Between Poverty And The Pyre. Moments In The History Of Widowhood

Since time immemorial widows have been associated with notions of ambiguity. They often represented a marginal group and, unlike widowers, their lives were controlled by many rules. This marginality may explain the small amount of attention which they receive in scholarly research. This lack of interest induced us to organize a colloquium on the position of widows throughout the centuries in the Mediterranean and western Europe and in those great religious traditions, Islam and Hinduism, which more and more are becoming a part of our own culture. We felt that the subject should be looked at from as many angles as possible and therefore invited historians, jurists, philologists, anthropologists, and theologians. The conference, which was held in Groningen in February 1992, was a great success and its proceedings will provide a basis for further historical and anthropological research into widowhood.