Research Catalog

Women who become men : Albanian sworn virgins

Title: Women who become men : Albanian sworn virgins / Antonia Young.
Author: Young, Antonia.
Publication: Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2000.

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	c.2	Text	Use in library	HQ1710.5 .Y68 2000 c.2	Off-site
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?		Text	Use in library	HQ1710.5 .Y68 2000	Off-site

Details

Description

xxvi, 168 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits; 24 cm

Summary

"Most people conceive of gender as a culturally informed response to a biological imperative. But such rigid notions are overturned by certain women in remote regions of Albania who elect to "become" men simply for the advantages that accrue to them as a result. They crop their hair, wear men's clothes, roll their own cigarettes, drink brandy, and carry guns. Their lives are much freer and less regimented than other members of their sex - but at a cost. These women must forswear sexual relationships, marriage, and children. They have been dubbed "Sworn Virgins."" "In this region of the Balkans, simply to dress as a man and to behave as a man will earn these women the same respect accorded a man. Traditionally as heads of household, men are revered and the women who attend them utterly subservient. But unlike "normal" women, Sworn Virgins can inherit and manage property, and, in fact, may even be raised to assume the male role by parents who have no male heirs." "Based on extensive interviews, this book tells the frank and engrossing stories of these women, setting their lives within the wider context of a country undergoing radical upheaval and social transformation."--Jacket

Series Statement

Dress, body, culture

Uniform Title

Dress, body, culture

Alternative Title

Albanian sworn virgins

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-163) and index.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Tree of blood, tree of milk : patriarchy and patricentricity in rural Albania -- 3. The Kanun laws of honour and hospitality -- 4. Who are the 'sworn virgins'? -- 5. Living as men -- 6. Dress as a signifier of gender -- 7. Asserting their masculinity : men and 'sworn virgins' -- 8. The changing world : the challenge ahead.

ISBN

1859733352
9781859733356
1859733409
9781859733400

OCLC

ocm43794103
43794103
SCSB-1031952

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library