Creating a Space for the "Outsider Within": A Framework for Black Feminist Anthropology
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Black feminism
womanism
frameworks
theory methodology
Anthropology
Sociology
Urban Studies and Planning
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Abstract
Anthropology, ideally, is an intellectual endeavor to provide insight into the nature of the variations on the human condition. Historically, European anthropologists have used it as a tool to justify colonialism, scientific racism, and relentless persecution, while simultaneously exploiting and erasing the lives of oppressed individuals. African-American intellectuals in post-emancipation America sought to combat the negative impact of slavery and subjugation by using ethnography and self-reflection to capture the totality of their experiences in America. Black women represent a greatly influential but almost invisible intellectual source whose multilateral identities and social experiences inform and dictate sociocultural trajectory in the United States and around the world. The goal of this literary analysis is to propose and support a theoretical framework for Black feminist anthropology based on the history, ideologies, and contributions of Black feminist theory to global culture. I have found that Black feminist scholarship is characterized by diverse methodologies and interdisciplinary perspectives that are unconventional to traditional anthropological research. In conclusion, I discuss how Black feminist anthropology has potential transform longstanding beliefs and theories across all subfields of anthropology by setting a new standard of holistic analysis, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and transcultural engagement.