Abstract: | This book throws light on the practices by which young women create a female youth culture in Lamu Town, Kenya. Film, fashion, music and dance are instrumental in this process; they help young women articulate a style that is theirs, an identity which generates both self-esteem and empowerment. The author explores the changing ways in which women understand themselves and their social relations in contemporary Lamu society with the notion of marriage, romance and sexuality as the main focus. Points of central concern are the media and the local reception and interpretation of their messages, including romantic melodrama; the anthropology of gender, and the study of youth culture; the coupling of 'modernity' with increased mobility and visibility, and the special problems this entails in traditionally sexually segregated societies with secluded women; the anthropology of sexuality and emotions; and the body and its expression through dance and dress fashion as well as the usefulness of the concept of 'style'. The material for the study was gathered during different periods of the 1980s and 1990s. |