Family in Europe History - Coursework Example

legends as women seemed to have enjoyed a certain degree of freedom in deciding their own futures, in owning property and in bringing honor and wealth to the family through marriage and children. This gave her stronger power within her own household as well, including the power to divorce if she so desired. Part of the woman’s value probably stemmed from the great amount of sexual promiscuity that took place during these times. Although it could never be entirely certain that the children of a son were direct blood descendents of a particular line, it was a certainty that children born of a daughter were.

The confusion caused by this acceptance of sexual infidelity made for tense households as the children and mothers tended to fight against each other for inheritance rights. To protect the children from their half-siblings and other lovers of their parents, it became common practice to send the children away to be raised by foster parents. It is also probable that lower classes, lived entirely different lives. Women in the lower classes could be sold into slavery, either for sexual favors or for household services, while men in the lower classes were most often pressed into service for wealthier men as shepherds, farmers or in other vocations.

However, it also seems clear that education, including literacy, was practiced in most homes and was made available to girls as well as boys. The Germanic Sippe was a form of kinship group that seems to have been very similar to the Irish sept. While the Irish sept was clearly a blending of patrilineal and matrilineal lines, it is more difficult to trace these relations within the Germanic texts. However, there is evidence that the Sippe followed at least the bloodlines of the male. Also unlike the Irish, there seems to have been a closer connection between the Sippe and the land that they settled on.

Although family groups seem to have settled the land, they are also like the Irish sept in that they probably