Location and Relocation Flashcards
(38 cards)
What is Purdah?
What did Gardner think about this before her fieldwork?
How did this change?
(Persian for curtain)
The separation of men and women, through veiling, curtains, architecture
She thought it was a manifestation of the oppression of women and the inequality of a patriarchical society
shame
sharam
One of the first things that Gardner was told about women when you arrived
“A women’s heaven is at their husband’s feet’
Ethnography details
Location and Relocation
Katy Gardner
1987-1988, revisits in 1990, 1993 and 1994
Talukpur, Sylhet, Bangladesh
How long was her fieldwork?
15 months, but she also worked with British Bengali community leaders in London for 6 months before her research as preparation
What 3 theories are Gardner influenced by?
- feminism
- post modernism
- political economy theory
What is 3rd wave feminism?
Also known as post-modern genial
Influential since the 1980s
More intersectional approach
What is postmodernism?
Critiques?
A focus on cultural relativism, reflexivity and the politics of representation. Particularistic in nature, it claims that there is no universal representation of societies or societal structure possible for any fieldwork.
Critique: can be too heavily about the anthropologist, too particularistic, limited by the risk of essentialism.
How does this relate to the ethnography?
“The politics of location” is very post modernist
She is not willing to define herself with labels like ‘white, middle class, woman’ as if they are self-explanatory categories.
She prefers to think of her identity as fluid and discuss the way the society influences it.
How does Muslim Law weigh up women against men?
“in Muslim Law, one man carries the weight of two women, who are legal minors”
Families are patrilineal, women often lose children in divorce
What is socialisation?
How was Gardner socialised?
A concept to explain how norms are inherited to provide an individual with skills and habits necessary for participating in that society/ group
Her hair was oiled back, bangles put on her wrists, fingernails stained with henna, sari, head covered, learnt to walk slowly + neatly,
Quote about Bengali femininity?
“Constructions of Bengali femininity are inscribed first and foremost on the body”
This is materialistic (at FIRST)
What is a patriarch?
How is this shown in this Bengali community?
Patriarchy: a male dominated society
“Women are defined by and through men: as a wife or mother of someone, and remain nameless”
What is reflexivity?
Looking back on yourself and your actions from multiple angles
What is the theory Gardner first approached fieldwork with?
What changed?
Neo-Marxist political economy theory, which is common in academic discourse on Bagladesh
Focuses on the political effects of economic decisions (macro level)
She changed her focus to Islam, and people were happy to talk to her about it
What did she initially think of migration? What did she think at the end of research?
At first she agreed with Neo-Marxist notions of dependence and imperialism, specifically that migration increases the wealth gap in Bangladesh and takes skilled labourers away
When she returned she saw something different- improvements in infrastructure
Definition of “the politics of location” ?
Recognises that everyone writes from specific locations and that the ways in which we learn and experience have particular temporal and spatial dimensions (Probyn 1990)
Gardner deconstructs notions of stable identity. Location refers to changing positions and ideas within political and academic discourses as well as the social structure
What are Frank and Wallerstein’s theories?
Look up in Anthro book
Limitation with Gardner’s approach?
Although she is very reflexive about her particularistic approach throughout her ethnography, there are limitations to this approach, as well as postmodernist theory overall.
The sections is society, conflicts, statuses and relationships are not represented holistically. There is over-fragmentation of representations, also present in postmodernist theory, which diverts from the need of Anthropology to understand the differences and similarities in societies and human nature.
What is Jonathan Spencer’s post-modern critique of Anthropology?
It claims objective generalisation, or ‘ethnographic naturalism’.
What is Gardners personal critique of postmodernism, if it’s done lazily?
What has helped her understand this?
It often simplifies the Anthropologists own identity and positioning (female, white, middle class), risk of essentialism (assumptions)
Postmodern feminism discusses this well
What are the problems with Western Feminism (1st and 2nd wave?) that Gardner highlights in the introduction?
She critiques it in that it concerns only middle class white women and has limitations with heteronormativity
How does she critique first wave feminism?
States that ‘there can be no homogenous, universal feminism, for all individuals have such different locations’
What is the revised politics of Location?
Acknowledges that location should be understood as multiple and always changing, no single indenting is possible (intersectionality)
