Gender in the Early Medieval World East and West, 300900 [Paperback]

This book analyses changes in gender pattern to examine early medieval European culture and society.This book uses gender analysis to study power and culture between c. 300 and 900. It examines the women, men and eunuchs who lived in the late Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and western European civilisations, and assesses the ways in which gender identity was established and manifested in written and material cultural forms. In charting the shifting gender order of these centuries, it emphasises the integral relationship between the masculine and feminine by exploring costume, attitudes to the body, social and political institutions and a wide range of literary genres.This book uses gender analysis to study power and culture between c. 300 and 900. It examines the women, men and eunuchs who lived in the late Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and western European civilisations, and assesses the ways in which gender identity was established and manifested in written and material cultural forms. In charting the shifting gender order of these centuries, it emphasises the integral relationship between the masculine and feminine by exploring costume, attitudes to the body, social and political institutions and a wide range of literary genres.Using gender analysis to study power and culture between c. 300 and 900, this study examines the women, men and eunuchs who lived in the late Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and western European civilizations. It assesses the ways in which gender identity was established and manifested in written and material cultural forms, emphasizing the integral relationship between the masculine and feminine by exploring costume, attitudes to the body, social and political institutions and a wide range of literary genres.1. Introduction Julia M. H. Smith; Part I. Gender in Late antique, Byzantine and Islamic Societies: 2. Gender and ethnicity in the early middle ages Walter Pohl; 3. Clothes maketh the man: power dressing and elite masculinity in the later roman worllce