Example research essay topic: The Anthropology Of Space And Time Locating Culture - 1,592 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

The Anthropology of Space and Time: Locating Culture To begin with, the book title, The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture, I thought, is very suggestive in terms of advancing recognition of womens political subjectivity in the construction of their particular imagined community. Practices of social networks and group formations are posited as critical strategies of empowerment for women, which in turn enable them to exploit the political moment to speak out and to speak on behalf of women of similar concerns. (This is particularly observed in feminist organizations in Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt). Equally important is to consider as the editors observe what happens when women in the Middle East try to organize themselves? Most revealing is the event that prompted the workshop, resulting from a lived frustrating experience encountered by a group of pastoral women in Oman who were refused government permission to organize themselves independently, despite their success story in participating in income-generating activities. Women, in this instance, in the name of protectionism, were denied an autonomous public voice / space in negotiating their gender-specific needs, outside the boundary of domesticity.

This event raises two interrelated issues: opportunities and constraints. It links economic opportunities with development as much as it highlights the limits of participating in development projects under a traditional regime of patriarchal ruling, where both public and private patriarchies retain utmost legitimacy over women. This is not to deny that controversial notions of traditional gender roles in society vis-a-vis their place on the scale of equality discourse remain central, yet critical, in the discursive positioning of women. These questions of opportunities and constraints / obstacles are captured throughout the readings, along with the dilemma faced by women when seeking a public space of their own (women only group) without becoming a place for mens use.

First let me situate the context and framework of the articles included here and then gives a brief account in terms of thematic focus and general arguments. The book is comprised of 10 articles that cover a wide range of regional and geographical locations in the region of Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Effectively these studies are located in Arabic-speaking countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Morocco, with the exception of Senegal. While such groupings of countries amount to highlight the representation of the category, Arab Middle Eastern women, Chatty and Rate, in their introductory chapter, rightly problematic the use of the term given its historical colonial overtone in representing women of the Middle East voiceless victims who are mired in tradition and passivity. In addition, the fallacy of homogenization in using such term is highlighted by the authors as they draw attention to the existing vast differences not only in religious identity (Islam and Christi an) but also in existing cultural practices both between regions and within countries. An important area on which the book is focused is the project of modernity and develop mentalism.

This includes themes of civil societies, the question of gender equality, nationalism, Islam and identity, and most of all, the (repressive) style of nation-building. These issues are considered in a number of articles and addressed in the context of recent and new development of womens groups. Broadly speaking, the articles can be divided into two fields of study: anthropology and sociology. The anthropological studies draw extensively on ethnographic fieldwork and provide rich detailed accounts of localized practices of womens activism.

These are manifested in a ritualized form that follow a kinship model of networking and generally take extra domestic orientations. In fact, the readings force us to rethink the dichotomies of private / public world in a more fluid and interactive relationships. This is shown, for example, in Seteney Shares ethnography of Palestinian womens domestic activism in Amman beyond the public / private divide, followed by Eva Rosanders accounts of different practices of kinship work among womens groups in Africa (Morocco and Senegal). Likewise, Such Josephs case study concerns itself with the Christian Womens League in Lebanon and critically addresses the reproduction of hierarchical practices of patronage / clientele relationships among women / feminists .

What is refreshing about these studies can be seen in attending to the play of womens agency in reproducing and / or modifying kinship ties, against the commonly assumed notions of passivity and subservience. As the author remarks in her concluding chapter that women, like men, also seek to maintain the very symbolic practices of hierarchy in terms of status, prestige and power. By comparison, other articles offer sociological analyses of womens political activism and draw links with recent political upheavals, economic development crisis and repressive politics of state apparatus. Given the significance of these phenomena in shaping the recent development of womens group consciousness I discuss in greater length some of the critical issues raised in these arguments. NATION-BUILDING, AND GENDERED CITIZENSHIP The articles covering Egypt and the Gulf regions address the centrality of the state in strengthening womens social and legal positions in the name of nation-building. Towards the project of modernization during 1960 s and 1970 s women in particular have made remarkable advances in educational achievements and professional careers.

In contrast, in the 1980 s and 1990 s, along with the recent shift to free market economy and globalization, such advances are shown to have been increasingly attacked by the state. Suffice to say that neither the process of modernization nor economic development projects have brought prosperity at least for the majority of the population in question. This condition is said to be shaped by several factors: the increasing rise in religious-based movements and their close affinity with patriarchal tendencies (Islamist and its variations), the use of repressive control mechanism by the state, and, significantly the failure of international development agencies, along with state-sponsored projects. It is in this context that the popular rise in anti-Western / anti -colonial sentiments promoted by Islamist movements has led to a counter discourse of gender equality. In other words when Islam is posited as a culture of resistance against economic marginalization and neo-colonial oppression the power of the discourse can be seen in making it extremely difficult for women of relatively lower socio-economic classes not to be united.

It is in this context that womens activism becomes visible and mobilized amidst an increasing tension between local narratives of nationalism and identity vis-a-vis the current conditions of socio-economic hardships. According to Shahida EI-Bazs reading of the Egyptian situation, the impact of both economic sanctions and the increasing withdrawal of state services due to structural adjustment development programs have led to greater gap between the rich few and the poor majority. In this critical stage of political instability and economic uncertainties the political mobilization of Islam as portrayed by women and men in Islamist associations becomes, particularly for the poor, a critical departure for relocating their subjectivity and identity. The complexity of these issues are also illustrated in the work of May Seikaly on Bahrain. In fact in a climate of political and economic insecurity, women occupy a vulnerable position and become easy targets of being positioned at once the problem and the solution. For example, in Egypt, among others, women are pressured yet again to quit their jobs and become full time mothers against instances of presumably child delinquency.

Not surprisingly, women (as a group) despite their advancement in the field of education and profession, still implicitly inhabit the space of the reserve army of labor, precisely because of the primacy attached to the discourse of motherhood and domesticity. Undoubtedly towards the project of negotiating space and place in organizing themselves womens collective voice and agency is rendered critical in privileging particular meanings (as opposed to universal) in terms of locating their struggles. For example, in Egypt, El-Baz looks at the political nature surrounding womens activism from grass-roots levels to middle-class concerns. The contradiction of objectives among women activists are explained in relation to class locations along with ethno-sectarian affiliations, education and urban / rural discrepancies.

Name AI-Ali, in turn, situates Egyptian women s political activism in the narrative of a politicized liberation struggle, be it from Western domination and control or feminist struggles for gender equality. Similarly, the situation of women in Bahrain and to a lesser extent in Kuwait is not radically different. This is consecutively argued in May Seikalys and Haya al-Mughnis readings of the situation by problematizing the multiple and contradictory political and economic class locations of struggles. However, the majority of womens activities, particularly in the Gulf region, tend to follow a rather traditional path of gender roles by prioritizing a family welfare agenda and charitable services. To conclude, women are continually faced with the situation of negotiating their political subjectivity / agency between two modes of patriarchy: private patriarchy that is enacted in the authority of men over women in family and personal matters and public patriarchy as manifested through the state and increasingly the religious establishment, particularly Islam. Interestingly enough public patriarchy co-exists in ambivalence with private patriarchy in that it reinforces and at the same time contradicts womens subordination to male authority.

Perhaps it is at the point of ambivalence and confusion, inhabited as the space in between, that womens resistance to being treated as second class citizens will continue to grow. It is only then, I would argue, that women might establish a space of their own without being at once a doubling of place ness. Bibliography: Seth M. Low (Editor), Denise Lawrence-Zuniga (Editor). The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture. Blackwell Publishers (February 1, 2003).

Research essay sample on The Anthropology Of Space And Time Locating Culture