Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture

Download or read book Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture written by Véronique Dasen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigations into the daily life of Roman families show that children were key actors in the process of the construction of social memory: they were the pivotal point of the transmission of family tradition and values in both elite and non-elite families. This collection of essays draws together the perspectives of various disciplines to provide a multifaceted picture of the Roman family based on a wide range of evidence drawn from the 1st century BCE to Late Antiquity and theChristian period. The contributors define the notion of memory, discuss the role of children in the transmission of social memory and social identities, and also deal with threats to familial memory, in the cases of children deliberately or accidentally excluded from tradition, long believed to beinvisible, such as those born at home to slaves, or outcast because of illness or their unusual status, for example as the offspring of an incestuous relationship.