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Darrera modificació: 2017-10-20
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Bavel, Bas J. P. van - Gelderblom, Oskar, "Land of milk and butter: the economic origins of cleanliness in the Dutch Golden Age", Past and Present, 205 (2009), 41-69.
- Resum
- This paper explores why early modern Holland, and particularly its women, had an international reputation for cleanliness. Between 1500 and 1800 numerous travellers reported on the habit of housewives and maids to meticulously clean the interior and exterior of houses. We argue that it was the commercialization of dairy farming that led to improvements in household hygiene. In the fourteenth century peasants but also urban dwellers began to produce large quantities of butter and cheese for the market. In their small production units the wives and daughters worked to secure a clean environment for proper curdling and churning. We estimate that at the turn of the sixteenth century half of all rural households and up to one third of urban households in Holland produced butter and cheese. These numbers declined in the sixteenth century when peasants sold their land and larger farms were set up. Initially the migration of entire peasant families to towns, the hiring of farmers' daughters as housemaids, and the exceptionally high consumption of dairy continued to feed into the habit of regular cleaning in urban households. However, by the mid-seventeenth century the direct link between dairy farming and cleanliness was probably lost.
- Matèries
- Alimentació
Dones
Història - Economia
Sanejament
- URL
- https://www.academia.edu/1009039/Land_of_Milk_and_B ...
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