Oyeronke oyewumi biography of abraham

In short, the universalizing practice — again, not identical with the universal — is of an ongoing communicative work of mature understanding. Her argument about motherhood and mothering, then, is not only an object of study but also the methodology at work. I see this as an extraordinary contribution. These reflections are but a sparse introduction to her thought.

I expect more to come as her contributions to what could also be called the African decolonization of thought continues to make its impact across the globe. This article was originally published by the Blog at APA. We are a non-profit organization, wholly supported by The New School, and by the generosity of our sponsors and readers.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. Why is this book important? Related Posts. Of Honor and Despair in Dark Times. January 4, Marius Stan and Vladimir Tismaneanu. BlackLivesMatter and Fightfor January 22, Stephanie Luce. February 15, Katie Gentile. Immigration Enforcement. March 4, Douglas de Toledo Piza.

March 10, Nicole HemmerNeil J. Young and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Shia LaBeouf, Part I. March 23, Jonty Tiplady. After David. January 23, Catherine Texier. The Blessings of K-Pop. January 23, Abha Deshmukh. Family Values or Family Exclusion? January 22, Elide Vincenti. December 19, Teresa GhilarducciLudovica Tursini. Social Capitalism: An Alternative to Neoliberalism.

December 18, Mark Setterfield. The Witches of El Paso. December 11, Luis Jaramillo. The Fashion for Baiting, Brainwashing, and Bullying. Oyewumi is not trying to present the Yoruba society as free from hierarchies—they were there, but were constructed not between people of different genders, but depending on their oyeronke oyewumi biography of abraham.

Identity in Yoruba society was fluid: it was constantly shifting under the influence of who the person was interacting with at a given time. However, Western sciences, rooted in biology, describe this society in familiar terms. African science, institutionalized after colonization, also pays little attention to local specificity. Neither family nor other social structures depended on anatomy.

Anafemales could be at the same time rulers, mothers, children, priests, and occupy any position in social structures, depending on their situational status. The woman in the West had no power and no publicity, which was not true for the Yoruba obinrin. This word, like okunrinis nothing more than a designation for reproductive anatomy. As an example, Oyewumi names prostrations in front of the elders— obinrin do them on their knees, while okunrin lie down completely.

This happens not due to a different status in society, but because of the possible pregnancy of the obinrin. Even though the reference to anatomy is present here, these categories are not dimorphic, that is, they do not imply a strict separation between the two genders predetermined by biology. In the Yoruba language, names and pronouns have no gender.

In Yoruba culture, the anatomical woman did not conclude an alliance with one anonomic man, but entered a family. Both structures were hierarchical, but an anafemale had different status and opportunities in the family where she was born and in the one she entered. Not noticing this, Western anthropologists described Yoruba gender relations as contradictory.

For instance, women could do the same things as men, but had to kneel in front of them. Another example of the patriarchal nature of Yoruba marriage that anthropologists usually cite is the existence of a ransom for a woman to enter a new family. Criticizing it, the investigators did not take into account that the ransom provided only the new family of the anafemale the right to her sexuality and offspring.

The husband's family had no right to her personality, work, and property. The main purpose of marriage was children, after the birth of which the mother retained financial independence and both she and the father could be polygamous. The anatomical female also did not have to do household chores and cooking, she could trade or work in the field.

Anafemales mothers cooked, but men did too, and often the food was simply bought. The professional activities of both anatomical men and anatomical women were also related to the kin—an anafemale from a family of hunters could more easily become a hunter than an anamale from a family of merchants. Yoruba did not have a gendered division of labor.

Oyewumi argues with the quantitative arguments of Western science that there were fewer women in the prestigious Yoruba professions. Retrieved 15 November Stony Brook University. University of Minnesota Press.

Oyeronke oyewumi biography of abraham

American Sociological Association. Mulheres na Filosofia in Brazilian Portuguese. Retrieved 2 January ISSN JSTOR S2CID Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN African Feminism AF. Retrieved 2 March African Identities. Stony Brook. Blog of the APA. African Studies Association. External links [ edit ]. Authority control databases. Categories : Living people American people of Yoruba descent Nigerian feminists Nigerian emigrants to the United States Stony Brook University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Ibadan alumni Yoruba women academics Yoruba academics American women academics Nigerian women academics American sociologists American women sociologists Nigerian sociologists Nigerian women sociologists Gender studies academics Yoruba people births.