Lois, normes, pratiques individuelles et collectives : la petite enfance à Rome

Laws norms individual and collective practices : infancy in ancient Rome. Historians of ancient Rome have recently begun working on the theme of infancy, which poses very specific methodological problems. Given marked increase in research work that has clearly widened the documentary field, it has become absolutely necessary, as preliminary step, to classify the different categories of available documents according to their nature, their scientific status, and the levels of reality and representation on which they throw some light. Within this perspective, the author has chosen to study two practices that can be compared with medieval and modern societies -the exposure of newborns and the consigning of the child to the care of a wet nurse and to bring to light the affective relationships that "food" creates. The results of this critical reflection address particular points, concerning which the author puts into question certain accepted ideas, but they also have to do with a global approach to Roman society. The example of Rome invites us to think critically about the distinction betveen radical otherness, on the one hand, which are created by fundamental juridical differences, and, on the other hand, apparent and real similarities between practices like abandonment or the consigning of children to wet nurses and more generally, modalities for expressing affection. Roman society is both foreign and familiar to us.Corbier Mireille. Lois, normes, pratiques individuelles et collectives : la petite enfance à Rome. In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 54ᵉ année, N. 6, 1999. pp. 1257-1290