Male Heir Research Articles

The Princess Nun: Bunchi, Buddhist Reform, and Gender in Early Edo Japan by Gina Cogan (review)

Reviewed by: The Princess Nun: Bunchi, Buddhist Reform, and Gender in Early Edo Japan by Gina Cogan Cecilia Segawa Seigle (bio) The Princess Nun: Bunchi, Buddhist Reform, and Gender in Early Edo Japan. By Gina Cogan. Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge, Mass., 2014. xvi, 309 pages. $49.95. This is a biographical work about the life and the achievements of the seventeenth-century nun Bunchi Daitsū (1619–97), the oldest daughter of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596–1680). To give a little background, her birth was inopportune for the emperor and the Tokugawa shogun, because the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada had just arranged a marriage of his youngest daughter, Masako, to the emperor. It was the ambition of Hidetada’s father, the first shogun Ieyasu, to have one of his granddaughters marry an emperor, in order to ennoble his lineage and legitimize the Tokugawa shogunal line as the ruler of Japan. Hidetada discovered that Gomizunoo’s mistress Oyotsu, a lady-in-waiting from a middle-class aristocracy, had borne a son, Prince Kamo, in 1618, and a daughter, Princess Ume (Bunchi), in 1619. Hidetada was incensed and postponed the marriage plan, but after exiling Oyotsu and some courtiers, he did consummate the wedding in 1620 in order to achieve Ieyasu’s goal. The exiled were exonerated after the wedding. Bunchi and Prince Kamo, who died at age four, were unfortunately mistreated by the court and the bakufu (shogunate government). For example, Prince Kamo and Princess Ume were never given the imperial titles of shinnō and naishinnō. Their appelations remained ō and nyoō, a royal son and a royal daughter but not of the direct imperial line. This must have made a great difference for Bunchi and for the respect of others around her. When her father Gomizunoo retired without a male heir, Bunchi, as the oldest surviving child, could have succeeded her father. But it was Okiko, the daughter of Tokugawa Masako, the empress, who became the first female emperor in more than 800 years. According to Cogan, however, Bunchi grew up happily enough in court, loved by her father and surrounded by many aunts, cousins, and younger half-siblings. As is well known, it was an exciting time when the perpetual wars of the Sengoku period (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) had ended and peace was established by the bakufu. It was a culturally vibrant time because of Gomizunoo’s interest in all aspects of arts and culture. Cogan tells us that Bunchi, as a child, observed many ordained princes and princesses administering Buddhist rites at the imperial court and learned the importance of these rituals in court life and in the diplomacy with the bakufu. Studying Buddhism with the Zen master Isshi, whom Gomizunoo patronized, Bunchi gradually became interested in Buddhism, but Gomizunoo [End Page 132] wanted her to marry for her happiness. The 13-year-old Bunchi was married to Takatsukasa Norihira. The marriage lasted for only six years; two years later she was ordained and became a nun. Cogan’s approach to the subject is scholarly and meticulous. It is of great interest to us in view of the scarcity of information about Bunchi and the relatively new scholarship (since 1980) on women under Buddhist discipline in Japan. It is also interesting to me because Cogan’s thorough and careful method of exposition reminds me of a pyramidal construction. On the first page of the introduction, she states very clearly the pivotal achievement of Bunchi, which lays the cornerstones of her book: Bunchi made regulations the foundation of communal life at Enshōji and built a precept platform. Cogan expands on these cornerstones by giving out new facts gradually, repeating the main point again and again. One subject Cogan is concerned with early in the book is Bunchi’s marriage and divorce. She explores the question of whether Norihira left Bunchi or she left Norihira, and she spends some space considering possible answers. After the divorce, Norihira remarried, but he never reached the position of chancellor, regent, or minister as other members of his family did. Since the highest court positions were rotated for short periods among the men of sekke (the five top noble regental families), Cogan concludes: “Norihira...

Don Quixote’s Ana Félix: The Virile Morisca Maiden and the Crisis of Imperial Masculinity

Don Quixote’s Ana Félix: The Virile Morisca Maiden and the Crisis of Imperial Masculinity Lucas A. Marchante-Aragón As D. Quixote and other characters are being entertained in a galley leaving the port of Barcelona, they receive news that an Algerian corsair brigantine has been spotted nearby. A chase follows, two Spanish sailors are shot dead from the enemy vessel, and finally the brigantine is subdued. As the captain of the Spanish galley wants to punish the one responsible for the death of his two men he asks the crew who the leader of their expedition is. To this question a man answers: “Este mancebo, señor, que aquí veis es nuestro arráez,” and the narrator continues: “Y mostróle uno de los más bellos y gallardos mozos que pudiera pintar la humana imaginación” (525). A moment later, the Viceroy of Catalonia, who had just boarded the galley, takes charge of the examination as follows: –Dime, arráez, ¿eres turco de nación o moro o renegado? A lo cual el mozo respondió, en lengua asimesmo castellana: –Ni soy turco de nación, ni moro, ni renegado. –Pues ¿qué eres? – replicó el virrey. –Mujer cristiana – respondió el mancebo. (526) This was Ana Félix, who appears first as an enigma, a hieroglyph, a puzzle to be deciphered by the other characters as well as by the reader, whose horizon of expectation is left in suspense, as is manifested by the Viceroy’s question “¿qué eres?” (526). Her passing for a male Turk next to her confession of being “mujer cristiana” challenges interpretation. The baffling quality of what she first confesses sanctions her power to voice her own narrative, which in the viceroy’s words, echoing an expected reader reaction, “más es cosa para admirarla que para creerla” (526). From that moment she attempts to control her own story and to offer her own interpretation [End Page 3] of herself as she exposes her male appearance and virile performance to defend her innocence before a court that has already sentenced her both as the killer of the Spanish sailors and as a Muslim. Before this surprise entrance, the reader had been made aware of the existence of Ana Félix a few chapters earlier when Sancho, returning from his dissatisfying adventure as governor of the fictional Isle of Barataria, ran into an old friend, Ricote, a former neighbor of his and a Morisco. He had left Spain when the first rumors about the expulsion decree started to circulate in order to find a safe haven for his family in northern Europe. He was now returned, camouflaged amidst a group of German pilgrims, in order to recoup the treasure he left hidden in his lands before the expulsion. In his conversation with Sancho, Ricote asked whatever happened to his wife and daughter. To what Sancho responded with the account of how he witnessed Ricote’s family abandoning their town for the north of Africa, and how the town’s folk were extremely distressed by their leaving, especially the male heir of an important Old-Christian local family, Don Pedro Gregorio, who was rumored to be in love with Ricote’s daughter. When the reader encounters the Morisco girl nine chapters later in Barcelona, dressed as a Turkish male and commanding a Turkish galley, the problems associated to the expulsion of the Moricos are brought again to the forefront as she tells her story and how her suitor Don Gregorio remains captive in Africa dressed, for his safety, in women’s clothes. The episode begs the following questions: What is the meaning of the insistence on the virile construction of the character of the Moorish girl and the feminization of the Old-Christian youth? Is the Morisco woman the agent that weakens the Spanish male as D. Gregorio became “perdido” (527) for her allure? (After all, it was her beauty what led Don Gregorio to a precarious position dressed as a woman and in danger of being sodomized, as Ana’s account implies). Is Ana at all a queer and/or a queering presence as cross dresser (of herself and others) and as an Oriental...

«La infanta se ha de casar con quien facilite la paz o disponga los medios para la guerra». Las negociaciones para la realización del matrimonio entre la infanta María Teresa y Leopoldo I (1654-1657)

La muerte del príncipe Baltasar Carlos en el año 1646 convirtió a la joven infanta María Teresa en la única heredera directa de Felipe IV, por lo que su matrimonio se convirtió en una cuestión fundamental dentro la política europea durante las décadas centrales del siglo XVII. Su matrimonio con el heredero del emperador Fernando III fue la opción elegida por Felipe IV como la más conveniente mientras no tuviera heredero varón, pero las negociaciones para hacer realidad este enlace distaron mucho de ser sencillas. En el siguiente artículo, se examinarán las negociaciones mantenidas entre Madrid y Viena durante los años 1654 y 1657 a través de la correspondencia intercambiada por Felipe IV y sus embajadores en la corte imperial, para fijar el matrimonio entre la infanta María Teresa y el que sería el emperador Leopoldo I, prestando especial atención a las relaciones políticas que se forjaron entre el Imperio y la Monarquía Hispánica en torno al matrimonio de la posible heredera de la que todavía era la Corona más extensa de Europa.

Kreuzzug und regionale Herrschaft: Die älteren Grafen von Berg 1147–1225

German crusade studies are slowly but surely gathering pace. In this new book Alexander Berner investigates the involvement of the counts of Berg in the crusades between the middle of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries. The counts of Berg were one of the leading noble families of the Rhineland during the high middle ages, dominating the regional political and seigneurial scenes together with a number of other powerful families, such as the counts of Jülich, Cleve and Sayn, and the archbishop of Cologne. The chronological boundaries of Berner’s study are set by the first appearance of a crusading count of Berg on the Second Crusade and the disappearance of the high medieval dynasty of the older counts of Berg with the death of its last male heir Count Engelbert II in 1225. The centrepiece of the study is an investigation into the crusading activities of the four counts of Berg who took part in the Second, Third, Fifth and the Albigensian Crusades. Berner combines traditional German regional history ( Landesgeschichte ) with approaches of recent, mostly English-language crusade studies that explore the political, social and cultural contexts that promoted crusading enthusiasm and shaped a crusading culture beyond the military campaigns. Like Berner’s book, most of these studies, by scholars such as Marcus Bull, Jonathan Riley-Smith, Jonathan Phillips, Kathleen Thompson and Nicholas Paul to mention just a few, are focused on comital families and their involvement with the crusades.

Gender preferences in the CEO successions of family firms: Family characteristics and human capital of the successor

Reviews of the literature reveal that empirical work on gender and CEO successions in family firms is still rare. Building on a unique data set of CEO successions, we investigate labor market constraints in CEO succession contests in family firms with concentrated ownership. We find that a preference for male family heirs limits labor market selectivity. Furthermore, we find that only 23% of all single family successors in our sample are females, indicating that males are still the preferred choice. Family successions are significantly more likely to occur when the predecessor has a son. Under specific family structures, such as when both genders are represented among the predecessors' children, the number of female successors decreases to 19% of family successions with one successor. Sons increase the likelihood of CEO succession contest constraints. We observe that the selected female family successors seem to be equipped with higher levels of human capital compared to the selected male family successors. Our results indicate that male family successors are chosen not because of higher human capital levels but because of the contest rulers' gender preferences in favor male family heirs, which adversely affect the selectivity of CEO succession contests.

Transgressing Boundaries despite the Barriers: Arab Women in Four Recent Films

Transgressing Boundaries despite the Barriers: Arab Women in Four Recent Films

Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme for Protecting the Survival of the Girl Child in Haryana: A Critique

The article explores the issue of the conditional cash transfers scheme for the girl child in Haryana. The beneficiary mothers and the persons involved in the implementation of the scheme were interviewed with the help of an in-depth interview guide to gather quantitative and qualitative data. It was found that though the scheme’s aim is to improve attitudes and create a favourable attitude towards the girl child, it has not been able to achieve the desired outcomes. Education and the upbringing of the girl child were not concerns of either parents or stakeholders responsible for implementing the scheme. The questions raised by the study are: when parents still want a male heir for their family, will governmental efforts succeed in stopping female foeticide, especially in the case of a third daughter?

Iphis and Ianthe

Iphis and Ianthe CHARLES MARTIN After Ovid, Metamorphoses, IX.666–797; with reference to Oxyrinchus Papyrus 744 Written two thousand years ago or better, Then tossed away on a papyrus heap Where it lay buried until now, this letter From a trader peddling clay pots or sheep, Instructs his pregnant wife, lest she forget her Maternal duties: “Know that you may keep The child, if it’s a boy; if not a son, Well then, my dear, you know what must be done.” Of course she does, for any woman knows it, Even if she’s not told, “Use common sense: We can’t afford so much as the deposit On a dowry’s impossible expense!” And so she must give up a girl, expose it To wild dogs and the wilder elements. Unless . . . Unless? “There’s no alternative: We’re just too poor to let a daughter live . . .” So Ligdus to his woman, Telethusa, Who alternates between self-hating rage And cursing out her husband. It’s no use: a Grief arises in her she cannot assuage— What do men know of childbirth? How profuse a Shower of tears rains down upon that page, Because of his implacable decision! That evening, in bed, though, came a vision: arion 23.3 winter 2016 Before her stood the shining goddess, Isis, Surrounded by the members of her court, In full regalia: had Telethusa’s crisis Summoned the goddess hither? Yes, in short. (I often find a summary suffices, Where others might include the full report.) For Isis came just as her water broke, And as the woman gasped, the goddess spoke, And what she said made Telethusa shiver: “Ignore your husband! Listen just to me, And when your time is come and you deliver, Accept your child, whatever it may be, And bring it up. Don’t sell it down the river, Or toss it on the midden, heartlessly. If you obey me, you will not complain That money spent on me was spent in vain.” She swore obedience to her defender, And in due time, and all quite painlessly, She had a girl, and to conceal its gender, The nurse was told to “feed my boy.” Secrecy Attended the swaddling of the wee pretender, Whose nurse and mother always called it ‘he’. Ligdus, with a male heir now, knew bliss, And did not think or guess aught was amiss; Her father named her Iphis (my Italics), A boy’s name that was used by girls as well, Like Tracy or like Jordan or like Alex. (You may remember ‘Pat’ from SNL.) One wonders though, about the . . . well, the phallic Situation : was there no show and tell? Did Ligdus never go along with ‘him’ For an outing at the bathhouse or the gym? IPHIS AND IANTHE 118 Deception started small, and the unwary Were taken by it as it grew and grew, As Iphis did. The swift years do not tarry: Her parents realize what they must do. At thirteen, they arrange for her to marry The girl next door, Ianthe, whom she knew, Of course, a girl as beautiful as she. Both hearts are warmed by first love equally, Although each has a different expectation: Ianthe is inclined now to entwine, Iphis feels a gnawing desperation: “There is a flaw in nature’s grand design, Which I embody! Where in all creation Is there another case as strange as mine?” Poor Iphis cries, “A maid who loves a maid! How very singular I am,” she said. “Oh, what will be the end reserved for Iphis, Gripped by such odd, indecent feelings known To no one else? Far sharper than a knife is This passion that cuts right through to the bone, But leaves me with the loneliness my life is, Weeping like Niobe, transformed into stone, Doomed like Oedipus—will I get my own complex For loving someone of the selfsame sex?” But it wasn’t just the global implications, Her fear that there was no one anywhere Like her at all among the teeming nations, No other girl with whom she’d ever share Her woes and sorrows, transports and elations, That added on as much to her despair...

Un erou uitat: Mihai Cavaler de Iacobici / A Forgotten Hero: Michael Knight of Iacobici

Michael Iacobici (1822–1892) is a typical example of social promotion granted to the Romanians in the Banatian Military Border by a career under arms. Born in the Banatian Military Border, Michael Iacobici graduated his first classes in his birthvillage of Armeniș. Therafter he studied probably at the Mathematical school or the Regimental school in Caransebeș, the main city of the 13th Wallachian-Illyric Border Regiment. After spending a time at home, young Michael Iacobici enlisted 1838 as an under-officer in the 13th Border-Regiment. Promoted as secondlieutenent at the beginning of 1849, he was dispatched with a battalion of his regiment in garrison at the fortress of Timișoara (Temesvar) besieged durig 107 days by the Hungarian revolutionary army. On August 8, a platoon of Romanian border-soldiers under the command of second-lieutenent Iacobici, having attacked by surprise a unit of Hungarian soldiers outside the fortress, seized two 3-pound guns and 54 rifles, taking over at the same time 55 prisoners of war. For his bravery performed in front of the garrison, Iacobici was awarded – though with delay due to internal intrigues – with the imperial order of the Iron Crown 3d class (1850) and promoted to the rank of a lieutenent (1852). 1853 Michael Iacobici was appointed as a citizen of honour by the Mayor and City-Council of Timișoara. The same year, according to the statute of the Iron Crown-Order, lieutenent Iacobici was promoted by an Imperial Diploma to the nobilitary rank of a knight (Ritter) and entitled to an coat of arms. Both nobility and coat of arms were to be transmitted to his legal male and female heirs. Retired in 1872 from his job in the army with the rank of a major, Iacobici involved himself in the struggle of the Banatian Romanians for national rights, as deputy of the former General Traian Doda. Michael Iacobici’ son, Ignatius (1845–1905) was lieutenent-colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army and deputy-commander of a regiment in Transylvania; his grandson, Iosif Iacobici (1884–1952), started as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army and after the union of Transylvania and the Banat with Romania (1918) became in time a high ranking officer in the Romanian Royal Army as a three stars general, Minister of War and Chief of the Romanian Army’s General-Staff.

America’s Birth Certificate: The Oldest Globular World Map: c. 1507

In 2012, a woodcut print for a c. 11 centimeter globe was discovered in an ancient volume in the University Library in Munich. This pivotal 1 million US$ globular world map, which only differs marginally from four other extant woodcut copies, attracted worldwide media attention. This discovery ignited the search for the date and the origin of an enigma in the form of an intricate secretive small Renaissance map. The aforementioned had been acquired inserted in a French adapted and unauthorised copy of the Introduction to Cosmography dated 1507 and printed in Lyon. The son of a Dutch American immigrant from Flusching, H. C. Kalbfleisch bought it in Paris in 1881 and brought it to New York. The author offers key evidence that this secretive map is an important misinterpreted and misdated cultural historical prototype which antedates five later woodcut copies: gores in Munich UB, Minnesota-Hauslab, Christie’s, SL Munich and Offenburg. He proves that its size and scale are inspired by a calculation of Leonardo da Vinci as described in one of his Codices, and applied on the 1504 Ostrich Egg globe discovered in London 2012. The research methodology used is stemmatics as developed by the German scholar K. Lachmann applied on ancient maps and the evaluation of the scientific aspects and architectural, historical and artistic design. Evidence was offered that the Introduction to Cosmography printed in France in which the engraved map was loosely inserted, together with two additional copper engravings, was printed prior to March 1508. The map research leads to the Benedictine monk and German cartographer, globe constructor and astrologist Donnus Nicolaus Germanus. The latter was the first who constructed a terrestrial and a celestial globe for the library of the Pope Pius IV. The two additional copper engravings lead to the Dutch born medical doctor and astrologer Guillelmus de Wissekerke, supplier of astrological instruments for French kings and the Duke of Milan. The artistic decorator for these copper engravings L. Boulengier was from the city of Albi in France, a possible key stepping-stone to the Papacy in Rome. The cathedral in Albi stood as an architectural symbol against the Cathars. Boulengier drew his inspiration from the Gothic flamboyant style of that world heritage cathedral in his home town Albi. He decorated these engravings on behalf of the powerful and art-loving Florimond de Robertet, Secretary of State for three subsequent French kings including King Francis I, 1515. Robertet was a client of Leonardo da Vinci. A date on two of the three artistic prints is a key date for the royalty of France. The French king Louis XII lost the succession of his House Valois-Orleans to the House of Valois-Angouleme after failing to produce a male heir to the throne. The author concludes that the small globular map naming America is America’s oldest Birth Certificate. A printed letter—early 1508—by Martin Waldseemuller provides the date. The small map precedes by more than eight years the large woodcut world map discovered in 1903 in Castle Wolfegg (Baden-Wurttemberg) by the Austrian Jesuit priest Dr. J. Fischer and which was sold to the Library of Congress, in 2001 for US $10 million. This research is a reappraisal. It is also a rebuttal of a misdirection in the history of science and a misleading error of 133 years ago. It combines medical, geographical, and cultural history of science. It leads the reader through Italian and French Renaissance and concentrates on aspects of architecture, map design, Leonardo da Vinci, French Royalty, and the early discovery of America. It offers a surprising ending leading to the city of New York, named Nouvelle-Angouleme in 1524.

Marriage and Family values: a Case Study of Jiezhu (a religious menopausal ritual) performed in China

In traditional China, a woman’s role is defined by her attachment/ submission to three men – her father, her husband and her son – through her three stages of life. Jiezhu is an initiatory ritual for menopausal women. It espouses patriarchal family values with the husband as the transmitter of the Buddhist prayer beads and the male offspring as the lineage carrier. A woman is supposed to be “happy” if she has a husband and male heir. Jiezhu enacts and reinforces marriage as the “ideal” life for a woman with all the ritual symbols in its scriptures, texts, songs and accessories.

Robert the Bruce King of the Scots, by Michael Penman

Robert the Bruce King of the Scots, by Michael Penman. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2014. xi, 443 pp. $45.00 US (cloth). The seven hundredth anniversary of the Scots' victory against the English on the field of Bannockburn and the approach of a new referendum on Scottish independence have prompted the publication of a host of studies of the kingdom's most glorious moment and its most famous son. For some forty years authors laying claim to serious scholarship have almost inevitably begun their studies of the period with a careful examination of Geoffrey Barrow's monumental biography, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 1965, 1976, 1988, 2005). Yet, for all the accolades showered on this book (the front dust cover on the 2005 edition describes it as [t]he best book on Scottish history ever written) and despite no fewer than four editions, the Robert Bruce of Barrow fame has remained a relatively elusive figure: a man gifted with the ability to conceive of his small kingdom as a fully sovereign nation, a political player whose ruthlessness matched--and occasionally outweighed --his qualities as a ruler, a valiant knight, a good judge of potential enemies and likely supporters, but ultimately a figure largely indistinguishable from the hero of late medieval and early modern Scottish myth. Penman's Robert Bruce boasts all the qualities of the idol, but is a figure with considerably more substance. He was in some senses remarkable, in others ordinary, a king who demonstrated both shrewd judgment and poor miscalculation, a genuinely pious Christian but also a ruler unusually indifferent to the spectre of excommunication. In Penman's capable hands, in short, Robert I loses many of his Hegelian qualities while maintaining his sterling reputation as the greatest of Scottish kings. Some of Penman's conclusions will be thoroughly familiar to admirers of the medieval king. In the difficult years of the early reign widespread opposition to Bruce's seizure of the throne created deep rifts in Scottish magnate society, particularly among those who, through kinship or by affinity, sided with the Comyn family and viewed the Balliol crown as legitimate. English designs on the Scottish kingdom (although diminished after the death of Edward I) and the enduring censure of the papacy presented serious challenges to the establishment, then the maintenance, of Bruce's rule. Although more secure on the throne after the discovery and suppression of a plot to topple him in 1320, Bruce's failure to produce a male heir (until March 1326) posed a threat to the stability of his regime and, in 1315 and 1318, lay at the heart of contentious efforts to legislate the royal succession in parliament. The treaty of 1328 with England finally recognized the sovereign status of the kingdom of the Scots, but created fresh obstacles for Bruce and his infant successor when it failed to resolve the claims of the so-called Disinherited. If there is much in this work that is recognizable, there is also a great deal that is new and exciting. Penman's skill in separating historical fact from a tangle of medieval and modern sources is laudable and his command of recent scholarly literature relating to fourteenth-century Scotland, Ireland, England, and Europe comprehensive. His wide reading of primary and secondary sources enables him to place Bruce firmly within the political, cultural, and economic contexts of his day and to offer valuable insights into the latter's life and career. …

PROBLEMATIKA PEMBAGIAN HARTA WARISAN PASCA TSUNAMI DI KABUPATEN ACEH BARAT (Studi Kasus Kecamatan Johan Pahlawan Kabupaten Aceh Barat)

Inheritance law occupies an important role in Islamic law. In West Aceh, at every distribution of inheritance raises some issues which ultimately bring about to the death. The problem what is the inheritance distribution problem after tsunami at Johan Pahlawan sub-district in West Aceh, what is the solution on the problematic inheritance distribution at Johan Pahlawan sub-district of West Aceh. Method of the research is qualitative research. This research is field research. Therefore, the researcher conducted observations, interviews and documents analysis to know the problem related to the problem of the study. It shows that the distribution of the inheritance problem after tsunami that lack of expert in faraidh, the loosing of lands’ documents ownership, the loosing of inheritance objects and haste distribution. The majority of the society at Johan Pahlawan sub-district of West Aceh is Muslim as there is influences of Islamic culture then the inheritance distribution are: the total inheritance of parents, but in the community itself is also common division based on an agreement with the family usually initiate of the male heirs.

Female and male domestic partners in wine-grape farms (Cognac, France): conjugal asymmetry and gender discrimination in family businesses

Agriculture in contemporary France is dominated by family businesses. On Cognac wine-grape farms, training for the occupation and taking over the business is the result of parents' efforts to socialize one (or more) of their children. This long-term socialization varies by gender. Farm property, professional skills, and the status of business head are in most cases transmitted to male heirs. Female heirs suffer discrimination in their families. If they have one or more brothers, their families take it as a given that a male heir ought to inherit the farm, and that female heirs are ‘not interested.’ To elucidate these phenomena, I will compare two asymmetrical situations, ‘ordinary cases’ – when a male heir heads the grape-growing business – vs. ‘exceptional cases,’ when a female heir is farm head. For the first, I will show that female domestic partners' off-farm salaried labor does not put an end to on-farm productive or financial cooperation in the couple. For the second situation, I show that male domestic partners, working on or off the farm, are always problematic, presenting another obstacle for women wishing to take over a family grape-growing business. By focusing analysis on the asymmetry of female and male domestic partners in family businesses, this article thus makes an empirical contribution to knowledge of discrimination against female business heads.

Capital Concentration on Land Ownership in Rural Bangladesh

This research was a case study on a selected sub-clan in rural Bangladesh that explored the pattern of capital concentration on rural land and identified the factors behind it. The primary data on a village, a sub-clan and its belonging households were used for the study. A panel survey in 2013 complemented for data collected earlier in 2004 covering a period of over hundred years. Originating in the early twentieth century from a very large farmer, there were 28 male heirs in the sample sub-clan in its 4th generation, who were categorised as non-farm household and marginal, small, medium and large farmers ascending to their land ownership. Based on the transactions, prices and returns to land during 1906–2013, its market was classified into four phases in sequence from derisive to desirous. The capital output ratio of land increased to an extreme high for an excessive price hike that led the households to get ambitious for land in the contemporary desirous market. The land-rich medium and large farmers were found to accumulate over three-forth of all purchases indicating their more contributions to land capitalisation. Their major sources of fund were surplus over service income followed by that of agriculture and business. Moreover, continuous capital concentration made the land a commodity, for which a few households with fast-rising service income were even engaged in reckless purchases. However, people with investment opportunities in other high-productive sectors were less eager to purchase agricultural land.

Intestacy Rights of Widows in South Africa: Has Customary Law Been Oppressive?

For centuries a hybrid of British and Roman-Dutch law peacefully co-existed with African Customary Law. However, there has been growing concern for women’s rights as opposed to cultural autonomy. This has resulted in the South African Constitutional Court finding that African Customary Intestacy Law contravenes with the South African Constitution which promotes equal rights for men and women. Accordingly, customary law is not permitted to be practiced. The first part of this thesis explores the difficulties of identifying who is a widow for the purposes of intestacy. Nonetheless, this thesis analyses how western scholars have misinterpreted the effect of male primogeniture and polygamy as oppressive against women. The second stage explores the practice of polygamy and male primogeniture and how it has ensured the maintenance and up-keep of widows, who otherwise may have been forced to live in austerity. These benefits arguably outweigh the few cases where women have been mistreated. Furthermore, the thesis sheds light upon how many tribes such as the Bantu and Kwa-Zulu tribes require the male heir to consult the widow on how the estate should be run. The underlying theme focuses on how South African judges from a British or Dutch background do not have the requisite knowledge to pass judgment on the impact of African Customary Law on widows. In the British or Dutch culture intestacy law aims to protect the individual. Contrary to this, customary intestacy law protects the whole extended family. The next stage of the thesis outlines how customary law is still practiced in most tribes today, as they are unaware of the implications of the Bhe decision. It is suggested that the legislature initiate collusion between anthropologists as well as men and women from various Black tribes to discuss how it can be ensured that African Customary Law can continue to exist.

Destins d’hommes libres à l’époque carolingienne d’après les chartes de Saint-Sauveur de Monte Amiata

Destinies of freen men in the Carolingian period from the charters of Saint-Sauveur of Monte Amiata. Some scholars believed to find, among the archives of Monte Amiata, new evidences of a rapid decline of small allodial property and the depression of liberi homines during the Carolingian era. The Abbey would have reduced this population to quasi-serfdom under the terms of leases (livelli) which it imposed to the ex-owners forced to cede their lands. Reality is more complex. Sales and livelli could concern only a portion of the property owned by a family group. Close study of the terms of the leases and statistical tests show, that in exchange for their right to property, liberi homines had often managed to retain the essential : their personal status, the right to transfer the livello to their male heirs (who kept the possibility to leave with all or part of the acquests), a guarantee that the rent would not be increased if their offspring was divided into several households and the opportunity to marry their daughters as they saw fit. Clues even suggest they could make good deals with the Abbey or between them, by getting preferred conditions, by sharing labour services between brothers, by increasing their cultivation area or by reparcelling scattered lands. Some of them continued to perform military service and were still arimanni.

Henry VIII, McLeod syndrome and Jacquetta’s curse

The mental decline of King Henry VIII from being a jovial, charismatic and athletic young man into an increasingly paranoid, brutal tyrant in later life, ever more concerned at his lack of one or more male heirs, has attracted many medical diagnostic theories. Previous hypotheses have included diabetes, syphilis and hypothyroidism, among others. However, these inadequately explain Henry's failure to produce a male heir, despite multiple pairings. The latest postulated diagnoses for Henry are the coexistence of both Kell blood group antigenicity (possibly inherited from Jacquetta Woodville, Henry's maternal great grandmother) causing related impaired fertility, and McLeod syndrome, causing psychotic changes. As the mutated McLeod protein of the syndrome significantly reduces the expression, effectively inactivating the Kell antigen, we critically review this theory, examining in detail the pathophysiology of these conditions and assessing the genealogy of Henry VIII and its effect in subsequent generations.

An Education in Buddhist Filiality for Both Mother and Son

The article reflects on the tension of two different visions of filiality—Indian and Chinese—and the author's (a convert to Chan [Zen] Buddhism) efforts to resolve these visions within the context of his modern American Buddhist experience. In Early Indian Buddhist narratives a filial child demonstrates gratitude to his or her parents by renouncing worldly pursuits, including remaining celibate, and pursing the spiritual path that will release him or her from samsara. By way of contrast, for the Chinese, a son's primary filiality responsibility is to sire male heirs who will carry on the family lineage and who will honor their ancestors. The article includes his mother's reflections on her encounter with the Asian notions of filiality.

Investigating Entrepreneurial Spirit with the Rule Approach: Why Self-employment is on the Decline in Japan

This paper investigates the determinants of entrepreneurial spirit as measured by parental preference of self-employment for male heirs in Japan since 1992 through a statistical analysis. In addition to the relevance of our findings for entrepreneurship research, this empirical study serves as a showcase for the rule approach of Dopfer and Potts in applied research. It helps to understand how self-employment has become a less and less desirable occupational choice since the abandonment of Japan’s high growth path in the early 1990s. For entrepreneurial spirit in Japan, business sentiment, interest rates (perceived cost of capital), changing family structures (declining number of siblings), and fear of unemployment are all identified to exert significant negative influence. While the former three are strongly significant during all of the investigation period (1992–2007), fear of unemployment is found to strongly influence entrepreneurial spirit in the general population from 1998 onwards only. The rule approach helps to motivate how agents have come to understand unemployment as a factor relevant for their economic lives in the course of the years following the burst of the Japanese bubble economy. Negative signs on both business sentiment, and on fear of unemployment relate to different subgroups of agents, namely to self-employed individuals (business sentiment), and to individuals in dependent employment (fear of unemployment). Improving business sentiment means higher viability of preferred occupational choice for the self-employed, whereas a higher degree of fear of unemployment discourages dependently employed individuals from embarking on the route of self-employment. Further findings include significant evidence that the nominal interest rate—rather than its real counterpart—likely influences entrepreneurial spirit in Japan.