Proletarianization and family strategies in the parish of Tullylish, County Down, Ireland: 1690-1914

This dissertation is a regional history which attempts to uncover the historically specific patterns of capitalist development in Ulster's linen industry and women's unique experience. It focuses on the linen producing parish of Tullylish, Co. Down, between 1690 and 1914.;The methodology is interdisciplinary both in terms of theory and the collection of evidence. Evidence was derived from oral interviews, archival and secondary sources. Concepts from anthropology include a materialist definition of culture, a differentiated conception of peasants, household formation, kinship and neighborhood ties. Concepts from feminist social history include the concepts of reproduction, family strategies, patriarchy, the household economics approach to family history, Marx's definition of the capitalist mode of production, primitive accumulation, and the concept of proto-industry.;Conclusions reached are that proto-industry is useful in the analysis of capitalist development in eighteenth century Tullylish, but limited mostly by its neglect of centralized industry, and its incorporation of a Chayanovian definition of peasants. The emphasis on Belfast's linen industry is limited when analyzing the different patterns of industrialization and labor recruitment in rural areas. Rural industrial areas like Tullylish were ripe for a mixture of Victorian paternalism and enlightened self-interest which stressed the harmony of interest between labor and capital. The Great Famine played an important role in the process of primitive accumulation and capitalist development in Tullylish. Poverty and little state assistance formed the material context for household survival strategies and self-help networks. Women, who controlled the domestic domain, were central to the survival of their households and the community, which tempered their drudgery and subordination.;The arguments state that since capitalism is a world historical process, the analysis of regions and household strategies cannot take place in isolation. Capitalist development and class formation in Tullylish during the eighteenth century can be understood partly in terms of proto-industrialization. After 1825, factory production of linen yarn ushered in the Industrial Revolution which developed unevenly until the early twentieth century when powerloom weaving became generalized. Finally, the contribution of women, both as linen industry workers and members of households, is crucial to our understanding of proletarianization.