Body (Im)Potent: Culture, Capitalism, and the Afrodescendant's Fight for her Body

In 2000, the United Nations emphasized a number of Millennium Development Goals, to include, `Promot[ing] gender equality and empower[ing] women.' For women of African heritage residing in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean the promise of equity is belied by socio-political realities which propagate the marginalizing of Black women. `Body (Im)potent: Culture, Capitalism, and the Afrodescendant's Fight for Her Body,' considers the extent to which the trans-Atlantic slave trade located the Black woman's body as a unit of work. Further, this thesis explores the ongoing disparities between the Black woman's view of her own body, and pervading discourses which define that body according to the needs of a dominant class--a Marxist perspective which posits that the potential of human self-actualization is often sacrificed on the altar of capital. `Body (Im)potent' highlights that the promise of empowerment and equality must also be considered from the perspective of those unique West African-inspired cultural movements which informed Black resistance, and which continue to influence the self-image of the region's Afrodescendants. Moreover, `Body (Im)potent' considers the extent to which the milieux created by globalization contribute to the evolution of the Afrodescendant's concept of her body, and perceptions of that body by the world at large.M.A