A Traveller Who Laughs

Chapter 2 discusses Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880) by Isabella Bird, focusing on textual manifestations of intimacy between Bird and Japanese people, particularly her interpreter-guide Ito. Drawing on theoretical discussions in feminist anthropology and affect theory, it reveals the complexity of the politics between the traveller and hosts as well as Bird’s fluid identity and exceptional openness towards the alterity of Japanese culture. It also carries out a textual analysis of Itō no koi (Itō’s Romance) (2005), a retelling of Bird’s journey from Ito’s perspective by the twenty-first-century Japanese writer Nakajima Kyōko. It argues that Nakajima’s rewriting accords Bird and her contemporary Japanese women literary afterlife through their intergenerational female friendship. It also presents a thorough critique of the traditional androcentric paradigm of survival and friendship. It thus indicates the exciting possibility of travel writing in the field of world literature.

Feminism in the House of Anthropology

Although early feminist insights about reflexivity and fieldwork relations have become core tenets of anthropological theories, feminism itself has been marginalized in anthropology. This review examines feminist contributions to American cultural anthropology since the 1990s across four areas of scholarship: the anthropology of science and medicine, political anthropology, economic anthropology, and ethnography as writing and genre. Treating feminist anthropology as a traveling theory capable of addressing critical social problems beyond gender, this article aims not merely to recredit feminism in anthropology, but also to show its potential to transform anthropology into an antiracist, decolonial, and abolitionist project.

Phenomenological Variation and Intercultural Transformation: Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology and Abu-Lughod’s Ethnography in Dialogue

"This paper develops phenomenological resources for understanding the nature of intercultural understanding, drawing on the work of Merleau-Ponty in dialogue with feminist anthropologist Abu-Lughod. Part One criticizes Western framings of non-Western violence against women that render the experience of non-Western Others inaccessible. Part Two discusses how certain strains in Western feminism reinforce some of these problematic framings. Part Three offers a phenomenological account of our experience of other persons, and Part Four argues that intercultural understanding takes the form of a “variation” between one’s own and the other’s experience. Part Five explores the implications of this phenomenology of cross-cultural understanding for interpreting dynamic cultural transformations, and the politics of violence against women, in an interconnected and unequal world. Keywords: Maurice Merleau-Ponty; Lila Abu-Lughod; critical phenomenology; feminist anthropology; multiculturalism "

THE CONFRONTATION OF EDUCATION AND CUSTOMARY LAW AT SCHOOL: THE CASE OF ROMA GIRLS

Aim. The main goal of the article is to generalise and describe the aspects revealed during the ethnographic research conducted in 2018 that are related to the gender of Roma girls, as representatives of ethnic group, which have influence on the process of education in the context of school community. Concept. During the ethnographic research conducted in one of the schools in Lithuania in 2018, the fragments of Romani customary law were revealed, which are directly related to the female gender and show how belonging to a certain gender can have impact on the process of education at school. The Roma students were observed in their daily learning and communication environment, i.e. at school. The ethnographic research helped to reveal the ways a Roma school student thinks (interview method) and behaves (observation method) in a basic school. The present research was based on anthropological methodology (Okely, 2002; Bhopal & Myers, 2008; Durst, 2010) and mainly focused on one case-study. Conclusion. The Roma girls in the research acknowledged that life of Roma men is easier and that a heavy burden is placed on the shoulders of girls, what often hinders their successful learning. The burden mentioned by the Roma girls is related to responsibilities in housework and family. She is accompanied by the pressure of community to start a family early: to get married and to give birth to children and, thus, to emphasise and confirm own belonging to this ethnic group and continuation of traditions. The situation is exacerbated by the stereotypes in society and the Roma community, which in most cases are ruthless towards Roma girls and women. Cognitive value. The patriarchate, as the basis of Romani culture, and the unwritten customary law accompanying it frequently become a source of ambiguity. The Roma people, as an ethic group, draw a very distinct boundary between the understanding of "we" and "they", i.e. "the Roma people" and "gadje". Being a non-Roma researcher, i.e. gadje, one faces a difficult challenge - not to make mistakes interpreting various aspects of Romani culture, especially such sensitive ones as gender, gender roles and inequality. However, it becomes easier evaluating indisputable facts: the Romani customary law has influence on the process of their children's education. Roma children (girls in particular) still abandon the system of education too early (from our, gadje, perspective). EU documents (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights [FRA], 2014) indicate that more Roma girls than boys indicate the fact of marriage or pregnancy to be the reason for early school leaving. The academic discourse, feminist anthropology allows for particularly critical evaluation of processes.