Introduction

Summary

For what I really wish to work out is a science of singularity; that is to say, a science of the relationship that links everyday pursuits to particular circumstances. And only in the local network of labor and recreation can one grasp how, within a grid of socio-economic constraints, these pursuits unfailingly establish relational tactics (a struggle for life), artistic creations (an aesthetic), and autonomous initiatives (an ethic). The characteristically subtle logic of these “ordinary” activities comes to light only in the details.

- de Certeau

This book deals with the ordinary experiences of people living in one South German village. It focuses on the internal relations of the family and is part of a larger exploration of the dynamics of kinship, which will be developed further in a subsequent volume. The study begins in 1700, by which time the village had largely recovered from the Thirty Years War and established the land-holding patterns and occupational structure which would characterize it until the late nineteenth century, and ends in 1870, after the population had tripled in size, carried through a green revolution, and become enmeshed in regional and international markets.

Neckarhausen was not distinguished from many other villages belonging to the Duchy – from 1806, the Kingdom – of Württemberg in any special way, except for the fact that in the course of the nineteenth century it came to be well known for the quality of its flax.