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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... understandings of narrative and of kinship and gender have been enhanced by lively discussions in two interdisciplinary and intercol- legial study groups, the narrative study group in Cambridge, massachusetts, under the mentorship of ...
... understandings of both the habitual dispositions that shape people's actions and the dynamic processes through which ... understanding the ways in which relationships of power are differently constituted and contested in the everyday ...
... understanding the daily burdens and benefits of relatedness more gen- erally. As much as a married couple is viewed as a unit, referred to as qusawarmi (husband-wife), marriage also embeds sullk'atas in a broad network of relation ...
... understandings of the world is not new to the disci- pline of anthropology . I have approached the problem of how to understand the emergence of relatedness in everyday life among sullk'atas by gathering 18 PERFORMING KINSHIP.
... understandings of the world by living in the region for an extended period. Daily practices are imbued with meaning ... understanding of relationships within and between households, refine my Quechua language skills more rap- idly, and ...
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 |