Female Shame, Male Honor : The Chastity Code in Juan Luis Vives’ De institutione feminae Christianae

• In the light of some key concepts from the chastity codes described by anthropological research for honor societies in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, this article examines the chastity code for women that the Spanish Renaissance humanist Juan Luis Vives (1492/3–1540) advocated in his work De institutione feminae Christianae (1524/1538). Aspects, such as gender order, restrictions on women’s physical freedom of movement, regulations and instructions regarding women’s clothing, and various rules for women’s outward conduct, are studied. It can be established that Vives advocated a very traditional, patriarchal view of women, exhorting very strict gender segregation and female seclusion. He prescribed very tight restrictions on women’s freedom, with a view to controlling female sexuality, an aspect of Vives that previous research has not paid full attention to.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

honor culture

female chastity

female seclusion

gender order

Renaissance

Juan Luis Vives

History

historia

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)