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Women and things: Pokot motherhood as political destiny
Author(s) -
BIANCO BARBARA A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1991.18.4.02a00080
Subject(s) - adornment , clan , nature versus nurture , destiny (iss module) , politics , sociology , gender studies , variety (cybernetics) , ethnology , political science , anthropology , law , physics , astronomy , artificial intelligence , computer science
Among the cattle‐keeping Pokot of northwestern Kenya, women use cowhide belts to support and to undermine the clans for which they bear children. By analyzing the design, symbolic associations, and uses of these commonplace but extraordinarily powerful items of adornment, this article shows how one East African patrilineal society deals with the problematic nature of maternal nurture. More generally, it suggests that by attending to the wide variety of things that women make and wear, we may achieve a better understanding of the political ramifications of motherhood. [ gender, adornment, the body, patrilineal descent, East Africa ]