Feminist Anthropology
The theoretical school of feminist anthropology emerged in the 1970s.
The feminist anthropologists have questioned male-centered assumptions within
anthropology and have researched women’s statuses and roles in societies. This
theoretical school has developed over time, which can be divided into three
periods: the 1970s, the 1980s, and from the late 1980s to the present.
When feminist anthropology emerged in the 1970s, the theoretical school revealed that women and gender relationships were significant topics of social life. The feminist anthropologists claimed that past anthropologists did not fully explore human culture because they neglected these gender issues. One of the feminist anthropologists of this period is Sally Slocum, who showed that scholars had neglected women’s roles in human evolution by focusing on men’s hunting rather than women’s gathering. The most obvious contribution of feminist anthropology of this period was the increased awareness of women within anthropological analysis and theories.
In the 1980s, feminist anthropology moved to cross-cultural analysis on women and gender issues. They demonstrated that the definition of gender changes historically and cross-culturally. For example, materialist feminists presented cross-cultural analysis on differences in women’s status, roles, and power. Eleanor Leacock falls into this category of study.
Until
the mid-1980s, the feminist anthropologists tended to assume women to be a
homogenous group where they shared a subordinate position under men. In the late
1980s, however, feminist anthropologists began to attack this notion. They
argued that the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s was led by white-middle
class scholars and that the movement failed to consider a variety of divisions
within women. These feminist anthropologists showed that wealthy women’s social
positions and attitudes support social systems that oppress poor women,
especially non-white women. For example, one of the feminist anthropologists,
Ann L. Stoler, examined European colonialism in Asia and revealed that European
women contributed to the colonialism by enforcing racial segregations.
The new trend started in the late 1980s led to a greater multicultural focus in the 1990s and the present. Some feminist anthropologists question the objectivity of science and argue that anthropologists are not the only interpreters of culture. These feminist anthropologists are exploring new, experimental forms of ethnographic writing. One way is to include a variety of viewpoints in ethnographic writing. Another way is to introduce researchers’ own thoughts and experiences in their ethnography. Some feminist anthropologists encourage women of color to write about their cultures for themselves and challenge other anthropologists to take their voices into account. In addition, some feminist anthropologists have adopted nontraditional forms of anthropological writing, such as poetry and fiction.
Source:
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McGee, R. Jon and Richard L. Warms. 2004 Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. New York: McGraw Hill.