RT Article
T1 Masters as Fathers—The Experiences of Apprenticeship in Late Medieval England
JF Cultural and religious studies
VO 6
IS 4
SP 215
OP 226
A1 Lu, Sheng-Yu
LA English
PB David Publishing Company
YR 2018
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1842672061
AB While the basic model of learning masculinity is fathers, how, exactly, a fatherless boy learned masculity? How and where did the children growing up without traditional family structure learn to be men? This study examines a specific group of children - young apprentices in medeival England - in order to reconstruct how fatherless sons learned the concept of masculinity. To further the question - did the separation of their natal fathers during their youth made boys less masculine? By examining the indentures, court records and various administrative records, this study demonstrates that, apprentices went through more masculine relationships than the children grew up with their fathers’ prescence, because masters wielded he supreme power which made them de facto "surrogate fathers". This study also manisfests that apprenticeship was the extension of fatherhood, because it led apprentices to experience absolute subordination to their masters, reducing them to the position of "full-dependence" in their social communities.
K1 apprentices
K1 Apprenticeship
K1 Fatherhood
K1 Masculinity
K1 surrogate fathers
DO 10.17265/2328-2177/2018.04.001