Évelyne Patlagean (20 October 1932 – 11 November 2008) was a French historian and Byzantinist, working on questions of

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

, the family, and women in

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

. Patlagean's doctoral thesis, entitled ''Pauvreté économique et pauvreté sociale à Byzance, 4e-7e siècles'', was published in 1977. In it, Patlagean developed ideas about inherent inequality in the status of women in the eastern Roman empire. She worked on questions of gender indetermination and transgression, including the seemingly unclear status of the

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...

, and in an important 1976 article, Patlagean opened a new dimension on the masculine inscription of circumscribed gender roles in Byzantine religious orders. Georges Sidéris suggests that Patlagean drew upon then-new insights afforded by the work of the sex and gender researchers Robert J. Stoller and Ann Oakley. Patlagean contributed to the first volume of

Paul Veyne Paul Veyne (; 13 June 1930 – 29 September 2022) was a French archaeologist and historian, and a specialist of Ancient Rome. A student of the École Normale Supérieure and member of the École française de Rome, he was honorary professor at th ...

's edited ''Histoire de la vie privée'' (1987). Her final book, ''Un moyen âge grec'', although controversial, was generally well received upon its publication in 2007. Patlagean argued forcefully that

, a field of study generally kept separate from the

Latin West Greek East and Latin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of Medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the '' lingua franca'' (Greece, Anatolia, the southern Balkans, t ...

in teaching and research (a bifurcation stemming in large part from the Byzantinist's need for facility with Greek), should be viewed as integrally connected with both the idea of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, and with the history of western Europe. Memorial colloquia were held in honour of Évelyne Patlagean on 21 and 22 November 2011, at École normale supérieure Paris and Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre (the former Paris X-Nanterre) respectively.Symposium en l’honneur de Évelyne Patlagean
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Major works

* ''Pauvreté économique et pauvreté sociale à Byzance, 4e-7e siècles''. Paris: Mouton, 1977. * ''Figures du pouvoir à Byzance: IXe-XIIe siècle''. (''Collectanea'', 13.) Spoleto : Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo, 2001. * ''Structure sociale, famille, chrétienté à Byzance: IVe-XIe siècle''. (''Collected Studies'', CS134.) London: Variorum Reprints, 1981. * ''Un moyen âge grec: Byzance, IXe-XVe siècle''. Paris: Albin Michel, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patlagean, Evelyne French Byzantinists 1932 births 2008 deaths