DOCSLIB.ORG

Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Anthropology Hanna Garth (UCLA) and Jennifer R

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Anthropology Hanna Garth (UCLA) and Jennifer R Fall 2012 Vol. 12, No. 1 Introduction: Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Anthropology Hanna Garth (UCLA) and Jennifer R. Wies (Eastern Kentucky University) This collection traces the legacies of feminist anthropol- ogy of gender to incorporate the work of our predecessors ogy and the women who broke ground, made waves, and and recognize their contributions to anthropology as a whole. pushed the boundaries of the discipline of anthropology. Similarly, we need to be prepared to continue pressing for In the 1970s, feminist leaders within the anthropology of change when tides are slowly rising, as Crooks and Moreno gender rose up, etching tidemarks into the frameworks of the reveal in the way women and gender are treated in studies of discipline. Feminist anthropologists established an anthropol- human biology. Finally, both reflexivity and public anthro- ogy of women, bringing women and gender to the forefront pology lay the groundwork for continued critical reflection of ethnographic inquiry (cf. Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). of the discipline. Haldane rises to this challenge to inter- These early works and those that followed exposed the ways rogate the anthropology of gender-based violence and calls in which women’s lives had been systematically devalued and for an expansion of a feminist anthropological framework to under-theorized within the anthropology literature. Femi- understand, and ultimately redress, violence against women. nist theorists revealed the ways in which women sought and Tandon’s piece also responds to this call by continuing to gained power, innovated solutions to oppressive patriarchal question how “woman” is constructed. societies, and played a significant role in economic produc- Collectively, and across subdisciplines, the authors tion and household-centered labor. Soon the construct of celebrate the influence of tidemark feminist theorists and gender was delineated from sex, and the concept of universal practitioners in our conceptualizations of women and gender “womanhood” was destabilized. The field was swept from within anthropology. By offering critical perspectives on the an empirical focus on women to include gender as a mode anthropology of women and gender, this collection offers of analysis (Lewin 2006), and broadened to include critical insight into the ways that feminist tidemarks influence our perspectives on social inequality. For example, Carol Stack own anthropological contributions. (1975) developed a women-based theory of family structure and kinship in an African American community to write References Cited against the culture of poverty ideology. Lewin, Ellen The works in this issue carry forth these feminist legacies 2006 Introduction to Feminist Anthropology: A Reader. through their theorizations of public anthropology, reflexiv- Blackwell. ity, and ongoing critical reflections about the discipline of an- thropology. As Wies’s piece illustrates, feminist movements in Rosaldo, Michelle and Louise Lamphere, Eds. anthropology mirror public concern and social movements. 1974 Women, Culture, and Society. Stanford: Stanford She traces the importance of continuous engagement with University Press. public interests and the ways that the incorporation of salient public issues maintains the relevance of the discipline. Roth- Stack, Carol stein’s analysis of June Nash’s theoretical contributions and 1975 All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Ardren’s tribute to the legacy of Annette Weiner demonstrate Community. New York: Basic Books. that it essential to feminist anthropology and an anthropol- Voices Vol. 12, No. 1 Fall, 2012 1 On the Material and Mentoring Cultures In this issue of Voices of Feminist Anthropology Introduction: Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Jane Henrici, August 2012, [email protected] Anthropology, Hanna Garth and Jennifer R. Wies, p. 1 On the Material and Mentoring Cultures of Feminist In July 2012, I spent a morning looking through some Anthropology, Jane Henrici, p. 2 of the letters sent out as part of the founding and setting up of the Association of Feminist Anthropology in late 1988. I Meet our 2012-2013 AFA Officers,p. 3 owed my opportunity to the fact that, thanks to the work of Sylvia Forman Prize, p. 4 previous AFA presidents, many of the records central to the history of the AFA now form a functioning archive. Cor- AFA Dissertation Fellowship Announcement, p. 4 respondence and other papers from the time of the estab- June Nash and the Gendering of Political Economy, lishment of AFA through 2010 are accessible for research at Frances Rothstein, p. 5 the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Slowly Rising Waters: Women in Human Biology, Institution’s Support Center (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/ Deborah L. Crooks and Geraldine Moreno-Black, p. 9 about.htm) just outside of Washington, DC; in 2012, I also began discussions with the Smithsonian archivists to be able The Women-Nature Correlation: Mapping the Legacy of to add more recent and future AFA records digitally. Ecofeminism, Indrakshi Tandon, p. 15 Looking through those early letters it seemed to me that Women’s Production: Annette Weiner and the Study of nearly 25 years later many of the same issues that confronted Gender in the Prehispanic New World, Traci Ardren, feminists in anthropology, anthropologists interested in gen- p. 23 der, race, sexuality, and other aspects of identity, and women Report on the Zora Neale Hurston Travel Award, p. 27 globally remain pertinent. Certainly, those who contribute to AFA activities—through sessions, writings, workshops, award What Are We Missing? Expanding the Feminist Approach submissions, and meetings—continue to have to push com- to Gender-Based Violence, Hillary J. Haldane, p. 28 munications and the sharing of responsibilities to improve Join the Association for Feminist Anthropology Today!, conditions across borders, taxonomies, prejudices, policies, p. 31 practices, and stereotypes. These issues appear within our research, our jobs, our Feminist Anthropology for the Publics: Tidemarks, Legacies, correspondence, and our service to one another. Perhaps it and Futures, Jennifer R. Wies, p. 32 is unsurprising that a section such as ours, founded with an overtly politicized core, would support activist and some- times angry exchanges. In addition, it seems almost a cliché Voices Editorial Board about global feminisms that many of us who have volun- teered to serve as elected or appointed board members have Editor agreed to do so in large part because of some seemingly Amy Harper, [email protected] (2013) shared sense of the obligations and joys of mentoring. A quick search through past AFA candidates’ platform state- Guest Editor ments comes up often with variations on the idea of serving Jennifer R. Wies, [email protected] on the board as a way to help other feminist anthropologists, as the candidates themselves had been helped, as well as to Associate Editors encourage successive “generations” of anthropology to remain Beth Uzwiak, [email protected] (2013) feminist—however defined or understood. Linda Isako Angst, [email protected] (2012) The practice of mentoring—however defined or under- Rebecca Boucher stood—meanwhile has expanded in recent decades as an activity far beyond that of feminisms and feminist anthropol- ogies. Most of the activities that receive the title of “mentor- ing” internationally nevertheless remain informal, untrained, unsupervised, unevaluated, and perhaps of questionable Voices Vol. 12, No. 1 Fall, 2012 2 worth. At the same time, scholarship on the topic indicates history within our archives. For another, since mentoring that mentoring, like so many other exchanges, can be a itself is also a form of work, then standards for its improve- deliberately political act which, when part of a larger context ment also actually could benefit from forms skill training and of such support, indeed can strengthen and expand networks professional development, and perhaps should be reviewed and other resources for both individuals and collectives. for compensation. Regardless, along with so many other is- In research on women’s political and labor participa- sues critical to conditions affecting differences among and for tion and policies relevant to those, we find that informal women, mentoring seems part of not only the past quarter and formal, and between and across (peer) levels, of men- of a century of AFA history, but its present and immediate toring increasingly are regarded as fundamental to career future. development for a range of occupations at different income levels. Meanwhile, mentoring in many nations is touted as especially helpful within efforts toward staff and colleague development and diversity—however defined or under- stood. One example of this is the policy in several nations to encourage greater numbers of women and persons of other relatively marginalized groups to prepare for jobs that average higher wages, which at present means a focus on the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); mentoring is considered important to that intervention. This widening demand for mentoring however does not seem accompanied by a tightening of standards for its prac- tice. Instead, guidelines and limitations tend to proliferate for those supposedly being mentored while those who claim 2012 – 2013 AFA Officers the title of mentor seem to receive it as a sort of side effect of experiences and accomplishments. Jane Henrici, President In addition, existing research on mentoring shows that
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UNIVERSITY of WESTERN ONTARIO May 2007
    UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY ANTHROPOLOGY 2255E Feminist Perspectives in Anthropology Distance Studies Online Version Dr. Sherrie Larkin Email: [email protected] The goal of this course is to introduce you to the ways in which feminist theory has influenced anthropology. The readings, and your course work, will explore the different kinds of work in anthropology which have been influenced by feminist social and political thought. We will end the course by looking at an ethnography which combines feminist anthropology and migration studies. Prerequisite: Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay Course Texts to purchase: Ellen Lewin, ed. 2006, Feminist Anthropology. Ruth Behar and Deborah Gordon, eds. 1995, Women Writing Culture. Sheba Mariam George, 2005, When Women Come First: Gender and Class in Transnational Migration. Evaluation: Response Essay 30% Discussion Postings 40% Section 1 12% Section 2 13% Section 3 15% Final Exam 30% Course Structure: This course has two components: the readings and assignments as outlined here, and an online component. Once you have purchased the required texts, you will have access to the readings. The online component will provide links to other students in the course, to additional information about the readings and assignments, and to current ideas as they develop out of our interaction. You ANTH 2255E, Summer 2017 Page 1 of 8 Version date: Feb. 17, 2017 should log in to the site immediately to find out what it looks like and how it works. Online Forums Postings: The advantage of taking part in an online course is that it provides opportunities for all of us to interact on a regular basis through online discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Women Writing Culture: Another Telling of the Story Of
    Introduction Women writing culture: another telling of the story of American anthropology Ruth Behar Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan The absence of models, in literature as in life, to say nothing of painting, is an occupational hazard for the artist, simply because models in art, in behavior, in growth of spirit and intellect - even if rejected - enrich and enlarge one’s view of existence. (Alice Walker, 1983) I have seen a woman sitting between the stove and the stars her fingers singed from snuffing out the candles of pure theory Finger and thumb: both scorched: I have felt that sacred wax blister my hand. (Adrienne Rich, 1989) Invocation The publication, in 1986, of the anthology Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography set off a debate about the predicaments of cultural representation that shook up American anthropology and brought a new self-consciousness to the discipline (Clifford and Marcus, 1986; cf. Geertz, 1988). Even those who shredded the volume in their critiques acknow- ledged its importance by giving it their serious attention (Scholte, 1987; Sangren, 1988; Spencer, 1989; Geertz, 1988: 131). At 25,000 copies, the book has also sold well, a rare feat for an academic collection of essays published by a university press. That Writing Culture became the kind of book which anthropologists could vehemently disagree with, but not ignore, is remarkable if one considers that its major purpose was to make plain an incredibly obvious fact: that anthropologists write.’ To be sure, the various contributors took pains to show that anthropologists are writers of a peculiar sort, who have to deal with varying degrees of authority, allegory and angst, for their aim as authors is always to tell about what happened in ’the field’ after they Critique of Anthropology © 1993 (SAGE, London, Newbury Park and New 307 308 have returned to the academy, and usually a nice home in the suburbs (though this was implied more than overtly stated).
    [Show full text]
  • University of Wisconsin, Madison Spring Semester, 1998
    University of Wisconsin-Madison Spring Semester, 2018 Department of Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Maria Lepowsky Department of Anthropology ANTHROPOLOGY BY WOMEN Gender and Women’s Studies 443 Anthropology 443 Tuesday and Thursday 1:00-2:15 5230 Social Science Building Office hours: Tuesday 2:30-4:30 and by appointment Office: 5454 Social Science Building Phone: 262-6347, 262-2866 (messages) Email: [email protected] This course considers both the history of anthropology and current issues in contemporary anthropology by using the lives and works of women in the field to examine gendered dimensions of knowledge production, canon formation, and their transformations within a relatively new academic discipline. The course offers an alternative, sometimes subterranean, history of a discipline that for the last century has been significant well beyond its borders to scholars and broader reading publics, including both feminists and anti-feminists. We will trace several generations of women field researchers and the ways their biographies and careers have shaped and reflected their cultural settings, the discipline of anthropology, and histories of feminist (and anti-feminist) thought. We will consider women in anthropology from the nineteenth century to the present. We will begin with early women travelers and writers, continuing with an examination of women's research and careers during the rapid rise of a modernist professional anthropology out of its early entanglements with empires and internal colonialisms. We will consider women anthropologists and women scientists in the academy over the past century, then examine the gendered careers of contemporary women anthropologists and the connections of their research topics, methods, analyses, and biographies to feminist and other social movements and intellectual currents.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Louise Lamphere
    CURRICULUM VITAE LOUISE LAMPHERE Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico December, 2017 Education: 2015 L.H.D. Brown University, Doctor of Humane Letters 1968 Ph.D. Harvard University 1966 M.A. Harvard University 1962 B.A. Stanford University Professional Appointments 2009- Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico 2001-08 Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico 2007 Visiting Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Princeton University 2004-06 Visiting Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Sociology, University of California, Berkeley (Spring semesters) 2001-02 Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, New York. 1999-02 University Regents Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico 1986-99 Full Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico 1998-99 Visiting Senior Researcher, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Working Families, Arlie Hochschild, Director 1994-95 Academic Coordinator, Women Studies Program, University of New Mexico 1993-94 Acting Director, Women Studies Program, University of New Mexico 1985-86 Full Professor, Brown University 1 1985-86 Research Professor, University of New Mexico (on leave from Brown University). Writing monograph on “Sunbelt Working Mothers: Reconciling Family and Factory.” Funded by Russell Sage Foundation. 1984-85 Faculty Fellow, Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women. Completion of book manuscript, From Working Daughters to Working Mothers: Immigrant Women in a New England Industrial Community. 1981 Fellow, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Faculty Development Program. January - June 1981. 1979-85 Adjunct Associate Professor, University of New Mexico. 1979-85 Associate Professor, Brown University. 1976-79 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Anthropology Hanna Garth (UCLA) and Jennifer R
    Fall 2012 Vol. 12, No. 1 Introduction: Tidemarks and Legacies of Feminist Anthropology Hanna Garth (UCLA) and Jennifer R. Wies (Eastern Kentucky University) This collection traces the legacies of feminist anthropol- ogy of gender to incorporate the work of our predecessors ogy and the women who broke ground, made waves, and and recognize their contributions to anthropology as a whole. pushed the boundaries of the discipline of anthropology. Similarly, we need to be prepared to continue pressing for In the 1970s, feminist leaders within the anthropology of change when tides are slowly rising, as Crooks and Moreno gender rose up, etching tidemarks into the frameworks of the reveal in the way women and gender are treated in studies of discipline. Feminist anthropologists established an anthropol- human biology. Finally, both reflexivity and public anthro- ogy of women, bringing women and gender to the forefront pology lay the groundwork for continued critical reflection of ethnographic inquiry (cf. Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). of the discipline. Haldane rises to this challenge to inter- These early works and those that followed exposed the ways rogate the anthropology of gender-based violence and calls in which women’s lives had been systematically devalued and for an expansion of a feminist anthropological framework to under-theorized within the anthropology literature. Femi- understand, and ultimately redress, violence against women. nist theorists revealed the ways in which women sought and Tandon’s piece also responds to this call by continuing to gained power, innovated solutions to oppressive patriarchal question how “woman” is constructed. societies, and played a significant role in economic produc- Collectively, and across subdisciplines, the authors tion and household-centered labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Women Writing Culture
    Preface and Acknowledgments, xi INTRODUCTION: OUT OF EXILE I Ruth Behar Part I: Beyond Self and Other I. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION 33 Kirin Narayan 1. BAD GIRLS: THEATER, WOMEN OF COLOR, AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION 49 Dorinne Kondo 3. WRITING IN MY FATHER'S NAME: A DIARY OF TRANSLATED WOMAN'S FIRST YEAR 65 Ruth Behar Part II: Another History, Another Canon 4. FEMINIST ANTHROPOLOGY: THE LEGACY OF ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS 85 Louise Lamphere 5. "NOT IN THE ABSOLUTE SINGULAR": REREADING RUTH BENEDICT IO4 Barbara A. Bab cock 6. ELLA CARA DELORIA AND MOURNING DOVE: WRITING FOR CULTURES, WRITING AGAINST THE GRAIN 131 Janet L. Finn 7. MULTIPLE SUBJECTIVITIES AND STRATEGIC POSITIONALITY: ZORA NEALE HURSTON'S EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHIES 148 Graciela Hernandez 8. RUTH LANDES AND THE EARLY ETHNOGRAPHY OF RACE AND GENDER 166 Sally Cole 9. MARGARET MEAD AND THE " RUSTLING-OF-THE-WIND-IN- THE-PALM-TREES SCHOOL" OF ETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING 186 Nancy C. Lutkehaus 10. THE ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS OF BARBARA G. MYERHOFF: ANTHROPOLOGY, FEMINISM, AND THE POLITICS OF JEWISH IDENTITY 207 Gelya Frank 11. WRITING AGAINST THE GRAIN: CULTURAL POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE IN THE WORK OF ALICE WALKER 233 Faye V. Harrison Part III: Does Anthropology Have a Sex? 12. THE GENDER OF THEORY 249 Catherine Lutz 13. WORKS AND WIVES: ON THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF TEXTUAL LABOR 267 Barbara Tedlock 14. MS.REPRESENTATIONS: REFLECTIONS ON STUDYING ACADEMIC MEN 287 Judith Newton and Judith Stacey 15. "MAN'S DARKEST HOURS": MALENESS, TRAVEL, AND ANTHROPOLOGY 306 Laurent Dubois 16. WRITING LESBIAN ETHNOGRAPHY 322 Ellen Lewin Part IV: Traveling Feminists 17.
    [Show full text]
  • WAN & Activist Research 75 WAN & ACTIVIST RESEARCH
    WAN & Activist Research 75 WAN & ACTIVIST RESEARCH:TOWARD BUILDING DECOLONIAL AND FEMINIST PROJECTS Maribel Casas “The project of creating a world anthropologies nework challenges anthropologists to engage not only in worldwide communication but also with knowledge produced in non-academic contexts and in non-scientific realms of experience.” Susana Narotzky (2006:133). The goal of this paper is to articulate a commonality between WAN and a particular activist research project, called Precarias a la Deriva. Acknoweledging their distinctive trajectories, I will try to illustrate possible points of articulation. While WAN is an explicit decolonial venture, Precarias a la Deriva is open about being a feminist project. However I believe that both initiatives share the following two traits: 1) a decolonial approach to knowledge production taking multiple sites of enunciation seriously as well as; 2) a radical feminist understanding of ways of creating a ‘common’ between singular experiences. After a brief description of Precarias a la Deriva (PD) and the broader trend of activist research in which it is inserted, I will focus on the two traits I put foward are held in common between WAN and PD. I will follow with a brief discussion about how these de-colonial and feminist principles have been translated by other research initiatives, especially in the practice of ethnography. To conclude, I will present a research technique experimented by PD as a possible WAN methodology since it tries to enact those very de-colonial and feminist principles discussed through the paper. The Activist Research Project by Precarias a la Deriva Precarias a la Deriva is a heterogenous collective of women that saw in the activity of research a possibility to empower themselves and develop networks of solidarity in order to take action in the current context of labor restructuring in Spain.
    [Show full text]