Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from around the World

352 Pages·2010·2.88 MB·English

by  Mineke Schipper

MINEKE
SCHIPPER
N EV ER
MARRY A
N
WOMA
WITH
BIG
F EET
WOMEN
IN PROVERBS
FROM
AROUND
THE WORLD
LEIDEN
UNIVERSITY PRESS

Never Marry a... 29-04-2006 17:15 Pagina 1
Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet

Never Marry a:Never Marry a 04-03-2010 13:14 Pagina 3
Never Marry a Woman
with Big Feet
Women in Proverbs from Around the World
Mineke Schipper
Leiden University Press
Never Marry a woman:Never Marry a 27-05-2010 18:06 Pagina 4
Cover design: Mesika Design, Hilversum
Lay-out: Het Steen Typografie, Maarssen
e-isbn 978 90 0060 019 5
nur 617
First published in 2004 by Yale University Press
Published in 2006 by Amsterdam University Press, new edition without anthologies
© Leiden University Press, 2010
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no
part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner
and the author of the book.
Never Marry a... 29-04-2006 17:15 Pagina 4
Cover design: Mesika Design, Hilversum
Lay-out: Het Steen Typografie, Maarssen
isbn-13 978 5356 863 7
isbn-10 90 5356 863 8
nur617
First published in 2004 by Yale University Press
© Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2006; this new edition without an-
thologies
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no
part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner
and the author of the book.
Never Marry a... 29-04-2006 17:15 Pagina 5
TO OUR FOREMOTHERS
Never Marry a... 29-04-2006 17:15 Pagina 7
Contents
Acknowledgments 11
Prologue 13
The Mother of All Sciences 13
Creation and Procreation 14
Collecting and Questioning 17
Proverbs and Their Impact 21
Legacies 21
Media 23
Features 25
Changing Contexts, Constant Cores 28
1 The Female Body 31
From Head to Foot 31
Stature and Appearance 32
Body and Soul 36
Head and Neck 37
Brains 40
Eyes 42
Nose and Ears 45
Lips, Mouth, Teeth, Tongue 46
Shoulders and Arms 48
Hands and Fingers 49
Sex Characteristics 53
Nursing Breasts and Breasts as Objects of Desire 56
Womb 60
Vagina 62
Buttocks 63
Legs, Knees, Feet 64
Beauty and Beautifying 68
Radiance 68
The Impact of Female Attraction 70
Belles 72
Beauty versus Intelligence 79
Never Marry a... 29-04-2006 17:15 Pagina 8
Transience 79
Outer Beauty and Inner Qualities 80
Ugliness 81
Fatal Allurements 85
2 Phases of Life 87
Girls, Daughters, Brides 87
A Boy or a Girl? 87
Bride Wealth and Dowry 91
Virginity and Virtue 94
Spinsters 98
Wedding Day 99
Wedlock 103
Wives, Co-wives, Widows 104
Wives 104
Good or Bad? 105
The ‘Good’ Wife 106
‘Wickedness’ 108
Co-Wives 110
Why an Extra Wife? 112
Hierarchies Among Wives 113
Problems and Disillusions 116
Widows 118
Death of Wife, Death of Husband 118
Loss and Sorrow 121
Widows’ Tears 123
Slander 124
Remarrying 125
Mothers and Mothers-in-law 128
Mothers 128
Uniqueness 128
Ideal Children and Worrying Mothers 131
Mothers and Children, Mothers and Sons 133
Mothers and Daughters 135
Who Is Taking Care of the Mother? 137
Motherless 138
Mothers-in-Law versus Daughters-in-Law 140
Rivals 142
Newly Arrived 143
Revenge 145