Sumblog#5: Harriet Martineau

     Our study of Harriet Martineau this week was remarkable not solely because of what she accomplished, but when she accomplished it.
     I'm no historical expert, but it seems to me that women of early Victorian England had about as many rights as a small goat. At least, that's the image in my head from watching all those quirky British soap operas. That Ms. Martineau outsold Charles Dickins, successfully published 25+ stories, and was an outspoken abolitionist boggles the mind. And she did a whole lot more than what I just mentioned! Add to this that she was deaf and I wonder that anyone can feel anything but admiration.
     Naturally, it is Ms. Martineau's overarching emphasis on "happiness" that both defines her work and its subsequent citicisms.
     To look at populations under study using the scientific approach, how does one define happiness? Is that even possible?  In some ways it appears she is blending sociology, psychiatry, and even some social work at a cultural level. I wonder how her research was handicapped because she was a woman. It seems very likely she met opposition at many levels. That she was deaf would only render her more of an establishment outsider. Was the direction of her study entirely her choice, or was she pushed in a certain direction by male publishers? Perhaps it was these very handicaps she faced that made her work much more empirically grounded (better) than her contemporaries (handout;298).
     In some ways I view Harriet Martineau as an ultimate outsider of her time. A person with all the necessary skills to play in the big leagues, which she did, but sidelined in many unseen ways by the system of her day.
     Lastly, I would say that Harriet Martineau's theory on manners supporting morals is logically sound, but like "happiness", it may be too grey of an area to find any useful information. I suppose that is why she included the possibility of "anomolies". Not anomoly as abberation or one-off, but anomaly as it relates to a sort of cultural cognitive dissonance.
http://calvinhobbesdaily.tumblr.com/image/63269902494 
 I've included this Calvin and Hobbes strip because it's funny and it succintly reveals the criticism of Martineau's work. We each measure happiness in a very personal way. Calvin finds happiness in tormenting Suzie at every opportunity. I suspect that as Calvin ages, the things that bring him happiness will change accordingly. Societies probably aren't much different.