Persons and Powers of Women in Diverse Cultures [Paperback]

This volume presents important essays inspired by the pioneering works of three leading women anthropologists. The title may therefore be read in more than one way. The three biographical essays in this volume as well as the comprehensive bibliographies of these anthropologists' works fully confirm the high esteem in which their remarkable personalities are held to this day and offer material about them not formerly available. The book includes important discussions by distinguished social anthropologists, based on rich ethnographic data, of the many identities, personhoods, powers, and other various categorizations of women, each author handling her material and analyses in her own distinctive way. Of particular value is Shirley Ardener's perceptive introductory essay which places the volume in the wider context of some areas of major concern to social scientists, such as the construction of identities, kinship theory, and the production of knowledge itself, as well as of the particularities of women in diverse cultures.

S. Ardener, Persons and Powers of Women: An Introduction - J. Gladstone, Audrey I. Richards (1899-1984): Africanist, Humanist - C. Berndt and E.M.Chilver, Phyllis Kaberry (1910-1977): Fieldworker among Friends - E. Croll, Barbara E. Ward (1919-1983): Sex Roles and Conscious Models - P. Caplan, Engendering Knowledge: The Politics of Ethnography - J. La Fontaine, The Persons of Women - E.M. Chilver, Women Cultivators, Cows and Cash Crops in Cameroon - C. Ifeka, The Mystical and Political Powers of Queen Mothers, Kings and Commoners - A. Wong, Sex Roles, Lifecycle Stages, Social Networks and Community Development in Singapore - C. Humphrey, Women and Ideology in Hierarchical Societies in East Asia

Persons and Powers of Womenhas three principle objectives: first, a biographical tribute to three great anthropologists, Audrey Richards, Phyllis Kaberry and Barbara Ward; secondly, a comprehensive bibliography of these women's written worksl“'