Zapotec Women (Texas Press Sourcebooks in Anthropology) [Hardcover]

Lynn Stephen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0292790643 | ISBN-13: 978-0292790643 | Publication Date: January 1992 | Edition: 1st

What happens when indigenous culture is packaged for sale in the United States ? How does capital accumulation affect relations between men and women, local politics, kinship, and reciprocal exchanges of goods and labor? In this innovative study of several Zapotec communities in and around Oaxaca, Mexico, Lynn Stephen explores these questions, looking at how commercial weaving for export has altered the lives of women since the Mexican Revolution. Drawing on firsthand insights gleaned during two and a half years of fieldwork, Stephen shows that the expansion of capitalism has affected Zapotec women in different ways. She demonstrates how class and ethnicity as well as gender determine women's roles and standing in the community. Individual life histories complement her data, showing how women may hold a position of importance in one area (ritual life, weaving production, or local politics), while occupying a subservient position in another. She also compares Zapotec women's participation in local politics with that of other peasant women in Mexico. Stephen concludes that while the commercialization of Zapotec weaving has produced class differentiation--as classic economic theories predict--it has also reinforced kin-based institutions that support a strong sense of local ethnic identity. These findings offer important new insights for the fields of economic and political anthropology, Latin American and Third World studies, and women's studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“After it first appeared, Zapotec Women quickly became a must-read in the fields of gender and Latin American studies, and today it can fairly be regarded as a classic. This thoroughly revised edition is a tour de force. Not content merely to add a few pages at the beginning or end of chapters, Lynn Stephen has rethought several key conceptual frameworks and reconsidered the changes experienced in Teotitlán del Valle over the past twenty years.”— Matthew C. Gutmann, editor of Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America

“How wonderful that this second edition of Zapotec Women is available! So well written and blessedly lacking in jargon, it comprehensively explains the evolution of women’s cooperatives in Teotitlán, including their interactions with the Mexican state and NGOs, and the effects of transnational forces like NAFTA and increased migration to the United States.”—Jean Jackson, coeditor of Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America

“In Zapotec Women, Lynn Stephen presents a complex analysis of stereotypically strong women. She situates women’s independence, forged in daily life, in Zapotec tradition that is framed by state-sponsored images of ‘Mexican Indians’ and market transformations that have regional, national, and international dimensions. Stephen’s compelling analysis illuminates class, ethnic, and gender relations that are unexpected and contingent. She renders these social processes beautifully, leaving the reader with an appreciation of individual lives in the context of global transformation.”—Patricia Zavella, coeditor of Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader

“This book is a light in the darkness. The author is a brilliant weaver who, with great expertise, intertwines the fine threads of gender, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, and art, rendering a magnificent tapestry. A rigorous anthropology of Zapotec women in a socio-historical context, the work also surprises by contemplating the aesthetic component of the sarapes created by the artisans of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.”—Eli Bartra, editor of Crafting Gender: Women and Folk Art in Latin America and the Caribbean

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher

"After it first appeared, Zapotec Women quickly became a must-read in the fields of gender and Latin American studies, and today it can fairly be regarded as a classic. This thoroughly revised edition is a tour-de-force. Not content to merely add a few pages at the beginning or end of chapters, Lynn Stephen has rethought several key conceptual frameworks and reconsidered the changes experienced in Teotitlán del Valle over the past twenty years."— Matthew C. Gutmann, editor of Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr; 1st edition (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292790643
• ISBN-13: 978-0292790643
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,422,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book review, February 21, 2006

By 

Marla A. Brown - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zapotec Women: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Globalized Oaxaca (Paperback)

The book I received was the book I needed for my anthropology class. thank you