Overview

Art historians, anthropologists, and sociologists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States, the contributors discuss artwork from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Suriname. Many of the essays focus on indigenous artists. They highlight the complex webs of social relations from which folk art emerges. For instance, while several pieces describe the similar creative and technical processes of indigenous pottery-making communities of the Amazon and of mestiza potters in Mexico and Colombia, they also reveal the widely varying functions of the ceramics and meanings of the iconography. Integrating the many social, historical, political, geographical, and economic factors that shape folk art in Latin America and the Caribbean, Crafting Gender sheds much-needed light on a rich body of art and the women who create it.

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9780822331827

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Reviews

The richness of this book comes from the possibility of comparing the artistic production of different countries to each other and the ability to discern the differing ways that women produce their arts... Highly recommended. --L. E. Carranza, CHOICE Folklorists will ... appreciate the essays that introduce aspects of belief systems that are fundamental to a critique of gender relations and also underlie the spiritual relationship of artists to their material and imagery... Many themes in this book suggest new directions for folk art scholarship in the twenty-first century... Crafting Gender is appropriate for courses on folk art, as well as on women and gender studies. It will stimulate further discussions on such topics as the variables of marketing art and cultural identity, sustainable village craft enterprises, and power plays among artists and local art collectives and government agencies. -- Suzanne MacAulay, Journal of American Folklore For anyone interested in women's folk art in Latin American and the Caribbean, Bartra's volume is an invaluable resource, and it is a major contribution from the standpoint of students and scholars interested in art, the anthropology of work, gender and family studies, and international development. I share Bartra's hope that this anthology will be followed by many others that contribute to the discovery, understanding, and valuing of the incredibly rich creative world of women folk artists. -- Kimberley Grimes, American Ethnologist

Crafting Gender deftly fills a gaping hole in gender studies by providing a rich body of information on women's traditional arts. Exploring the distinctions between art, 'folk art,' and just plain work in a great variety of cultures, the authors illuminate social context, belief systems, aesthetics, and technique, expanding the field to areas not well known outside of academia and Latin America. Feminists, artists, and scholars will find much material in Eli Bartra's book with which to mold and weave their own forms. -Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art Crafting Gender is an original collection that presents in one volume several subjects generally treated separately, integrates them with a gender perspective, and offers an approach that is truly innovative. -Marysa Navarro, coauthor of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Restoring Women to History

""The richness of this book comes from the possibility of comparing the artistic production of different countries to each other and the ability to discern the differing ways that women produce their arts... Highly recommended.""--L. E. Carranza, CHOICE ""Folklorists will ... appreciate the essays that introduce aspects of belief systems that are fundamental to a critique of gender relations and also underlie the spiritual relationship of artists to their material and imagery... Many themes in this book suggest new directions for folk art scholarship in the twenty-first century... Crafting Gender is appropriate for courses on folk art, as well as on women and gender studies. It will stimulate further discussions on such topics as the variables of marketing art and cultural identity, sustainable village craft enterprises, and power plays among artists and local art collectives and government agencies.""-- Suzanne MacAulay, Journal of American Folklore ""For anyone interested in women's folk art in Latin American and the Caribbean, Bartra's volume is an invaluable resource, and it is a major contribution from the standpoint of students and scholars interested in art, the anthropology of work, gender and family studies, and international development. I share Bartra's hope that this anthology will be followed by many others that contribute to the discovery, understanding, and valuing of the incredibly rich creative world of women folk artists.""-- Kimberley Grimes, American Ethnologist

Author Information

Eli Bartra is a Professor in the Department of Politics and Culture at the Universidad AutÓnoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco in Mexico City. She is the author of numerous books in Spanish.

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