Power and paradox
Subtitle: authority, insecurity, and creativity in Fon gender relations
By: by Douglas J. Falen
Publisher: Africa World Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Trenton, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 223
Subjects: Marriage law; Gender identity; Sex role; Husband and wife; Parenthood
Description: Power and Paradox is an ethnographic study of contemporary gender relations among the Fon people, the dominant ethnic group in the South of the Republic of Benin, West Africa. The Fon hold a prominent place in African studies for their traditional Vodun (Voodoo) religion and their precolonial slave-trading kingdom of Dahomey, which included powerful female ministers and soldiers. Through an account of contemporary Fon gendered power strategies, highlighted by male perspectives on female power, the present study offers an important ethnographic update to this body of knowledge, as well as to the dialogue between Western and African feminisms, and to cross-gender research methodology.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Gender : past and present; title: The changing face of marriage; title: Husbands and wives : roles and resources; title: Financial strategies of spouses; title: Religion and the supernatural; title: Reproduction, sexuality, and love; title: Epilogue : paths of power.