‘The Conscience of the Community’: the Au Vaine of Rarotonga

ABSTRACT

The Au Vaine (‘several women’ in Cook Islands Māori), grassroots women’s committees, worked to promote agricultural efforts and food security in Rarotonga during the 1920s and 1930s. A unique organization, the Au Vaine actively encouraged the growing of commercial crops alongside subsistence plantings at a time when women were being pushed towards the home and hearth, and men pulled to wage labour jobs. These women illustrate the powerful and often unheard voices Pacific women retained throughout this period, as well as the critical role of food in Pacific history. In this article I examine the context within which the Au Vaine emerged, discuss what distinguished them from other women’s committees in Polynesia, highlight their purpose and impact on Cook Islands foodways, and explore some of the reasons they declined by the 1940s.     

Gender Ideology in Historical Reconstruction: A Case Study from the 1930s

You are probably aware of the fact that homes are being wrecked daily due to the fact that married women are permitted to work in factories and offices in this land of ours. You and we all know that the place for a wife and mother is at home, her palace. The excuse is often brought up that the husband cannot find employment. It is the writers’ belief that if the women were expelled from places of business,…these very men would find employment. These same womens’ husbands would naturally be paid a higher salary, inasmuch as male employees demand a higher salary than females.¹     

‘Partner in his Calamities’: Pastors' Wives,Married Nuns and the Experience of Clerical Marriage in the Early German Reformation

This essay examines what factors led the first clerical wives to marry former Catholic clergy and nuns to marry in the first decade of the Reformation in Germany and seeks to explain the difference that social class, geography and gender made in those decisions. In contrast to the later Reformation, when pastors married same or higher social status women, the majority of women who married former priests and monks during the 1520s were often lower or, in the case of nuns, significantly higher social status than their husbands. Women married clergy for a variety of reasons that were counterintuitive to typical marital strategies for economic security and social networking, since clergy had neither in the 1520s. While sharing a common experience, clerical wives' reasons for marriage to a pastor varied greatly depending on class, local decision about the Reformation and numerous personal factors. Using a variety of sources including letters, civic records, court testimony and published pamphlets, this article demonstrates that these women did exhibit a limited agency that ultimately helped shape larger social and political acceptance of clerical marriage.     

SAME/DIFFERENCE? TOWARD A SAPPHIC/NONBINARY SEXUALITY OF HISTORY

What is the next step when one has published a strong intervention in a field but later recognizes that one's angle of vision deserves new scrutiny? In this article, which began as a roundtable talk, I return to The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565–1830 (2014) to interrogate its “same-sex” logic through a nonbinary/trans lens. My book argues that seventeenth- and eighteenth-century representations of the sapphic became a flash point for European cultures grappling with questions of power and governance, desire and duty, mobility and difference in an age of colonialism, racial capitalism, revolution, and reaction. In figuring the sapphic exclusively through notions of sameness, however, The Sexuality of History does not do justice to trans and nonbinary figures both historical and fictional. Is there a place among sapphic subjects for these figures, and, if so, with what implications? I argue here for a both/and approach that requires recoding certain figures as nonbinary while still insisting on their efficacy as signs of the sapphic. This recoding encourages a more nuanced exploration of the cultural work performed by sapphic representations and a more expansive conception of what I have called a sapphic episteme. Such revisionist thinking may be useful at a time of social and theoretical tensions at the intersections of “lesbian” and “trans.”     

Criss-crossing Boundaries: Ultraorthodox Jewish women go to work

The most prestigious work in the ultraorthodox Jewish community is full-time, unpaid, religious study, which is allocated to men. As a result, married women are often responsible for both homemaking and breadwinning. This study examines the 'going to work' of these Israeli wives as an encompassing operation of two directions--the going to and the coming from work. First, it analyses the sociocultural evolution of ultraorthodox gender identities which induced the 'going to work' of the wives. Second, it probes the personal consequences of job-related exposure to modern values of work and gender, following the wives' 'coming from work.' In-depth interviews with 55 married women holding out-of-community jobs that increase their exposure to modern norms revealed discontent regarding domestic help and the financial contribution of their husbands. Dissatisfaction was articulated in subtle terms, by referring to fatigue and the hope that their husbands would eventually look for paid jobs. Such expressions of discontent, associated with the 'coming from work,' are suggestive of private resistance and the modification of personal values. The gendered geography of ultraorthodox women's work illustrates also the geography of their subordination and resistance.     

Marriage and the family in a Maltese parish: St. Mary's (Qrendi) in the eighteenth century

This article addresses the Maltese traditional family, taking St. Mary's (Qrendi) as a test case. It results that couples married in their early twenties, while a high proportion of men and women never married at all. Marriage was not popular so that one-fifth of all marriages were remarriages. Very few widows remarried and it was only for some economic reason that they sought another man. There is no evidence though that a high rate of celibacy resulted in flagrant promiscuity even if there is evidence that the Qrendin were not so particular about their sex life. No birth control was practiced within marriage and children followed one another regularly. This brings into relief the parents' unconcern for their offspring's future as well as the inferior status of women because husbands made their wives several offspring. Relations between the spouses were poor so that dissatisfied couples went their own ways.     

Between two cities: Jewish women and exogamous marriage in medieval Catalonia

In the marriage strategies of medieval Catalan Jews, the economic security of women came second to the economic goals of families. Exogamous marriages – marriages between the Jewish communities of two different cities – exacerbated the vulnerability of Jewish wives, widows and divorcées, due in large part to restrictions on women’s travel. Women who moved in order to marry experienced greater difficulty in managing financial resources and lost access to kinship networks. When women married men from other cities, at best they found themselves unable to take advantage of the connections created by their marriages. At worst, they risked financial loss if their husbands absconded to other cities with their dowries. Five case studies drawn from thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Catalan notarial registers reveal some of the ways in which exogamous marriages disadvantaged Jewish women. The extreme case of exogamy delineates the boundaries of possibility for Jewish women in the medieval Western Mediterranean.     

The "rights" of husbands and the "duties" of wives: power and desire in the American bedroom, 1850-1910

Historians of the nineteenth-century family have long argued for the dominance of a patriarchal model of marital relations in which demanding husbands subjected their passionless wives to a continual grind of emotional and sexual brutalization. This perspective has been challenged by revisionist historians who have argued that the compasionate marital ideal, characterized by considerate husbands and sexually satisfied wives, best reflected the experiences of middle-class married men and women. Based on the sexual experiences described in the pamphlets, letters, and newspaper articles written by sexual radicals known as "Free Lovers," this article argues that the late nineteenth-century marriage bed still was a site of conflict. Opening the door into the Victorian bedroom, the Free Lovers provide a unique view of both marital models in operation and transition that sheds light on the dynamic of change in which married couples struggled, failed,and sometimes achieved the erotic relationships promised by the companionate ideal.     

Cervantes's Quixote and the Arbitrista Reform Project

This article examines the representation of peasant women in the Quixote, specifically Aldonza Lorenzo, and its relationship to the discourses that argued for a return to an agrarian economy made by many of the reformers or arbitristas of the period. The article considers the ways in which the relationship Aldonza-Dulcinea has been studied in order to propose a new avenue for the interpretation of the labradora turned idealized princess upon which Alonso Quijano constructs his medieval knight fantasy. I conclude that what has typically been seen as a humorous parody of courtly love conventions can also be read as a textual space where the productivity and dignity of those who work are given their due.     

THE CONCEPT OF TRANSPARENCY,ITS HISTORY,AND THE THEORY OF BEGRIFFSGESCHICHTE

In this review essay, I examine the theoretical assumptions required in order to reconstruct an understanding of another historical period. Stefanos Geroulanos has produced a masterful history of mid‐twentieth‐century French thought, and he argues for a significant difference between that period and our own based on the values and ideas associated with the concept of transparency. The book is innovative in both its method and interpretation of the period of 1945–1984. However, despite the suggestive theoretical framework announced at its start, Geroulanos prefers to explore the theoretical content of conceptual history more than to explain how one might go about identifying, understanding, and translating the concepts of a different epoch. In order to contribute to what is already a successful project, I endeavor to extend some of Geroulanos's theoretical sketches through a comparison with Reinhart Koselleck's theory of Begriffsgechichte. Despite some muted criticism of Koselleck from Geroulanos, I argue that the projects share similar commitments, although Geroulanos needs to develop his theoretical premises at greater length, both for a full comparison and in order to complete the critical project that Transparency appears to be undertaking.     

The Changing Brazilian Language

This article analyzes two female Bildungsromane published by nineteenth-century authors, Las dos Gracias by Fernán Caballero (1867) and La vida íntima by Pilar Sinués (1876). The female Bildungsroman in Spain explores different educational and developmental opportunities open to women since the middle of the nineteenth century. Fernán Caballero and Pilar Sinués, who have been—and still often are—dismissed as anti-feminist and conservative, created a very nuanced vision of female Bildung in their novels. Far from being mere propaganda pieces aimed at keeping women in subjection, these novels discuss the obstacles that society places in the way to female development and offer ways of overcoming these obstacles.     

Bridewealth1 and the Autonomy of Women in Melanesia

Considering bridewealth in Melanesia from the angle of women's autonomy, in this introduction we review and analyse the various elements of this marriage practice that reveal its place in the symbolic, social and economic worlds of women. With an accent on social transformation, we discuss women's autonomy and agency in relation to the constraints that bridewealth puts on their lives, and on how they engage with it. Knowing what bridewealth is, and how the rules of reciprocity that it indexes obligate married women, the focus is on women's ability to act within these constraints or to redefine their contours, particularly with regards to economic and reproductive agency. The article, which serves also as the introduction for the special issue on bridewealth in the journal Oceania, discusses themes analysed in the collection, such as the moral prospects of bridewealth today, its relation to ‘capital’ in twenty-first century Oceania, the triad value/valuables/valuers, and the empowerment of women. It concludes with thoughts on gender inequality.     

A Social History of Trans-Imperial Diplomacy in a Crisis Context: Herbert von Rathkeal's Circles of Belonging in Pera, 1779–1802

ABSTRACT

This article explores the multiple circles of diplomatic agents and their social belonging in the context of the international crisis in late eighteenth-century Istanbul, drawing upon the private papers of the imperial internuncio at Pera between 1779 and 1802. The son of an Irish Jacobite supporter who became a Jesuit and then a radical reformer in Vienna, Peter Herbert von Rathkeal was also a member of the Pera society in which he was born and raised. An agent of one of the most influential trans-imperial households established in Friuli, and a member of the Austrian and British nobilities, Herbert sought to become an eminent actor of the Ottoman diplomatic scene while remaining the patron of a cosmopolitan commercial-cum-political clientele. To study Herbert's actions is to question the model of diplomatie de type ancien in a cross-cultural and fast-changing context of crisis. Despite the collapse of the old diplomatic order with the breakdown of the French Revolution, and despite rising tensions generated by the increasingly sensitive ‘Eastern Question’, this article reveals how Herbert von Rathkeal managed to maintain a certain stability in Istanbul due to the economic and social resources, which his different circles of belonging opened up for him.     

Sex,fertility and menstruation among the Beng of the Ivory Coast: a symbolic analysis

An attempt is made in this discussion to relocate the topic of menstruation in a new framework, one not directly defined by gender and not restricted to the view that menstrual blood and menstrual pollution are by definition viewed negatively. The Beng (Ivory Coast) notions of menstruation are explored as they relate to wider concepts of pollution and fertility. The analysis demonstrates how menstrual pollution among the Beng forms part of another type of pollution--the spatio symbolic pollution of human fertility when it is removed from its proper place--and how, rather than debasing women, menstruation serves to have added value to a major aspect of women's labor--that of cooking. There are 3 rules which Beng observe concerning menstruation: no initiated, married, or previously married woman who is menstruating may set foot in the forest for any reason other than to defecate; a menstruating woman may not touch a corpse; and a man may not eat food cooked by his wife during the days she is menstruating, nor may a Master of the Earth eat food cooked by any menstruating woman. At first, these taboos appear to be another case of the pollution of women through menstruation and another instance of women's oppression. When explored, the Master of Earth explained that menstrual blood is considered as special because it carries in it a living being and that menstrual blood is like the flower which must emerge before the fruit--the baby--can be born. No answer was provided to the question of pollution. There seemed to be no other rules specifying what activities a woman should or should not pursue during menstruation. She is not isolated from the flux of social life, and sexual activiity during menstruation, though not commonly done, is not taboo. The fact that it is only working in the forest, and not other activities, that is prohibited to menstruating women reveals that menstruation is not regarded as dangerous to men or as polluting in general. Rather, menstrual blood is seen as a symbol of human fertility, and for this reason is not allowed to touch the forest/fields, which are viewed as a form of Earth fertility. Forest/field fertility and village fertility must be conceptually kept apart, according to the Beng view of the world. Similarly, Beng husbands may not eat food cooked by their menstruating wives for a related reason. Menstruating women who cook are handling crops produced in the forest/fields, and their husbands, with whom they produce (village) children, must therefore avoid contact with such food, lest the 2 realms of village and forest fertility be mixed. Food cooked by menstruating women is agreed by all Beng to be the most delicious of all Beng food, thus giving positive value to an activity of menstruating women.     

Gendered spheres: theorizing space in the English printing house

The English printing house was initially conceived, legally, as a printing house, with public work taking place in a private setting. This private space emphasised the traditional hierarchies of political and legal order: Women’s work that took place within the printing house thus fell into the traditional role of household labours. This erasure of labour is one that foregrounds the erasure of women’s writing from history; women who worked in essence as publishers, as printers and booksellers, are very clearly present in the historical records but invisible in our narratives of book history. How did this erasure happen, and why is their presence, and work, overlooked? If we consider the language of space in theory and reread Moxon’s Mechanickal Exercises closely, we see the ways in which the ideas of space itself can be implicitly gendered, and how this might shape our idea of the printing house.     

Midwives as expert witnesses in the 18th-century Finnish courts of justice

ABSTRACT

In this article, I will explore how legalized Finnish midwives acted as expert witnesses in court hearings before 1809, how they worded the statements they gave in court, on what grounds they decided a woman was pregnant or had given birth, and what signs they considered as indicating a miscarriage or the birth of a full-term infant. Their work as expert witnesses relied on their midwifery training as well as their learned knowledge of the anatomy of the female body and the physiology of birth. Ultimately, their knowledge was supported by contemporary guidebooks on midwifery and forensic medicine. As expert witnesses, the trained and legalized midwives of the eighteenth century can be seen as having been legally literate women, who had a duty to provide oral or written evidence to the court and other instances who demanded it. Midwives were capable of using understandable medical and legal terminology in terms of the processing of the court case in their testimony. The forensic examinations carried out by legalized midwives and the expert witness statements they gave also demonstrate the professional skills and expertise of these women.. Their testimonies also show that they were familiar with the characteristics of infanticide referred to in the Swedish medical and forensic literature.     

The investiture of Emperor Charles VI in Brabant and Flanders: a test case for the authority of the new Austrian government

This article focuses upon the investitures of Emperor Charles VI in 1717 in Brabant and Flanders. The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate that, contrary to what some historians have claimed, the element of direct communication between prince and subjects remained significant at least until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Despite Charles' assertive attitude, the ceremonies were preceded by a period of intense negotiation, in which the Estates made clear demands. Eventually, however, he acquiesced to some of their requests. These concessions can be placed within a long tradition of modus vivendi between princely centralism and local autonomy in the Southern Netherlands. The sovereign was financially dependent on the Estates, which therefore had a great deal of leverage at their disposal. This vulnerability was compounded by the fact that Charles stood at the head of a dynasty, the Austrian Habsburgs, which had no tradition of authority in these regions upon which to draw. Furthermore, the Barrier Treaty's provisions restricted his sovereignty. His bargaining position influenced the organisation of the investitures, thus illustrating that in the early eighteenth century, the sovereign and provincial Estates of the Southern Netherlands were still engaged in a contractual relationship.     

Kabit,Rimbu and Opa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice1

ABSTRACT At the time of colonisation and missionisation that quickly saw their abandonment, the Anganen practised two male exclusive cults in which animals were sacrificed in the hope of influencing powerful spirits. One cult, kabit, was only staged to overcome serious affliction thought to be sent by the spirits to individuals of subclans or women married into them. That is, it was a reaction to spirit power. The other cult, rimbu, while practised in response to widespread problems of humans, pigs and gardens, was also undertaken in the hope of increased health and productivity, and thus a possible action as well as a reaction. The paper describes and compares the cults. One major theme is male empowerment, as rimbu not only underwrites male power over others, it is also about empowerment to act on the world as well. While obviously radically different in many respects, at least in local consciousness, the adoption of opa, the giving of money, produce and labour to the church, has resonance with the pre‐colonial situation. Mostly it is undertaken to please what the Anganen see as a vengeful God based on Old Testament stories. However, on occasions such as the lead up to the yasolu pork distribution, the most prestigious event in Anganen, big men may ostentatiously present large gifts of money to missionaries or men may purchase cattle to slaughter, cook and distribute their meat on the opening of new churches. Both instances are beyond emulation by most in the community and, like rimbu may be, venues for male empowerment.