n.
The care of a foster child; the charge of nursing. Sir W. Raleigh.
Fosterage
| Dictionary: Fos·ter·age |
n.
| 5min Related Video: Fosterage |
| Celtic Mythology: fosterage |
Training and protection of sons and daughters by a distinguished, often powerful patron, not a family member. The English word ‘foster’, often connoting charity or altruism, inadequately describes this distinctive feature of early Celtic society, which survived in Gaelic Scotland until the 18th century. Described in the Brehon Laws of early Ireland, fosterage began when a powerful man might have children by more than one woman in his household and primogeniture did not guarantee inheritance to an oldest, legitimate son. The fosterer might be a chieftain, especially in a distant province, a druid, or later a monk; along with the arts of war, he would give instruction in poetry, music, and games. Children were fostered at the age of 7 until the perceived age of choice, 14 for girls and 17 for boys. In Christian times foster-children were also taught revealed belief and classical languages. In maturity, a former foster-child was a useful ally to his former patron.
Bibliography
- Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988)
| WordNet: fosterage |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1:
encouragement; aiding the development of something
Synonym: fostering
Meaning #2:
raising someone to be an accepted member of the community
Synonyms: breeding, bringing up, fostering, nurture, raising, rearing, upbringing
| Wikipedia: Fosterage |
This article is about the (sometimes historical) social practice of children being raised by families not their own. For the modern child welfare system of placing children in state custody in the homes of temporary caregivers, see Foster care.
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The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. |
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Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (October 2007) |
Fosterage, the practice of a family bringing up a child not their own, differs from adoption in that the child's genetic parents, not the foster-parents, remain the acknowledged parents. In many modern western societies foster care can be organised by the state to care for children with troubled family backgrounds, usually on a temporary basis. In many pre-modern societies fosterage was a form of patronage, whereby influential families cemented political relationships by bringing up each other's children, similar to arranged marriages, also based on dynastic or alliance calculations.
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Fosterage in the Hebrides
In his A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland (1775), writer Samuel Johnson described the fosterage custom as he saw it practised.[1]
| “ | There still remains in the Islands, though it is passing fast away, the custom of fosterage. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence, sends his child, either male or female, to a tacksman, or tenant, to be fostered. It is not always his own tenant, but some distant friend that obtains this honour; for an honour such a trust is very reasonably thought. The terms of fosterage seem to vary in different islands. In Mull, the father sends with his child a certain number of cows, to which the same number is added by the fosterer. The father appropriates a proportionable extent of ground, without rent, for their pasturage. If every cow brings a calf, half belongs to the fosterer, and half to the child; but if there be only one calf between two cows, it is the child's, and when the child returns to the parent, it is accompanied by all the cows given, both by the father and by the fosterer, with half of the increase of the stock by propagation. These beasts are considered as a portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce, but is supposed not to have the full property, but to owe the same number to the child, as a portion to the daughter, or a stock for the son.
Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years, and cannot, where this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The fosterer, if he gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has, while the child continues with him, grass for eight without rent, with half the calves, and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he dismisses his Dalt, for that is the name for a foster child. Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed upon more liberal terms. Our friend, the young Laird of Col, was fostered by Macsweyn of Grissipol. Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the Isle of Sky; and therefore Col, whether he sent him cattle or not, could grant him no land. The Dalt, however, at his return, brought back a considerable number of Macalive cattle, and of the friendship so formed there have been good effects. When Macdonald raised his rents, Macsweyn was, like other tenants, discontented, and, resigning his farm, removed from Sky to Col, and was established at Grissipol. |
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References
- ^ A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland by Samuel Johnson. 1775 edition. Gutenberg text accessed May 23, 2008
Further reading
- Medieval Ireland and Wales
- Anderson, Katharine. "Urth Noe e Tat. The Question of Fosterage in High Medieval Wales." North American Journal of Welsh Studies 4:1 (2004): 1-11.
- Charles-Edwards, Thomas. Early Irish and Welsh Kinship. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
- Davies, Sir Robert Rees. "Buchedd a moes y Cymry. The manners and morals of the Welsh." Welsh History Review 12 (1984): 155-79.
- Fitzsimons, Fiona. "Fosterage and Gossiprid in late medieval Ireland. Some new evidence." In Gaelic Ireland, c.1250-c.1650. Land, lordship and settlement, ed. by Patrick J. Duffy, David Edwards and Elizabeth FitzPatrick. Dublin: Four Courts, 2001. 138-49.
- Jaski, Bart. "Cú Chulainn, gormac and dalta of the Ulstermen." Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 37 (1999): 1-31.
- McAll, C. "The normal paradigms of a woman's life in the Irish and Welsh texts." In The Welsh law of women, ed. by Dafydd Jenkins and Morfydd E. Owen. Cardiff, 1980. 7-22.
- Ní Chonaill, Bronagh. "Fosterage. Child-rearing in medieval Ireland." History Ireland 5:1 (1997): 28-31.
- Parkes, Peter. "Celtic Fosterage: Adoptive Kinship and Clientage in Northwest Europe." Society for Comparative Study of Society and History 48.2 (2006): 359-95. PDF available online.
- Smith, Llinos Beverley. "Fosterage, adoption and God-parenthood. Ritual and fictive kinship in medieval Wales." Welsh History Review 16:1 (1992): 1-35.
- Miscellaneous
- Parkes, Peter. "Alternative Social Structures and Foster Relations in the Hindu Kush. Milk Kinship Allegiance in Former Mountain Kingdoms of Northern Pakistan." Comparative Studies in Society and History 43:4 (2001): 36.
- Parkes, Peter. "Fostering Fealty. A Comparative Analysis of Tributary Allegiances of Adoptive Kinship." Comparative Studies in Society and History 45 (2003): 741–82.
- Parkes, Peter. "Fosterage, Kinship, and Legend: When Milk was Thicker than Blood?" Comparative Studies in Society and History 46 (2004): 587–615.
- Parkes, Peter. "Milk Kinship in Southeast Europe. Alternative Social Structures and Foster Relations in the Caucasus and the Balkans." Social Anthropology 12 (2004): 341–58.
- Anglo-Saxon England
- Crawford, Sally. Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999. Especially pp. 122–38.
See also
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 | Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy Read more |
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| Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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