Publisher's Synopsis
In Widows and Patriarchy Thomas McGinn explores the implications of an analytical understanding of patriarchy. He does this by taking up Moses Finley's argument that ancient society was structured by a 'spectrum of statuses' and by applying this insight to the position of women, primarily that of widows, in three historical periods: Greco-Roman antiquity, late medieval/early modern Europe, and the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century West. The focus on the West is tempered by comparative material drawn from other cultures, above all modern India. The book examines economic privilege and its absence, rights at private law, especially those regarding the ownership and alienation of property, access to education and freedom of movement in general, the question of bodily integrity and fear of physical interference, religious activity, entitlement to decide whether to remarry and to whom. Since antiquity, widows (along with orphans) have been a byword for the weak and oppressed. Do the facts as recovered sustain this image or not? What does the answer to this question tell us about where widows rank in relation to other women in any given society?
