Saving Soul: Lesbian Anthropology,Ethics and Spirituality in a Post-World

Differing theoretical understandings and political commitments among lesbians form the problematic addressed in this article. Anthropological research which takes place across the boundaries of ethnic difference and with an awareness of competing social visions cannot rely on simple assumptions of lesbian solidarity. Feminist, post-colonialist and queer theory offer divergent perspectives, all of which might offer sig nificant insights to the researcher. However, they also make it difficult to operationalize significant over-arching concepts such as 'lesbian ethics'—other than by assuming a common struggle for justice. In this situation the researcher realizes her own specificity. The metaphor of the body as a vulnerable, sensitive, socially marked register of lived experience is helpful in provoking recognition that embodied differ ences also generate embodied knowledge.