Description: Through an in-depth analysis of the multifaceted manifestations of gender and conflict, this book shows how cognition and behaviour, agency and victimization, are gendered beyond the popular stereotypes. Conflict not only reconfirms social hierarchies and power relations, but also motivates people to transgress cultural boundaries and redefine their self-images and identities. The contributions are a mix of classical ethnography, performance studies and embodiment studies, showing 'emotions and feelings' often denied in scientific social research.
Review Quotes: 'Gender and Conflict presents fascinating ethnographic accounts that challenge gender stereotypes worldwide. It includes valuable insights into gendered conflict as well as conflict of gender as experienced in everyday life. The book will be a must read for everyone interested in conflict studies and gender studies. With its rich case studies the book makes a valuable contribution to anthropology but also to theoretical discourse on body and embodiment.' Bettina E. Schmidt, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, UK 'Focusing on civil wars, prisons, urban public spaces, performance rings, schools, militias and national militaries, Gender and Conflict makes a persuasive case for both reiterating and revisiting our assumptions on the relationship of gender to violence. Attentive to diverse histories of militancy in varied geographical sites, it highlights the gendered performativities of armed violence to ask what happens to militarized, machismo men and women, and gender relations themselves when the violence is either reconfigured or over.' Neloufer de Mel, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka