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9%OFFMatthew H. Sommer - Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China - 9780804745598 - V9780804745598
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Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China

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Description for Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China Paperback. This study of the regulation of sexuality in the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the state, showing how regulation shifted away from status to a new regime of gender that mandated a uniform standard of sexual morality and criminal liability for all people, regardless of their social status. Series: Law, Society & Culture in China. Num Pages: 440 pages, 2 maps. BIC Classification: 1FPC; 3JH; HBJF; HBLL; HBTB; JFSJ; LNT. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 5817 x 3887 x 27. Weight in Grams: 594.

This study of the regulation of sexuality in the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the state, arguing that the eighteenth century in China was a time of profound change in sexual matters. During this time, the basic organizing principle for state regulation of sexuality shifted away from status, under which members of different groups had long been held to distinct standards of familial and sexual morality. In its place, a new regime of gender mandated a uniform standard of sexual morality and criminal liability across status boundaries—all people were expected to conform to gender ... Read more

This shift in the regulation of sexuality, manifested in official treatment of charges of adultery, rape, sodomy, widow chastity, and prostitution, represented the imperial state’s efforts to cope with disturbing social and demographic changes. Anachronistic status categories were discarded to accommodate a more fluid social structure, and the state initiated new efforts to enforce rigid gender roles and thus to shore up the peasant family against a swelling underclass of single, rogue males outside the family system. These men were demonized as sexual predators who threatened the chaste wives and daughters (and the young sons) of respectable households, and a flood of new legislation targeted them for suppression.

In addition to presenting official and judicial actions regarding sexuality, the book tells the story of people excluded from accepted patterns of marriage and household who bonded with each other in unorthodox ways (combining sexual union with resource pooling and fictive kinship) to satisfy a range of human needs. This previously invisible dimension of Qing social practice is brought into sharp focus by the testimony, gleaned from local and central court archives, of such marginalized people as peasants, laborers, and beggars.

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Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2002
Publisher
Stanford University Press United States
Number of pages
440
Condition
New
Series
Law, Society & Culture in China
Number of Pages
440
Place of Publication
Palo Alto, United States
ISBN
9780804745598
SKU
V9780804745598
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-13

About Matthew H. Sommer
Matthew H. Sommer is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University.

Reviews for Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
"This book will be indispensible reading for China scholars studying late imperial law, traditional gender norms, the social life of the non-elite, and the history of the reach of the state. It is simultaneously a primer on traditional Chiense law and a study of law as 18th-century social engineering."—Journal of Asian Studies "This is a valuable book which places the ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China


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