The first part of this paper focuses briefly on the role of domestic service as a channel for transmission of knowledge, expertise, customs and values from one generation to the other, from the top to the bottom of the social ladder and between different places, making clear, however, that servants and domestic workers cannot be seen as passive recipients of their masters' directions. Rather, they actively appropriate elements of their masters' culture while also communicating elements of their own cultures to their masters' children. As will be shown in the second part of the article through the analysis of several texts published in Italy and France between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, fears of the bad influence servants could have on the children they cared for were diverse and common. Though the focus of the article is on these fears rather than on the actual influence of domestic workers, some evidence of this influence will be provided, which does not always turn out to be as negative as one would expect it to be in the light of those fears. Focusing on these issues allows the family to be seen as an ‘open’ field, where exchanges and conflicts between cultures took/take place. In the past, this was particularly true, it seems, in the colonial context. As will be shown, the Catholic Church tried (and still tries) to take advantage of this ‘openness’, encouraging servants and domestic workers to spread Catholic values in their masters' families, particularly if the latter were/are not Catholic.

Dangerous liaisons. Servants as “children” taught by their masters and as “teachers” of their masters’ children (Italy and France, 16th-20th centuries)

SARTI, RAFFAELLA
2007

Abstract

The first part of this paper focuses briefly on the role of domestic service as a channel for transmission of knowledge, expertise, customs and values from one generation to the other, from the top to the bottom of the social ladder and between different places, making clear, however, that servants and domestic workers cannot be seen as passive recipients of their masters' directions. Rather, they actively appropriate elements of their masters' culture while also communicating elements of their own cultures to their masters' children. As will be shown in the second part of the article through the analysis of several texts published in Italy and France between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, fears of the bad influence servants could have on the children they cared for were diverse and common. Though the focus of the article is on these fears rather than on the actual influence of domestic workers, some evidence of this influence will be provided, which does not always turn out to be as negative as one would expect it to be in the light of those fears. Focusing on these issues allows the family to be seen as an ‘open’ field, where exchanges and conflicts between cultures took/take place. In the past, this was particularly true, it seems, in the colonial context. As will be shown, the Catholic Church tried (and still tries) to take advantage of this ‘openness’, encouraging servants and domestic workers to spread Catholic values in their masters' families, particularly if the latter were/are not Catholic.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/1886077
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