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In the larger scheme of things, choosing a name for a new baby is no world-shaking matter. How, then, justify a serious study of so apparently trivial an event? Two related premises warrant it. First, small rituals reflect larger values, and, second, their performers need possess no personal importance in order to signify those values. This, then, is an inquiry into a universal species of human social behavior, one readily susceptible to measurement and situated to signal deep cultural change. The site is early New England, and published family genealogies supply the data.(1) New Englanders shared with English settlers elsewhere in British North America many common social institutions, such as those respecting justice, property rights, and family law.
Approximate Word count = 446 Approximate Pages = 1.8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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