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In Widows and Patriarchy Thomas McGinn explores the implications of
an analytical understanding of patriarchy. He takes up Moses
Finley's argument that ancient society was structured by a
'spectrum of statuses' and applies this insight to the position of
women, primarily that of widows, in three historical periods:
classical antiquity, late medieval and early modern Europe,
specifically England and Germany, and the nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century West. Widows are potentially of great
significance, for they comprise in all these cultures a problematic
category of adult women who are notionally independent of males.
Their status and role become a focus for concern about gender
relations, as though the widow was a sort of 'woman-plus'. A
particular source of anxiety about widows is the fact that they are
sexually experienced, though - ideally - not sexually active.The
book examines rights at private law, economic privilege and its
absence, freedom of movement in general, including the question of
bodily integrity and fear of physical interference, and, the
entitlement to decide whether and whom to remarry. Two principal
types emerge from representations of widows across cultures, the
merry and the mourning. Since antiquity, widows have been a byword
for the weak and oppressed. Do the facts as recovered sustain this
image or not? What does the answer to this question tell us about
where widows rank in relation to other women in any given society?
This casebook presents representative texts from Roman legal sources that introduce the basic problems arising in Roman families, including marriage and divorce, the pattern of authority within households, the transmission of property between generations, and the supervision of orphans.
This is a study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female
prostitution at Rome approximately from 200 B.C. to A.D. 250. It
examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms
developed for prostitution and those engaged in this profession,
with close attention to their social context. McGinn's unique study
explores the "fit" between the law-system and the socio-economic
reality while shedding light on important questions concerning
marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery,
and citizen status, particularly that of women.
This casebook presents representative texts from Roman legal sources that introduce the basic problems arising in Roman families, including marriage and divorce, the pattern of authority within households, the transmission of property between generations, and the supervision of orphans.
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