Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 07., Urban-Loritz-Pl. 2a	Standorte: GS.EF FS.E Alpe / College 2e - Ethnologie	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

History is rife with tales of fighting women. More often than not, these stories prove more legend than history. Dating back to the Amazons of ancient Asia Minor, myths of fierce, autonomous women of martial excellence abound. And yet, the only thoroughly documented Amazons in world history are the women warriors of Dahomey, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western African kingdom. Once dubbed a "small black Sparta," residents of Dahomey shared with the Spartans an intense militarism and sense of collectivism. Moreover, the women of both kingdoms prided themselves on bodies hardened from childhood by rigorous physical exercise. But Spartan women kept in shape to breed male warriors, Dahomean Amazons to kill them. Originally palace guards, the Amazons had evolved by the 1760s into professional troops armed mainly with muskets, machetes and clubs. Theoretically wives of the king and quartered in his palaces, they were sworn to celibacy on pain of death. In compensation they enjoyed a semi-sacred status and numerous privileges, including the right to own slaves. By the 1840s their numbers had grown to 6,000. The Amazons served under female officers and had their own bands, flags and insignia: they outdrilled, outshot and outfought men, became frontline troops and fought tenaciously and with great valour till the kingdom's defeat by France in 1892. The product of meticulous archival research, Amazons of Black Sparta is defined by Alpern's gift for narrative and will stand as the most comprehensive and accessible account of the woman warriors of Dahomey.

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/ AUS DEM INHALT: / / /

 

Preface | vii

Preface to the second edition | ix

Illustrations | xiii

Map | xiv-xv

The kings of Dahomey | xvi

 

Introduction | 1

 

1A mock battle | 13

 

2Origins of Dahomey | 16

 

3Origins of the Amazons | 20

 

4Why Dahomey? | 36

 

5Recruitment | 38

 

6Celibacy | 41

 

7A privileged life | 48

 

8What they wore | 52

 

9Their weapons | 61

 

10How many Amazons? | 72

 

11Where they lived | 76

 

12Military training | 87

 

13Building Esprit de Corps | 106

 

14Earning a living | 132

 

15Making war | 138

 

16Early Amazon battles | 165

 

17Abeokuta 1851 | 174

 

18Abeokuta 1864 | 180

 

19Years of success | 186

 

20France vsDahomey, 1890 | 191

 

21France vsDahomey, 1892 | 198

 

Epilogue | 208

 

Notes | 212

Bibliography | 262

Index | 273