Women by Theme
On this page you will find the entries in my project organised by a variety of thematic topics. My goal in curating this page is to present ideas for comparative reading. If you are using my website for teaching, you might find this page helpful! The categories are Class and Power; Religion; Family and Relationships; and Artists, Writers and Intellectuals. None of the categories here are meant to be absolute, just starting points for comparative discussion.
Class and Power
What a woman's life was like one thousand years ago was determined as much by her class as by her gender. Whether they lived in societies with relatively equal resource distribution or in societies characterized by vast economic disparities, women's goals, lifestyles, and opportunities were all shaped by the power relations of the world around them. In this section you will find examples of women who achieved great political power, as well as women who lived more ordinary but equally important lives.
Political Leaders
In spite of stereotypes to the contrary, many women held political power a thousand years ago. Sometimes their power was officially legitimized in the role of a queen or matriarch. But many women also exerted power from behind the scenes. Wives, concubines, mothers and daughters of men in power often played crucial roles in influencing the political outcomes of the day, even if not in their own name. Women were administrators, advisors, politicians, spies, military leaders, and decision-makers in many different parts of the world. Sometimes they faced obstacles rooted in their gender, and sometimes they didn't. Even when their direct political power was circumscribed, they often had immense sway over the households of the powerful. As the bearers of dynastic continuity, women were deeply embedded in the highest echelons of political power.
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Non-Elites
It is much easier to reconstruct the lives of the powerful a thousand years ago than of everyday women. Texts that survive from this period are usually written for the elite by the elite, and the best preserved archaeological sites are often lavish burials. Nevertheless, it is sometimes possible to glimpse the lives of the less powerful women who lived a thousand years ago. Some were at the lower rungs of highly stratified societies. Others lived in relatively egalitarian cultures with a fairly even distribution of wealth and resources. Still others may have been relatively well-off most of the time, but excluded from any real societal power or economic stability because of religious or ethnic discrimination. The vast majority of women a thousand years ago were, like the vast majority of men, living subsistence lifestyles far from the worlds of the wealthy and powerful.
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Religion
In the year 1000, four major religions had swept across much of the Eastern Hemisphere: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Each one is discussed below. Some women were deeply invested in their religion, while for others, it merely formed the background of their lives. So far I have only drawn two illustrations of Jewish women, Bonna and Sibā' bt. Isaac. Stay tuned for more! In this section you'll also find discussions of women in ritual and women who participated in religious patronage.
Christianity
A thousand years into its history, Christianity had spread far beyond its original home in the Mediterranean. Christians lived all over Africa and Eurasia, with a handful even making a brief appearance in North America. Although these far-flung people were united by a faith in Jesus Christ, there were many differences in how they experienced Christianity too. Some women entered directly into the religious life, whether as nuns, deaconesses, the wives of priests, or even as committed heretics. Others were powerful queens who had the ability to influence the political development of Christianity in their realms. But most Christian women would have been ordinary lay worshippers, participating in the feasts and fasts of the liturgical year alongside the rest of their everyday duties.
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Islam
Like Christianity, Islam had been adopted by significant swathes of Africa and Eurasia by the year 1000. Muslim women had incredibly diverse roles in the year 1000, from queens and princesses to scholars and slaves. Their religion animated many of the greatest minds of the era, including many women. Islamic cities were cosmopolitan places, home to people of many other faiths too. Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and pagans could all be found at the busy markets and universities of Baghdad, Cairo, Nishapur, Córdoba, Damascus and others. Some came there voluntarily to learn and trade. Others were brought as slaves from faraway parts of the world, since Muslims were forbidden to enslave fellow Muslims. Under the aegis of a broadly tolerant religion, many Muslim women - even enslaved women - found avenues for political power and intellectual achievement.
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Buddhism
One of the most ancient of the world's religions in the year 1000, Buddhism took many forms. It coexisted and interacted with many other religions and ideologies across Asia, such as Confucianism, Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto. Sometimes this cross-pollination of ideas was harmonious. Other times it caused real conflict, both political and personal. For some women, Buddhism was just one part of a complex religious landscape they inhabited, and women varied in the depth of their faith. Some women, like High Priestess Senshi, took Buddhism so seriously that it caused them great anguish when other duties kept them from their devotions. But then you had women like Kokannon, a singer and prostitute who cheekily adopted the name of a bodhisattva as her stage name while soliciting customers on their way back from religious pilgrimages. While some schools of Buddhism taught that women could not reach enlightenment, others were led by women who believed that their gender was irrelevant to their ability to reach Nirvana.
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Dharmic Religions
By the year 1000, religions such as Hinduism and Jainism which sprang from the ancient Vedic religions had taken hold over much of South and Southeast Asia. Originating in the Indian subcontinent, these religions had spread relatively peacefully over a large geographic area. Like with other international religions of the time, local leaders found Hinduism offered them an intellectual infrastructure which could easily support the aims of the state. Several different denominations of Hinduism had developed by this time, including Shaktism, which focused on the worship of goddesses. Women played major roles in the proliferation of Dharmic religions across Asia, acting as patrons, poets, nuns, and temple servants. Hindu queens were often identified with goddesses, especially after their deaths. Ordinary people participated in many festivals held throughout the year and were sometimes oppressed due to caste systems enforced by Hindu governments.
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Women in Ritual
Rituals were part of life for most women a thousand years ago. Usually these were religious rituals, though sometimes they were more political in nature. Rituals could be elaborate public affairs designed to petition deities, glorify rulers, protect agricultural yields, ensure success in battle, or mark different seasons of the year. Other rituals were more individual, such as prayer or private offerings. Rituals could mark a woman's initiation into a group or particular role, such as a clergy member or a political leader. Others were rites of passage that most women in a culture underwent, marking significant transitions across a person's lifespan. Some women had the authority to lead other people in rituals and even change them to suit their religious or political goals. Many, perhaps most, did not. But that doesn't mean rituals weren't deeply important to them as they navigated their lives.
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Religious Patronage
Some women who found themselves in positions of power and influence decided to use their power to further religious goals. They could command the construction of temples and churches and commission some of the greatest works of art that survive from a thousand years ago. Personal piety of course played a part for many, but there were other factors too. Exerting economic influence over powerful religious institutions enhanced a woman's political power. Religious patronage was also a way of making her name and image immortal. After all, some of the women who I draw in my project are only possible to reconstruct because of the works of religious patronage they left behind. For the rich and powerful, intense personal belief was not at odds with patronage of religious art and architecture that enhanced their political reputations. Such women often believed it was because of a deity's benevolence that they had their power - and that it was the deity's will that they use it.
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Family and Relationships
No woman is an island. In this section, you'll look at the roles that relationships played in the lives of women in the year 1000.
Motherhood
For many women, becoming a mother was an expected part of their lives a thousand years ago. Many histories only record women in their roles as mothers of famous men, leaving us with very little detail about other aspects of their lives. Some women probably did see motherhood as central, while others saw it only as one small part of their identity. Sei Shōnagon, for example, never mentions her daughter in her writings, even though other sources seem to suggest she had one. For some mothers, motherhood was a blessing, while for others, it left them in a vulnerable social position. Some women played maternal roles to people who were not their biological children, whether to adopted children, step-children, religious communities, or even entire nations. In some cultures it was normal for many women to help in the upbringing of a child regardless of their biological relationship. Still other women longed for children, whether for personal or dynastic reasons, but never had them.
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Marriage
Marriage was in the cards for many women for a variety of reasons. It was often an economic necessity, as many societies were built on the expectation of a gendered division of labour within a household. While some women could rely for a time on the economic and legal protection of their fathers, their futures could be uncertain if they did not find a husband. Only women with independent economic means could easily choose not to marry in these situations. Even some of the wealthiest women, though, were expected to marry in order to perpetuate a dynastic line or make an important political alliance.
In other societies, though, women were not uniquely disadvantaged if they didn't get married. They may have lived in multi-generational family homes, or in communities where less emphasis was placed on a woman's marital or sexual status. Some cultures had special religious roles for women who wanted to remain celibate, or which required women to be chaste whether they wanted to or not. Other women became mothers out of wedlock or worked as prostitutes, remaining sexually active outside of the bounds of marriage. In societies where marriage and women's sexual purity were valued, these were often precarious situations to be in. Below you'll find examples of women who had important roles to play in their societies, whether they were married or not.
In other societies, though, women were not uniquely disadvantaged if they didn't get married. They may have lived in multi-generational family homes, or in communities where less emphasis was placed on a woman's marital or sexual status. Some cultures had special religious roles for women who wanted to remain celibate, or which required women to be chaste whether they wanted to or not. Other women became mothers out of wedlock or worked as prostitutes, remaining sexually active outside of the bounds of marriage. In societies where marriage and women's sexual purity were valued, these were often precarious situations to be in. Below you'll find examples of women who had important roles to play in their societies, whether they were married or not.
Married Women
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Unmarried Women
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Queer Women
It is difficult to recover the lives of queer women from a thousand years ago. Even in societies who have left us records about queer history, they are almost always dominated by accounts of queer men - little surprise since most texts are also written by men. However, there is some textual evidence of queer women that survives from the period, particularly in Islamic sources. In other cases, ethnographic evidence shows that many societies accommodated queer women and femmes before they were colonized. Most of the time, we have no idea whether a historical person was queer. Some of the women whose stories I tell on my website may well have been queer in ways that were never recorded for posterity, perhaps never even revealed to those around them. Gender and sexuality have been constructed in many different ways that don't always align with our modern definitions. I hope to expand this section over time, especially with an eye to including the stories of transfeminine people.
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Artists, Writers and Intellectuals
Women have been thinking, imagining and creating since time immemorial. My entire Women of 1000 project was inspired by the work of one woman author, Sei Shōnagon. Some women, like her, are immortalized by works which preserve the names of their creators. These precious named authors reach towards us through ten centuries to share some of their view of the world with us. Hearing the voices of women from so long ago is extraordinary. But the overwhelming majority of women creatives in history were anonymous. Pottery, textiles, songs - some of their masterpieces survive even where their names do not. So much of what gets classed as "archaeological styles" reflects the shifting tastes of women artists. In addition to artistic pursuits, women have long been engaged intellectual actors in their societies. Women a thousand years ago studied, wrote, debated, and taught the great ideas of their age. Whether it was through spreading the teachings of a religious texts or debating the merits of incoming technology, women have long made their thoughts known on the changes happening around them in history.
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