Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece (Princeton Modern Greek Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691028591 ISBN 13: 9780691028590

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1991

Synopsis

In this collection leading anthropologists provide a comprehensive yet highly nuanced view of what it means to be a Greek man or woman, married or unmarried, functioning within a complex society based on kinship ties. Exploring the ways in which sexual identity is constructed, these authors discuss, for example, how going out for coffee embodies dominant ideas about female sexuality, moral virtue, and autonomy; why men in a Lesbos village maintain elaborate friendships with nonfamily members while the women do not; why young housewives often participate in conflict-resolution rituals; and how the dominant role of mature married householders is challenged by unmarried persons who emphasize spontaneity and personal autonomy. This collection demonstrates that kinship and gender identities in Greece are not unitary and fixed: kinship is organized in several highly specific forms, and gender identities are plural, competing, antagonistic, and are continually being redefined by contexts and social change.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In this collection leading anthropologists provide a comprehensive yet highly nuanced view of what it means to be a Greek man or woman, married or unmarried, functioning within a complex society based on kinship ties.

Review:

"[This] outstanding collection ... will without doubt be essential reading for anyone concerned with Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans, especially in respect of the nexus between kinship, marriage, gender, friendship, religion and symbolism." (Social Anthropology)

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0691028591
• ISBN 13: 9780691028590
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Loizos Peter, Papataxiarchis Evthmios