Call for papers: "Territorializing bodies, gender and sexualities"

TERRITORIALIZING BODIES, GENDER AND SEXUALITIES

Since the 1970s, the study of the body and difference in the field of social anthropology has been accompanied by reflections on the space of observation. Part of the literature considered the ethnographic aspect and the location when studying non-Western societies, while the other part emphasized questions presented by feminist theories. In both cases, the assumption of a space with particular characteristics was present in the construction of analyses and research problems. In this agenda, however, space tended to be perceived as a scenographic element, a space of inscription of cultural and social norms and forms of social organization related to what we call gender and sexuality. Between the 1980s and 1990s, with the profusion of studies on sexuality, sociability and regimes of identification, these aspects gained new contours and became part of a more elaborate and detailed set of analyses. After all, how does space and territory inform the semantic economies that shape gender or sexuality? How do body and territory merge in the constitution of significant social categories for understanding lived social worlds?

Based on these questions, we invite researchers all around the world to discuss the challenges and dilemmas imposed on ethnography, methodology and anthropological theory when considering how the territories produce and transform ideas and knowledge practices related to gender, sexuality and the body, also considering their intersectional dimensions. The call seeks to bring together contributions that thematize and dialogue with the issues presented from a variety of ethnographic settings: urban peripheries, rural and small-scale urban contexts, quilombos and indigenous lands, goldmines and camps, corporate spaces and institutions, spaces of scientific and specialized practices, among others.

In The Gender of the Gift, Marilyn Strathern argued that gender should be fundamentally interpreted as a relational category, going beyond a reading "about" men and women. Similarly, based on the contributions of authors such as Esther Newton and her study of performance and sociability among drag queens, philosopher Judith Butler considers that gender should be understood as a copy without an original, a mimetic reproduction inscribed in a specific grammar that links the body, gender and desire. The constitution of these elements from specific contexts and conjunctions has been analyzed for a long time, as is the case of the works by Dorine Kondo, Mariella Bacigalupo, Evelyn Blackwood, Tom Boellstorff, Marcia Ochoa, Richard Parker and others. As part of his contributions to anthropology and the production of urban landscape, Nestor Perlongher has proposed using territoriality as a mechanism for understanding the relationships between sex, subjectivity and space based on the experience of virile prostitution. Similar theoretical and methodological experiments have also made it possible to consider how categories are co-produced and imply particular ways of relating to the territory, as illustrated by the work of authors such as Philomena Essed, Lelia Gonzalez, Mara Viveros Vigoya and Avtar Brah. These approaches may be understood in the wake of what Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge and Carla Akotirene categorize and describe as intersectionality, that is, the connections and overlaps between social markers that constitute different regimes of oppression and social privilege. So, what role does territory play in shaping notions of the body and difference, and how are they articulated in intersectional experiences?

The dossier seeks to understand: what reworkings do these intersections launch for anthropological production on sexuality and gender? What theoretical-methodological incitements are launched from the problematization of the territory? What ethical reflections emerge from these particular situations? We are looking for research and ethnographic reflections that address the diversity and difference of gender and sexuality, using the territory and its particularities as a reflexive axis. We therefore intend to add thought-provoking reflections on issues that emerge from their experiences and studies, addressing issues related to sexuality and gender in their research, provoking new questions and epistemological re-elaborations.

The deadline for submissions is June 16, 2024 and the proposals can be presented in English, Portuguese or Spanish. The articles should be sent exclusively via the Cadernos de Campo journal portal (www.revistas.usp.br/cadernosdecampo), observing the norms for submission and the journal's editorial policy. Any questions can be directed to the journal at cadcampo@gmail.com.

  

Edited by                                      

 João Victtor Gomes Varjão

Doutorando em Antropologia Social pela Universidade de São Paulo e pesquisador no Núcleo de Estudos sobre Marcadores Sociais da Diferença.

E-mail: jvgomesvarjao@gmail.com.

                                                             

Maiara Damasceno da Silva Santana

Etnóloga e doutora em Antropologia, mestra em Educação pela Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). Professora da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal da Bahia.

E-mail: maiaramerico@gmail.com.

 

Anne Alencar Monteiro

Doutoranda e mestra em Antropologia Social pela Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA).

E-mail: alencar.anne@gmail.com.