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Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs

Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the Lahu of Southwestern China

Shanshan Du author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Columbia University Press

Published:17th Jan '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs cover

The ideal of "gender equality" seems forever elusive, always tantalizingly over the horizon. Shanshan Du suggests that by shifting our attention away from the various utopian ideals embedded in mainstream feminism, we may be surprised to learn that gender-egalitarian societies do exist. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book explores the Lahu society in Southwest China where practical gender equality has become the byproduct of a potent ideology of gender unity, vividly expressed by the proverb, "chopsticks only work in pairs."

This book is delightfully readable and as the same time thought-provoking, full of lively and sensitive ethnography...Finely written. -- Hayami Yoko Asian Folklore Studies A very powerful ethnography. -- Charles F. McKhann Anthropos

ISBN: 9780231119573

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

256 pages