CiNii Books - Women traders in cross-cultural perspective : mediating identities, marketing wares

This innovative volume studies women as economic, political, and cultural mediators of space, gender, value, and language in informal markets. Drawing on diverse methodologies-multisited fieldwork, linguistic analysis, and archival research-the contributors demonstrate how women move between and knit together household and marketplace activities. This knitting together pivots on how household practices and economies are translated and transferred to the market, as well as how market practices and economic principles become integral to the nature and construction of the household. Exploring the cultural identities and economic practices of women traders in ten diverse locales-Bolivia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, and the Philippines-the authors pay special attention to the effects of global forces, national economic policies, and nongovernmental organizations on women's participation in the market and the domestic sector. The authors also consider the impact that women's economic and political activities-in social movements, public protests, and more hidden kinds of subversive behavior-have on state policy, on the attitudes of different sectors of society toward female traders, and on the dynamics of the market itself. A final theme focuses on the cultural dimension of mediation. Many women traders straddle cultural spheres and move back and forth between them. Does this affect their participation in the market and their identities? How do ties of ethnicity or acts of reciprocity affect the nature of commodity exchanges? Do they create exchanges that are neither purely commodified nor wholly without calculation? Or is it more often the case that ethnic commonalities and reciprocity merely mask the commodification of social and economic exchanges? Does this straddling lead to the emergence of new kinds of hybrid identities and practices? In considering these questions, the authors specify the ways in which consumers contribute to identity formation among market women.

Table of Contents

Introduction: mediating identities and marketing wares Linda J. Seligmann Part I. Gender Ideologies, Household Models and Market Dynamics: 1. Nineteenth-century views of women's participation in Mexico's markets Judith Marti 2. Markets as gendered domains: the Javanese Pasar Jennifer Alexander and Paul Alexander Part II. Fields of Power: 3. Inside, outside, and selling on the road: women's markets trading in South India Johanna lessinger 4. 'Nursing-mother work' in Ghana: power and frustration in Akan market women's lives Gracia Clark Part III. Identity, Economy, and Survival in the Marketplace: 5. Situating handicraft market women in Ifugao, Upland Philippines: a case for multiplicity B. Lynne Milgram 6. Gender on the market in Moroccan women's verbal art: performative spheres of feminine authority Deborah A. Kapchan 7. Hungarian village women in the marketplace during the late socialist period Eva V. Huseby-Darvas 8. Traditional medicines in the marketplace: identity and ethnicity among female vendors Lynn Sikkink Part IV. Research Agendas: 9. Market/places as gendered spaces: market/women's studies over two decades Florence E. Babb Conclusion: future research directions Linda J. Seligmann Notes References Index.

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Women traders in cross-cultural perspective : mediating identities, marketing wares

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