Download or read book Byzantine Gender written by Leonora Neville and published by Past Imperfect. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively and personal book explains some key aspects of howpeople of the Byzantine Empire perceived gender, enabling readers to understandByzantine society and its fascinating otherness more fully.
Download or read book Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society written by Lynda Garland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gender was a key social indicator in Byzantine society, as in many others. While studies of gender in the western medieval period have appeared regularly in the past decade, similar studies of Byzantium have lagged behind. Masculine and feminine roles were not always as clearly defined as in the West, while eunuchs made up a 'third gender' in the imperial court. Social status indicators were also in a state of flux, as much linked to patronage networks as to wealth, as the Empire came under a series of external and internal pressures. This fluidity applied equally in ecclesiastical and secular spheres. The present collection of essays uncovers gender roles in the imperial family, in monastic institutions of both genders, in the Orthodox church, and in the nascent cult of Mary in the east. It puts the spotlight on flashpoints over a millennium of Byzantine rule, from Constantine the Great to Irene and the Palaiologoi, and covers a wide geographical range, from Byzantine Italy to Syria. The introduction frames the following nine chapters against recent scholarship and considers methodological issues in the study of gender and Byzantine society. Together these essays portray a surprising range of male and female experience in various Byzantine social institutions - whether religious, military, or imperial -- over the course of more than a millennium. The collection offers a provocative contrast to recent studies based on western medieval scholarship. Common themes that bind the collection into a coherent whole include specifically Byzantine expectations of gender among the social elite; the fluidity of social and sexual identities for Byzantine men and women within the church; and the specific challenges that strong individuals posed to the traditional limitations of gender within a hierarchical society dominated by Christian orthodoxy.
Download or read book Byzantine Women written by Lynda Garland and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a group of international scholars in new explorations of the world of Byzantine women in the period 800-1200. The specific aim of this collection is to investigate the participation of women - non-imperial women in particular - in supposedly 'masculine' fields of operation. Contributions focus on women's participation in the street life of Constantinople, their appearance in Byzantine fiscal documents, their monastic foundations, their costume and engagement with entertainment at the imperial court, and the way heroines are portrayed in the Byzantine novels.
Download or read book Byzantine Intersectionality written by Roland Betancourt and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Intersectionality, a term coined in 1989, is rapidly increasing in importance within the academy, as well as in broader civic conversations. It describes the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities such as race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and sexual orientation alongside related systems of oppression, domination, and discrimination. Together, these frameworks are used to understand how systematic injustice or social inequality occurs. In this book, Roland Betancourt examines the presence of marginalized identities and intersectionality in the medieval era. He reveals the fascinating, little-examined conversations in medieval thought and visual culture around matters of sexual and reproductive consent, bullying, non-monogamous marriages, homosocial and homoerotic relationships, trans and non-binary gender identifications, representations of disability, and the oppression of minorities. In contrast to contemporary expectations of the medieval world, this book looks at these problems from the Byzantine Empire and its neighbors in the eastern mediterranean through sources ranging from late antiquity and early Christianity up to the early modern period. In each of five chapters, Betancourt provides short, carefully scaled narratives used to illuminate nuanced and surprising takes on now-familiar subjects by medieval thinkers and artists. For example, Betancourt examines depictions of sexual consent in images of the Virgin; the origins of sexual shaming and bullying in the story of Empress Theodora; early beginnings of trans history as told in the lives of saints who lived portions of their lives within different genders; and the ways in which medieval authors understood and depicted disabilities. Deeply researched, this is a groundbreaking new look at medieval culture for a new generation of scholars"--
Download or read book The Perfect Servant written by Kathryn M. Ringrose and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Perfect Servant reevaluates the place of eunuchs in Byzantium. Kathryn Ringrose uses the modern concept of gender as a social construct to identify eunuchs as a distinct gender and to illustrate how gender was defined in the Byzantine world. At the same time she explores the changing role of the eunuch in Byzantium from 600 to 1100. Accepted for generations as a legitimate and functional part of Byzantine civilization, eunuchs were prominent in both the imperial court and the church. They were distinctive in physical appearance, dress, and manner and were considered uniquely suited for important roles in Byzantine life. Transcending conventional notions of male and female, eunuchs lived outside of normal patterns of procreation and inheritance and were assigned a unique capacity for mediating across social and spiritual boundaries. This allowed them to perform tasks from which prominent men and women were constrained, making them, in essence, perfect servants. Written with precision and meticulously researched, The Perfect Servant will immediately take its place as a major study on Byzantium and the history of gender.
Download or read book Women Men and Eunuchs written by Elizabeth James and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collected papers in this volume present a unique introduction both to the history of women, of men and eunuchs, or the third sex, in Byzantium and to the various theoretical and methodological approaches through which the topic can be examined. The contributors use evidence from both texts and images to give a wide-ranging picture of the place of women and Byzantine society and the perceptions of women held by that society. Women, Men and Eunuchs offers a unique and valuable exploration of the issue of gender in Byzantium, which will fascinate anyone interested in ancient and medieval history and gender studies.
Download or read book Unrivalled Influence written by Judith Herrin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, this title focuses on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters.
Download or read book Secular Byzantine Women written by Sophia Germanidou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-14 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secular Byzantine Women examines female material culture during the Late Roman, Byzantine, and Post-Byzantine eras, to better understand the lives of ordinary and humble women during this period. Although recent scholarship has contributed greatly to our knowledge of Byzantine and medieval women, such research has largely focused on female saints, imperial figures, and prominent women of local communities. But what about secular and non-privileged women? Bringing together scholars from various fields, including archaeology, history, theology, anthropology, and ethnography, this volume seeks to answer this important question. The chapters examine the everyday lives of lay women, including their working routines, their clothing, and precious possessions. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Byzantine history, art, and archaeology, as well as those interested in gender and material culture studies.
Download or read book Greek Epigram and Byzantine Culture written by Steven D. Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting analysis of gender and sexual desire in sixth century Greek epigram that bridges classical and early Byzantine culture.
Download or read book Women in Purple written by Judith Herrin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-25 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the eighth and ninth centuries, three Byzantine empresses—Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora—changed history. Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come. In this exhilarating and highly entertaining account, one of the foremost historians of the medieval period tells the story of how these fascinating women exercised imperial sovereignty with consummate skill and sometimes ruthless tactics. Though they gained access to the all-pervasive authority of the Byzantine ruling dynasty through marriage, all three continued to wear the imperial purple and wield tremendous power as widows. From Constantinople, their own Queen City, the empresses undermined competitors and governed like men. They conducted diplomacy across the known world, negotiating with the likes of Charlemagne, Roman popes, and the great Arab caliph Harun al Rashid. Vehemently rejecting the ban on holy images instituted by their male relatives, Irene and Theodora used craft and power to reverse the official iconoclasm and restore icons to their place of adoration in the Eastern Church. In so doing, they profoundly altered the course of history. The art—and not only the art—of Byzantium, of Islam, and of the West would have been very different without them. As Judith Herrin traces the surviving evidence, she evokes the complex and deeply religious world of Constantinople in the aftermath of Arab conquest. She brings to life its monuments and palaces, its court ceremonies and rituals, the role of eunuchs (the "third sex"), bride shows, and the influence of warring monks and patriarchs. Based on new research and written for a general audience, Women in Purple reshapes our understanding of an empire that lasted a thousand years and splashes fresh light on the relationship of women to power.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium written by Mati Meyer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-23 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook is the first to consider the interrelated subjects of gender and sexuality in the Eastern Roman Empire from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on both modern theories and Byzantine perceptions, and considering multiple periods and religions (Eastern Orthodox, Islamic, and Jewish), it provides evidentiary textual and visual material support for an analysis of the two linked themes. Broadly, the essays demonstrate that gender and sexual constructs in Byzantium were porous. As a result, they expand our knowledge of not only how sex and gender were conceived and performed but also how ideas and practices shaped Byzantine life. The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium will be an indispensable guide for students and scholars of late antique and Byzantine religion, history, culture, and art, who will find it a useful critical survey of current scholarship and one that shines new light in their areas of research. The focus on issues of gender and sexuality may also be of interest to individuals concerned with Eastern Mediterranean culture, as well as to the broader public. Chapter 21 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Download or read book Emotions and Gender in Byzantine Culture written by Stavroula Constantinou and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the gendered dimensions of emotions and the emotional aspects of gender within Byzantine culture and suggests possible readings of such instances. In so doing, the volume celebrates the current breadth of Byzantine gender studies while at the same time contributing to the emerging field of Byzantine emotion studies. It offers the reader an array of perspectives encompassing various sources and media, including historiography, hagiography, theological writings, epistolography, erotic literature, art objects, and illuminated manuscripts. The ten chapters cover a time span ranging from the early to the late Byzantine periods. This diversity is secured by an expanded and enriched exploration of the collection’s unifying theme of gendered emotions. The scope and breadth of the chapters also reflect the ways in which Byzantine gender and emotion have been studied thus far, while at the same time offering novel approaches that challenge established opinions in Byzantine studies.
Download or read book Gender Society and Economic Life in Byzantium written by Angeliki E. Laiou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1992 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The studies in this volume reflect the author's interest in history as it was lived: not only the social and economic structures, but the men and women, collectively and individually, who made them function. The role of women in Byzantine economy and society is found to be much more important than had been believed; their participation in trade and manufacturing is established, as is the role of aristocratic women in the economic affairs of the household; the question of female literacy is also discussed. Two studies on the Byzantine family, based in large part on the legal sources, examine the formation of matrimonial ties as well as the practice of divorce and concubinage in the 13th century. The second part of the volume is focused on the economy of exchange in Byzantium between 1204 and the fall of the Empire. Byzantine trade and manufacturing are placed in the context of the economic developments of the eastern Mediterranean, with the conclusion that, whereas the activities of Byzantine and Greek merchants were much more considerable than scholars had thought, they were subordinated to the needs of the Italian-dominated trade system, while Byzantine manufacturing declined. Les etudes assemblées dans ce volume reflètent l'intérÃat de leur auteur pour l'histoire telle qu'elle était vécue; non seulement en ce qui concerne les structures sociales et économiques, mais aussi les hommes et les femmes, collectivement et individuellement, qui permettaient à celles-ci de fonctionner. Le rà ́le des femmes dans la société et l'économie byzantine se révèle comme ayant beaucoup plus d'importance qu'on ne le pensait auparavant; leur participation au commerce et à l'industrie est un fait établi, tout comme l'est le rà ́le des femmes aristocrates dans les affaires économiques du foyer. Le thème de l'alphabétisation des femmes est aussi souevé. Deux études sur la famille byzantine, se basant en grande partie sur des sources légales, exa
Download or read book Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025 1204 written by Barbara Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will be essential reading for anyone studying Byzantine history in this period. It ranges in time from the death of the emperor Basil II in 1025 to the sacking of the city of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusaders in 1204, spanning the rise and fall of the successful Komnenos dynasty. Eleventh-century Byzantine history is unusual in that imperial women were able to wield immense power and in this ground-breaking book Dr Hill explores why this was possible and, equally, why they lost their position of influence a century later.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook on Identity in Byzantium written by Michael Edward Stewart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first to focus solely on how specific individuals and groups in Byzantium and its borderlands were defined and distinguished from other individuals and groups from the mid-fourth to the close of the fifteenth century. It gathers chapters from both established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines across history, art, archaeology, and religion to provide an accurate representation of the state of the field both now and in its immediate future. The handbook is divided into four subtopics that examine concepts of group and specific individual identity which have been chosen to provide methodologically sophisticated and multidisciplinary perspectives on specific categories of group and individual identity. The topics are Imperial Identities; Romanitas in the Late Antique Mediterranean; Macro and Micro Identities: Religious, Regional, and Ethnic Identities, and Internal Others; and Gendered Identities: Literature, Memory, and Self in Early and Middle Byzantium. While no single volume could ever provide a comprehensive vision of identities on the vast variety of peoples within Byzantium over nearly a millennium of its history, this handbook represents a milestone in offering a survey of the vibrant surge of scholarship examining the numerous and oft-times fluctuating codes of identity that shaped and transformed Byzantium and its neighbours during the empire’s long life.
Download or read book Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025 1204 written by Barbara Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will be essential reading for anyone studying Byzantine history in this period. It ranges in time from the death of the emperor Basil II in 1025 to the sacking of the city of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusaders in 1204, spanning the rise and fall of the successful Komnenos dynasty. Eleventh-century Byzantine history is unusual in that imperial women were able to wield immense power and in this ground-breaking book Dr Hill explores why this was possible and, equally, why they lost their position of influence a century later.
Download or read book Coming of Age in Byzantium written by Despoina Ariantzi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-12-18 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The various phases of life and their manifestations in theory and social reality constitute a well-established area of research in the fields of western medieval studies and ancient history. In this respect the Byzantine East has been widely neglected. This volume will focus on the Byzantine experience of adolescence, which may be defined as the biological transition from childhood to adulthood as well as the social and psychological experience of leaving the care of parents, guardians and family groups and the gradual integration into adult society. The contributions gathered therein treat seven subtopics that correspond to crucial questions in the current research on adolescence: the legal status of adolescents; the mechanisms of transition from childhood to adolescence; the socialisation and gradual integration into adult society; adolescents in Byzantine art; psychological aspects of adolescence from medieval to modern times; illnesses of adolescents; adolescents in the western medieval world.The focus is on the Middle and Late Byzantine Period, where historical, hagiographical,legal and medical sources offer rich material for an investigation of these aspects. The book contributes to a better understanding of all these questions and to show future trajectories for research.
