Influential Women of and for Anthropology

08.03.2017 Anthropology News
Sindre Bangstad i anledning kvinnedagen, om betydningfulle kvinner innen fagfeltet:

As Anthropologists we are not only the products of our lived experiences in and out of the field, but also of our readings. Asked by AN’s editorial team to name one woman anthropologist whose work has been formative for me, the name and the title that first came to mind was Lila Abu-Lughod and her Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society first published in 1986, and recently re-issued in a 30^th anniversary edition.There have been many other works–for sure–but Lila’s work was what as a young student of anthropology at the University of Bergen in Norway – demonstrated to me what a masterfully written, richly textured and detailed ethnographies about the ordinary (and extraordinary) lives of female ‘others’ could do in enriching one’s understanding of human diversity and difference. I credit it with inspiring me to pursue an academic career in the field known as ‘the anthropology of Islam’ – properly conceived of as being about ‘Muslims’, rather than ‘Islam’ – and to do ethnographic fieldwork among Muslims in South Africa. The world is what it is, but Lila’s work remains for me a touchstone for anthropology at its very best and most humane.