Paper short abstract:

Nous visons, dans ce texte, à présenter une prémière cartographie de la dissidence sexuelle dans de différents contextes africains, en montrant le développement récent d’une réflexion théorique et d’une pratique militante queer, qui se veulent, à même temps, proprement africaine.

Paper long abstract:

Le propôs de ce travail consite à présenter une première carthographie du développement des Études Queer et Féministes en contextes africains. L'Afrique est en train de devenir, aujourd'hui, un nouveau laboratoire d'intense production théorique et politique, dans le champ du genre, mais aussi de la dissidence sexuelle, en contextant, ainsi, l'idée selon laquelle les pratiques homoafectives serainent incompatibles avec la culture africaine. Une telle idée, qui perpasse l'histoire du pan-africanisme et du nationalisme anti-colonialiste, est aujourd'hui defendue par beaucoup de chefs politiques et religieux locaux. Nous nous baserons, ici, dans les contributions d'une jeune génération d'intelectuelEs et militantEs de différents pays d'Afrique, qui revendiquent la rupture de toute image supposement unique et homogène de l'Afrique, de sa culture, de ses coûtumes et aussi de ses pratiques sexuelles. Publié en 2013 par les Editions Pambazuka, le volume collectif Queer African Reader est le premier livre qui réunit une série de contribuitions de cientifiques, écrivainEs, militantEs e artistes, qui visent à affirmer une identité plurielle et non conforme avec les normes majoritaires, soient elles imposées par les groupes nationalistes et religieux locaux, ou par des politiques salvationistes des pays occidentaux. Se dire, à même temps, queers et afriainEs, lutter pour la liberté sexuelle dans les pays du continent, mais aussi pour une pleine autonomie des agencies locales et contre l'arrogance du néo-impérialisme, constitue le grand défi proposé par cette production pratico-théorique. Nous proposons, ici, une révision de literature, mais aussi les résultats d'entretiens avec quelques unEs de protagonistes de ces luttes.

Paper short abstract:

This research looks at the production of knowledge from it's inside out, through the experiences of academic endogamy. By observing such practice amongst XXth century french anthropology, I intend to analise the hibrid and gendered caracter ingrained in the production of scientific knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to analise a type of relationship widely common on academia: endogamy. A classic anthropological subject, marital choices inside or outside social groups (endogamy and exogamy) have been seen by structuralist anthropology as signs of aliances and reciprocity, and as fundamental to the constitution of human societies. But when seen at our workplace, in universities and academic departaments, endogamy is taken as something "natural" and personal, as an intimate and delicate subject inapropriate for the anthropological gaze. As an widespreed practice among different areas of knowledge and throuought the history of sciences, the study of academic endogamy might reveal the hibrid caracter of the production of knowledge, ingrain between the public and private. It also allow us to better comprehend the gendered dynamics at play in disciplines, universities and research institutions. The maintenance of conjugal relationships in spaces of fierce academic competitiveness have shown how domestic and professional ethics are conciliated trough changes in research agendas and professional routes - and how gender plays an important role on the making and profiting of these decisions. I will present an ethnographical account of experiences in which academic endogamy is presented in an ambiguous manner: at times, as an dual insertion strategy in scientific and academic networks; at other times, as a delicate trait that enables comments of favoritism and nepotism.

Paper short abstract:

I present the results of a literature, qualitative and interdisciplinary research on travel literature, considering it a literary heterotopia (Foucault, 2013), understanding the body as a place (Corbain, 2008) and as a text (Certeau, 2014; Preciado, 2014).

Paper long abstract:

I present the results of a literature, qualitative and interdisciplinary research on travel literature, considering it a literary heterotopia (Foucault, 2013). I conduct a literature review and revisit general aspects of the literature cited. Addressing body and gender representations, understanding the body as a place (Corbain, 2008) and as a text (Certeau, 2014; Preciado, 2014), which can undergo interpretation schemes based on circumstances, their time and the current time. I address travel literature as a founding place/time/text for the observation of others and a founding literary heterotopia of the ways of dealing with otherness in Brazil, which can give clues about the current situation regarding the subjects of this research.

Paper short abstract:

Studies in Brazil point to a discussion that approximates the trafficking of women from prostitution - highly contested. And in an attempt to add and mobilize reflections for such a multifaceted theme, this paper intends to present an ethnography of an event that occurred in the USA in July 2015.

Paper long abstract:

The Forum "Social Transformation to End Exploitation and Trafficking for Sex" brought together academics, feminist leaders, activists, and survivors of trafficking, with the objective of developing a performance performance with survivors of human trafficking. In this convention, topics such as care, reception and perception practices were discussed, elaborated both by the survivors designated at this time as "survivors leaders", and by academic partnerships that work and research on this topic. They presented and discussed the trafficking protocols, emerging challenges, and ways of recognizing the victim, among other contents that orbit the subject. To this end, three "surviving leaders" - nationally recognized in the US - were called to share their experiences, their dramas and their stories.

My proposal is to present categories built / elaborated in this Forum that foster certain practices used in promoting the so-called 'Rescue Industry', at the same time that they mobilize emotionally, both to leverage the collection of financial resources, and to mobilize Subjects for this cause.

This paper is the result of my postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin / UW - United States in 2015.

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the movement of human pilgrims and tromba spirits to and from shrines in northwestern Madagascar. Sarimbavy (same-sex desiring and gender non-conforming male-bodied) spirit mediums meaningfully converge at urban and rural and shrines during annual pilgrimages.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the movement of human pilgrims and tromba spirits to and from shrines in the Betsiboka Valley of northwestern Madagascar during fanompoa (ritual events hosted at tromba spirit shrines). I specifically consider how sarimbavy (same-sex desiring and gender non-conforming male-bodied) spirit mediums socialize at rural fanompoa in the interior of the Betsiboka Valley and at the largest regional ritual gathering, the fanompoambe, in the city of Mahajanga. Based on 24 months of fieldwork, the ethnography presented here follows the lives of sarimbavy who are actively engaged in the reproduction of and re-interpretation of the Sakalava historical record through their roles as spirit mediums. These interlocutors were representative of the diversity of Malagasy lived experience: from cosmopolitan Merina aristocracy to poor, struggling Sakalava day laborers. Nevertheless, sarimbavy spirit mediums were unlikely to consider themselves to be part of a bounded "community" simply based on their shared sexual desires/practice and/or gendered non-conformity. This paper proposes that mediumship, in the lives of sarimbavy in the northwest, provides a space for networking and mutual belonging, however tenuous. Concomitantly, tromba spirit possession in Madagascar is by no means relegated to or defined by a concrete association with same-sex desire or gender non-conformity. The nuanced forms in which "queerness" attaches itself to spirit mediumship in Madagascar provides a productive counterexample against common associations between "homosexuality" and "transvestism" in the anthropological literature.

Paper short abstract:

Nous analyserons l’émergence du féminisme intellectuel au Brésil à partir des années 1970 avec l'enseignement des théories sur les femmes.

Paper long abstract:

L'Anthropologie Féministe peut être conceptualisée comme celle où l'engagement politique de l'anthropologue est central pour l'expérience du travail de terrain. Ainsi, l'Anthropologie Féministe naît à partir du souci de l'école anthropologique concernant l'amélioration des relations sociales, en particulier, les relations entre sexes. Nous analyserons l'émergence du féminisme intellectuel au Brésil à partir des années 1970 avec l'enseignement des théories sur les femmes. Nous nous centrerons sur les thèmes des femmes comme force de travail afin de réfléchir sur les conséquences sur la famille. L'analyse de la biographie d'une femme créatrice d'Études des Femmes, Zahidé Machado Neto, nous permettra de décrire le début du féminisme intellectuel au Brésil et son impact dans les Sciences Sociales. En effet, Zahidé a été la première professeur à enseigner des disciplines sur les femmes à Bahia, notamment des textes anthropologiques et sociologiques de son programme ont fait partie d'un champ conceptuel favorisant le développement de la théorie féministe au Brésil. Le travail de terrain est composé d'une base de données sur la vie professionnelle de Zahidé (1960-1980) et ses cours d'enseignement sur la femme comme: "Sociologie de la Famille et des Relations entre les Sexes" (1974,1976) et "Stéréotype: rôles sociaux masculin et féminin - analyse de contenu de revues féminines brélisiennes". L'idée est de montrer que les conflits sur le genre ne sont pas nouveaux mais qu'au temps de l'émergence des Études de Femmes, il existait déjà beaucoup de questionnements sur l'autorité de la femme qui constituaient un objet d'études du champ féministe.