Gender and Infanticide in Early Modern Bohemia: The Case of Elisabeth Symandlin, 1707–1710

• Authors: Pavel Stůj
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The interrogation reports documenting a case of Elisabeth Symandlin, a young maidservant from south Bohemia who was investigated for suspicion of infanticide between the years 1707–1710, offer a unique opportunity for a research on the history of everyday life in the town of Jindˇrich ̊uv Hradec in early modern period. Following the recent foreign research in legal history (David Myers, 2011), the author of this paper argues that Elisabeth’s process indicates general problems related to criminal investigations which have been discussed repeatedly by contemporary lawyers and doctors. The present study is a contribution to the research in the history of everyday life following modern historiographical trends (historical anthropology, microhistory, gender history). Based on the sources from the estate of Jindˇrich ̊uv Hradec, it emphasizes the manifestation of woman’s involvement in crime investigation and examines the opportunities that unmarried women could get in the early modern society.

Keywords

EN

Infanticide; Child; Crime; Everyday Life; Torture

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY
• ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY

• Publisher: University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
• Journal: West Bohemian Historical Review
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 145-184

Contributors

author

Pavel Stůj

• Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, Na Hradě 5, 772 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic