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Dorothy Louise Hodgson

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Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture: From Customary Law to Human Rights in Tanzania Kindle Edition

by Dorothy L. Hodgson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 4 ratings

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An analysis of the relationships between law, custom, gender, marriage and justice among northern Tanzania’s Maasai communities.

When, where, why, and by whom is law used to force desired social change in the name of justice? Why has culture come to be seen as inherently oppressive to women? In this finely crafted book, Dorothy L. Hodgson examines the history of legal ideas and institutions in Tanzania—from customary law to human rights—as specific forms of justice that often reflect elite ideas about gender, culture, and social change. Drawing on evidence from Maasai communities, she explores how the legacies of colonial law-making continue to influence contemporary efforts to create laws, codify marriage, criminalize FGM, and contest land grabs by state officials. Despite the easy dismissal by elites of the priorities and perspectives of grassroots women, she shows how Maasai women have always had powerful ways to confront and challenge injustice, express their priorities, and reveal the limits of rights-based legal ideals.

“This is a book that only Dorothy Hodgson could have written, with her decades of work in Tanzania, vast networks in Maasailand, and deep ethnographic knowledge, combined with her deftness in working through more theoretical work on gender and human rights. Closely argued, conceptually sharp, and engagingly written.” —Brett Shadle, author of Girl Cases: Marriage and Colonialism in Gusiiland, Kenya, 1890-1970

“Dorothy Hodgson asks a number of important and clearly articulated questions, and provides thoughtful answers to them using a hybrid of historical and anthropological methodologies that combine in-depth case studies with more empirically-informed macro-level reflection. A concise and useful resource in the undergraduate as well as the graduate classroom.” —Priya Lal, author of African Socialism in Postcolonial Tanzania: Between the Village and the World

“Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture makes a significant contribution to the study of law in East Africa and elsewhere among colonized peoples, and it should be required reading not only for academics interested in such matters but for activists and policymakers.” —American Anthropologist

“Hodgson’s book is both rich in detail and broad in its implications for understanding struggles for justice for marginalised groups. It deserves the attention of students and scholars of African studies, anthropology, history, political science and women’s and gender studies.” —Journal of Modern African Studies

Editorial Reviews

Review

" Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture speaks to a wide range of disciplines and should find pride of place in our curricula."―African Studies Review

" Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture makes a significant contribution to the study of law in East Africa and elsewhere among colonized peoples, and it should be required reading not only for academics interested in such matters but for activists and policymakers."―American Anthropologist

"Hodgson's book is both rich in detail and broad in its implications for understanding struggles for justice for marginalised groups. It deserves the attention of students and scholars of African studies, anthropology, history, political science and women's and gender studies."―Journal of Modern African Studies

"[T]this book [is] an excellent addition to scholarship and courses on gender, human rights, legal anthropology, critical development studies, and more."―American Ethnologist

"Dorothy Hodgson asks a number of important and clearly articulated questions, and provides thoughtful answers to them using a hybrid of historical and anthropological methodologies that combine in-depth case studies with more empirically-informed macro-level reflection. A concise and useful resource in the undergraduate as well as the graduate classroom."―Priya Lal, author of African Socialism in Postcolonial Tanzania: Between the Village and the World

"This is a book that only Dorothy Hodgson could have written, with her decades of work in Tanzania, vast networks in Maasailand, and deep ethnographic knowledge, combined with her deftness in working through more theoretical work on gender and human rights. Closely argued, conceptually sharp, and engagingly written."―Brett Shadle, author of Girl Cases: Marriage and Colonialism in Gusiiland, Kenya, 1890-1970

Review

This is a book that only Dorothy Hodgson could have written, with her decades of work in Tanzania, vast networks in Maasailand, and deep ethnographic knowledge, combined with her deftness in working through more theoretical work on gender and human rights. Closely argued, conceptually sharp, and engagingly written.

-- Brett Shadle

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06ZZH4NM1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press (March 27, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 27, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2096 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 189 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,836,518 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #98 in Gender & the Law (Kindle Store)
- #369 in Gender & the Law (Books)
- #1,036 in Constitutional Law (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 4 ratings

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Dorothy Louise Hodgson

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Dorothy Hodgson is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. She came to Brandeis in 2018 after 24 years at Rutgers University, where she was Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the School of Graduate Studies and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. Hodgson has worked in East Africa for more than 30 years, primarily among Maasai communities in Tanzania. Her research has examined such topics as gender, ethnicity, cultural politics, colonialism, the missionary encounter, transnational organizing and the indigenous rights movement. She has authored or edited 10 books and numerous articles and book chapters, with the support of awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, National Sciences Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, among other sources. In her spare time, she is a silversmith.

To learn more about her research:

- watch her Presidential Lecture to the Association for African Studies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fsj9QmWCh0

- watch her interview for World 101 X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vadZrM9vuio

- listen to her podcast interview with Africa Past & Present: http://afripod.aodl.org/2011/04/afripod-51/

For more information, visit: dorothyhodgson.com