Friday, November 6, 2015
Regulations in Society
Regulating fertility and marriage was a big part of early modern history. In Roper's chapter on Fertility one of the most common regulations for marriage was being financially stable. Not only was it required that you be in a financially stable position but also that you weren't too young. Of course with age comes more money such as if a parent dies and one inherits the assets. One of the regulations was even that they didn't want you marrying an "outsider" or the example Roper gives, you must show documentation of the properties owned by the person you wish to marry. One man was denied the marriage to a woman for not being able to provide documentation. For regulations on fertility it's pretty reasonable to regulate the amount of births in a community due to food shortages or something of that matter. It would be much harder in today's world but as adults we can make that decision ourselves based on our situations in life. We may read this chapter and think how can they put regulations on fertility and the birth of children let alone who you fall in love with and the denial of marriage. But is it all that crazy? If we think about it our parents tell us as we are growing up not to get married to young and that we need to save money as we go so that we will have a comfortable lifestyle. Although there is no actual law regulating this I think we still follow these guidelines in today's world.
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I would definitely agree. While it may seem like an atrocity to deny someone marriage to someone they truly want to be with the regulations do make sense. It seems to me like the regulations were designed to benefit the lives of potential children. A child born into poverty is far and away less likely to live a healthy and prosperous life when compared to a child born into a family that has stability. The same goes for children today.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's a definitely a policy rooted in logic. Some countries still regulate birth to an extent for many of the same reasons. At the same time, I think laws like this exclude people who would be resilient despite the circumstances. We see that every day here in America. While it may be because of programs we put in place or not, I am glad there is no formal rule on how and when to marry or have children. I believe the reason we don't have these rules now is because it is apparent that having a restriction on everything isn't a great way to control things for myriad reasons. Plus there are factors concerning children and marriage that can't be predetermined. This is an issue I think pragmatic societies in general face because sometimes things don't need to be completely reasonable to work well.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's a definitely a policy rooted in logic. Some countries still regulate birth to an extent for many of the same reasons. At the same time, I think laws like this exclude people who would be resilient despite the circumstances. We see that every day here in America. While it may be because of programs we put in place or not, I am glad there is no formal rule on how and when to marry or have children. I believe the reason we don't have these rules now is because it is apparent that having a restriction on everything isn't a great way to control things for myriad reasons. Plus there are factors concerning children and marriage that can't be predetermined. This is an issue I think pragmatic societies in general face because sometimes things don't need to be completely reasonable to work well.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Like the others, I have to agree that in today's society, like back then, society does seem to want us to wait to get married and have children. I know, as a parent myself, that I would want my children to be financially stable before they got married. It just makes life a little easier, and back then, life was hard enough.
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