Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece

Loizos, Peter; Papataxiarchis, Evthymios - Editors

ISBN 10: 0691028591 / ISBN 13: 9780691028590

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1991

About this Item

259 Pages Indexed. 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.

Seller Inventory # 11138

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691028591
• ISBN 13: 9780691028590
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: First Printing
• Condition: Near Fine

About this title

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.

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.