Identity and Networks

by Bryceson, Deborah Fahy; Okely, Judith; Webber, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9781845451615
• ISBN10: 1845451619
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-01
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

Contrary to the negative assessments of the social order that have become prevalent in the media since 9/11, this wide-ranging collection of essays, mostly by social anthropologists, focuses instead on the enormous social creativity being invested as collective identities are reconfigured. Using fieldwork findings drawn from Africa, Asia, and Europe, special emphasis is placed on the reformulation of ethnic and gender relationships and identities in the cultural, social, political, and religious realms of public life. Under what circumstances does trust arise, paving the way for friendship, collegiality, knowledge creation, national unity, or emergence of leadership? How is social life constructed as a collective endeavour? Does the means towards sociability become its end? And what can be said about the agency and collegiality of women? The inspiration for examining these conundrums is the work and persona of Shirley Ardener, to whom the volume is dedicated. Contributors:Jonathan Benthall, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Gina Buijs, Sandra Burman, Hilary Callan, Gaynor Cohen, Janette Davies, Tamara Dragadze, Ronnie Frankenberg, Peter Geschiere, Kirsten Hastrup, Paula Heinonen, Maria Jaschok, Grazyna Kubica, Rhian Loudon, Sharon Macdonald, Zdzislaw Mach, Fiona Moore, Judith Okely, Lidia D. Sciama, Shui Jingjun, Cecillie Swaisland, Jacqueline Waldren, Jonathan Webber. Deborah Fahy Bryceson, a social geographer, is a Research Associate at the International Gender Studies and African Studies Centres, Oxford University. Judith Okely, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at Hull University, is Deputy Director of the International Gender Studies Centre, Oxford University, and Honorary Associate, Oxford Brookes University. Jonathan Webber, a social anthropologist, holds the UNESCO Chair in Jewish and Interfaith Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Table of Contents

Introduction : the artistry of social life	p. 1
Changing cultures, changing rooms : fashioning identities and anthropological research	p. 21
Identity at play : individuals, characters, and theatres of action	p. 38
Constructing identities in a post-communist society : ethnic, national, and European	p. 54
Making sense of the past : reflections on Jewish historical consciousness	p. 73
A sense of people and place : the Chapel and language in sustaining Welsh identity	p. 91
Towards an ethnography of colleagueship	p. 103
Thinking the unheard, writing the unwritten : reflecting on marginality, ethnography, and texts	p. 115
The women's movement : the formative years, 1850-1930	p. 133
A good lady, androgynous angel, and intrepid woman : Maria Czaplicka in feminist profile	p. 146
'Ritual sisters' or female rulers : gender and chiefship revisited in Southern Africa	p. 164
Revolting, revolutionary, and rebellious women : symbolic disruption of traditional femininity and the liberation of femineity and other muted identities	p. 179
What women really want : gender, ethnicity, and job expectations on an automobile factory assembly line	p. 197
Can you call this fieldwork : September in Venice	p. 214
Gendered lessons in Ivory Towers	p. 228
Afterwords : in celebration of Shirley Ardener
Gendering Oxford : Shirley Ardener and cross-cultural research	p. 249
Shirley Ardener's habitus	p. 260
Circumstance, personality, and anthropology	p. 261
Shirley in my mind	p. 263
Titi ikoli in the academy	p. 265
Going the extra mile	p. 267
Her powers of persuasion	p. 268
Shirley Ardener : mentor and friend	p. 269
The African connection in Oxford	p. 271
Shirley's African roots	p. 272
Returning to 'the mountain'	p. 273
Shirley's magic	p. 276
List of published works by Shirley Ardener	p. 279
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.