ABSTRACT
While I focus on the problematic representations of one particular "Third-World practice" in one specific Western feminist text, my analysis of the representation of sati in Daly's chapter is motivated by the belief that similar problems occur in other Western feminist representations of issues affecting women in Third-World·contexts. Ahistorical and apolitical Western feminist understandings of "Third-World traditions" continue to appear, for instance, in more contemporary work on issues such as sati and dowry-murder, and in discussions relating to human rights-based interventions into "cultural practices" affecting Third-World women.3
I have no desire, however, to suggest that these problems are characteristic of all work on Third-World women done by Western feminists, or are somehow "representative" of Western feminist work on Third-World women. Understanding the nature of the "colonialist stance;' with respect to representations of "Third-World traditions;' is additionally important because these problems are, I believe, not exclusive to academic feminist writing but perhaps even more common in general Western public und erstandings of "Third-World cultures;' "Third-World traditions;' and "ThirdWorld women's problems." I approach my project in this paper both as someone who has learnt a great deal from many Western feminist works, during my time in India as weIl as my years in the United States, and as someone who has had problems with some Western feminist analyses and perspectives. I also approach this task as someone who is particularly indebted to the critiques of mainstream Western feminism generated by feminists of color.
