Gender and Status Competition in Pre-modern Societies (Studies in the History of Daily Life 800-1600, 10)

This innovative volume of cultural history offers a unique exploration of how gender and status competition have intersected across different periods and places. The contributions collected here focus on the role of women and the practice of masculinity in settings as varied as ancient Rome, China, Iran, and Arabia, medieval and early modern England, and early modern Italy, France, and Scandinavia, as well as exploring issues that affected people of all social rank, from raillery and pranks to shaming, male boasting about sexual conquests, court rituals, violence, and the use and display of wealth. Particular attention is paid to the performance of such issues, with chapters examining status and gender through cultural practices, especially specific (re)presentations of women. These include Roman priestesses, early Christian virgin martyrs, flirtation in seventh-century Arabia, and the attempt by an early modern French woman to take her place among the immortals. Together this wide-ranging and fascinating array of studies from renowned scholars offers new insights into how and why different cultures responded to the drive for status, and the complications of gender within that drive. Table of Contents 5 List of Illustrations 7 Introduction 9 Acknowledgements 8 Martha Bayless, Jonas Liliequist, and Lewis Webb 9 Part I: Practices 15 Practices: Introduction 17 Marta Ameri 19 Jonas Liliequist 17 Women, Seals, and Power in Prehistoric Iran and Central Asia 19 Exaequatio and aemulatio 43 Regulation of Elite Female Status Competition in Mid-Republican Rome 43 Lewis Webb 43 Manly Virtues, Emotions, and Scars 79 Competition among Italian Renaissance Soldiers through Bodily Practices 79 Giulia Morosini 79 Shame and Boastfulness in Early Modern Italy 109 Showing off Masculinity and Exposing Sexual Submission in Class and Age Competitions 109 Umberto Grassi 109 ‘I Am as Honest a Man as You’ 125 Gender and Conflicts about Status and Honour in Early Modern Sweden 125 Jonas Liliequist 125 Practices — Reflections and Concluding Remarks 159 Jonas Liliequist 159 Part II: Performances 163 Performances: Introduction 165 Martha Bayless 165 Jealousy, Gender, and a Moralist’s Mission in Early China 167 Yiqun Zhou 167 Early Medieval Board Games 185 Issues of Power and Gender 185 Martha Bayless 185 The Social Circulation of Grief 209 Status Competition, Mourning, and Gender in Seventeenth-Century China 209 Martin W. Huang 209 Just a Humble Petitioner of a Saint? 227 Devotion as a Strategy for Prestige in Depositions of Fourteenth-Century Italian Canonization Processes 227 Sari Katajala-Peltomaa 227 Performances — Reflections and Concluding Remarks 245 Martha Bayless 245 Part III: (Re)presentations 249 (Re)presentations: Introduction 251 Lewis Webb 251 Coniunx et sacerdos 255 Livia as Widow and Priestess of Divus Augustus 255 Lovisa Brännstedt 255 Double Martyrdom, Double Crown 275 Virgin Martyrs and Fourth-Century Ascetic Hierarchies 275 Sissel Undheim 275 A Competitive Fantasy Figure and his Female Conquests 299 ʿUmar ibn Abi Rabīʿa 299 Julia Bray 299 Hélisenne de Crenne Challenging Male Mastery 311 Translating Virgil’s Aeneid in the French Sixteenth Century* 311 Britt-Marie Karlsson and Sara Moding 311 (Re)presentations — Reflections and Concluding Remarks 333 Lewis Webb 333 Index of Subjects 337 History of Daily Life 341 (800–1600) 341