article

Gender pragmatics: agency, speech, and bride-theft in a Cretan mountain village

Anthropology9 (1)Published In 1985 • Pages: 25-44

By: Herzfeld, Michael.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Herzfeld examines the grammar of gender in narratives of bride-abduction in highland Crete. Bride abduction occurs in situations when the male suitor's original request for marriage is rebuffed. The successful abduction shows off the suitors cunning and forces the hand of the bride-to-be's father. In the narratives, the suitor does not express romantic love (EROTEVOME) as the reason for his action, but the love (AGHAPI), or mutual affection expressed between affines. Herzfeld argues that bride abduction has the same objective as an animal-theft in securing an alliance and friendship between agnatic groups through an initial hostile act that commands respect.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Gender status
Mode of marriage
Arranging a marriage
Sex and marital offenses
Property offenses
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Greeks
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2003
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Europe
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southeastern Europe
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ; 2002
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1974-1984
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
'Glendi', Crete, Greece
NotesAdditional notes
Michael Herzfeld
Includes bibliographical references (p. 44)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
78645681
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Greece