Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5691
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Elbl , Ivana.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Men Without Wives: Sexual Arrangements in the Early Portugese Expansion in West Africa
  • Source: Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West.  Edited by Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler.  University of Toronto Press, 1996.  Pages 61 - 86.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Blacks Concubines Polygamy Portuguese Sexuality Slaves
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Iberia;Western Africa
  • Century: 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: "Ivana Elbl, "'Men without Wives': Sexual Arrangements in the Early Portuguese Expansion in West Africa," provides a detailed study of actual behavior in a situation when European Christian men were outside their own society and dealt with their sexual desires. It is commendable that Elbl considers the reaction in terms of prevailing attitudes in medieval Europe, such as the view held by some Church authorities that prostitution was preferable to corrupting "honest women." The question of prostitution in moral theory and as social practice lies behind several of the articles in this collection." From the review written by Brian McGuire of "Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West," "Medieval Review" (TMR ID: 96.12.11). [Reproduced by permission of the "Medieval Review."].
  • Author's Affiliation: Trent University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1996.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802007805