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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... 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 ...
... Province, constantly traveling those hundred miles between city and country. Danger was on everyone's mind ... provinces under military occupation (Figure 2). Because Arequipa seemed safe, it became a magnet for refugees from all over ...
... province was a dim memory of mountains, cornfields, and alpaca herds. The newly arrived, bound and determined to make a living, hoped that one of the city's large industries—milk-canning plant, brewery, and textile factories—or the ...
... Provincial Association. Many of these migrants were women, and almost all of them were poor. More often than I would have predicted, they told me of their hardships. Women recounted the complicated juggling acts of their lives: holding ...
... province of Caylloma, the valley of the Colca River, and a few villages. Bordados mark time: points in personal life courses, annual calendars, and historical epochs. They are contemporary allegories of vibrant traditions based in the ...
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 | |