Historiography: The following is an examination on a comparison and contrast of historians’ scholarly interpretations on the poor relief efforts in the 1600’s. Primarily focusing on Juan Luis Vives role and the way it impacted the people and time. This will be done through historians’ arguments. Poor relief efforts holds historical significance in that it has changed the ways people viewed aiding the poor. For the first time, the church was no longer the center of everyone’s problems. Instead, it was posed as the states responsibility in 1526 and following years. All historians discussed in this historiography agree that Vives had a historical impact in forming the poor relief system, which was used for many years. As Terpstra explains, each …show more content…
Alves argues that Vives recognized the importance of planned relief and distinguished between the poor who were in need and the deserving. The social work done in the sixteenth century was a crucial time in history. Vives played an important role in the subsequent development of the sixteenth century poor relief. During poor relief in the 1600’s in Europe, there was a strong battle in societies between religion and the government. Society as a whole changed from a society dictated by the church, to a more open, government-orientated facility. Safley argues that charity itself changed in Early Modern Europe as a fundamental change transitioning into modernization. For the first time, people in poverty were not facing a battle between their relationship with god and their soul, but society held all people to an equal level for the first time giving everyone an opportunity of poor relief. Alves author of The Christian Social Organism and Social Welfare argues that it was Vives ideas that lead to the care of the entire social body in early modern Europe during the time of the poor relief efforts and argues that Vives recognized the importance of planned relief and distinguished between who needed it and who was deserving. Terpstra, author of Apprenticeship in Social Welfare agrees adding that Vives was the inspiration behind many future assistance programs that emerged in the sixteenth century. Likewise, Michielse of Policing the Poor notes that Vives argument on the poor being an obligation to the government would allow for more peace being that everyone’s needs would be
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
To conclude, three sets of views existed in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries regarding the destitute. In the 1400's, the poor were treated with sympathy and charity. In the next century, the poor were regarded with suspicion and hatred, which occasionally led to abuse. By the 17th Century, charity had resumed through private citizens and religious orders, though the wealthy still regarded the idle poor as worthless and undeserving of aid. These three often-conflicting sets of views had a profound effect on the lives of the European poor: they determined how the destitute were treated and socially regarded.
Bartolomé de Las Casas begins by providing a vivid description of each land being invaded by the Europeans and the type of peopl...
These letters reveal how the rebellions were able to weaken the Spanish empire and they display how they aided the destabilization of the Spanish government and the faith the people had in it. They also offer the indigenous view of the functions of colonial Andean society. The native Andean society created a structure in these reducción towns that had an immense role in constructing the opposition to colonial rule. The Andean communities were able to maintain their own traditions and community organization while they adopted the structures thrust upon them by the colonial
This paper explores Peter Singer’s argument, in Famine, Affluence, and Morality, that we have morally required obligations to those in need. The explanation of his argument and conclusion, if accepted, would dictate changes to our lifestyle as well as our conceptions of duty and charity, and would be particularly demanding of the affluent. In response to the central case presented by Singer, John Kekes offers his version, which he labels the and points out some objections. Revisions of the principle provide some response to the objections, but raise additional problems. Yet, in the end, the revisions provide support for Singer’s basic argument that, in some way, we ought to help those in need.
A final topic focused and reformed by Catherine II and Peter I was the peasantry. During the time of both rulers, the lower classes did not benefit from their “reforms”. Peter I forced peasants to work on major projects, serve for life to others of higher class, or educate the sons of nobility. While Catherine II advocated the abolition of serfdom and cruel treatment of peasants, she failed to enhance the lives of the people and, instead, gave away thousands of state peasants who became serfs.
Two conflicts during this time are seen as significant towards this battle between the interests of the Natives in the Americas. One of which was between two men: Bartolomé Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Las Casas defends t...
The destruction of entire people is often overlooked, due to the important fact that it is usually the victor that writes the history books and the facts to be. In Alex Nava’s Wonder and Exile, in the New World adventurers of many backgrounds such as Cabeza de Vaca and Bartolome Las Casas, help to develop three important concepts within the cultural, religious, and literary representations of modern day Latin America. Over a span of 500 years Nava’s three concepts of wonder, exile, and deprivation are shown to have an importance in the shape and further development of the Americas and its Native peoples.
Wood, James A., and John Charles Chasteen. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Print.
Vives, Juan Luis. The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Edited and translated by Charles Fantazzi. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
encouraged calls for modernization and progress in these Latin American communities. Illustrating this shift, congregations began to work with the poor to
This paper will examine the origin of the concepts of altruism and mutual aid. It will also examine the controversies or conflicting perspectives that surround the two concepts such as the power of self-interest in the life of a human being. Furthermore, it will highlight on the history of the poor people in the middle ages, the forms of aid that was available then, and the similar endeavors in the present day.
Hunger and Poverty During the course of this particular essay, I will prove to you many points. Maybe not to the extreme that it will change one’s thought processes on the subject of hunger and world poverty, but enough to form a distinction between moral obligation and moral capacity. What I will not mention is the fact that Peter Singer’s outdated material (1971), though thorough in the sense of supporting his view on hunger and world poverty as well as examining this school of thought, is unconvincing to say the least. As our recent past has shown us, using Somalia and Rwanda as models, no amount of money or time on earth can come between a civil war. Terrible things happen, innocent people are slain in the names of either freedom or captivity, and land is destroyed, burned by the flames of either righteousness or wrath. But placing the burden of attempting to heal these wounds on the “well off” is not only immoral in itself, it is crazy. To consider an act a moral obligation, it must have an end that fits within the realm of reason. If someone is obligated to do something, then the purpose of that action holds meaning, therefore making the act a meaningful act. A characteristic of a meaningful act is a justifiably important end, that is, an end that which holds a higher purpose than the action against the obligated act. One can argue, using history as an example, that ending world poverty and hunger is not a reasonable goal. Singer uses the term “mora...
“Famine, Affluence, and Morality” is a piece written by a moral philosopher, Peter Singer, who places a challenge to our traditional notions of charitable giving. The essay argues in favour of donating, and of the moral obligation imposed upon us to contribute and help the global poor with humanitarian purposes. By critically assessing Singer’s writing, this reflection paper will study the main arguments advocated for from his work, as well as possible objections.
Two very important phenomena information of colony is sugar and plantation slavery. Within the territory sugar production was possible due to the forced labor of Africans slaves or their descendants. The legacy of slavery and the entire colonial heritage is a highly stratified society based on different access to goods and services. In Latin America were called “Burrios” In the US they are called Hoods and Ghettos. Oscar Lewis in the 1960s developed the motion of a culture of poverty from his ethnographic research with a number in Mexico. The culture of poverty is an adaptation and a reaction of the poor in their marginal position in a class stratified, highly individuated capitalistic society. Although the theory has been attacked because it seems to implicitly blame the poor for their own sufferings. For Lewis, it is a peculiar cultural orientation that is a “legitimate” and functional one as for the survival strategies of the poor concerned. As a true Parsonian service suggested that each society could be characterized according to the different types of subsystems. A society could be therefore be classified according to the level of relative level of the respective subsystems. The Band or Horde was characterized as having “among other features” an egalitarian political order where power was