Women of the forest - Hardcover

Murphy, Yolanda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231036825 ISBN 13: 9780231036825

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1974

Synopsis

In the decades since it was first published, this study of Brazil's Mundurucu Indians has been widely read and has become regarded as a classic. Now, for the second edition, the authors have written a new chapter that describes their fieldwork during the year they spent living among the Mundurucu.
"Women of the Forest" details an acute and intriguing battle of the sexes in which reality squarely contradicts ideology. The Murphy's full-scale analysis considers the historical, ecological, and cultural setting in which the Mundurucu live, the mythology concerning women, the woman's work and household life, marriage and child rearing, and the impact of social change on the female role. The authors give particular attention to sexual antagonism and the means by which women compensate, in actual practice, for their low public position.
The new chapter gives the reader an idea of the nature of ethnographic fieldwork as both personal experience and scientific practice. It recounts how they coped with the language barrier, the practice of bartering rather than buying, and other day-to-day problems of living in a totally different culture. Thus, it provides an illuminating background to Mundurucu culture before the reader delves into the rich details of the study itself. At the same time the chapter helps the reader to learn about anthropological methods of data gathering.

About this title

Review:

Restores something of the balance that has been missing from conventional anthropology,an anthropology largely written by men,in giving this lucid account of the fundamental roles played by women in all societies. [I]t sets the record straight for widely but wrongly held beliefs concerning many aspects of the roles of the sexes in all soceities. -- Ashley Montagu

Restores something of the balance that has been missing from conventional anthropologyan anthropology largely written by menin giving this lucid account of the fundamental roles played by women in all societies. [I]t sets the record straight for widely but wrongly held beliefs concerning many aspects of the roles of the sexes in all soceities. -- Ashley Montagu

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0231036825
• ISBN 13: 9780231036825
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236