ANTH 303 Anthropological Theory Fall 2018
I acknowledge that St FX is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
Oct. 22: Intersections. READ: Mullings, Leith (2005) “Resistance and resilience: The Sojourner Syndrome and the social context of reproduction in central Harlem.” Transforming Anthropology 13(2): 79-91.

The following questions will help guide our discussion as we try to make sense of this, and other, theories. In addition, we will apply the theory to the video shown in the first day of class:

How can this theory be seen as a product of the historical period in which it was created? (First, second and third waves of feminism; other emancipatory movements)
What questions does this theory ask?
What information does this theory see as important?
What are other relevant assumptions made by the theory?
How does the theory analyse this information to answer the questions it sees as important?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?

Some general background to feminist intersectionality
- feminism: first, second and third waves
- post modern versions, structural versions, political economy versions
- emphasis on politics (in cultures, of research, writing, etc.)
- writing against culture (Abu-Lughod)
- subaltern (Spivak): questions of representativeness and of knowledge systems (thus, sometimes an emphasis on ideological orientations)
    - strategic essentialism
- question distinction between theory and ethnography
- the canon/an alternative canon
- alternative forms of presenting anthropological material

Some concepts from Mullings
- intersectionality:
- difference: intersections
    - class/resource inequality
    - race/racism, including institutionalized racism
    -gender/gender discrimination
- thus, often a primary emphasis on structure
- “transformative work”: a form of agency, resistance
- Sojourner Syndrome


Applying Mullings to the video:
    - what are the race, class and gender identities of the actors?
    - how do these factors structurally impact the opportunities, obstacles, stresses of each actor?