Women in Transition

eminist Collections Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources versity of Wisconsin System Memorial Library :Phyllis Holman Weisbard, Linda Shult : Miriam Greenwald sistance from: Ingrid Markhardt, Renee Beaudoin, Beth r, Christina Stross nsin individuals or nonprofit women's programs); $22.50 Feminkf CoIleCtiom, full text of Core Lids in Women's Studies on such topics as aging, feminist peda- gogy, fdm studies, health, lesbian studies, mass media, and women of color in the U.S., a listing of WinsinBibliographies in Women's Studies, including full text of a number of them, a catalog of films and videos in the UW System Women's Studies Audiovisual Collection, and links to other selected websites on women and gender as well as to search engines and general databases. Copyright 1996 Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Feminist Collections A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources Volume 17, Nos.3-4, SpringISummer 1996 CONTENTS From the Editors Book Reviews Contesting Culture: Gender Interests and Strategies of Resistance by Sharon Tiffany "Get Used to the Noise. The Next Generation is Coming." by Amy Shepherd Exiles, Immigrants, and Refugees: Women Making Choices by Ivette Valdes Feminist Visions: Women in Transition: Perspectives from the Chippewa Valley by Sarah Harder Come On, Join the Conversation!:'Zines as a Medium for Feminist Dialogue and Community Building by Angela Richardson Computer Talk Compiled by Linda Shult Feminist Publishing Wisconsin Bibliographies in Women's Studies New Reference Works in Women's Studies Reviewed by Phyllis Holman Weisbard (with contributions by Margery Katz and Linda Krikos) Periodical Notes Compiled by Linda Shult Items of Note Compiled by Renee Beaudoin Books Recently Received Supplement: Index to Vo1.17 Contesting Culture: Gender Interests the wave of terror that swept the Guatemalan highlands during the and Strategies of Resistance 1970's and 1980's. This cataclysm, which resulted in the deaths or disap by Sharon W Trflany pearances of 100,000 people and thk displacement of a million others - Elizabeth E. Brusco, THE REFORMATION OFMACHISMO: EVM- mainly Maya - continues to inform indigenous behavior and cultural codes GELICAL CONYERTIONAND GENDER IN COLOMBIA. Austin: of traje. University of Texas Press, bibl. index. ISBN 1995. 203p. pap., $14.95, O- Carol Hendrickson, a student of 292-70821-1. Maya weaving, presents a sensitive analysis of fraje within the framework Christine Eber, WOMENAND ALCOHOL INA HIGH- MAYA of both indigenous and non-indigenous TOWN: WATER OF HOPE, WAFER OFSORROW. Austin: Univer- images of the "enduring Indiann - sity of Texas Press, 1995. 303p. bibl. index. pap., $18.95, ISBN 0-292- images "constructed, marketed, praised, 720904. manipulated, and denounced at the local, national, and international levels" Carol Hendrickson, WEA KING IDENlTlTES: CONSTRUCTION OF (p.76). Often disparaged as "women's DRESS AND SELF INA HIGHLAND GUATEU TOW. Austin: work" or "handicrafts," women's weaving is linked in the author's University of Texas Press, 1995. 245p. bibl. index. pap., $15.95, ISBN O- analysis to Western demand for ethnic 292-73 100-0. commodities. It is also linked to the Guatemalan state's appropriation of Several months ago, Rigoberta coping with the local consequences of fraje for promoting ladino-sponsored Menchh Tum, Maya activist and global economic forces, political and events (such as beauty pageants) and for winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in the domestic violence, and the peripheral promoting international tourism. year of the Columbus Quincentenary, or absent status of men in the home. Hendrickson's text is especially spoke to a university audience.' I felt Published by the University of Texas strong when dealing with the gendered privileged to hear the words of a Press, these books reflect a long- discourse of fraje at the level of courageous woman who wore a standing support of quality texts in household and community. The social magni•’icent ensemble of backstrap- Latin American studies. meanings of women's traje are dense. woven and handembroidered cloth. I A Maya woman's decision to wear fraje rdected on the visual aesthetics of her Weaving den ti ties is a nuanced or Western clothing (vestido) is dress (fraje) and its role as a culturally ethnography of Kaqchikel determined by situation and context. significant marker of gender and (Cakchiquel) Maya women's roles as Cost, climate, work experience, family ethnicity. Rigoberta Menchh Tum is cultural bulwarks of indigenous connections, and ethnic pride are the complete woman, I thought. She identity and as bridges between Maya important considerations. By address- stands firmly in the center of the Maya and ladino worlds.2 Maya women ing the political coding of fraje, the universe as reflected in the woven produce and wear fraje, garments reader can understand individual representations of space and time of associated primarily with backstrap- survival strategies of accommodating or her fraje. woven cloth, in the biethnic commu- resisting ladino oppression by choosing Based on feminist anthropological nity of Txp611in the central high- to wear fraje or vestido in the context of research conducted in the 1980's and lands of Guatemala. Traje in Guate- la violencia and its aftermath. early 1990's, the works under review mala cannot be divorced from the demonstrate the variety of women's history of opposition and conflict that Women ondAlcohol in a High- experiences in mestizo and indigenous characterizes relations between Maya landMaya Town is based on fieldwork worlds ofLatin America. These and mestizo (ladino) populations. conducted in the Tzotzil Maya commu- carefully-researched ethnographies Most recently, this history includes nity of San Pedro Chenalh6 in the reveal the everyday lives of women the period known as "la violencia," Mexican state of Chiapas. Combiig a retlexive approach with a woman- gender in Maya communities, and to Viewing women's participation in centered analysis, Christine Eber has the enhanced social and ritual power Protestant evangelical groups as "a written a pioneering ethnography of of indigenous women as they move form of female collective action," drinking and indigenous women's through the life course. Brusco argues that women are able to strategies for dealing with alcohol use Women's pivotal roles as transform men's social roles and to and abuse in a culturally-meaningful nurturers of children and providers of redirect resources back into households context of household relations, ritual. household resources reveal insights dependent upon male income, thereby and communal values. into why Maya women may choose to raising the living standards of women Like traje, distilled alcohol is abandon tradition and convert to and children b.3). Evangelical embedded in structures of Iadino Protestantism. Health care, shelter, prohibitions against alcohol, smoking, oppression. Pedrano men and women and food offered by Protestant groups and extramarital afFaifi reflect issues in are aware of the contradictory roles of constitute major incentives for women which women have strategic interests. nun. As the ''water af hope," the living on the economic margins. These rules, along with small congre- drinking of rum during religious Maya men and women (even Western gations comprised of relatives and ceremonies solidifies community scholars) may see indigenous women friends, provide supportive structures values and enhances women's roles as as representatives of culture and for reform to men with histories of ritual participants and as bridges tradition; however, Pedranas who squandering family budgets on other between mortals and divine forces. convert also "demonstrate that they women or on drink. Pedranos are also aware of rum's make sntl, radical changes when they By recruiting female relatives and contradictory quality as "the water of perceive a threat to what they hold neighbors for home Bible study and somow" - namely, the human and dear" Q.222). prayer, evangelical women provide an social costs of compulsive drinking. Indeed. conversion to Protestant appropriate domestic forum for The narratives of individual Maya evangelical.groups is spreading like transforming the aggressive masculin- women are compelling statements of fire throughout Latin America; ity and androcentric values associated this awareness. For instance, demographers estimate that Protestants with machismo. Colombian women An&lika, herself a former drinker and will comprise the majority by the are formidable organizers of church wife of an alcoholic, vividly describes middle of the 2lst century. Elizabeth events. They preach and teach on her childhood with drunken parents Brusco's study of Colombian women topics of marriage and family, and and her marriage to Wctorio, who and Protestant evangelism is both provide a comforting domestic context occasiodly abuses her, at the tender timely in its subject matter and unique for encouraging men to attend meet- age of twelve. Angklika recounts how besause of its sfrongly feminist ings. Men initially attending evangeli- she subsequently surrendered to the framework. Rather than focusing on cal senices usually have wives or exhortations of the Moon Vugin, who men's leadership positions in Protes- female relatives who have converted. had visited AngClika in her dreams. tant groups, the author views mestiza Male converts have often had a Such narratives contain a wealth of women as significant actors in the transformative experience, typically a ethnographic detail

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