Megan Stearns' research project involved gender and kinship terms used on gravestones. Here she has graphed the frequency of different kinship terms. Mother and Father are used with almost equal frequency, as are Son and Daughter. The big difference is the use of Husband and Wife - while 18 stones in this sample referred to someone as "Wife of", only one referred to an individual as "Husband of". It is interesting that a wifely status is more important in this sample than a husbandly status, but a motherly status is not more important than a fatherly one.  |