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. |
From inside the book
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... bordados made my work possible. Antonia Kayser and Joan Toohig have the world's definitive kitchen, and the best ... Caylloma office staff facilitated my engagement in Women's Federation activities. Mauricio de Romafia and Patricia ...
... Caylloma Province are also known for their women's stylish clothes, called bordados (embroideries) or polleras (skirts), adorned with intricate multicolored motifs embroidered on sewing machines (Figure 1). Attracted by these markers of ...
... Caylloma). Gender and ethnicity, I believe, are the most powerful forces shaping identity as more people migrate to Arequipa and as Caylloma's regional and national importance fluctuates. Bordados provide an ideal focal point because ...
... Caylloma lifeways or offered sympathetic anecdotes about their own rural living experiences. Others, despite good intentions, provided erroneous “facts” about bordados and the people who wore them. All and sundry freely advised me on my ...
... Caylloma helped them feel at home in the city. Bordados had particular currency in contemporary urban life. Women donned those clothes to sell produce like tuna fruit, to join with other migrants in social clubs and festivals, and to ...
Contents
Traveling | |
Identity in a Region at | |
Visual Domain and Cultural Process | |
Representation and the Embodiment | |
Transvestism and Festivals as Performance | |
Ethnic Symbols and Gendered | |
Gender and Production in a Workshop | |
Exchange Identity and the Commoditization | |
Conclusion Why Women Wear Polleras | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |