Philippe Ariès
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Philippe Ariès (July 21, 1914, Blois - February 8, 1984, Paris) was an important French medievalist and historian of the family and childhood, in the style of Georges Duby. Ariès has written many books on the common daily life. His most prominent works regarded the change in the western attitudes towards death.
Ariès regarded himself as a right-wing anarchist[citation needed]. He was close to the monarchist Action française, and wrote in La Nation française review. However, he also cooperated with many left-wing French historians, like Michel Foucault.
He is known for his book Centuries of Childhood. In medieval society, the idea of childhood just simply did not exist. Children were seen to be too weak to be counted and that they could disappear at any time. But these children were considered as an adult as soon as they could live without the help of their mothers, nanny, or someone else.
[edit] Criticism
There has been widespread criticism of the methods that Ariès used to draw his conclusions about the role of childhood in early modern Europe. One of his most noted critics was the historian Geoffrey Elton. Elton's main criticism of Ariès is paraphrased in Richard J. Evans's book on historiography, In Defence of History.
"in everyday life children were indeed dressed differently to adults; they were just put in adult clothes to have their portraits painted".
That is to say that Ariès took early modern portraits as an accurate representation of the look of early modern families whereas a lot of the clients would use them to improve their status.
Further criticism of Ariès is found in an article, available online, from 1992 by Harry Hendrick for the journal of the Economic History Society. Within the article, entitled Children and Childhood, Hendrick lists four criticisms of Ariès's work.
"Firstly that his data are either unrepresentative or unreliable. Secondly that he takes evidence out of context, confuses prescription with practice, and uses atypical examples. Thirdly, that he implicitly denies the immutability of the special needs of children, for food, clothing, shelter, affection and conversation. Fourthly, that he puts undue emphasis on the work of moralists and educationalists while saying little of economic and political factors"[1].
[edit] Secondary Sources
- Hutton, Patrick H., Philippe Ariès and the politics of French cultural history, Univ. of Massachusetts Press 2004
- Evans, Richard J., In Defence of History, Granta Books 1997
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