Gender, Kinship and Power: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary History

by Maynes,Mary Jo; Maynes,Mary Jo

• ISBN13: 9780415912983
• ISBN10: 0415912989
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1995-12-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Through twenty engaging essays exploring cultures ranging from ancient Judaic civilization to contemporary Brazil,Gender, Kinship and Powerplaces important contemporary issues related to kinship--such as parental responsibility and female-headed households--in their proper comparative and historical framework. In its introduction,Gender, Kinship and Poweroffers a broad survey of historical and anthropological studies of kinship. The ensuing essays illuminate a number of specific questions central to the study of kinship: how family relations and descent are understood in various cultural settings, how gender shapes kinship rules and practices, and how kinship positions held by men and women affect their power in other realms. Gender, Kinship and Poweris the product of an extensive international collaboration between historians and anthropologists. It will appeal to a broad base of readers at various levels concerned withissues of gender, kinship and power in the past, as well as those with an interest in how understandings of these issues affect the shaping of contemporary social policy. Contributors: Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, Gianna Pomata, Ann Waltner, Alexander Bolyanatz, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Lucia Ferrante, Shanti Menon, Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Barbara Hanawalt, Maura Palazzi, Eni de Mesquita Samara, Norbert Ortmayr, Mary Jo Maynes, Carmen Ramos Escandon, Parry Scott, Muriel Nazarri, Jean O'Brien, Kiran Cunningham and Bill Maurer.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Toward a Comparative History of Gender, Kinship and Power	p. 1
The Father, the Phallus, and the Seminal Word: Dilemmas of Patrilineality in Ancient Judaism	p. 27
Blood Ties and Semen Ties: Consanguinity and Agnation in Roman Law	p. 43
Kinship Between the Lines: The Patriline, the Concubine and the Adopted Son in Late Imperial China	p. 67
Musings on Matriliny: Understandings and Social Relations among the Sursurunga of New Ireland	p. 81
Family Trees and the Construction of Kinship in Renaissance Italy	p. 101
Marriage and Women's Subjectivity in a Patrilineal System: The Case of Early Modern Bologna	p. 115
Male Authority and Female Autonomy: A Study of the Matrilineal Nayars of Kerala, South India	p. 131
The Limits of Patriliny: Kinship, Gender and Women's Speech Practices in Rural North India	p. 149
Cooking Inside: Kinship and Gender in Bangangte Idioms of Marriage and Procreation	p. 177
Patriarchal Provisions for Widows and Orphans in Medieval London	p. 201
Work and Residence of "Women Alone" in the Context of a Patrilineal System (Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Northern Italy)	p. 215
Heading Households and Surviving in a Man's World: Brazilian Women in the Nineteenth Century	p. 233
Illegitimacy and Low-Wage Economy in Highland Austria and Jamaica	p. 245
Women and Kinship in Propertyless Classes in Western Europe in the Nineteenth Century	p. 261
The Social Construction of Wife and Mother: Women in Porfirian Mexico, 1880-1917	p. 275
Matrifocal Males: Gender, Perception and Experience of the Domestic Domain in Brazil	p. 287
The Waxing and Waning of Matrilineality in Sao Paulo, Brazil: Historical Variations in an Ambilineal System, 1500-1900	p. 305
Divorced from the Land: Accommodation Strategies of Indian Women in Eighteenth-Century New England	p. 319
Let's Go to My Place: Residence, Gender and Power in a Mende Community	p. 335
The Land, the Law and Legitimate Children: Thinking through Gender, Kinship and Nation in the British Virgin Islands	p. 351
Index	p. 365
Contributors	p. 373
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