| Summary: | This is an original and illuminating study of illegitimacy in relation to Scottish social and religious life and social structure. It has relevance for the current debate on levels of unmarried parenthood. Blaikie provides an outline of areas of debate and a critical review of the relevant literature, both on historical sociology and on illegitimacy in Scotland. He analyses the social discussion and remedies of the time, and concentrates upon a historical investigation of the social context of illegitimacy in the Banffshire parish of Rothiemay. Illegitimacy is found to be synonymous with a variety of social conditions, for example, a shortage of leasehold accommodation, and to be well integrated into the norms of local society. Blaikie tests and analyses primary sources of demographic and sociological data, and uses much of his documentary archives and data in hitherto unexamined and intensive ways.
|
|---|
