Marissa Rhodes
LIS514
April 5, 2011
THE NEW SOCIAL HISTORY
Description of the Collection
My thesaurus is constructed using examples of social history scholarship. The discipline of history has become increasingly interdisciplinary in nature as a new generation of historians seeks to interpret historical events in new and interesting ways. This new way of doing history, which is generally called thenew social history borrows methods and terms from sociology, anthropology, and archeology. Historical sociology is an accurate phrase to describe the discipline.
There are perhaps a greater number of books in this vein, the likes of which are making their way into popular readership but scholarly, peer-reviewed articles abound as well. I will focus solely on these articles, taken fromacademic journals. I made sure to include in my sampling scholarship that varies geographically, chronologically and topicallywithin my scope since societies, and the terms used to describe them, vary throughout time and space.
My Thesaurus of the New Social History will be limited geographically to Europe, including the Nordic countries, the British Isles and the adjacent Mediterranean. The thesaurus will be most applicable to medieval, early modern and modern time periods. The inclusion of ancient and prehistoric time periods is not necessary because our understanding of their societies is too limited to warrant the interdisciplinary techniques that signify the new social history.
I was also sure to include a broad range of topics in this extraordinarily diverse discipline. For the selection process only, I divided the new social history into five main categories: (1) Material Culture, which encompasses the arts, fashion, leisure, consumerism and technology, (2) Family/Personal Relations, which encompasses sex, children, marriage and gender, (3) Social Structure, covering education, economy, demographics, and rural/urban studies, (4) Non-material Culture, which encompasses politics, religion, ideology and philosophy, and (5) Marginalized Groups, which refers to social groups such as prostitutes, cults, beggars, masochists, homosexuals, gypsies, and any other marginalized group that is best studied as an independent unit. I designed my sampling so that it contained as much geographical, chronological and topical variation as possible within my parameters.
Objects
Bersten, I. (1994). Complications of the commonplace: Tea, sugar, and imperialism. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 24, 4, 783-784.
Boes, M. R. (2000). Jews in the criminal-justice system of early modern Germany. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 30, 3, 407-435.
Britt, K. C. (2007). Roger II of Sicily: Rex, basileus, khalif? Identity, politics, and propaganda in the Cappella Palatina. Mediterranean Studies 16, 1, 21-45.
Cabré, M. (2008). Women or healers? Household practices and the categories of health care in late medieval Iberia. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82, 1, 18-51.
Cattaneo, G. (2010). The oath of fidelity in Iceland: A tie of feudal allegiance. Scandinavian Studies, 82, 1, 21-36.
Darnton, R. (2004). Mademoiselle Bonafon and the private life of Louis XV: Communication circuits in eighteenth-century France. Representations, 87, 102-124.
Davis, N. Z. (1977). Ghosts, kin, and progeny: Some features of family life in early modern France. Daedalus, 106, 2, 87-114.
Dumolyn, J. (2008). "Criers and shouters". The discourse on radical urban rebels in late medieval Flanders. Journal of Social History, 42, 1, 111-135.
Knight, J. T. (2009). "Furnished" for action: Renaissance books as furniture. Book History, 12, 1, 37-73.
Lemire, B., & Riello, G. (2008). East & West: Textiles and fashion in early modern Europe. Journal of Social History, 41, 4, 887.
McCormick, M. (2003). Rats, communications, and plague: Toward an ecological history. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34, 1, 1-25.
Quinlan, S. M. (2006). Inheriting vice, acquiring virtue: Hereditary disease and moral hygiene in eighteenth-century France. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 80, 4, 649-76.
Randall, C. (1997). Shouting down Abraham: How sixteenth century Huguenot women found their voice. Renaissance Quarterly, 50, 2, 411-442.
Sarti, R. (2005). The true servant: Self-definition of male domestics in an Italian city (Bologna, 17th-19th centuries). History of the Family, 10, 4, 407-433.
Schumacher, R., Ryczkowska, G., & Perroux, O. (2007). Unwed mothers in the city. Illegitimate fertility in 19th-century Geneva. The History of the Family : an International Quarterly, 12, 3, 189.
Users
My primary users are undergraduate history students. My secondary user groups are amateur historians and graduate students of history, thought the thesaurus will be slightly less useful to them. Meeting the information needs of experts in this particular field is more complicated than this project warrants so I decided to avoid that user group altogether, gearing my thesaurus firstly toward the general user, secondly toward the novice user, and lastly toward inexperienced scholars.
Information Needs
The research level of my primary users does not require a particularly high level of precision, in fact, highly precise retrieval could be a hindrance to users with more general theses. However, the average college student will encounter a linguistic dilemma that has the potential to decimate recall.
Historians have created modern labels for past events and cultures, resulting in a disparity between historical and modern names for the same concept. Another layer of difficulty is added by the fact that some modern concepts (and their names) did not exist during the historical periods discussed in their research. Historians use both old terms (i.e. apothecary) and new terms (i.e. pharmacist) to describe concepts that have been renamed. Other concepts, (e.g. nationalism) were non-existent in medieval Europe, because the concept of a “nation” was not yet formed but they are used by historians who retroactively apply it to historical situations. My thesaurus aims to solve the user’s dilemma by improving recall in this linguistically complex environment.
Depth of Indexing Required
The nature of the discipline of social history makes exhaustive indexing impractical if not impossible to accomplish on a large scale but because of the linguistic dilemma mentioned above, a fairly high level of exhaustivity should be attempted. A high level of specificity, which would certainly benefit expert users, will exacerbate the linguistic dilemma mentioned above, especially for my primary user group.
Appropriate Controlled Vocabularies
Perhaps due to the relative newness of this discipline, I was unable to find any thesauri comparable to my own.
Decisions and Rationale
I constructed my term relationships by physically drawing hierarchies based on elemental sociology. Even though I borrowed the content structure from sociology, I did not limit my terminology to that used by sociologists since my users are history students and it is likely that they would not be familiar with terms used strictly by sociology experts.
For concepts that are new (e.g. nationalism) and therefore did not exist at the time of study, I used the terms used most often by current scholars. I made this choice because it seemed like the only option. It would be impossible for me to assign a historical term to a concept that did not come into existence until after the time period in question. However, to represent concepts that existed in the past but were known by another name, I used the historical naming conventions (e.g. I used “apothecary” instead of “pharmacist”.) This decision was based on the observation that historians attempt etymological consistency. I could not find one who called medieval or early modern practitioners “pharmacists.” It is, after all, inaccurate to impose a concept on historical peoples that did not exist for them.
When choosing preferred terms (and all things were equal), I chose based on the simplicity of the word. For example, I used “proletariat” instead of “working class” in order to avoid the compound word. I did, however, include “working class” in the thesaurus but I rerouted the user to “proletariat” using the USE function. At first I was reluctant to do this because I wanted to be a stickler for accuracy and for many people, “proletariat” has particularly Marxist connotations to it. But after considering my intended user group, this seemed like the best choice. “Proletariat” is a legitimate term for the working class used by social historians.I reasoned that my users would be able to come up with “working class” on their own but “proletariat” I was not so sure about. I used these more sophisticated terms as preferred terms for all of the social classes, using “elite” for upper class, and “bourgeoisie” for middle class.
Aberration
USE deviance
Adultery
RT marriage
Acculturation
USEassimilation
Ageism
BT discrimination
anti-Semitism
BT racism
NT Nazism
RT Judaism
Apothecary
BT healthcare
RT chemistry
Apprenticeship
BT education
Aristocracy
USE elite
Assimilation
BT education
RT meme
Authority
USE government
autonomy
RT liberty
Beheading
USE decapitation
Bourgeoisie
BT socioeconomic class
Breeding
USE gentility
Burning
BT execution
Business
USEcommerce
capital punishment
USEexecution
Censorship
BT suppression
RT banning
Ceremony
NT nuptials
NT purgation
RT ritual
class
USE socioeconomic class
coexistence
RT heterogeneity
RT tolerance
Colonization
BT imperialism
commerce
BT economy
NT industry
NT usury
Commoner
USE proletariat
Commonwealth
USE democracy
Communication
BT transmission
NT expression
RT transportation
consanguinity
USEkinship
Consumption
BT economy
RT material culture
Convention
USE norm
corporal punishment
BT policing
NT execution
NT torture
Crucifixion
BT execution
Culture
NT knowledge
NT art
NT custom
NT material culture
Custom
BT culture
NT ritual
RT ceremony
RT heritage
daughter
USEoffspring
death penalty
USE execution
Decapitation
BT execution
RT violence
Democracy
BT ideology
Deviance
BT marginalization
RT stigma
Discrimination
NT racism
NT sexism
NT ageism
NT misogyny
RT stigma
Disease
BT health
NT infection
RT medicine
RT heredity
Diversity
USE heterogeneity
Domestic
BT servant
NT housekeeper
NT maid
druggist
Use apothecary
Economy
NT commerce
NT consumption
Education
NT apprenticeship
NT literacy
NT assimilation
Electrocution
BT execution
Elite
BT socioeconomic class
Emigration
BT migration
Enculturation
USEassimilation
Epidemic
BT infection
NT pandemic
RT pestilence
Ethics
USE morality
execution
BT corporal punishment
NT hanging
NT decapitation
NT crucifixion
NT burning
NT electrocution
Expression
BT communication
NT language
Extramarital sex
USEadultery
Family
BT kinship
NT offspring
NT parent
NT sibling
Fashion
BT material culture
RT consumerism
Fecundity
USE fertility
Fellowship
BT social unit
Femininity
BT gender
NT woman
Feminism
RT gender
Fertility
NT pregnancy
Feudalism
BT social contract
NT vassalage
Foreign policy
NT imperialism
Fornication
USEadultery
Fraternity
BT fellowship
Freedom
USE liberty
Furniture
BT material culture
Gender
BT social construct
NT masculinity
NT femininity
RT sexuality
Gentility
BT meme
RT elite
geographical mobility
RT transportation
RT technology
RT communication
Government
BT politics
NT police
Guild
BT fellowship
hanging
BT execution
Health
NT healthcare
NT disease
NT hygiene
NT sanitation
Healthcare
BT health
NT apothecary
NT midwife
NT physician
hegemony
RT political structure
RT social structure
RT imperialism
Heredity
RT inheritance
Heterogeneity
RT coexistence
Housekeeper
BT domestic
Humanism
BT philosophy
Hygiene
BT health
Iconography
RT politics
RT religion
Identity
BT social construct
RT politics
RT religion
Ideology
BT politics
NT democracy
NT patriotism
NT radicalism
Immigration
BT migration
RT transportation
Imperialism
BT foreign policy
NT colonization
RT hegemony
Incest
RT kinship
RT sexuality
independence
USE liberty
Industry
BT commerce
NT textiles
Infection
BT disease
NT epidemic
infidelity
USE adultery
Inheritance
NT primogeniture
Instruction
USE education
Jacobinism
BT radicalism
Kinship
BT social unit
NT family
RT incest
Knowledge
BT culture
NT technology
NT science
Language
BT expression
NT media
Law enforcement
USE policing
Leisure
USE recreation
liberty
RT autonomy
Literacy
BT education
Maid
BT domestic
Marginalization
NT deviance
NT vulnerability
RT stigma
Marriage
BT social contract
RT adultery
RT family
masculinity
BT gender
NT virility
material culture
BT culture
NT fashion
NT furniture
NT technology
RT recreation
RT consumption
Media
BT language
RT propaganda
Meme
BT social construct
NT gentility
RT communication
RT culture
mercantilism
USE commerce
Middle class
USE bourgeoisie
Midwife
BT healthcare
RT women
RT pregnancy
Migration
BT transporation
NT immigration
NT emigration
Morality
NT vice
NT virture
RT religion
Moré
USE norm
Misogyny
BT discrimination
Nationalism
BT patriotism
Nazism
BT anti-Semitism
nobility
USE elite
Norm
BT social construct
RT culture
Nuptials
BT ceremony
Offspring
BT family
RT fertility
Pandemic
BT epidemic
Parent
BT family
RT reproduction
RT fertility
Pathology
RT disease
RT medicine
Patriotism
BT ideology
NT nationalism
Peasant
USE proletariat
Persecution
RT religion
RT discrimination
pharmacist
USEapothecary
Philosophy
NT humanism
Physician
BT healthcare
Polemics
USE proselytizing
policing
BT government
NT corporal punishment
policy
NT foreign policy
NT suppression
Political ideal
BT politics
NT liberty
NT autonomy
politics
NT government
NT policy
NT ideology
NT political ideal
Plebian
USE proletariat
pluralism
USE heterogeneity
pregnancy
BT fertility
primogeniture
BT inheritance
Progeny
USE offspring
Proletariat
BT socioeconomic class
NT servant
RT labor
Propaganda
BT communication
RT media
Proselytizing
BT propaganda
RT ideology
RT religion
Purgation
BT ceremony
Racism
BT discrimination
NT antisemitism
Radicalism
BT ideology
NT Jacobinism
recreation
RT material culture
Religion
BT belief
RT superstition
reproduction
USE fertility
republic
USE democracy
Respectability
USE gentility
Ritual
BT custom
RT ceremony
Sanitation
BT health
Science
NT health
NT technology
self-expression
BT communication
settlement
USE colonization
Serfdom
USE vassalage
Servant
BT proletariat
NT domestic
Sex
USE gender
Sexism
BT discrimination
Sexuality
RT gender
Sibling
BT family
society
NT social unit
NT socioeconomic class
NT social contract
NT social construct
socioeconomic class
BT society
NT proletariat
NT bourgeoisie
NT elite
Social construct
BT society
NT transmission
NT gender
NT norm
NT marginality
NT identity
NT meme
NT stigma
Social contract
BT society
NT marriage
NT feudalism
social mobility
BT socioeconomic class
social status
USE socioeconomic class
social unit
BT society
NT kinship
NT fellowship
socialization
Use assimilation
son
USEoffspring
Stigma
BT social construct
RT discrimination
RT marginalization
stratum
USE socioeconomic class
Style
USE fashion
Superstition
BT belief
Suppression
BT policy
NT censorship
NT hegemony
Technology
BT science
RT medicine
RT communication
Textiles
BT industry
Torture
BT corporal punishment
trade
USEcommerce
Tradition
USE custom
Transmission
BT social construct
NT communication
RT language
RT disease
Transportation
NT migration
RT technology
RT communication
upper class
USE elite
Urbanity
BT social contract
RT culture
Usury
BT commerce
RT antisemitism
Vassalage
BT feudalism
Vice
BT morality
virtue
BT morality
Vulnerability
BT marginalization
Women
BT femininity
RT feminism
working class
USE proletariat