Supervisors info:
Αναστασία Παπαδία-Λάλα, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Κωνσταντινίδου Κατερίνα, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Πανοπούλου Αγγελική, Κύρια Ερευνήτρια, Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών/Ινστιτούτο Ιστορικών Ερευνών
Summary:
On this thesis, it is examined the history of childhood on Crete during the period of Venetian occupation.
The aim of the current study is to reconstruct the childhood in this specific historical paradigm, concidering the bigger subject area and, through this, to point out aspects of social history and generally historical evolution in one of the most important areas under Venetian rule in Levante, Crete.
The study is based on published official documents (such as wills, learning contracts and work contracts etc.), combined with secondary literature relevant to specific aspects of childhood, as well as aspects of history of Crete connected to the subject. Individual subject areas are placed to the historical context of the era, while there are references in similar phenomena in Byzantium and West, the two factors that define the historical character of Crete under Venetian occupation. In a parallel manner, there is an attempt to connect and compare aspects of childhood in Crete to other Greek areas under Venice's dominion.
Methodologically, the history of childhood is examined through concepts such as the biological sex (boy-girl), age stages (newborn, infant, child), social position and status (children habitants at cities -nobili, cittadini, popolo- and residents of countryside), which defined the preparation of the child to take over adult responsilbilities. Another category, which is also examind, is about the children who grew up in a family and those who grew up without a family, with special references to the institutions about abandoned children.
According to the known sources, it is concluded that in the society of Crete, during Venitian rule, emphasis is given to the biological sex of the children more than it was given to their age. However, there were references to the expectations of the society relevant to the age of the child.
Children were an important, distinguishable social group that generated emotions, created institutions, incited to financial and intellectual activities. Except for the above, cretan society, as the simultaneous european societies, led children in to adulthood as soon as possible; girls ought to marry and become mothers while boys, according to their social class, had to work from an early age or, if they were originated from a nobile family, they had to prepare themselves for their future role in the political scene.
Keywords:
childhood, Venetian occupation, Venice, Crete
