The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia

by Marilyn Strathern

In the most original and ambitious synthesis yet undertaken in Melanesian scholarship, Marilyn Strathern argues that gender relations have been a particular casualty of unexamined assumptions held by Western anthropologists and feminist scholars alike. The book treats with equal seriousness―and with equal good humor―the insights of Western social science, feminist politics, and ethnographic reporting, in order to rethink the representation of Melanesian social and cultural life. This makes The Gender of the Gift one of the most sustained critiques of cross-cultural comparison that anthropology has seen, and one of its most spirited vindications.

Genres: Anthropology, Ethnography, Nonfiction, Feminism, Gender, Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[versarbre]

Okay, it was published in 1988. It was good that the reflectivity was not so much oriented towards the author herself as towards improving a Western, anthropological, feminist position. But I don't know what is really gained for our understanding of the PNG lives. I must confess that I'm just tired of this sort of works contributing to too much a self-chosen "Western" disciplinary enterprise.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los libros que cambian paradigmas sin duda, el estudio de Strathern de la sociedad melenesia, nos hace romper con la dicotomía hombre mujer para empezar el estudio de lo femenino y masculino. Strthern rompe con el discurso feminista de la época mostrando que las críticas no eran válidas en cualquier entorno, ya que el concepto masculino y femenino en Papua Nueva Guinea es muy diferente. Asimismo, critica otras categorías dicotomicas como lo son persona-objeto, sociedad-persona. Esto mediante los roles de género y la economía del "don"o del regalo en los melaseis. Sin duda un gran libro para leer varias veces encontrando cada vez puntos diferentes.

[Winter Kuhaupt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marilyn kinda ate this one up, but also her anthropology superiority complex is questionable