Gender, Society, and Economic Life in Byzantium

Gender, Society, and Economic Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Angeliki E. Laiou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : de
Pages : 360

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Book Description
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

Gender, Society, and Economic Life in Byzantium

Gender, Society, and Economic Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Angeliki E. Laiou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : de
Pages : 360

Get Book

Book Description
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

Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society

Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society PDF Author: Lynda Garland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317072340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
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.

The Byzantine Economy

The Byzantine Economy PDF Author: Angeliki E. Laiou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139465759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This is a concise survey of the economy of the Byzantine Empire from the fourth century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Organised chronologically, the book addresses key themes such as demography, agriculture, manufacturing and the urban economy, trade, monetary developments, and the role of the state and ideology. It provides a comprehensive overview of the economy with an emphasis on the economic actions of the state and the productive role of the city and non-economic actors, such as landlords, artisans and money-changers. The final chapter compares the Byzantine economy with the economies of western Europe and concludes that the Byzantine economy was one of the most successful examples of a mixed economy in the pre-industrial world. This is the only concise general history of the Byzantine economy and will be essential reading for students of economic history, Byzantine history and medieval history more generally.

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium PDF Author: Mati Meyer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040043453
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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Book Description
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.

Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200-1430 (2 vols.)

Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200-1430 (2 vols.) PDF Author: Julian Baker
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900443464X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1839

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Book Description
In Coinage and Money Julian Baker offers a complete monetary history of medieval Greece, encompassing numismatic and documentary sources, and contributing to the general historiography.

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
After an introductory general essay on the life cycle and status of women in Byzantine society, this volume focuses on female religious life, with particular emphasis on the role of convents - as spiritual sanctuary, refuge for women in need, or provider of charitable services. Several essays compare Byzantine nunneries with male monasteries, pointing out the relatively small size and lack of intellectual and artistic activity in convents, and more rigorous rules of enclosure and stability. Such phenomena as double monasteries, the conversion of a monastery to a nunnery, and women's economic and spiritual ties with Mount Athos are also examined. Other articles investigate issues of female sanctity and sanctification, analyzing types of women saints, women during the era of iconoclasm, and the role of the family in promoting the cult of a holy woman. In addition there are studies on healing shrines in Constantinople in the middle Byzantine and Palaiologan periods, and the resurgence of hagiographical writing in the late Byzantine era, particularly the reworking of the vitae of older saints.

The Perfect Servant

The Perfect Servant PDF Author: Kathryn M. Ringrose
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226720160
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
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.

Social and Economic Life in Byzantium

Social and Economic Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Nicolas Oikonomides
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000946649
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Social and Economic Life in Byzantium is the third selection of papers by the late Nicolas Oikonomides to be published in the Variorum Collected Studies Series; a fourth, Society, Culture and Politics in Byzantium, will follow in 2005. The present volume is centred upon the period from the 9th to the 11th century, and a series of examinations into the society and economic activity of the Byzantine world. Other groups of studies investigate relations between state and church, monasteries in particular, aspects of the history of the Slavs in the Balkans, and topics in Byzantine epigraphy.

The Social History of Byzantium

The Social History of Byzantium PDF Author: John Haldon
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119344603
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
With original essays by leading scholars, this book explores the social history of the medieval eastern Roman Empire and offers illuminating new insights into our knowledge of Byzantine society. Provides interconnected essays of original scholarship relating to the social history of the Byzantine empire Offers groundbreaking theoretical and empirical research in the study of Byzantine society Includes helpful glossaries of sociological/theoretical terms and Byzantine/medieval terms

Women, Family and Society in Byzantium

Women, Family and Society in Byzantium PDF Author: Angeliki E. Laiou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781409432043
Category : Byzantine Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Angeliki Laiou (1941-2008), one of the leading Byzantinists of her generation, broke new ground in the study of the social and economic history of the Byzantine Empire. This is the first of three volumes to be published posthumously in the Variorum Collected Studies Series and brings together eight articles published between 1993 and 2009. The first five articles concern the status of women as evidenced through legal, narrative, hagiographical and archival sources, while the final three investigate conceptions of law and justice, the vocabulary and typology of peasant rebellions, and the form of political agreements in Byzantine society.