essay

Cosmos and gender in village Greece

contested identities : gender and kinship in modern greecePrinceton, N.J. • Published In 1991 • Pages: 47-78

By: Du Boulay, Juliet.

Abstract
This study attempts to address a few of the cosmological issues involved in ideas of gender as held in the Greek village of Amboli at the time of the author's fieldwork. These issues are: 'how far Greek villagers conceive God and Christ in gender terms; whether they conceive the natural world (insofar as it is separable from God) in such terms; and what relation can be discerned between the divine and natural attributes revealed in the answer to the first two questions, and the construction of gender in social life' (p. 47). The final section of this work deals with death and particularly with mourning. The author suggests that mourning not only serves as a means of reconstructing the cosmic order and reaffirming its authority but also accomplishes this through images of gender which associate women, the flesh, and pollution in opposition to that order.
Subjects
Gender status
Burial practices and funerals
Mourning
General character of religion
Spirits and gods
Theological systems
Purification and atonement
Ritual
Gender roles and issues
culture
Greeks
HRAF PubDate
2003
Region
Europe
Sub Region
Southeastern Europe
Document Type
essay
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle ; 2002
Field Date
1966-1968, 1970-1973, 1980
Coverage Date
1966-1980
Coverage Place
village of Amboli, North Euboea, Greece
Notes
Juliet Du Boulay
For bibliographical references see source 83: [Loizos and Papataxiarchis]
LCCN
90047780
LCSH
Greece