Adulterous Woman to Be Eaten by Dogs

Professor Stephanie W. Jamison will present "Adulterous Woman to Be Eaten by Dogs: Women and Law in Ancient India" at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in ARH Room 102.

Jamison will introduce the textual sources for women and law in ancient India and suggest some ways in which they can be used to produce a fuller picture of women’s roles in this period.

In particular, she says "we will examine the apparent paradox: that acknowledging more agency on the part of women is accompanied by a more and more misogynistic attitude towards them. The legal provisions about adultery, with their sometimes-colorful punishments, provide a useful focus for this investigation."

Jamison was trained as a historical and Indo-European linguist, but for many years has concentrated on Indo-Iranian, especially (Vedic) Sanskrit and Middle Indo-Aryan languages and textual materials. She works not only on language and linguistics, but also literature and poetics, religion and law, mythology and ritual, and gender studies in these languages, and she is interested in comparative mythology and poetics, especially with Greek materials.

Grinnell welcomes and encourages the participation of people with disabilities. You can request accommodations from Conference Operations and Events.