Anthropology, Rutgers University

Thursday, February 2, 2012

4:00 pm

Communications 226

Gender Justice, Human Rights, and the Problem of Culture 

How does the problem of culture, as articulated in contemporary debates about human rights, shape the expression and experience of gender justice by grassroots women in Africa? Culture is frequently characterized by Western feminists, elite Africans, and others as a key source of the oppression of rural, uneducated women like Maasai through the continued existence of such traditional harmful practices as female genital mutilation, polygyny, and arranged marriage. Such characterizations overlook how certain cultural practices and meanings have served as a source of power and authority for women, shape interventions that obscure and marginalize their priorities and agendas. Drawing on examples from historical and ethnographic research with Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania, Hodgson argues that the problem of culture is really a problem of power; a historical perspective is essential to understanding contemporary gender dynamics; and for the importance of a more expansive understanding of gender justice that recognizes alternative approaches to framing and seeking justice by, for, and on behalf of women and men.