Inferiority with a Wink of the Eye: Jewish-Yemenite Women's “Feminist” Thesis

Abstract

The Performative text is a product of a dialogue between an anthropologist and traditional Yemenite-Jewish women about gender power relations in their community. It was composed against the background of criticism of politics of culture, which dismisses the pretension of representation and the hierarchical and patronizing implications of conventional academic writing. At its focus is the prototypical persona of Badra the wailer, who is mediated by paraphrase, narrativity, and polyphonic and sometimes virtuosic vocality—a technique that the subjects themselves use. The performative text reveals deep strata of meaning and diverse aspects of the unique “feminist” thesis proposed for examination and criticism.