Feminist Epistemologies in Neofascist and Fundamentalist Contexts in Latin America

Abstract (English)

In the quest of feminist scholarship, different feminist epistemologies have emerged, yet having in common the use of gender as a “category of epistemic analysis and re-construction”. More recently, however, gender – or what has been termed “gender ideology” - has become the focus of neofascist and religious fundamentalist attacks throughout the Western world, particularly with the rise of – or attempts to install - authoritarian regimes. Resulting from discussions of feminist anthropologists engaged in groups of the Association of Latin American Anthropology – ALA, the overall purpose of this panel is to analyse how this process has unfolded in the context of Latin America, by comparing and contrasting its impact on women’s lives in an intersectional perspective, on public policies and state bureaucracies, as well as on the exercise of feminist anthropology in different countries of the region. The panel is open to papers on different empirical aspects, in any of these dimensions. It is also open to theoretical reflections on the contributions of feminist epistemologies to confront the growing attacks from the extreme right on gender-related rights in their intersection with other categories of social differentiation.