The material culture of sex, procreation, and marriage in premodern Europe
By: edited by Anne L. McClanan and Karen Rosoff Encarnación.
Contributors: McClanan, Anne L., 1966-; Encarnación, Karen Rosoff.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Palgrave
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
Subjects: Women -- History -- To 1500; Women -- Europe -- History -- To 1500; Marriage -- History -- To 1500; Material culture -- Social aspects; Europe -- Social conditions -- To 1492
Description: "This interdisciplinary anthology takes as its starting point the belief that, as the grounds of lived experience, material culture provides an exceptionally rewarding avenue of historical access to women's lives, extending beyond the reaches of textual evidence. The subjects of these original essays range from utilitarian tools used in Late Roman abortion to sacred, magical, or ritual objects associated with sex, procreation, and marriage in the Renaissance.

Together the essays demonstrate the complex relationship between language and object and explore the ways in which objects become forms of communication in their own right, transmitting both rather specific messages and more generalized social and cultural values."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Representing women on Roman sarcophagi / Janet Huskinson; title: "Weapons to probe the womb" : the material culture of abortion and contraception in the early Byzantine period / Anne L. McClanan; title: Myth and magic in early Byzantine marriage jewelry : the persistence of pre-Christian traditions / Alicia Walker; title: Spinning yarns : clean linen and domestic values in late Medieval French culture / Veronica Sekules; title: Insecure borders : symbols of clerical privilege and gender ambiguity in the liturgy of churching / Paula M. Rider; title: Relics of a fertile heart : the "autopsy" of Clare of Montefalco / Katharine Park; title: Beautiful brides and model mothers : the devotional and talismanic functions of early modern Marian reliefs / Geraldine A. Johnson; title: Renaissance household goddesses : fertility, politics, and the gendering of spectatorship / Adrian W.B. Randolph; title: The moralized breast in early modern Spain / Charlene Villaseñor Black; title: The proper uses of desire : sex & procreation in Reformation anatomical fugitive sheets / Karen Rosoff Encarnación; title: The sodomite's clothes : gift-giving and sexual excess in early modern Germany and Switzerland / Helmut Puff.