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June 17, 2008
Krista E. Van Vleet, ’94, PhD’99
Performing Kinship: Narrative, Gender, and the Intimacies of Power in the Andes, University of Texas Press, 2008.
The book: In the highland region of Sullk'ata, located in the rural Bolivian Andes, activities such as sharing food, work and stories create a sense of relatedness among people. Through these day-to-day interactions—and more unusual events—individuals negotiate the affective bonds and hierarchies of their relationships. This book reveals the ways in which relatedness is evoked, performed and recast among the women of Sullk'ata. Portraying relationships of camaraderie and conflict, it argues that narrative illuminates power relationships, which structure differences among women and between women and men. It also contends that in the Andes gender cannot be understood without attention to kinship.
The author: Krista E. Van Vleet is associate professor at Bowdoin College. She teaches courses in anthropology, some of which are also cross-listed in Latin American studies, women's studies, and gay and lesbian studies. Her research focuses on the practices and politics of kinship and gender among Native Andeans in Bolivia. She lives in Bath, Maine.
Web site: www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/vanper.html
Posted by lingjiex at June 17, 2008 01:47 PM