A Revolution in Popular Cultures

The big cultural developments of the early modern period may seem abstract. The rise of Protestantism and Catholic reaction to it, the printing press, and the Scientific Revolution are easy to list, but what did they mean for people's daily lives? Particularly, what did they mean beyond a formal intellectual life?

Historians have increasingly realized that between about 1600 and 1750, huge changes occurred in the ways most ordinary people thought about basic aspects of life. Here are some examples:

In 1600, many peasants did not bother naming children until age 2, because so many babies and toddlers died. When parents did name infants, they often refused the names of children who had died. By 1750, however, naming occurred soon after birth, names were not reused, and many parents chose unusual, more distinctive names. This is an example of the new individualism.

In 1600, many young people often bit each other hard when they kissed. In some regions, young men claimed possession of a woman by urinating on her dress. By 1750, kissing became a more private and gentler experience, and biting declined. This is an example of changing attitudes about love, emotion, and the family.

In 1600, when a valued object was lost, ordinary Europeans turned to cunning mean, who used magic sticks and incantations to find the misplaced object. By 1750, cunning men no longer existed-an example of the growing (although incomplete) trend against magic. Instead, city dwellers, at least, visited official lost-and-found offices or advertised in local newspapers. Attitudes toward the natural world and social environments were changing.

These examples illustrate the deep change in people's thinking generated by the new commercialism, new family forms, growing literacy (thanks in part to printing), and religious and scientific change. There was no organized movement, such as major religion, behind this great cultural change, although the Enlightenment may be viewed as somewhat missionary in its attempts to undermine what it termed common superstition. The work of historians also results from change, for example, in providing cultural bases for later developments in politics and industry. The transformation of culture raises basic questions about cause, result, and participation (i.e., who still believed in the old ways). It also raises question about how Europeans, armed with some of these new ideas, viewed the rest of the world.