Ellen Lew, Lbian and Gay Kship: Kath Wton's "Fai We Choose" and Contemporary Anthropology, Signs, Vol. 18, No. 4, Theorizg Lbian Experience (Summer, 1993), pp. 974-979
Contents:
OUT PUBLIC: REVENTG LBIAN / GAY ANTHROPOLOGY A GLOBALIZG WORLD
The Associatn for Queer Anthropology (AQA), formerly known as the Society of Lbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA), is a sectn of the Amerin Anthropologil Associatn and was found 1988. * gay anthropology *
The Associatn for Queer Anthropology (AQA), formerly known as the Society of Lbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA), is a sectn of the Amerin Anthropologil Associatn and was found 1988.
AQA serv the terts of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and other queer and allied anthropologists the Amerin Anthropologil Associatn.
Ellen Lew has voted her reer to examg a range of qutns that center on motherhood, reproductn, and sexualy, particularly as the are played out Amerin cultur. In particular, she's terted how people “impossible” cultural suatns unrstand and manage their inti. Over the urse of my reer, she has pleted studi that foc on low-e Lata immigrants San Francis, lbian mothers, lbian and gay mment ceremoni the U.S., and gay fatherhood. * gay anthropology *
AQA promot anthropologil rearch and tn on homosexualy, bisexualy, transgenr/transsexualy, and other sexual and genr inti and exprsns, and their tersectns wh race, class, disabily, natnaly, lonialism and globalizatn. Queer anthropology adopts an anti-homophobic approach predited on criqug the nigratn of sex/genr variatn and empathisg wh the subjects of that nigratn; that is, those we ll queer. Twentieth-century anthropology publicised the existence of accepted homosexual behavur and tegrated transgenr people societi around the world.
It then discs what queer anthropology (cludg lbian and gay anthropology) tells about this sex/genr variatn, particularly about tegori and forms of inti, wh special foc on two areas rich queer ethnographic rearch: Southeast Asia and the Uned Stat. Although is ahistoril to do so, the term ‘queer anthropology’ will here serve as a nvenient umbrella term for other rnatns of the anthropology of homosexualy, lbian and gay (LGBTQ) anthropology, or transgenr anthropology.
Out Public addrs, and engag , the new and excg directns the emergg field of lbian/gay anthropology. The thors offer a ep nversatn about the meang of sexualy, subjectivy and culture. Affirms the importance of regnizg gay and lbian social issu wh the arena of public anthropology Explor cril ncerns of gay activism a variety of global settgs, om the U.S., the European Unn, Sgapore, Nigeria, India, Niragua, and Guadalajara Offers a unique foc on the polics of beg gay and lbian - cross-cultural perspective Deals wh broad-rangg issu that affect human sexualy and human rights globally Wner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize the tegory of Bt Anthology * gay anthropology *
Homosexualy was viewed as genr crossg bee a homosexual had the sexual orientatn that properly belonged to the oppose sex. Instead, anthropologists asked why exprsns nsired viant acrdg to Wtern norms — homosexualy, pre-maral sex, or transgenr inti — were accepted other societi.
Psychoanalytic diagnos of homosexualy as perversn, versn, or nros provid a persuasive expert theory for terpretg, say, men’s sex wh men or femal wearg male clothg.
If the female shaman do fact have homosexual needs, they may be satisfied by intifitn wh her nat [spir] hband… At the very least, therefore, the shamanistic role enabl a latent lbian, one wh a strong mascule ponent, to act out her mascule impuls (1967: 220). Psychoanalytil tegori — ‘latent’ lbian or homosexual men — placed the cross-drsg shaman to a prumed universal amework. As one sign of her signifince, one of the anthropologists who lnched queer anthropology, Esther Newton, tled her memoir, Margaret Mead ma me gay (Newton 2000).
Kath Wton, Lbian/Gay Studi the Hoe of Anthropology, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 22 (1993), pp. 339-367 * gay anthropology *
The fact that some societi tegrated sex/genr variance showed that there were alternativ to endurg punive Victorian s erng women’s sexual behavur, homosexualy, masturbatn, or genr non-nformy. In the 1960s and 1970s, a few bold anthropologists asked for more attentn to homosexualy, which had been neglected for s after the 1930s (Sonensche 1966; Fzgerald 1977).
This led to a small subfield of the anthropology of homosexualy, which begat lbian and gay anthropology, which later emerged as queer and transgenr anthropology. In 1972, Esther Newton’s prcient study of drag queens, street faeri, and mp sensibily showed how this queer US world disaggregated elements of genr, how they were ternally differentiated, and how they unrstood relatns to domant homophobic society; for example, through the wry stylistic of mp (Newton 1972). Gayle Rub created a cultural map of US sexual norms as a ncentric set of circl around a ‘charmed circle’ of the most valued mo of sexualy (married, heterosexual, ‘vanilla’) to outer rgs of creasg stigmatizatn.