Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by Ellen Lewin and Leni M. Silverstein; Epilogue by Tom Boellstorff; Introduction by Ellen Lewin and Leni M. Silverstein; Preface by Rayna Rapp

Rutgers University Press

Feminist anthropology emerged in the 1970s as a much-needed corrective to the discipline’s androcentric biases. Far from being a marginalized subfield, it has been at the forefront of developments that have revolutionized not only anthropology, but also a host of other disciplines. This landmark collection of essays provides a contemporary overview of feminist anthropology’s historical and theoretical origins, the transformations it has undergone, and the vital contributions it continues to make to cutting-edge scholarship.

Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century brings together a variety of contributors, giving a voice to both younger researchers and pioneering scholars who offer insider perspectives on the field’s foundational moments. Some chapters reveal how the rise of feminist anthropology shaped—and was shaped by—the emergence of fields like women’s studies, black and Latina studies, and LGBTQ studies. Others consider how feminist anthropologists are helping to frame the direction of developing disciplines like masculinity studies, affect theory, and science and technology studies.

Spanning the globe—from India to Canada, from Vietnam to Peru—Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century reveals the important role that feminist anthropologists have played in worldwide campaigns against human rights abuses, domestic violence, and environmental degradation. It also celebrates the work they have done closer to home, helping to explode the developed world’s preconceptions about sex, gender, and sexuality.

This rich, well-written, timely set of essays should be required reading for courses about feminist anthropology, the history of gender and women's studies, and those that treat activism in the range of arenas inflected by gender and sexuality and are mapped in constantly shifting ways across human political, sociocultural, and environmental realities ... Summing up: Essential. Choice

A very fine and welcome addition to the field. Carla Freeman, Emory University

A fresh mapping of feminist anthropology, with outstanding contributions ranging from body politics to transnationalism. The time is right for this smart and engaging collection. Florence E. Babb, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The volume's strongest contributions are those in which authors ground feminist theories with ethnographic data to impel social justice. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute

This collection is a valuable and encouraging set of meditations on that question and a call for feminist anthropologists to continue embracing their vexations. American Ethnologist

The Top 75 Community College Titles: January Edition: The best of all the titles appropriate for two-year colleges reviewed in the January issue of Choice. Choice

ELLEN LEWIN is a professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies and anthropology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She is the author or coeditor of several books including Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture and Out in Public: Reinventing Lesbian/Gay Anthropology in a Globalizing World.

LENI M. SILVERSTEIN is an anthropologist and international reproductive health professional who founded the consulting firm Strategies for Development. She has consulted with foundations (Ashoka, Ford, MacArthur), government officials, multilateral agencies, and commercial enterprises, providing technical assistance and evaluations for health sectors.

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Rayna R. Rapp

Introduction. Anthropologies and Feminisms: Mapping Our Intellectual Journey

Leni M. Silverstein and Ellen Lewin

Part I Foundations: Problematizing Feminist Anthropology

Feminist Anthropology Engages Social Movements: Theory, Ethnography, and Activism

Louise Lamphere

Feminist Linguistics and Linguistic Feminisms

Elise Kramer

The Curious Relationship of Feminist Anthropology and Women’s Studies

A. Lynn Bolles