The Anthropologist in the Middle of a Tug-of-War

Bibliographic Data

ID2387842
AuthorsDavid C Berliner (0000-0003-3930-7280, Université Libre de Bruxelles, corresponding author), David Berliner (0000-0002-3148-9422, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium)
Year2008
Volume11
Issue2
Pages174-185
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMen and Masculinities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1097-184X • E-ISSN: 1552-6828
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1097184x08315101
OpenAlexW2039136372
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited23

Among anthropologists of both sexes, there is an enduring cliché that female anthropologists have better access to women's worlds than their male counterparts. I work about female religiosity in a West African Muslim society, the Bulongic (Guinea-Conakry), and my presence as a man was never an issue with the Bulongic women. In fact, from the beginning, I had the feeling that through my presence, the women intended to reinforce the legitimacy of their ritual performances, which was violently contested by the old men of the village. In this article, I address my position in the middle of this tug-of-war between the men and the women. By describing the ways in which Bulongic women instrumentalized my presence as a white ethnologist sensitive to their religious practices, I hope to refine our understanding of the actual effects of gender in the field

Feeling · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Religiosity · Sociology · White (mutation · African Studies and Ethnography · African Studies and Geopolitics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub