Gender and the Boundaries of Dress in Contemporary PeruSet in Arequipa during Peru's recent years of crisis, this ethnography reveals how dress creates gendered bodies. It explores why people wear clothes, why people make art, and why those things matter in a war-torn land. Blenda Femenías argues that women's clothes are key symbols of gender identity and resistance to racism. Moving between metropolitan Arequipa and rural Caylloma Province, the central characters are the Quechua- and Spanish-speaking maize farmers and alpaca herders of the Colca Valley. Their identification as Indians, whites, and mestizos emerges through locally produced garments called bordados. Because the artists who create these beautiful objects are also producers who carve an economic foothold, family workshops are vital in a nation where jobs are as scarce as peace. But ambiguity permeates all practices shaping bordados' significance. Femenías traces contemporary political and ritual applications, not only Caylloma's long-standing and violent ethnic conflicts, to the historical importance of cloth since Inca times. This is the only book about expressive culture in an Andean nation that centers on gender. In this feminist contribution to ethnography, based on twenty years' experience with Peru, including two years of intensive fieldwork, Femenías reflects on the ways gender shapes relationships among subjects, research, and representation. |
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... Figures 16 and 17 ) , also appears in bands . Motifs depicting animals and plants abound . Within a general category such as bird , numerous specific types are depicted , including dove , duck , rooster , and hummingbird ( see Figure 19 ) ...
... figures so I can try some new animals " ( interview , Cabanaconde , February 1993 ) . Although not mentioned by artisans ... ( Figure 20 ) . Both birds stand in profile with wings extended and their beak in a flower ; stylistically , the ...
... Figure 24 ) , one man and one boy stand out because of their dress . The man ( eighth from left in the undulating front row ) wears a suit ( terno ) ; beside , and slightly before , him , the boy wears a suit with knee - length britches ...
Contents
Introduction False Borders Embroidered Lives | xvii |
the Crossroads | 78 |
Process | 103 |
Copyright | |
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