Black Feminist Anthropology
296 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:01 Aug 2001
ISBN:9780813529264
Black Feminist Anthropology
Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics
Edited by Irma McClaurin
Rutgers University Press
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.
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.
[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 æthe sociological imagination,Æ where biography, intellectual activity, and activism are presented as a seamless whole. This book succeeds in going beyond MillsÆs vision in unparalleled ways. . . . All levels and collections.
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.
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.
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.
The three words that launch the title of this book have not always kept company with each otherùand 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.
Reflecting on Boundaries, Protection, and Inspiration' by Gina Athena Ulysse mention of Black Feminist Anthropology
[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 æthe sociological imagination,Æ where biography, intellectual activity, and activism are presented as a seamless whole. This book succeeds in going beyond MillsÆs vision in unparalleled ways. . . . All levels and collections.
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.
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.
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.
The three words that launch the title of this book have not always kept company with each otherùand 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.
Reflecting on Boundaries, Protection, and Inspiration' by Gina Athena Ulysse mention of Black Feminist Anthropology
DR. IRMA MCCLAURIN, Black Feminist Speaker, is the CEO of Irma McClaurin Solutions (IMS), aka McClaurin Solutions, a leadership consulting business. She is an activist anthropologist, award-winning author, black feminist archive founder, diversity champion, and community engagement specialist. She specializes in helping others find immediate and sustainable solutions to emerging and urgent issues. McClaurin offers support as a leadership consultant and guru, an executive coach, researcher, motivational speaker, workshop facilitator, writer/editor, and diversity strategist. This Black feminist speaker is also a Solutions Executive and a past president of Shaw University, former Chief Diversity Officer at Teach For America, free-lance writer and editor, and mentor who has committed her life and career to helping others transform the world. She holds the PhD and MA in Anthropology and the Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in English, both from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Introduction: Forging a theory, politics, praxis, and poetics of black feminist anthropology / Irma McClaurin
Seeking the ancestors: Forging a Black feminist tradition in anthropology / A. Lynn Bolles
Theorizing a Black feminist self in anthropology: toward an autoethnographic approach / Irma McClaurin
A passion for sameness: Encountering a Black feminist self in fieldwork in the Dominican Republic / Kimberly Eison Simmons
Disciplining the Black female body: Learning feminism in Africa and the United States / Carolyn Martin Shaw
Negotiating identity and Black feminist politics in Caribbean research / Karla Slocum
A Black feminist perspective on the sexual commodification of women in the new global culture / Angela M. Gilliam
Biomedical ethics, gender, and ethnicity: Implications for Black feminist anthropology / Cheryl Mwaria
Contingent stories of anthropology, race, and feminism / Paulla A. Ebron
A homegirl goes home: Black feminism and the lure of native anthropology / Cheryl Rodriguez
Related Titles
Black Feminist Anthropology, 25th Anniversary Edition
Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics
By Irma McClaurin; Foreword by Johnnetta Betsch Cole
