ANTH 425 Power and Change
25 October 2011
A modified Foucauldian perspective on power
Abu-Lughod, Lila (1990) "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women." American Ethnologist. 17(1): 41-55
What is her position with respect to other (and her earlier) analyses of resistance?
Questions the validity of Foucault’s statement that "where there is power, there is resistance," but says it is useful to investigate its reverse, which is valid: "where there is resistance, there is power."
What does she present as examples of resistance among Awlad ‘Ali Bedouin women?
- as she discovered in her fieldwork in the 1970s?
- more recent examples?
How does she describe power here?
- How does she discover power?
- What does she discover?
Is all resistance interior to power?