Crafting Gender

“Crafting Gender gives fascinating insights into the gendered nature of the creative process at the heart of contemporary Latin American indigenous and mestiza population.” - Stiofán Ó Cadhla , Western Folklore

“Because the articles under review are interesting, even personal accounts, and contribute to the description of women’s creativity, which is solidly socially contextualized within gender and household relations, Crafting Gender makes an important contribution to the intellectual discussion of folk art and women’s roles in creating this art.” - Walter E. Little , Museum Anthropology

“The essays in this anthology acknowledge the elements of change and community inherent in folk art in the regions. All the authors in the anthology take note, in particular, of responsiveness to change. This anthology, approaching different cultural traditions from a variety of perspectives, strives to develop a clear, systematic framework for understanding exactly what women folk artists create and how they go about doing it.” - Suheyla Saritas, Journal of Folklore Research

"[This book is] important for anthropologists and should attract a broad general readership as well. . . . [I]nformative and well-written." - Virginia Davis , Journal of Latin American Anthropology

"Folklorists will . . . appreciate the essays that introduce aspects of belief systems that are fundamental to a critique of gender relations and also underlie the spiritual relationship of artists to their material and imagery. . . . Many themes in this book suggest new directions for folk art scholarship in the twenty-first century. . . . Crafting Gender is appropriate for courses on folk art, as well as on women and gender studies. It will stimulate further discussions on such topics as the variables of marketing art and cultural identity, sustainable village craft enterprises, and power plays among artists and local art collectives and government agencies." - Suzanne MacAulay, Journal of American Folklore

"For anyone interested in women’s folk art in Latin American and the Caribbean, Bartra’s volume is an invaluable resource, and it is a major contribution from the standpoint of students and scholars interested in art, the anthropology of work, gender and family studies, and international development. I share Bartra’s hope that this anthology will be followed by many others that contribute to the discovery, understanding, and valuing of the incredibly rich creative world of women folk artists."
- Kimberley Grimes, American Ethnologist

"The richness of this book comes from the possibility of comparing the artistic production of different countries to each other and the ability to discern the differing ways that women produce their arts. . . . Highly recommended." - L. E. Carranza , Choice

“Crafting Gender deftly fills a gaping hole in gender studies by providing a rich body of information on women’s traditional arts. Exploring the distinctions between art, ‘folk art,’ and just plain work in a great variety of cultures, the authors illuminate social context, belief systems, aesthetics, and technique, expanding the field to areas not well known outside of academia and Latin America. Feminists, artists, and scholars will find much material in Eli Bartra’s book with which to mold and weave their own forms.” - Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art

"Crafting Gender is an original collection that presents in one volume several subjects generally treated separately, integrates them with a gender perspective, and offers an approach that is truly innovative." - Marysa Navarro, coauthor of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Restoring Women to History