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Gender and Materiality in-the-Making

The Manufacture of Sirwan Femininities Through Weaving in Southern Morocco

University College London, UK, myriemnaji{at}yahoo.co.uk

In this article, I propose a praxeological and phenomenological approach to weaving in the Sirwa, Southern Morocco. My perspective highlights the significance of `body techniques' in the material process of socialization and subject construction. From the Francophone anthropology of technology I derive the argument that materiality is not given or finished, but is in-the-making and emerging through body techniques. My argument that embodied engagement with materiality constructs gendered subjects through performance can be situated in a theoretical tradition that analyses gender as achieved through `doing' (Butler, 1990, Gender Trouble). I show how the making of carpets contributes to the transforming of the body and mind, desires and emotions of the Sirwan women to fit the patriarchal norm prevailing in their society. Using the concept of subjectivation, however, I argue that the disciplinary techniques of weaving allow practitioners to gain not only technical skills but agency.

Key Words: embodiment • performance • technology • weaving • gender

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 14, No. 1, 47-73 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183508100008


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