This paper examines the movement of children as servants from subor
dinate to superordinate households in Tudor England. Drawing on anthropologi
cal theories of reciprocity, it seeks to broaden and revise existing accounts of this
phenomenon. It is argued that the exchange of children in this period may be seen
as a means by which the ranks of the Tudor hierarchy were bound, differentiated,
and defined. It is also argued that the exchange of children played an important
role in their socialization. In general terms, the paper seeks to demonstrate the
value of theories of reciprocity for historiographic analysis.
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