The first comprehensive study of sexual politics in Medieval Islam. Studies the military-political power of eunuchs and their relations with women under the Fatimid dynasty, and the appearance of ...first queen in Islamic history. Investigates the power of the Turkmen women in the politics and how and why they introduced the unique post of atabeg.
In this thought-provoking interdisciplinary work, Shaun Marmon describes how eunuchs, as a category of people who embodied ambiguity, both defined and mediated critical thresholds of moral and ...physical space in the household, in the palace and in the tomb of pre-modern Islamic society. The author's central focus is on the sacred society of eunuchs who guarded the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina for over six centuries and whose last representatives still perform many of their time honored rituals to this day. Through Marmon's account, the "sacred" eunuchs of Medina become historical guides into uncharted dimensions of Islamic ritual, political symbolism, social order, gender and time.
The Castratois a nuanced exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. It shows that the entire foundation of Western ...classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed from an unlikely and historically unique set of desires, public and private, aesthetic, economic, and political. In Italy, castration for singing was understood through the lens of Catholic blood sacrifice as expressed in idioms of offering and renunciation and, paradoxically, in satire, verbal abuse, and even the symbolism of the castrato's comic cousin Pulcinella. Sacrifice in turn was inseparable from the system of patriarchy-involving teachers, patrons, colleagues, and relatives-whereby castrated males were produced not as nonmen, as often thought nowadays, but as idealized males. Yet what captivated audiences and composers-from Cavalli and Pergolesi to Handel, Mozart, and Rossini-were the extraordinary capacities of castrato voices, a phenomenon ultimately unsettled by Enlightenment morality. Although the castrati failed to survive, their musicality and vocality have persisted long past their literal demise.
This article questions the prevailing opinion that Domitian's prohibition of castration was intended as a protective measure devised to check masters’ abuses on their slaves, as part of a larger ...trend towards more enlightened attitudes towards slavery among the Romans. While brutal, castration was the only type of mutilation which increased the monetary value of slaves. Banning it curtailed slaves’ chances of social climbing and narrowed their channels towards positions of power. The emasculation ban is, instead, better understood as one of the many measures directed towards the control of the sexual behaviour and the sumptuary practices of the Roman elite. Introduced as a censorial decree, the ban gave Domitian the opportunity to act as the upholder of Republican traditions at the same time as he impinged on the private lives of his subjects and put senators and equestrians under his thumb. The article also argues that, contrary to what is usually argued, the constant re-enforcement of the prohibition to castrate by Domitian's successors is an indication of the effectiveness of the Roman legal machinery and its capacity to reach the most distant corners of the Roman empire.
The endeavor of the present study is to describe the impacts of covid-19 on the life of eunuchs (hijra) in district Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. In order to investigate the impacts of covid-19 on the ...life of eunuch’s in-depth interviews were performed on those persons who are by birth eunuch including Guru who is usually the leader of that particular group and three Chelas who are the followers of guru. Sample was collected through the snowball sampling technique qualitatively. For the purpose, all interviews were transcribed first then main themes were extracted from each interview. These major themes were: offended by Socio-Economically depressed, facing mentally and physically disturbance due to corona virus. Based on the interviews, the results revealed that, eunuchs were facing lot of predicament during covid situations because eunuchs were dependant on the begging, dancing, as well as involving in the different local meetings which were totally closed due to the COVID-19. However, in that situation, the eunuchs were being ignored by the people, and no any funding was provided them for support. However, internationally they need to be given all those rights as the locally met. The findings of the study are supportive and have potential to guide the intervention plans for enhancing the life of eunuch community people. Finally, the study recommends that, there must be the active policies for eunuchs which should highlight the same enjoyments for eunuchs as met to the local people.
Administration draws its legitimacy from neutrality in cultural contexts where power relations are shaped by gendered norms. Neutrality bestows legitimacy where power is vested in the male generative ...force and is heritable. In the public sphere, neutrality renders administration nonthreatening to politicians and justifies administrators’ use of discretion despite their lack of democratic accountability and oversight. We examine historical and cultural roots of administrative neutrality as embodied by the physiologically transformed man and the resulting genderedness of public administration. We highlight two examples of power and sexuality in anime and different implications of neutered maleness. We also discuss enforced administrative neutrality in practice—the Hatch Act in the United States—which prevents administrators from engaging in political activity, rendering them “political eunuchs.”
This study aims to compare some images of beardless attendants in monumental reliefs from the Achaemenid (c. 550-330 BCE) and Neo-Assyrian (c. 911-612 BCE) empires, which we consider relevant sources ...for the study of court eunuchs and cultural conceptions about castrati. We argue that such comparisons are possible since eunuchism was a long-standing institution in the Ancient Near East, as shown by several analogies with the Assyrian evidence. We also argue that scholars have downplayed the importance of court eunuchs due to gender/sex assumptions based on Western and modern perspectives that consider eunuchism incompatible with high-ranking social standing. With these theoretical considerations in mind, we finally sketch some possible analytical proposals to explore the images of beardless attendants in Persia and Assyria.
An Addendum to the Plre? Christian Michel
Classica Cracoviensia,
10/2019, Letnik:
22
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Addendum to the PLRE? The short article deals with the existence of a court eunuch that was named Novianos. The person in question can be found in a study of the French Byzantinist Rodolphe Guilland, ...but seems to be non-existent in the classical sources.
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