The Concept of Family During the Renaissance

While catching up on some daily news last week I noticed a link to a news story on the bottom of the page and clicked on it.  The story was entitled “Who is a Family? New Study Tracks Shifting US Views”  I clicked on it and read with much interest the finding of the story.

Associated Press: Who is a Family?

To summarize the report it shows that more and more Americans are able to define a non-married couple as a family unit.  ILolt goes on to show that more and more Americans are showing an increased recognition of unmairried gay couples as  being a family unit.  The part of the report that I found interesting was the showing that there is still a solid core resistance group that states that a family can only be defined by the marriage of a man to a woman.  Of this group more than 70% considered a pet to be a full fledged member of the family and recognized those pets to have full family rights.  It was interesting that they could extend the title of “A member of the family” to a pet however not to an unmarried or homosexual couple.  This made me wonder what the concept of family would be in the renaissance amongst such people as Descartes and Martin Luther.

It is interesting to note that Luther felt that a union between a husband and wife could be just as capable as doing God’s work than that of a celibate individual which would show a belief in companionship and unity.  An American viewpoint of family consists on monogamy and remaining faithful in that marriage as a solid cornerstone to a  marriage.  However, Luther didn’t hold to this ideal stating that if a wife persistently denies her husband then a husband should seek out other women, he even suggests the maid.  It seems that.

Descartes viewpoint of “I resolve to seek no other knowledge than that which I might find within myself, or perhaps in the great book of nature”.  This viewpoint being a very personal and self fulfilling goal, It would seem most likely that the idea of the family during the renaissance would have take a back seat that the idea and the discovery of the individual.