Sanford N. Katz
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199264346
- eISBN:
- 9780191718502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264346.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
For many years family law was viewed as a study of the regulation of relationships of husband and wife, and parent and child. By the close of the 20th century, basic questions about who should be ...
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For many years family law was viewed as a study of the regulation of relationships of husband and wife, and parent and child. By the close of the 20th century, basic questions about who should be officially designated a family member and by what procedure were being raised both in the legislature and in litigation. In addition, conventional models that had defined domestic relations such as marriage, divorce, and adoption were being expanded to include contemporary patterns of living arrangements. This book examines the present state of family law in America. Among its themes is the tension between individual autonomy and governmental regulation in all aspects of family law. It examines both conventional and new definitions of formal and informal domestic relationships. It analyses the extent to which relationships established before marriage are being regulated, and how marriage is being redefined to take into account equality of the sexes. It demonstrates how the definition of marriage as a partnership in which the individual spouse's rights are recognized has resulted in protection of the vulnerable spouse. It examines fault and no-fault divorce procedures and the extent to which these procedures reflect social realities. This book describes state intervention into the parent and child relationship and how this is reflected in the re-examination of the privacy of the family unit. It concludes with a discussion of the conventional model of adoption of children and how additional models are being developed to take into account new family forms.Less
For many years family law was viewed as a study of the regulation of relationships of husband and wife, and parent and child. By the close of the 20th century, basic questions about who should be officially designated a family member and by what procedure were being raised both in the legislature and in litigation. In addition, conventional models that had defined domestic relations such as marriage, divorce, and adoption were being expanded to include contemporary patterns of living arrangements. This book examines the present state of family law in America. Among its themes is the tension between individual autonomy and governmental regulation in all aspects of family law. It examines both conventional and new definitions of formal and informal domestic relationships. It analyses the extent to which relationships established before marriage are being regulated, and how marriage is being redefined to take into account equality of the sexes. It demonstrates how the definition of marriage as a partnership in which the individual spouse's rights are recognized has resulted in protection of the vulnerable spouse. It examines fault and no-fault divorce procedures and the extent to which these procedures reflect social realities. This book describes state intervention into the parent and child relationship and how this is reflected in the re-examination of the privacy of the family unit. It concludes with a discussion of the conventional model of adoption of children and how additional models are being developed to take into account new family forms.
Marcia C. Inhorn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148885
- eISBN:
- 9781400842629
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148885.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses how husbands' loving commitments toward their wives are a major part of Middle Eastern conjugality and an important feature of emergent masculinities in the region. Even ...
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This chapter discusses how husbands' loving commitments toward their wives are a major part of Middle Eastern conjugality and an important feature of emergent masculinities in the region. Even seemingly traditional men such as Hatem—a farmer from a “closed” rural Syrian community—defy masculine stereotypes. Although conventional wisdom suggests that Middle Eastern men routinely divorce their infertile wives, Hatem's case provides evidence to the contrary. His story suggests that enduring conjugal commitments are a key feature of emergent masculinities in the Middle East, even in the face of intractable infertility. According to studies, this is as true among lower-class Middle Eastern couples, both urban and rural, as it is among cosmopolitan elites.Less
This chapter discusses how husbands' loving commitments toward their wives are a major part of Middle Eastern conjugality and an important feature of emergent masculinities in the region. Even seemingly traditional men such as Hatem—a farmer from a “closed” rural Syrian community—defy masculine stereotypes. Although conventional wisdom suggests that Middle Eastern men routinely divorce their infertile wives, Hatem's case provides evidence to the contrary. His story suggests that enduring conjugal commitments are a key feature of emergent masculinities in the Middle East, even in the face of intractable infertility. According to studies, this is as true among lower-class Middle Eastern couples, both urban and rural, as it is among cosmopolitan elites.
James Daybell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259915
- eISBN:
- 9780191717437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259915.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter surveys correspondence between spouses, emphasizing the variety and complexity of marital experience, and examining the effects on letters as a source of rising female literacy and ...
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This chapter surveys correspondence between spouses, emphasizing the variety and complexity of marital experience, and examining the effects on letters as a source of rising female literacy and greater epistolary privacy between partners. It stresses that letters reveal the widespread existence of emotional as well as social, economic, and political bonds within marriage, and indicate mutual favourable expectations of conjugal relationships. Allied to this, it argues that correspondence was not merely a pragmatic way of conducting business and conveying information, but in fact performed more privy and intimate functions, and assumed emotional significance. This chapter also assesses the extent to which restrictive gender codes of female behaviour were enforced in practice, mapping the location of power within marital relationships and the scope of wives' activities and interests. Finally, it highlights the differences between husbands' and wives' letters: husbands more frequently articulated emotion and affection in their correspondence than did wives.Less
This chapter surveys correspondence between spouses, emphasizing the variety and complexity of marital experience, and examining the effects on letters as a source of rising female literacy and greater epistolary privacy between partners. It stresses that letters reveal the widespread existence of emotional as well as social, economic, and political bonds within marriage, and indicate mutual favourable expectations of conjugal relationships. Allied to this, it argues that correspondence was not merely a pragmatic way of conducting business and conveying information, but in fact performed more privy and intimate functions, and assumed emotional significance. This chapter also assesses the extent to which restrictive gender codes of female behaviour were enforced in practice, mapping the location of power within marital relationships and the scope of wives' activities and interests. Finally, it highlights the differences between husbands' and wives' letters: husbands more frequently articulated emotion and affection in their correspondence than did wives.
Rosalind Brown-Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554140
- eISBN:
- 9780191721069
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554140.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Whilst French romances of the 12th and 13th centuries enjoy a privileged place in the literary history of France, romances from the later middle ages have been neglected by modern scholars. In ...
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Whilst French romances of the 12th and 13th centuries enjoy a privileged place in the literary history of France, romances from the later middle ages have been neglected by modern scholars. In particular, although this genre has been seen as providing a forum within which contemporary ideas about masculine and feminine roles were debated, little work has been done on the gender ideology of 14th- and 15th-century texts. This book's aims is to fill this gap in the scholarship by analysing how the views of gender found in earlier romances were reshaped in the texts produced in the moralising intellectual environment of the later medieval period. In order to explore these topics, the book discusses sixteen historico-realist prose romances written between 1390 and 1480, many of which were commissioned at the court of Burgundy. It addresses key issues in recent studies of gender in medieval culture including the construction of chivalric masculinity, the representation of adolescent desire, and the social and sexual roles of husbands and wives. In addition to offering close readings of these texts, it shows how the romances of the period were informed by ideas about gender which circulated in contemporary works such as manuals of chivalry, moral treatises, and marriage sermons. It aims to question the critical consensus on the role of gender in medieval romance that has arisen from an exclusive focus on earlier works in the genre.Less
Whilst French romances of the 12th and 13th centuries enjoy a privileged place in the literary history of France, romances from the later middle ages have been neglected by modern scholars. In particular, although this genre has been seen as providing a forum within which contemporary ideas about masculine and feminine roles were debated, little work has been done on the gender ideology of 14th- and 15th-century texts. This book's aims is to fill this gap in the scholarship by analysing how the views of gender found in earlier romances were reshaped in the texts produced in the moralising intellectual environment of the later medieval period. In order to explore these topics, the book discusses sixteen historico-realist prose romances written between 1390 and 1480, many of which were commissioned at the court of Burgundy. It addresses key issues in recent studies of gender in medieval culture including the construction of chivalric masculinity, the representation of adolescent desire, and the social and sexual roles of husbands and wives. In addition to offering close readings of these texts, it shows how the romances of the period were informed by ideas about gender which circulated in contemporary works such as manuals of chivalry, moral treatises, and marriage sermons. It aims to question the critical consensus on the role of gender in medieval romance that has arisen from an exclusive focus on earlier works in the genre.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book explores the relationship between two statements as they apply to husbands, but also as they apply to the notion in general of being a man. The first is about the fate of man as husband, ...
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This book explores the relationship between two statements as they apply to husbands, but also as they apply to the notion in general of being a man. The first is about the fate of man as husband, and the second is about the (unspecified) things a man must do if he is to be a man. They express in brief form the much more extensive expectations about the nature of men as husbands and as deceived husbands that will be revealed by the literary examples to be discussed. What is fascinating about the portrayals of these husbands in their suffering of marital infidelity is the degree to which there are common characteristics to be observed in them, characteristics which suggest a generality of pattern, formation, and explanation. The book targets two main types of portrayal of the husband – the cuckold and the man of honour – and discusses the principal theoretical framework on object-relations theory.Less
This book explores the relationship between two statements as they apply to husbands, but also as they apply to the notion in general of being a man. The first is about the fate of man as husband, and the second is about the (unspecified) things a man must do if he is to be a man. They express in brief form the much more extensive expectations about the nature of men as husbands and as deceived husbands that will be revealed by the literary examples to be discussed. What is fascinating about the portrayals of these husbands in their suffering of marital infidelity is the degree to which there are common characteristics to be observed in them, characteristics which suggest a generality of pattern, formation, and explanation. The book targets two main types of portrayal of the husband – the cuckold and the man of honour – and discusses the principal theoretical framework on object-relations theory.
Sarah M. S. Pearsall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199532995
- eISBN:
- 9780191714443
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199532995.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter attends to the separation of a husband and a wife during and immediately after the American Revolution, considering what attended those moments when the ‘silken cords’ of marriage were ...
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This chapter attends to the separation of a husband and a wife during and immediately after the American Revolution, considering what attended those moments when the ‘silken cords’ of marriage were stretched by distance and disorder. Concentrating on New England (especially Newport, Rhode Island) and England, it seeks to answer the question of why a husband did not return to his wife at the war's end, and what this meant. Women in such circumstances could obtain a kind of limited leverage from eloquent sensibility. Charges of unfeelingness, an important domestic claim, could also take on additional political meaning in wartime situations. At the same time, claims of ‘family feeling’ could also be put in service of some rather dubious political and domestic choices.Less
This chapter attends to the separation of a husband and a wife during and immediately after the American Revolution, considering what attended those moments when the ‘silken cords’ of marriage were stretched by distance and disorder. Concentrating on New England (especially Newport, Rhode Island) and England, it seeks to answer the question of why a husband did not return to his wife at the war's end, and what this meant. Women in such circumstances could obtain a kind of limited leverage from eloquent sensibility. Charges of unfeelingness, an important domestic claim, could also take on additional political meaning in wartime situations. At the same time, claims of ‘family feeling’ could also be put in service of some rather dubious political and domestic choices.
Helen Kraus
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600786
- eISBN:
- 9780191731563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600786.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Church History
This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as ...
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This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as the Authorized Version scholars, to some degree redress the balance. However, there remains the question of androcentricity and its corollary, misogyny, that reached its nadir in the witch hunts of the late Middle Ages and beyond. In the Hebrew Bible, androcentricity may point to a pre‐occupation with genetic continuity, but when Semitic masculine tradition meets Hellenistic culture, womanhood undeniably suffers. Reformation and Early Modernity to some extent restore the balance, coinciding with a growing tradition of more precise Bible translation. Nevertheless, Luther's cosmology, where the husband is lord, has only been challenged in recent years.Less
This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as the Authorized Version scholars, to some degree redress the balance. However, there remains the question of androcentricity and its corollary, misogyny, that reached its nadir in the witch hunts of the late Middle Ages and beyond. In the Hebrew Bible, androcentricity may point to a pre‐occupation with genetic continuity, but when Semitic masculine tradition meets Hellenistic culture, womanhood undeniably suffers. Reformation and Early Modernity to some extent restore the balance, coinciding with a growing tradition of more precise Bible translation. Nevertheless, Luther's cosmology, where the husband is lord, has only been challenged in recent years.
Helen Kraus
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600786
- eISBN:
- 9780191731563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600786.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Church History
Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his ...
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Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his translation of the New Testament that so angered Thomas More, exposed Tyndale to this revival of interest. His importance to this study is the extent to which his English translation found its way into the Authorized Version, bequeathing us a truly idiomatic vernacular Bible. The Authorized Version itself, by contrast, owes everything to the Hebrew text. Careful comparison with Tyndale' translation reveals a return from occasional paraphrase to a rendering that is as literal as can be. In Genesis 3:16, for example, we see a return to the Hebrew allusion to the woman' desire for her husband. Where Tyndale gives us an English Bible, the Authorised Version translators' offering is a Hebrew Bible — in English.Less
Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his translation of the New Testament that so angered Thomas More, exposed Tyndale to this revival of interest. His importance to this study is the extent to which his English translation found its way into the Authorized Version, bequeathing us a truly idiomatic vernacular Bible. The Authorized Version itself, by contrast, owes everything to the Hebrew text. Careful comparison with Tyndale' translation reveals a return from occasional paraphrase to a rendering that is as literal as can be. In Genesis 3:16, for example, we see a return to the Hebrew allusion to the woman' desire for her husband. Where Tyndale gives us an English Bible, the Authorised Version translators' offering is a Hebrew Bible — in English.
Kate Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267361
- eISBN:
- 9780191708299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267361.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Challenging the assumption that women were the driving force behind the decline in family size in Britain, this chapter explores the finding that between the 1920s and the 1950s, it was husbands, not ...
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Challenging the assumption that women were the driving force behind the decline in family size in Britain, this chapter explores the finding that between the 1920s and the 1950s, it was husbands, not wives, who rooted out birth control information, framed contraceptive strategies for the family, and put these into practice. This phenomenon should not be seen as evidence of women's increasing ability to pressurize men to do their bidding. Rather, the increased use of contraception during the first half of the 20th century is revealed to be a story of men's power over a couple's sexual relationship. However, women saw male control of contraception as both appropriate and personally advantageous. Embarrassed by issues associated with sex and wedded to notions of respectability which valued women's sexual innocence and passivity, women had much invested in a world which constructed contraceptive responsibility as a male duty.Less
Challenging the assumption that women were the driving force behind the decline in family size in Britain, this chapter explores the finding that between the 1920s and the 1950s, it was husbands, not wives, who rooted out birth control information, framed contraceptive strategies for the family, and put these into practice. This phenomenon should not be seen as evidence of women's increasing ability to pressurize men to do their bidding. Rather, the increased use of contraception during the first half of the 20th century is revealed to be a story of men's power over a couple's sexual relationship. However, women saw male control of contraception as both appropriate and personally advantageous. Embarrassed by issues associated with sex and wedded to notions of respectability which valued women's sexual innocence and passivity, women had much invested in a world which constructed contraceptive responsibility as a male duty.
Peter Earle
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381731
- eISBN:
- 9781781382301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381731.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
When William Earle settled in Liverpool after retiring from the sea, his main (but not only) occupation was trading in slaves. This activity has been analysed with the aid of two data-sets, one ...
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When William Earle settled in Liverpool after retiring from the sea, his main (but not only) occupation was trading in slaves. This activity has been analysed with the aid of two data-sets, one providing detailed information on Liverpool shipping, 1744-86, and the other focussed on the slave trade. Just what such a business involved can be found in William’s one surviving letter-book (1760-61) which shows in detail his relations with his suppliers, captains, potential purchasers in America and the West Indies, co-partners, and the financier in London who discounted his bills. These were difficult years and the letters illustrate the problems of trading in wartime, such as capture by the French and very high insurance rates. William’s reaction to this was to finance privateers himself, a subject also included in this chapter.Less
When William Earle settled in Liverpool after retiring from the sea, his main (but not only) occupation was trading in slaves. This activity has been analysed with the aid of two data-sets, one providing detailed information on Liverpool shipping, 1744-86, and the other focussed on the slave trade. Just what such a business involved can be found in William’s one surviving letter-book (1760-61) which shows in detail his relations with his suppliers, captains, potential purchasers in America and the West Indies, co-partners, and the financier in London who discounted his bills. These were difficult years and the letters illustrate the problems of trading in wartime, such as capture by the French and very high insurance rates. William’s reaction to this was to finance privateers himself, a subject also included in this chapter.
Nigel Saul
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199215980
- eISBN:
- 9780191710001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215980.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Women are shown on effigial monuments either alone or alongside their husbands. The chapter argues that the monuments of women are no less status-conscious than those of their menfolk, with status ...
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Women are shown on effigial monuments either alone or alongside their husbands. The chapter argues that the monuments of women are no less status-conscious than those of their menfolk, with status being indicated by such motifs as rich clothing and attributes such as necklaces and jewellery. A specifically female identity is difficult to detect, however, because typically the woman's identity was subsumed into the group identity of her family, usually (except in the case of heiresses) her husband's family. Many monuments of women were anyway commissioned by their male spouses, making them more the expressions of male than female taste.Less
Women are shown on effigial monuments either alone or alongside their husbands. The chapter argues that the monuments of women are no less status-conscious than those of their menfolk, with status being indicated by such motifs as rich clothing and attributes such as necklaces and jewellery. A specifically female identity is difficult to detect, however, because typically the woman's identity was subsumed into the group identity of her family, usually (except in the case of heiresses) her husband's family. Many monuments of women were anyway commissioned by their male spouses, making them more the expressions of male than female taste.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book studies the representation in European literature of adultery, focusing in particular on the figure of the husband. Drawing on psychoanalysis, and primarily the work of Melanie Klein, it ...
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This book studies the representation in European literature of adultery, focusing in particular on the figure of the husband. Drawing on psychoanalysis, and primarily the work of Melanie Klein, it argues that the differing representations of the deceived husband evidence anxieties within patriarchal society about gender and power, and ultimately about death and the unknown. Detailed discussions of a wide range of texts including The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, Othello, Madame Bovary, Effi Briest, Anna Karenina, La Regenta, and Flaubert's Parrot reveal that fundamental anxieties about masculinity are repeatedly articulated in two main characterisations of the deceived husband: the cuckold and the man of honour. These are representations which can be usefully understood, the book shows, with reference to the two early developmental positions forwarded by Klein: the paranoid schizoid and the depressive positions.Less
This book studies the representation in European literature of adultery, focusing in particular on the figure of the husband. Drawing on psychoanalysis, and primarily the work of Melanie Klein, it argues that the differing representations of the deceived husband evidence anxieties within patriarchal society about gender and power, and ultimately about death and the unknown. Detailed discussions of a wide range of texts including The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, Othello, Madame Bovary, Effi Briest, Anna Karenina, La Regenta, and Flaubert's Parrot reveal that fundamental anxieties about masculinity are repeatedly articulated in two main characterisations of the deceived husband: the cuckold and the man of honour. These are representations which can be usefully understood, the book shows, with reference to the two early developmental positions forwarded by Klein: the paranoid schizoid and the depressive positions.
T. N. Madan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198069409
- eISBN:
- 9780199080038
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198069409.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
This chapter discusses recruitment to the Pandit household via marriage and incorporation. It begins with a discussion of the importance and nature of marriage covering the selection of spouses; ...
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This chapter discusses recruitment to the Pandit household via marriage and incorporation. It begins with a discussion of the importance and nature of marriage covering the selection of spouses; village exogamy; negotiations for marriage; types of marriage; ‘promise-giving’ and betrothal ceremonies; the marriage ritual; and secondary marriage and remarriage. It then describes the structural consequences of marriage covering the woman-giving household; the Pandit woman in her conjugal household; the husband–wife relationship; a man and his affines; and relations between affinally related households.Less
This chapter discusses recruitment to the Pandit household via marriage and incorporation. It begins with a discussion of the importance and nature of marriage covering the selection of spouses; village exogamy; negotiations for marriage; types of marriage; ‘promise-giving’ and betrothal ceremonies; the marriage ritual; and secondary marriage and remarriage. It then describes the structural consequences of marriage covering the woman-giving household; the Pandit woman in her conjugal household; the husband–wife relationship; a man and his affines; and relations between affinally related households.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The concept of sexual infidelity is both widespread and ancient. It requires, as a precondition, the concept of sexual fidelity, and further that it has as its context a society in which there is the ...
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The concept of sexual infidelity is both widespread and ancient. It requires, as a precondition, the concept of sexual fidelity, and further that it has as its context a society in which there is the institution of marriage, or some similar long-term heterosexual and exclusive relationship, and in which the expectation is that there shall be conjugal fidelity, at least on the part of the wife. The language relating to infidelity reiterates patriarchal concern with the infidelity of wives rather than that of husbands. At first sight, some of the language relating to the cuckold appears to give weight to the socio-historical argument that matters of inheritance are the reason why the fault of wives appears to cause interest and concern, whereas the sexual fault of husbands that leads them from the marriage bed is taken so much for granted that it is not equally regarded as a fault.Less
The concept of sexual infidelity is both widespread and ancient. It requires, as a precondition, the concept of sexual fidelity, and further that it has as its context a society in which there is the institution of marriage, or some similar long-term heterosexual and exclusive relationship, and in which the expectation is that there shall be conjugal fidelity, at least on the part of the wife. The language relating to infidelity reiterates patriarchal concern with the infidelity of wives rather than that of husbands. At first sight, some of the language relating to the cuckold appears to give weight to the socio-historical argument that matters of inheritance are the reason why the fault of wives appears to cause interest and concern, whereas the sexual fault of husbands that leads them from the marriage bed is taken so much for granted that it is not equally regarded as a fault.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
A different, and complementary, view of the wronged husband is presented by the concept of the man of honour. To distinguish in general terms between the two, this chapter highlights the respective ...
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A different, and complementary, view of the wronged husband is presented by the concept of the man of honour. To distinguish in general terms between the two, this chapter highlights the respective attributes of the cuckold and the man of honour, taking as paradigms for this the characterisation of the cuckold as he has emerged from Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio, and the man of honour as he is generally conceived in the Spanish Golden Age drama. In the case of each type, there is a question of identity at stake. The husband who is a cuckold is automatically removed from centre-stage and placed firmly in an ancillary role. His identity has depended upon his status as a husband who could assert his patriarchal rights in marriage, and this identity disappears with his failure to do so.Less
A different, and complementary, view of the wronged husband is presented by the concept of the man of honour. To distinguish in general terms between the two, this chapter highlights the respective attributes of the cuckold and the man of honour, taking as paradigms for this the characterisation of the cuckold as he has emerged from Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio, and the man of honour as he is generally conceived in the Spanish Golden Age drama. In the case of each type, there is a question of identity at stake. The husband who is a cuckold is automatically removed from centre-stage and placed firmly in an ancillary role. His identity has depended upon his status as a husband who could assert his patriarchal rights in marriage, and this identity disappears with his failure to do so.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Adulteresses' husbands represented in the nineteenth-century adultery novels discussed in this chapter range through the entire spectrum from cuckold to man of honour, with the majority moving ...
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Adulteresses' husbands represented in the nineteenth-century adultery novels discussed in this chapter range through the entire spectrum from cuckold to man of honour, with the majority moving between the two. The chapter takes examples of texts where the husband can most closely be aligned with one or other of the models discussed so far: Madame Bovary, He Knew He Was Right, and Effi Briest. It then takes La Regenta as an example of a text where the treatment of the husband is more complex, but the central theme is still the husband's relation to infidelity. Dombey and Son and The Kreutzer Sonata are then taken as examples of narratives containing powerful subtexts of denial and splitting in the face of emotion and sexuality. Finally, Anna Karenina provides a text where the complexity of the husband's reaction to infidelity is set in a web of meditation upon marriage and society.Less
Adulteresses' husbands represented in the nineteenth-century adultery novels discussed in this chapter range through the entire spectrum from cuckold to man of honour, with the majority moving between the two. The chapter takes examples of texts where the husband can most closely be aligned with one or other of the models discussed so far: Madame Bovary, He Knew He Was Right, and Effi Briest. It then takes La Regenta as an example of a text where the treatment of the husband is more complex, but the central theme is still the husband's relation to infidelity. Dombey and Son and The Kreutzer Sonata are then taken as examples of narratives containing powerful subtexts of denial and splitting in the face of emotion and sexuality. Finally, Anna Karenina provides a text where the complexity of the husband's reaction to infidelity is set in a web of meditation upon marriage and society.
Alison Sinclair
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151906
- eISBN:
- 9780191672880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151906.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In his discussion of The Winter's Tale, Wilbur Sanders dwells on the unusual fact that Leontes, wrongly suspecting his wife of adultery, and receiving the news that she has died as a result of his ...
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In his discussion of The Winter's Tale, Wilbur Sanders dwells on the unusual fact that Leontes, wrongly suspecting his wife of adultery, and receiving the news that she has died as a result of his wrath, opts to draw close to his grief, and face it in all its intensity. This chapter concentrates on those images of exceptional husbands, men of distinction. The idealised belief is that it may be possible to locate the ultimate depressive position in relation to the deceived husband. Such an ultimate position would have two dimensions: the capacity of the deceived husband as character to confront his grief, and the capacity of the literary text to contain and articulate that experience. The depressive position vis-à-vis women's infidelity is sketched, if not in relation to the cuckold, at least in the social fact and implications of the literature of cuckoldry. In its turn, it is replaced by the depressive position as exemplified in the adultery novels.Less
In his discussion of The Winter's Tale, Wilbur Sanders dwells on the unusual fact that Leontes, wrongly suspecting his wife of adultery, and receiving the news that she has died as a result of his wrath, opts to draw close to his grief, and face it in all its intensity. This chapter concentrates on those images of exceptional husbands, men of distinction. The idealised belief is that it may be possible to locate the ultimate depressive position in relation to the deceived husband. Such an ultimate position would have two dimensions: the capacity of the deceived husband as character to confront his grief, and the capacity of the literary text to contain and articulate that experience. The depressive position vis-à-vis women's infidelity is sketched, if not in relation to the cuckold, at least in the social fact and implications of the literature of cuckoldry. In its turn, it is replaced by the depressive position as exemplified in the adultery novels.
Angela Smith
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183983
- eISBN:
- 9780191674167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183983.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Virginia Woolf’s phrase ‘the queerest sense of echo’ used to describe her relationship with Katherine Mansfield indicates her own awareness of recognising Mansfield as the foreigner within, other but ...
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Virginia Woolf’s phrase ‘the queerest sense of echo’ used to describe her relationship with Katherine Mansfield indicates her own awareness of recognising Mansfield as the foreigner within, other but familiar, both frightening in her alien similarity and reassuring in her capacity to understand a shared obsession with writing. What Ann L. McLaughlin describes as an ‘uneasy sisterhood’ is acknowledged in June 1920 when Woolf remarks of her friendship with Mansfield that ‘this fragmentary intermittent intercourse of mine seems more fundamental than many better established ones’. It predates Woolf’s relationship with another writer, Vita Sackville-West, and was intellectually and artistically more significant for Woolf: its centrality becomes evident to the reader of the personal writings of both women. This chapter discusses the danger to Mansfield’s and Woolf’s vulnerable sensibilities in the process of exploration, and of their dependence on literary husbands and canonical fathers. It examines the two women’s preoccupation with childhood, time, and memory.Less
Virginia Woolf’s phrase ‘the queerest sense of echo’ used to describe her relationship with Katherine Mansfield indicates her own awareness of recognising Mansfield as the foreigner within, other but familiar, both frightening in her alien similarity and reassuring in her capacity to understand a shared obsession with writing. What Ann L. McLaughlin describes as an ‘uneasy sisterhood’ is acknowledged in June 1920 when Woolf remarks of her friendship with Mansfield that ‘this fragmentary intermittent intercourse of mine seems more fundamental than many better established ones’. It predates Woolf’s relationship with another writer, Vita Sackville-West, and was intellectually and artistically more significant for Woolf: its centrality becomes evident to the reader of the personal writings of both women. This chapter discusses the danger to Mansfield’s and Woolf’s vulnerable sensibilities in the process of exploration, and of their dependence on literary husbands and canonical fathers. It examines the two women’s preoccupation with childhood, time, and memory.
Wilfrid Prest
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199550296
- eISBN:
- 9780191720925
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550296.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter deals with aspects of Blackstone's domestic, family and private life, his role as husband and father, his diet, alcoholic intake, lack of exercise, and martyrdom to gout. Besides ...
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This chapter deals with aspects of Blackstone's domestic, family and private life, his role as husband and father, his diet, alcoholic intake, lack of exercise, and martyrdom to gout. Besides maintaining an active presence in and around his home in the borough of Wallingford, Blackstone kept up a busy commuting existence to and from London and Oxford. His law lectures had become a celebrated institution, but shrinking enrolments and the threat of pirate publication led him to publish in book form. The highly favourable reception accorded the first two books of the Commentaries on the Laws of England helped boost Blackstone's professional profile, while his resignation from the Vinerian chair freed him to devote more time and attention to his practice and parliamentary responsibilities.Less
This chapter deals with aspects of Blackstone's domestic, family and private life, his role as husband and father, his diet, alcoholic intake, lack of exercise, and martyrdom to gout. Besides maintaining an active presence in and around his home in the borough of Wallingford, Blackstone kept up a busy commuting existence to and from London and Oxford. His law lectures had become a celebrated institution, but shrinking enrolments and the threat of pirate publication led him to publish in book form. The highly favourable reception accorded the first two books of the Commentaries on the Laws of England helped boost Blackstone's professional profile, while his resignation from the Vinerian chair freed him to devote more time and attention to his practice and parliamentary responsibilities.
Julie Hardwick
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199558070
- eISBN:
- 9780191721038
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558070.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter interrogates the economies of family violence as time‐, place‐, rank‐ and gender‐specific. Attitudes towards, and experiences of, violence, as well as material, cultural, and legal ...
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This chapter interrogates the economies of family violence as time‐, place‐, rank‐ and gender‐specific. Attitudes towards, and experiences of, violence, as well as material, cultural, and legal issues, shaped expressions of domestic violence, the choices victims made, and neighbourhood responses. The chapter examines both husbands' abuse of wives as well as other forms of family violence. Key themes in all forms of family violence included a community discourse about when the use of force was appropriate and when it was abusive, a willingness or relutance to use publicity, and judgement by neighbours about when and how intervention might be warranted. Yet while striking similarities existed among all forms of family violence, participants and neighbours responded differently, depending on the identity and status of the victim of battery.Less
This chapter interrogates the economies of family violence as time‐, place‐, rank‐ and gender‐specific. Attitudes towards, and experiences of, violence, as well as material, cultural, and legal issues, shaped expressions of domestic violence, the choices victims made, and neighbourhood responses. The chapter examines both husbands' abuse of wives as well as other forms of family violence. Key themes in all forms of family violence included a community discourse about when the use of force was appropriate and when it was abusive, a willingness or relutance to use publicity, and judgement by neighbours about when and how intervention might be warranted. Yet while striking similarities existed among all forms of family violence, participants and neighbours responded differently, depending on the identity and status of the victim of battery.
