Location and Relocation

Question 1

What is Purdah?

What did Gardner think about this before her fieldwork?

How did this change?

Answer 1

(Persian for curtain)
The separation of men and women, through veiling, curtains, architecture

She thought it was a manifestation of the oppression of women and the inequality of a patriarchical society

Question 2

shame

Answer 2

sharam

Question 3

One of the first things that Gardner was told about women when you arrived

Answer 3

“A women’s heaven is at their husband’s feet’

Question 4

Ethnography details

Answer 4

Location and Relocation
Katy Gardner
1987-1988, revisits in 1990, 1993 and 1994
Talukpur, Sylhet, Bangladesh

Question 4

How long was her fieldwork?

Answer 4

15 months, but she also worked with British Bengali community leaders in London for 6 months before her research as preparation

Question 5

What 3 theories are Gardner influenced by?

Answer 5

• feminism
• post modernism
• political economy theory

Question 6

What is 3rd wave feminism?

Answer 6

Also known as post-modern genial
Influential since the 1980s
More intersectional approach

Question 7

What is postmodernism?

Critiques?

Answer 7

A focus on cultural relativism, reflexivity and the politics of representation. Particularistic in nature, it claims that there is no universal representation of societies or societal structure possible for any fieldwork.

Critique: can be too heavily about the anthropologist, too particularistic, limited by the risk of essentialism.

Question 8

How does this relate to the ethnography?

Answer 8

“The politics of location” is very post modernist

She is not willing to define herself with labels like ‘white, middle class, woman’ as if they are self-explanatory categories.

She prefers to think of her identity as fluid and discuss the way the society influences it.

Question 10

How does Muslim Law weigh up women against men?

Answer 10

“in Muslim Law, one man carries the weight of two women, who are legal minors”

Families are patrilineal, women often lose children in divorce

Question 11

What is socialisation?

How was Gardner socialised?

Answer 11

A concept to explain how norms are inherited to provide an individual with skills and habits necessary for participating in that society/ group

Her hair was oiled back, bangles put on her wrists, fingernails stained with henna, sari, head covered, learnt to walk slowly + neatly,

Question 12

Quote about Bengali femininity?

Answer 12

“Constructions of Bengali femininity are inscribed first and foremost on the body”

This is materialistic (at FIRST)

Question 13

What is a patriarch?

How is this shown in this Bengali community?

Answer 13

Patriarchy: a male dominated society

“Women are defined by and through men: as a wife or mother of someone, and remain nameless”

Question 14

What is reflexivity?

Answer 14

Looking back on yourself and your actions from multiple angles

Question 15

What is the theory Gardner first approached fieldwork with?

What changed?

Answer 15

Neo-Marxist political economy theory, which is common in academic discourse on Bagladesh

Focuses on the political effects of economic decisions (macro level)

She changed her focus to Islam, and people were happy to talk to her about it

Question 16

What did she initially think of migration? What did she think at the end of research?

Answer 16

At first she agreed with Neo-Marxist notions of dependence and imperialism, specifically that migration increases the wealth gap in Bangladesh and takes skilled labourers away

When she returned she saw something different- improvements in infrastructure

Question 17

Definition of “the politics of location” ?

Answer 17

Recognises that everyone writes from specific locations and that the ways in which we learn and experience have particular temporal and spatial dimensions (Probyn 1990)

Gardner deconstructs notions of stable identity. Location refers to changing positions and ideas within political and academic discourses as well as the social structure

Question 18

What are Frank and Wallerstein’s theories?

Answer 18

Look up in Anthro book

Question 19

Limitation with Gardner’s approach?

Answer 19

Although she is very reflexive about her particularistic approach throughout her ethnography, there are limitations to this approach, as well as postmodernist theory overall.

The sections is society, conflicts, statuses and relationships are not represented holistically. There is over-fragmentation of representations, also present in postmodernist theory, which diverts from the need of Anthropology to understand the differences and similarities in societies and human nature.

Question 20

What is Jonathan Spencer’s post-modern critique of Anthropology?

Answer 20

It claims objective generalisation, or ‘ethnographic naturalism’.

Question 21

What is Gardners personal critique of postmodernism, if it’s done lazily?

What has helped her understand this?

Answer 21

It often simplifies the Anthropologists own identity and positioning (female, white, middle class), risk of essentialism (assumptions)

Postmodern feminism discusses this well

Question 22

What are the problems with Western Feminism (1st and 2nd wave?) that Gardner highlights in the introduction?

Answer 22

She critiques it in that it concerns only middle class white women and has limitations with heteronormativity

Question 23

How does she critique first wave feminism?

Answer 23

States that ‘there can be no homogenous, universal feminism, for all individuals have such different locations’

Question 24

What is the revised politics of Location?

Answer 24

Acknowledges that location should be understood as multiple and always changing, no single indenting is possible (intersectionality)

Question 25

Details about Talukpur?

Answer 25

• small village of 70 house

* she stayed with an adoptive family and became an honorary daughter

Question 26

How does someone get the opportunity to go abroad?

Answer 26

They must have social capital or pre-existing contacts on the migration all network

Question 27

What has Mohanty criticised about the view of purdah in the eyes of Western Feminists?

Answer 27

That they make ethnocentric assumptions and present all veiled women as passive victims

Question 28

What male domains are women denied entry from?

Answer 28

The mosque
The market
The fields
The village council

Question 29

What is an example of the patriarchal society of banglasdesh within law?

Answer 29

Women often lose their children in divorce as children are considered part of the fathers lineage

Question 30

What are women who are poorly socialised called? Why?

Answer 30

Pagoli Beti = mad women

Runs, doesn’t cover their head, wears the sari wrong, messy hair

Question 31

What did one Bangladeshi informant think about the independent culture of the UK?

Answer 31

‘In your country everyone is separate from their families, and alone’

Question 32

Why was Gardner’s 30 year old friend ruined when her husband decided to find a new wife?

Answer 32

For the majority of women in rural Bangladesh, marriage and children are the only respectable paths in life

Question 33

So the postmodern view of diversity is great right? It points out the dangers of homogenisation and the hegemonic categorisations of many Western-centric women? What could possibly go wrong?

Answer 33

These correctives are depoliticising, as it becomes impossible to talk about the structures of inequality, exploitation or subordination.

Question 34

What houses to families with foreign wealth live in?

Answer 34

Large, pukka houses

Question 35

Why did she change her mind about dependency theory?

Answer 35

It has been critiqued in recent Anthropology literature for being a meta-narrative.

When she revisited she didn’t agree with the fact that migration causes economic polarisation. The amount of pukka houses had risen, a new secondary school was built, the dirt track replaced with a Tarmac road and electricity.

Question 36

Gardner noticed how her informants had agency. What proves this?

Answer 36

Migration to Europe was difficult so they started seeking opportunities in he Middle East.

One family significantly improved their economic position and had started a profitable tea business.

Question 37

What was she saying about political economy?

Answer 37

‘Migration is all too often discussed only in terms of political economy’

She tried to understand its cultural and ideological meanings

Question 38

What issues with the ethics of choosing data to include did she encounter?

Answer 38

She had to avoid replicating negative stereotypes so her writing would not be used against the British Bengali population.