Feminist Anthropology

— Behind the Mask is one of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) successful short fiction, though did not reached the fame of the other novels like Little women, still it is considered one of the remarkable works of Alcott. In the novella, Alcott delivered a well representation of the social and economical positions of women in 19 th century; and how a lot of women were obliged to earn their living though they are from the genteel class. Alcott depicts women's socio-cultural challenges in the 19 th century English society through her protagonist's struggle for a better social status against numerous social prejudices she encounters. In this paper, I will identify, explore and investigate these social prejudices through the theory of the intersectional feminism point of view that discusses the intersectionality of class and gender that has been shown to have a visible impact on the labor market for females in the 19 th century Europe. Index Terms—Louisa May Alcott, behind the Mask, intersectionality, feminism.

Why does a queer feminist approach to reproductive justice matter? Why might it matter for youth who build their families while navigating the surveillance of a large urban U.S. child welfare system? Why might it matter for queer transracial families like my own and for other "disruptive families"? This autoethnographic account shadows my ethnography with Black adolescent mothers and their children living under surveillance. The works stems from an obligation to shift my gaze to myself, as I follow a long reflexive tradition in feminist anthropology around exploring my vulnerabilities and changing point of view. I argue that queering reproductive justice reveals diverse forms of kinship and care networks to motivate coalition building across families. Queer Black activists and feminists have consistently offered critical insights into how to make the rallying cry of Black Lives Matter more inclusive of Black trans and cis girls and women, as well as for gender-expansive Black people and families. As a multi-city and global coalition erupts and demands the liberation of Black lives, the time is ripe for a queer coalition for reproductive justice.

Nowadays, it is without doubt that one of the fields of anthropology that has been affected and transformed by the social movement of feminism is sociocultural anthropology, which focuses on the study of human cultural lives. Since the emergence of the subdiscipline of feminist anthropology during the 1970’s, sociocultural anthropologists have been influenced by feminist ideas in their research topics, stressing on the importance of gender and sexuality as an analytic tool in our efforts to examine, interpret and write about human culture. However, for almost as long as feminist anthropology exists in the field, controversies have arisen as to whether the combination of feminism and anthropology is possible and can contribute to anthropological research. In spite of these controversies and disputes, feminist anthropology has managed to become quite respectable in the field, even offering prestige to the anthropologist, towards the effective study of gender in society. Feminist anthropology should be grasped not only as intervening, but also as inviting anthropologists to participate in a conversation that challenges the existing social norms in the discipline.

This chapter situates contemporary queer anthropology within histories of the contested relationships between gender and sexuality, and feminist and queer studies. I begin with the delineation of gender as the domain of feminist studies, and sexuality as the domain of queer studies, staging a series of analogical readings of feminist and queer studies and their proper objects and political investments. I focus on two questions: the problematic of institutionalization (and the closure or fixity institutionalization represents) and the problematic of good enough objects—objects that might satisfy the political desires we have invested in them. Examining the political aspirations we invest in our disciplines, I explore how the desire to exceed the limits of institutionalization has sparked a critical queer studies that is attentive to both particularity and to a larger global context. Detouring through some of the new work in queer studies that, in my analysis, is compatible with cultural anthropology, I focus on the places where queer analytics aim to surpass proper objects and pat political interpretations. I conclude with a survey of what I term the “new queer anthropology,” which seeks to remake its objects and analytics by pushing its key terms—queer and anthropology—into uncharted territories.

In Timor-Leste, indigenous customary practices that surround marriage and relations between the families or clans of the bride and groom are called barlake (pronounced “baa-lucky”) and today feature in an estimated half of all marriages. As early as the 1960s they have been blamed for the subjugation of women and more recently cited as central a cause of high levels of domestic violence. This condemnation fits into broad global feminist critiques of traditional marriage practices as mechanisms for the control and exploitation of women by men. The contemporary discourse surrounding barlake in Timor-Leste is also part of wider debates about the roles and status of women in the new post-conflict nation.

This essay is an evaluation of Sherry B. Ortner's paper claiming that women are universally subordinate to men. Ortner unpacks the reasoning behind womens universal secondary status, taking this status as a given with little evidence. Her explanations for the subordination of women lie in her beliefs that women are seen to be closer to nature and how men deal with this. Ortner takes her ideas from areas of anthropological research such as feminist anthropology, ethnopsychology as well as the physiological nature of human beings. I am going to display some counterarguments within this field and show my ideas surrounding how to reach this egalitarian society that Ortner and many others wish for. To reach a cultural competence universally we need to look at all sides of the debate surrounding gender. What exactly does Ortner mean when she uses the word subordinate? First I will look at her ideas surrounding why women have this secondary status and how this links in with the comparative difference between someones sex and gender role. Next I will show how this may be universal when looking at institutions and womens participation. Then a discussion of Ortners ideas surrounding the differences in the psychic structures of men and women and just how complex feminist ideas can often be. What journey do we need to take to address some of the issues that Ortner raises and how can we bring about equality between two sides of the world, when we do not yet know the root problem?

Since its inception as a subfield of sociocultural anthropology, feminist anthropology has been critically concerned with representations of the biological body and the intersection of the life sciences with anthropological theory. From the beginning, anthropological studies of women were necessarily studies of physical and sexual categorizations, the naturalization of social gender roles, biological determinism, and the nature/culture divide. This chapter provides an overview of feminist anthropological research at the intersection of gender and the life sciences. Scholars of feminist anthropology have engaged with this intersection differently throughout different historical and theoretical periods, often reflecting dynamic and changing political climates, states of science and technology, and evolving ideas of nature, bodies, and matter.

This collective statement provides a general overview of the Cite Black Women movement, its principles, intellectual genealogy, charge, and history. It is both a reflection and an outline of the project's primary principles, hopes, and dreams.

The present work centres around the question of the virginity imperative, a social contract and regime of power that regulates women’s bodies through disciplinary devices surrounding the socially constructed notion of female virginity. Through participant observation and interviews with young people of Iranian origin residing in Montreal, I explain why the virginity imperative persists among this population. Through description of women’s social navigation (Vigh 2006) of marriage and education, I argue that women’s apparent collusion with restrictive norms does not undermine their agency, but indicates their ability to make decisions that maximize social benefits given their particular circumstances. The argument extends to women’s performance of virginity, which is a face-saving tactic and instrumental in the practice of hypergyny among women I interviewed. Nevertheless, I argue, the virginity imperative operates to categorize women according to a virgin/whore dichotomy, rendering unliveable the lives of those who do not adequately perform virginity. Attitudes that define sex as defiling to women
contribute to a gendered politics of knowledge resulting in women’s limited expression of sexuality as compared to men’s, which, along with the patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti 1988), plays a role in women’s lack of expression of dissent. I argue that men’s preference for virgin women is incompatible with the love marriages they claim to aspire to, and that men lack reflexivity of the consequences for women of attitudes that reinforce the virginity imperative. Bringing an end to these painful consequences requires public discussion to replace their relegation to, and management within, the private sphere.

The present research will be a discussion of the ‘body’ in a setting of modernity, and how ‘belly-dance’ can be used as a tool for agency and ‘boundary-making’, following my time spent dancing and conducting fieldwork within the ‘community’ of ‘belly-dance body mind’ in Camden Town (London). I will be contributing to the ongoing feminist debate surrounding the concept of a ‘woman’. Drawing from linguistic anthropology, critical theory and post-structural feminism, I will display how ‘belly-dance’ has become a tool for women living in post-modern settings to make a political stand against categorization and essentialist ideals. There will also be a discussion throughout of consumerism, gentrification and neo-colonialism in relation to gender and cultural producers.

PhD thesis that was defended at the University of Tartu, Department of Ethnology.

Similar to other Southeast Asian societies, Indonesia has a long history of practices and identities that exceed gender-normative behaviour. This dissertation focuses on waria – male-bodied individuals who feel and express themselves as women in a country that is also home to the world’s largest Muslim population. Although waria form a visible social group in Indonesia, their basic human rights along with other gender and sexual minorities have been greatly challenged during the past few decades. Sexuality has become a political playground, against which the question of waria belonging, to the nation or otherwise, is of the utmost significance.
Since waria often go through migration, in which they sever relationships with their families, longing to belong is a widely shared sentiment among waria. As a result of, and in response to, their social exclusion, waria actively seek self-expression, pleasure and a sense of belonging at those places and times that are available to them.
Following extended ethnographic fieldwork in the regions of Java and Papua – the central and the peripheral within the Indonesian national imaginary –, this thesis describes the life paths and spaces of waria, and the practice of beauty as related to national belonging and narratives of modernization. Namely, in order to claim belonging to the locally surrounding communities, waria aspire to a sense of national and transnational belonging. Through these imagined reaches waria make their lives more liveable. Hence, the dissertation asserts that bodily forms and transformations hold a significant capacity to provide or withdraw access to categories of belonging, which in turn influences the feelings of worth. Additionally, the thesis underscores the interrelated and embodied nature of gender, highlighting desire in the waria understandings of gender. Therefore, the dissertation contributes to the contemporary debates around issues of (trans)gender, sexuality and embodiment.

Pregnancy is considered a feminine experience in mainstream Canadian culture. Babies identified as female at birth are expected to grow up to become feminine heterosexual mothers. This research considers the desires, choices, and experiences of individuals who were identified as female at birth, but who do not identify as feminine heterosexual women; this dissertation focuses on the reproductive desires, choices, and experiences of butch lesbians, transmen, and genderqueer individuals in British Columbia. Three methods and two distinct populations formed this research. Participant observation was conducted in 21 cities across southern BC. Questionnaires were completed by 28 health care professionals (HCPs), and by 46 butch lesbian, transmen, and genderqueer (BTQ) individuals. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 HCPs, 8 BTQ individuals who had experienced at least one successful pregnancy, and 4 BTQ individuals who had either experienced or been diagnosed with a condition linked to infertility. What I found, is that for many BTQ individuals, reproduction associated with the female body (ie: pregnancy and breastfeeding) is not exclusively considered a feminine desire or experience. In fact, what I discovered is that BTQ individuals who experience pregnancy and breastfeeding explicitly challenge the cultural fetish associating femininity with reproduction (including pregnancy, breastfeeding, mothering, and fertility). Thus, I highlight not only the typically ignored desire and achievement of pregnancy of BTQ individuals, but also how BTQ individuals have experienced breastfeeding, how some BTQ parents raise queerlings, and how some BTQ individuals have negotiated diagnoses and experiences of infertility. Overall, I highlight the unique and various expectations and experiences that butch lesbians, transmen, and genderqueer individuals have regarding their ‘female’ (and potential) biological reproduction. In the end, I hope that by presenting the diverse reproductive experiences, desires, and choices of BTQ individuals, that I can foster more of an understanding of these experiences, desires, choices, and individuals, and thus challenge the cultural fetish that links femininity with ‘female’-associated reproduction. Moreover, I offer recommendations for health care professionals in an effort to foster more understanding in BTQ health care, as well as help to facilitate more queer competent health care professionals.

This course will introduce and interrogate a variety of ideas that underlie and inform the work of anthropologists in recent decades. Contemporary anthropology draws both on its own disciplinary tradition and its voracious appetite for ideas from the fields of philosophy, history, sociology, and political science, and from the reflection that takes place in movements like feminism and anticolonialism, among other sources. Far more than in early periods, the shared reading list of anthropological scholars since the mid-twentieth century is interdisciplinary.

We will use some of the course to address the late 20th century “crisis” in anthropology, when a combination of ethnographic subjects writing back to those who studied them, and postmodern critiques of scientific certainty threw the discipline into a self-questioning mood. This is an era of post-’s and of “turns,” moments in which critical masses (or critically located clusters) of anthropologists proposed (and continue to propose) new approaches to the work of describing human life. We will also devote a great deal of time to theories of power that emerged in the last fifty years, including feminist approaches, work by Foucault, retheorizations of Marx, and subaltern studies. We’ll take on theoretical approaches to the colonial order, performativity, materiality, practice, and the construction of knowledge.

This course is intended to supply others’ ideas and trace their influence, but also to draw you and your mind into dialogue with these theorists and their claims. It’s a place for patient encounter with the complexity of what you read, and a place for urgent critique of what you find most troubling, and a place for patience again as you gestate your own perspective and assemble your ensemble of familiar theoretical tools. Being fully and thoughtfully present, intellectually and personally, in these discussions is vital to what we will all get out of the experience.

Resumen. En este artículo se pasa revisión a la vida y obra de Margaret Mead, tal vez la primera mujer que defendió que los "roles sexuales" (lo que ahora entendemos por "género") no estaban determinados biológicamente sino construidos culturalmente. En el texto se argumenta que existen contradicciones y confusiones en su trabajo, derivados de las que caracterizaron su propia vida personal. Porque a pesar de defender teóricamente la construcción cultural del género, la enorme presión del orden patriarcal de comienzos del siglo XX no debió permitirle internalizar que realmente se podía ser una persona individualizada e inteligente si se era una mujer, lo que la llevó a construir un mito sobre ella misma que ponía en el centro su supuesta tendencia maternal, que vendría a demostrar inapelablemente que era mujer y no hombre. No solo su hija contradijo el carácter maternal de su madre, sino que el propio argumento, propio del orden patriarcal, hacía derivar del sexo actitudes y comportamientos (el carácter maternal de las mujeres), contradiciendo así la argumentación teórica por la que se hizo famosa. Palabras clave: Margaret Mead, género, antropología, identidad de las mujeres en la modernidad.

Las antropologías feministas en México tie- nen una larga trayectoria que ha borda- do y desbordado distintos anudados, no sólo en el ámbito académico, sino también en el de las organizaciones civiles y el activismo político (Berrio, Castañeda, Goldsmith, Ruiz-Trejo, Salas y Valladares, 2020). Por eso, en este trabajo me pregunto: ¿cuáles son algunas de las prácticas de pensamiento de la antropología feminista actual en México? y ¿qué particularidades tienen los tra- bajos de las nuevas generaciones de antropólogas en relación con la etnografía contemporánea?
En este artículo retomo dos figuras de la an- tropología feminista (Ruiz-Trejo, 2016; 2020). La primera figura está articulada con las epistemologías y los movimientos por la defensa de la vida y de la tierra, como fuerzas que sirven para analizar, com- prender y transformar el mundo antropocentrado en la existencia humana. La segunda se relaciona con el pensamiento transfeminista en antropología, así como sus aportes para “construir y no destruir”.

Ruiz Trejo, M. (2021). Antropologías Feministas frente al terricidio y pensamiento transfeminista. En: Goldsmith, M. y Salas, M. (coords.), Boletín Colegio de Etnólogos y Antropólogos de México (CEAS) 2021. Número sobre La pregunta antropológica y las antropologías feministas. ISSN 2007_2414, pp. 13-23. Disponible en: https://www.ceas.org.mx/documentos/BoletinCEAS2021AntropologiasFeministas.pdf

Artist's book centered around the destroyed amplifier of a former West German protest radio station. With photographs by Sandy Volz, drawings by Michael Fesca, and interviews and conversations with Bernd Lüke, Curator at the Museum of Technology Berlin, among others.

La vida y la obra de Mercedes Olivera están definidas por su carácter revolucionario, por un pensamiento y un quehacer incesante en el cuestionamiento de las relaciones de poder, sobre todo de género, institucionalizadas, normalizadas y naturalizadas. Una de las grandes intelectuales públicas de Nuestra América, destaca por su trayectoria congruente y abrazadora, siempre luchando por introducir un futuro otro, por mover el horizonte intelectual y político hacia un umbral situado en la distancia más desafiante para conseguir que las cosas no queden en el opresivo presente y se acerquen al mejor mundo posible.
Los trabajos reunidos en esta antología, en una apuesta por Centroamérica, en sus propuestas investigativas colaborativas y de defensa participativa de las mujeres que viven violencia, son el testimonio de los caminos críticos y reflexivos de una intelectual-política cuyas búsquedas como antropóloga y activista feminista han tenido entre sus objetivos producir conocimientos, explicar y cambiar la realidad. Los principales ejes de su quehacer y su pensamiento han sido las revoluciones latinoamericanas, la recuperación de los saberes indígenas y de las lenguas mayas, la defensa de la propiedad colectiva, los alegatos a favor del derecho a la tierra para las mujeres y al territorio, la exposición de las causas estructurales de la violencia de género y, en general, la reivindicación del derecho, la libertad, la justicia y el sentido humano.


Ruiz Trejo (2019). Enunciaciones de la Antropología feminista en Chiapas. Entrevista a Mercedes Olivera. En: Mercedes Olivera. Feminismo popular y revolución. Entre la militancia y la antropología. Antología Esencial.  Rodríguez, Alain y Bosch Heras, Montserrat (edit.). Buenos Aires: CLACSO. ISBN 978-987-722-549-5 http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/clacso/se/20191205112859/Mercedes-Olivera-Antologia-Esencial.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0kY277poRxF8VGJ72-Rhk2caSPt8-BtB9vgaW2_OVCUmd19NNJ5qdFZ2g

Commercial* surrogacy* is* a* challenging* contemporary* issue* that* raises* various* concerns*
because* it* commodifies* the* female* body* in* a* new* way.* It* is* now* becoming* increasingly*
common*for*couples*from*the*Global*North*to*seek*out*gestational*surrogates*in*the*Global*
South.* These* transnational* commercial* surrogacy* arrangements* raise* questions* about* the*
surrogates’*rights*to*bodily*integrity,*as*well*as*patient*rights*and*health*policy,*immigration*
and*citizenship,*race,*power,*gender,*consent,*and*agency*(Pande*2010,*Bailey*2011).*I*explore*
these* questions* in* greater* detail* by* reviewing* the* literature* on* the* rights* and* bioethics*
discourse* of* transnational* surrogacy* in* the* Indian* context.* I* also* examine* contemporary*
issues* concerning* the* intersectionality* of* transnational* commercial* surrogacy* from* a*
feminist* perspective,* especially* the* commodification* of* the* “othered”* reproductive* female*
body.

This article locates imaginative aspects of human subjectivity as a feminist issue by reviewing the concept of agency in the genealogy of Muslim and Middle Eastern women in anthropological and ethnographic literature. It suggests that, if feminist scholarship of the Middle East would continue approaching to Muslim women's agency-as it has been doing for decades-, it should do so as an epistemo-logical question and thus expand the limits of ethnographic and analytical focus beyond the broader systems, such as family, nation, religion, and state. As an example to this proposition, the article then discusses the recent work on aspects of selfhood that escape from the structures, rules, systems, and discursive limits of life but captures imagina-tions, aspirations, desires, yearnings, and longings.

Maya relief sculptures depict significant royal women providing insights into gender roles in
Maya culture, highlighting commonalities amongst cultures practicing shared or similar traditions
around the globe. The role of Maya women can be interpreted through depictions in Lintels and stela.
But there is much more we can glean from the depictions of historic figures on archeological sites and in
ancient images. The art reveals symbols captured in depictions of the life of the figures. The symbols
reveal clues to their shared narratives propitiated over time. Symbols can re-connect people groups lost
to migration waves. What symbolism can be gleaned from Maya art concerning women? There are two
Maya Queens from the Late Classic Period depicted in their respective sites that can provide insights and
also raise further questions. One queen is Lady Xook from Yaxchilan in Southern Mexico and the other is
Lady Wac-Chanil or Lady Six Sky, who reigned from Naranjo, in the Peten Basin of Guatemala.

This article encapsulates some of the core contributions of my first book, showing how cutting ended, and elaborating a theoretical critique of biopolitical crisis discourses. Intervening in debates about necropolitics and the ordinary crisis, I develop the concept of "slow harm" and argue that the invisible violence of neoliberal democracy produces protracted crises that make bodies vulnerable but not defined by death.
Female genital cutting is waning in northeastern Ghana, even though NGO and state discourses suggest otherwise. Women who no longer perform the practice do not resist anticutting advocacy, but critique what NGO and state interventions leave unaddressed. These women understand the ending of cutting as an index of food scarcity and governance that saps their blood and vitality. Cutting had to stop, they say, because they could no longer afford to lose more blood. Drawing on indigenous and biomedical understandings of health and popular notions of occult economies, they critique the contemporary governance that simultaneously invests in their lives and causes bodily attrition. [female genital cutting, food scarcity, vulnerability, governance by extraction, neoliberalism, Ghana]

We consider how a feminist perspective permits appreciation for and reflection on the complex and often understated ways in which Classic‐era (∼CE 250‐80) royal Maya women contributed to processes of statecraft. Our work centers on archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the life of one important royal woman, Ix Kaloomte’ K'abel of Waka’ whose reign was one of the most influential of the Late Classic Period (∼CE 550‐800). In reviewing the lines of evidence which detail her political life as a ruler, we consider parallels with other important royal women of the period. We argue a feminist approach permits working beyond unacknowledged presentist biases to consider the ways in which these women actively crafted state politics alongside their male counterparts.

The present study explores the intersection of Indigenous beliefs and (eco)sustainability from a gender perspective. Overviewing China’s development agenda and strategic environmental assessments in minority areas, it probes into the ritual economy of two matricultural systems in the southwestern province of Yunnan: Deqin (Diqing) and Yongning (Ninglang). In these places, women’s engagement in community matters, responsible management of resources, and the ritual exchange between humans and the cognized world of territorial gods and elemental spirits of nature entwine with one another. Particular attention is given to the knowledge of mountain forest ecosystems retained by Khamba Tibetan, Mosuo and Naxi people, as well as to the extent to which kin-based arrangements, matricultural concerns, religious norms and taboos motivate economic choices.

The paper contains formatting errors and other minor inaccuracies (i.e. disordered endnotes, missing endnote apexes and bibliographical entries). For an updated version of the paper, together with a list of corrigenda (21 June 2022), see the link below: https://www.networkonculture.ca/activities/matrix/issues/vol2_iss1?fbclid=IwAR0bBL-H43wawtMUNzp_2uj4q0ordZz5TBtIhrMHWIgasf_5z5Tmw0qGN5Q