Fatherhood: a short history
Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio
Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine. What does it mean to be a father? When did people first start talking about men as father figures? And how has the concept of fatherhood changed over the millennia? Augustine Sedwick has the answers to this in his new book, Fatherhood, A History of Love and Power.
He spoke to Dave Musgrove to chart the story from the ancient Near East right up to the present day, dropping in on Plato, Henry VIII, Charles Darwin and Bob Dylan along the way. When does the concept of biological fatherhood actually become established as far as you can tell, i.e. the idea that a single act of sex would lead to a pregnancy? A great question. It's a great question because no one truly knows the answer.
The very earliest artifacts of the human cultural record, The very earliest artifacts of human meaning making seem to represent female fertility. These are a group of figures with large breasts and bellies that are collectively called the Venus figurines. They were found across Eurasia and date to as many as 50,000 years ago and perhaps even more. They seem to represent and have often been interpreted as representing
We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (35 minutes, 5,229 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.
No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.