Research results

Name of the project: Sexuality and Political-religious discourse in Romanian Pre-Modern Society - PCE_2012-4-0079

Activities September-December 2013

Conferences Organized:

Grupul de Reflecţie asupra Istoriei Politice și Sociale a Secolelor al XVIII-lea și al XIX-lea,  al treilea atelier de dezbatere, 8-9 noiembrie 2013,

Facultatea de Istorie, Universitatea „Al.I. Cuza”, Iași

Casa  Catargi, Sala H-1

 B-dul Carol I, nr. 22,

Program: (http://history.uaic.ro/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Program_Atelier_GRiPs_noiembrie_2013FINALdoc.pdf)

Workshop Organized :

Gender and Sexuality in Romanian Pre-Modern Society: Sources and Methods of Approach,  Facultatea de istorie, Universitatea Al. I. Cuza, Iaşi. 12 noiembrie, 12.30 – 16.30, sala H-1.

Activities – Conferences :

GRiPs, 8-9 noiembrie 2013, Iaşi, Facultatea de istorie, Universitatea „Al.I. Cuza”, Iași

1. Constanța Vintilă-Ghițulescu, Pe urmele celetnicei Chiriiachi: despre moravuri în societatea românească a secolului al XVIII-lea

2. Petronel  Zahariuc, O ceartă pentru egumenie în Moldova la începutul secolului al XIX-lea,

3. Nicoleta Roman, Copil sărman, copil ”slab şi nevinovat” în grija oamenilor și a statului. Politici și practici medicale in Bucureştiul perioadei regulamentare

Activities 2014

Conferences Organized:

ü  L’avènement d’un nouvel imaginaire collectif ? « Corps » du peuple, « Corps de la Nation », Sexualité et Modernité, International Conference, 17-18 October, 2014, NEC, str. Plantelor nr. 21, Bucureşti

Program: (http://www.nec.ro/pdfs/events/ProgrammeColloqueOctobreFinal.pdf)

ü  Societatea de curte şi viaţă cotidiană, sec. XVII-XIX. National Conférence, 7-8 November 2014, Faculty of History and Philosophy, University Babes Bolay, Cluj Napoca.

Activities - Conferences:

• ESSHC: 22-26 April 2014, Vienne :   https://esshc.socialhistory.org/esshc-user/logout

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu,  Seduced by the Work/Seduced by the Men. Romanian Childhood and Their Apprentice Experiences the XVIIIth century, Session “Learning and Training Patterns of Skilled Labour Force in Preindustrial Europe (14th-18th Centuries)”.

Nicoleta Roman, Infanticide in Nineteenth-century Wallachia: Laws, Discourse and Social Responses, Session “Infanticide in Europe from the Late Middle Ages to the Present”.

• SCOPE: Science of politics / La science du politique / Știința politicului, 27-29 June 2014, Facultatea de Ştiinţe Politice, University of Bucharest (http://www.scienceofpolitics.eu/SCOPE-2014/program)

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Un nou veac, o nouă etică: « burghezii » şi ideile lor de modernitate (sec. 19).

• Seminar for Historical Anthropology, Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Babes-Boyal, Cluj, 21 May 2014, Aula Regele Ferdinand, hours 12.00-14.00

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Curtea domnească – un model de imitat. Note de istorie socială românească la început de epocă modernă

• National Conference: Inventare de averi din secolele XVII–XIX: 26-27 September 2014 - Institutul de Cercetari Socio-Umane Sibiu.     

(http://www.averiboieresti.ro/files/programconfinvavere.pdf)

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Cum se chiverniseau moşiile. Condica de socoteli a armăşelului Ioan Buzeţel de la Fundata (1800-1838)

• European Society for Historical Demography, Alghero, Italy, 25–27 September 2014

(http://www.eshd.eu/)

Nicoleta Roman, A name for nobody's child. Baptism, godparents and                           abandoned children in Wallachia (1800–1860)

• National Conference Copilăria Românească: arhivă, memorie, patrimoniu,                    Institutul de Istorie ''Nicolae Iorga'', Bucharest, 10 October 2014

Nicoleta Roman, Dintr-un registru, la o poveste de viaţă. Copilăria lui Ioniţă,                copil sărman din prima jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea

• International Conference : L’avènement d’un nouvel imaginaire collectif ? « Corps » du peuple, « Corps de la Nation », Sexualité et Modernité, 17-18 October 2014, NEC, Bucharest.

(http://www.nec.ro/pdfs/events/ProgrammeColloqueOctobreFinal.pdf)

Liviu Pilat : Sexuality and Power in Moldavia (15^th-16^th centuries)

Petronel zahariuc : Le clergé orthodoxe et les mœurs des croyants de Moldavie à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au début du XIXe

Christophe Regina : Contraindre le corps des femmes par le travail et la prière : l'institution des refuges en France sous l'Ancien Régime

Nicoleta Roman : Un nouveau groupe social vers la modernité en Valachie au XIXe siècle: les enfants. Programmes et intentions pour le corps, l'esprit et l'âme des enfants roumains

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu : Expertiser les corps et la sexualité : ‘amateurs’ et ‘spécialistes’ (1750-1830)

• National Conference : Societatea de curte şi viaţa cotidiană în spaţiul românesc (secolele 16-19),  7-8 November 2014, Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca.

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Râsu-plânsu pe vremea sărbătorilor. Loisir, desfătare şi obidă la început de epocă modernă

Nicoleta Roman,  Din vremuri de demult. Casa şi voinţa unui pitar din Valahia secolului al XIX-lea

·         International Conference : Servants and Domestic Workers in Rural Europe, XVI to XIX centuries. Regional Diversity and forms of dependance, 28 noiembrie 2014, EHESS, Paris. (http://crh.ehess.fr/ )

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Travailler pour les autres. La domesticité roumaine à travers les comptes d’un patron agricole  (1800-1838)

 Activities- Articles:

1. Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Mixed Marriages, Mixed Children: between Norms and Practices in Romanian Society (18th-19th Centuries), in Luminţa Dumănescu, Daniela Mârza, Marius Eppel, Intermarriage throughout History, Cambridge Scholar Publisher, 2014. (ISBN (10): 1-4438-5950-8, ISBN (13): 978-1-4436-5950-9.

2. Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, «Rapiécer un honneur perdu»: filles, parents et sexualité dans la société roumaine (XVIIIe siècle), SIDeS, Popolazione e Storia”, 1/2013, pp. 105-128.  Aici: https://www.academia.edu/7239814/_Rapiecer_un_honneur_perdu_filles_parents_et_sexualite_dans_la_societe_roumaine_XVIII_e_siecle_

3. Nicoleta Roman, Orfanii evgheniţi ai familiei Oteteleşanu în Valahia primei jumătăţi a veacului al XIX-lea in Mircea Ciubotaru, Lucian Lefter (eds.), ,,Mihail Dim. Sturdza la 80 ani. Omagiu'', Iaşi, Editura Universităţii ''Alexandru Ioan Cuza'', 2014, pp. 877–918.

4. Petronel Zahariuc, Despre „slujbele facute patriei”. Vornicul Constantin Sturdza, presedinte al Societatii de Medici si Naturalisti din Iasi, in vol. „Mihai Di. Sturdza
la 80 de ani. Omagiu”, editori Mircea Ciubotaru, Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Editura
Universitatii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iasi, 2014, p. 221-244.

5. Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Curtea domnească – un model de imitat? Note de istorie socială românească la început de epocă modernă, in Caietele de antropologie istorică, 2014 (forcoming)

Scientific report 2014

ACTIVITY REPORT ON THE GRANT

Sexuality and Political-religious discourse

 in Romanian Pre-Modern Society

(2014)

Project PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-4-0079

During 2014 the project team members Sexuality and religious-political discourse in early modern Romanian society continued to documentation and exploitation of results. In addition to identifying new documents and related literature covering research topic, team members have published books and articles in journals and collective volumes and attended scientific meetings in the country and abroad. Some of these activities are ongoing and will be completed in the future. For this stage the team had to fulfill two main objectives, namely, the development of case studies on the involvement of Romanian international scientific debate on sexuality and enhancement of the preliminary results of research and ensure connection with Romanian and foreign specialists on the project field. Both objectives were met, but they still relevant for future stages.

          Thus, to fulfill the second objective, the project team organized in collaboration with the New Europe College and University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" international conference L’avènement d’un nouvel imaginaire collectif ? « Corps » du peuple, « Corps de la Nation », Sexualité et Modernité, Bucharest, 17-18 octomber 2014. The scientific event brought together specialists from Romania, France and Greece and the participants appreciated the quality of papers and discussions. Project team members presented on this occasion the following communications:

Liviu Pilat : Sexuality and Power in Moldavia (15^th-16^th centuries)

Petronel zahariuc : Le clergé orthodoxe et les mœurs des croyants de Moldavie à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au début du XIXe

Christophe Regina : Contraindre le corps des femmes par le travail et la prière : l'institution des refuges en France sous l'Ancien Régime

Nicoleta Roman : Un nouveau groupe social vers la modernité en Valachie au XIXe siècle: les enfants. Programmes et intentions pour le corps, l'esprit et l'âme des enfants roumains

Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu : Expertiser les corps et la sexualité : ‘amateurs’ et ‘spécialistes’ (1750-1830)

In addition to organizing this international conference, team members presented scientific papers at major scientific meetings. Thus, Constance Vintilă-Ghiţulescu presented the paper Seduced by the Work / Seduced by the Men. Romanian Childhood and Their Experiences the XVIIIth century Apprentice in the session "Learning and Training Patterns of Skilled Labour Force in preindustrial Europe (14th-18th Centuries)",  European Social Science History Conference, Vienna, 22 to 26 April 2014. In the same conference, Nicoleta Roman presented the paper Infanticide in Nineteenth-century Wallachia: Laws, Discourse and Social Responses în the session “Infanticide in Europe from the Late Middle Ages to the Present”. Also, the same researcher presented the paper A name for nobody's child. Baptism, godparents an abandoned children in Wallachia (1800–1860), in the 2014 Conference of the European Society of Historical Demography, Alghero, 25-27 September 2014. It also notes Constanța Vintilă-Ghiţulescu presented the paper Travailler pour les autres. La domesticité roumaine à travers les comptes d’un patron agricole  (1800-1838) in the international conference "Servants and Domestic Workers in Rural Europe, XVI to XIX Centuries. Diversity and Regional forms of dependance ", November 28, 2014, EHESS, Paris. All work papers will be published in proceedings of conferences next year.

An important result, with a significant impact on increasing the visibility of Romanian historical research internationally, is the volume published by Constance Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Im Schalwar und mit Baschlik. Kirche, Sexualität, Ehe und in der Walachei Scheidung im 18. Jarhundert, Frank & Timmme, Berlin, 2013. Appeared in the last days of last year, the amount was not included in the report year. Powered by news documents, the book represents an authentic sample of Romanian social history, providing the reader examples impression passed on topical issues such as love, sexuality, marriage and divorce.

          Articles published by research team members reflect very well fulfill the first objective stated above and also the direction followed by each researcher. Note that the number of items made by team members is higher, but we mention here only those already published.

- Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Mixed Marriages, Mixed Children: between Norms and Practices in Romanian Society (18th-19th Centuries), în Luminţa Dumănescu, Daniela Mârza, Marius Eppel, Intermarriage throughout History, Cambridge Scholar Publisher, 2014.

- Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, «Rapiécer un honneur perdu»: filles, parents et sexualité dans la société roumaine (XVIIIe siècle), SIDeS, Popolazione e Storia”, 1/2013, pp. 105-128.

- Nicoleta Roman, Orfanii evgheniţi ai familiei Oteteleşanu în Valahia primei jumătăţi a veacului al XIX-lea în Mircea Ciubotaru, Lucian Lefter (eds.), ,,Mihail Dim. Sturdza la 80 ani. Omagiu'', Iaşi, Editura Universităţii ''Alexandru Ioan Cuza'', 2014, pp. 877–918.

- Petronel Zahariuc, Despre „slujbele facute patriei”. Vornicul Constantin Sturdza, presedinte al Societatii de Medici si Naturalisti din Iasi, în vol. „Mihai Dim.Sturdza la 80 de ani. Omagiu”, editori Mircea Ciubotaru, Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Editura Universitatii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iasi, 2014, p. 221-244.

Our results show the importance of research topic and its potential, wich fact put the Romanian historical research on an important position. On the history of sexuality between Romanian historiography and other European historiography there is a gap, but not so large such other traditional historiographical issues. This leads us to believe that during the next stages, the results will be important, especially in terms of relations between sexuality, gender and power, subject which receive a special attention from researchers in the last time. Unfortunately, the project Sexuality and politico-religious discourse in early modern Romanian society is under the auspices of a total lack of predictability, which makes it very hard work of researchers and their full involvement in European scientific gear. The scientific researchers misses important because, in the absence of any indications concerning the amount and the date of execution of the budget can not confirm participation. We hope that in the future stages this major difficulty will be eliminated.

Scientific Report 2013

ACTIVITY REPORT ON THE GRANT

Sexuality and Political-religious discourse in Romanian Pre-Modern Society

Project PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-4-0079

          The first phase of the project, covering a period of four months, was devoted mainly to organizational issues, with a purpose to the best possible conduct of the research process during future stages. The first goal was the establishment of the Action Plan for the purposes of research. This objective was carried out by delineating responsibilities among team members depending of competence, each of the members reserving him a clear role, contribution to the joint effort will be reported strictly according to this factor. Team members agreed that involvement in the project take place gradually as needed. Also falling under this objective and setting preliminary stages and objectives and establish the strategy work.

An important goal for this phase was the research plan development in many ways (themes) complementary. Team members considered it was necessary to structure the sources and bibliography for each theme, according to the research plan. This became clear from the discussions in the round table Gender and Sexuality in Modern Society Pre-Romanian: Sources and Methods of Approach.

          Another important objective was the coverage of the project has been achieved mainly by organizing and attending a workshop discussion of the Reflection Group on Political and Social History of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, held in Iasi, from 8 -9 November 2013, an event that had far-reaching international conference profile, in which it was intended public presentation of preliminary objectives. In this respect, communication presented by the principal investigator, Constanta Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, Pe urmele celetnicei Chiriachii: despre moravuri în societatea românească a secolului al XVIII-lea and the other members of the project interventions have attracted the attention of other participants, who appreciated the great interest posed this area of research. Also for the purpose of covering the project and the partial release of the results are the production http://sexualitypremodernromanian.blogspot.ro/ project web page.

          An important event was the publishing of book Evgheniți, ciocoi mojici. Despre obrazele primei modernități românești, 1750-1862, signed by Constance Vintilă-Ghiţulescu and Publishers Humanitas, work that has received particular attention from the local cultural environment.

          Based on the results obtained in this short stage, the team expects further research grant individual and collective design of new projects. At the same time, we plan participation in national and international scientific meetings in which to present the current state of documentation and research on the topic, whose cultural impact to contribute primarily to increase the visibility of Romanian historical research internationally.

Books and Articles

„Rapiecer un honneur perdue” https://www.academia.edu/7239814/_Rapiecer_un_honneur_perdu_filles_parents_et_sexualite_dans_la_societe_roumaine_XVIII_e_siecle_

















A new books published by the principal investigator of project

a new book

Project Team

1. Constanța Vintilă-Ghițulescu (principal investigator), senior researcher at the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest

2. Liviu Pilat (member of team) Associate Professor at the „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iași

3. Nicoleta Roman (member of team) junior researcher at the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest

4. Petronel Zahariuc (member of team), Professor at the „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iași

5. Marianna Muravyeva (associate member), Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg

6. Lucien Faggion (associate member), University of Provence

7. CristopheRegina (associate member), University of Provence

8. Bogdan Mateescu (associate member), "Nicolae Iorga" Institute of History, Bucharest

9. Ramona Caramelea (associate member), "Nicolae Iorga" Institute of History, Bucharest

Project objectives

1. Sexual behaviour and social control in Moldavia and Walachia (15th - 18th centuries)

For a long period, the Church had the monopole on the sexuality-related discourse. Some historians emphasized that Christianity has had a nearly obsessive fixation on the dynamics of sexual desire. Whether through repression, spiritualization, or regulation, Christianity has made the body and its passions central to what it means to be human and “saved.” Starting with the 14th century, in Western Europe there has been a laicization of the social control of sexuality, augmented in the 16th century, but the foundation of the civil laws to regulate sexuality was represented by ideas taken over from the canon law. In the Orthodox space, the Church also associated the secular power to the discourse, given that the monarch was a “defender of Orthodoxy,” too. The research will underline the way in which the civil and canon law (Pravila ritorului Lucaci, Codicele Voroneţean, Pravila de la Govora, Îndreptarea legii [1652], Cartea românească de învăţătură [1646], Pravilniceasca condică [1780], Codul penal [1783]) determine the norms for the sexual behaviour within the Romanian pre-modern society. However, as Jean–Louis Flandrin underlined, the civil and canon law only provide an abstract idea on certain social aspects; this is why one should consult the documents emitted by the laic and ecclesiastic courts of law, thus reaching a perfect combination between abstract and reality. The judiciary documents within different courts are in the archive funds of Iaşi and Bucharest and in the collection of manuscripts belonging to the Romanian Academy Library. Though they cannot draw the entire picture of the historical reality, the documents present diverse cases and attitudes regarding the sexual behaviour of certain individuals. For the bigger picture, we will analyze the references to sexuality within theological writings in the Romanian space, especially written by metropolitans of Moldavia and Walachia (Varlaam, Antim Ivireanu, Iacov Putneanu, Grigore, and Cozma). Another important research direction is the sexual behaviour of the clergy. The Catholic Church imposed celibacy and idealized the model of Adam before committing the sin, which means a total rejection of sexuality. On the contrary, the Orthodox Church imposed the marriage on the secular clergy, which also meant establishing norms on the sexual behaviour of the clergy. Things are different for the monastic clergy, as chastity is the essential condition in their case; the situation is similar to that within the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, though the Church idealized virginity and the rejection of sexuality, the homosexual relationships between monks and bishops were a serious issue. The situation also concerns the Romanian society, an aspect illustrated by certain legal documents and by the severe punishments applied to some bishops, such as burning at the stake. Though the real cause of the execution is not openly stated, the civil law shows that this punishment was reserved to severe sodomy cases. The discretion regarding these cases will represent a research subject, given the strong connection with the political–religious discourse.

2. Sexuality and Power in Moldavia and Walachia (15th - 18th centuries)

For Michel Foucault, sex is one of the four leaning pillars for the analytical history of power. Sexual behaviour, it seems, could play a central role in the political rhetoric of medieval power struggles. The renovating tendency of the political history – expressed within the past decades – has given a growing importance to the aspects regarding sexuality. As for the Romanian society, we propose to investigate certain directions that the previous researches did not study. A first direction targets the control that the prince exerts upon the nobility by regulating the matrimony. Dimitrie Cantemir noted that the prince carefully supervised the matrimonial relations between the families of boyars; no marriage could occur without his consent. This strict control encumbered the formation of strong clans and the perpetuation of a spirit of the land-owning elite. In this sense, we will analyze the cases where the prince forced the boyars to marry women coming from modest families – within the prince’s service – as consequence of alleged sexual offences; this included those families within the nobility. Another important aspect is the relation between sexuality and the power discourse. We have in view the elucidation of an ambiguity, created by using certain sexuality-related themes – taken from the religious discourse – and potentially vulgar sexual words and phrases within the power discourse. Another important issue is the sexuality of the prince. We will study here the discrepancy between the model of the Christian prince proposed by the Church and the actual sexual behaviour of the prince, often opposed to this model. There were cases when the princes married the fourth time, though the canons limited them to three, or bigamy cases, to which the clergy opposed slightly or at all. There is a similar attitude concerning the prince’s mistresses; it is hard to identify their status because the sources do not refer to them. Nonetheless, the presence of bastards at the court and their association with the throne indicate that the prince’s affairs were well known and tolerated, including by the higher clergy. The clergymen had firm views on the morality of principles mainly retrospectively, in what we may call the power delegitimation discourse. The immoral sexual behaviour justifies why a prince lost the power; we find interesting the association between this type of behaviour and the accusations of heresy and apostasy after some cases of converting to Islam (princes Iliaş Rareş and Mihnea the Bad). 

3. The discourse on sexuality between tradition and modernity

In the last decades of the 18th century, the Romanian society went through a transformation process, by gradually abandoning the traditional civilization and by adapting to the western modernity. In this context, people talked about a moral crisis of the Romanian society, including from the perspective of social behaviour and of the discourse on sexuality. In this sense, our research will study the change in women’s status and their presence in the public space. By adopting a new dressing code and a new behavioural model, women became – in the opinion of certain contemporaries in the favour of a traditional lifestyle – the determining factor of the moral crisis. Another aspect refers to the divorce between State and Church – specific to the transformations brought by modernity – from the perspective of the discourse on sexuality. The Church – strongly anchored in tradition and conservatism – maintains the restrictive position towards sexuality, while the State tries to abrogate the pecuniary and punitive measures meant to limit the freedom of the individual. Let us mention only the so-called gloaba pântecelui (“fornication fee”), a tax on the sins of the flesh, annulled and then reinstated, because of the important incomes for both institutions. At the same time, in the first Romanian modernity, the Church tries to adjust to the times and to transmit important messages through the press. Vestitorul Besericesc (1840–1841) and Predicatorul Ecleziastic (1857) are just two of the journals through which a discourse is imposed. Women and feminine education become the stakes of this discourse because they are seen as solutions for the moral crisis. While the modern State is more preoccupied with the health state of the “nation,” with the ebullient and “contagious” sexuality that threatens more and more counties with syphilis. The Archives of the Ministry of Interior and the Sanitary Direction keep important information on the new discourse of the modern State involved in finding medical rather than moral solutions. A series of projects meant to “legitimate” the necessity of prostitution have been emerging. Moreover, from this moment on, the discourses of the two powers defend different values.

Project description

The history of sexuality is a relatively new topic in the historical research – with an intense proliferation within the past decades –, mostly after the publication of an important paper, in fact the theoretical foundation for this research field (Michel Foucault, Histoire de la sexualité, I, Paris, 1976). Either the ideas expressed by Foucault have stimulated the researchers’ interest for the study of sexuality from a social and cultural perspective, or they have determined criticisms and conceptual repositioning. In both cases, they have led to a significant broadening of the research horizon and to a richer themed discourse. Considering the social phenomenon approach, the history of sexuality overlaps historical demography; there is a relationship between the history of medicine and that of family. In addition, through the cultural dimension, the history of sexuality overlaps the history of literature, the hagiology, historiography and history of art. The impressive bibliography reflects the importance that historians gave to the subject and, also, by apparition, since 1990, a thematic journal (Journal of the History of Sexuality, published by University of Texas Press). All recent scholarship having as subject the sexuality acknowledges the basic hermeneutic principle that the history of sexuality has been governed by ideologies that construct the category of sexuality itself. The – mainly – cultural approach on studying the evolution of sexuality represents an important research subject, able to provide answers to certain issues of the contemporary society. This is possible mostly by underlying the continuity and rupture elements between modernity and the traditional Christian society. Many studies have stressed on the link between Christian thinking and sexuality, as the Church was the first institution to offer a discourse on sex. It went on being associated with the temporal power; in the modern era, it disseminated in the modern rational discourses (psychoanalysis, sexology, family planning, etc). A recent tendency in studying the history of sexuality accentuates the importance of regional particularities in the detriment of a monolithic approach. The gender and sexuality are cultural constructs that require the study of ideas, laws, and institutions of the society, as well as of ethnic, geographic, and political characteristics that determine specific cultural identities.

As for the history of sexuality and the political–religious discourse, the Romanian historical research has been showing a deficit. The isolation during the Communist regime led to a complete break from the Occidental historical research, rejecting even the research themes with a strong influence from Marxist thinking. The few studies with a tangential view on the history of sexuality within this period were possible because of the overlap with the history of literature. Tight-laced by the old and rigid concepts of the militant nationalism, the Romanian historiography had a slow evolution after the fall of the Communist regime, thus perpetuating the disinterest of the previous period. Inevitably, after 1990, when the Romanian historiography came out of isolation, subjects previously seen as marginal or lacking relevance could be approached. The contact with “the new history” – promoted by the Annales School – and with the German-inspired law anthropology made many authors pay attention, in their social history studies, to aspects related to the history of sexuality, too. We remind here the chapter Viaţa între Eros şi Agape, dedicated by Ştefan Lemny, in his essay on the cultural history of the Romanian space in the 18th century (Ştefan Lemny, Sensibilitate şi istorie în secolul XVIII românesc, Bucharest, 1990). This chapter represented an attempt to anticipate the transformation of the discourse on sexuality within the Romanian space, as there were no studies on the subject. In the past decade, there have been more and more studies approaching aspects of the sexuality in the Romanian pre-modern society. They belong to the history of family, to historical demography, to imagology, and to the history of sexuality.

The studies are only the beginning of a historiography project – on a very vast research field – but with potential spectacular results. They have only emphasized on the rich potential of the sources yet to be explored. The research is definitely not an easy one, in the absence of a theoretical foundation for the sexuality in the Romanian space and because it is hard to identify the sources. Most documents necessary to study the sexuality of the Romanian pre-modern society are not published, and one must have thorough knowledge on paleography and archive funds to identify them. The research team of the project proposed meets the two requirements, as it comprises researchers with preoccupations for the history of sexuality, also known for their quality of document editors. The general research field of the theme proposed is characterized – mostly in the West-European historiography – by an ever growing and fast expansion. Nonetheless, its echoes are still weak in the Romanian historiography, because the theme is highly complex. This justifies the exploration proposed by this project.

Estimated results

Estimated results

- 10 work papers and conferences on the project theme

- 10 studies published in scientific journals and volumes

-  publishing documents on the project theme

- publishing the volume Sexuality and political-religiouse discourse in pre-modern Romanian society