ABSTRACT
By the dawn of the 1800s, scientific inquiry into pubertal timing had become a hotbed for racialist articulations of pubescence and climate – particularly with regard to female sexual-reproductive development. Focusing on the British context, start by looking into the judicial call for positive scientific knowledge of puberty. In a time of growing humanist concerns the child, such knowledge became instrumental for the juridical system to be able to deal with a number of legal dilemmas and criminal matters. In societies where marital life was the single legitimate outlet for many to escape parental powers and other social constraints, and marital arrangements allowed for families to ensure their socioeconomic prosperity, the age of marriage constituted an important legal affair. According to the law of England, young people could marry from the legal age of puberty: 12 years old for girls and 14 years old for boys.
