scholarly journals The Role of Spousal Separation on Norms Related to Gender and Sexuality among Himba Pastoralists

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Brooke Scelza ◽  
Sean Prall ◽  
Kathrine Starkweather

The gender-specific labor demands of arid pastoralism often lead to spousal separation. Men typically respond in one of two ways: engage in mate guarding tactics, or loosen restrictions on female sexuality. Among Himba pastoralists in northwest Namibia, the latter strategy is dominant. Rooted in a history of matriliny, Himba have strong norms promoting female sexual autonomy. We propose that these conditions, combined with a stochastic resource base, have led to women utilizing a combination of formal and informal partnerships to meet their needs and the needs of their children. Aspects of Himba socioecology also increase the costs of mate guarding for men and lower the costs of extra-pair paternity, further bolstering a concurrency strategy. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, we show how spousal separation, female autonomy, and concurrency are linked, and suggest that in this harsh environment having a mix of formal and informal romantic partners may be less costly and more beneficial than a system of monogamous marriage.

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esethu Monakali

This article offers an analysis of the identity work of a black transgender woman through life history research. Identity work pertains to the ongoing effort of authoring oneself and positions the individual as the agent; not a passive recipient of identity scripts. The findings draw from three life history interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following themes emerge: institutionalisation of gender norms; gender and sexuality unintelligibility; transitioning and passing; and lastly, gender expression and public spaces. The discussion follows from a poststructuralist conception of identity, which frames identity as fluid and as being continually established. The study contends that identity work is a complex and fragmented process, which is shaped by other social identities. To that end, the study also acknowledges the role of collective agency in shaping gender identity.


Itinerario ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Warren

A new found interest in social history, recent developments in historical thought and methodology and a fresh awareness of the importance of gender-specific experience have led historians to question an ‘ordinary woman's place’ in Singa- pore's past. In the historiography of Singapore, there is a need to foreground the critical importance of the ah ku and karayuki-san in the sex,politics and society of the city, stressing not only alterations in their life and circumstance, but also variations in the role of the colonial government, and changes in the ideology of sex and social policy.


Author(s):  
Robert Miklitsch

Part one of this chapter examines the production history of The Woman on Pier 13 to highlight the ideological mutability of the film’s ostensible, “right-wing” agenda, one endorsed by RKO’s head of production at the time, Howard Hughes. Part two aims to counter the claim that the anticommunist noir is without aesthetic interest by proffering a close textual analysis of a number of noir sequences in The Woman on Pier 13. Part three argues that--as the film’s original title, I Married a Communist, indexes--the political discourse of anticommunism cannot be divorced from questions about genre (melodrama, film noir, gangster film) and from contemporary socio-cultural notions about marriage, notions which receive their most charged expression in the picture’s figuration of gender and sexuality, in particular femininity (the femme fatale), masculinity (the “bad boy”), and homosexuality (the queer “Commie”). Part four revisits the issue of form—here, mise-en-scène--by exploring issues of labor and union subversion via the role of the cargo-hook and Diego Rivera’s painting, The Flower Carrier (1935), in the film.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110610
Author(s):  
Cansu Yilmaz ◽  
Emre Selcuk ◽  
Gul Gunaydin ◽  
Banu Cingöz-Ulu ◽  
Alpay Filiztekin ◽  
...  

Integrating the suffocation model of marriage with research on residential mobility, the current studies examined for the first time whether long-term romantic relationships are more central for residentially mobile (vs. stable) individuals (total N across three studies = 5,366; age range = 18–95). In Study 1, individuals who moved away from their place of birth (vs. not) were more likely to first confide in their spouse over other network members on important matters. In Study 2, history of frequent residential moves was associated with greater importance ascribed to romantic partners in the attachment hierarchy. In Study 3, the slope of perceived partner responsiveness predicting eudaimonic well-being got steeper as residential mobility increased. By showing the role of residential mobility in romantic relationships, our findings highlight the importance of studying socioecological factors to gain a deeper understanding of how relationship processes unfold.


Author(s):  
Joanne Stubley ◽  
Victoria Barker ◽  
Maria Eyres

The chapter covers three areas in relation to historical child sexual abuse (HCSA). It reviews the historical perspective in terms of the response of psychiatry and psychotherapy and its relation to HCSA. It also examines the role of the mother in HCSA and it addresses a particular clinical issue which is the request for a gender-specific therapist made by those with a history of HCSA who are seeking help from services. Using a psychoanalytic understanding of this form of developmental trauma elucidates the underlying dynamics that are brought into the therapeutic encounter, the family dynamics, and within society.


Author(s):  
Steven J. Reid

This chapter highlights recent work on the history of Calvinist culture in Scotland between the Reformation of 1560 and the end of the reign of James VI and I (1567–1625). It looks at both disciplinary culture and the ways in which Calvinism manifested in familial, social, noble, and intellectual life. While cumulative research on the system of church courts and the ‘culture of penitence’ has led to a much better understanding of everyday religious life, this chapter suggests a variety of directions in which future research could be taken. These include examining the pace at which Reformed culture embedded itself in Scottish society post-Reformation; the role of the nobility in religion; the experience of religious life in relation to gender and sexuality; the legacy of Renaissance humanism; and the roles of Reformed scholasticism and neo-Latin in intellectual life.


Author(s):  
Julie Hardwick

Based on extensive archival research, the extraordinary stories of ordinary people’s lives in this book explore many facets of young people’s intimacy from meeting to courtship to the many occasions when untimely pregnancies necessitated a range of strategies. These might include marriage but could also be efforts to induce abortions, arrangements for out-of-wedlock delivery, charging the father with custody, leaving the baby with a foundling hospital, or infanticide. Clergy, lawyers, social welfare officials, employers, midwives, wet-nurses, neighbors, family, and friends supported young women and held young men responsible for the reproductive consequences of their sexual activity. These practices of intimacy reframe our understanding of multiple aspects of the Old Regime. Young people’s intimate experiences challenge the belief that disciplining female sexuality was a critical early modern goal of state formation and religious reformation. They suggest rethinking the history of a sexual double standard in local and long contexts, the history of marriage, and the role of law in the politics of communities and institutions. The lives of young people also reshape many more specific debates, for instance, about the history of emotions, infanticide, attitudes to illegitimacy, pre-modern workplaces, and the body. The book reveals the important role of the young people’s working communities, where the norm was local management of intimacy with a heavy emphasis on pastoral care and pragmatic acceptance of the inevitability of out-of-wedlock pregnancy.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie M. Le ◽  
Emily Impett

In close relationships, people’s outcomes become highly intertwined, or interdependent, over time and across contexts (Clark & Mills 2011; Kelley & Thibaut 1978; Rusbult & Van Lange 2003). For example, young children rely on care from their parents as they grow and develop, and as they become older themselves, they often provide care and companionship to their aging parents. Friends provide emotional support to one another in times of need and share in one another’s joys in times of accomplishment. Romantic partners provide affection and physical intimacy to each other in ways unmatched by other relationship partners. Given that people rely on their relationship partners to meet many of their needs and desires, communal motivation, or care for the welfare of others, is an important component of personal well-being and satisfying relationships (Le, Impett, Lemay, Muise, & Tskhay 2018). Here, the history of communal motivation research is reviewed; the role of communal motivation in building and maintaining relationships described; and the emotional expressions and reactions linked to communal motivation explained.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Lina Rosi

The article explores the representation of female sexuality, in particular prostitution and its association with urban landscapes. The subject forms part of a wider research venture examining the different ways in which contemporary Greek theatre depicts and discusses the female body, female discourse and women’s experiences. The analysis of recent productions focuses on two major points: first, on the mise en scène of the prostitute body and, second, on the way in which each production exposes the association between the characters’ biography and the geography and history of the city. Our aim does not lie in discussing the productions’ ideological views on the issue of prostitution and the contemporary sex industry, but in exploring the mode in which the stage narrative operates as a field in which the life story of these women is first heard and performed and then incorporated into the collective narrative of the city’s history. The productions discussed are Η τελευταία μάσκα–Fallimento (The Last Mask–Fallimento), based on a text by Kostas Logaras, adapted for the stage and directed by Thodoros Terzopoulos (2006); Η γυναίκα της Πάτρας (The Woman of Patras), based on a text by Giorgos Chronas and adapted for the stage and directed by Lena Kitsopoulou (2010); and Γκάμπυ (Gaby), based on Gabriella Ousakova’s autobiography, adapted for the stage by Anastasia Tzellou and Kirki Karali and directed by Karali (2015).


Author(s):  
Nora E. Jaffary

In this history of childbirth and contraception in Mexico, Nora E. Jaffary chronicles colonial and nineteenth-century beliefs and practices surrounding conception, pregnancy and its prevention, and birth. Tracking Mexico’s transition from colony to nation, Jaffary demonstrates the central role of reproduction in ideas about female sexuality and virtue, the development of modern Mexico, and the growth of modern medicine in the Latin American context. The story encompasses networks of people in all parts of society, from state and medical authorities to mothers and midwives, husbands and lovers, employers and neighbors. Jaffary focuses on key topics including virginity, conception, contraception and abortion, infanticide, “monstrous” births, and obstetrical medicine. Her approach yields surprising insights into the emergence of modernity in Mexico. Over the course of the nineteenth century, for example, expectations of idealized womanhood and female sexual virtue gained rather than lost importance. In addition, rather than being obliterated by European medical practice, features of pre-Columbian obstetrical knowledge, especially of abortifacients, circulated among the Mexican public throughout the period under study. Jaffary details how, across time, localized contexts shaped the changing history of reproduction, contraception, and maternity.


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