Performing Kinship: Narrative, Gender, and the Intimacies of Power in the AndesIn the highland region of Sullk'ata, located in the rural Bolivian Andes, habitual activities such as sharing food, work, and stories create a sense of relatedness among people. Through these day-to-day interactions—as well as more unusual events—individuals negotiate the affective bonds and hierarchies of their relationships. In Performing Kinship, Krista E. Van Vleet reveals the ways in which relatedness is evoked, performed, and recast among the women of Sullk'ata. Portraying relationships of camaraderie and conflict, Van Vleet argues that narrative illuminates power relationships, which structure differences among women as well as between women and men. She also contends that in the Andes gender cannot be understood without attention to kinship. Stories such as that of the young woman who migrates to the city to do domestic work and later returns to the highlands voicing a deep ambivalence about the traditional authority of her in-laws provide enlightening examples of the ways in which storytelling enables residents of Sullk'ata to make sense of events and link themselves to one another in a variety of relationships. A vibrant ethnography, Performing Kinship offers a rare glimpse into an compelling world. |
From inside the book
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... ilena re- turned from Cochabamba yet?” i did not want to leave Kallpa without saying good-bye to ilena. Claudina's reply surprised me. she said: “she's already gone again. That woman is angry.” i prodded her to tell me more. i had been ...
... ilena knew about the law, for we had heard the commercials together many times as we sat preparing dinner. When i finally had the chance to talk with ilena late in the afternoon the next day, i realized that i was mistaken. ilena had ...
... ilena and her husband had migrated from the community to the city of Cochabamba so that the entire family could live together while the remainder of their children attended high school. This incident allows no simple interpretation, yet ...
... ilena and other sullk'atas pro- duce affective, social, political, and economic bonds. This story and other stories threaded throughout the book illuminate the notion that relationships (between husbands and wives; brothers and sisters ...
... ilena, in sullk'ata one important locus of power is the relationship between affines or in-laws.8 in sullk'ata people must marry and have children to be considered adults. As in other societies, the so- cial, economic, and political ...
Contents
1 | |
27 | |
Circulation of Care A Primer on Sullkata Relatedness | 55 |
Narrating Sorrow Performing Relatedness A Story Told in Conversation | 79 |
Storied Silences Adolescent Desires Gendered Agency and the Practice of Stealing Women | 99 |
Reframing the Married Couple Affect and Exchange in Three Parts | 129 |
Now My Daughter Is Alone Violence and the Ambiguities of Affinity | 161 |
Conclusion Reflections on the Dialogical Production of Relatedness | 183 |
Chapter 5 Narrative Transcriptions in Quechua and in English | 197 |
Chapter 6 Interview Transcriptions in Quechua | 205 |
Notes | 209 |
Glossary | 225 |
Bibliography | 229 |
Index | 257 |