In April 1993, as part of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, hundreds of couples participated in "the Wedding," a symbolic commitment ceremony held in front of the Internal Revenue Service building. Part protest and part affirmation of devotion, the event was a reminder that marriage rights have become a major issue among lesbians and gay men, who cannot marry legally and can only claim domestic partner rights in a few locations in the United States. Yet despite official lack of recognition, same-sex wedding ceremonies have been increasing in frequency over the past decade. Ellen Lewin, who has consecrated her own lesbian relationship with a commitment ceremony, decided to explore the myriad ways in which lesbians and gay men create meaningful ceremonies for themselves. She offers the first comprehensive account of lesbian and gay weddings in modern America. A series of richly detailed profiles--the result of extensive interviews and participation in the planning and realization of many of these commitment rituals--is woven together to show how new traditions, and ultimately new families, are emerging within contemporary America. Just as the book is a moving portrait of same-sex couples today, it is also a significant political document on a new arena in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights. In a larger sense, Lewin's work is about the politics surrounding same-sex marriages and the ramifications for central dimensions of American culture such as kinship, community, morality, and love. Lewin explores the ceremonies themselves, which range from traditional church weddings to Wicca rituals in the countryside, with portraits of the planning, the joys, and the anxieties that led up to the weddings. She introduces Bob and Mark, a leather fetishist couple who sanctified their love by legally changing their last names and exchanging vows in tuxedos, leather bow ties, and knee-high police boots. In an equally absorbing profile, Lewin describes Khadija, from a working-class black family deeply suspicious of whites (and especially Jews) and Shulamith, raised in a Zionist household. She tells of how the two women struggled to reconcile their widely disparate upbringings and how they ultimately combined elements of African and Jewish traditions in their wedding. These, among many other stories, make Recognizing Ourselves a vivid tapestry of lesbian and gay life in post-Stonewall United States.
Focusing on such broad themes as household dynamics, gender politics, and informal economy in Mtendere, the book opens a window on the experiences of urban people living through one of Africa's most dramatic economic declines in the ...
7 Karen Tranberg Hansen, Keeping House in Lusaka (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 23–28. On the development of Lusaka in the colonial period, see also Garth Andrew Myers, Verandahs of Power: Colonialism and Space in ...
Evans, Ivan. Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Evans,Ivan. Culturesof Violence:Racial Violence and the Origins of Segregationin South Africa andthe American ...
For the dilemma facing anthropologists in this situation, see two essays by Richard Brown, “Anthropology and Colonial Rule: Godfrey Wilson and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Northern Rhodesia,” in Anthropology and the Colonial ...
Hansen , Karen T. , 1992 , " Gender and Housing : The Case of Domestic Service in Lusaka , Zambia " , Africa , 62 , 2 : 248–265 . Hansen , Karen T. , 1996 , Keeping House in Lusaka . New York : Columbia University Press .
Central Statistical Office , 2001 , 2000 Census of Population and Housing : Preliminary Report . Lusaka : CSO . ... Lusaka : National Commission for Development Planning Hansen , Karen Tranberg , 1997 , Keeping House in Lusaka .
See J. Davison, Gender, Lineage, and Ethnicity in Southern Africa (Boulder, 1997), 153–5; K.T. Hansen, Keeping House in Lusaka (New York, 1997), 114ff. 58 Zambia – Country Situation (Geneva, 2008), 1. 59 J. Bujra and C. Baylies, ...
Keeping House in Lusaka. New York: Columbia University Press. HGDC (Henan Guoji Development Company). 2012. Silverest Gardens: Guoji Dream Town [brochure]. Lusaka: ZDA- Henan Guoji Development Company, Ltd. Huchzermeyer, M. (2011).
Home Spaces and House Cultures P. Jenkins. rather different take on African ... Perhaps the most relevant text from this point of view, concerning the focus of this book, is that of Karen Hansen ́s “Keeping house in Lusaka” (1997).
Hulme, D. and Edwards, M. (1997), 'NGOs, States and Donors: An Overview', in D. Hulme and M. Edwards (eds), NGOs, States and Donors: Too Close for Comfort?, Basingstoke: MacMillan, pp. 3–23. James, S., Reddy, S., Taylor, M. and Jinabhai ...