Carolingian Domesticities
Rachel Stone
Carolingian ideas of "home" and "family" encompassed a wide range meanings from physical buildings to kin free unfree dependents. Kinship ties played vital role, both socially politically, marriage practices reflected that; reforms respected parents' strategies concerning their children's marriages. The Frankish economy was structured around nuclear households, peasant tenancies the huge estates presided over by noble men women. Male female activities in production consumption were partially, but not completely gender-specific. Dowries provided some economic independence for women, wealth often depended on contingent factors such as family size attitudes male relatives. ordered conjugal household an important image moral thought, with married women holding subordinate, honored position. ideology focused more elite women's role management dependents social networks than purely "housewifely" activities.
Oxford University Press eBooks