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    Bride-stealing: a myth of misogyny

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    Author
    Murugesan, Seetha
    Chair
    Duffy, Lawrence
    Committee
    Bartlett, Doris A.
    Koskey, Michael
    Yesner, David R.
    Metadata
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    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11122/4609
    Abstract
    Bride-stealing, an explicit symbolic misogynistic action in The Iliad and The Kamba Ramayanam, is analyzed as a long-term patterned conduct of human behavior among the peoples who produced these works. The systematic pattern of bride stealing found in the epics discussed suggests that within these groups social constructs had always been in favor of female inferiority and subjugation. This places an emphasis on gender as an issue, manifested in the treatment of women by men as "others." The narrations of marginalization of women in the epics lead to a critique of the hypothesis that they are misogynistic. Here a framework of theoretical formulation is put forward to explore the origin of the practice of bride-stealing as well as the behavioral and psychological factors behind the intentions of both abductor and the abductee. The ancient epics are examined in a comparative literary style, and analyzed from an interdisciplinary stance with the guidance of cultural patterns, historically-created social orders and power-motivated political systems. After examining five thousand years of the history of ancient Greece and India, substantiated by archeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidence, this dissertation argues that the phenomenon of "bride stealing" occurred basically in male-dominant societies and stems from various components of the socio-economic setting of these societies. Studies show that the abducted women in the epics lived in times of social transition. The abuse of women that echoes in the epics is sometimes misconceived as reflecting misogyny. Women were targets in times of upheaval, and suffered due to incursions of pastoral nomads imposing their social order of patriarchy. This paper deduces that women were the victims of war, and that, following successful conquests by these pastoral nomadic societies and subsequent shifts in political power, their status underwent tremendous change. Furthermore, the abductions and overpowering behaviors of men towards women in myths and epics served as encoded messages to women from men to sustain their superiority over the "others," reflecting the ongoing imposition of values from the dominant culture.
    Description
    Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013
    Table of Contents
    Introduction -- Scope and limitations -- Chapter 1: Literature as cultural expression and epics reflect ancient cultures -- Humans beings as products of culture -- Literature setting the stage for cultural expression -- Concept of mimesis in literature -- Epic as a genre of literature -- Myth as narrative structure in epics -- Bride-stealing as mythological expression -- Bridal-stealing: literature review -- Bride-stealing as a misconception of misogyny -- Chapter 2: Methodology -- Research design -- Analysis from an interdisciplinary stance -- New criticism -- New historicism -- Historical methodology -- Oral tradition as historical methodology -- Anthropological analysis -- Feminist analysis -- Chapter 3: Bride-stealing as one of the atrocities of war -- Introduction -- Misogyny explicated -- History of Misogyny in literature -- Feminist interpretations of misogyny -- Theoretical analysis -- Atrocities of war -- Femicide -- Femicide in the epics -- Necrophilia -- Maiming -- Women as slaves -- Bride-stealing -- Argument: It is not misogyny -- Androcide and infanticide -- Men as slaves -- Not misogyny, but the atrocities of war -- Commonality between cattle-stealing and bride-stealing -- Chapter 4: Historical implications and explications of the wars in epics -- Historical accounts -- Unreliability of historical narrations -- Assimilation process of the Minoan culture into Mycenaean culture -- Migratory pattern of proto-Greeks and Indo-Aryans -- Chapter 5: Bride-stealing -- Introduction -- Gender statuses -- Kinship patterns -- Semiotic significance of social constructs -- Stealing -- Impact of bride-stealing -- Physiological effects -- Psychological effects -- Sociological effects -- Chapter 6: Bride-stealing as a nomadic custom -- The laws of evolution -- Historical perspective -- Sati as a corollary of bride-stealing -- Bride-stealing as a legal action -- Chapter 7: Comparative analysis of bride-stealing: Helen and Sita -- Introduction -- Bride-stealing in The Iliad -- Bride-stealing in The Kamba Ramayanam -- Comparisons between the Greek and Indian epics -- Contrasts between the Greek and Indian epics -- Motives for abductions -- The Iliad as war poetry depicting a plundering way of life -- Heiress stealing -- The Kamba Ramayanam as war poetry -- Bride-stealing as a strategy of war -- The modus operandi -- Aftermath of abductions -- The case against misogyny -- Bride-stealing: Breisis and Ruma -- Chapter 8: Is it pre-existing misogyny or the onset of patriarchy? -- Patriarchy -- The fall of civilizations and the incursions of nomadic people -- Religion of the nomads as an underlying reason -- Myths as embedded messages of patriarchy -- Tiamet as matriarchal great goddess -- Pandora as matriarchal great goddess -- The myth of the Minotaur -- The story of Europa -- Messages in The Iliad -- Messages in The Kamba Ramayanam -- Institution of laws -- Chapter 9. Conclusion -- Introduction -- Postscript -- References.
    Date
    2013-12
    Type
    Dissertation
    Collections
    Indigenous Studies

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