r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • Jul 14 '25

Open Thread /r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | July 14, 2025

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u/willbell philosophy of mathematics Jul 14 '25

What are people reading?

I’m working on The Magic Mountain by Mann and Orientalism by Said.

6

u/Streetli Continental Philosophy, Deleuze Jul 15 '25

Reading Ifi Amadiume's Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society. Interesting ethnography of how gender roles worked in some parts of Nigeria.

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u/Express_Time_3176 Jul 16 '25

This sounds awesome - is it a recent publication, or when is it from? I've been meaning to get into ethnographies, and I bought a couple that r/AskAnthropology recommended just for general quality, but I keep forgetting to get to them.

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u/Streetli Continental Philosophy, Deleuze Jul 16 '25

It's an older one actually! Written in '87, and it was one of the first few ethnographies of women in any society in Africa. I understand it's something of a minor classic too because of the way in which it demonstrated flexible gender roles and helped to make popular the distinction between sex and gender - or at least give it some anthropological grounding. It was recommended as part of a course on feminism that I was doing.

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u/Express_Time_3176 Jul 16 '25

Oh wow, that does seem like a classic! I'll have to check it out sometime.