Talk:Butler/Draft

Roger Lohmann has nominated the version dated 06:45, 10 August 2007 (CDT) of this article for approval. Other editors may also sign to support approval. The Sociology Workgroup and Anthropology Workgroup are overseeing this approval. Unless this notice is removed, the article will be approved on 2007-08-18.

Article Checklist for "Butler/Draft"

Workgroup category or categories	Sociology Workgroup, Anthropology Workgroup [Categories OK]
Article status	Developed article: complete or nearly so
Underlinked article?	No
Basic cleanup done?	Yes
Checklist last edited by	John Stephenson 05:15, 13 August 2007 (CDT) Aleta Curry 23:55, 24 July 2007 (CDT) Aleta Curry 18:04, 16 July 2007 (CDT)

To learn how to fill out this checklist, please see CZ:The Article Checklist.

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WP Author notice

	NOTICE, please do not remove from top of page.
	In lieu of WP notice: I wrote the original for WP between January and March 2005, and edited through 2006. There was very little imput from others, and so I am not ticking the WP box. The reference to the story of Joseph was not part of my original draft, but since it's biblical I feel no qualms about including it, and in any case I have expanded upon the idea and included the chapter. I intend to maintain this article. Aleta Curry 18:07, 16 July 2007 (CDT)
	Check the history of edits to see who inserted this notice.

Re References

I don't know how to format the citations, so I just typed in numbers by hand. If anyone can fix this before I figure it out, please do. Aleta Curry 18:08, 16 July 2007 (CDT)

Done ;-) --Kjetil Ree 20:07, 16 July 2007 (CDT)

Aleta, download http://sunnybar.dynip.com/pub/wikicite.exe and cite away with ease.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 22:21, 5 August 2007 (CDT)

Images

• To use this ask these folks by mail.

 —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 19:32, 10 August 2007 (CDT)

It is remarkable, and perhaps a commentary, that I have been unable after several hours of searching to find photos of modern butlers in action. I've gotten desperate and posted a message to a butler message board requesting such photos. Keeping my fingers crossed.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 15:18, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

Obviously I found an lede image, but I think better is possible.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 16:17, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

Joseph

The story of Joseph in the biblical book of Genesis contains an early reference to those in the role of butlers and stewards. Joseph, sold as a slave in Egypt, rises to become the head of Potiphar’s household staff, his chief steward, while the Pharaoh’s servant whose dream Joseph interprets has been translated into English as the chief butler.

Even after I weakened this, this still seems like it is reading too much into the fact that, among the literal scores of English Bible translations, just one uses dynamic equivalence to translate the Hebrew word as "butler". It seems the much stronger point would be to state that the role of chief household servant has existed across many cultures since recorded history, and give various examples, including in Egypt as depicted by the image I added to the article.

 —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 13:01, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

Well, first, not sure I understand--are you interpreting this as an attempt to prove that the English word "butler" has existed since the time of the pharaohs? I had no such intent. It's just a famous story that illustrates that such manservants were known in those times. And it's not just one--I had a quick look and the much-used Revised Standard Version uses "butler" and "chief butler" as well, as does the poetic language of the King James Version. Not sure of your use of "dynamic equivalence"--Bible translators try to use words that have currency. The only point I was making was that the position of butler--with its attending responsibilities has evolved out of duties that have existed for centuries.

Whether they were called, specifically, "wine steward", "cupbearer", "steward", or "butler" makes no difference. The point is that it is an ancient position. I can try to make this clearer.

Aleta Curry 18:04, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

Go for it. :-)  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 15:06, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

An issue is with the use of "steward". The text tries to connect בית (bayith) with the English word "steward", but בית (bayith) is not translated as such, at least not in any of the 20 or so English Bible translations I have consulted, which includes all of the major ones. The text says "'Steward' came to mean the person in overall charge of the estate; he managed household accounts and collected estate rents", but this seems very shaky. When did this happen? In the Roman Empire, for example, it already held that connotation. I've simply removed that quote from the article for now. It does seem to read fine without it.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 02:25, 13 August 2007 (CDT)

Explaining certain text removals

I removed the emboldened part of the footnote:

18th Century housekeepers made extra money by giving tours of the great house. See e.g. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It would appear that at this point in history the housekeeper still outranked the butler. An episode of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs portrays a powerful housekeeper who virtually guarantees a butler position to Angus Hudson, should he decide to accept it.

Explanation: I do not think we can accurately infer and generalize a ranking of butlers at this point in their history from Pride and Prejudice. We'd need much firmer support. Citing Upstairs, Downstairs is a bad idea on its face, except in an article about the show.

 —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 14:48, 13 August 2007 (CDT)

British English

Aleta began this in British English, and given its topic it is most fitting for it to remain as such. I have tried to write in that vein--I have been better at it in the past but am rusty. Would someone versed please go over this American's additions to this?  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 04:01, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Okay, I'm basically done

Like the heading says.

Left to do is:

• Copyediting
• Going over the Intro - that's always best when gone over last of all
• A bibliography of relevant books
• Creating Catalog of butlers and valets to replace all the "lists" info I removed
• I also plan to create a brief article for Robert Roberts, the African American butler I added info about
• Tidying a few things here and there
• Formatting all of the references properly
• Bolstering two of the image upload pages
• Critiquing of the material I added (or removed)!

This has been a learning experience for me about this topic. I never intended to write much about it but, for whatever reasons, got caught in.

 —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 04:35, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Oh, my! Where to start???

Your recent additions and deletions are certainly making me stretch my brain. Some of your changes are excellent, Stephen; a lot are good points of departure for other articles but probably don't belong here. I am less convinced by others. In general, I'm concerned about adding a sentence or two about this or that without context.

• You've had a tendency to toss in names of those you've quoted without identifying them. Sure, I know who Ferry and Puckrein are, but will the casual reader? And why Ferry, out of a score of butlers-turned-entrepreneurs? Or, why not Ferry--he actually takes the "service" attitude quite seriously, and the niche he created was in non-residential butlers, which is what I wanted to mention. I'm not sure I get this out of the present text.
• Slaves--well, if we're going to open this can of worms, we have to do it convincingly. This now reads like 21st Century perception based on a 19th Century institution, which will not do if we're talking about ancient slaves. "Uneducated"? I don't think so--the ancient world had a much more fluid understanding about slaves, slaves were acquired in all sorts of ways and came from what we would call differing classes, and they would have had to had skills commensurate with their responsibility. In some countries male slaves could have been quite well-educated compared to other sectors of society, in the same way that black workers under apartheid had to be increasingly better educated. I'd rather be a slave to a clement Roman or African master than an inclement 18-19th Century Russian or American one.
• African-American butler sits like a non-sequitur, quite out of time sequence. Why single out a) American b) black--there's a lot to be said about immigrant service in general, particularly European indentured servitude. We could write a whole "History of American Domestic Service".
• We now have a paragraph that gives lip service to gender issues but doesn't quote or refer to any specific women. Doesn't work for me as a concept.
• I think you're making a mountain out of an Egyptian molehill with Joseph. Mention in passing and leave it alone. More on bible translations later.
• Sorry, we have to lose the picture of Jeeves. I intend to write valet; let's put it there.

I'll start with these

Aleta Curry 18:34, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Aleta, some of the changes you are making are contradicted by the varied literature I used to write what I did.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 19:59, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Specifically, we must differentiate between household butlers during the Medieval era and the position "butler" as a member of the royal courts. Numerous sources, including EB, make a clear distinction here. The latter was a powerful governmental official who only nominally had charge of the wine, while it was the primary duty of houesehold butlers.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 20:37, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Must we? Why? This is an article about household butlers not e.g. Butlerage and Prisage. If you're talking about all those titles like "Chief Candlestick in Waiting" and Equerry this, that and the other and various "D'Honneur" and "Master of the Horse...Hounds..blah blah" we'll be here for ever. That's another article.

But in any case, it's moot now because I think the wording you have there now is fine. Really! :)

Aleta Curry 01:15, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

It's an article about "Butler". I included one sentence differentiating the Medieval era household butler with his counterpart who enjoyed substantial governmental power as a member of Crown administration, with only nominal care over wine stores.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 01:51, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

Also, שקה (shaqah) is not a title. It was a description of the dutied carried out by the Egyptian butler.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 21:07, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

I'm not arguing the word, just the clumsiness of the present sentence. I'm asking what is it? A noun? An adjective? A position? Just the description of duties is not "a" shaqah. Do you mean the man who was the shaqah or the man who performed the shaquah? We can't write "Pharaoh's "to give to drink". this is not a big deal, it just needs a light c.e. and I can't think of a good phrasing just at the mo.

Aleta Curry 01:15, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

Wording simply cannot be altered for readability when it changes the meaning. It is simply erroneous to imply that שקה (shaqah) was a Hebrew translation of a term for an Egyptian title; it merely described, the main duty of the person. I have crafted wording so it does not imply this.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 01:51, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

Large households

I think this is wrong, saying that butlers are senior servants in "large households". I stayed in Al Capp's NYC apartment in the early 1960s, for instance, and he had a butler. But absolutely no other servants. He had a cooking-serving lady at his Cambridge home but the NYC butler never had anything to do with the Cambridge establishment. So I think this opening sentence should be modified. ...said Hayford Peirce (talk) (Please sign your talk page posts by simply adding four tildes, ~~~~.)

Was it a butler, a houseman, a housekeeper or a valet? Which was his primary residence? I doubt you'd have any butler today calling himself a "junior servant", whether or not he had direct supervisory authority. Still, the word has fluid enough usage and I take your point. It depends on what era and nowadays to a large extent on perspective. I will modify accordingly. Aleta Curry 18:40, 14 August 2007 (CDT)

Already appropriately fixed. Aleta Curry 18:42, 14 August 2007 (CDT)