Mothers, wives, concubines, entertainers, attendants, officials, maids, drudges. By offering the first comparative view of the women who lived, worked, and served in royal courts around the globe, this work opens a new perspective on the monarchies that have dominated much of human history. Written by leading historians, anthropologists, and archeologists, these lively essays take us from Mayan states to twentieth-century Benin in Nigeria, to the palace of Japanese Shoguns, the Chinese Imperial courts, eighteenth-century Versailles, Mughal India, and beyond. Together they investigate how women's roles differed, how their roles changed over time, and how their histories can illuminate the structures of power and societies in which they lived. This work also furthers our understanding of how royal courts, created to project the authority of male rulers, maintained themselves through the reproductive and productive powers of women. “This expansive collection. . . affords the first comprehensive review of the women who served in royal courts and palaces around the world, and thereby offers a welcome correction to our androcentric understanding of monarchies.” ― The China Beat Blog Published On: 2009-01-14 “Excellent.” -- M. E. Wiesner ― Choice Published On: 2009-05-01 Anne Walthall is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is author of Japan: A Cultural, Social, and Political History and The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration, among other books. SERVANTS OF THE DYNASTY Palace Women in World History University of California Press Copyright © 2008 The Regents of the University of California All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-520-25444-2 Contents List of Illustrations...................................................................................................................................viiList of Tables..........................................................................................................................................ixAcknowledgments.........................................................................................................................................xiIntroducing Palace Women Anne Walthall.................................................................................................................11. Women and the Performance of Power in Early Modern Southeast Asia Barbara Watson Andaya.............................................................222. Women in Classic Maya Royal Courts Takeshi Inomata..................................................................................................453. Women and Power at the Byzantine Court Kathryn M. Ringrose..........................................................................................654. Beyond Harem Walls: Ottoman Royal Women and the Exercise of Power Leslie P. Peirce..................................................................815. Mughal Palace Women Ruby Lal........................................................................................................................966. Politics in an African Royal Harem: Women and Seclusion at the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan...............................1157. Qing Imperial Women: Empresses, Concubines, and Aisin Gioro Daughters Shuo Wang.....................................................................1378. The Royal Women of Ivan IV's Family and the Meaning of Forced Tonsure Isolde Thyrt.................................................................1599. Servants of the Inner Quarters: The Women of the Shogun's Great Interior Hata Hisako................................................................17210. Women of Versailles, 1682-1789 Kathryn Norberg.....................................................................................................19111. Concubines and Cloth: Women and Weaving in Aztec Palaces and Colonial Mexico Susan Toby Evans......................................................21512. Women, Royalty, and Indigo Dyeing in Northern Nigeria, circa 1500-1807 Heidi J. Nast...............................................................23213. Gender and Entertainment at the Song Court Beverly Bossler.........................................................................................26114. The Vanished Women of Korea: The Anonymity of Texts and the Historicity of Subjects JaHyun Kim Haboush.............................................28015. The Perils of the Sentimental Family for Royalty in Postrevolutionary France: The Case of Queen Marie-Amlie Jo Burr Margadant.....................299Bibliography............................................................................................................................................327List of Contributors....................................................................................................................................359Index..............