Mundy, Martha (2003) Al-mahr zaytuna: property and family in the hills facing Palestine (1880 - 1940). In: Doumani, Beshara, (ed.) Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property and Gender. SUNY series in the social and economic history of the Middle East. State University of New York Press, Albany, US, pp. 113-150. ISBN 079145679X
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Mahr, the object that the groom gives a bride as a condition of the Muslim marriage contract, would promise to be the epitome of gender-specific property, the object that would "make" the woman a married woman. Women's jewelry, their finery, and the bedroom sets of contemporary marriages all come to mind; the chapter in this volume by Annelies Moors explores such gendered mahr in the form of women's gold in the twentieth-century town of Nablus. Yet, as an ancient body of juristic commentary suggests, in Islamic legal tradition mahr could be composed of any legally valid property from slaves to land to specie. In legal doctrine and practice mahr proved most easily measurable, and hence capable of measuring differences in social status, in the form of money. But unlike its categorical isolation in legal discourse, mahr may form part of a series of social exchanges within a network of kin and between households over time. It has thus also to be understood within such a context. © 2003 State University of New York. All rights reserved.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.sunypress.edu/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2003 State University of New York Press |
| Divisions: | Anthropology Middle East Centre |
| Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jan 2008 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2023 09:05 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/3158 |
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