Hair & Dress in Imperial Russia
A S
aswear at GMAIL.COM
Thu Oct 16 20:24:00 UTC 2008
Oh. In that case, it is much more likely that I am too slow on the
uptake rather than an inability on your part to convey irony. I do
apologise.
A.S.
On 16.10.2008, at 21:12, Moshe Taube wrote:
> First point taken and appreciated. On the second point, I was
> actually trying to sound ironic. Apparently I failed.
>
> Moshe Taube
>
> On Oct 16, 2008, at 9:52 PM, A S wrote:
>
>> In an historical context, using the term 'sexism' is not
>> necessarily indicative of a value judgement, but could simply be
>> descriptive, although the qualifier 'thoroughly' smells of the
>> former. Additionally, I do not grasp how founding an organised
>> religion necessarily qualifies one as being 'progressive' and
>> 'enlightened'.
>>
>> Andrew Swearingen
>>
>> On 16.10.2008, at 20:04, Moshe Taube wrote:
>>
>>> Paul a sexist? As opposed to whom? You must be joking. We're
>>> talking about a Jew who 2000 years ago founded Christianity as an
>>> organized religion in the Eastern Mediterranean. Surely he was as
>>> progressive and enlightened as any other guy at that time and in
>>> that area.
>>> Just a small remark on "doksa andros". Let's not forget that if
>>> we're looking for sources of inspiration for Paul's phraseology,
>>> we have to look at his Scripture, i.e. the Old Testament, and
>>> there I would say the closest expression is in Proverbs 12.4,
>>> which Paul surely knew in the original (for our evangelical
>>> friends: I do not mean KJV) אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל עֲטֶרֶת
>>> בַּעְלָהּ - 'A virtuous woman is a crown to her
>>> husband.' , LXX: γυνὴ ἀνδρεία στέφανος τῷ
>>> ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς. Now 'atereth lit. 'crown', but
>>> figuratively also 'ornament, honour, glory' appears several times
>>> in the OT in conjunction with and sometimes as synonym of
>>> תִּפְאָרֶת tif'ereth, which is glossed as 'ornamentum,
>>> decus, gloria', and is very readily rendered by doksa. Cf, Exodus
>>> 28:2 לְכָבֹוד וּלְתִפְאָרֶת εἰς
>>> τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν. Could this have been the source of
>>> inspiration?
>>>
>>> Moshe Taube
>>>
>>> On Oct 16, 2008, at 8:26 AM, Daniel Rancour-Laferriere wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear colleagues,
>>>> Slavianskie drevnosti is indeed an important and rich source, and
>>>> does have the limitations mentioned by Will Ryan. The reference
>>>> to Corinthians is quite interesting, and adds some historical and
>>>> cross-cultural perspective. Paul is thoroughly sexist: a man is
>>>> but the image and glory of God ("obraz i slava Bozhiia" in the
>>>> Synodal trans of texts going back to "eikon kai doksa Theou"),
>>>> while a woman is but the glory of a man ("slava muzha" rendering
>>>> "doksa andros"). Probably "doksa" is better rendered
>>>> "reflection" (Oxford NRSV). So a woman is but the reflection of
>>>> a reflection. What a woman has, however, in addition to her
>>>> "glory"/"reflection" is her "authority on her head" ("znak vlasti
>>>> nad neiu," rendering the "eksousian" she should have on her head)
>>>> - i.e., her hair. NRSV gives "a woman ought to have a symbol of
>>>> authority on her head" (I Cor. 11:10), meaning roughly, she ought
>>>> to have the freedom of choice regarding her head. So Paul seems
>>>> to want to have it both ways: women should be subordinate to men,
>>>> but they are equal too. The passage is obscure, and
>>>> fascinating. The OXFORD BIBLE COMMENTARY (2001, pp. 1125-1126)
>>>> provides some insights, as well as the relevant historical
>>>> literature on head-covering in the Graeco-Roman world.
>>>> Apparently worship in Corinth was, shall we say, pretty free and
>>>> easy, and this provoked Paul. Later Tertullian chimed in with a
>>>> piece on the veiling of virgins.
>>>>
>>>> The reason for going into this is that the biblical text has (for
>>>> me) the same ambivalent feel about the hair on a woman's head
>>>> which is expressed in those sad Russian peasant prenuptial bath
>>>> songs. In the "bania" the bride-to-be laments the loss of her
>>>> "krasota" (stress on first syllable) and her "volia." These are
>>>> not merely "beauty" and "freedom," but items of headgear which
>>>> will be lost when the girl effectively enters into a relationship
>>>> of "nevolia" with the husband who will have the right to abuse
>>>> her for the rest of her life. See my SLAVE SOUL OF RUSSIA (1995,
>>>> 193-201).
>>>>
>>>> Regards to the list,
>>>>
>>>> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
>>>> UC Davis
>>>>
>>>> http://Rancour-Laferriere.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Oct 15, 2008, at 1:02 PM, William Ryan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have only just seen this, but since I have been cited I would
>>>>> recommend looking first at the 4-page entry 'volosy' in
>>>>> Slavianskie drevnosti, vol. 1, Moscow, 1995. The only problem
>>>>> with it is that it is anthropological and not historical in
>>>>> emphasis - but there is a great deal about hair and magic, and
>>>>> short sections on unbound and uncovered hair. You will find some
>>>>> references to hair and magic in my own history of Russian
>>>>> magic, The Bathhouse at Midnight, PSUP, 1999, see index under
>>>>> 'hair' (or the rather better index in the Russian version: Bania
>>>>> v polnoch', NLO, Moscow, 2006). The trouble with folk beliefs is
>>>>> that most are recorded in the nineteenth century and later and
>>>>> it is usually difficult to say much about their history. Even
>>>>> so, many beliefs and practices recorded in the nineteenth
>>>>> century are likely to have been prevalent in the eighteenth
>>>>> century also, or even earlier.
>>>>> The Pauline injunctions (1 Corinthians 11:4-16) on covering
>>>>> hair, and the Russian custom of cutting off the long hair of
>>>>> brides at their wedding, would have been significant, and indeed
>>>>> affect the kind of head covering which women wore.
>>>>> Will Ryan
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Allison Leigh-Perlman wrote:
>>>>>> Can anyone recommend some good source material regarding the
>>>>>> covering of female hair and its 'magical' qualities in 18th-
>>>>>> century Russia or earlier? I'm also interested in histories of
>>>>>> costume/dress of the same time period. Any recommendations
>>>>>> would be greatly appreciated.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Allison Leigh-Perlman
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Graduate Assistant Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
>>>>>> Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your
>>>>>> subscription
>>>>>> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web
>>>>>> Interface at:
>>>>>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your
>>>>> subscription
>>>>> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web
>>>>> Interface at:
>>>>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your
>>>> subscription
>>>> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface
>>>> at:
>>>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your
>>> subscription
>>> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface
>>> at:
>>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your
>> subscription
>> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
More information about the SEELANG
mailing list