This book provides an overview of the gender rules encountered in Europe in the period between approximately 500 and 1500 C.E. The essays speak to how best to uncover the experiences of ordinary people from archives formed mainly by and about elite males, and how to combine social histories of lived experiences with cultural histories of gendered discourses and identities. The collection focuses on Western Europe in the Middle Ages but offers some consideration of medieval Islam and Byzantium.
This volume is an introduction to the most significant topics in the anthropology field of gender. It draws not only from classic sources, but also from recent literature on gender roles and ideologies around the world.