Du mariage et du concubinage dans les classes populaires à Paris (1846-1847) - article ; n°4 ; vol.33, pg 803-829

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1978 - Volume 33 - Numéro 4 - Pages 803-829
A cartographical and mathematical treatment of socio-demographic data, supplemented by trial reports from the Gazette des tribunaux, leads us to challenge L. Chevalier's idea that concubinage was a form of civilisation populaire or an habitude ouvrière, as well as certain notions underlying E. Shorter's hypothesis of a sexual revolution. There are three reasons for our disagreement with these authors. First, concubinage in Paris is not found only in the working class. One-third to two-fifths of those living in concubinage come from other social classes. Second, the significant factor with regard to membership in a social class is marriage and not concubinage. Third, concubinage, which is not differentiated with respect to class position, is pertinent only in the case of working-class women. And this pertinency appears to be conditioned more by a desire for marriage and by the new dependency specific to female wage-labourers generated by industrialization (economic dependence especially) than by the hypothetical sexual liberation of which E. Shorter speaks.
It is for these reasons that we reject an opposition marriage/concubinage which supposedly corresponds to an opposition between the respective cultural behaviors of the lower and middle classes and that we adopt, instead, a pair marriage/concubinage specific to each class. We are still faced with the task of explaining the meaning and evolution of the pair marriage/concubinage and of integrating them into a wider network of working-class culture, in which proper attention is given to sociability to the feeling of being at home, and to the emotional ties between parents and between parents and children.
27 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.