Muitas das atuais pesquisas sobre família ressaltam a importância do casamento como espaço privilegiado (mas não único) para a expressão de sentimentos entre o par de amantes, seus ascendentes e descendentes. Fenômeno tão antigo quanto à sociedade Ocidental o casamento sofreu ao longo do tempo mudanças. Aponta-se que no Brasil o casamento cresceu em importância na passagem do século XIX para o XX (período de muitas mudanças) mas poucas são as pesquisas que se voltam ao estudo das relações cotidianas daquele período utilizando fontes do mesmo. Esta pesquisa pretendeu estudar como na passagem do XIX para o XX no Brasil, tendo a cidade de Ribeirão Preto como referência, o casamento pode se firmar como instituição que regulava as ações individuais, familiares e sociais pelo ordenamento proposto pelas e nas concepções jurídicas; neste contexto a legislação (cível e criminal) sofreu mudanças que pretenderam controlar o exercício da sexualidade, a moral e a formação de famílias pelos nubentes e jovens (preservando a virgindade) através do casamento. Selecionou-se (no Arquivo do Tribunal de Justiça da Comarca de Ribeirão Preto) 46 Inquéritos Policiais e 58 Processos Crime datados entre 1871 (o mais antigo encontrado) e 1942 (instauração do Novo Código Penal que reformulou a matéria dos crimes sexuais) que versavam sobre crimes sexuais vigentes no Código Penal de 1890. Estes foram lidos e as informações colhidas foram sistematizadas para a análise do material no sentido de estabelecer possíveis relações entre os crimes sexuais e a doutrina pró-casamento. Sobre o nosso material podemos inferir que os crimes sexuais ocorreram entre acusados próximos às ofendidas (namorados ou conhecidos), em sua maioria restrito (mas não exclusivos) à grupos de origem por nacionalidade e cor da pele, cujos pais das ofendidas foram responsáveis pela queixa que resultaram em arquivamentos (40%), casamentos espontâneos entre acusados e ofendidas (30%) e casamentos após prisão ou pronúncia do acusado (11.5%) – o casamento, como garantido por lei, extinguia o crime cometido -, condenações (9.6%) e outros documentos sem final (8.6%). A relação entre a intenção da queixa e o desfecho do caso pode ser estabelecida quando atentamos para os relatos existentes nos documentos (de testemunhas, advogados, delegados e juizes) cuja resolução (absolvição ou condenação) estaria pautada nos comportamentos morais esperados de homens e mulheres - como forma de punição aos que não seguissem os imperativos jurídico-morais que estimulavam os casamentos. Os dados também indicam que a maioria das queixas-crime estavam relacionadas ao não cumprimento de promessas matrimoniais por parte dos acusados (e as ofendidas recorriam a seus familiares e autoridades para conseguir seu intento) ou como maneira a abreviar a união quando não consentida pelos pais (casos de crimes sexuais sem a intenção de abreviar o casamento também ocorreram). Dessa maneira a queixa de crimes sexuais não servia apenas para penalizar acusados, mas também para promover casamentos. / Much of actual famylie´s researches show the marriage´s importance while favoured site (but not the only) for the sentimental expression between lovers, their ascendency and descendency. Ancient phenomenon as long as ocidental society marriage changed in the eras. In Brazil marriage became more important in 19th – 20th passage (period of many changes) but there are not much researches study the cotidian relationships from that era using historical material. This research tried study how in brazilian society 19th – 20th , using Ribeirão Preto city as refence, marriage firmed as institution (which organize individuals´, families´ and social´s actions) by and for the juridical´s conceptions; in that context the (civil and criminal) legislation suffered changes which controled the sexual´s exercice, the moral and families´formation by fiancées e younges (reserving virginity) by marriage. 46 policial inquiry and 58 criminal about sexual crimes between 1871 (the oldest find) and 1942 (inaturation of the brasilian´s New Penal Code) process were selected in the Archive´s Justice Tribunal (Ribeirão Preto´s judicial district) reguled by the 1890 Penal Code. This documents were readed and their informations were analised for estabilish possibles relations among sexual criminality and mariiage´s incentive. About our material we can say: sexual crimes occorred between proximal´s accused and victim (friends our boyfriens), in maiority between national groups by desendance and color, which parents were responsable by acusations which result in archivements (40%), espontaneal´s marriages between acussed and victim (30%) and marriages after accused´s prison/law suit (11.5%) – marriage like, as legal garanty, criminal extinguision -, condenations (9.6%) and other ones without final (8.6%). The relation between accusation´s intention and resolution can be established when we pay attention for the document´s relats (witness, defensal lawyers, judges and police officers) whose resoltion (condenation or absolvation) were ruled by moral behaviors expected for men and women – punition for those who not followed the moral and juridical´s rules which estimuled marriages. The material analisis show us relations between criminal accusations and no marriage accomplishment by acused ones (and the victims looked for their parents or legal authorits to get their intention: marriage) or for to antecipate the union no consented by parents (and sexual crimes without intention of marriage also happens); in this way sexual crimes´accusations were used for punish those who do not want to marriage and for to promote marriages.

This thesis contends that the idea of productive sexual continence - that is, abstinence from sexual activity understood as a constructive practice - significantly shaped a branch of thought within and around the British Aesthetic Movement of the late nineteenth century. Recent critical work has stressed sexual liberation or permissiveness as among the values of Aestheticism, and has read Aesthetic representations of continent states as indications of repressed, sublimated, or coded sexuality. Reading these representations through period-specific sexual discourses, I reveal an alternative discursive tradition within Aestheticism, in which the idea of productive sexual continence formed an important part of thinking about the 'aesthetic life', or the life lived according to aesthetic principles. The enquiry privileges the place of sexual ideas and values in the context of the intellectual culture of the Aesthetic Movement, and of the late-Victorian period generally, rather than focusing (as much scholarship has done) upon the writers' 'real-life' sexual behaviour, desires or identities. Sexual continence was often understood in the period as conducive both to individual health and happiness, and to one's relationship with society. At a time when Aesthetic writers were often accused of endorsing excessive individualism and excessive sensuality, this idea facilitated the elaboration of an aesthetic ethic that could incorporate intense sensuous (but not sensual) pleasure and also responsible sociability. After an Introduction that outlines the scope and method of the thesis, Chapter One illustrates the ubiquity of this idea in medical writing (professional and popular) about the sexual body in the period, and within Classical and Christian intellectual discourses commonly drawn upon by Aesthetic authors. Four chapters follow in which roughly the same idea is shown to take a central role in representations of the 'aesthetic life' in the work of four major writers. Chapter Two posits that there were broadly two traditions of reading Walter Pater in the late nineteenth century: one in which he was taken as an apologist for a radical sensual individualism, and another that emphasized his advocacy of restraint and reserve as both stylistic and ethical principles. Informed by early readings in this latter tradition, I demonstrate the plausibility of an interpretation of Pater as carefully distinguishing between aesthetic sensuousness and sensuality. Pater also, I argue, can viably be read as assessing the ideal aesthetic life in terms of health and love, and representing sexual continence as compatible with both. Chapter Three looks at Lionel Johnson's incorporation of this continent ideal into his Christianized cultural humanism, evolved in his letters, poetry, and criticism. In the poetry resistance to temptation is described as a process by which potentially sensual experience is made safely sensuous, while in the letters and criticism can be found admiration for various continent states that reconcile individual aesthetic experience with social responsibility. In Chapter Four, the pre-1900 essays of Vernon Lee are shown to be consistently anti-sensual, while distinguishing this sensuality from a kind of continent sense experience identified as aesthetic, and associated with Pater. Lee also uses this aesthetic sensuousness as a model for ideal - i.e. disinterested and respectful - relations between people, and between people and things. Chapter Five examines the co-existence of this discourse with other, contradictory models of aesthetic living in the work of George Moore. Moore was generally pro-sensual, and considered 'sex' (in the abstract) to be integral to art; but he also associated the production of art with continent states. An alternative, sexually continent Paterian tradition can, I argue, help to account for these discordant moments. A Conclusion briefly indicates the further relevance of such thinking beyond the bounds of the Aesthetic Movement.

The research assumes a narrative constructionist and feminist perspective in order to explore stories concerning men and women's first sexual experience. Such a metatheoretical stance is concerned with the ways that lives are constructed and storied through language. There is a concern for the myriad voices, both personal and social, that speaks through individuals' stories and for the manner in which these voices are represented. Three men and three women were interviewed to elicit narratives of first sexual experience. The analysis of interview transcripts tells first sexual experience as a rite of passage described in terms of certain mythic elements. That is, the experience of first sex concerns three stages. Firstly the individual is detached from the experience of sex while still a virgin. Secondly the experience itself is one that is ineffable and diffuse. Thirdly the individual must make sense of the experience. Participants' experience could be characterised as containing elements of demonic, heavenly or earthly myths about sexual relationships: demonic elements concerned the base , physical and painful experiences of first sex; the myth of heavenly love emphasises the mental and emotional connection between partners; an earthly myth tells sex as a predestined meeting of two partners. The manner in which stories were constructed was different for male and for female participants, and these differences have implications for the power dynamics at play between genders in the context of sexual interaction, especially first sex. Further the research's storied and ritualised approach to these gender differences suggests the performative aspect of gender. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Even though virginity in Turkey is commonly defined, thus gendered, as losing the hymen, in Turkish society, discourses of virginity connect to broader discussions, such as modernity, morality, social honor/shame, religion, family values, and even medicine (vaginismus and artificial hymen surgery). Previous scholarship on women’s rights in Turkey outlines how historical approaches by Kemalist secularism were not enough to diminish oppressive social norms such as virginity and how the current conservative government and elements of traditional Turkish society perpetuate virginity as an important virtue for unmarried women. This study adds seven Turkish mothers’ interpretations of what I am calling the contemporary Turkish discourse of virginity, as well as the mothers’ descriptions of their pedagogical practices on the topic of premarital sex with regard to their adult children. Here I report the semi-structured interviews I conducted with heterosexual urban Turkish mothers, 45-60 years old, college-educated, and socioeconomically privileged, living in Western Turkey, a region more closely aligned with European ideals. Participant mothers self-identify as Kemalist women, meaning secular, and use this perspective in describing virginity and its role in the contemporary Turkish society. I argue, first, that the “modern” participant mothers speak from an interstitial location, which is the result of contradictions between secular and conservative ideals in Turkey. Second, the participant mothers discuss virginity tactically from three different subjectivities: modern women who believe in women’s rights, modern mothers who respect their daughters’ choices regarding premarital sex, and caring mothers who worry about the social consequences of their daughters’ choices in a society that still stigmatizes the loss of virginity. Third, as a result of these shifting subjectivities, participant mothers observe as well as participate in a subtle social change in urban Western Turkey, which I argue is moving the politics of virginity from a social imperative toward covert practices of choice. The transcripts also show the underlying presumption of heterosexuality not only among participant mothers’ negotiations of virginity but also in the broader modern Turkish discourse of virginity. By bringing forward the voices of these participant mothers, this study aims to portray the complex structure of Turkish society and document interpretations of a discourse that oppresses Turkish women.

Virginity Testing, a traditional Zulu pre-nuptial custom that determines the worth of a bride, has been resurrected in communities in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The practice takes place during large community festivals when young girls have their genitals physically examined to determine whether they are virgins and results are made public. Supporters of the tradition claim that in fostering a value of chastity among its youth, it encourages abstinence from sexual intercourse which leads to a lower HIV infection rate and prevents the disease from spreading. Human rights activists disagree; Rather than slowing the spread of a disease, they argue, the practice instead endangers girls. Those who fail are often shunned and turn to prostitution, while those who pass may be exposed as potential targets for rape (due to a myth that says intercourse with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS). Despite a ban on the practice in 2005, the testing festivals continue, and are described by supporters as an important part of the preservation of Zulu culture. This thesis examines the ways in which human rights may be re-negotiated for young girls in Zulu communities while maintaining a respect for local culture. It moves beyond the traditional debate between relativism and universalism in order to propose solutions to rights violations in culturally diverse contexts by exploring ideas of inclusive human rights and capabilities theories.

La thèse présente est une étude canonique traitant la question de l’obligation canonique du célibat des ministres vers l’an 380 en Occident et en Orient. De fait, une comparaison entre les Traditions orientales et occidentales est effectuée. La recherche est centralisée sur l’interprétation de la péricope 1 Cor. 7, 1-9 de l’Apôtre Paul, qui fut interprétée inexactement par les papes et influença beaucoup la teneur de leurs Décrétales. Puis une analyse est faite de tous les canons orientaux du IVe siècle par les Conciles particuliers et le Concile œcuménique de Nicée comme aussi des lettres canoniques des Pères grecs. Ce matériel est une partie du droit canonique oriental. Les Conciles sont divisés en deux parties, avant et après le 380. Ensuite une approche canonique des décisions conciliaires occidentales est réalisée à travers les Conciles particuliers du IVe siècle. Ces canons présentent la première imposition de l’obligation canonique du célibat au niveau local. L’étude continue à analyser le contenu des Décrétales des trois papes : Damase, Sirice et Innocent I, qui imposent le célibat après 380, d’une manière officielle et au niveau universel en utilisant l’autorité (auctoritas) et le pouvoir (potestas) du Siège de Rome. / This thesis is a canonical study which treats the question of the canonical obligation of the celibacy of priests in 380 in West and at East. It is a comparison between the eastern and western Tradition. The Research is using as important basis the extract of 1 Cor. 7, 1-9 from Apostle Paul’s Letter. This extract was misunderstood by the popes and influenced a lot their Decrees. It has been done an analysis of all the oriental canons of 4th century of the First Ecumenical Council, of the local Councils and also of the canonical Letters of the Holy Fathers. This material is a part of the eastern canon law. The Councils are devised in two parts, before and after 380.In accordance to this there is a canonical approach to the decisions of the western councils, through the local Councils of the 4th century. Those canons present the first imposition of the canonical obligation of celibacy in a local level. The study continues by analysing the contest of the Decrees of three popes: Damasus, Siricius and Innocent I, who imposed the celibacy after 380 in an official way and in a universal level by using the authority (auctoritas) and the power (potestas) of the See of Rome.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Lost-and-found purity is central to William Blake’s illuminated book <em>Visions of the Daughters of Albion</em> (1793). In <em>Visions</em>, Blake’s central character Oothoon embraces the otherness of her sexual desires, flies off to be with her lover Theotormon, but not before being brutally raped and impregnated by Bromion. The assault leads to Theotormon’s refusal to be with Oothoon because of her putatively compromised state. Today, in the shadow of queer conceptualizations of gender, sexuality, and virginity, how do we understand Blake’s narrative of loss and rejection, of injurious force and sexual violence? This thesis lays the critical groundwork for a queer reading of the text that is more than critical – i.e. that is a re-visioning of the text’s details, and is re-writing of its narrative premise.</p> <p>Through unconventional scholarly approaches, this thesis tackles issues of identity in Blake’s <em>Visions</em> from three separate vanguards that each further break open the heuristic and speculative possibilities in Blake’s work. Approaching Blake’s <em>Visions</em> from a Numerological perspective via deconstructing the central characters’ names and explicating the poem through their respective algorithms, the first section examines eighteenth century conceptions of the soul and its place within literature through locating and recognizing the souls of Blake’s poetry of lost souls. Considering sexual essentiality and the potential recovering of virginity, the second section reads <em>Visions</em> from the vantage of Schizosexuality (a fourth component to the hetero-/homo-/bisexual paradigm) to liberate Oothoon from both literal and metaphorical chains. From these critical approaches of Numerology and Schizosexuality, the thesis concludes with a visual book. Through inverting the gender axes of the love triangle central to Blake’s <em>Visions</em>, the visual book queerly re-visions <em>Visions</em> by following a male-Oothoon (Oathe13) flying off to be with his male lover (a homo-oriented Theotormon – Zucchicarro34) but not before being accosted by a female-Bromion (Aquabolt21). The critical chapters together with the visual book complete this thesis’ queer re-vision of Blake’s <em>Visions of the Daughters of Albion. </em></p> / Master of Arts (MA)