ANTHRO 121AW Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Gayle Rubin, Androgyny, Glass Ceiling
Feminism and Kinship Theory
I) Feminist Critique of Kinship Theory
A) Public/Domestic Domain Model
○ Kin relations involving women as participants are in domestic domain
○ They are uninteresting/a-political/natural
B) Two Problems
○ 1. Ignoring women’s roles in social and cultural production
○ 2. Domination and exclusion are NOT natural
■ They are social
■ Need to be analyzed
II) Political Participation of Women through Kin Relations
A) Women as producers of wealth
○ Distributed to relatives, affines, chiefs, etc. to meet family/kin group obligations
○ Producing items that become heirlooms encoding kin group history
B) Logics and Relations that Give Women Voice
○ The Sister in Yap
■ Brother-Sister: land receiving group
■ Gendered complementarity in Tabinau
Authority
● Sister gives name to brother’s children
● Sister can take names away
● Mafen
(“matriline” as land giver is overseer over land)
● Sister’s support brother to meet exchange obligations
○ Yapese mitmit
(ceremonial exchange of wealth)
Male wealth (fish, coconut, shell valuables)
■
Female wealth (taro, yams, textiles, stone valuables)
○ *need to give more than you receive
Document Summary
Feminism and kinship theory: feminist critique of kinship theory, public/domestic domain model. Kin relations involving women as participants are in domestic domain. Ignoring women"s roles in social and cultural production. Ii) political participation of women through kin relations: women as producers of wealth. Distributed to relatives, affines, chiefs, etc. to meet family/kin group obligations. Producing items that become heirlooms encoding kin group history: logics and relations that give women voice. Authority ( matriline as land giver is overseer over land) Sister"s support brother to meet exchange obligations (ceremonial exchange of wealth) *need to give more than you receive. Kinship systems are and do many things. Made up and reproduce concrete forms of socially organized sexuality. Observable and empirical forms of sex gender systems. Differences are a social phenomenon (not attributed to biological views of gender: rubin"s re-analysis of levi-strauss. 1) exchange of women creating alliance/social solidarity (across groups)
