Historisk Tidskrift. Utgiven av Svenska historiska föreningen
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Historisk tidskrift 126:4 • 2006

Innehåll (Contents) 2006:4

Uppsatser (Articles)

Kyrkan, kvinnorna och hierarkiernas dynamik

Annika Sandén

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

The Church, women and the dynamics of hierarchies

This article analyses the interface between ecclesiastical norms and popular traditions in the early seventeenth century, with a special focus on the reciprocity of the early modern social ideology. Because women were under coverture, court records give the impression that women were largely passive in the public sphere. This may well be a simplified description of women’s everyday social interactions in the early modern period, however. Most likely, women created diversified social hierarchies between themselves by means of social activities and on arenas that were parallel to or even outside male spheres.

Based on ecclesiastical sources, this article interprets the church as a social arena for women. Women appear to have used ecclesiastical ceremonies for their own purposes. This raises questions about the way in which women defined themselves in relation to men, and how they defined themselves as women among themselves and against ecclesiastical authorities. It also raises questions about the way in which superior and inferior early modern groups created and maintained their power and spheres of action.

Ecclesiastical ceremonies were used by women to manifest adherence to a network. Marriage, baptism and communion were instruments that manifested the honour and status of women in the local community and the ceremonies of the church had the power to improve a woman’s social position. Women therefore filled these ceremonies with a symbolic content, thereby recreating the norm of the married mother as a woman of honour.

Keywords

early modern, women, church room, ceremonies, social arena, norms, social capital, Sweden