1. Gender in Anthropology
Where does Mama Lola fit in?

2. I. UNIVERSAL PATTERNS (1970s)
II. CRITIQUES OF UNIVERSALIZING FRAMEWORKS (1980s)
III. GENDER SYSTEMS (1970s-’80s)
IV. CRITIQUES OF GENDER SYSTEMS (1980s)
V. GENDER & POWER (1990s-today)

3. I. UNIVERSAL PATTERNS Universal asymmetry across the globe
Politics of 1970s—women’s movement, civil rights, etc.
Anthropologists documented women’s universal subordination to men
Search for origins of gender inequality, male dominance, patriarchy (structure of male dominance)

4. I. UNIVERSAL PATTERNS (cont.)
Anthropology provided global answers
female/male : private/public : domestic (children) /work (public)
symbolic framework= female/nature
male/culture
Marxist framework = focus on universal inequalities

5. II. CRITIQUES OF UNIVERSALIZING FRAMEWORKS
Gender is culturally constructed, not biologically given
Cultural categories are complex and multiple (ex. more than 2 genders!)
EX. “No nature, no culture” (Strathern)—men raise boys in New Guinea
EX. West African Market women in public spaces (Frances White)
Gender systems are diverse (place & time)
EX. “Semen Transactions in Sambia Culture” (Gilbert Herdt)

6. III. GENDER SYSTEMS
Gender is one aspect in a system of inequalities—age, rank, ethnicity, class, race, etc.
Focus on specificity of gender systems
Ex. women wanted to “marry up” in colonial Cuba: lighter skinned & upper class man
Gender intersects with race and class in this system of inequality (Verena Martinez-Alier)

7. IV. CRITIQUES OF GENDER SYSTEMS
no attention to agency and subjectivity of social actors
“agency”—women are active makers of history verses pawns of history (Mama Lola)
social and cultural processes are heterogeneous and unstable (ex. changing economics and politics)

8. IV. CRITIQUES OF GENDER SYSTEMS (cont.)
New foci:
1.Competing Ideas about gender
EX. gender in black nationalist movement in US: women have to accept their roles as wives and mothers or don’t fit into this ideal of “the universal Black Woman”
What other ideas might challenge this one?
2. Resistance to oppressive circumstances
EX. Mama Lola resisted poverty and abusive men
3. Feminist movement deals with Race and Class: women of color from all classes challenge upper class white women: different sets of issues!

9. V. GENDER & POWER
Gender is embedded in historical institutions shaped by power inequalities.
“negotiation” = Women and Men talk about and make up the rules over time. They challenge AND reproduce conventions of gender.
EX. Mama Lola becomes a vodou priestess after being “called” BUT negotiates her identity as a single woman and mother in NYC