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Alcohol, sex, and gender in late medieval and early modern Europe / A. Lynn Martin.
LIBRA HV5438 .M37 2001
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Martin, A. Lynn.
- Series:
- Early modern history (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England)
- Early modern history
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Europe--History.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages.
- Women--Alcohol use--Europe--History.
- Women.
- Women--Alcohol use.
- Alcoholism and crime.
- History.
- Sex customs.
- Europe.
- Men--Alcohol use--Europe--History.
- Men.
- Men--Alcohol use.
- Sex customs--Europe--History.
- Alcoholism and crime--Europe--History.
- Physical Description:
- x, 200 pages ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave, 2001.
- Summary:
- This book examines the effects of alcohol on gender relations in traditional Europe, focussing on England, France, and Italy in the late medieval and early modern periods, roughly 1300 to 1700. While alcohol causes physiological changes that are scientifically verifiable, the work of anthropologists reveals that much of what passes for drinking behavior and drunken comportment varies from one society to the next. In traditional Europe, as in modern Western societies, drinking led to increased sexual activity for both men and women, and it inclined men to commit acts of violence. Despite male fears of female sexuality and despite patriarchal restraints, women still consumed alcoholic beverages, sometimes in gargantuan amounts. This widespread consumption of wine, ale, or beer illustrates the importance of alcohol in traditional Europe. Alcohol was the ubiquitous social lubricant, and alcoholic beverages formed an important part of most people's diets.
- Contents:
- The functions of alcohol in traditional Europe 1
- Variations over time and place 6
- Alcohol, sex, and gender 9
- Sources and method 12
- 2 Women and Alcohol 17
- Abstinent and temperate women 18
- Drinking women 19
- The functions of alcohol 24
- Playing with statistics 28
- Explaining it away 32
- 3 Sex and Alcohol 38
- The symbolism of alcohol 39
- Conception and pregnancy 42
- Variations on Lot and Terence 45
- Weddings 51
- 4 Alehouses, Taverns, and Prostitutes 58
- The sociability of drinking 59
- The devil's church 62
- Prostitutes 66
- Female keepers 70
- The clientele 73
- 5 Sexual Encounters 79
- Foreplay 79
- Seduction and rape 83
- In alehouses and taverns 87
- Promiscuity and impotence 92
- 6 Unruly Women and Violent Men 96
- The unruly woman in literature 96
- The unruly woman in 'life' 104
- Drinking men 108
- Alcohol and violence 111
- 7 Husbands and Wives 119
- Good fellows and shrewish wives 120
- The economic cost of drinking 124
- Adultery 126
- Domestic violence 128
- Domestic harmony 132.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-191) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0312234147
- OCLC:
- 43487286
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