essay
Open body/closed space: the transformation of female sexuality
Defining females : the nature of women in society • New York • Published In 1978 • Pages: 66-88
By: Hirschon, Renee.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this paper, Hirschon examines beliefs regarding the physical and symbolic attributes of women, which she argues together influence women's conduct and status. According to Hirschon, Greeks believe that women can control their sexual urges whereas men cannot and that sexuality should only be expressed heterosexually. Women's sexuality threatens family honor and social order. The control of a woman's sexuality is therefore a moral imperative, which is achieved through marriage and domestic life, with its imposed restrictions on women's movement, time, and speech. Sex is sanctified through children and women are redeemed through childbirth. The symbolic order contains the duality of auspicious 'open' and inauspicious 'closed' states. Openness for women only comes with marriage, domesticity, and childbearing; activities for which women depend on men.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Division of labor by gender
- Gender status
- Household
- Cosmology
- 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
- essay
- 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
- 1969-1972
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1970s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nea Ephesos, Piraeus, Greece
- NotesAdditional notes
- René Hirschon
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 88)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 78016867
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Greece