Year: 2023
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In this article, Hill Gates is dedicated to the question of why footbinding persisted and spread in China for more than a thousand years despite its cruel crippling of little girls. In an economy based mainly on unwaged family production of agricultural and other goods, the labor of still unmarried girls had value to their natal families, notably in spinning textile fibers, if only such children could be kept at work. Although the practice generated many cultural justifications, its driving force came from an ever-increasing pressure to use all available labor as China's preindustrial political economy experienced intensification.
Source: Edition Kulturwissenschaft
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4366275904