Durba Mitra
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196350
- eISBN:
- 9780691197029
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196350.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
During the colonial period in India, European scholars, British officials, and elite Indian intellectuals—philologists, administrators, doctors, ethnologists, sociologists, and social ...
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During the colonial period in India, European scholars, British officials, and elite Indian intellectuals—philologists, administrators, doctors, ethnologists, sociologists, and social critics—deployed ideas about sexuality to understand modern Indian society. This book shows how deviant female sexuality, particularly the concept of the prostitute, became foundational to this knowledge project and became the primary way to think and write about Indian society. The book reveals that deviant female sexuality was critical to debates about social progress and exclusion, caste domination, marriage, widowhood and inheritance, women's performance, the trafficking of girls, abortion and infanticide, industrial and domestic labor, indentured servitude, and ideologies about the dangers of Muslim sexuality. British authorities and Indian intellectuals used the concept of the prostitute to argue for the dramatic reorganization of modern Indian society around Hindu monogamy. The book demonstrates how the intellectual history of modern social thought is based in a dangerous civilizational logic built on the control and erasure of women's sexuality. This logic continues to hold sway in present-day South Asia and the postcolonial world. Reframing the prostitute as a concept, the book overturns long-established notions of how to write the history of modern social thought in colonial India, and opens up new approaches for the global history of sexuality.Less
During the colonial period in India, European scholars, British officials, and elite Indian intellectuals—philologists, administrators, doctors, ethnologists, sociologists, and social critics—deployed ideas about sexuality to understand modern Indian society. This book shows how deviant female sexuality, particularly the concept of the prostitute, became foundational to this knowledge project and became the primary way to think and write about Indian society. The book reveals that deviant female sexuality was critical to debates about social progress and exclusion, caste domination, marriage, widowhood and inheritance, women's performance, the trafficking of girls, abortion and infanticide, industrial and domestic labor, indentured servitude, and ideologies about the dangers of Muslim sexuality. British authorities and Indian intellectuals used the concept of the prostitute to argue for the dramatic reorganization of modern Indian society around Hindu monogamy. The book demonstrates how the intellectual history of modern social thought is based in a dangerous civilizational logic built on the control and erasure of women's sexuality. This logic continues to hold sway in present-day South Asia and the postcolonial world. Reframing the prostitute as a concept, the book overturns long-established notions of how to write the history of modern social thought in colonial India, and opens up new approaches for the global history of sexuality.
Allyson M. Poska
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199265312
- eISBN:
- 9780191708763
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199265312.003.05
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Elderly women, especially widows, were a prominent part of early modern rural society. While the stereotype of the poor widow has some resonance in Galicia, most widows had already served as de facto ...
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Elderly women, especially widows, were a prominent part of early modern rural society. While the stereotype of the poor widow has some resonance in Galicia, most widows had already served as de facto heads of households during their husbands' absences and were well prepared for the challenges of managing the family estate and raising children on their own. As women aged, they played a critical role not only in determining their own elder care, but intergenerational relationships and family economies as well. An examination of retirement contracts indicates that peasant women used their familial authority and wealth to ensure that they and their families would be properly cared for as they aged.Less
Elderly women, especially widows, were a prominent part of early modern rural society. While the stereotype of the poor widow has some resonance in Galicia, most widows had already served as de facto heads of households during their husbands' absences and were well prepared for the challenges of managing the family estate and raising children on their own. As women aged, they played a critical role not only in determining their own elder care, but intergenerational relationships and family economies as well. An examination of retirement contracts indicates that peasant women used their familial authority and wealth to ensure that they and their families would be properly cared for as they aged.
SHEILAGH OGILVIE
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198205548
- eISBN:
- 9780191719219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205548.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations ...
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This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations extracted from church-court records and are compared with those of other females (and males). These findings are then set alongside information on widows' livelihoods from an 18th-century economic census. Data on widowed female household-headship are used to identify the variables encouraging widows' economic independence. Qualitative findings are then used to explore competing hypotheses about the biological, technological, cultural and institutional determinants of widows' economic position. The chapter discusses the institutional factors constraining widows' economic activities, in particular the ‘social capital’ of craft guilds, merchant guilds, and local communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the implications for the wider developing economy of these constraints on widows' work.Less
This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations extracted from church-court records and are compared with those of other females (and males). These findings are then set alongside information on widows' livelihoods from an 18th-century economic census. Data on widowed female household-headship are used to identify the variables encouraging widows' economic independence. Qualitative findings are then used to explore competing hypotheses about the biological, technological, cultural and institutional determinants of widows' economic position. The chapter discusses the institutional factors constraining widows' economic activities, in particular the ‘social capital’ of craft guilds, merchant guilds, and local communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the implications for the wider developing economy of these constraints on widows' work.
Pat Jalland
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201885
- eISBN:
- 9780191675058
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201885.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses the plight and sorrow of the Victorian and Edwardian women in the face of their husband's death. In the 19th century, the mortality rates were high producing high rates of ...
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This chapter discusses the plight and sorrow of the Victorian and Edwardian women in the face of their husband's death. In the 19th century, the mortality rates were high producing high rates of widowed people particularly women because of the mortality differential favouring women and the higher rates of remarriage for widowed men. Widowhood in the early Victorian times was often seen as an end of marriage, a devastating experience on women whose central role was to be a dutiful wife and guardian of the family. The status of widows in the Victorian period was greater than that of a spinster but less than that of a wife. The chapter also discusses the stages of grief, bereavement and the emotional trauma in the lives of widowed women, as well as the symptoms and behavioural characteristics of grief seen in the middle and upper classes in the 19th and the 20th century. The chapter also tackles the different consolations of widowhood found within the comfort of religious family and memory. A case study on the peculiar widowhood of Lady Holland is also included in this chapter.Less
This chapter discusses the plight and sorrow of the Victorian and Edwardian women in the face of their husband's death. In the 19th century, the mortality rates were high producing high rates of widowed people particularly women because of the mortality differential favouring women and the higher rates of remarriage for widowed men. Widowhood in the early Victorian times was often seen as an end of marriage, a devastating experience on women whose central role was to be a dutiful wife and guardian of the family. The status of widows in the Victorian period was greater than that of a spinster but less than that of a wife. The chapter also discusses the stages of grief, bereavement and the emotional trauma in the lives of widowed women, as well as the symptoms and behavioural characteristics of grief seen in the middle and upper classes in the 19th and the 20th century. The chapter also tackles the different consolations of widowhood found within the comfort of religious family and memory. A case study on the peculiar widowhood of Lady Holland is also included in this chapter.
Eleanor Hubbard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609345
- eISBN:
- 9780191739088
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609345.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
City Women is a major new study of the lives of ordinary women in early modern London. Drawing on thousands of pages of Londoners' depositions for the consistory court, it focuses on the ...
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City Women is a major new study of the lives of ordinary women in early modern London. Drawing on thousands of pages of Londoners' depositions for the consistory court, it focuses on the challenges that preoccupied London women as they strove for survival and preferment in the burgeoning metropolis. Balancing new demographic data with vivid case studies, it explores the advantages and dangers that the city had to offer, from women's first arrival to London as migrant maidservants, through the vicissitudes of marriage, widowhood, and old age. In early modern London, women's opportunities were tightly restricted. Nonetheless, before 1640, the city's unique demographic circumstances provided unusual scope for marital advancement, and both maids and widows were quick to take advantage of this. Similarly, moments of opportunity emerged when the powerful sexual anxieties that associated women's speech and mobility with loose behavior came into conflict with even more powerful anxieties about the economic stability of households and communities. As neighbors and magistrates sought to reconcile their competing priorities in cases of illegitimate pregnancy, marital disputes, working wives, remarrying widows, and more, women were able to exploit the resulting uncertainty to pursue their own ends. By paying close attention to the aspirations and preoccupations of London women themselves, their daily struggles, small triumphs, and domestic tragedies, this study provides a valuable new perspective on the importance of early modern women's efforts in the growing capital, and on the nature of early modern English society as a whole.Less
City Women is a major new study of the lives of ordinary women in early modern London. Drawing on thousands of pages of Londoners' depositions for the consistory court, it focuses on the challenges that preoccupied London women as they strove for survival and preferment in the burgeoning metropolis. Balancing new demographic data with vivid case studies, it explores the advantages and dangers that the city had to offer, from women's first arrival to London as migrant maidservants, through the vicissitudes of marriage, widowhood, and old age. In early modern London, women's opportunities were tightly restricted. Nonetheless, before 1640, the city's unique demographic circumstances provided unusual scope for marital advancement, and both maids and widows were quick to take advantage of this. Similarly, moments of opportunity emerged when the powerful sexual anxieties that associated women's speech and mobility with loose behavior came into conflict with even more powerful anxieties about the economic stability of households and communities. As neighbors and magistrates sought to reconcile their competing priorities in cases of illegitimate pregnancy, marital disputes, working wives, remarrying widows, and more, women were able to exploit the resulting uncertainty to pursue their own ends. By paying close attention to the aspirations and preoccupations of London women themselves, their daily struggles, small triumphs, and domestic tragedies, this study provides a valuable new perspective on the importance of early modern women's efforts in the growing capital, and on the nature of early modern English society as a whole.
Eleanor Hubbard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609345
- eISBN:
- 9780191739088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609345.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter discusses widowhood, remarriage, and old age in early modern London. It uses quantitative data to demonstrate that London widows remarried rapidly. City law treated widows relatively ...
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This chapter discusses widowhood, remarriage, and old age in early modern London. It uses quantitative data to demonstrate that London widows remarried rapidly. City law treated widows relatively favorably in terms of inheritance, and remarriage – with the accompanying horizontal wealth transfers – was an accepted part of London’s commercial culture. Only elderly widows were unlikely to remarry. Remarrying widows demonstrated a preference for younger, bachelor bridegrooms, perhaps because they hoped to obtain the benefits of marriage without the disadvantages of subjection by marrying poorer men. These marriages were risky, however, as poor bridegrooms might attempt to assert household mastery. This chapter also argues that widows who remained single and independent posed no threat to patriarchal order, and discusses their survival strategies. It concludes by examining the stresses of old age and physical decline.Less
This chapter discusses widowhood, remarriage, and old age in early modern London. It uses quantitative data to demonstrate that London widows remarried rapidly. City law treated widows relatively favorably in terms of inheritance, and remarriage – with the accompanying horizontal wealth transfers – was an accepted part of London’s commercial culture. Only elderly widows were unlikely to remarry. Remarrying widows demonstrated a preference for younger, bachelor bridegrooms, perhaps because they hoped to obtain the benefits of marriage without the disadvantages of subjection by marrying poorer men. These marriages were risky, however, as poor bridegrooms might attempt to assert household mastery. This chapter also argues that widows who remained single and independent posed no threat to patriarchal order, and discusses their survival strategies. It concludes by examining the stresses of old age and physical decline.
Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201243
- eISBN:
- 9780191674846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201243.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter deals with women's conceptions of adult life. They usually conceptualised female maturity in terms of being married, with a household to run, possibly with children to rear and servants ...
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This chapter deals with women's conceptions of adult life. They usually conceptualised female maturity in terms of being married, with a household to run, possibly with children to rear and servants to oversee. Gender mattered most during women's reproductive years. Physical maturity brought shared physiological experiences to women, although their bodily experiences varied with their levels of nutrition, age at marriage, and social customs relating to sexuality and lactation. In later years, differences of sex mattered less than earlier, especially for a small proportion who were widows. There were no new ways for women to control their fertility and to alter the significance of sexuality in the patterns of their lives. Throughout the early modern period, mothers reared their daughters in conventional ways to enable them to function in a patriarchal society.Less
This chapter deals with women's conceptions of adult life. They usually conceptualised female maturity in terms of being married, with a household to run, possibly with children to rear and servants to oversee. Gender mattered most during women's reproductive years. Physical maturity brought shared physiological experiences to women, although their bodily experiences varied with their levels of nutrition, age at marriage, and social customs relating to sexuality and lactation. In later years, differences of sex mattered less than earlier, especially for a small proportion who were widows. There were no new ways for women to control their fertility and to alter the significance of sexuality in the patterns of their lives. Throughout the early modern period, mothers reared their daughters in conventional ways to enable them to function in a patriarchal society.
Kim Tolley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469624334
- eISBN:
- 9781469624358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469624334.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Susan Nye Hutchison (1790-1867) was one of many teachers to venture south across the Mason-Dixon Line in the Second Great Awakening. From 1815 to 1841, she kept journals about her career, family ...
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Susan Nye Hutchison (1790-1867) was one of many teachers to venture south across the Mason-Dixon Line in the Second Great Awakening. From 1815 to 1841, she kept journals about her career, family life, and encounters with slavery. Drawing on these journals and hundreds of other documents, this book explores the significance of education in transforming American society in the early national period. During this era, women often struggled to balance career ambitions with social conventions about female domesticity. Hutchison—who married, then separated from an abusive husband and eventually worked as a widow to support five children—faced daunting challenges. Nevertheless, her eventual position as head of a respected southern academy came as close to equity as any woman could achieve in any field. Her published writings focused on the importance of higher education for women and the need for northerners and southerners to remain united despite disagreements over slavery. She was the only woman in the South known to have published an essay opposing the division of the Presbyterian Church. By recounting Hutchison's experiences—from praying with slaves and free blacks in the streets of Raleigh and establishing independent schools in Georgia to defying North Carolina law by teaching slaves to read—this book reveals broad social and cultural shifts in southern society and opens an important window onto the world of women's work in southern education.Less
Susan Nye Hutchison (1790-1867) was one of many teachers to venture south across the Mason-Dixon Line in the Second Great Awakening. From 1815 to 1841, she kept journals about her career, family life, and encounters with slavery. Drawing on these journals and hundreds of other documents, this book explores the significance of education in transforming American society in the early national period. During this era, women often struggled to balance career ambitions with social conventions about female domesticity. Hutchison—who married, then separated from an abusive husband and eventually worked as a widow to support five children—faced daunting challenges. Nevertheless, her eventual position as head of a respected southern academy came as close to equity as any woman could achieve in any field. Her published writings focused on the importance of higher education for women and the need for northerners and southerners to remain united despite disagreements over slavery. She was the only woman in the South known to have published an essay opposing the division of the Presbyterian Church. By recounting Hutchison's experiences—from praying with slaves and free blacks in the streets of Raleigh and establishing independent schools in Georgia to defying North Carolina law by teaching slaves to read—this book reveals broad social and cultural shifts in southern society and opens an important window onto the world of women's work in southern education.
Martha Alter Chen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239979
- eISBN:
- 9780191716874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239979.003.0013
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter examines what Amartya Sen has written and argued about gender injustice in three seemingly distinct, but related contexts in South Asia: famine, widowhood, and paid work. The chapter is ...
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This chapter examines what Amartya Sen has written and argued about gender injustice in three seemingly distinct, but related contexts in South Asia: famine, widowhood, and paid work. The chapter is divided into four parts: one part for each issue and a conclusion linking all three. In parts 1-3, the chapter summarizes what Sen has written about each issue and then, based on research, highlighting certain factors that serve to illuminate or complicate the issue. In the conclusion, the chapter reflects on Sen's entitlement and capability theories and the normative concepts that they offer to those who seek gender justice in South Asia.Less
This chapter examines what Amartya Sen has written and argued about gender injustice in three seemingly distinct, but related contexts in South Asia: famine, widowhood, and paid work. The chapter is divided into four parts: one part for each issue and a conclusion linking all three. In parts 1-3, the chapter summarizes what Sen has written about each issue and then, based on research, highlighting certain factors that serve to illuminate or complicate the issue. In the conclusion, the chapter reflects on Sen's entitlement and capability theories and the normative concepts that they offer to those who seek gender justice in South Asia.
Helen Glew
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719090271
- eISBN:
- 9781526104458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719090271.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter is an in-depth examination of the women whose lives did not fit neatly into the categories of ‘married’ or ‘single’. Instances of widowhood, divorce, separation, broken engagement, as ...
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This chapter is an in-depth examination of the women whose lives did not fit neatly into the categories of ‘married’ or ‘single’. Instances of widowhood, divorce, separation, broken engagement, as well as ill health of husbands, had to be legislated for within the strict confines of the marriage bar. Using personal testimony as a means to illustrate the complexities of these situations, this chapter traces the gradual and piecemeal evolution of a policy, with particular reference to the Post Office (the Civil Service department which employed the largest number of women) and the LCC. As a whole, the chapter reveals the very real impact that the marriage bar could have on women in difficult circumstances and how highly gendered the practice was.Less
This chapter is an in-depth examination of the women whose lives did not fit neatly into the categories of ‘married’ or ‘single’. Instances of widowhood, divorce, separation, broken engagement, as well as ill health of husbands, had to be legislated for within the strict confines of the marriage bar. Using personal testimony as a means to illustrate the complexities of these situations, this chapter traces the gradual and piecemeal evolution of a policy, with particular reference to the Post Office (the Civil Service department which employed the largest number of women) and the LCC. As a whole, the chapter reveals the very real impact that the marriage bar could have on women in difficult circumstances and how highly gendered the practice was.
Kim Tolley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469624334
- eISBN:
- 9781469624358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469624334.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Chapter 6 reconstructs Susan Nye Hutchison's transformation from nearly destitute widow in New York to successful academy founder in North Carolina. Her journals reveal the relatively unknown ...
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Chapter 6 reconstructs Susan Nye Hutchison's transformation from nearly destitute widow in New York to successful academy founder in North Carolina. Her journals reveal the relatively unknown business world of the female educational entrepreneur. From 1834 to 1845, higher education for females expanded, and more women began to move up a career ladder in venture schools and academies, progressing from teaching assistant, to teacher, to department head, to school principal. Susan's career reflects this broader social development in antebellum women's work. After visiting Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary in New York to improve her credentials, she returned to North Carolina. To achieve success as a school founder, she developed networks of community support, implemented a rigorous curriculum, sought out endowment funds, and became involved in state politics. Gradually, she brought her two oldest sons to North Carolina and enrolled them in a Presbyterian male academy.Less
Chapter 6 reconstructs Susan Nye Hutchison's transformation from nearly destitute widow in New York to successful academy founder in North Carolina. Her journals reveal the relatively unknown business world of the female educational entrepreneur. From 1834 to 1845, higher education for females expanded, and more women began to move up a career ladder in venture schools and academies, progressing from teaching assistant, to teacher, to department head, to school principal. Susan's career reflects this broader social development in antebellum women's work. After visiting Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary in New York to improve her credentials, she returned to North Carolina. To achieve success as a school founder, she developed networks of community support, implemented a rigorous curriculum, sought out endowment funds, and became involved in state politics. Gradually, she brought her two oldest sons to North Carolina and enrolled them in a Presbyterian male academy.
Sally Haslanger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199892631
- eISBN:
- 9780199980055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892631.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
In his book The Social Construction of What?, Ian Hacking offers a schema for understanding different social constructionist claims along with a framework for distinguishing kinds or degrees of ...
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In his book The Social Construction of What?, Ian Hacking offers a schema for understanding different social constructionist claims along with a framework for distinguishing kinds or degrees of constructionist projects. Hacking's efforts are useful, but his account leaves many of the philosophical aspects of social construction projects obscure, as are the connections, if any, with more mainstream analytic philosophy projects. This chapter aims to argue that although Hacking's approach to social construction is apt for some of those working on such projects, it does not adequately capture what's at issue for an important range of social constructionists, particularly many of us working on gender and race. Moreover, a different way of understanding social construction reveals interesting connections and conflicts with mainstream analytic projects.Less
In his book The Social Construction of What?, Ian Hacking offers a schema for understanding different social constructionist claims along with a framework for distinguishing kinds or degrees of constructionist projects. Hacking's efforts are useful, but his account leaves many of the philosophical aspects of social construction projects obscure, as are the connections, if any, with more mainstream analytic philosophy projects. This chapter aims to argue that although Hacking's approach to social construction is apt for some of those working on such projects, it does not adequately capture what's at issue for an important range of social constructionists, particularly many of us working on gender and race. Moreover, a different way of understanding social construction reveals interesting connections and conflicts with mainstream analytic projects.
Sabita Singh
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199491452
- eISBN:
- 9780199098293
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199491452.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book challenges monolithic cultural constructs and valorization of indigenous society. Marriage being a social act reveals a lot about society and its attitudes. A wide timeframe has been taken ...
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This book challenges monolithic cultural constructs and valorization of indigenous society. Marriage being a social act reveals a lot about society and its attitudes. A wide timeframe has been taken as social and cultural history defy a temporal straitjacket. The study of social and cultural history has been related to the political structure. Hence, the process of State formations and the emergence of Rajputs as a ruling clan have been studied. Matrimonial alliances played a crucial role in the formation of medieval polity and society. In the initial stages of State formation, there was an openness and accommodation but as state power increased, rulers tried to project themselves as protectors of normative order and inter-caste marriages disappeared whereas interreligious marriages continued to flourish. Marriage rituals, customs, and practices to a large extent reflected the clan nature of Rajput polity as well as their attempt to legitimize their authority by following Dharmshastric rituals. There were innovations in marriage rituals in order to deal with the exigencies of time. Sati and widowhood—two very visible forms of women oppression have been examined. Frequent deaths on the battlefield led to increasing numbers of widows. Though the ruling aristocracy encouraged the practice of Sati, the woman cannot be seen as passive victims of oppressive ideology. Women who committed Sati do not approximate to Pativratta nor were they marginalized entities. A great degree of pluralism is seen in marital morality and it is obvious that this wasn’t influenced by Dharamshastric injunctions. In the early stages of state formation one can observe moral elasticity. Although the caste and village panchayats played a role in regulating marital mores in the beginning, the State gradually emerged as the ultimate authority in regulating social life.Less
This book challenges monolithic cultural constructs and valorization of indigenous society. Marriage being a social act reveals a lot about society and its attitudes. A wide timeframe has been taken as social and cultural history defy a temporal straitjacket. The study of social and cultural history has been related to the political structure. Hence, the process of State formations and the emergence of Rajputs as a ruling clan have been studied. Matrimonial alliances played a crucial role in the formation of medieval polity and society. In the initial stages of State formation, there was an openness and accommodation but as state power increased, rulers tried to project themselves as protectors of normative order and inter-caste marriages disappeared whereas interreligious marriages continued to flourish. Marriage rituals, customs, and practices to a large extent reflected the clan nature of Rajput polity as well as their attempt to legitimize their authority by following Dharmshastric rituals. There were innovations in marriage rituals in order to deal with the exigencies of time. Sati and widowhood—two very visible forms of women oppression have been examined. Frequent deaths on the battlefield led to increasing numbers of widows. Though the ruling aristocracy encouraged the practice of Sati, the woman cannot be seen as passive victims of oppressive ideology. Women who committed Sati do not approximate to Pativratta nor were they marginalized entities. A great degree of pluralism is seen in marital morality and it is obvious that this wasn’t influenced by Dharamshastric injunctions. In the early stages of state formation one can observe moral elasticity. Although the caste and village panchayats played a role in regulating marital mores in the beginning, the State gradually emerged as the ultimate authority in regulating social life.
Sophie Gilmartin and Rod Mengham
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748632657
- eISBN:
- 9780748651641
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748632657.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter examines A Group of Noble Dames, a collection of stories that mostly feature cross-class relationships or marriages. It shows several ‘noble dames’ who marry men from lower classes, as ...
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This chapter examines A Group of Noble Dames, a collection of stories that mostly feature cross-class relationships or marriages. It shows several ‘noble dames’ who marry men from lower classes, as well as the complications that arise over whom they have married. This can serve as an introduction to some of the confusions and detailed circumstances that appear to exercise every change of adultery, marriage, and widowhood. The chapter presents the different phases of womanhood and the performative language of the marriage vow. It notes Hardy's use of strained and complicated events that put pressure on the marriage contract, pushing it to the point of breakage or exhaustion. The chapter also considers illegitimacy, secrets of women, and how pain in these stories is expressed through dialogue.Less
This chapter examines A Group of Noble Dames, a collection of stories that mostly feature cross-class relationships or marriages. It shows several ‘noble dames’ who marry men from lower classes, as well as the complications that arise over whom they have married. This can serve as an introduction to some of the confusions and detailed circumstances that appear to exercise every change of adultery, marriage, and widowhood. The chapter presents the different phases of womanhood and the performative language of the marriage vow. It notes Hardy's use of strained and complicated events that put pressure on the marriage contract, pushing it to the point of breakage or exhaustion. The chapter also considers illegitimacy, secrets of women, and how pain in these stories is expressed through dialogue.
Kenda Mutongi
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226554198
- eISBN:
- 9780226554228
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226554228.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, the author of this book encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her ...
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Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, the author of this book encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including her widowed mother, praised their former British masters. This book explores how both the challenges and contradictions of colonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shaped the lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with each other, their families, and the larger community. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, rates of widowhood have been remarkably high in Kenya. Yet despite their numbers, widows and their families exist at the margins of society, and their lives act as a barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya. The book here argues that widows survive by publicly airing their social, economic, and political problems, their “worries of the heart.” Initially aimed at the men in their community, and then their colonial rulers, this strategy changed after independence as widows increasingly invoked the language of citizenship to demand their rights from the new leaders of Kenya—leaders whose failure to meet the needs of ordinary citizens has led to deep disenchantment and altered Kenyans' view of their colonial past.Less
Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, the author of this book encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including her widowed mother, praised their former British masters. This book explores how both the challenges and contradictions of colonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shaped the lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with each other, their families, and the larger community. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, rates of widowhood have been remarkably high in Kenya. Yet despite their numbers, widows and their families exist at the margins of society, and their lives act as a barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya. The book here argues that widows survive by publicly airing their social, economic, and political problems, their “worries of the heart.” Initially aimed at the men in their community, and then their colonial rulers, this strategy changed after independence as widows increasingly invoked the language of citizenship to demand their rights from the new leaders of Kenya—leaders whose failure to meet the needs of ordinary citizens has led to deep disenchantment and altered Kenyans' view of their colonial past.
Nadine Akkerman
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780199668304
- eISBN:
- 9780191925580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199668304.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Frederick V’s unexpected death was accompanied by fear that Elizabeth’s grief would overcome her, and that the Palatinate would never be recovered from the Swedes. Charles I sent for her, but she ...
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Frederick V’s unexpected death was accompanied by fear that Elizabeth’s grief would overcome her, and that the Palatinate would never be recovered from the Swedes. Charles I sent for her, but she refused the invitation, citing familial obligations. Now a widow, Elizabeth needed to fight for her children to save the Palatinate alone, and asserted her position through art and diplomacy, but she had a rival – Amalia von Solms, once her lady-in-waiting, now Princess of Orange. The two courts struggled for dominance. Elizabeth created a cult of widowhood, dressing in black for the rest of her life, and from this moment would fight her battles via her secretaries, also absorbing Frederick's secretariat into her own, doubling its size. The Swedes demanded 6,000 Imperial dollars for her dower Frankenthal as compensation for war expenses. Sir Francis Nethersole, her secretary for foreign affairs, attempted to raise a voluntary contribution in England for this purpose. Charles, troubled that this contribution was not kept more low-key and afraid public knowledge would put pressure upon him to recall parliament, attacked Nethersole. Nethersole was first pardoned, but thereafter incarcerated when Elizabeth again tried to raise money to buy back the Palatinate in order to avoid embracing the French protection. She was forced to dismiss Nethersole to obtain his release. Her supporters such as Sir Thomas Roe felt threatened and her other secretaries became pariahs at the Stuart court. By incapacitating her secretaries, Charles drew the sting from her party's implicit challenge to his authority.Less
Frederick V’s unexpected death was accompanied by fear that Elizabeth’s grief would overcome her, and that the Palatinate would never be recovered from the Swedes. Charles I sent for her, but she refused the invitation, citing familial obligations. Now a widow, Elizabeth needed to fight for her children to save the Palatinate alone, and asserted her position through art and diplomacy, but she had a rival – Amalia von Solms, once her lady-in-waiting, now Princess of Orange. The two courts struggled for dominance. Elizabeth created a cult of widowhood, dressing in black for the rest of her life, and from this moment would fight her battles via her secretaries, also absorbing Frederick's secretariat into her own, doubling its size. The Swedes demanded 6,000 Imperial dollars for her dower Frankenthal as compensation for war expenses. Sir Francis Nethersole, her secretary for foreign affairs, attempted to raise a voluntary contribution in England for this purpose. Charles, troubled that this contribution was not kept more low-key and afraid public knowledge would put pressure upon him to recall parliament, attacked Nethersole. Nethersole was first pardoned, but thereafter incarcerated when Elizabeth again tried to raise money to buy back the Palatinate in order to avoid embracing the French protection. She was forced to dismiss Nethersole to obtain his release. Her supporters such as Sir Thomas Roe felt threatened and her other secretaries became pariahs at the Stuart court. By incapacitating her secretaries, Charles drew the sting from her party's implicit challenge to his authority.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226554198
- eISBN:
- 9780226554228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226554228.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
The Maragoli community in Kenya is the setting of this book. The first part of this book concentrates on the general social, economic, and political changes brought about in Maragoli as the ...
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The Maragoli community in Kenya is the setting of this book. The first part of this book concentrates on the general social, economic, and political changes brought about in Maragoli as the missionaries and colonialists interacted with Maragoli men and women (and particularly widows). The second part takes on the topic of widowhood in greater detail by describing the ways in which widows and their families interacted with each other, the members of their communities, the missionaries, and the colonialists. It specifically explores a strategy called kehenda mwoyo, or “worries of the heart,” used by widows to get help from male members of their families and communities. The last part focuses on the years immediately after Kenya gained independence and investigates the ways in which widows increasingly turned to a new language of citizenship to demand their rights.Less
The Maragoli community in Kenya is the setting of this book. The first part of this book concentrates on the general social, economic, and political changes brought about in Maragoli as the missionaries and colonialists interacted with Maragoli men and women (and particularly widows). The second part takes on the topic of widowhood in greater detail by describing the ways in which widows and their families interacted with each other, the members of their communities, the missionaries, and the colonialists. It specifically explores a strategy called kehenda mwoyo, or “worries of the heart,” used by widows to get help from male members of their families and communities. The last part focuses on the years immediately after Kenya gained independence and investigates the ways in which widows increasingly turned to a new language of citizenship to demand their rights.
J. Sears McGee
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804785464
- eISBN:
- 9780804794282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785464.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter tracks D’Ewes’s work as an MP from the early months of the Long Parliament when hope remained high for a settlement with the king until the summer of 1642 when it had become obvious that ...
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This chapter tracks D’Ewes’s work as an MP from the early months of the Long Parliament when hope remained high for a settlement with the king until the summer of 1642 when it had become obvious that civil war might be around the corner. D’Ewes suffered a devastating loss when in July 1641 his wife Anne died of smallpox, and his letters displayed the depth of his grief powerfully. Fully aware of the nearness of civil war because of, in his view, the extremism in London and in the king’s headquarters in Oxford, he sought in his speeches to keep the door to compromise open. But those he called “the fiery spirits” prevailed, and his enemies in the Commons subjected him to a painful humiliation on July 23, 1642 that led to his (temporary) withdrawal from political activity.Less
This chapter tracks D’Ewes’s work as an MP from the early months of the Long Parliament when hope remained high for a settlement with the king until the summer of 1642 when it had become obvious that civil war might be around the corner. D’Ewes suffered a devastating loss when in July 1641 his wife Anne died of smallpox, and his letters displayed the depth of his grief powerfully. Fully aware of the nearness of civil war because of, in his view, the extremism in London and in the king’s headquarters in Oxford, he sought in his speeches to keep the door to compromise open. But those he called “the fiery spirits” prevailed, and his enemies in the Commons subjected him to a painful humiliation on July 23, 1642 that led to his (temporary) withdrawal from political activity.
Kim Todt
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479874545
- eISBN:
- 9781479876419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479874545.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
The Dutch colony of New Netherlands differed in significant manners from the English colonies in North America. In New Netherlands, women had significant culture entitlements and legal rights and ...
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The Dutch colony of New Netherlands differed in significant manners from the English colonies in North America. In New Netherlands, women had significant culture entitlements and legal rights and privileges from girlhood, through marriage, and into widowhood. As Kim Todt describes, these rights empowered women to act independently allowing women to contribute both to the colony’s economy and to their families.Less
The Dutch colony of New Netherlands differed in significant manners from the English colonies in North America. In New Netherlands, women had significant culture entitlements and legal rights and privileges from girlhood, through marriage, and into widowhood. As Kim Todt describes, these rights empowered women to act independently allowing women to contribute both to the colony’s economy and to their families.
Teresa S. Moyer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813060460
- eISBN:
- 9780813050720
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060460.003.0005
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Chapter 5 discusses Margaret Carroll’s life in widowhood. Government documents of postcolonial Maryland, in particular, tracked the enslaved population’s family relationships, life cycles, skill ...
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Chapter 5 discusses Margaret Carroll’s life in widowhood. Government documents of postcolonial Maryland, in particular, tracked the enslaved population’s family relationships, life cycles, skill expertise, and other identifying characteristics of one of the largest enslaved populations in Baltimore County. As a result, details emerged from the post-Revolutionary era at Mount Clare between 1783 and 1817 about the enslaved population within the contexts of white widowhood and Baltimorean trends in African American life. This chapter examines generations of enslaved people living at Mount Clare and the influences facing Margaret as she considered freeing them.Less
Chapter 5 discusses Margaret Carroll’s life in widowhood. Government documents of postcolonial Maryland, in particular, tracked the enslaved population’s family relationships, life cycles, skill expertise, and other identifying characteristics of one of the largest enslaved populations in Baltimore County. As a result, details emerged from the post-Revolutionary era at Mount Clare between 1783 and 1817 about the enslaved population within the contexts of white widowhood and Baltimorean trends in African American life. This chapter examines generations of enslaved people living at Mount Clare and the influences facing Margaret as she considered freeing them.
