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Author McLaren, Angus., author

Title Reproductive rituals : the perception of fertility in England from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century / Angus McLaren
Published London : Routledge, 2020

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Description 1 online resource
Series Routledge Library Editions: Ritual Ser. ; v. 4
Routledge Library Editions: Ritual Ser
Summary Originally published in 1984 Reproductive Ritual examines fertility and re-production in pre-industrial England. The book discusses both through anthropological research and reviews of contemporary literature that conscious family limitation was practised before the nineteenth century. The volume describes a surprising number of rules, regulations, taboos, injunctions, charms and herbal remedies used to affect pregnancy, and shows the extent to which individual women and men were concerned with controlling the size of their families. The fertility levels in England - as in Western Europe as a whole - were a very long way from the biological maximum in these centuries, and the book discusses the various reasons why this was so. The book reviews traditional ideas concerning the relationship between procreation and pleasure, drawn from a range of contemporary sources and discusses ways in which earlier generations sought both to promote and limit fertility. The book also examines abortion and shows how much evidence there is for its actual practice during the period and of traditional views towards it. This book provides a detailed understanding of historical attitudes towards conception family planning in pre-industrial England
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed May 4, 2020)
Subject Fertility, Human -- England -- History
Fertility, Human -- England -- Folklore -- History
Birth control -- England -- History
Birth control -- England -- Folklore -- History
Conception -- Folklore
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
Birth control
Conception
Fertility, Human
England
Genre/Form Folklore
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781000026887
1000026884
9781003003328
100300332X
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1000026817
9781000026740
1000026744