The intention of this guide is to provide a selective set of resources that may be helpful for your major research paper.  Please keep in mind there are many other library resources that you may wish to consult.  If you have any questions, see the Assistance tab for contact information.

Hurston. Dunham. Bates. Powderhouse.

feminist anthropology 

A Dictionary of Social Research Methods, Oxford University Press

The application of feminist theory and feminist methodology to the study of cultures, taking as its premise the idea that the study of women’s beliefs and practices is critical to understanding human social life. The focus is on women in a particular cultural setting in order to counter earlier assumptions that the beliefs and practices of men were more sociologically important. However, the aim is to provide a more complete understanding of human society.

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feminist anthropology 

A Dictionary of Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press

An influential approach that simultaneously critiques androcentric anthropology and asserts that knowledge of human experience is deficient if it does not systematically examine women. Feminist anthropologists have made major contributions to anthropological knowledge and practice, as well as feminist social movements. Its origins are intertwined with ‘first wave’ feminism (1850–1920), a period when women anthropologists challenged the lack of women in ethnographic data. During the ‘second wave’ of feminism (1920–1980), feminist anthropologists developed new theories of gender and sex and directed critical attention to the production of male–female asymmetry and other themes developed in the anthropology of women. Since the 1980s (a period that coincides with ‘third wave’ feminism) ethnographic and theoretical attention has been focused on questions of power and the production of knowledge as well as differences among women due to the intersectionality of gender with categories like race, class, ethnicity, and kinship.