Authors
Jan Frode Hatlen
Publication date
2015
Publisher
NTNU
Description
Summary of the thesis: The concept of honour is often used to explain domestic violence in cases involving gender and sexuality. The concept is mainly associated with regions in Western Asia, North Africa and South America. The thesis explores whether such violence has also been a part of the history of Europe, by studying views on gender, the relationships between men and women, and domestic violence in the Latin West, c. 300-600 A.D. This was a formative period in the European history of the family, with the spread of Christianity, the growth of the power of the Church and the establishing of new political structures. A main objective of the study is to demonstrate that the concept of honour is applicable and transferable to the Late Roman West, the Latin Roman cultural sphere in the period 300-600 A.D. Some historians have already adopted concepts of honour violence in their works on this period. However, no studies have discussed how transferable the concept is, and whether or not Roman cultures shared the typical traits of so-called honour cultures. The study draws upon research from the fields of social anthropology, sociology, criminology and psychology on present-day honour cultures, and uses that scholarship in comparative analyses of family relations in Late Antiquity. The thesis presents an ideal-type model of gendered honour and draws upon examples of practices and views of gender in honour cultures. The model is applied in analyses of the primary sources from the period, mainly Late Roman law codes and texts by leading Christians, such as Ambrose of Milan and Augustine. The analyses are organised into thematic …
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