Wet-nursing in the Roman Empire: Indifference, efficiency and affection
By Anna Sparreboom
Thesis M-phil., VU University, Amsterdam (2009)
Introduction: The introduction of artificial baby food in the western world in the beginning of the twentieth century was an important factor in the decline of the practice of wet- nursing. The absence of suitable artificial baby food when the mother was ill or had died, had for centuries compelled parents to rely on a wet-nurse for the nursing of their child. Literature, epitaphs and art indicate that the nutrix, the Latin term that derives from the verb ‘nutrire’, ‘to feed’ or ‘to nurse’, was a prominent figure in the early live of many children in Roman antiquity. The phenomenon of wet-nursing in the Roman Empire is the subject of this thesis.
Wet-nursing has been an important topic in discussions about childhood in history. The prevalence of the practice has led many scholars to conclude that attitudes towards children were predominantly negative in the past. The work of the French historian Philippe Ariès who argued that childhood is a modern invention and that, in pre-modern society, children were viewed as mini-adults, has been the starting point of this debate. According to Ariès, this image of children resulted in an indifference towards the specific needs and capabilities of the child which could lead to ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment of children and even infanticide. The American psycho-historian Lloyd DeMause, one of Ariès’ followers, stated that the practice of wet-nursing was a symptom of this parental indifference and neglect and he even classified it as a form of ‘institutionalized abandonment’. The general point of view of the scholars who presented the indifference-thesis was that there has been a progressive improvement in the status and treatment of children through the centuries. The emergence of education, changes in family structure, the rise of capitalism, the increasing maturity of parents and the emergence of a spirit of benevolence were thought to have caused the ‘modern’ concept of childhood.
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