Technology and Gender

Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China

By: Francesca Bray

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Paperback | 3 July 1997 | Edition Number 1

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444 Pages

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22.77 x 15.54 x 2.88

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In this feminist history of eight centuries of private life in China, Francesca Bray inserts women into the history of technology and adds technology to the history of women. Bray takes issue with the Orientalist image that traditional Chinese women were imprisoned in the inner quarters, deprived of freedom and dignity, and so physically and morally deformed by footbinding and the tyrannies of patriarchy that they were incapable of productive work. She proposes a concept of gynotechnics, a set of everyday technologies that define women's roles, as a creative new way to explore how societies translate moral and social principles into a web of material forms and bodily practices.

Bray examines three different aspects of domestic life in China, tracing their developments from 1000 to 1800 A.D. She begins with the shell of domesticity, the house, focusing on how domestic space embodied hierarchies of gender. She follows the shift in the textile industry from domestic production to commercial production. Despite increasing emphasis on women's reproductive roles, she argues, this cannot be reduced to childbearing. Female hierarchies within the family reinforced the power of wives, whose responsibilities included ritual activities and financial management as well as the education of children.

Industry Reviews

"Illuminating; [Bray's] investigation of the techniques by which cultures reproduce themselves over time also breathes new life into the history of technology."--"Times Literary Supplement

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List of Illustrations and Table
List of Chinese Dynasties
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Framework of Everyday Life: Technology, Women and Cultural History	p. 1
Building a Tradition: The Construction of Chinese Social Space	p. 49
House Form and Meaning	p. 59
Encoding Patriarchy	p. 91
The Text of the Chinese House	p. 151
Women's Work: Weaving New Patterns in the Social Fabric	p. 173
Fabrics of Power: The Canonical Meanings of Women's Work	p. 183
Economic Expansion and Changing Division of Labor	p. 206
Women's Work and Women's Place	p. 237
Meanings of Motherhood: Reproductive Technologies and Their Uses	p. 273
Medical History and Gender History	p. 283
Reproductive Medicine and the Dual Nature of Fertility	p. 317
Reproductive Hierarchies	p. 335
Conclusion: Gynotechnics and Civilization	p. 369
Glossary of Technical Terms	p. 381
References Cited	p. 387
Index	p. 411
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Technology and Gender

Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in History

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