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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... martha Tango for welcoming me into their home whenever i arrive in sucre. Verónica Cereceda and the late gabriel martínez initially suggested that i conduct research around the provincial town of Pocoata, x Performing KinshiP.
... sucre and La Paz. i will always be grateful to melanie gunn for accompanying my daughter and me to Bolivia in 2003. melanie helped isabel cope with an unfamiliar language and culture and proved to be a fabulous travel companion as well ...
... sucre after saying good-bye to friends, for i was soon to return to the United states. Dusty and stiff after eight hours on a bus with shock absorbers and seat springs that had long since deteriorated, i shouldered my backpack for the ...
... sucre. Descending from the pass, i wondered aloud, “has my comadre 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 ...
... to the city or to lowland agricultural regions after their own fields have been planted. Unmarried men and women also migrate to cities to go to school, serve La Paz Cochabamba Santa Cruz de La Sierra Potosi Sucre 12 Performing KinshiP.
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 |