Women Traders in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Mediating Identities, Marketing Wares (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Hardcover

Seligmann, Linda J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804740526 ISBN 13: 9780804740524

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This innovative volume studies women traders as economic, political, and cultural mediators of space, gender, value, and language in ten diverse locales-Bolivia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, and the Philippines. Its focus is on how these women move between and knit together household and marketplace activities.

About this title

Review

"A compilation which delves into new areas of ethnographic research and makes significant contributions to the anthropology of work . . . .It also opens up an interesting branch of research regarding identity creation in a globalized world where metaphoric borders are slowly fading away in previously unimaginable ways."--Anthropology of Work Review

"This welcome addition to recent publications on market women, focusing on market women's identity (and ethnicity) and on how economic behaviours both shape and 'are shaped by local cultural practices and values, especially those pertaining to gender.'"--Canadian Journal of Sociology

"This book is a diverse yet surprisingly comprehensive examinationof women's experiences as traders indifferent anthropological settings. The analytic traditions used vary, but what unites the essays is that the authors' overall concernis to show how gender ideologies and women's market participationinteract in ways that wehave scarcely understood until now."--Susan Russell "northern Illinois University "

Synopsis

This volume studies women as economic, political, and cultural mediators of space, gender, value, and language in informal markets. Drawing on diverse methodologies multisited fieldwork, linguistic analysis, and archival research the contributors demonstrate how women move between and knit together household and marketplace activities. This knitting together pivots on how household practices and economies are translated and transferred to the market, as well as how market practices and economic principles become integral to the nature and construction of the household. Exploring the cultural identities and economic practices of women traders in ten diverse locales Bolivia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, and the Philippines the authors pay special attention to the effects of global forces, national economic policies, and nongovernmental organizations on women s participation in the market and the domestic sector.

The authors also consider the impact that women s economic and political activities in social movements, public protests, and more hidden kinds of subversive behavior have on state policy, on the attitudes of different sectors of society toward female traders, and on the dynamics of the market itself.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0804740526
• ISBN 13: 9780804740524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 322