Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
Dislocating Cultures
Identities, traditions and Third-World feminism: against the idea that feminism is a Western import and that “culture” explains the lives of Indian women.
Introduction
Uma Narayan, an Indian-born philosopher teaching at Vassar College, published this book of essays in 1997. She criticises both Indian traditionalists who dismiss feminism as a Western import and Western feminists who explain the oppression of women in the global South by their “culture”. A key example compares dowry murders in India with domestic-violence murders in the United States: the first are read as a cultural phenomenon, the second as individual crimes. Narayan also examines the debate on sati, the burning of widows, and how “Indian culture” was constructed in colonial times. The book is a key text of postcolonial feminist philosophy.
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