Fonctions et enjeux du berceau dans la première moitié du xixe siècle
In traditional representations, the cradle has always played a welcoming role regarding young children. Associated with rocking, it ensures the child's well-being and prepares him for a peaceful sleep, necessary for his and his family’s rest. The cradle plays an essential protective role, both...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Association Française de Recherche sur les Livres et les Objets Culturels de l’Enfance (AFRELOCE)
2012-11-01
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| Series: | Strenae |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/strenae/771 |
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| Summary: | In traditional representations, the cradle has always played a welcoming role regarding young children. Associated with rocking, it ensures the child's well-being and prepares him for a peaceful sleep, necessary for his and his family’s rest. The cradle plays an essential protective role, both literally and figuratively. However, if we look at the treatises on the care of newborns and the educational treatises written by doctors in the first half of the 19th century, we understand that the cradle’s place in the family unit poses different questions. The question of using a cradle to place the child in, while seemingly obvious, has not always responded to a desire to ensure more comfort for the child. On the contrary, it corresponds to a strong demand from different authorities (doctors, theologians, moralists) to banish the cohabitation of children and parents in the same bed, in order to avoid the risk of suffocation and infanticide. However, putting a child to rest in a cradle requires clear defining of each person’s role (mother, newborn, nurse, father). It is an essential question of education. |
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| ISSN: | 2109-9081 |