The City of Women

by Ruth Landes

First published in 1947, the second edition of The City of Women was published in 1994 with a new Introduction by anthropologist Sally Cole. That second edition is now available again after being out of print for several years.
"[The City of Women] works on many it is a study of candomblé , the Afro-Brazilian religion of Bahia, of the role of women in candomblé , and of race relations in Brazil. . . . The City of Women has much to offer anyone interested in Brazilian history, comparative race and gender relations, the history of anthropology, and the relationships between researcher and subject in anthropology and oral history. . . . "Because of the importance of women in traditional candomblé , this Afro-Brazilian religion was incompatible with patriarchy. Possession by the gods, the central component of the religious practice, was the domain of men supported the candomblé temples financially, but did not run them. . . . " The City of Women ought to be on the 'must read' list of anyone preparing to do field research, especially in ethnography or oral history, in a culture different from his or her own."--H-Net, Mary Ann Mahony, Associate Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University.

Genres: Religion, Anthropology, Brazil, Nonfiction, Academic

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ruth Schlossberg Landes was an American cultural anthropologist best known for studies on Brazilian candomblé cults and her published study on the topic, City of Women (1947). Her other field studies included stays with the Ojibwa of Ontario and Minnesota, the Santee Dakota in Minnesota, and the Potawatomi in Kansas. Towards the end of her career she wrote extensively on ethnic relations in the U.S., bilingualism in Europe and the Americas, and the effect of culture in American education. Landes is now recognized as a pioneer in the study of race and gender relations.

Reviews

[Lauren Lastrapes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout the first six chapters of this ethnography, Landes is constantly turning to Edison Carneiro and asking whether this woman or that is married. The women in question are the maes de santo of different candomble temples in Salvador, and in the 1930s, when Landes was there, as is the case today, legal marriage isn't so important in the Afro-Brazilian faith communities of candomble and its offshoots. What makes her constant concern about the marital status of women interesting is that Landes never married.

This book was roundly criticized when it was first published in 1947 because it contradicted Melville Herskovits' "survivals" theory of African tradition, wherein certain elements of black culture have remained intact from Africa and are present in New World black populations. Landes argued for the primacy of creolization, for candomble to be viewed as an Afro-Brazilian, rather than African, tradition, and offered as proof of this the fact that women and homosexual men had come to occupy position of power within the cults. In Africa, this did not happen, historically or contemporarily.

Another critique of the book came from Margaret Mead, who took issue with some of Landes' theoretical positions, but who, in both published reviews and within letters to Ruth Benedict, Landes' primary advisor at Columbia, complained that Landes' work was tainted by the fact that she was known to be having romantic liaisons with men in Bahia while she was doing fieldwork. This complaint, retarded enough on its own, becomes funnier when one recalls Mead's sexual history.

Did I mention I'm reading the Portuguese translation?

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ethnography written in 1947. While it's great that some female researchers were getting on the scene, this reads like a tabloid more than it does cultural research.

[Sam Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutting edge method/style for its time, and one I might want to keep in mind for a future class for one of the first examples of "experimental" ethnography (to be anachronistic in its labelling).

[Donna Roberts]

Great background resource on Salvador da Bahia and Candomblé's women, written by American anthropologist who spent much time there in the 1940s.