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Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society (Paperback)
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Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society (Paperback)
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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.
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