Description

Book Synopsis
Offers a study of polyandry, wife-selling, and a variety of related practices in China during the Qing dynasty. This book explores the functions played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in the survival strategies of the rural poor under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes.

Trade Review
"Sommer's exhaustive analysis of legal cases involving illegal marriage practices is the first systematic attempt to document their prevalence and grapple with their implications for our understanding of gender order and state-society relations in the Qing." -- Janet M Theiss Cross Currents "The book, based on a thorough and probing reading of a prodigious number of heretofore unexamined archival documents, offers unparalleled insights... with its vivid recounting of the passion, violence, and desperation that motivated the men and women implicated in illicit practices of polyandry, wife sale, and prostitution, it animates the historical record." American Historical Review

Polyandry and WifeSelling in Qing Dynasty China

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    A Hardback by Matthew H. Sommer

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      View other formats and editions of Polyandry and WifeSelling in Qing Dynasty China by Matthew H. Sommer

      Publisher: University of California Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 15/09/2015
      ISBN13: 9780520287037, 978-0520287037
      ISBN10: 0520287037

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Offers a study of polyandry, wife-selling, and a variety of related practices in China during the Qing dynasty. This book explores the functions played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in the survival strategies of the rural poor under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes.

      Trade Review
      "Sommer's exhaustive analysis of legal cases involving illegal marriage practices is the first systematic attempt to document their prevalence and grapple with their implications for our understanding of gender order and state-society relations in the Qing." -- Janet M Theiss Cross Currents "The book, based on a thorough and probing reading of a prodigious number of heretofore unexamined archival documents, offers unparalleled insights... with its vivid recounting of the passion, violence, and desperation that motivated the men and women implicated in illicit practices of polyandry, wife sale, and prostitution, it animates the historical record." American Historical Review

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