Technology and Gender

Francesca Bray is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of The Rice Economies: Technology and Development in Asian Societies (California, 1994).

• List of Illustrations and TableList of Chinese DynastiesAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Framework of Everyday Life:Technology, Women and Cultural HistoryPART ONE / BUILDING A TRADITION:THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHINESE SOCIAL SPACE1 House Form and MeaningSpaces and SourcesThe House in Late Imperial China: Material DesignSome Aesthetics of House DesignRusin DomoThe Convergence of Architecture2 Encoding PatriarchyA Walled DomainA Moral Building BlockThe Heart of the House: Altar and StoveContinuing the Family Line: The Coffin and the BedInner Divisions: Marking the Moral Order3 The Text of the Chinese HouseWriting the TextTextual ExpertsPART TWO / WOMEN'S WORK:WEAVING NEW PATTERNS IN THE SOCIAL FABRIC4 Fabrics of Power: The Canonical Meanings of Women's WorkThe Concept of "Womanly Work": Women as SubjectsCloth and SocietyMedieval Divisions of Labor and the Value of Female Work5 Economic Expansion and Changing Divisions of LaborWealth, Fashion and a New Elite: Changes in the Song Silk IndustryThe Cotton BoomSilk Production in the Ming and Qing6 Women's Work and Women's PlaceSkills, Knowledge and StatusWomanly Virtue and the Preservation of the Social OrderWomen's Work and Family StatusConnection and Seclusion: Cloth and the Separation of SpheresWomen's Work and PatriarchyPART THREE / MEANINGS OF MOTHERHOOD:REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR USES7 Medical History and Gender HistoryThrough a Glass Darkly: The Question of EfficacyWhat is a Body?Physicians, Orthodoxy and PowerCase Histories: Whose Voices?8 Reproductive Medicine and the Dual Nature of FertilityGeneration in Medical TheoryOrthodox Uses of AbortionMenstrual Regulation, Fertility and Health: A Dual Imageof Womanhood9 Reproductive HierarchiesChildren: A Qualified BlessingNature, Nurture and the Bond between Mother and ChildMaternal Doubles: Wives, Concubines and MaidsThe Wifely RoleConclusion: Gynotechnics and CivilizationGlossary of Technical TermsReferences CitedIndexList of Illustrations