'Herstory': The missing woman of Cyprus

Cyprus Review

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 95-120

  Vassiliadou, Myria ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037617423     PISSN: 10152881     EISSN: 25478974     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. C.G. Jung, Aspects of the Feminine, Ark, 1982, p.72.
2. Luce lrigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman, translation Gillian Gill (lthaca:Cornell University Press, 1985), p.69.
3. Sandra Harding, "Introduction; Is there a Feminist Method?," in Sandra Harding (ed) Feminism and Methodology; Social Science Issues (Indiana University Press, 1987), p.3.
4. Quoted in June Hannam, "Women, History and Protest," in Diane Richardson and Victoria Robinson (eds.), Introducing Women's Studies (Macmillan Press, 1993), p.303.
5. June Purvis, "Doing Feminist Women's History: Researching the Lives of Women in the Suffragette Movement in Edwardian England," in Mary Maynard and June Purvis (eds.) Researching Women's Lives from a Feminist Perspective (Taylor and Francis, London, 1994), p.166-7.
6. Natalie Z. Davies, "Women's History in Transition:The European Case," Feminist Studies 3 (1976), p.90.
7. Mary Pyrgos, The Cypriot Woman at a Glance (1995). Pyrgos's publication is a reference article rather than an analytical piece of work, and it is not footnoted. Furthermore, there is no index or bibliography. Another, extended work of Mary Pyrgos within the same framework still remains unpublished.
8. Renate Duelli-Klein, "How to Do What We Want To Do: Thoughts About Feminist Methodology," in Gloria Bowles and Renate Duelli-Klein (eds.) Theories of Women's Studies, Women's Studies (University of California, Berkeley, 1980,) p.52.
9. Ceasar V. Mavratsas, "The Greek and Greek-Cypriot Economic Ethos: A Sociocultural Analysis," in The Cyprus Review, vol.4, Fall 1992 no.2.,p.35, footnote 25.
10. Caroline Ramazonoglu, Feminism and the Contradictions of Oppression (Routledge, 1989), p.22.
11. Liz Stanley and Sue Wise, "Method, Methodology and Epistemology in Feminist Research Processes," in Liz Stanley (ed.), Feminist Praxis; Research, Theory & Epistemology in Feminist Sociology (Routledge, 1990).
12. The quotation in itself is a sample of the attitudes and understanding of the role of women in general, written by one of the pioneers of the feminist movement in Cyprus. Matriarchy and patriarchy are not explained in the article neither is the described phenomenon of their co-existence. Rather, the terms are used unprob-lematically throughout Pyrgos' work to describe certain social conditions and trends. Furthermore, the writer uses no examples or documentation to support her
13. Footnoted in D Alastos, Cyprus in History, (Zeno, 1956), p.37., on myths sur-rounding Aphrodite's birth (my italics).
14. Alastos, op.cit., p.37-9.
15. Alastos, ibid., p.74.
16. Hunt, Sir David (ed.), Footprints in Cyprus (Trigraph: London, 1990), p.101.
17. June Hannah in "Women History and Protest", Introducing Women's Studies, Diane Richardson and Victoria Robinson (eds.) (Macmillan, 1993}, p 316. Interestingly, it was only about half a century ago (1940) that women joined in philanthropic associations.
18. Alastos, ibid., p.121.
19. Nancy Tuana, The Less Noble Sex; Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman's Nature (Indiana University Press, 1993), p.126.
20. N.S. Spanos, New Cypriot Mythology, p.6, in Greek, my translation.
21. "In the narrow society of the Latins it was difficult to find a wife or husband outside the prohibited degrees. Significant are the words of the dispension granted to Henry de Novaria and Mary Dagulier of Nicosia, 'pro eo quod arta et ab inimicis fidei orthodoxe circumvallata existit' and the people of the island are Greeks, they themselves are Catholics, and cannot easily find their equals outside the prohibited degrees …. The same reason is given over and over again, as when dispensa tions were granted to Exilia … to Guy d'lbelin and Isabel … and to Thomas de Montolif and Alice de S.Bertino …. So too Pope Clement VI was told in 1348 by Philip, Archbishop of Nicosia; and owing to the remoteness of Cyprus it was not easy to obtain dispensation from the Pope. Accordingly Clement granted Philip power to give the dispensation to six couples who applied for it ….Another rea son given is that the marriage would heal a family feud …," Sir George Hill, A History of Cyprus:Volume I/I-The Frankish Period 1432-1571 (Cambridge University Press, 1948), passim.
22. Pyrgos, op.cit., p.34. The actual punishment of the victim by the society at large and by her family in particular is not discussed in the paper.
23. Kleanthis Georgiades, History of Cyprus, Nicosia, p.206.
24. Ibid., p.40. It is also explained here how women, and especially the young, pretty, unmarried ones and were locked in the house, hiding themselves from the urges of the Pasha or some other Ottoman official "who might claim them for their harem."
25. Hunt, op.cit., p.253.
26. In fact, Ottoman women had to hide their faces when they went out, and this habit was gradually adopted by Christian women both as a sign of morality and respect, but also because of fear that if they were beautiful, or if the high officials of the Ottoman rule would take them up as mistresses against their will. It is important to note that to present day, it is customary for older women in rural areas to be seen wearing a scarf, hiding their hair. This is an especially important ritual for these women when they go to church.
27. Nevertheless, the first female teachers appeared on the island on approxi mately this time.
28. Mavratsas, op.cit., p. 17.
29. Surridge B.J.A., A Survey of Rural Life in Cyprus (Nicosia, 1930), passim.
30. The Census of 1931 showed that the rural population constituted 80.5 per cent of the total. Further on, Surridge's study explains how over 25% of the rural population lived below the minimum level of subsistence which it had fixed, 50% around that level, and the rest, the wealthy, above that level. A clear indication of a vast working class as opposed to a very small middle and upper class.
31. Michael Attalides, Social Change and Urbanization in Cyprus (Nicosia, 1981), passim.
32. Report of the Cypriot Delegation to the Second World Trade Union Congress (Paris, 1945).
33. Alastos, op.cit., p. 361-2.
34. Panteli, op.cit p.331. Archbishop Makarios remained the President of the Republic until 1977 when he died from a heart attack.
35. A rare exception to the stereotyping of women and their abilities was Archbishop Makarios' decision in 1960 to appoint Mrs Stella Souliotou as Minister of Justice in the cabinet.
36. Euripides, Medea, 573-79 lines.
37. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (London, Grafton, 1929), (Reprinted 1977), p.45.
38. Elisabeth Wayland Barber, "Women's Work. The first 20000 Years; Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times" (W. W. Norton & Company, 1994), p.29.