Historisk tidskrift 131:3 • 2011
Innehåll (Contents) 2011:3
Döden går igen. Moder- och faderlösa barn i bondesamhället
kring år 1800
Sofia Holmlund
Fulltext (pdf)
Summary
When mothers and fathers die: long-term consequences of parental
loss in preindustrial Sweden
The article is a pilot study dealing with long-term effects
of parental loss among children in preindustrial Sweden. A cohort
investigation of fully 1 200 individuals born in a Swedish rural
parish between 1788 and 1810 was undertaken, showing that by
the age of 15, one quarter (298 persons) had lost either one
or both parents. Of these individuals, 112 had lost their mother,
138 their father, and 48 both parents. Not surprisingly, the
orphaned turned out to be a very vulnerable group. Even in adulthood
many of them lived unstable lives with frequent moves in and
out of the parishes. A large part of them disappeared from the
records at a young age and consequently the subgroup was excluded
from further analysis.
Otherwise, motherless children were the
ones who deviated most from the control group. They left home
at lower ages than both fatherless children and children with
both parents alive. Also, fewer of them survived until the age
of 35 or 55, respectively. This difference was as evident within
the group of landholding farmers as among the landless, which
indicates that economic factors were not solely responsible.
It is known from previous studies that gender boundaries in
agrarian society were more easily crossed by women than by men.
This may have made it harder for fathers to take over the social
and psychological functions of the mother than vice versa. Thus,
beside the economic hardship which sometimes followed the loss
of a parent, motherless children may have experienced a deteriorated
emotional environment which may have influenced their later lives.
Medical and psychological studies of modern populations show
that the early loss of a parent has impacts on the individual’s
capacity of coping with social and physical stress in adulthood
and old age. The article suggests that the impact of such “soft
factors” should be taken into account when studying life courses
in historical populations as well. It is also concluded that
a further understanding of the parental loss in preindustrial
society must involve a discussion of the social constructions
of motherhood and fatherhood. Such issues need to be dealt with
through qualitative as well as quantitative approaches. Keywords:
orphans, mothers, fathers, children, gender
Keywords
orphans, mothers, fathers, children, gender, peasant society,
18th century, 19th century, Sweden
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