The Shackles of Modernity: Women, Property, and the Transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Greek State (1750-1850)

by Doxiadis, Evdoxios

• ISBN13: 9780674055933
• ISBN10: 0674055934
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-13
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

This book explores the relationship between women and property in the Greek lands and their broader social position in the century that culminated with the establishment of the national Greek state (17501850). Doxiadis focuses on the status and rights of Greek women in the later Ottoman period, the decade-long Greek War of Independence, and the first decades of the Greek state, seeking to reveal the impact that the pursuit of modernization by the early Greek governments had on women. Through the systematic examination of numerous legal documents in notarial archives from four distinct regions (Naxos, Mykonos, Athens, and Leonidio), the position of women in Greek societies of the period is illuminated in all its complexity and regional diversity. Special emphasis is placed on womenrs"s ability in some areas to defend their property rights and be active economic agents. Although the Greek revolutionaries and the Greek state did not curtail the rights of women with respect to property, the very institutions that were fundamental in the creation of the Greek state transformed the established relationship between women and property. Doxiadis shows that modernization proved to be an oppressive force for Greek women-though in a much more clandestine fashion than perhaps expected in other European states.

Author Biography

Evdoxios Doxiadis is Lecturer at the International Center for Hellenic and Mediterranean Studies, Athens.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. Xii
Introduction	p. xii
Women's Lives and Wealth in Perspective	p. l
Dowry, The Linchpin of a Woman's Wealth	p. 35
The Role of Wills, Donations, and inheritance	p. 79
Women in the Economy	p. 135
Encounters with the Law	p. 179
Conclusion: The Impact of Modernity	p. 253
Appendices	p. 261
Tables	p. 261
Glossary	p. 293
Bibliography	p. 303
Index	p. 327
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