Date of Award
12-2002
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Anthropology
First Advisor
Dr. Laura Spielvogel
Second Advisor
Dr. Robert Ulin
Third Advisor
Dr. Vin Lyon-Callo
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
In this thesis, I look at the practices of certain lesbians and locate them within a particular historical and cultural context. I argue that the resources, the capital, both material and social, as well as the internalized orientations and expectations each woman brings to the crafting of her family, accounts for the particular family each has negotiated. It is within the particular historical constraints and opportunities that we can understand each family's experiences. The uniqueness of family experience is predicated on differences in the women's ages linked to the particular historical trajectory of sociopolitical changes in the U. S. Yet many experiences are similar because these families are socio-economically homogeneous, sharing a class habitus, a positionality that informs each particular experience, that is, each possess the financial and social resources that afforded them the opportunity to bring to reality a particular imagined family, unavailable to many gay and lesbians who do not enjoy the same resources.
Recommended Citation
Foor, Cynthia E., "Negotiated Families: Lesbians and Institutions in Southwest Michigan" (2002). Masters Theses. 4113.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/4113