Fertility and its Failure: An exploration of the early-modern animal and human contexts

这个项目将探索英国早期现代生育文化的主题。它将研究1560年至1700年期间人类和动物的生育能力及其失败。使用文化史方法与医学史和性别史相结合的方法，学生计划研究广泛的各种主要来源。这将是必要的，以建立一个范围广泛的帐户，评估英语生育率作为一个整体，特别是重点是知识的传播。问题管理，情绪体验和文化描绘。这个项目将考察大约1560到1700年间英格兰人类和动物生育文化的关键方面。因此，它将提出一系列问题：医生和兽医(正式和非正式)如何了解生育及其管理，以及传播这一信息的方法是什么？一般人群对人类和动物生育能力的了解程度如何？是如何获得的？个体如何管理自己和动物的生育经历？形成对人类和动物生育能力的理解的基本信念和假设是什么？与生育及其失败相关的情绪是如何经历的？人类和动物的生育能力在文化上是如何表现的，在文学、视觉和音乐来源上又有何不同？人类(在)生育的表现是以什么方式性别的？生育及其失败是生命的基石，但只得到了早期现代历史学家有限的关注。像瑞格利和斯科菲尔德(1981)这样的人口学家已经理解了这一主题的重要性，他们的开创性研究发现生育率是这一时期人口变化的最重要因素。政治史学家也意识到了它的重要性；都铎王朝和斯图尔特王朝的十位君主中，有七位挣扎着或未能怀上继承人。最近，包括Foyster和Berry(2009)和Oren-Magidor(2017)在内的社会文化历史学家对不孕症进行了评估。然而，现有的许多文献都集中在经验的精确方面--人口趋势、农业方法、政治后果和医学治疗--而不是总体主题。这个项目将尝试一个更全面的视角。该项目将把早期现代时期的文化历史学家常用的一系列方法与库克(1994)等研究这一时期的医疗从业人员和医疗信息传播的医学历史学家所采取的方法结合起来。值得注意的是，它还将把这些工作与正在进入该学科的“动物转向”(Mennell，2021)所产生的研究进行比较。因此，它将遵循医学和文化历史学家的方法，研究性别、性、家庭生活、廉价印刷品、情感和对动物的态度，如波洛克(1997)、迈凯轮(1984和2007)、威廉姆斯(2015)和托马斯(1983)。这名学生计划查阅以下资料，其中包括：农业小册子，如《乡下人的导师》(Crawshy，1636)；个人记录，包括莎拉·金纳的年鉴(1559)和亨利·贝斯特的绵羊饲养记录(1641)，其中展示了管理动物和人类生育能力的行动记录；医学年鉴；非正式的家庭食谱以及出版的材料，如夏普的《助产士书》(1671)；自我文件，如塞缪尔·佩皮斯和亚当·爱的日记；粗俗的民谣，证明生育力是以最普遍的印刷形式之一表现的；与离婚有关的法庭案件，集中在兰贝斯宫图书馆的拱门法院记录。

This project will explore the topic of early-modern fertility cultures in England. It will examine both human and animal fertility and its failure during the period 1560-1700. Using cultural history methodologies in combination with medical and gender history approaches, the student plans to examine a wide-ranging variety of primary sources. This will be necessary to establish a broad ranging account which assesses English (in)fertility as a whole with particular focus the spread of knowledge. management of problems, experience of emotions and cultural portrayal.This project will examine key aspects of human and animal fertility cultures in England between c.1560 and 1700. It will therefore ask a series of questions: How did medical practitioners and veterinarians (both formal and informal) learn about fertility and its management, and what were the methods by which this information was disseminated? What level of knowledge about human and animal fertility existed among the general population and how was it acquired? How did individuals manage their own experiences of (in)fertility, and that of their animals? What were the underlying beliefs and assumptions which shaped understandings of human and animal (in)fertility? How were the emotions experienced in relation to fertility and its failure? How were human and animal (in)fertility represented culturally and how did this vary in literary, visual and musical sources? In what ways was the representation of human (in)fertility gendered?Fertility and its failure are keystones of life yet have only received limited attention from early-modern historians. The importance of the subject has been understood by demographers like Wrigley and Schofield (1981), whose seminal studies identified fertility as the most significant factor underlying population change in the period. Political historians are also aware of its importance; seven of the ten Tudor and Stuart monarchs struggled or failed to conceive heirs. More recently, socio-cultural historians including Foyster and Berry (2009) and Oren-Magidor (2017) have assessed infertility. However much of the available literature focuses on precise aspects of experience - demographic trends, agricultural methods, political consequences, and medical cures - rather than on the overall topic. This project will attempt a more holistic view. This project will combine a range of methods commonly used by cultural historians of the early-modern period with the approaches taken by medical historians like Cook (1994) who have studied medical practitioners and the dissemination of medical information during this period. Significantly it will also compare such work with research generated by the 'animal turn' (Mennell, 2021) which is entering the discipline. As such it will follow the methodologies of medical and cultural historians working on gender, sex, family life, cheap print, emotions and attitudes to animals like Pollock (1997), McLaren (1984 and 2007), Williams (2015) and Thomas (1983). The student plans to consult the following sources, amongst others: farming pamphlets like The Countryman's instructor (Crawshy, 1636); personal records including Sarah Jinner's almanacs (1559) and Henry Best's Sheep Breeding records (1641) which demonstrate a record of action taken towards managing the fertility of both animals and humans; medical almanacs; informal home 'recipe books' as well as published material such as Sharpe's The Midwife's Book (1671); ego documents like the diaries of Samuel Pepys and Adam Eyre; broadside ballads which evidence the various ways in which fertility was represented in one of the most ubiquitous forms of print; court cases relating to divorce, concentrating on the Court of Arches records at Lambeth Palace Library.