Re: B Ark Colonist and Colonial Industry... [LONG[

Laserlight wrote:

> I'd always thought that empires in the expansion stage tended to be
> fairly conservative about that kind of thing.    For three examples,
> the early Romans, Arab Conquest Moslems, and Genghid Mongols.  I could
> be wrong and I'm sure counter-examples would be easy to find (and
> that's not to say everyone in a society conforms to the rules they say
> they value).	But in any event, it's easy to imagine colonial
> societies--eg Amish, Puritans, etc--where that wouldn't apply.

The Puritans were confined to a relatively small part of British
colonial
America, and represented a relatively stable society centered around
family life, but children born out of wedlock weren't exactly uncommon
at
that.  In the remainder of the colonies (middle and southern) families
tended to be the exception rather than the rule, particularly in the
earliest part of British North American colonization, due in no small
part
to environmental and economic factors which governed the settlement of
those areas.  What should be remembered, however, is that British
colonization was not at all unified, and was haphazard at best.  It
wasn't
until relatively late in the colonial period that the British government
bothered to take direct control of the colonies.  One other thing to
consider is the type of people, regardless of what era you're talking
about, who tend to be out on the colonial frontier.  Family life tends
to
be the exception, as most of them are either restless wanderers or
running
away from something, and those types are going to be far from concerned
about the mores of the society they've left behind.
Also, it's probably quite true that while earlier societies didn't
*talk*
about the things that were going on, they were still happening much as
they do today; we as a society just tend to be more open about it.