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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... , Marisol, Dante, and Ana Condorhuilca and Enadi Condori, with Blenda Femenias 22. Vendors selling around fountain, Chivay 23. Llama train leaving Salinas emporium, Chivay 1'5 3 Q '1'! "000 \'-' MAP 1. SOUTHERN PERU.
... vendors stake out tiny patches of pavement. Throughout the center of this city of one million, near plaza and bus stop and railroad station, no matter which way you turn, their boxes, bags, stands, carts, cloths, and baskets jumble ...
... ask Maquefios about the village's recovery. And perhaps this vendor will want to talk about her bordados. I tell her my name, but she has no time to tell me hers. 1 A WOMAN FROM MACA SELLS TUNAS OUTSIDE CHIVAY MARKET.
... vendors clutching bundles to their chests. Hide! Where? Don't get drenched, I think at once. An everyday occurrence ... vendor is in sight. The sidewalks are drenched, and the torrents gushing through the streets reek of kerosene. Mayor ...
... vendors' health be damned. All this the woman from Maca risks to sell cactus fruits three for a dime. To do so she ... vendor faced were Arequipa's daily fare: poverty, unemployment, petty crime, racism, and class struggle. 2 WOMEN AND ...
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 | |