Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
Outstanding Academic Title - Choice " A] refreshing and inspiring collection of nine articles and a superb introduction. . . . Each author brings personal experiences of racism, sexism, and other challenges to bear on what are without exception successful examples of what C. Wright Mills called 'the sociological imagination, ' where biography, intellectual activity, and activism are presented as a seamless whole. This book succeeds in going beyond Mills's vision in unparalleled ways. . . . All levels and collections."-Choice "Anthropologists . . . disclose how their experiences as Black women have influenced their anthropological practices in Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S., and how anthropology has influenced their development as Black feminists. . . . The authors write eloquently on the complex mix of personal and professional that dominate their lives."-Advocate (Jackson, MS) "Black Feminist Anthropology makes a provocative and important contribution to contemporary Black feminism. For the authors in this book, the premise that scholarship and social justice agendas must inform one another fosters a new anthropology that promises to stimulate new questions for us all."- Patricia Hill Collins, author of Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice "Irma McClaurin and her colleagues bring Black Feminist Anthropology into the center of the discipline. Each of these carefully crafted essays combines personal biography with ethnographic insights to forge a feminist analysis of the complex relationship of race, class, and gender in the lives of Black women. Black Feminist Anthropology is an essential text for those who want to read cutting edge anthropological theory."-Louise Lamphere, professor of anthropology, University of New Mexico and president, American Anthropological Association (1999-2001) "The three words that launch the title of this book have not always kept company with each other-and in the minds of many both in and outside of the academy, they should remain separate. In this sense, Professor Irma McClaurin and her sister anthropologists have given us a work that is not only pioneering, but also bold."-Johnnetta B. Cole, from the Foreword 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.
Synopsis
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 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.
Synopsis
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