Contributions to a Feminist Psychological Anthropology
Ethos volume 32, number 4, December 2004
Edited by Katherine Frank, Wendy Luttrell, Ernestine McHugh, Naomi Quinn, Susan Seymour, and Claudia Strauss

The December 2004 special issue of Ethos, “Contributions to a Feminist Psychological Anthropology,” was inspired by the guest editors' observation that psychological and feminist anthropology had much to offer each other. Yet, for historical reasons explored in the Introduction to this issue, practitioners in each subfield seemed unaware or dismissive of the other. Believing that in our own work we profitably drew upon both subfields, we wanted to make a compelling case for such a synthesis.

The final stage of publication was the work of a six-editor collective: Katherine Frank, Wendy Luttrell, Ernestine McHugh, Naomi Quinn, Susan Seymour, and Claudia Strauss. The result is a wide range of articles that use psychological theory to address such feminist topics as: gender differences in empathy; the under-representation of women in math and science; binary opposition in gender ideologies; multiple mothering versus exclusive mother-child caretaking; and the costs of patriarchy, as reflected in possession trance cross-culturally.

The co-editors are under no illusion that there yet exists a unified picture of what a feminist psychological anthropology might be. This Ethos issue is intended to provoke further thought and research at a time when we, who are psychological anthropologists with a predilection for feminist topics, detect movement toward psychologizing by feminist anthropologists—as reflected in their liberal use of personal narratives and such inherently psychological terms such as “identity,” “self,” “agency,” “subjectivity,” and “resistance.” We hope our effort anticipates a larger unifying enterprise.

Part of such a larger enterprise happens in the classroom. The Ethos special issue on a feminist psychological anthropology constitutes a particularly effective resource for use in a variety of topical and theoretical courses. In undergraduate contexts the volume or selected chapters might usefully be integrated with other work to explore the topics of gender, education, child development, family, kinship, personhood, and the interaction of biology and culture. Individual chapters are ideal for some regionally focused courses as well—i.e., courses on South Asia, the Pacific, and U.S. Culture. Accessibly written and appealing to undergraduates, the contributions following the Introduction each integrate theory and data highly effectively, and so can serve selectively as capsule studies to teach students about the nature of anthropological research.

At the graduate level this work is central to teaching the intellectual history of the discipline and to discussions of directions in contemporary anthropological theory. It can also be adapted for use in courses on anthropological methods, as the independent chapters illustrate a variety of distinct yet complementary methodological approaches. The volume speaks directly to issues at the core of many more advanced courses on topics such as Feminist Anthropology; the Anthropology of Gender or Women; Anthropology and Education; The Anthropology of Power, The Anthropology of Agency, Identity and Structure; Psychological Anthropology; Psychoanalytic Anthropology; and Culture and Self/Personhood. It will engage students, evoke debates and stimulate new foci for research.The volume also recommends itself for courses in disciplines beyond anthropology. It could be fruitfully incorporated into curricula in social, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology, psychiatry, human development, and education. And it is a natural addition to Women’s/Feminist/Gender Studies syllabi.