Wes Alvaro | TR 9:40-10:55 | Carniello

Focus On The Poor The blurred view on the lives of impoverished Parisians

Wes Alvaro 4/12/2007

Many problems arise when trying to document and detail the lives of poor people during any point in history. The main issue being that the subject of exploration is often unable to offer those conducting the study valuable insight into their environment. The end consequence is research, riddled with gaps and inconsistencies, which results in an idealist observatory study as opposed to actually illustrating the lives of impoverished individuals. This problem is apparently present in Sharon Farmer’s book, “Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor”. While Farmer does offer an extensive objective examination of gender views and a broad exploration of the way poor people in Paris were treated by individuals of society, she is unable to offer an acceptable depiction of the daily lives of the underprivileged Parisians. This shortcoming results in the author either being unable to, or unwilling to, make arguments on the more complex issues of the time. The lack of inclusion of these topics is not due to the well educated author being ignorant on the subject nor did she purposely leave out the information. The fact is that the sources she referenced were unable to give her the insight she needed to accurately demonstrate the lives of poor people in this European metropolis. Throughout the text, Farmer uses sources written by those who are not in a situation of poverty. She admits in her introduction that, “Although the assumptions of bureaucrats, clerics and scholars plated the predominant role in shaping the written record,” but she claims, “the sources also contain fragments of evidence concerning the cultural assumptions of the poor themselves” (Farmer, 10). In fact, the bases of the text are wholly cultural assumptions of the poor as poor people were not authors, nor were they seen as valuable resources when authoring a book on social events in history. Worse than the situation of today, poor people were overlooked in society. Farr found the same flaw when he read the book, “This book, … is more about gender and ideology than it is about the daily lives of the poor; that, however, as every medievalist knows, is less the fault of the author than a result of the tyranny of the sources. Moreover, whatever picture that emerges about the poor … is mediated by men who were not themselves poor” (Farr). Her sources go into much detail on the appearances of the poor

people and the ways in which they are viewed by those of a higher status (clerics, propertied individuals, and aristocrats), but since the authors of her sources were not those in poverty, they were unable to give the information she dearly needed to complete her analysis of the impoverished people of “thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Paris” (Farmer, 1). Farmer was right when she said that, “the Miracles of St. Louis provide us with a photograph … of poor people in Paris and St. Denis” (Farmer, 165). The information recounted from this source give us nothing more than the outward appearance of the people in the focus of this book. In her conclusion, Farmer says, “It is the poor themselves, whose perspectives might challenge these stereotypes, who leave behind the least enduring legacies” (Farmer, 168); she acknowledges that the information we have today on poor people was dictated by the elite such as Guillaume: “[those] who controlled the written word [have] already determined which aspects of [poor] people’s lives would be passed on to posterity” (Farmer, 169). This shortcoming, of course, does not invalidate any of the information presented to the reader by Farmer; as she merely displayed factual information throughout the 169 pages of her summary. However, it is quite obvious that thinking more carefully about this fact while reading will free the reader from accepting that this book covers all or even a majority of the facts about Parisians in poverty, but simply displays the elitist view which most likely only explores a minute portion of the actual daily lives of these people. Farmer chooses to focus her arguments on topics that no one would consider to be controversial.

No one would object to the statement that, “expectations for lower-status men

emphasized manual labor and self-sufficiency” (Farmer, 104) during that or any time period. The author portrays each statement in the text to be a revelation, not yet considered. For example, she conveys to the reader all of the different ways in which poor people obtained support, “Charity for disabled poor men and women came not only from family, employers, and gild organizations, but also from neighbors and companions—modest individuals who realized that they, too, might find themselves on the receiving end of charitable assistance” (Farmer, 102). It seems obvious to most that this principle and all

the supporting information would hold true, but Farmer insists on reiterating facts and details like this unnecessarily throughout the text. Simons also agrees in his review of the book, “Ultimately, Farmer offers conclusions that few will challenge. Who denies today that gender and social class intersect in history? Who doubts that the upper classes, in the Middle Ages or at any other time, associated commoners with bodily instincts?” (Simons). It seems odd that a learned historian would choose to present facts in such a manner, and one must question the reason behind it: Is it simply because the author is trying to pass the information off as fact, or more likely, that since there is such a famine of information on this topic, such conclusions must be made. One must also seriously question the accuracy of the major source for this work. Farmer repeatedly uses the text describing miracles that occurred over a King Louis’s tomb: Miracles of St. Louis; written during his canonization inquest. Can the information in this source, gathered from second-hand or third-hand informants be relied on? While details on the actual happenings during this time may be few, this is no reason to use a questionable source as your main resource. Farr finds some of the author’s sources hard to accept in his review as well, “Invoking corroborating evidence from 15thcentury Reims and 14th- and 15th-century England does little to confirm what still seem to be speculations” (Farr). Some of the miracles described by Farmer in the book (while in the realm of possibility, as far as miracles go) seem quite far-fetched to be relied on so heavily. In one retelling, an apprentice had a swelling appear in his foot. “Eventually the swelling developed into an open wound, which gave off pus through nine openings and caused such a stench that the other members of Robert’s household blamed him for allowing the young man to continue living there” (Farmer, 99). He suffered for 10 years, finding help from various people, but it was not until he visited the tomb of King Louis was his dilemma remedied. It seems coincidental to a degree of fabrication (unintentional, be it) that Guillaume could get these entire miracle stories confirmed whilst trying to get an important individual

canonized. The reader of Farmer’s book should surely be aware of this before resorting to fully believing the arguments and stories within its pages. Overall, Farmer’s book contains a great deal of valuable and interesting information on a topic which has yet to receive much attention from authors of the medieval period.

The author’s

arrangement of information throughout the book was well balanced, offering information on gender biases and misconceptions and inserting stories of individual people. The information presented gave valuable insight on many aspects of the poor people of Paris from the elitist point of view, however, as I have argued, first hand information from the lower class people of the time is lacking. This is quite possibly the only downfall to this succinct text by Sharon Farmer. The sources that she has compiled allow for any reader to gain new and interesting knowledge on gender and idealist principles in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century. On the whole, Farmer’s approach to the text accomplishes in delivering all the available information on impoverished Parisians to the reader in a well-developed, concise piece of historical literature.

Bibliography

Farr, James R. "Reviews / Comptes Rendus." History Cooperative. Dept of History, Purdue University. 2 Apr. 2007 . Sharon Farmer. Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor. (Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past.) Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2002. Pp. xiii, 198. $35.00. Simons, Walter. "Europe: Ancient and Medieval." History Cooperative. Dept of History, Dartmouth College. 2 Apr. 2007 .

Focus On The Poor

Dec 4, 2007 - inclusion of these topics is not due to the well educated author being ignorant on the subject nor did she purposely leave out the information. The fact is that the sources she referenced were unable to give her the insight she needed to accurately demonstrate the lives of poor people in this European ...

321KB Sizes 1 Downloads 226 Views

Recommend Documents

pdf-1466\the-power-of-focus-groups-focus-on-international ...
... problem loading more pages. Retrying... pdf-1466\the-power-of-focus-groups-focus-on-internatio ... ment-qualitative-research-by-janet-mancini-billson.pdf.

pdf-1491\ella-enchanted-focus-on-reading-saddlebacks-focus-on ...
Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. pdf-1491\ella-enchanted-focus-on-reading-saddlebacks-focus-on-reading-study-guides-by-lisa-french.pdf.

Focus on Safety.pdf
Page 1 of 2. 10. FOCUS ON SAFETY. Does OSHA Require Compliance with NFPA 70E? When discussing the topic of NFPA 70E, I am often asked. if OSHA ...

Focus-Gamelan-Music-Of-Indonesia-Focus-On ...
Focus-Gamelan-Music-Of-Indonesia-Focus-On-World-Music-Series.pdf. Focus-Gamelan-Music-Of-Indonesia-Focus-On-World-Music-Series.pdf. Open. Extract.

The Effects of Poor Neonatal Health on Children's ...
The reason for these gaps in the literature involves data availability. The datasets that previous researchers have used to study the effects of poor neonatal health on adult outcomes (e.g., Scandinavian registry data, or data matching a mother's bir

Focus on Jim Crow Laws.pdf
There was a problem loading more pages. Retrying... Whoops! There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. Focus on Jim Crow Laws.pdf. Focus on Jim Crow La

focus on essay - ecology.pdf
Ex: pond ecosystem consists of biotic components such as carp, fishes, Daphnia and abiotic. components such as pond water, soil and sunlight. 2. (a) Explain ...

pdf-1466\the-power-of-focus-groups-focus-on-health-by-janet ...
... is really easy to read every time you have the leisure. time. Page 3 of 6. pdf-1466\the-power-of-focus-groups-focus-on-health-by-janet-mancini-billson.pdf.

focus on essay - gene technology.pdf
(b) Bacterial plasmids are example of vectors. Give the characteristics of ... (c) Compare and contrast genomic library and cDNA library. [6] ... (b) - Plasmid is small circular DNA with known DNA sequence. - This makes the .... List all the enzymes

Focus on the Coptic Family- Fr. Mikhail Mikhail.pdf
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. Focus on the ...