Gender and Status Competition in Pre-modern Societies (Studies in the History of Daily Life 800-1600, 10)

Description

This innovative volume of cultural history offers a unique exploration of how gender and status competition have intersected across different periods and places. The contributions collected here focus on the role of women and the practice of masculinity in settings as varied as ancient Rome, China, Iran, and Arabia, medieval and early modern England, and early modern Italy, France, and Scandinavia, as well as exploring issues that affected people of all social rank, from raillery and pranks to shaming, male boasting about sexual conquests, court rituals, violence, and the use and display of wealth. Particular attention is paid to the performance of such issues, with chapters examining status and gender through cultural practices, especially specific (re)presentations of women. These include Roman priestesses, early Christian virgin martyrs, flirtation in seventh-century Arabia, and the attempt by an early modern French woman to take her place among the immortals. Together this wide-ranging and fascinating array of studies from renowned scholars offers new insights into how and why different cultures responded to the drive for status, and the complications of gender within that drive. Table of Contents List of Illustrations Introduction Acknowledgements Martha Bayless, Jonas Liliequist, and Lewis Webb Part I: Practices Practices: Introduction Marta Ameri Jonas Liliequist Women, Seals, and Power in Prehistoric Iran and Central Asia Exaequatio and aemulatio Regulation of Elite Female Status Competition in Mid-Republican Rome Lewis Webb Manly Virtues, Emotions, and Scars Competition among Italian Renaissance Soldiers through Bodily Practices Giulia Morosini Shame and Boastfulness in Early Modern Italy Showing off Masculinity and Exposing Sexual Submission in Class and Age Competitions Umberto Grassi ‘I Am as Honest a Man as You’ Gender and Conflicts about Status and Honour in Early Modern Sweden Jonas Liliequist Practices — Reflections and Concluding Remarks Jonas Liliequist Part II: Performances Performances: Introduction Martha Bayless Jealousy, Gender, and a Moralist’s Mission in Early China Yiqun Zhou Early Medieval Board Games Issues of Power and Gender Martha Bayless The Social Circulation of Grief Status Competition, Mourning, and Gender in Seventeenth-Century China Martin W. Huang Just a Humble Petitioner of a Saint? Devotion as a Strategy for Prestige in Depositions of Fourteenth-Century Italian Canonization Processes Sari Katajala-Peltomaa Performances — Reflections and Concluding Remarks Martha Bayless Part III: (Re)presentations (Re)presentations: Introduction Lewis Webb Coniunx et sacerdos Livia as Widow and Priestess of Divus Augustus Lovisa Brännstedt Double Martyrdom, Double Crown Virgin Martyrs and Fourth-Century Ascetic Hierarchies Sissel Undheim A Competitive Fantasy Figure and his Female Conquests ʿUmar ibn Abi Rabīʿa Julia Bray Hélisenne de Crenne Challenging Male Mastery Translating Virgil’s Aeneid in the French Sixteenth Century* Britt-Marie Karlsson and Sara Moding (Re)presentations — Reflections and Concluding Remarks Lewis Webb Index of Subjects History of Daily Life (800–1600)