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Book chapter | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Gender & material culture in West Pokot, Kenya |
Author: | Bianco, Barbara |
Book title: | Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa: Gender, Culture and the Myth of the Patriarchal Pastoralist |
Year: | 2000 |
Pages: | 29-42 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Kenya |
Subjects: | Suk adornment women Cultural Roles Sex Roles |
Abstract: | This chapter explores how Pokot women in northwestern Kenya make and use cowhide belts ('lökötyö') to support and sometimes undermine the clans for which they bear children. By analyzing the design, symbolic associations, and uses of these commonplace but powerful items of adornment, it shows how one East African patrilineal society deals with the problematic nature of maternal nurture. More generally, the chapter suggests that, by attending to the wide variety of things that women make and wear, a better understanding may be achieved of the political ramifications of motherhood. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |