Rethinking Pastoralism In Africa: Gender, Culture, and the Myth of the Patriarchal Pastoralist

by Dorothy L. Hodgson, Dorothy L. Hodgson (Editor)

Overview

The dominant trend in pastoralist studies has long assumed that pastoralism and pastoral gender relations are inherently patriarchal. The contributors to this collection, in contrast, use diverse analytic approaches to demonstrate that pastoralist gender relations are dynamic, relational, historical, and produced through complex local-translocal interactions. Combining theoretically sophisticated analysis with detailed case studies, this collection will appeal to those doing research and teaching in African studies, gender studies, anthropology, and history. Among the topics discussed are pastoralism, patriarchy, and history among Maasai in Tanganyika; women's roles in peacemaking in Somali society; the fertility of houses and herds; gender, aging, and postchildbearing experience in a Tuareg community; and milk selling among Fulani women in Northern Burkina Faso.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821413708
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2001
Series:	Eastern African Studies
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dorothy L. Hodgson is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University.

Editorial Reviews

"A very important contribution in the studies of pastoralist societies in Africa. As argued by the editor in the introduction, the role and status of women among these allegedly predominantly male-dominated societies has not been properly examined. This is one of the first books to challenge this gender bias in the field in a scholarly and systematic way. The papers in the book cover various domains where women actively participate, giving the book a sense of being well designed and comprehensive."--Eisei Kurimoto, associate professor, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka

From the Publisher

Hodgson (anthropology, Rutgers U.) presents 11 contributions by feminist scholars which challenge conventional theories of pastoralism in Africa that assume a static society in which men invariably dominate the economies and political spheres. Major themes addressed are the ways in which pastoralist women produce items of material culture that are central to the expression, elaboration, and negotiation of aspects of pastoralist society; gender roles and relations in domains of power such as property ownership, conflict resolution, and the use of the environment; the mistaken conflation of patrilineality and patrilocality of pastoralism as indicators of patriarchy; and the ways in which pastoralist women negotiate the many changes brought about by their encounters with the ideas, practices, and agents of development and society. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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