Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_1_pretoc FinalProof page 1 16.11.2005 12:18pm Feminist Anthropology Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_1_pretoc FinalProof page 2 16.11.2005 12:18pm Blackwell Anthologies in Social &Cultural Anthropology SeriesEditor:ParkerShipton,BostonUniversity SeriesAdvisoryEditorialBoard FredrikBarth,UniversityofOsloandBostonUniversity StephenGudeman,UniversityofMinnesota JaneGuyer,NorthwesternUniversity CarolineHumphrey,UniversityofCambridge TimIngold,UniversityofAberdeen EmilyMartin,PrincetonUniversity JohnMiddleton,YaleEmeritus SallyFalkMoore,HarvardEmerita MarshallSahlins,UniversityofChicagoEmeritus JoanVincent,ColumbiaUniversityandBarnardCollegeEmerita Drawingfromsomeofthemostsignificantscholarlyworkofthenineteenthandtwentiethcenturies,the Blackwell Anthologies in Social and Cultural Anthropology series offers a comprehensive and unique perspectiveontheever-changingfieldofanthropology.Itrepresentsbothacollectionofclassicreaders andanexcitingchallengetothenormsthathaveshapedthisdisciplineoverthepastcentury. Each edited volume is devoted to a traditional subdiscipline of the field such as the anthropology of religion,linguisticanthropology,ormedicalanthropology;andprovidesafoundationinthecanonical readingsoftheselectedarea.Awarethatsuchsubdisciplinarydefinitionsarestillwidelyrecognizedand useful – but increasingly problematic – these volumes are crafted to include a rare and invaluable perspective on social and cultural anthropology at the onset of the 21st century. Eachtextprovidesa selectionofclassicreadingstogetherwithcontemporaryworksthatunderscoretheartificialityofsub- disciplinarydefinitionsandpointstudents,researchers,andgeneralreadersinthenewdirectionsinwhich anthropologyismoving. PublishedVolumes: 1 LinguisticAnthropology:AReader EditedbyAlessandroDuranti 2 AReaderintheAnthropologyofReligion EditedbyMichaelLambek 3 TheAnthropologyofPolitics:AReaderinEthnography,Theory,andCritique EditedbyJoanVincent 4 KinshipandFamily:AnAnthropologicalReader EditedbyRobertParkinandLindaStone 5 LawandAnthropology:AReader EditedbySallyFalkMoore 6 TheAnthropologyofDevelopmentandGlobalization: FromClassicalPoliticalEconomytoContemporaryNeoliberalism EditedbyMarcEdelmanandAngeliqueHaugerud 7 TheAnthropologyofArt:AReader EditedbyHowardMorphyandMorganPerkins 8 FeministAnthropology:AReader EditedbyEllenLewin Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_1_pretoc FinalProof page 3 16.11.2005 12:18pm Feminist Anthropology A Reader Edited by Ellen Lewin Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_1_pretoc FinalProof page 4 16.11.2005 12:18pm Editorialmaterialandorganization(cid:1)2006byBlackwellPublishingLtd blackwellpublishing 350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148-5020,USA 9600GarsingtonRoad,OxfordOX42DQ,UK 550SwanstonStreet,Carlton,Victoria3053,Australia TherightofEllenLewintobeidentifiedastheAuthoroftheEditorialMaterialinthisWork hasbeenassertedinaccordancewiththeUKCopyright,Designs,andPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise, exceptaspermittedbytheUKCopyright,Designs,andPatentsAct1988,withoutthepriorpermissionof thepublisher. Firstpublished2006byBlackwellPublishingLtd 1 2006 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Feministanthropology:areader/editedbyEllenLewin. p.cm.—(Blackwellanthologiesinsocial&culturalanthropology;8) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-1-4051-0195-0(hardcover:alk.paper) ISBN-10:1-4051-0195-4(hardcover:alk.paper) ISBN-13:978-1-4051-0196-7(pbk.:alk.paper) ISBN-10:1-4051-0196-2(pbk.:alk.paper)1.Feministanthropology.I.Lewin,Ellen. II.Series:Blackwellanthologiesinsocialandculturalanthropology;8. GN33.8.F442006 301—dc22 2005013797 AcataloguerecordforthistitleisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. Setin10/12ptSabon bySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdom byTJInternationalLtd,Padstow,Cornwall Thepublisher’spolicyistousepermanentpaperfrommillsthatoperateasustainableforestrypolicy,and whichhasbeenmanufacturedfrompulpprocessedusingacid-freeandelementarychlorine-freepractices. Furthermore,thepublisherensuresthatthetextpaperandcoverboardusedhavemetacceptable environmentalaccreditationstandards. Forfurtherinformationon BlackwellPublishing,visitourwebsite: www.blackwellpublishing.com Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_2_toc FinalProof page 5 17.11.2005 9:35pm Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction 1 EllenLewin PartI Discovering Women across Cultures 39 Introduction 41 1 Belief and the Problemof Women and the ‘Problem’Revisited 47 Edwin Ardener 2 ANote on the Division ofLabor by Sex 66 Judith K. Brown 3 IsFemale toMale asNatureIs toCulture? 72 Sherry B. Ortner 4 The Traffic in Women: Noteson the ‘‘Political Economy’’of Sex 87 Gayle Rubin 5 The Use and Abuse ofAnthropology:Reflections on Feminism and Cross-cultural Understanding 107 Michelle Z. Rosaldo 6 Toward a Unified Theory ofClass, Race, and Gender 129 Karen Brodkin Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_2_toc FinalProof page 6 17.11.2005 9:35pm vi CONTENTS PartII Questioning Positionality 147 Introduction 149 7 Writing againstCulture 153 Lila Abu-Lughod 8 MyBestInformant’s Dress: The EroticEquation in Fieldwork 170 Esther Newton 9 FeministInsider Dilemmas: ConstructingEthnic Identity with Chicana Informants 186 Patricia Zavella 10 Contingent Stories of Anthropology, Race, and Feminism 203 Paulla A. Ebron PartIII Confronting the USA 217 Introduction 219 11 Bringingthe Family to Work: Women’s Culture on the Shop Floor 222 Louise Lamphere 12 Procreation Stories: Reproduction,Nurturance, and Procreation inLife Narratives of AbortionActivists 235 Faye Ginsburg 13 EthnicallyCorrect Dolls:Toyingwith the Race Industry 250 Elizabeth Chin 14 StrategicNaturalizing: Kinship in an Infertility Clinic 271 Charis Thompson PartIV Maintaining Commitments 289 Introduction 291 15 Dirty Protest: Symbolic Overdetermination and Gender inNorthern Ireland Ethnic Violence 295 Begon˜a Aretxaga 16 Women’s Rights are Human Rights:The Merging of Feminine and FeministInterests amongEl Salvador’sMothers ofthe Disappeared (CO-MADRES) 311 Lynn Stephen 17 Searchingfor ‘‘Voices’’:Feminism, Anthropology, and the GlobalDebates over Female Genital Operations 333 Christine J. Walley 18 Imaginingthe Unborn inthe EcuadoranAndes 358 Lynn M. Morgan Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_2_toc FinalProof page 7 17.11.2005 9:35pm CONTENTS vii PartV Interpreting Instability and Fluidity 375 Introduction 377 19 ‘‘Likea Mother toThem’’: Stratified Reproduction and West Indian Childcare Workers and Employers in New York 380 Shellee Colen 20 Femininityand Flexible Labor: FashioningClass through Gender on the GlobalAssembly Line 397 Carla Freeman 21 Tombois inWest Sumatra: Constructing Masculinity and EroticDesire 411 Evelyn Blackwood 22 ‘‘What’sIdentity Got to Dowith It?’’:Rethinking Identity in Light of the MatiWork in Suriname 435 Gloria Wekker Index 449 Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_3_posttoc FinalProof page 8 16.11.2005 12:18pm Acknowledgments The task of representing the field of feminist anthropology for this reader has been enormously challenging. Not only is the field growing before one’s eyes – a truly moving target – but it has broadened over the years in ways that make a succinct statementofitscontributionsallbutimpossible.Ithasbeenexcitingtorevisitmany of the writings that inspired me over the years and to get acquainted with newer work that has gone furtherthan could have beenimagined thirty years ago. I want to thank the editorial staff at Blackwell who made this volume come to fruition.JaneHubersuggestedthevolumeafterlookingatthesyllabusofacourseI wasteachingonthehistoryoffeministanthropology.Throughouttherevisionsand rethinkings that followed, she encouraged me when I wondered whether I could satisfy all the competing demands a project like this made, spurring me on with unfailinggoodhumor.Herassistant,EmilyMartin,hasbeenamiracleoforganiza- tion throughout. The series adviser, Parker Shipton, offered many provocative and wise comments and kept me on my toes. And the meticulous attention given the manuscriptbythecopyeditor,VeronicaIons,wastrulyawe-inspiring.Atlast,Ihad encounteredsomeonewhosepassionforcorrectpunctuationandcitationrivaledmy own! During the planning of the volume, I benefited from the advice of a number of colleagues. Carole Browner, Meena Khandelwal, Lynn Bolles, and Evelyn Black- wood had particularly useful comments, and I also appreciated the suggestions offered by the anonymous readers for Blackwell. My research assistants Natalia ChernyayevaandJillMoffetthelpedwiththedetailsofassemblingthemanuscriptat various stages and I appreciate their attention to consistency and accuracy under sometimestryingcircumstances.Ialsoamthankfulfortheresourcesmadeavailable to me at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa, whereI was inresidence during the finalpreparations of the volume. MylocationintheAnthropologyDepartmentattheUniversityofIowahasbeena specialsource ofinspirationtomeasIworkedonthisvolume. Asthe onlyanthro- Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_3_posttoc FinalProof page 9 16.11.2005 12:18pm ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix pology department offering an organized graduate specialization in feminist an- thropology,ithasbeenanexcitingplacetoteach,aplacewherethefieldisaccorded therespectitdeserves.Mycolleaguesinthefeministtrack,pastandpresent,haveset consistentlyhighstandardsforwhatfeministanthropologycanbeandhavekeptme informedaboutaspectsofthefieldIcouldn’thavegraspedonmyown.SoIwantto give particular thanks to all of them: Florence Babb, Virginia Dominguez, Laura Graham, Meena Khandelwal, Mac Marshall, Beth Pauls, Erica Prussing, Mary Whelan, and most importantly Margery Wolf, who was on the scene when I discovered feminist anthropology and helped me to find my way in it many years later. Theeditorandpublishergratefullyacknowledgethepermissiongrantedtorepro- ducethe copyrightmaterialinthis book: 1 Edwin Ardener, ‘‘Belief and the Problem of Women’’ and ‘‘The ‘Problem’ Revisted,’’ pp. 1–27 from Shirley Ardener, Perceiving Women. London: Malaby Press,1975 [1968]. Reprinted with permission of Shirley Ardener. 2 Judith K. Brown, ‘‘A Note on the Division of Labor by Sex,’’ pp. 1073–8 from AmericanAnthropologist,72(1970).(cid:1)1970byUniversityofCaliforniaPress.Repro- ducedwithpermissionofUniversityofCaliforniaPressviaCopyrightClearanceCenter. 3 Sherry B.Ortner,‘‘IsFemaletoMale asNature IstoCulture?,’’fromMichelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, Women, Culture, and Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974. (cid:1) 1974 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University.Reprinted with permissionof the publisher and author. 4 GayleRubin,‘‘TheTrafficinWomen:Notesonthe‘PoliticalEconomy’ofSex,’’ pp.157–210fromRaynaR.Reiter,TowardanAnthropologyofWomen.NewYork: MonthlyReviewPress,1975.(cid:1)GayleRubin.Reprintedwiththekindpermissionof the author. 5 Michelle Z. Rosaldo, ‘‘The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on FeminismandCross-CulturalUnderstanding,’’pp.389–417fromSigns,5/3(1980). Reprinted by permission ofthe Universityof Chicago Press. 6 KarenBrodkinSacks,‘‘TowardaUnified TheoryofClass, Race,andGender,’’ pp. 534–50 from American Ethnologist, 16/3 (1989). (cid:1) 1989 by University of California Press. Reprinted by permission of University of California Press via Copyright Clearance Center,and the author, nowKarenBrodkin. 7 LilaAbu-Lughod,‘‘WritingagainstCulture,’’pp.137–62fromRichardG.Fox, ed. Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe, NM: School of AmericanResearchPress,1991.(cid:1)1991bytheSchoolofAmericanResearch,Santa Fe. Reprintedby permission ofSchool of American Research, SantaFe. 8 Esther Newton, ‘‘My Best Informant’s Dress: The Erotic Equation in Field- work,’’ pp. 212–35 from Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,1996.(cid:1)1993byUniversityofCaliforniaPress.Reproducedwithpermission of University ofCalifornia Press viaCopyright Clearance Center,and the author. 9 Patricia Zavella, ‘‘Feminist Insider Dilemmas: Constructing Ethnic Identity with Chicana Informants,’’ pp. 138–59 from Diane L. Wolf, Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996. Reprinted with permission of University of NebraskaPress,Lincoln,and the author. Lewin:FeministAnthropology 1405101954_3_posttoc FinalProof page 10 16.11.2005 12:18pm x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10 PaullaA.Ebron,‘‘ContingentStoriesofAnthropology,Race,andFeminism,’’ pp. 211–32 from Irma McClaurin, Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. (cid:1) Paulla A. Ebron.Reprinted withthe kind permissionof the author. 11 Louise Lamphere, ‘‘Bringing the Family to Work: Women’s Culture on the ShopFloor,’’pp.519–40fromFeministStudies,11(1985).Reprintedbypermission of the publisher,FeministStudiesInc. 12 Faye Ginsburg, ‘‘Procreation Stories: Reproduction, Nurturance, and Procre- ationinLifeNarrativesofAbortionActivists,’’pp.623–36fromAmericanEthnolo- gist,14/4(1987).(cid:1)1999byUniversityofCaliforniaPress.Reprintedbypermission ofUniversityofCaliforniaPressviaCopyrightClearanceCenter,andtheauthor. 13 Elizabeth Chin, ‘‘Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with the Race Industry,’’ pp.305–21from AmericanAnthropologist,101/2 (1999).(cid:1)1999 byUniversity of California Press. Reproduced with permission of University of California Press via Copyright Clearance Center,and the author. 14 Charis Thompson, ‘‘Strategic Naturalizing: Kinship in an Infertility Clinic,’’ pp.175–202fromSarahFranklinandSusanMcKinnon,RelativeValues:Reconfig- uringKinshipStudies.Durham,NC:DukeUniversityPress,2001.(cid:1)2001byDuke University Press. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the publisher and the author. 15 Begon˜aAretxaga,‘‘DirtyProtest:SymbolicOverdeterminationandGenderin NorthernIrelandEthnicViolence,’’pp.123–48fromEthos,23/2(1995).(cid:1)1995by University of California Press. Reproduced with permission of University of Cali- fornia Press viaCopyright Clearance Center, and the author. 16 LynnStephen,‘‘Women’sRightsAreHumanRights:TheMergingofFeminine and Feminist Interests among El Salvador’s Mothers of the Disappeared (CO- MADRES),’’ pp. 807–27 from American Ethnologist, 22/4 (1995). (cid:1) 1995 by University of California Press. Reproduced with permission of University of Cali- fornia Press viaCopyright Clearance Center, and the author. 17 Christine J. Walley, ‘‘Searching for ‘Voices’: Feminism, Anthropology, and the GlobalDebatesoverFemaleGenitalOperations,’’pp.405–38fromCulturalAnthro- pology,12/3 (1997).(cid:1)1997 byUniversityofCaliforniaPress.Reproduced withper- missionofUniversityofCaliforniaPressviaCopyrightClearanceCenter,andtheauthor. 18 LynnM.Morgan,‘‘ImaginingtheUnbornintheEcuadoranAndes,’’pp.323– 50 from Feminist Studies, 23/2 (1997). Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Feminist Studies, Inc. 19 Shellee Colen, ‘‘‘Like a Mother to Them’: Stratified Reproduction and West Indian Childcare Workers and Employers inNew York,’’pp. 78–102 from FayeD. GinsburgandRayna Rapp,Conceivingthe NewWorld Order: TheGlobalPolitics of Reproduction. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. (cid:1) Shellee Colen. Reprinted withthe kind permission of the author. 20 Carla Freeman, ‘‘Femininity and Flexible Labor: Fashioning Class through GenderontheGlobalAssemblyLine,’’pp.245–62fromCritiqueofAnthropology, 18/3(1998).(cid:1)1998bySagePublications.Reproducedwiththekindpermissionof the author and Sage PublicationsLtd, UK. 21 EvelynBlackwood,‘‘TomboisinWestSumatra:ConstructingMasculinityand Erotic Desire,’’ pp. 491–521 from Cultural Anthropology, 13/4 (1998). (cid:1) 1998 by