Sonja Plesset
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804753012
- eISBN:
- 9780804767866
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804753012.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Residents of Parma, Italy pride themselves on their sophistication and connection to European modernity. But despite a reputation for civility, intimate partner violence continues to take place, ...
More
Residents of Parma, Italy pride themselves on their sophistication and connection to European modernity. But despite a reputation for civility, intimate partner violence continues to take place, largely hidden from public view. Offering a detailed ethnography of two women's shelters—one leftist, the other Catholic—this book provides the political, cultural, and legal contexts of competing explanations for intimate partner violence. Some contend that violence against women reflects the cultural and historical gender inequalities embedded in Italian society, including “old-fashioned” or “traditional” understandings of masculinity. Others argue that it stems from confusion and ambivalence over “new” or “modern” forms of gender relations. While the first explanation places the blame on tradition and the second cites the transition to modernity, both emphasize societal understandings of gender and point to collective, rather than individual, responsibility. Through an intimate portrayal of everyday life, the book reveals how violence against women can be studied as one part of a continuum of locally relevant understandings of gender relations and gender change.Less
Residents of Parma, Italy pride themselves on their sophistication and connection to European modernity. But despite a reputation for civility, intimate partner violence continues to take place, largely hidden from public view. Offering a detailed ethnography of two women's shelters—one leftist, the other Catholic—this book provides the political, cultural, and legal contexts of competing explanations for intimate partner violence. Some contend that violence against women reflects the cultural and historical gender inequalities embedded in Italian society, including “old-fashioned” or “traditional” understandings of masculinity. Others argue that it stems from confusion and ambivalence over “new” or “modern” forms of gender relations. While the first explanation places the blame on tradition and the second cites the transition to modernity, both emphasize societal understandings of gender and point to collective, rather than individual, responsibility. Through an intimate portrayal of everyday life, the book reveals how violence against women can be studied as one part of a continuum of locally relevant understandings of gender relations and gender change.
Ariel Toaff
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774198
- eISBN:
- 9781800340954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774198.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter focuses on the outcasts from Jewish and Christian societies. If it is true that the entire Jewish population was the object of more or less violent discrimination in medieval Italian ...
More
This chapter focuses on the outcasts from Jewish and Christian societies. If it is true that the entire Jewish population was the object of more or less violent discrimination in medieval Italian society, it is also true that Jewish society itself rejected or excluded some of its members, with a logic similar to that at work in Christian circles. One can distinguish at least three levels of marginalization: that of the Jewish community as a whole, as a religious minority; that of outcasts from Jewish society, consisting mainly of Jews who threatened the established order; and that of those individuals banished from all society, Jewish and Christian, because of their deviant behaviour. The category of the excluded and marginalized within Jewish society included primarily the poor and beggars, the mad and sick, and converts to Christianity, particularly if they were poor. Another category of the excluded was made up of criminals and delinquents, whose marginalization was independent of whether they were Jews or Christians. Gambling dens and games of chance occupy an important place in offences committed by the Jews of Umbria in this period. This comes as no surprise, since gambling was a widespread vice in medieval society, vainly and frequently inveighed against by preaching friars in town squares and by rabbis in the synagogues.Less
This chapter focuses on the outcasts from Jewish and Christian societies. If it is true that the entire Jewish population was the object of more or less violent discrimination in medieval Italian society, it is also true that Jewish society itself rejected or excluded some of its members, with a logic similar to that at work in Christian circles. One can distinguish at least three levels of marginalization: that of the Jewish community as a whole, as a religious minority; that of outcasts from Jewish society, consisting mainly of Jews who threatened the established order; and that of those individuals banished from all society, Jewish and Christian, because of their deviant behaviour. The category of the excluded and marginalized within Jewish society included primarily the poor and beggars, the mad and sick, and converts to Christianity, particularly if they were poor. Another category of the excluded was made up of criminals and delinquents, whose marginalization was independent of whether they were Jews or Christians. Gambling dens and games of chance occupy an important place in offences committed by the Jews of Umbria in this period. This comes as no surprise, since gambling was a widespread vice in medieval society, vainly and frequently inveighed against by preaching friars in town squares and by rabbis in the synagogues.
