tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7837602322327063185.post8699614148482220953..comments2014-04-10T10:41:59.264-07:00Comments on History 318 - European Women's History: History 318 - European Women's Historyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17976023899296886435noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7837602322327063185.post-76195843086242747832009-04-06T09:46:00.000-07:002009-04-06T09:46:00.000-07:00To say that "northwest European marriage pattern s...To say that "northwest European marriage pattern set up an entirely unique gender and family dynamic that in turn created the path of western history" is to make a philosophical assertion. Is it a valid assertion? While Hartman's evidence for the first link of this assertion (that the marriage pattern set up an entirely unique gender and family dynamic) is convincing, the second link poses huge problems. <BR/><BR/>The main problem is that the "path of Western history" is strewn with an infinite number of variables, all of which interacted in infinite ways in order to give us what we now see. More primarily, how do we know that some factor in Western civilizational development (within the Hajnal line) did not cause both the unique marriage pattern AND Western economic and political development? Why did men and women agree to marry later in the first place?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14941137660729731586noreply@blogger.com