Space, Text, and Gender: Anthropological Study of the Marakwet of Kenya, An [Paperback]

Henrietta L. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mappings: Society/Theory/Space | Publication Date: December 29, 1995

This groundbreaking study focuses on the relationship between the organization of household space and gender relations, showing how that relation shifts due to changing social and economic conditions, including such factors as wage labor and education. This updated edition contains a new foreword and afterword in which Moore relates her work to more recent developments around gender, resistance, difference, and spatiality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is no comparable book that explicitly takes up these three topics--space, text, and gender--in the context of a specific 'case study,' and that is both theoretically sophisticated and grounded in ethnographic observations. The Moore work is surely a cornerstone to an entirely new interdisciplinary enterprise." --Margaret W. Conkey, University of California at Berkeley

"In this second edition of Space, Text and Gender, Henrietta Moore set out to exceed traditional textual expression by addressing subtle aspects of human embodiment and positioning. The result is a provocative interpretation of gendered practices in the everyday lives of the Endo of East Africa. It is also a bold, blunt, and rigorous theoretical work that clarifies 'human agency and the production and interpretation of spatial texts.' Studies of space and spatiality have proliferated recently, informed by postmodern, poststructural and feminist perspectives, but few have so deftly situated knowledge within the gendered and symbolic quotidian realm. Through her own discursive agency and that of her subjects, Moore weaves bodies of women, men, and ideas in a rich dialectic of theory and practice. She draws upon a wealth of geographical, anthropological, feminist, and post-colonial perspectives to reposition the notion of space--one of the most important concepts in social theory today--upon the 'sloping world' of human knowledge." --Audrey Kobayashi, Institute of Women's Studies, Queen's University, Canada

Book Description

Dr Moore's major anthropological study of the Marakwet analyses the relationship between the organisation of household space and gender relations, and on the ways that relationship is changing as a result of wage labour and education. She developes a fresh theoretical perspective and will attract many with no specialist interest in Africa. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Guilford Press (December 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898628253
• ISBN-13: 978-0898628258
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,501,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a study of culture change, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Space, Text, and Gender: Anthropological Study of the Marakwet of Kenya, An (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. The author analyzes Marakwet society by looking at organization of space in their houses (traditionally round in shape), and how this relates to gender roles. She notes how these relationships change with modernization. This is a good case study of how women in Third World societies are affected by globalization. Her approach is both economic and symbolic -- some of the early chapters on the analysis of space harken back to Bourdieu's study of the Kabyle house.