Towards a socio-cultural history of emotions in times of reconfiguration of the family organization at the end of the 19th century in Argentina

Abstract

This research proposes a reflection on the gradual transformations of emotionality in its interrelation with discourses and socio-cultural practices in the historical evolution. We focus on the universe of emotions and affectivity in its social and cultural dimension and we start from the conviction of the inexistence of a single and permanent emotional regime in space and time, or common to the entire social spectrum. We place the magnifying glass in Argentina at a time of reconfiguration of social relations and family organization, in the dynamic, non-linear or unidirectional passage of an Ibero-American society of the traditional Old Regime, towards the emergence of the Nation-State. And from the traditional family —open to society, weak emotionality and values centered on birth— to the conjugal, domestic and patriarchal family, as a moral being and essential circle of civil society. The sources used consist of epistolary repertoires; secular and ecclesiastical court records; notarial documentation; medical thesis; population registers and censuses; normative texts.