British anthropologist; africanist (Cameroon). Known, among other things, for his 1975 contribution to gender studies, where he argued that women were a "muted group". Ardener argued that women were "muted", not in the sense that they did not speak (e.g. to the anthropologist), but in the sense that they were forced to articulate themselves in a hegemonic language controlled by men. For an anthropologist, male or female, whose easiest access to the society under study might be to the (male-dominated) public sphere (see M. Z. Rosaldo) women's voices might simply sound like so many giggles and whispers - or else as voices formulating themselves in the male-dominated idiom.

To browse texts on AnthroBase dealing with Edwin Ardener, see:
http://www.anthrobase.com/Browse/Cit/A/edwin_ardener.htm