Verified Document

Women And The Historical Enterprise Term Paper

As an anthropologist, as she observed hoodoo practices of Southern blacks and became such a hoodoo priestess herself, she embraced subjectivity. (79) historian and woman ahead of her time, Hurston thrived not only, out of necessity on the physical margins of academia, but also on the professional margins of 'writing history.' But her techniques not only "became spaces of perspective" and "turned black folk" into legitimate subjects. Her perspective also made for a better writing of American history in general because it included the voices of marginalized figures. (118) Zora Neale Hurston took advantage of her "heightened penchant" for interdisciplinary study "to forge some of the first substantive academic research on African-Americans" but highlighted the need for interdisciplinary and openly subjective historical study in general, particularly of those peoples deemed to be marginal to mainstream 'written' American society and history. (138) Hurston studied Black culture partly to recover her own heritage, which she feared losing as the result of her education. But many women after Hurston who "did not find conditions conducive to the study of women or American culture in history, sociology, or economics departments," turned to Hurston's blending of historical recording and lived anthropology because it offered them the option of "observing peoples other social scientists ignored," particularly Native Americans, and thus gave them unmined academic territory, in which they could make their careers.

Moreover, unlike historians, anthropologists...

Even in the 1970's the Oklahoma native named Angie Debo chose to become a historian of Americans Indians partly for that reason. (65) She became the author of a compassionate text called the Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic, which painted native Americans not as stoic savages, but attempted to penetrate Indian life in a real and meaningful way, based in experiences with the tribes as well as common cultural images. (112)
Do the winners write history? Quite often they have -- but socially marginal historians have strived, in America, to bring the voices of other marginalized people to the forefront, by using unique historical narratives such as oral history, the cataloguing of legends, and anthropological observations, to create a more balanced view of history. Thus, it does matter who writes history -- not because women and men are biologically different, but because the female historical experience on a personal and academic level have created different professional and personal needs for female historians. However, as Hurston's and Debo's examples illustrate, brining the voices of the margin to the center has enriched not simply the careers of female academics, but the study of history a whole.

Works Cited

Des Jardins, Julie. Women and the Historical Enterprise: the Female American Historian. University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Des Jardins, Julie. Women and the Historical Enterprise: the Female American Historian. University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Women's History Women Vs. Men
Words: 1344 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

It is possible that early American history would be taught very differently today if based on history books such as this. To play devil's advocate, there perhaps would have been women historians who agreed with the men's decisions, women historians who did not believe in the actions of their fellow females. Those histories, too, would have had an impact on today's perspective of that period. Similarly, what would have happened

Women Historians United States Historian
Words: 870 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

According to Enstad, historians did not cover the earlier years of the labor movement at the beginning of the 20th century any better. She says that the information was actually incorrect. Many women at this time were into popular culture, reading cheap dime novels and wearing stylish clothes. Historians say that the women were therefore distracted from the serious issues that were taking place in the labor movement. The situation

Women in Nigeria the Rank
Words: 4171 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

The Ministry of Women Affairs had been present always; however it was a waning organization under the military rule. In some of the states the Ministry of women affairs was headed by men, but ever since the initiation of the democratic era, the Commissions are presently made responsible to the Ministry of Women Affairs since they are functioning collaboratively with civil society functionaries. (Nigerian women fairing well) Nigeria authorized the

Women's Rights Movement in the 1970s
Words: 1120 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Women's Rights Movement In The 1970s In A People's History of the United States, Zinn begins his narrative of the liberation of women with the women's suffrage movement of the early twentieth century. However, according to Zinn, even after women were granted their vote, their identity was still largely measured by their success in living up to the idealized role models of wife and mother till the overt feminist movement of

Women and Gender Bias the
Words: 13238 Length: 42 Document Type: Thesis

Under these circumstances, an ethical dilemma is born. Should society control its development or leave it to chance? And in the case that it should control it, which categories should it help? If the person in the above mentioned example is helped, we could assume that in a certain way, the person who was not helped because he or she already disposed of the necessary means, the latter one might

Women in Central America Social
Words: 1898 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Companies that are seeking to enter this market are likely to find it a difficult undertaking because the society remains backward. A company cannot sell products to a people who have no money, and that is the situation in China today. It is also the situation in Central America, but Central America would be much more responsive to the entry of outside companies offering funds for development and providing

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now