Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) [Paperback]

David Warren Sabean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1991 | Series: Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Book 73)

One of the most important works in social history of recent decades, this landmark study deals with the ordinary experiences of people who lived in a village in Southern Germany. By focusing on the internal relations of the family, David Sabean explores the ways in which the family shaped both property and production in Neckarhausen. Situated on the upper Neckar river, between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alp, Neckarhausen provides a classic example of small peasant agriculture characterized by ever more intensive use of soils as succeeding families worked ever smaller plots of land. In 1700, Neckarhausen had largely recovered from the Thirty Years War and had established the landholding pattern and occupational structure that would characterize it until the late nineteenth century. By 1870, the population had tripled in size and the village had experienced a green revolution and had become enmeshed in regional and international markets. This in-depth study of Neckarhausen is divided into four parts: an introduction to social and economic change, sources and concepts; an analysis of relationships between husbands and wives; a consideration of relationships between generations; and a discussion of kinship and the transfer of property.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this excellent study Sabean brings together a wealth of material illuminating in detail the fate of a village and its families during a crucial period in Germany history....this is a superb historical and ethnographic study of a German village, which anthropologists and others will refer to for a long time to come." American Ethnologist

"...Sabean has written by far the best historical study of kinship and family relations in the German countryside." American Historical Review

"There is a great deal in this book to stimulate the imagination...an excellent book." Canadian Journal of History

"...merits close reading by everyone working on the family, women, agricultural change and property not only in continental Europe, but anywhere in the world. It will even make the type of generalizations we so easily make in the context of teaching Western Civ much more questionable, requiring the rewriting of lectures we had thought satisfactorily up-to-date. That extra work may make many of us hope that Sabean takes as long to finish his book on kinship as he did this one, for it will certainly be just as challenging." Merry E. Wiesner, Journal of Social History

Book Description

Focusing on the internal relations of the family, this study explores the ways in which it influenced property ownership as well as production in Neckarhausen, a Southern German village that tripled its size by 1870.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 25, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521386926
• ISBN-13: 978-0521386920
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars How history really ought to be written, January 20, 2008

By 

Brian Griffith (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) (Paperback)

This is a fantastic piece of research, patiently exploring patterns of change among the families of a German village. The surprisingly thorough records of Neckarhausen village give Sabean an almost intimate access to these people's lives. As wider currents of history ripple through the village, Sabean captures shifts in the ground rules of human relations. For one example, as German law removed the legal authority of husbands over wives, the question naturally arose: If men had no right to beat or kill their wives, what would stop women from leaving abusive marriages? Increasingly the answer was: nothing. If the neighbors and police would both defend a fleeing woman from attack by her husband, then force in a marriage was suddenly quite counterproductive. It now seemed that neither clergymen nor family "heads" could hold their flocks by force. The "subordinates" would only vote with their feet, toward a more loving environment if they could see one. So through the 1700s and 1800s in Germany, the rate of separation between spouses grew. Studies of local records show that in most separation cases, the wives left their husbands, usually for drunkenness, physical abuse, and/or wasting family resources. The abandoned husbands often appealed to their local pastors or priests, trying to have the church exercise its old authority and force the wives to return. With each passing decade it worked less often.

Sabean's approach, I think, is close to the best for researching and writing history.

4.0 out of 5 stars impressive scholarship, June 9, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) (Paperback)

Sabean's monograph is indeed very specialised. He has performed intensive research on the village of Neckarhausen, for the period 1700-1870. The surviving archives that he plumbed are impressive in the voluminous details from which he has culled this book.

The period was chosen largely because during this time, the idea of Germany arose, instead of a collection of fractious regions. Also, the Industrial Revolution that started in Britain in the late 1700s has spread to Germany, triggering massive changes.

The book goes into such issues as the social changes, including those between husband and wife. Plus the extended family kinships, and how these affected the distribution of labour and property. We also see how the relationship between lord and peasant loosened under early industrialisation. Paralleling similar changes in Britain, with which the reader might perhaps be more familiar.