Nikesh Singh | Kirorimal College,University Of Delhi (original) (raw)

Papers by Nikesh Singh

Here Matt Richtel highlighted the difficulties facing American marriage and presents the Twenty-F... more Here Matt Richtel highlighted the difficulties facing American marriage and presents the Twenty-First century as a crisis period for the conception of modern marriage, going so far as to propose the idea of a time limited marriage: a marriage contracwith an expiration date. Richtel examined the two contrasting elements of, and the two major players in, modern American marriage: economic realities mediated by lawyers and the romantic ideals mediated by churches, For some it is the legal recognition of a relationship; for others, it is a spiritual union,or the only correct way to bear and raise children. For a few it remains a religious institution for un-sinful sex. The ideas of family, marriage and children in the Western world are altering and the law is following, or leading, these changes. The family shape -most notably the centrality of a legal marriage -and the clashing sides both presented in Matt Richtel's article and encapsulated in the equal marriage debate are strikingly similar to those presented in the literature of the period covered by this book. the family can be viewed as an important site of cultural change and evolution, period AD 400-700 in Western Europe, it was a period of considerable cultural and political change where the family was the locus for both changing discourses and apparent behaviours. As the traditional power structures of the Roman political world declined during this period, and the Christian Church and new political groups rose to 56ll that power vacuum, the family became a vitally important locus for cultural struggles concerning morality, law and tradition. AD 400-700 -is one of enormous change in the West. For a multitude of reasons, Roman Imperial power retreated swiftly from Gaul, Hispania, and Italy -the places where it had previously held strong for 56ve centuries. Sometimes this withdrawal was in the face of violence, whilst at others it was more peaceful. Cities shrank and populations changed. In the place of the old Imperial Roman structures of proconsuls, Duumviri, taxes and armies rose new power structures: new royal courts led by non-Roman families and Church hierarchies in bishoprics and monasteries. At the centre of life sits the family, and the family was inevitably affected by these changes to the world in which people lived. These changes are the focus of this study. While accepting the current consensus regarding the general structure of the post-Imperial family as a nuclear unit, two primary strands of scholarship concerning the post-Imperial family and also attempts to tie these strands together. These two strands can broadly be seen as being typi56ed by those who have attempted to identify a Roman/Germanic dichotomy, and those who have examined a Christian/non-Christian dichotomy. the choices that are made and the identities that are formed within families; its focus is how these shifted and changed throughout the period and across the geographic landscape, reasons did parents give for having children and how did they perceive themselves as mothers and fathers as their children grew up? How does this relate to abortion, infanticide, fosterage and oblation? Did women use Christian consecration as a virgin to escape the horrors of marriage or was the role of wife and mother desirable? What is the role of a father? How are husbands and wives supposed to relate to one another? The focus,however, will remain always on the adults at the centre of the family: the couple who were betrothed, who married, who became parents and raised children. their legal and social obligations and the cultural pressures placed upon them. The family of the Late Antique West has been the focus of a number of studies examining the e7fects that both an encroaching Christian cultural hegemony and the 'barbarian hordes' had on the structure and expression of the family. locating the beginning of the Early Medieval period around AD 800 and positioning the 'dark ages' of the post-Roman,pre-Carolingian centuries as a de56ning moment in the creation of the European family, locating the beginning of the Early Medieval period around AD 800 and positioning the 'dark ages' of the post-Roman, pre-Carolingian centuries as a defining moment in the creation of the

Here Matt Richtel highlighted the difficulties facing American marriage and presents the Twenty-F... more Here Matt Richtel highlighted the difficulties facing American marriage and presents the Twenty-First century as a crisis period for the conception of modern marriage, going so far as to propose the idea of a time limited marriage: a marriage contracwith an expiration date. Richtel examined the two contrasting elements of, and the two major players in, modern American marriage: economic realities mediated by lawyers and the romantic ideals mediated by churches, For some it is the legal recognition of a relationship; for others, it is a spiritual union,or the only correct way to bear and raise children. For a few it remains a religious institution for un-sinful sex. The ideas of family, marriage and children in the Western world are altering and the law is following, or leading, these changes. The family shape -most notably the centrality of a legal marriage -and the clashing sides both presented in Matt Richtel's article and encapsulated in the equal marriage debate are strikingly similar to those presented in the literature of the period covered by this book. the family can be viewed as an important site of cultural change and evolution, period AD 400-700 in Western Europe, it was a period of considerable cultural and political change where the family was the locus for both changing discourses and apparent behaviours. As the traditional power structures of the Roman political world declined during this period, and the Christian Church and new political groups rose to 56ll that power vacuum, the family became a vitally important locus for cultural struggles concerning morality, law and tradition. AD 400-700 -is one of enormous change in the West. For a multitude of reasons, Roman Imperial power retreated swiftly from Gaul, Hispania, and Italy -the places where it had previously held strong for 56ve centuries. Sometimes this withdrawal was in the face of violence, whilst at others it was more peaceful. Cities shrank and populations changed. In the place of the old Imperial Roman structures of proconsuls, Duumviri, taxes and armies rose new power structures: new royal courts led by non-Roman families and Church hierarchies in bishoprics and monasteries. At the centre of life sits the family, and the family was inevitably affected by these changes to the world in which people lived. These changes are the focus of this study. While accepting the current consensus regarding the general structure of the post-Imperial family as a nuclear unit, two primary strands of scholarship concerning the post-Imperial family and also attempts to tie these strands together. These two strands can broadly be seen as being typi56ed by those who have attempted to identify a Roman/Germanic dichotomy, and those who have examined a Christian/non-Christian dichotomy. the choices that are made and the identities that are formed within families; its focus is how these shifted and changed throughout the period and across the geographic landscape, reasons did parents give for having children and how did they perceive themselves as mothers and fathers as their children grew up? How does this relate to abortion, infanticide, fosterage and oblation? Did women use Christian consecration as a virgin to escape the horrors of marriage or was the role of wife and mother desirable? What is the role of a father? How are husbands and wives supposed to relate to one another? The focus,however, will remain always on the adults at the centre of the family: the couple who were betrothed, who married, who became parents and raised children. their legal and social obligations and the cultural pressures placed upon them. The family of the Late Antique West has been the focus of a number of studies examining the e7fects that both an encroaching Christian cultural hegemony and the 'barbarian hordes' had on the structure and expression of the family. locating the beginning of the Early Medieval period around AD 800 and positioning the 'dark ages' of the post-Roman,pre-Carolingian centuries as a de56ning moment in the creation of the European family, locating the beginning of the Early Medieval period around AD 800 and positioning the 'dark ages' of the post-Roman, pre-Carolingian centuries as a defining moment in the creation of the