As child death was so common in the past, did this mean that parents didn’t become as attached to their children just in case? Or did they suffer deeply each child they lost? If so how did they manage these painful emotions?

Are we less bored than we used to be? With tv and phones and games etc do we feel less boredom? Or do humans find interest in whatever is around at the time, so my great grandmother would have been about as bored as me?

Hi! Thank you for coming to answer our questions! In terms of sources, do your run into difficulty separating "real" emotion versus rhetoric or pose? Like when a lord dies and the vassals mourn; do you have any way to verify if the vassal is actually griefstricken, or if they're just doing it because they're supposed to? (If that makes any sense.)

In times where child mortality rate was really high, and it was common for people to have many kids expecting most of them to die, did parents care less about their kids. Did they grieve less when their kids died?

Hi Katie! Thank you so much for your time!

My question is a little broad, but I thought it might be interesting: were there any emotions that existed in western culture in the past, but do not exist today? And vice versa?

I was reading about the ancient Greeks understanding of "meloncholia" and it does sound rather different than something one would commonly see in, say, modern day London.

Thanks for this!

Could you enlighten us a bit on how did depression evolved? Was it seen as something shameful? Was it a valid state of mind? Were there forms to "treat" it? Was it more or less prevalent than today?

I am very curious about what the state of history of emotions is today. What are some recent methodological approaches that you believe would be worth considering for students who are new to the history of emotions?

Hello! Thank you for answering questions.

With our current pandemic, we are noticing that it has a negative impact on people emotionally. I was wondering if there are any studies or evidence to show how past plagues/pandemics affected people emotionally?

Hello! I don't know if this is out of your bailiwick, but I've seen suggestions of stereotypes that "Celtic" peoples like the Irish and Scottish are more emotional, or at least expressively emotional, around the 19th century - was this actually a stereotype? Did it play into British perceptions of the Irish & Scottish?

Is the concept of monogamous spouse love a product of the institution of marriage and its power balance?

Edit: I would love if you also suggest a bibliography on the subject.

What is a historian of emotion?

I have a bunch of question about people's sex lives in the times of Austen, Thackeray, Bronte, Trollope, actually about the gentry at that time:

1. Would people actually have sex on their wedding night?
2. Were engaged people (who actually loved eachother) kissing and hugging before the wedding?
3. Did gentlemen have sexual relationships before marriage? Would we expect a Mr Darcy, a Mr Knightley, a Phineas Finn have had sex with a prostitute? (Mr Rochester kind of guys obviously had mistresses.)
4. Did unmarried women even know about sex? Were they told at some point or before marriage?
5. Do we know if women at the time enjoyed their marital sexual relations? What about men who married for money and social standing?
6. Do we know about affairs that did not turn scandal?
7. Anything else about marriage and love that you feel we would be interested in?

I recently read "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk. In it he reviews decades of his experience treating victims of abuse and trauma, and one of his conclusions was that the greatest public health crisis that humanity faces is the prevalence of domestic child abuse, both mental and physical. He described how it could lead to generations of abusive homes and broken, traumatized adults that struggle to process their emotional turmoil.

How did people centuries ago deal with a problem that modern therapists and psychiatrists are still trying to understand how to handle? What was a childs relationship to their own emotional health?

When i imagine the standard western european household centuries ago i have this image of the gruff laborer father that would casually dole out corporal punishment to any child that didnt behave, or the meek put-upon wife working all day to raise the children of a man she may not have even met before the marriage and has no love for, a father who would only be involved with the kids when it was to get them to work or to keep them in line. Having more kids meant more farm hands to help feed them all, so i imagine childhood (as we conceive of it today) for most people was short and rough, often violent, and quickly abandoned to get on with subsistence farming.

It just seems to me that most kids growing up would have such god awful emotional health. Would fathers and mothers sooner address a sobbing 12yo too distressed by something to take up their tools with a swift slap and a harsh word or would they offer comfort and compassion? How would a child that suffered at the hands of a drunken fathers angry beatings seek comfort? How would the sexually abused 8yo daughter of a household come to terms with the uncle that sneaks into her sheets some nights? How does an adult back then even conceive of the idea that they might be woefully unhappy because they never had a functional relationship with parents who would belittle and beat them? Hell, being a peasant farmer was NOT an easy life to live, so i can't imagine that most of these people grew up feeling "fulfilled" and happy with their lives either, so surely some people were just depressed by the drudgery of work that might all be destroyed anyway with just a drought or bad storm.

Even today the issue of the emotional trauma suffered by children leading to adults that are emotionally stunted or confused is only just being unraveled, so i find it hard to conceive of people centuries ago not just being... well, frankly, miserable a lot of the time and not having any functional emotional support systems in the form of family or friends or a developed enough concept of mental health to even begin to address how years of trauma might be affecting them.

Did no one have time to even dwell on it, being so busy not starving or dieing to other threats? Did the young victim of rape just get told "shit happens, deal with it" and then have to carry that trauma with them, unresolved, their whole lives?

I know this is a broad question to address, but i am fascinated by the idea of who the clinically depressed teenager in the 17th century would go to when dealing with their pain and anguish. Who helped to heal the suffering mind when your closest familial relations might be the very people contributing to that suffering?

Were behaviors we now consider abusive less traumatizing in the past when they were considered normal?

I'm a little afraid to ask this because I'm worried people will read more into it than intellectual curiosity but I've often heard the argument that behaviors we now consider harmful (pedophilia being the most common example and what prompted the question) were less harmful in the past when it was "normalized". Is there truth to this?

I was wondering if we have any good lists of dog/cat pet names from the Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Norman periods of British/Irish history? I love things like graffiti, love letters, and small things that really humanize the past for me, making me feel connected to the people who lived then in that we have always kind of "been the same" in many ways. Pet names is something I have always wondered about and even if you have just a few noted I would love to hear them.

I live in Glasgow and I'm interested in your opinion about any historical roots of specific cultural trends in masculinity and gender norms here. I've heard people talk about the historical structural factors that have influenced things and shaped working class gender norms in particular ways. So for example I've heard people say that more strongly gendered elements of Glasgow's working class culture (even I've heard some say "hyper masculine") can be understood by referring to the type of jobs that were available in industrial West of Scotland (WoS), the historically poor quality and overcrowded housing, leading to men being socialised in particular ways and spending little time at home, lots of time in pubs, etc.

I'm not sure if there is anything to this argument, but my (working class male Glaswegian) friends seem to think so. What's your view on that? Is there any truth to this? and if so is there anything specific to WoS about its configuration of circumstances, that makes it different to other post-industrial British cities/regions such as e.g. Liverpool/Merseyside?

We’re there any places in history where it was common for women to have more power than their husbands or significant others? I’m not talking about royalty.

Please tell us all the things!

Okay, a more specific one - what would your average layperson be shocked to learn about love, intimacy, and marriage in ~18th century Britain?

I'd like to know more about acceptable expressions of male friendships over history (especially physical). American men seem to have painfully few options at the moment, but it hasn't always been like that, right?

Even in relatively sexually conservative cultures like Turkey, I've seen men holding hands who didn't otherwise seem like a couple.

Thanks for coming along Dr Barclay!

I had a question regarding the history of emotions more broadly. My (incredibly non-scientific) impression is that while it has been a key recent methodological turn in quite a few fields, it has been embraced less by people doing more modern/contemporary subjects, and most of the prominent scholars in the field I can think of are early modernists. Is this an accurate impression? If so, why do you think that might be the case? If not, who would you recommend as key scholars to look for doing twentieth century history of emotions?

have toddlers always had the terrible twos and refused to eat their peas?

I'm curious at what point in history it became taboo to show the emotion of anger in high-society. Has it always been that way? Is it an instinctual thing to suppress anger in a social setting or is that something that is an old social custom?

Thanks for answering questions. Why has the death penalty gone from public spectacle in the town square to private room with few spectators to outlawed? How has the general population's emotional reaction to this type of death changed so drastically?

How have things like mourning, ghosts, ancestor worship and claims to land ("motherland" etc.) interacted in your areas of interest?

Hello, and thank you for doing this!

With the recent trend of adult children into their 20s and 30s living at home, I am curious to know how involved late 16th century parents were in their children's lives. Particularly, I'm interested in whether or not they felt a specific need to 'save' them when or if they couldn't remain fiscally independent.

Also curious to what extent gender and class played a role in this.

Basically: would 'moving back home with mum and dad because of the plague' even have been an option in, say, Victorian England, or is that a recent construct?

Hi Katie! I have a few questions

1. how're you doing.

2. from what I understand, war was seen as an honorable and valiant thing men did until world war 1 came. When did this image of war being a noble thing start though? (Sorry if my question feels really vague, I'm not exactly sure how to ask this question)

3. Baghdad and Cairo were known to have mental health hospital that used ideas like music therapy to treat patients. What was the mentality of mental health in the early Islamic period and why did the Islamic world over time stop caring about mental health?

4. the generations of today have to deal with a lot of stress from how fast the world is moving in terms of productivity and competition in things like school and work. During the industrial revolution, did people then also have a huge spike in mental issues?

5. kinda ties into question 4 but after Japan unified under Emperor Meiji, it saw a rapid transition from traditional isolationism to a modern society. What are some emotions that went through the average person's mind as they saw the world around them change so rapidly?

I'm so sorry for dumping so many questions on you at once like this. I totally understand if you don't want to answer all of them.

How have expectations and performance of remorse and apology shifted over time?

I'm interested in Ancient Rome and their view of negative emotions, specifically depression but all darker emotions really. What did they attribute these emotions to and how did they deal with them? What was born of studying them? How did emotions equate to the gods? Also, how did they see Ancient Grecians; did they have contentions based on differing viewpoints regarding emotion? (Greece is unique in their outlook and I wonder how this factors into their interrelating with Rome.)

Also in regarding depression and the darker emotions (even mental illnesses) what was the common conclusion as to why in ancient times in different cultures? (Egypt, Rome, Greece, UK, North America (Native Americans), Ancient Norse, ect.) More unique viewpoints and explanations would be amazing to know.

Hi Dr. Barclay,

In your work, do you find that you can analyze performance/representation of emotion as discrete/categorical states that we recognize today as emotions? If not, how do you draw a line between what is emotion and what isn’t?

My question’s essentially: how do you define emotion in your work? In psychology there’s a classic view that there are discrete/categorical emotions across all cultures, or at least the majority of cultures (Mostly thinking of paul eckman’s work here with sadness, anger, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness). But I know there’s been some pushback saying that emotional categories are more culturally defined and less universal, from scholars like lisa feldman barrett.

Big one, but here goes.

In Europe and especially northern Europe we have a long-running stereotype of US culture as encouraging "flashy" and "theatrical" public expressions of emotion. From pep rallies to rousing political speeches to Oprah.

Has there been academic research into this (real or perceived) transatlantic rift in expressivity? How old is it, where did it stem from, etc.. Would be very interesting!

Wow! What an intriguing job. It is refreshing to see a unique branch of history explored here- thank you so much for taking the time to do this!

How common was PTSD and were the symptoms of the same magnitude/present the same way in pre-gunpowder times given how revolting many modern humans find direct physical violence? An example would be the well-documented and seemingly ubiquitous “big secret” of WW1 and other early 1900s conflicts of officers finding their soldiers unwilling to bayonet charge properly, instead opting to pull up and the last second and fire. Were earlier humans more adapted/jaded to that level of up-close, visceral ultra-violence or did crusaders and soldiers come home similarly shaken and injured to those of modern conflicts? And was the % effected of total roughly the same?

Thanks again!

Are there any documents which might inform us about the feelings and attitudes of child brides in 14th century Europe? Marriage as young as 12 wasn’t unusual.

My question is: How did the ideas of high medieval ideas of emotions differ between nations? We all know the cliches they use in movies but was there something to a 'girlish Frenchman' or something like that?

Greetings! It seems as though the nuclear family has put significantly more pressure and stress on family life. Is this true and has this stress led to greater detachment?

Thank you so much for hosting this AMA.

As a historian, how do you define "emotion"? Is there a historical standard definition or does it change depending on the historical period / peoples you are studying? What other historians are known for their work in the history of emotions?

Thank you for sharing your work.

I’m curious about the concept of love and how it changed over time. I know that historically, in many cultures, marriage was not necessarily something people did for love, but nowadays (at least in the US) it seems like the idea of marrying someone for love is ubiquitous. What brought about that shift and why? When did it happen? Was it gradual or a sudden change in cultural perception? Did this even happen or is my understanding of the historical concept of love and marriage flawed?

In a world where world travel is quick and easy, the idea of watching a child or sibling board a boat bound for some distant continent, knowing full well that they were unlikely to make the journey back and I was unlikely to make the journey there, would be devastating. I can't imagine never seeing my family again. And yet people did it every day. How on earth did those left behind cope?

Do you accept Dr Paul Ekman's concept of the universality of emotions? That there are 7 emotions that can be identified in people's faces, regardless of what part of the world they come from?

Do we know at what point in history social norms around male emotionality started to move towards what is often called "toxic masculinity"?

How do you feel about emotion being part of an evolution of human thought? And do you think we will lose or gain emotional states in the future?

I'm a Late Roman historian, and one of the more fascinating theories that's been floating around (Halsall 2007) is that a facet of the political identity shift of the west was a reframing of the values of male gender identity, from that of the controlled logician (classical) to that of the emotional warrior (early medieval). The idea behind this reframing being, it became more important for western elites to be seen as "men" (and thus be associated with "barbarians") than it was for them to be seen as "Roman" (and thus be associated as "womanly").

Even though this is more modern thought, I myself have been wondering if we're seeing a similar shift in politics (American at least), where masculine identity in some circles has equally evolved from the previous detached intellectual authority to the involved emotional rebel.

Given your broad background in the history of emotion in the British Isles, have you seen similar such inversions over the gendering of emotion? And do you have any thoughts on (at least in your historical context) how it gets expressed in terms of political identity?

Hi Katie! Thanks for lending us your time.

This is maybe a niche question, but has aloofness always been seen as attractive? Mr Darcy-esque ‘mystery men’ seem to dominate a lot of romance fantasy in pop culture now, and did so throughout the 20th century. I’m wondering if this has always been the case (maybe something to do with human curiosity), or if aloofness was ever seen as purely antisocial.

(P.S: You don’t happen to know Laura Kounine, do you? She was a tutor of mine in my first year, and specialises in similar areas to you)

Is there a proven connection between the health of a society (crime levels, gender-based violence, substance abuse etc.) and the amount of kids who grow up in broken homes/without father figures?

I heard a story that apparently when abortion was legalized in NY, less unwanted kids were born & this turned NY into a much safer city.

Do you have any insight into the emotional life of Monarchs and other high status nobility with their families? Did they feel less attached to children, wives and siblings because of less time spent together? Or did they overcome emotion because of self interest and the possibility that they could be rivals to their power?

Hi Katie! Thank you for offering up your expertise, I’ll be following this thread with interest!

One of your books deals with the performance of identity in Ireland from 1800-1845. To what degree would you say gender roles were shaped by Catholicism in the country at the time? And I note that your study ran into the Famine years, did gender roles impact how society responded to hardship during that time?

What's an emotional trait that has changed (in expression, perception, etc.) in ways that would surprise a lot of people?

Thank you for doing this!

Were there parenting practices that would’ve been seen as odd or abusive in today’s society and vice versa? Modern day parenting day is far from perfect and I sometimes wonder if there are lessons to be learned from the past.

Hi Dr. Barclay, thank you so much for your time!

I was just wondering— and this may be too large of a scope— what do we know about postpartum depression? Was it generally accepted throughout history or is there a specific moment where we see it arise in sources? How were women who had postpartum depression usually regarded? Are sources on this subject even reliable as true representations of afflicted women?

Do you think intergenerational trauma experienced by convicts is displayed in descendants today?

The treatment of women and children was appalling in convict times; do you feel that domestic violence resonates with the Australian culture now?

Thanks for doing this Q&A!

One subject I'm curious about is the emotions in a religious context. Much religious literature is populated with emotional language, such as the repeated protestations of love and yearning for the love of God in St. Anselm's Proslogion. Other striking examples can of course be found in the writings of folks like St. Theresa of Avila (among many others).

So I guess I'm wondering what the influence of this sort of religious emotion had on the development of emotion more generally.

Hi Katie, thank you for hosting this AMA, it's much appreciated!

My question: How did the family dynamic of highland Scots change when many were forced into Glasgow and abroad during the highland clearances in the 18th-19th century? I'm particularly curious about whether a life in the city, where women could work in textile factories and other industries, helped to enable them in the household and give them more clout. Or did it instead breed resentment as the male “bread winners” were no longer the sole contributor to the household finances? Do we have any good sources for the range of perspectives both the wives and husbands held, and if so, what was their opinion?

I’m a PhD student in Curriculum, Instruction, and Education in the US (Michigan State University) with an interest in how people (children) develop emotional connotations with words (my interest eventually lives in English/literacy classrooms and how this might be taught, since it is tested on the SATs, GREs, etc). I’ve been looking into readings on my own but haven’t had much luck — could you recommend some articles/literature that live in emotional word connotation? Or a direction to explore? Thank you!

Thanks for giving us a good portion of your time to do this!

My question is when did the act of "wife selling" become unpopular and now it would be looked as a terrible and mean thing to do. I've read that it was most popular in England. Also that it was used by housewife's who wanted out of a bad marriage and gave women of the time a little more social mobility in that way. Is there any truth to that too?

Hi Dr. Barclay! I’m curious about love and courtship in pre-1850 UK. For those born below the noble class, did people “date” or experiment with more than one partner before marriage? Were young people, especially girls, given the freedom to flirt and mingle to find their future partner, and if so, what were common places to do that in? Was it an actual expectation that women were virgins on their wedding night or was that expectation waved in some communities? Really just curious if there are any parallels to being young and dating around in this time period, thank you!

Is it true that bisexuality was actually more prevalent in the classical era, or is this a modern stereotype?

Historically, it seems as though lower and middle class under-16s have often considered capable of holding down jobs, working on the family farm, and generally doing work/chores that we might not consider age-appropriate today. When they weren't engaging in "adult" work, it also seems as though under 16s had more freedom to roam and engage in more dangerous forms of play. But is that an oversimplification? Were they really more mature and less sheltered?

Howdy. Thanks for doing this AMA. I remember a class in college that totally blew my mind when it was posited that, for example, the myth of the Greek hero Perseus and the Gorgons was a thinly veiled allegory for an actual cultural/societal event in which a proto-greek matriarchal society was overthrown by a colonizing, patriarchal power, and the myth as we know it today was a deliberate erasure of a defeated society as well as a glorification of the victorious one in obvious characterizations and imagery?

If I’m remembering this example correctly, can you think of any examples of this sort of deliberate erasure of matriarchal systems in the collective memory of the peoples of the UK and Ireland?

And, based upon what you know about matriarchal societies/organizations in the UK and Ireland, can you make any inferences on whether their distribution/application of political and social power would make them more or less effective at confronting community issues such as climate change?

My question is more about your career path than any specific piece of your research (hope that’s ok, mods):

What sort of courses did you take in undergrad and post-grad to achieve the blend of psychology/sociology and history that’s present in your research? Did you often find yourself working across departments? And how does that intersection of disciplines play out for you now as a professor?

I am curious because in my information science graduate program (which overlapped with the history dept. quite a bit via archives/preservation), there was a lack of psychology interest among our faculty and I always thought that it was an under-explored area that could bring so much to our I.S. research. Maybe there are more pragmatic reasons for the disconnect that I don’t understand, but I am wondering if you observed a similar disconnect as you progressed through academia?

That’s already quite a few questions, so I’d better leave it there. Thank you for speaking with us today!

I'm so excited about this! Thanks for doing this. There are already SO many great questions, I won't be sad whatsoever if you don't get to mine. My question is quite broad but I'll ask anyway: were people historically happier than we are today? Or due to modern convenience (everything from electricity and running water, to impossible-to-imagine-back-then stuff like computers), are we much happier now because life isn't (across the board) as difficult as it would have been during... well, really, any time in the past? My thought is that it's all relative to the time... but then, having too much isn't necessarily better either.

I'd be interested in the sources you use for your work. Written ones seem obvious, but apart from those, what role does material culture for example play in this? What role do other studies, such as the cultural sciences play in this?

And how do you go about defining family as a concept? I imagine this to be rather difficult especially in different time frames (middle ages VS modernity for example). Is it actually possible to show long term development in this or are you limited to comparisons between certain points in time/place?

Hi Katie!

I'm really interested in the link between language and emotion. It has always seemed to me that expression is limited by the words you know to express yourself even in your own thoughts and mental voice. And, anecdotally, learning a second language well enough to think in it really made me feel like there were two versions of me.

I'm wondering if there's any backing to this or some cultures /languages have a specific emphasis on a certain emotion/emotional group that doesn't exist elsewhere.

Thanks :)

Where I live there is a set of 7 graves, all belonging to children, all from one family, and they all died within 6 weeks (two died on the same day, and share a grave). From what I can find out, they died from a "throat distemper."Two children survived, probably because they were not living at home.

How would a family and community respond to that kind of loss?

Edit - clarity

When an early modern writer talks about love for one's spouse, how do you think they meant it? I'm a historian of China and the word love, as we use it today, was not in the lexicon of proper familial relationship. One had roles to fulfill and duties to perform. However I think we do see love mentioned in the UK... Or did they? If they did, what did they actually mean?

Based on your research and expertise, how would you describe the modalities of emotional labor and caretaking?

Are there any examples of patriarchal societies where emotional needs and management were revered and respected, as opposed to an undervalued and overtly feminine dimension?

Are there any matriarchal societies that reverse this power dynamic, wherein males are seen as weaker for being emotional and attending to emotional needs?

In societies that are more community oriented as opposed to individualistic, what role do emotions play collectively and how are individual emotional needs addressed?

Are there any societies or eras where emotional well being or care was/has not been assigned gendered significance or specificity?

What insights of well being have you found that you think would be important for societies to consider in regards to emotional health?

Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and expertise. What a fascinating subject!

I have simple, but interesting question: Are people nowadays happier than before (in Europe)? Where "before" is the industrial revolution, the modern era, the middle ages, antiquity?

Greetings Dr. Barclay,

I have some questions! I've organized my questions into three categories for your convenience. The first asks about a shift in medieval, emotional values. The second asks about a monarch's emotions and a monarch's emotional range. The third asks about changes in how women's emotions were valued in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

1. I have been reading Frances and Joseph Gies' Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, and I find it striking how the Catholic Church evolved from only being able to provide instructions and recommendations on moral values in society (in the 7th and 8th centuries) to forcing concessions and making demands (after the 10th). Things like marriage, conception, personal relationships, the "family," and social order all change dramatically over the centuries. Have you found a similar change in how societies have valued certain emotions or emotional states? Is the joyous townsmen a fool, or someone to be admired?
2. How "personal" were emotions for the aristocracy and monarchs? I'm inspired by Ernst Kantorowicz's study, The King's Two Bodies, where he examines in great detail the personal body of the monarch while also elaborating on the greater, almost spiritual body that encompassed the patria of that monarch's realm (and how these bodies interact). Were monarchs expected to possess or display certain emotions? Were certain emotions seen as necessary for the good of the realm? Were there emotions unique to monarchs that could elevate them above the "common man," even if they were entirely made-up in the accounts of dynastic scribes or monks?
3. A sort-of life-changing experience for me occurred in graduate school when I took several gender history courses. I was always under the impression that women were continuously subjugated, lacked power, and had limited agency before the cultural revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (in Europe and the Americas). Instead, I learned of an enormous transition from remarkable fluidity in the medieval/early modern to enforced, strict genders in the Victorian era. That new philosophical systems and the need to fit individuals into categorizations created new legal systems tying women to their bodies, while doctors ascribed value through the "neutral" lens of science on the inferiority (to 19th century doctors) of women. Have you found a similar process with emotions? Were women more free to have emotions in the medieval/early modern compared to the modern? Was there a similar categorization of women's emotions into a lesser category of men's emotions?

I am fascinated in intergenerational trauma and how that relates to attachment styles and the nervous system development of children and, therefore, the next generation of family members. I’m also curious if the media/stories we consume about this time era are over-sensationalized or fairly representative of the daily traumas.

Was there a general sense of safety in these earlier time periods, or was life as dangerous as the stories on TV show?

Did people in past times have effective methods for mental health/healing? I know moving the body is an effective way to heal the mind, and with more intense daily physical labor, would people have counteracted mental health issues/traumas through their daily lives, keeping society more stable?

Do you believe it was possible to be a healthy, balanced person? Was the level of trauma and intergenerational trauma higher (or lower, or equivalent) to today’s standards?

Thanks!

In the 1600s was running off to dissapear into the wilderness of untamed frontiers like in America considered a solution to problems in life such as debt? Or something beyond the average man's ability?

What was fame and celebrity status like in the old times you are familiar with. Was it much like modern celebrity status or was it very different without modern inventions like television and radio?

Can you elaborate on the dynamics of serf women and aristocratic men? Could a lord have sex with any of his serfs? How was this viewed by society?

Thank you Katie for doing this AMA!

As a context for my question, Anthony Reid (1988) in his book Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce: 1450-1680 wrote that:

"The relative autonomy enjoyed by women (in Southeast Asia during the time period) extended to sexual relations. Southeast Asian literature of the period leaves us in little doubt that women took a very active part in courtship and lovemaking, and demanded as much as they gave by way of sexual and emotional gratification. The literature describes the physical attractiveness of male heroes and their appeal to women as enthusiastically as it does the reverse." (p. 147);

"The dominant marriage pattern was one of monogamy, with divorce relatively easy for both sides ... Among the overwhelming majority of ordinary people, the pattern of monogamy was reinforced by the ease of divorce, the preferred means of ending an unsatisfactory union." (pp. 151-152);

"Christian Europe was until the eighteenth century a very "chaste" society in comparative terms, with an exceptionally late average age of marriage (in the twenties), with high proportions never marrying and with a low rate of extramarital conceptions by later standards. Southeast Asia was in many respects the complete antithesis of that chaste pattern, and it seemed to European observers of the time that its inhabitants were preoccupied with sex. The Portuguese liked to say that the Malays were "fond of music and given to love" while Javanese, like Burmese, Thais, and Filipinos, were characterized as "very lasciviously given, both men and women." What this meant was that pre-marital sexual relations were regarded indulgently, and virginity at marriage was not expected of either party. If pregnancy resulted from these pre-marital activities, the couple were expected to marry, and failing that, resort might be had to abortion." (p. 153).

Such illustrations seems to suggest that the preexisting indigenous gender norms of the region during the time period were, to say the least, very different than the gender norms of Europe of the same period.

As the UK had played a major part in the region's (and also Australia's) history, my question would be: Have you encountered in your research changes in gender norms of a society during a certain time period that can be attributed to colonialism? If so, how would you describe the gendered dynamics of such relations between subject and master nations? Lastly, as is relevant to the case of Australia and other societies which had been (or even are still) subject to colonialism, how do the effects of such relations shape present-day gender norms?

How have teachings from religious texts inspired the emotion of hatred? Especially of others that are different?

Thanks!

Hello Katie, thanks for doing this.

I have been wondering for a while if a claim I heard is true. The claim states that before the industrial revolution, children were raised more communally rather than with such a focus on two parents. Can you speak to the credability of this claim?

Thanks again for taking the time to do this!

Simple one - What is a historian of emotion?

I know there's "no such thing as a stupid question," but just wait:

Could you speak on how men have, seemingly, always been viewed as masculine (one of those traits being "not showing emotion") but then many famous poets and writers also being men (from Frost, to Byron, Poe, Dante, Euripides, etc.)?

Were these emotional writers seen as less masculine because they chose a line of work that involved showing emotion?
Maybe I'm just not that brushed up on those writers and they wrote about "manly emotion" like loving a woman, losing a horse, or working hard (see Country music).

I guess I'm asking: how can there be a history of emotion being a nonmasculine/feminine trait when there were so many male poets and writers who were involved, possibly even paradigms, of that milieu?

To what degree does the field of history of emotions incorporate developments in the study of emotions in fields like cognitive neuroscience and psychology?

Thanks for doing this! What’s the most recent emotion and why did we develop it?

Just in general, did parental narcissism and child abuse come to a head in the last century, or has it always been this bad? I live in the states, and it feels like Trump has brought out the worst of narcissistic parenting, but maybe that's just me.

How does your study tease out any psychological themes such as inherited generational trauma? Do you see emotional disorders (Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, etc) emerging in family members a few generations removed from major crises such as famines, wars, etc?

How are mental disorders different now than in the past? Are there mental disorders now that did not exist in past times?

For example, did medieval soldiers experience ptsd after war?

How do you think the expression or experience of emotions in the western world compares to those say 100 or 200 years in the past? Was there something about past life that intensified or dulled how we experience emotion? Is there something like that in our modern life?

What an interesting subject!

I hope this makes sense.

At what point did nurturing love become associated and expected as a part of motherhood?

My memories of gender history suggest that wasn't readily accepted or expected until after medicinal advances at the end of the 19th century (the theory being your children had a better chance of surviving, so it was okay to be attached), and there is plenty of evidence of fairly extreme (by modern standards) abuse and neglect as a matter of course back through the middle ages. The reason I asked the question is this: is the expectation of nuclear familial as the sole providers of love and emotional nourishment realistic? It seems like society puts that burden on mothers, and children born to those without the nourishing gene/nourishing circumstances have nowhere else to go. What people had a role in the emotional well being of children (and adults) in the past?

Thanks for this wonderful AMA. I’m learning so much from your answers. I’m curious about the current overvaluation of happiness and enjoyment in American, and possibly all of western culture. It seems that everything is focused on maximizing one’s enjoyment of life and if you are not happy there is something the matter. Self care and wellness have sprung up as hot topics and very lucrative fields which claim to hold the keys to this elusive happiness and enjoyment. Certainly humans haven’t always been so happiness focused, so where did this concept come from and how did we get here?

Hi Katie, thanks for doing this.

What was the relationship like between field workers like cotters and serfs, and their local overseers like reeves and constables? Was this a strict relationship with superiors seen negatively as a sort of sweat-extractor—the way some people today complain about their boss—or would they be just another part of the community like priests of the period?

Highland clan feuds were violent as in the case of my ancestor Dave Rose MacWilliam. More about him at the end.

My question is what emotions created and maintained Highland clan loyalty and feuds circa 1600? What role or influence did wives and female family members have in clan feuds and choosing allies?

I ask because my ancestral clan (Roses of Bellivat) had a member evicted from his land by the Dunbars and his violent response created a horribly violent feud between the Roses of Bellivat and the Dunbars along with their respective allied clans. Castles were burned, people murdered and Baron Hugh Rose who did not participate in the violence was imprisoned by the King for failing to reign in his relatives' violence.

https://electricscotland.com/history/nation/rose.htm

What do we know about the history of hugging?

In times and places with a lot less touching, did people hug in platonic relationships? What about in communities where there was more communal living than in 21st century life? How recently did people start hugging as a greeting?

What's the most common misconception people have about the history of emotion and family life?

When was sadness invented?

No, but on a serious note: how did people (both common people and medical professionals) during the Middle Ages view what today would be recognized as clinical depression?

Hi Katie! Thank you for fielding our questions.

How have emotional expression expectations changed over time and has this affected power dynamics in relationships? What of the dynamics in non-heterosexual relationships?

How has emotional resiliency changed over the years (or cultures) and what can be attributed to it?

Thank you and hope you rest well! ♥

Thank you for doing this!

I have recently read a book by brazilian historian Mary Del Priore about the history of marriage in Brazil. She says that throughout much of history, adultery was tolerated among the elites, as long as it was done quietly, and preferably the man would have sex with his best friend's wife and the woman, with her best friend's husband. Was this also the case in Great Britain?

Has the disorder of hoarding affected certain people throughout history or is it mostly a recent issue?

What are your thoughts on Joanna Bourke's "Working Class cultures in Britain 1890-1960"? I read the whole thing a few years ago when I studied Ethnology in Stockholm, it was a great read at the time, sadly I don't remember too many details.

I had never even considered the historicity of emotion! What a fascinating idea. My questions are interrelated:

• What is considered a "primary source" in the context of your study?
• What methods do you use to make sure you are being as objective as you can about your observations and conclusions about those sources?

Is it true that people in medieval England had a very different conception of "love" than today? Do you know of other culture‘s conception of "love"?

One of the deleted comments said: "Why am I sick of my family during lockdown?"

I am currently experiencing the opposite. I've become happier as a person and closer to my spouse and family during lockdown. I've mostly maintained a "let's make the best of it" attitude despite my career (and our family's finances) being heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Is this type of "make the best of it" or "acceptance of situation" attitude fairly common throughout history for people coping with unhappiness or hardships in their work, marriage, life? Has it evolved over time and become more or less prevalent?

How do you measure wealth and power disparities between genders? In particular, how do you look at informal power structures? I ask because for example in China wives control the income and how it is spent, while theoretically it is a patriarchal society. How are such arrangements factored in? Can they be even researched, or is such information not written down?

I feel in general parenting for emotional intelligence is a recent thing in the western world. Have other cultures parented this way for a long time and we’re just late to the party?

How did gender roles and family life differ between medieval western europe and medieval eastern Europe?

To what extent is it true that in places with lower population density (e.g., medieval Russia, Poland, Hungary, Balkans), women had relatively more power in the household and in the regional economy compared to their counterparts in denser countries (e.g., England, France, Italy, Holy Roman Empire)?

I think any answer to this question might have to focus on nobility and royalty, since most eastern European countries practically enslaved peasants in the Middle Ages. I'll gladly accept any answer about any socioeconomic class, though.

Thanks for doings this AMA! Fascinating stuff.

I’m into ecology and the topic of altruism has always fascinated me. I’m curious about altruism vs genuine acts of kindness. Is there an era in human history where we transitioned between the two? Maybe in a nomadic lifestyle where things were more uncertain and keeping the population healthy was more of a priority vs sedentary living where things got more personalized (if that’s even accurate)?

Thank you for your time!

Given the nature of emotions have to deal with psychology and subjectivity (especially values):

1. How often do you consult with experts in the psychology field, or are you required to have credentials in the area, even for mass psychology?
2. Do you find working with values different from other Historian subsets? I know it's important for historians to isolate their values and recognize values in the past to prevent subjective criticism (such as slavery, pederasty, etc). Do you have a more specific framework in this regard?
3. Is there statistical analysis in your specific subset? If so, how much?

In researching your 2011 book, what differences did you find between the Gàidhealtachd and the Lowlands?

Is there any work that links the study of music in society from an historical perspective and the main points of analysis from the history of emotions? I'm asking this because I'm trying to elaborate an essay about how the post-colonial geographical divisions of Peru, "white" coast / "indigenous" highlands, were portrayed in music by characterizing each group of people by a set of emotions (f.e. is frequent to see songs about the "sad" indigenous people).

I read a book (non-fiction, biography) where author lives among an Amazonian tribe. He observes that they raise children as if they were adults, with a “you live and you learn” type attitude. (For example, let the baby play with the knife. He’ll learn not to quicker that way than taking it away over and over.) Apparently children in this tribe rarely go through the terrible twos or moody teenage phase. Do you think this can be attributed to the style of upbringing to some degree, or are there too many variables?

To summarize: are the phases children go through natural or a result of culture they’re raised in? a result of constantly transitioning between stages which already have characteristics associated with them?

Book for anyone interested: Don't Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett

How did societal conceptions of masculinity change between the 17th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom? Was masculinity evaluated differently in the different parts of the British Isles in that time period? If so, what were the major causes of the differences?

Have we been able to see any significant changes to the ways in which people feel or express emotions after ending am extended period of reduced social contact? Either in the long term or the immediate aftermath?

An obvious example would be after an epidemic subsides, but I'm sure there are other events/emergencies that restrict social contact like an ongoing battle or something.

Are there any historical metrics of empathy and connectedness to others? When I read history there's a lot of atrocities committed between disparate groups that would never be tolerated in one's home town, and this seems to have a significant psychological component that I have trouble relating to as a modern person.

How did family life change under Queen Victoria? Did her femininity as the ruling monarch influence this change?

I'm currently reading "How Emotions Are Made" by Lisa Feldman Barrett and was wondering: what are your thoughts on the validity of her theory of "constructed emotion?"

Hi Katie,

In societies you've studied, how did ideas of motivation differ from our own? Was it seen as an aspect of personality? Or something you could acquire?

There seems to be an idea in history that parents were very emotionally detached from their children due to the high infant mortality rate. Can you confirm whether this is rooted in any fact?

What are the origins of the nuclear family?

Across all of your research, what were among the most fascinating things you uncovered?

I know I'm a few weeks late to the party, but I've got a question, if you've got the time:

I've got both bipolar mood disorder and an anxiety disorder. How were mood disorders understood in the past, both in western cultures and across the world? How did individuals with what would now be described as bipolar disorder understand their own personal emotional life, especially as it relates to the people around them?

The reason I ask -- its sometimes very hard for me to describe what it's like to live around depressive and (hypo)manic episodes. In the middle of them, everything is either literally the worst or literally the best, but then once they're over, it's really hard for me to connect back to having ever felt that way in the first place. I can't describe to you what my lowest lows actually felt like at this point, because I'm no longer in the middle of it; I can only describe the physical things I did or didn't do then (i.e. I was on the couch for a week and didn't have the energy to stand up.)

Without the vocabulary that bipolar disorder gives me, it would be very difficult to understand what Ive got happening in my brain. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be born with my brain a thousand years ago, with no concepts of anything close to bipolar disorder or clinical psychology.

Hello! Nice to meet you and thank you for your insights!

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I would also Like to know if possible what were the chances of life(career/family building) of an orphan boy in medieval times in Europe as compared to Asia or if you could be more country specific, even better.

Like was he more inclined to become a soldier or farmer or slave or never have a family?

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Any tales of renowned orphans? We all like an underdog story.

First of all it is very nice of you to answer our questions, thank you very much.

Did people living in regions that were divided into feudal dukedoms, principalities, city states etc. felt a lesser devotion to their leaders and a lesser patriotism than the citizens of modern nation-states as they were likely to share religion, language and ethnicity with their adversaries or was their relation a pragmatic one and they had this sense of devotion and duty only towards their monarchs?

Thank you very much in advance.

What's the best way for me to gain a greater semantic understanding of another person's experience with an emotional label as informed by their culture? (Convoluted question, examples will help)

For instance, my girlfriend is Turkish. We often will encounter situations in which I'll describe behaviors as "mad" where she'll vehemently disagree, and label them "upset," the two of which I have little distinction for. Until reading this thread, I'd not given much thought to the role of geography in shaping the ways we communicate our emotions - she's speaking a second language and is from across the globe (I grew up in California). The question is - what are my best tools for understanding how a fisherman from Fuzhou feels "upset" as compared to a data analyst from Des Moines?

I’ve heard that the concept of the teenager as a separate thing from an adult really came about in the 1950s. Was teen angst a thing before then or did it come with the “creation” of youth culture?

i might be too late here, but is there any indication of different levels of self reflection and critical thinking skills over time? especially as different processes to resolve conflict are used by a species that is overwhelmingly violent.

Have people always had such short memories? It seems no one remembers past months anymore (this is a perception I've had since before the pandemic), let alone past years

And in a similar vein, have we always romanticized the distant past or is that a consequence of hollywood?

What created the idea of the nuclear family in american society and how does that differentiate from other societies

damn it sucks that i missed this ama because we literally have the same interests in history (british isles, post-renaissance/1800s, relationships and how people felt). in particular i love jane austen, ive learned so much about regency customs just by reading her books, and of course her characters and satire are just amazing. i’ll have to check out your books as well, im especially interested in the one about marriage and patriarchy in scotland! ive always wanted to learn more about scottish history and learning about social customs sounds like a great place to start.

How were people with mental illnesses like OCD and Bipolar Disorder looked upon back in the 17th and 18th century? Did people even know they had a mental illness or did they think they were insane? I would really like to know about this kind of stuff, it really interests me. Thanks! :)

Thanks for doing this! It's been a few years but I loved your book on methods in History of Emotions.

Got a couple of questions. First, how do you read emotions in archival sources? What kinds of sources do you look for and what's your method for making arguments about emotions - especially when historical emotions can be so different from our own?

What role does material evidence play in your research? How do you connect emotions and the body?

Thanks again!

Hi Katie! Would you have a reading list to offer for this topic in Graeco-Roman culture? Thanks!

Hey, so my grandmothers family hails from Scotland, and I was wondering if there is any history of matriarchy at all there in the past? I'm curious about how such a structure would tie into perceptions of relationships (monogamy versus non-monogamy), and what kind of agency women in general had in the past in Scotland. I'd also be interested to know if there are traditions surrounding death and faith that the reformation didn't totally destroy in Scotland-- I know that all went down a long, long time ago, but I have always been curious about ancient Scottish burial and mourning practices.

Hello, I was wondering if there are any fundamental differences in how people you've studied perceive or relate to emotions generally. For example we may think that someone that is getting progressively angrier is "losing control of themselves", whereas from another perspective you could view it as "they're working themselves up to do something extreme".

Can you explain how history of emotion is contextualized in relation to the differences in the conception of what exactly “emotion” or consciousness is depending on the culture.

For example, some cultures have interpreted depression as being a form of spirit of demonic possession.

Do you interpret the history of emotions through a purely contemporary western lens?

Fascinating field of study, thanks for the AMA.

Hi Katie - I’m not sure if you’re still working on replies, but I have a question for you:

Do you have any thoughts or reading suggestions for understanding Eastern European stoicism in art, politics, culture etc? It seems like so much of the cultural artifacts as well as geopolitical strategy is marked by an acute grimness so to speak. I’m not sure how to explain it.

Also - what do you suggest for understanding history and emotion with regard to the Jewish people? Even before the Holocaust? Do you have any writing or thoughts about the origins or proliferation of anti-semitism in Europe?

I’m so fascinated by your work!

Hi Katie! I have a very short question that might require a lengthy answer, but..

Could you give us a brief history of the origins of marriage?

How have people's 'masks', or the personae that they present to their peers changed over time?

How much of masks did people put on before agriculture?

What are the factors in a culture that make people more or less likely to put on masks?

Can you tell me about examples of cultures where masks were minimal and not too important?

Can you tell me about examples of cultures where masks were very important and highly elaborate?

Thanks for offering you expertise, Katie. My question is about the validity of 'Victorian' morality. Was it a real thing and if so what English values did it change and why?

What made you study such subjects?

It looks like your books cover the time period and I have been curious:

What was the impact of the industrial revolution on the structure of the family and the roles of parental figures?

To shape it more towards your specific expertise of emotion, I'm interested to know how the emotional roles of father and mother figures changed during the industrial revolution and the rise of factories.

How has the concept and practice of disidentification from social (specifically gender) norms increased and/or developed over the past few years. Or possibly, when was the earliest that the concept of escaping the binary was practiced or researched in history? In terms of family dynamics has this practice always been traditionally seen through a negative perspective or are there historically significant cultures that reinforce disidentification. I know many indigenous cultures adhere to a similar concept (ex/ two-spirited people), but I’m curious to know if disidentification has been included in other societies as well.

When did the state of human emotions become gendered?

What social constructs led to modern masculinity?

What societies had a benefit from teaching emotional awareness as a subject?

Thanks really interesting topic!

What exactly do you do besides books do you look up family trees and past names and stuff like that or?

Two of your books focus on pretty specific time periods, Scotland from 1650 - 1850, and Ireland from 1800-1845. What made you focus on those time periods and countries/cultures?

Lisa Feldman-Barrett v. Paul Ekman - who wins in a debate over the question “What is an emotion?” and who is the dark horse who might beat them both?

Explain the categorical imperative

I’m curious about your insight and perspective on historical trauma as well as intergenerational trauma.

Also, how did people view or handle trauma or PTSD, as what we would recognize it as now? I know the diagnosis of PTSD didn’t come until after the 1940s, but I’d love to know more about cultural framework around that throughout history

Hi Katie! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

I was wondering how you find sources for studying the emotions of minorities. For most of history, there are almost no first-hand accounts/sources from women or slaves, or LGBT (or others minorities), so how do you manage to know and understand how they felt? Is it harder then for you to find useful sources and analyse them?

Thanks

How did perspectives on family and gender change following the Tudor conquest of Ireland? I imagine the transition from a society based around the fine/tuath to a more feudal, English-style nuclear family model must have been substantial. Anecdotally, speaking about sex/gender issues in Irish can be a lot more blunt or open vs. speaking about them in English. Considering the substantial changes in social organization and language, I imagine there were some substantial semiotic shifts as well.

Hello there! Thanks for coming by! I have several questions for you. Apologies if this sounds like a burden to you, you have such an interesting topic to ask about.

- During your research, what are some of the most interesting ways you have seen people from ancient East Asian cultures deal with mental illnesses?

- During researching the term "And when Alexander The Great saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer", I am very interested on the emotions of great rulers throughout history.

- During the age of exploration, was there anyone who felt bad for native tribes, espectially European explorers who felt bad for Native Americans? From what I've heard, there were quite a lot of discrimination and dislike towards native tribes, but did anyone feel bad about them?

Apologies if anything here is outside your comfort zone. This is such an interesting topic.

Hi Katie!

I am curious about how male friendship has changed over time in the context of greater societal awareness and understanding of homosexuality, and freer sexual expression.

I ask this because when I was getting my degree in education we learned how harmful emotional trauma was to day to day life and since the opportunities for emotional trauma were more common the farther back in the past you go (such as being raped, child/partner dying, PTSD from being a soldier or the victims of pillaging, etc) how did people of the time deal with repeated emotional trauma? Especially since if a crime was committed against you, there wasn't as much of a support system as there is now.

Was homosexuality allowed in the Athens during the peloponnesian war (421 - 404 BC)?

In what time period where most humans the happiest and why?

How do cultures develop and express feelings of love or affection? I notice in more Western cultures people are more likely to express love and affection more publicly or overtly than those in Asian cultures. Thanks for your time!

Hi Katie! This is a very cool topic!

What does your research say about the perception that society has become more intelligent and civilised over time, especially considering being “civilised” often has connotations of controlling your emotions and “keeping them in?”

I’m really interested if you know anything about the emotional lives of cloistered women, nuns and holy women, and the influence this had on their writings or mysticism

Katie, I'm a Barclay in USA, I haven't met any non-related Barclays with the same spelling. Are there many of us over there in Australia?

Is it normal for people to be curious about their last name, what is the draw? and have you done your family history?

what were female friendships like in the 18th century?

How are the bonds in families around the world affected by the language they speak, or linguistic divides within the family?

How do you explain the current push towards political correctness? Are people more sensitive or just trying to be more respectful? When in history have we seen other shifts in language like this?

1. How common were extra marital affairs? What was the perception of adultery in a marriage? Did marrying for political reasons lead to a casual acceptance of polyamory?

2. How were LGBT folks treated as family units? Could two women raise a child together as a couple or was this considered taboo?

Thanks for the AMA!

1. Are there any emotions that existed in history that we no longer recognize or have words for or feel?
2. Did people feel the same attachment life considering death might have been more common? Or were they more prepared for death?

What kind of sources do you find the best material in? Diaries?

African culture has deeply influenced American culture (art, music, etc) and from there the world. Has there been a similar influence on our emotional lives?

Ooh, what wonderful topics and themes! The idea that emotions shape our cultures and societies is fascinating.

I'm an Aussie too. Always great to see Aussie historians and academics.

In the 1800s, some historians theorize that society moved from the one sex to the two sex model. (Thomas Laqueur) In your own research, do you feel as if the gender binary has affected families and culture/society in the same way it does now? I feel like the family unit has expanded outside of the heteronormative standards of male/female, and includes a whole community of relatives/support system. Perhaps I’m just super unfamiliar with gender norms in the 1800s versus now?

What are some examples of the best sorts of sources for getting a picture of emotions and family life from areas of society who appear less well documented; i.e. medieval peasantry, rural working class, low ranking sailors and soldiers abroad, any women below the upper middle class pre 1900 etc.?

Gender roles? How has sensitivity been dealt with through out time?

What were family roles like in early civilizations?

Do you know anything about the history mental illness? Namely diagnostics, and early treatments?

What was clan family life in Scotland? And how did it break down? My family are from clan Macalister but I know very little about the clan myself.

1- When the role of women started to be seen as to do house chores and take care of the child? I have the impression that in antiquity and middle ages women worked with man in the fields

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2- Why people didn't want women in public office, but had no problems with a woman being the supreme commander of the nation (as a queen)?

What do you think of llyod demause

What were among the most powerful forces in mitigating and making more equal all types of hierarchies (eg wealth gender race)?

What do you think are the core reasons that gender and racial inequality still exist today?

Hey Katie,

Do you cover slaves and servants in your books? I always wondered about the Secret Garden, the novel about a spoiled girl and a sickly boy both discovering a secret garden. Is that story accurate from your point of view?

Thanks.

How much were wives oppressed throughout history, compared to their husbands? To what extent was this necessary, due to the technological restrictions of the time?