The Peony Pavilion as a picture of sexual individuation

The Peony Pavilion is a story central to Chinese gender identity. It vividly portrays a story of the path of sexual individuation of a Chinese woman. In comparison to female images in Western stories, Chinese women are the active ones in their intimate relationships with men. They have been oppressed for many years because they are recognised as the subject of desire and as having reflexive aggression. However, with enough love, a girl dares to separate from her natal family, to fight against the patriarchal system, and to be herself. Identifying with the father’s aggression can facilitate her in this process.

Movement of Rehabilitated African Elephant Calves Following Soft Release Into a Wildlife Sanctuary

The ability to locate essential resources is a critical step for wildlife translocated into novel environments. Understanding this process of exploration is highly desirable for management that seeks to resettle wildlife, particularly as translocation projects tend to be expensive and have a high potential for failure. African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) are very mobile and rely on large areas especially in arid environments, and are translocated for differing management and conservation objectives. Thus, research into how translocated elephants use the landscape when released may both guide elephant managers and be useful for translocations of other species that adjust their movement to social and ecological conditions. In this study, we investigated the movement of eight GPS tracked calves (translocated in three cohorts) following their soft release into a 107 km2 fenced wildlife sanctuary in northern Kenya and compared their movement with that of five tracked wild elephants in the sanctuary. We describe their exploration of the sanctuary, discovery of water points, and activity budgets during the first seven, 14, and 20 months after release. We explored how patterns are affected by time since release, ecological conditions, and social factors. We found that calves visited new areas of the sanctuary and water points during greener periods and earlier post-release. Social context was associated with exploration, with later release and association with wild elephants predictive of visits to new areas. Wild elephants tended to use a greater number of sites per 14-day period than the released calves. Activity budgets determined from hidden Markov models (including the states directed walk, encamped, and meandering) suggested that released calves differed from wild elephants. The first two cohorts of calves spent a significantly greater proportion of time in the directed walk state and a significantly lower proportion of time in the encamped state relative to the wild elephants. Our results represent a step forward in describing the movements of elephant orphan calves released to the wild following a period of profound social disruption when they lost their natal family and were rehabilitated with other orphan calves under human care. We discuss the implications of the elephant behavior we observed for improving release procedures and for defining success benchmarks for translocation projects.

Introduction

To introduce both the subject of the book and its methodological approach, the Introduction takes up the case study of the date of Shakespeare’s baptism: 26 April 1564. Those who want to believe that the national poet was born on the national feast day (23 April, or St George’s Day), have compiled ‘evidence’ to prove it, but under close analysis the evidence disintegrates. We know his day of baptism but cannot know his birthday. Much of Shakespeare’s biography has been built out of similar ‘evidence clusters’. The book interrogates many of these old clusters and also assembles new ones. This involves close reading familiar historical documents contextually, referring to other examples from the same record classes to show how their conventions and textual practices shape their meaning. A further strategy is to include mini-biographies for some of Shakespeare’s cognates in Stratford-upon-Avon, the stories of parallel lives through which we can learn more about his own. The chapter also introduces the members of Shakespeare’s natal family.

Intimate partner violence and social connection among married women in rural Bangladesh

BackgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) is high among married women in Bangladesh. Social isolation is a well-established correlate of women’s exposure to IPV, but the role of such factors in low-income and middle-income countries is not well understood. In this study, we explore whether social connection is protective against IPV among married women in rural Bangladesh.MethodsData were drawn from a multistage, stratified, population-based longitudinal sample of 3355 married women in rural Bangladesh, who were surveyed on individual and contextual risk factors of IPV. Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate the association between three different domains of social connection (natal family contact, female companionship and instrumental social support), measured at baseline in 2013, and the risk of three different forms of IPV (psychological, physical and sexual), approximately 10 months later, adjusted for woman’s level of education, spouse’s level of education, level of household wealth, age and age of marriage.ResultsAdjusted models showed that instrumental social support was associated with a lower risk of past year psychological IPV (risk ratio (RR)=0.84, 95% CI 0.769 to 0.914), sexual IPV (RR=0.90, 95% CI 0.822 to 0.997) and physical IPV (RR=0.81, 95% CI 0.718 to 0.937). Natal family contact was also associated with a lower risk of each type of IPV, but not in a graded fashion. Less consistent associations were observed with female companionship.ConclusionOur findings suggest that social connection, particularly in the form of instrumental support, may protect married women in rural Bangladesh from experiencing IPV.

Imaginings of Home

The chapter investigates the imaginings of home projected by Indonesian domestic workers while they are working in Hong Kong. Their imaginaries of future home provide important information for understanding their desires and sexuality in relation to the local ideology of migration and marriage as well as the political economy of family, that is, the gender division of labor and earnings contributed by women. The chapter also enriches the notion of Asian queer subjectivity by addressing how Indonesian women insinuated their homoerotic desires into the heteronormative logic of home. Addressing the Islamic context, the chapter also attends to the unmarried women who would not continue a same-sex relationship after returning to their natal family.

The Argument for a Woman’s Authorship of the Hou Honglou meng

This article argues Hou Honglou meng (Later Dream of the Red Chamber; in circulation by 1796), the earliest sequel to the 120-chapter Dream of the Red Chamber, was likely written by a woman. The author of Hou Honglou meng makes the reborn Lin Daiyu the central protagonist of the novel. Over the duration of thirty chapters, Daiyu transitions from the role of daughter, to bride and daughter-in-law, and finally to mother. This pragmatic Daiyu has no patience for the romantic cult of qing values of the parent novel; instead, her sentimental attachments are directed toward her natal family, and her expressed will is to escape marriage in order to pursue Daoist transcendence. Daiyu returns to life as an extremely practical household manager who revives the fortunes of the Jia family. This image of an empowered Daiyu who insists on her autonomy from Baoyu, who is still obsessed with his qing-based yearning, conforms to the types of protagonists found in female-authored tanci. The article concludes with the argument that the prolific woman of letters Yun Zhu (1771-1833) deserves serious consideration as the author of Hou Honglou meng.

Edward IV, King of England

Richard, duke of York, made a serious challenge for the throne of England during the reign of the ineffectual Lancastrian Henry VI but was killed at the battle of Wakefield in December 1460. His cause was taken up by his eldest surviving son Edward, earl of March (b. 1442–d. 1483). Thereafter, Edward made gains against the Lancastrian forces and secured the throne in March 1461, with Richard Neville, earl of Warwick (known as “Warwick the Kingmaker”) as his right-hand man. In 1464 he defied Warwick’s plan for a French dynastic marriage by taking as his bride the widowed mother of two who is generally known by her maiden name, Elizabeth Woodville. She produced a large number of children for her second husband, but they were still young at the time of Edward’s death. Her natal family, on the other hand, took full advantage of her illustrious position, causing much resentment among the men who regarded themselves as the king’s natural counselors. His brother George, duke of Clarence, married Warwick’s daughter Isabel in 1469; together Warwick and Clarence rebelled against Edward’s rule, forcing him to flee to the Low Countries and bringing back Henry VI as their puppet monarch in 1470–1471, the period known as the “readeption.” Edward returned and defeated the rebels at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, Warwick dying at the former. The temporary loss of his kingdom effectively taught Edward how to be a king, and his second reign was characterized by assertions of his power, both at home and against neighboring realms. Edward’s story has been told many times and in various genres, some of which appear here as Reference Works and Overviews. So many relevant Primary Sources exist that it is useful to consult Collections and Guides to them before delving into modern editions, which are here categorized as the Government (and Its Critics) and Letters and Chronicles. The biographical format (Lives and Times) is also popular for telling the story of 15th-century England, necessitating another artificial division, this time between the King himself, Yorkists, and Lancastrians. With regard to the King and His Subjects, the division is between Government, the English Regions, and Wales and Ireland, though in all cases Edward was obliged to rule through magnates and their power bases. Edward’s foreign relations are accounted for in the section on Popes and Princes. Culture is self-explanatory. Studies of all these areas can be found in Collections of Papers and Journals. The final section, Afterlives, is shorter than it would be for Edward’s youngest brother, Richard III, but demonstrates that he has not been immune to the attentions of poets and playwrights.

Social structure and reproduction of long-tailed porcupine (Trichys fasciculata)

We studied the social structure of long-tailed porcupine (Trichys fasciculata) in the tropical rainforest in Sabah, Borneo Island, Malaysia via direct observation assisted by radio-tracking and camera-trapping at burrow entrances. We identified and observed seven individuals in the study area, of which five were radio-tagged. Analysis of their burrow use, home range, and behaviour strongly suggested that five of the observed individuals formed a family group consisting of an adult male–female pair and their three offspring, two of which were born during the study period. The family members used the same burrow site almost every day, and their home ranges largely overlapped. In contrast, the other two individuals never used the burrow sites of this family group. The adult male–female pair was maintained for at least 18 months and reproduced twice during the study period. They had a litter size of one, and the inter-litter interval was estimated to be 11 months. During these two reproductions, the previous litter stayed in the natal family group as a sub-adult after the next juvenile was born. Direct paternal care, such as grooming the juvenile, was also observed. Their low reproductive potential should be considered in conservation efforts.

ESTIMATING THE HEALTH AND SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF COUSIN MARRIAGE IN SOUTH ASIA

The effects of marriage between biological relatives on the incidence of childhood genetic illness and mortality are of major policy significance, as rates of consanguinity exceed 50% in various countries. Empirical research on this question is complicated by the fact that consanguinity is often correlated with poverty and other unobserved characteristics of households, which may have independent effects on mortality. This study has developed an instrumental variables empirical strategy to re-examine this question, based on the concept that the availability of unmarried cousins of the opposite gender at the time of marriage creates quasi-random variation in the propensity to marry consanguineously. Using primary data collected in Bangladesh in 2006–07 and Pakistan in 2009–10, the study found that previous estimates of the impact of consanguinity on child health were biased and falsely precise. The study also empirically investigated the social and economic causes of consanguinity (including marital quality) and concludes that marrying a cousin can have positive economic effects for one’s natal family, by allowing deferral of dowry payments until after marriage.

Venetian Families

This chapter begins in the natal family households of Bembo and Coppo. We consider their relationships to their fathers, uncles, cousins, and mothers, as well as the wider social distinctions between patrician social status in Venice. Through the eyes of Bembo and Coppo, the chapter examines their educational progression, from learning Latin in the household, to the lecture hall, to the printing houses of Venice. The emotional dimensions of humanist education have not been well understood. At the heart of this chapter is a consideration of the bonds of family: the family these men were born into, and the families they made for themselves amongst their classmates and teachers.