Feminist Anthropology
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Abstract
This paper considers the emergence of feminist anthropology, as a subfield in modern anthropology. The development of feminist anthropology is closely related to the multiple movements of feminism in Western countries. There are prominent female scholars in early American anthropology, such as Margaret Mead, whose work shed important light on distinctions between sex and gender, and between nature (biological determination) and nurture (social and cultural construction). Margaret Mead’s work has influenced many subsequent feminist anthropologists to study further the way gender is socially constructed. However, the evolution of contemporary feminist anthropology’s thoughts and critiques have moved beyond the issue of the social and cultural formations or seeing women as a unitary category. More recent analyses highlight differences and multiple identities among women, such as, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and so forth by considering how different identities are situated and practiced, which later also includes men and non-binary gender formulation into their analyses. Moreover, in the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, feminist anthropologists also examine how gender is articulated and mobilised in different areas, such as politics, economy, science, medicine, and technology as well as in the area of “knowledge production” including anthropology. Therefore, feminist anthropology does not only make the “voice’” of other female interlocutors “exist” or “visible” in the academic texts through different forms of creative writing styles, they also create space of dynamic conversations and dialogues by using gender perspectives to examine different “powers” and “knowledge” in their own discipline.
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