Le Prince

The author traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. THE INVENTION OF WOMEN demonstrates that biology as a rationale for organizing the social world is a Western construction not applicable in Yoruban culture where social organization was determined by relative age .°°°Oyeronke Oyewumi is assistant professor in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been a Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence at the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota, and also held a Rockefeller fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Gender in Africa at the University of California, Los Angeles. Oyewumi's research interests are in critical social theory, Western culture, & African societies, & cultures in their local & global dimensions. Contents 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 20 A Note on Orthography 24 Chapter 1 Visualizing the Body: Western Theories and African Subjects 26 Chapter 2 (Re)constituting the Cosmology and Sociocultural Institutions of Oyo-Yorùbá 56 Chapter 3 Making History, Creating Gender: The Invention of Men and Kings in the Writing of Oyo Oral Traditions 105 Chapter 4 Colonizing Bodies and Minds: Gender and Colonialism 146 Chapter 5 The Translation of Cultures: Engendering Yorùbá Language, Orature, and World-Sense 182 Notes 206 Bibliography 234 Index 248 A 248 B 248 C 249 D 249 E 249 F 250 G 250 H 250 I 250 J 251 K 251 L 251 M 251 N 251 O 252 P 252 R 252 S 253 T 253 U 253 V 254 W 254 Y 254 MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Contents 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 20 A Note on Orthography 24 Chapter 1 Visualizing the Body: Western Theories and African Subjects 26 Chapter 2 (Re)constituting the Cosmology and Sociocultural Institutions of Oyo-Yorùbá 56 Chapter 3 Making History, Creating Gender: The Invention of Men and Kings in the Writing of Oyo Oral Traditions 105 Chapter 4 Colonizing Bodies and Minds: Gender and Colonialism 146 Chapter 5 The Translation of Cultures: Engendering Yorùbá Language, Orature, and World-Sense 182 Notes 206 Bibliography 234 Index 248 A 248 B 248 C 249 D 249 E 249 F 250 G 250 H 250 I 250 J 251 K 251 L 251 M 251 N 251 O 252 P 252 R 252 S 253 T 253 U 253 V 254 W 254 Y 254 "The "woman question", this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for viewing African society. A work that rethinks gender as a Western construction, The Invention of Women offers a new way of understanding both Yoruban and Western cultures." "Oyewumi traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. Her analysis shows the paradoxical nature of two fundamental assumptions of feminist theory: that gender is socially constructed in old Yoruba society, and that social organization was determined by relative age."--Jacket