The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender DiscoursesThe OC woman question, OCO this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for viewing African society. A work that rethinks gender as a Western construction, The Invention of Women offers a new way of understanding both Yoruban and Western cultures. Author Oyeronke Oyewumi reveals an ideology of biological determinism at the heart of Western social categories-the idea that biology provides the rationale for organizing the social world. And yet, she writes, the concept of OC woman, OCO central to this ideology and to Western gender discourses, simply did not exist in Yorubaland, where the body was not the basis of social roles. Oyewumi traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. Her analysis shows the paradoxical nature of two fundamental assumptions of feminist theory: that gender is socially constructed and that the subordination of women is universal. The Invention of Women demonstrates, to the contrary, that gender was not constructed in old Yoruba society, and that social organization was determined by relative age. A meticulous historical and epistemological account of an African culture on its own terms, this book makes a persuasive argument for a cultural, context-dependent interpretation of social reality. It calls for a reconception of gender discourse and the categories on which such study relies. More than that, the book lays bare the hidden assumptions in the ways these different cultures think. A truly comparative sociology of an African culture and the Western tradition, it will change the way African studies and gender studies proceed. " |
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Contents
Visualizing the Body Western Theories and African Subjects | 1 |
Reconstituting the Cosmology and Sociocultural Institutions of OyoYoruba | 31 |
Making History Creating Gender The Invention of Men and Kings in the Writing of Oyo Oral Traditions | 80 |
Colonizing Bodies and Minds Gender and Colonialism | 121 |
The Translation of Cultures Endangering Yoruba Language Orature and WorldSense | 157 |
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Common terms and phrases
0yo society Abeokuta African societies African studies African women aldafin anafemale anamale anasex anatomic assumption ayaba babd biological body Christian church colonial conception conjugal partner devotees distinction division of labor dominance English European example fact father Feminism feminist gender categories hierarchy historians human Ibadan Ibid idea identity important indigenous institutions interest interpretation iydlode Johnson Lagos lineage male and female marriage missionaries mother Nigeria notion obinrin Oduduwa offspring Ogbomoso Ogundipe okunrin Old 0yo Olodumare oral traditions Orature oriki orisa Oyo Empire patriarchy person political polygamy position precolonial privilege question religion Robin Law role ruler Samuel Johnson Sango scholars seniority sexual social categories socially constructed tion trade translation University Press V. Y. Mudimbe West Western wives woman world-sense writes Yoruba culture Yoruba history Yoruba language Yoruba oral Yoruba religion Yoruba society Yorubaland
References to this book
Feminist Futures: Re-imagining Women, Culture and Development Kum Kum Bhavani No preview available - 2005 |
Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in ... J. Lorand Matory No preview available - 2005 |