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UID:pretalx-spathum24-HAJU7G@pretalx.com
DTSTART;TZID=CET:20240926T173000
DTEND;TZID=CET:20240926T180000
DESCRIPTION:In Portugal\, until the 1860s\, child abandonment was an anonym
 ous\, legal\, and generalized\npractice. Children were left in foundling w
 heels\, hollow wooden cylinders which rotated\non an axis with a single op
 ening\, situated in the window of buildings or\, more commonly\,\nof Found
 ling Houses. After placing the child inside\, the person abandoning the in
 fant would ring a bell located on the wall to inform the wheel attendant o
 f the arrival of a new\nward. The latter\, inside the Foundling House\, wo
 uld turn the cylinder\, collect the minor and provide him/her with initial
  healthcare\, before being sent to be raised by an external wet nurse. The
  proliferation of these type of institutions and the wheel mechanism wasn
 ’t exclusive of Portugal. It was common in the European Catholic states 
 such as Spain\, France\, and Italy.\nHowever\, the legality of the anonymo
 us child abandonment led to the abuse of such practice. In Lisbon\, the Po
 rtuguese capital and biggest city\, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lis
 boa (literally\, the Holy House of Mercy\, henceforth the SCML) was the in
 stitution responsible for raising the abandoned children. From the mid-19t
 h century until the end of the 1860’s between 2.000 to almost 3.000 chil
 dren were abandoned on its wheel. The goal\, was to send them to be raised
  by external wet nurses\, particularly\, the ones living in the countrysid
 e\, believing their houses would have better conditions and the children w
 ould be integrated among their families (when compared to wet nurses livin
 g in the big city). From the moment of the abandonment\, the life course o
 f these children was marked by mobility in space\, not only from the insti
 tution to the wet nurses’ houses\, but also among the latter\, consideri
 ng that the decrease in their salaries as children got older frequently le
 d to a new institutionalization and to being sent again to another wet nur
 se.\nFrom the second half of the 19th century\, a debate took place regard
 ing the viability of the admission model in force. State and institutional
  authorities\, as well as doctors\, intellectuals\, and politicians\, star
 ted to consider discontinuing the use of the foundling wheel and adopting 
 a new reception system. What was at stake wasn’t the end of the welcomin
 g institution\, the Foundling House\, but rather the wheel as a mechanism 
 for anonymous exposure. The height of this public debate in Portugal was m
 arked by a decree in 1867 which closed the wheels in the Kingdom. Instead\
 , controlled admissions were imposed\, and breastfeeding allowances were g
 eneralized. Despite the decree being revoked\, in 1870 the SCML closed its
  foundling wheel and adopted the new admission model (in which the exposur
 es\, mostly mothers\, had to identify themselves\, the reason for the aban
 donment\, and their provenance).\nDespite the plurality of regional studie
 s on child abandonment\, on a national and\ninternational level\, no in-de
 pth researches have been carried out concerning this practice\nin Lisbon a
 nd the transition to the new admission model. Additionally\, no study has 
 focused on the movement and life course analysis of the abandoned children
  through a spatial perspective\, applying spatial analysis methods and too
 ls. \nThis paper seeks to fill this gap focusing on a spatial analysis and
  the use of a Geographic Informatic System to approach child abandonment i
 n 19th century Lisbon\, its evolution\, characteristics and the life cours
 e of foundlings. It allows us not only to integrate child abandonment in s
 pace and time\, since from 1870 it was mandatory for parents to identify t
 hemselves and we have information about the ones who exposed their sons or
  daughters and their provenance (municipality and parish)\, enabling to re
 late it to Lisbon’s growth\; but also to spatially follow foundlings’ 
 life course and mobility across time. \nHaving as a starting point the con
 temporary argument that it was preferable to send these children to be rai
 sed by countryside wet nurses\, with effects on their integration\, we wil
 l use a Geographic Information System to: 1) pursue a macro analysis on th
 e spatial distribution of foundlings in the Kingdom when raised by externa
 l wet nurses\; 2) develop a micro analysis of particular life courses\, ma
 inly\, of two groups of children – ones raised by countryside wet nurses
  from a parish in Tomar\; and another group raised by workers from a paris
 h in Lisbon. How did the spatial distribution of foundlings affect their i
 ntegration? And how can we track their movement and their path? Was there 
 a different mobility degree from the ones raised by countryside wet nurses
  when compared to the ones raised by Lisbon ones?\nThis paper will have a 
 triple approach: qualitative\, quantitative\, and spatial. The qualitative
  analysis will be based on the study and problematization of the sources o
 n the evolution of the welfare towards foundlings\, which are rich and ver
 y well preserved - the ones issued by the Ministry of the Realm\, the Roya
 l Academy of Sciences\, Lisbon’s Municipal Council\, legislation\, writi
 ngs from doctors and intellectuals\, but also the institutional minutes of
  the SCML Board of Administration and its reports. The latter\, produced s
 ince 1850\, contain statistics about the SCML services\, which will also a
 llow to pursue a visual quantitative perspective\, focusing on the spatial
  dimension of foundlings distribution throughout the Kingdom. Additionally
 \, the SCML produced individual records for each children\, enabling us to
  develop a life course analysis. Since the path of some children is hard t
 o follow and the institution lost their track\, this sources need to be cr
 ossed with religious ones – marriage\, birth and death records\, and\, p
 articularly\, Róis de Confessados\, a list of people living in the same h
 ouse which was collected during Easter season. This combination enables to
  apply a spatial approach\, “designing” those children mobility and bu
 ilding a spatial narrative to answer: how can Geographic Information Syste
 ms contribute to study the life course of foundlings in 19th century Lisbo
 n?
DTSTAMP:20260515T083230Z
LOCATION:MG2 01.10
SUMMARY:Child abandonment in 19th century Lisbon: foundlings’ distributio
 n\, life course and movement through the lens of spatial analysis methods 
 and tools - Joana Vieira Paulino
URL:https://pretalx.com/spathum24/talk/HAJU7G/
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