Feminist Anthropology Essay

The feminist perspective of anthropology, as the question alludes to, has made many contributions to the world of anthropology. Including, but not limited to: the idea of ‘male bias’, the study of women, and the study of gender. Within these broad topics of feminist anthropology, further contributions can be seen, for instance the deconstruction and exploration of naturalisation and the universality of inequality. Although, ultimately it could be argued that the biggest contribution of the feminist perspective of anthropology is the existence of an alternative perspective, one that strives for a less objective reality and aims to open a dialogue enabling the exploration of a hugely diverse range of lives and experiences. (Barrett, 2009)

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Furthermore, it is arguably one of feminist anthropology’s most important contributions as it enabled the deconstruction of the theoretical framework which anthropology had been implementing unquestioningly throughout countless studies (Moore, 1988). This frame work is broken down by Moore (1988) into 3 layers: The Bias from the Anthropologist, The Bias inherent in the society being studied, and Bias of Western Culture. Feminist Anthropology allows us to acknowledge this Bias and try to prevent this from effecting the results of our studies. In an attempt to do this, the ‘Restudying’ of certain societies has taken place, for example Wieners restudying of the Trobriand islanders, of which had previously been studied by Malinowski, provided us with new theory and data (Rapp, 1979). However, that is not to say that all Feminist restudying of anthropology will provide valuable insight. Although, without this contribution, it can easily be argued that the field of Anthropology would still be plagued with male bias which would limit the utility of said