Questioning Women’s Subordination: Cross-Cultural Insights from Anthropology

Abstract

This review article discusses several ways in which women’s subordination has been addressed invarious cultural contexts: from Thailand to Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and Egypt. The paper points tohow the concept of gender intertwines with labour, consumption, modernity, migrant experiences,kinship, reproduction, personhood, ethics and religious practices. The cases brought to the forereconceptualise the domination and resistance doublet and provide novel ways to conceptualize andaddress gender, not only as a constructed identity, but also as embodied performance. Withoutaiming to paint a detailed picture of feminist anthropology, the paper explores how ideas developedin these inquiries question the taken-for-granted assumption about the universality of women’ssubordination and challenge the emancipation prerequisite of feminist agenda.

Keywords

• Anthropology
• Ethnography
• Women's subordination
• Domination-resistance