Régimes matrimoniaux et mutations sociales: Les époux bordelais, 1450–1550 by Jacques Lafon (review)

REVIEWS 109 but rather of middle class,Protestant families. More American Indians are included thanwehadanticipated, butmostarefiguresof legend.Onlythreequalifiedon the basis of personalmerit. The fieldsin whichthesewomenachieved noteisrevealing.Two groupsstandout numerically:reformersand writers.Eachrepresents just under •o per centof the total. Another • per cent are performers.Religion,medicine,and sciencealso providedopportunities for some womentoattainstature,butmanyof theentriesin thesecategories are includedmore for administrative skillor because they were pioneers in theirprofession thanfor medical or scientific excellence. A surprisingly largenumber(3 percent)wereentrepreneurs. On closerexamination wesawthat mostof thesewomeneitherhadinheritedwealthor tookoverpartialor full management ofafamilybusiness. Fewhadskills which wouldrankthemashighasmany businessmen oftheirowntimes. Butperhaps anywoman whodemonstrated business competence before thetwentieth century isnoteworthy. Despite therespectability of femaleparticipation in thevisualarts,fewwomenartists received lasting critical notice.The samecouldcertainlybesaidfor themajorityof thewritersincluded.A double standard intheselection process seems tohavebeenapplied. The introductionsketches the historyof womenin the United States, andbriefly discusses the avenues opento talentat variousperiods.A more extendedseriesof essays wouldhavebeenuseful.After all,thehistoryof womenislargelythehistoryof groups.Among possible categories, we think of the abolitionists, early and later feminists, 'progressive' reformers,temperance agitators, andlegendaryheroines.A discussion ofchanges inchild-rearing practices wouldhaverestored balance, andthe growthandinfluenceof thewomen's colleges deserves muchmorespace thanit has beenalloted.Althoughabookindictionary formisnecessarily fragmentary, thisone could have been improvedby providingan explicit framework for mostof the entries.Asit is,manyarenotrelatedto their environments, makingtheir achievements obscure to the uninitiated. Thesebooks willbeausefulreferencetoalimitedgroupof students. The abolition movement isthroughlycovered. 'Progressive' reform,andthefightfor temperance andthesuffragearesomewhat morespottily treatedbecause somesignificant figures hadnotdiedby •95o. Any studentof the theatreor popularliterature,up to about •9•o, will find NAwextremelyvaluable,and for women'shistoryin generalit isan importantsource.But the •95ø cutoffmakesthesevolumesuseless to historians of therelativelyrecentpast,andthemarginalparticipation of womeninentrepreneurial , artistic,or politicallife meansthat NAW isalsomarginalto scholars workingin these areas. RAY and VICTORIA GINGER University ofCalgary EUROPE Rdgimes matrimoniaux et mutations sociales: Lesdpoux bordelais, •45o-•55 o. JACQUES I•AVON. Paris,SEVPEN, •97z-.Pp.345, map.8z-,oov. 110 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Onethousand twohundredandsixty-nine marriage contracts drawnupinthecityof Bordeauxanditsenvirons inthecentury•45ø- •55øformtheessential documentary baseforJacques Lafon'srigorousstudyof themarriagecustoms of a society in crisis. Bordeauxand the Bordelais, ravagedbythelastphaseof the Hundred Years'War and economically dislocated by forciblereincorporationinto France,wasplunged into an era of confusionfrom whichit did not emergeuntil well into the sixteenth century.The underlyingassumption of thisstudywhichisamplydemonstrated is thatmarriagecustoms werein practicesensitive to social andeconomic conditions. Lafon'sstyleand generalapproachare verymuchin keepingwiththe scholarly tradition ofthevieSection ofthel•cole pratique des hautes dtudes. Lafon, following in the footsteps of BernardSchnapper(Les rentes auXVIe sibcle, Paris•958), hasattemptedto bridgethegapbetween legalandsocial historybymeans of quantitative analysis of archivalmaterials. The bookisdividedintotwoprincipalsections. In thefirst,Lafonwritesmainlyasa legalhistorian.He presents aclose analysis of themarriagelawsof Bordeauxduring aperiodofconsiderable legalaswellassocial andeconomic flux.He goes wellbeyond theusuallegalcommentators andplunges intothemass of contracts whichreflected the actualmarriagecustoms. The quantitative analysis of the contracts themselves reveals thecleardifferences in practice betweenBordeauxandtherural hinterland, and amongthe severalsocio-professional groups.If one generaltrend couldbe singledout, it wouldbe the declineof the universaldowryin fayourof a precisely statedandlimiteddowryduringtheperiodunderconsideration. In thesecond part,theemphasis shiftsfromlegaltosocial history.Lafonbegins by surveying theeconomy oftheperiod,thedisruptionofthewinetrade,rural depopulation ,and the slowrecoveryfrom the Frenchreconquest of the region.It wasthe economic marasme, or moreprecisely thecontemporary perception ofthismarasme, whichwasthemainforceshaping andalteringmarriagecustoms. At thispointLafon begins themostinteresting partofhisstudy. The confusion andthesocial disequilibrium of thelatefifteenthcenturyfoundoneexpression in themarkedtendency of almost80 percentof youngcouplesto modifythe officialmarriagecustomof the strictlydefineddowry(lesdparatisme dotal)withsomeform of communalproperty inordertostrengthen themselves against adverse conditions. Onlythenobilitywhich alreadyhad wealth to protectremained aloof from the drift toward communal property.Thispoolingofpropertycovered abroadspectrum rangingfromthelegal incorporation of the youngcoupleintoan extendedfamily,a form of association particularly popularamong theruralclasses, tothemoremoderate pooling offuture revenuesand acquisitions (socidtd d'acquats) typicalof the urban classes. This episode in the communalorganization of propertybetweenspouses whichcanbe foundin thelatemiddleages throughoutsouthern andcentralFranceleft apermanentimprintonthemarriagecustoms of Bordeaux undertheoldrdgime. Byitsverynaturethisdetailedanddifficultregionalmonograph will beof most interestto specialists. Lafon'ssensitivity to thelimitations of hisdocumentation, his graspof historical problems, andhisimaginative and far-ranginganalysis of marriagecontracts areadmirable.A briefreviewcannotdojusticeto thenuances of his presentation, but it isnowclearthat marriagecontracts are a rich sourcefor social 1 REVIEWS 111 history, anda source whichcanbeusedtoshedlightnotonlyonmarriagecustoms but on suchtopicsasmigration.For the non-specialist interestedin innovative methodology forsocial history, Lafon's bookcanbereadwithprofit. JAMES L. GOLDSMITH University qfOklahoma Les Fluctuations duproduit deladime: Conjoncture ddcimale etdomainiale delatin duMoyen AgeauXVIIIe sibcle. Communications et travauxrassemb16s et pr6sent•sparJOSEPH GO¾ et EMMANUEL LEROYLADURIE. Ecolepratique des hautes•tudes, Sorbonne. Sixlamesection: sciences •conomiques etsociales. Centrederecherches historiques. Cahiers des•tudesrurales:Iii. Paris/LaHaye,Mouton,1972.Pp.397. 75F. Sixteencommunications by variousFrenchand foreigneconomic historians, one generalpresentation, asetof reflections, ageneralconclusion, andtwenty-twopages of appendices...