The WAU 2025 Congress (Antigua, Guatemala) webpage and call for panels are now open - Please visit waucongress2025.org for more info.

WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Feminist Anthropology in Cape Verde: review of the production of postgraduate research authored by women

presenters

    Miriam Steffen Vieira

    Nationality: Brazil

    Residence: Brazil

    UNISINOS

    Presence:Online

    Carmelita de Afonseca Silva

    Nationality: Cabo Verde

    Residence: Cabo Verde

    University of Cabo Verde

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

    Eufémia Vicente Rocha

    Nationality: Cabo Verde

    Residence: Cabo Verde

    University of Cabo Verde

    Presence:Online

The participation of women in the production of knowledge in the field of Cape Verdean anthropology has been relatively limited, especially in the period before national independence, following the first republic, the little research carried out in this area was carried out by men. As historian Iva Cabral (2011) states, documents that narrated the role of women in the advancement of history were rare and the field of anthropology was no exception. However, especially in the last 15 years, women's work in this field has gradually begun to be made visible, contributing for the development of anthropology in Cape Verde with special emphasis on studies of gender, identities and family dynamics. The institution of the Postgraduate Program in Social Sciences at the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV) has contributed significantly not only to the development of this area of knowledge (Anthropology), but has also made visible, through the production of collections, the work that women have accomplished. In this communication we propose to present an analysis of the production of knowledge in Feminist Anthropology in the Postgraduate Program in Social Sciences at Uni-CV. This is the first postgraduate course in the country, created in 2007, and has more than fifteen research studies carried out in this field of studies, predominantly authored by women. The privileged themes are gender violence, sexualities, family dynamics, motherhood/fatherhood, masculinity, work and immigration, among others. This production is characterized by a focus on ethnography as a way of accessing everyday agencies and negotiations within the scope of gender relations and their intersectionalities. We are interested in looking at this production with the aim of not only highlighting the contribution of women in the history of anthropology in Cape Verde, but also focusing on the dimension of ethnographic practice and its epistemic possibilities as contributions to gender equity in the country.

Keywords:

Feminist Anthropology, Gender, Cape Verde