen, who spent more than 10 years examining the Latin inscriptions. "Quite a few family relationships existed by choice and were not at all contained in the biological family." For example, slaves were often related to their masters by choice, families frequently included foster parents or children, and wet nurses were especially honored.
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Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| But Family Hasn't Changed | Mar 1st. at 12:14:41 pm EST |
by Jo (CO) - wc_xemail
The thing is, although people are going around saying that immediate family has always been the only family, it isn't true. It doesn't take a look at ancient history to know that people consider non-blood relations as family members throughout history and even today. I'm sure many people remember calling some one "aunt" or "uncle" or "cousin" when they really were not part of the blood line.
I myself had several of these people in my family, and they were just as highly respected. Now that I have my own child, I have many long-term friends who have been my brother's and sisters. Having been an only child, these become the aunts and uncles for my child. Maybe these people don't get immortilzed on tombs, but they do exists in family albums and such.
I must say that my life is richer because I have both types of family. I bet other people would think so too if they just open their eyes and take a look at their own circle of family.
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| Enough Xian -bashing | Mar 1st. at 8:08:53 am EST |
by C. McKeown (Memphis, TN) - wc_xemail
Last year my college English students voted to study a section of readings called "Redefining the American Family." One article referred to non-traditional familes (those with gay parents, single parents, etc) as "New Families" and nuclear families as "Old Families." I pointed out that these "Old Families" are actually quite new, and were pretty much a product of a prosperous, industrialized (rather than agricultural) mid-20th century.
I also decided not to stop where the readings did, and to extend our area of study to all non-nuclear forms of family. We discussed single-parent families a lot, because many of my students were part of one, but we also looked at extended and communal families, and at cultures that practice polygamy and polyandry. Two of my international students were from polygamous cultures, and were able to contribute a lot to that part of the discussion. The other kids' first instinct was to laugh when told that in these other cultures it was OK to have 3 wives but not 4, until one of them pointed out this can be seen as no more silly than our own "1, but not 2" rule--it's "only one number different." (I was so proud of that kid.)
I wasn't sure how they'd react to all this. But when their essays came in, no matter what they chose to write about, many contained references to "nuclear or 'Old Families' (not really very old) ." They had accepted that our way is not the only way.
These students were good, lifelong Christians, with a Muslin or two thrown in. Intolerence of different family structures may have nothing to do with how narrow-minded one is by nature, or even a function of religion. Sometimes folks just don't know about things they haven't been exposed to yet. I feel this is a very human response and can be overcome if everyone is willing to talk (or can pretend to be because they know they're being graded on class participation) .
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| Rocks For Brains . . . | Mar 1st. at 12:57:15 am EST |
by KarEEna (Perth, Australia) - wc_xemail
It will take more than something like this to get the fact that a nuclear family doesnt *really* exist through the rock heads of some people.
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| Not Unusual | Feb 29th. at 10:58:14 pm EST |
by Gary Penzler (Toronto) - wc_xemail
This sort of definition of family was not at all unusual in the ancient world, and I thought we already knew this. Certainly, we Pagans seem to have figured it out...
~Gary
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| Family Is Family, But... | Feb 29th. at 10:38:14 pm EST |
by nasionnaich (Stanchfield, MN, U.S.A.) - wc_xemail
I like that someone has figured out the fact that Roman families were not always just "immediate family"...but you know the Right-Wing Fundies will just say something like "But they were not Christian, so it would be expected they would behave like heathens..."
----nasionnaich
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| And They Say Family Has Never Changed.... | Feb 29th. at 8:37:45 pm EST |
by Chandra Shakti (Peabody, KS) - wc_xemail
Here's another piece of evidence that the nuclear family is NOT the only or even the main historical family unit despite what certain elements of our society would have us believe.
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