Ciotlaus [Abstract]

Questioning women’s subordination: cross-cultural insights from anthropology    [Full text]

Simona Ciotlăuș [1]

Abstract:This review article  discusses several ways in which women’s subordination has been addressed in various cultural contexts: from Thailand to Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and Egypt. The paper points to how the concept of gender intertwines with labour, consumption, modernity, migrant experiences, kinship, reproduction, personhood, ethics and religious practices. The cases brought to the fore reconceptualize the domination and resistance doublet and provide novel ways to conceptualize and address gender, not only as a constructed identity, but also as embodied performance. Without aiming to paint a detailed picture of feminist anthropology, the paper explores how ideas developed in these inquiries question the taken-for-granted assumption about the universality of women’s subordination and challenge the emancipation prerequisite of feminist agenda.Keywords: Anthropology, ethnography, women’s subordination, domination-resistance

[1] Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest, Romania, simonaciotlaus@gmail.com

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Questioning women’s subordination: cross-cultural insights from anthropology

Simona Ciotlăuș[1]

Abstract

This review article[2] discusses several ways in which women’s subordination has been addressed in various cultural contexts: from Thailand to Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and Egypt. The paper points to how the concept of gender intertwines with labour, consumption, modernity, migrant experiences, kinship, reproduction, personhood, ethics and religious practices. The cases brought to the fore reconceptualize the domination and resistance doublet and provide novel ways to conceptualize and address gender, not only as a constructed identity, but also as embodied performance. Without aiming to paint a detailed picture of feminist anthropology, the paper explores how ideas developed in these inquiries question the taken-for-granted assumption about the universality of women’s subordination and challenge the emancipation prerequisite of feminist agenda.

Keywords

Anthropology, ethnography, women’s subordination, domination-resistance

 

[1] E-mail: simonaciotlaus@gmail.com

[2] Books and articles reviewed include: Lila Abu-Lughod – The romance of resistance (1990, American Ethnologist), Elizabeth C. Dunn – Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor (2004, Cornell University Press), Kristen Ghodsee – The Red Riviera. Gender, Tourism and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (2005, Duke University Press), Saba Mahmood, Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival (2001, Cultural Anthropology), Mary Beth Mills – Auditioning for the Chorus Line: Gender, Rural Youth, and the Consumption of Modernity in Thailand (2001, Palgrave), Judith McGraw Why Feminine Technologies Matter (2003, John Hopkins University Press), Heather Paxson Making Modern Mothers: Ethics and Family Planning in Urban Greece (2004, University of California Press)