Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813529263 ISBN 13: 9780813529264

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In the discipline's early days, anthropologists by definition were assumed to be white and male. Women and black scholars were relegated to the field's periphery. From this marginal place, white feminist anthropologists have successfully carved out an acknowledged intellectual space, identified as feminist anthropology. Unfortunately, the works of black and non-western feminist anthropologists are rarely cited, and they have yet to be respected as significant shapers of the direction and transformation of feminist anthropology.

In this volume, Irma McClaurin has collected-for the first time-essays that explore the role and contributions of black feminist anthropologists. She has asked her contributors to disclose how their experiences as black women have influenced their anthropological practice in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, and how anthropology has influenced their development as black feminists. Every chapter is a unique journey that enables the reader to see how scholars are made. The writers present material from their own fieldwork to demonstrate how these experiences were shaped by their identities. Finally, each essay suggests how the author's field experiences have influenced the theoretical and methodological choices she has made throughout her career.

Not since Diane Wolf's Feminist Dilemmas in the Field or Hortense Powdermaker's Stranger and Friend have we had such a breadth of women anthropologists discussing the critical (and personal) issues that emerge when doing ethnographic research.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In this volume, Irma McClaurin has collected essays that explore the contributions of black feminist anthropologists. Her contributors disclose how their experiences as black women have influenced their anthropological practice in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, and how anthropology has influenced their development as black feminists.

Contributors are A. Lynn Bolles, Paulla A. Ebron, Angela M. Gilliam, Irma McClaurin, Cheryl Mwaria, Cheryl Rodriguez, Carolyn Martin Shaw, Kimberly Eison Simmons, and Karla Slocum

About the Author:

Irma McClaurin is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida. She is the author of Women of Belize (Rutgers University Press) and the editor for the journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists, Transforming Anthropology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0813529263
• ISBN 13: 9780813529264
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296
• Editor: McClaurin Irma