Identity and networks: fashioning gender and ethnicity across cultures

Contrary to the negative assessments of the social order that have become prevalent in the media since 9/11, this wide-ranging collection of essays, mostly by social anthropologists, focuses instead on the enormous social creativity being invested as collective identities are reconfigured. Using fieldwork findings drawn from Africa, Asia, and Europe, special emphasis is placed on the reformulation of ethnic and gender relationships and identities in the cultural, social, political, and religious realms of public life. Under what circumstances does trust arise, paving the way for friendship, collegiality, knowledge creation, national unity, or emergence of leadership? How is social life constructed as a collective endeavour? Does the means towards sociability become its end? And what can be said about the agency and collegiality of women? The inspiration for examining these conundrums is the work and persona of Shirley Ardener, to whom the volume is dedicated. Contributors: Jonathan Benthall, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Gina Buijs, Sandra Burman, Hilary Callan, Gaynor Cohen, Janette Davies, Tamara Dragadze, Ronnie Frankenberg, Peter Geschiere, Kirsten Hastrup, Paula Heinonen, Maria Jaschok, Grazyna Kubica, Rhian Loudon, Sharon Macdonald, Zdzislaw Mach, Fiona Moore, Judith Okely, Lidia D. Sciama, Shui Jingjun, Cecillie Swaisland, Jacqueline Waldren, Jonathan Webber

Introduction : the artistry of social life / Deborah Fahy Bryceson -- Changing cultures, changing rooms : fashioning identities and anthropological research / Sharon Macdonald -- Identity at play : individuals, characters, and theatres of action / Kirsten Hastrup -- Constructing identities in a post-Communist society : ethnic, national, and European / Zdzisław Mach -- Making sense of the past : reflections on Jewish historical consciousness / Jonathan Webber -- A sense of people and place : the chapel and language in sustaining Welsh identity / Gaynor Cohen -- Towards an ethnography of colleagueship / Hilary Callan -- Thinking the unheard, writing the unwritten : reflecting on marginality, ethnography, and texts / Maria Jaschok in dialogue with Shui Jingjun -- The women's movement : the formative years, 1850-1930 / Cecillie Swaisland -- A good lady, androgynous angel, and intrepid woman : Maria Czaplicka in Feminist Profile / Grażyna Kubica -- 'Ritual sisters' or female rulers? gender and chiefship revisited in Southern Africa / Gina Buijs -- Revolting, revolutionary, and rebellious women : symbolic disruption of traditional femininity and the liberation of femineity and other muted identities / Rhian Loudon and Ronnie Frankenberg -- What women really want : gender, ethnicity, and job expectations on an automobile factory assembly line / Fiona Moore -- Can you call this fieldwork? September in Venice / Lidia D. Sciama -- Gendered lessons in ivory towers / Judith Okely.

IDENTITY AND NETWORKS -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I. FASHIONING IDENTITIES -- 1. CHANGING CULTURES, CHANGING ROOMS: FASHIONING IDENTITIES AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH -- 2. IDENTITY AT PLAY: INDIVIDUALS, CHARACTERS, AND THEATRES OF ACTION -- 3. CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN A POST-COMMUNIST SOCIETY: ETHNIC, NATIONAL, AND EUROPEAN -- 4. MAKING SENSE OF THE PAST: REFLECTIONS ON JEWISH HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS -- 5. A SENSE OF PEOPLE AND PLACE: THE CHAPEL AND LANGUAGE IN SUSTAININGWELSH IDENTITY -- 6. TOWARDS AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF COLLEAGUESHIP -- PART II. GENDER AGENCY AND NETWORKS