The Social Life of Rights: ‘Gender Antagonism’, Modernity and Raet in Vanuatu

In the northern Vanuatu town of Luganville a small group of men have responded to social and legal changes engendered by women's rights activists by forming a male support group called ‘Violence Against Men’. Members of this ‘backlash’ movement argue that the insidious promotion of Western‐style ‘women's rights’ is leading to discrimination against men in divorce proceedings, child custody battles, and in domestic violence and rape cases. They directly oppose recent and ongoing legal changes aimed at protecting women from domestic violence, such as Domestic Violence Protection Court Orders, and the repeatedly tabled (but long‐delayed) ‘Family Protection Bill’. Such interventions, they argue, undermine Vanuatu's ‘natural’kastom and Christian patriarchal gender order and, in doing so, pose a serious threat to the socio‐economic productivity of the nation‐state. For other men, however, rather than opposing women's rights activism, such challenges have raised questions about how men might successfully negotiate their identities in ways that are sensitive to contemporary issues of gender equality without undermining existing paradigms. Thus, this paper addresses the value accorded to universalism and relativism in gender activism in Vanuatu, and especially in terms of the linked discourses of kastom, church and modernity. It therefore explores gender relations in terms of the contemporary entanglement of indigenous and exogenous epistemologies, and in doing so argues that the contextual analysis of ‘rights’ should consider the specific historical, political and socio‐cultural circumstances in which they are put to use.     

Unsettling Power: Domestic Violence,Gender Politics,and Struggles over Sovereignty in Ghana

This article provides a new lens for analyzing power formations in human rights practices by examining Ghanaian struggles over a Domestic Violence Bill. While the hegemonic character of human rights advocacy is well-established, we know less about exercises of power in discourses and practices that oppose rights. I analyze how the Ghanaian government constructed the discourse of cultural sovereignty and deployed it against women's rights. The government legitimated this discourse by appropriating the voice of ‘the people’ and superimposing notions of ‘foreignness’ onto both the Bill and Ghanaian women's rights activists. Drawing on the historiography of colonialism and ethnography of political performance, I argue that this case illustrates how the discourse of cultural sovereignty is mobilized in a struggle over shifting configurations of gender, political activism, and state sovereignty.     

Gender and ethnicity in the Zionist nation-building project: the case of Hannah Helena Thon

According to Nira Yuval-Davis some of the most important ways in which women are involved in national projects concern their capacity as biological and cultural reproducers of the nation and guardians of its boundaries. In this article I argue that Jewish women in Mandate Palestine not only guarded and reproduced national boundaries, but also redefined them. Middle-class women's organizations acted as agents of ‘nationalization’ and westernization among Mizrahi (lit. Oriental) Jewish communities, who were largely excluded from the imagined community of the nation by Ashkenazi Zionists. I explain the conjunction of gender and ethnicity in the Zionist nation-building project through the life and letters of journalist and social activist Hannah Helena Thon. Two main factors serve as an explanation: the countries from which the leaders of the organizations emerged and their traditions of social work; and the position of middle-class women in the Jewish social field.     

Diverse cities and good citizenship: how local governments in the Netherlands recast national integration discourse

Western European national policies increasingly portray diversity as negative and migrants as ‘others’ who do not belong to the national community. This article examines how local governments articulate alternative discourses of belonging based on residents' shared membership in the civic life of the city. In a Dutch case study, the ways in which local policymakers diverge from exclusionary national narratives are examined. It is argued that discourses about urban citizenship offer opportunities for the inclusion of migrants by drawing new boundaries between ‘good’ citizens and those who are unwilling to participate.     

Can respect be key to gender justice?

Equality and respect are, together with dignity, considered foundational values in international human rights discourse. While equality in particular has been established as a widely accepted goal in the women's rights movement, respect is, however, less commonly invoked. Based on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork conducted among the Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia, this article examines the notion of wayyuu, a tacit moral model of respect and sacredness that is central to institutions and norms that have secured women certain rights and power. These norms and institutions represent a challenge to the liberal feminist conceptualization of gender equality that dominates international women's rights discourse. Drawing on theories of respect and on feminist and anthropological discussions of equality, I argue that even though there are certain limitations inherent in wayyuu, the sacredness it entails and the implications this has had for women's status and power among the Arsi Oromo call for an exploration of respect not as an alternative to equality, but as a complementary notion which to a greater extent could be included in global discussions of gender justice.     

Young Chileans' Views of Citizenship: Findings From the First Generation Born After the Reinstitution of Democracy

Through a qualitative methodology, this study examines meanings attached to citizenship, barriers for citizenship, motivations for civic engagement, and aspirations as citizens in a sample (n = 71) of Chilean youth that grew up during the transition to democracy. The meanings youth attached to citizenship include membership, entitlement to rights and responsibilities, active participation, being informed, and voting. Participants perceived that practices of the political class, the economic system, and social disparities are barriers to exercising citizenship. They challenge the principles of a social order they consider unjust and advance proposals for social transformation that claim for social justice, reducing socio-economic disparities, discrimination, and bringing the political class closer to ordinary citizens. Findings reflect critical and cultural notions of citizenship. Contrasting their actual experiences with their aspirations for citizenship, participants feel politically inefficacious as they perceive they lack the power to influence the sociopolitical system. Implications for sociopolitical development and youth policy are discussed.     

Sexuality in Norwegian textbooks: constructing and controlling ethnic borders?

In this article we discuss how sexuality is linked to national identity, ethnicity and cultural diversity in Norwegian textbooks for 13–16-year-olds. We show how gender equality and gay rights are mobilized as markers of Norwegianness in pedagogic texts and discuss the significance this has for inclusion in Norwegian nationhood. We address how progressive policies concerning gender and sexuality in Norway have been utilized to define Norwegianness in ethnic terms and argue that the texts we have analysed may produce the effect that tolerance towards homosexuality and support for gender equality as political positions are considered necessary for ethnic minority subjects’ acceptance as properly ‘integrated’ Norwegian citizens. In this way, these texts on sexuality may be seen to both construct and control ethnic borders in Norwegian society.     

Economic crisis and national attitudes: experimental evidence from Spain

We argue that existing approaches to development, including the women in development [WID] and gender and development [GAD] perspectives, fall short in their treatment of culture, and that a new paradigm, which we term 'Women, Culture and Development' [WCD], represents a way forward. Linking the fields of feminist studies, cultural studies and critical development studies, a WCD framework highlights culture as lived experiences and structures of feeling, attends to the relationship between production and reproduction in women's lives, and centres women's agency and struggles. A multi-ethnic and multiracial feminist approach to development studies, and an explicit engagement with culture can shift economistic and overly structural analyses to highlight the experiences, identities, practices and representations of Third World women. We illustrate the potential of a WCD paradigm with discussions of the environment and sexuality, and conclude with a sketch of the future visions and political possibilities of this approach.     

Citizenship, migration and formations of class in urban France

This paper is an exploration of the configurations of citizenship that prevail in Paris, a globalizing city where the processes of capitalist change and transnational migration converge. I will focus on the ways that different class segments of its migrant population exercise citizenship in a context in which the ideologies of belonging and membership are being redrawn under the demands of neoliberal transformation. My argument is that efforts made to rework models of citizenship under neoliberalism contribute not only to the realignments of class, but they also galvanise ethnic divisions and sentiments of nativism in France and more broadly in Europe. In making this argument, I draw on the notion of citizenship regime to focus attention on the political, economic and ideological forces that condition the orientations of the state, policies and citizenry in the context of crises and change under capitalism while also problematizing the state capital nexus in relation to the formation of subjects as citizens. This article is a continuation of a larger scholarly project that seeks to explore the ways in which the analytical paradigms of political economy advance our understanding of the different dimensions of migration and capitalist change.     

‘Our bones are made of Iron’: the political ecology of Garhwali women's activism

In the Garhwal Himalaya of India's Uttarakhand State, a series of social movements emerged in the late 2000s to contest hydroelectric dams on a tributary of the sacred River Ganga. Within these opposition movements, men often took high‐profile leadership roles whereas women from a range of socio‐economic backgrounds formed the overwhelming base of participation at meetings, assemblies, and rallies. This article draws from event‐based participation and semi‐structured interviews to explore the diverse concerns that women gave to explain their engagements with opposition efforts. I counter essentialist frames and employ a feminist political ecology approach to argue that the gendered dynamics are attributable to historical, cultural, religious, and political‐economic influences. The article contributes to anthropologies of gender, environment, and social movements by taking an approach focused on disparities of practice and power that helps situate Garhwali women's roles in development contestations.     

Gendering ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland: A comparative analysis of nationalist women's political protests

This article examines and develops a comparison of the Holy Cross School conflict and the campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters and partner to bring those responsible for his murder to justice in Northern Ireland. Both events involved women who identify with the Irish nationalist community in public protest. The article employs a feminist theoretical framework to investigate the ethno-gender dynamics of these particular manifestations of women's political protest. By engaging in a comparative analysis of both protests, the article exposes how these specific expressions of women's political agency and the political discourses and images that they stimulated were influenced by, reflected and disturbed notions about the role of women in nationalist societies.     

Acts and practices of citizenship: Muslim women’s activism in the UK

Drawing on the growing literature on Muslim women’s activism, this paper explores grammars of action that frame political mobilizations of Muslim women in the UK. By taking a broad view of political activism, we identify acts and practices of citizenship through which Muslim women activists engage with, reinterpret and challenge social norms. The article critically engages with dominant readings of post-migration minorities’ political mobilization through the lens of citizenship regimes and draws attention to more processual and agency-centred perspectives on citizenship. We focus on two salient themes that Bristol-based Muslim activists were concerned with: mobilizing against violence against women, manifested in the anti-FGM campaign by Integrate Bristol, and attempts to re-negotiate the terms of participation in religious spaces, manifested in claims for more inclusive mosques. In both instances, mobilization was not confined to the local community or national level, but supported by and embedded in related transnational struggles.     

Women's absence,women's power: indigenous women and negotiations with mining companies in Australia and Canada

This article documents the agency of indigenous women in negotiations surrounding major resource projects on indigenous lands. The dominant view in the academic and activist literature is that indigenous women are excluded from negotiations, which helps explain their failure to share in project benefits. The author's experience as a negotiator for indigenous communities in Australia and his research in Canada reveals a different picture, indicating that indigenous women often play a central role in negotiations. The article seeks to explain the inconsistency between the findings reported here and much of the literature, in terms of a broader tendency in the latter to downplay the agency of women in relation to mining; and its failure to adequately recognize the multiple and complex ways in which indigenous women can influence negotiations, and the role of specific cultural, institutional and political contexts in shaping women's participation.     

Tribal synthesis: Piros, Mansos, and Tiwas through history

This article critically examines recent anthropological theorizing about indigenous tribalism using ethnographic and historical data on the Piro-Manso-Tiwa Indian tribe of New Mexico. Debates about constructionism, neo-tribal capitalism, and proprietary approaches to culture provide valuable insights into recent indigenous cultural claims and political struggles, but also have serious limitations. The approach taken in the article, 'tribal synthesis', emphasizes process, agency, interdependence, and changing political and cultural repertoires of native peoples who seek survival amidst political domination and internal conflict. Such an approach can apply the best of recent critical theory in an advocacy anthropology that supports indigenous struggles.     

Citizenship and Resource Competition in Nigeria

This article discusses the growing tension between constitutionally defined citizenship and socially accepted practices of “we–they dichotomies” as a turbulent component of the national question discourse in Nigeria. It examines the adoption of dual citizenship across the country as well as how this generates violent ethnic conflict. Importantly, while citizenship refers to one’s full membership of a sovereign political community acquired either by birth, naturalisation or any other process legitimised and recognised by the supreme law of the state, indigeneship, on the other hand, is a discriminatory policy employed by local or provincial governments for protecting the rights of their so–called indigenous populations to employment, political power and other resources of the regions or states against domination by alien populations and outsiders. It is argued that while such distinctions have been made possible inter alia by Nigeria’s multi–ethnic character, the ensuing struggles and tensions have been driven by the normless competition over resource allocation. These have especially been the case in instances where ethno–territorial cleavages have been the primary beneficiaries and targets of such resource allocation. This article discusses land as a major economic resource over which heated ethnic conflicts have taken place in Nigeria. Drawing on the conflicts between Hausa–Fulani pastoralists and Yoruba farmers in South–Western Nigeria, it examines the question of how disputed access to land and water has underlain an almost permanent basis of conflict in Nigeria as well as their implications for the country’s fledgling democracy. How does the struggle over land affect the articulation of the citizenship question in Nigeria? How have scarcity and competition over resources affected the contest over citizenship and the forging of nationhood among natives and settlers in South–Western Nigeria? How have colonial framings of socially accepted practices of indigeneship entrenched an understanding of the state in Nigeria as a representation of permanently defined subnational conceptions of ethnic citizenship? What role can the state in Nigeria play towards transforming the multiplicities of traditional societies into coherent political societies as a basis for (i) eliciting deference and devotion from the individual to the claims of the state, and ultimately for (ii) increasing cultural homogeneity, political integration and value consensus? Drawing on data generated from an ethnographic study carried out in South–Western Nigeria between October 2009 and March 2015, this study interrogates these questions.     

Anthropology, Demography, and the Search for a Critical Analysis of Fertility: Insights from Russia

The socialist and postsocialist contexts offer important challenges for anthropologists developing a critical analysis of fertility. The need for fertility studies to address class and gender inequities is often overlooked by postsocialist scholars, whose work is mired in responses to the socialist past and ongoing pronatalist campaigns. I examine the ways that fertility analysis has been used in national political struggles in Russia, and explain why supporters of democratic reforms and women's rights have neglected to address gender and class issues in their fertility studies. While Russian nationalists cite fertility decline as proof that market reforms threaten Russia's existence, defenders of neoliberalism draw on demographic transition theory to redefine fertility decline as a universal sign of socioeconomic development. Working with conventional demographic paradigms and a postsocialist cultural logic, Russian transition theorists simultaneously oppose pronatalist politics, support women's reproductive choice, and reproduce the limitations of liberal paradigms regarding the family, society, and public policy. This article shows how anthropological critiques of demographic transition theory can be expanded and nuanced by considering the ways this theory gets adapted to particular cultural logics and political contests. [Keywords: anthropology and demography, postsocialism, Russia, fertility decline]     

The Right Kind of Women Things: Changing Compositions of Gendered Subjectivity in New Caledonia

Drawing upon life histories compiled in New Caledonia, this article examines the ways in which some women inscribed and contested their gendered subjectivities. Anchored in the perception that ‘gender’ can be recognised as historically and culturally constituted in contingent human practices, it proffers testimonies to reason that women's composition and expression of their lived experience can be understood as modes of embodied consciousness. By situating each woman's discursive strategy into the complex interplay of historical processes, structured social organisations, and the anomalies, ambiguities and contradictions revealed through their conversations, the relationships and practices which inscribed the self-making of some Kanak and Caledonienne women are explored.     

Diaspora and its discontents: A Caribbean fragment in Toronto in quest of cultural recognition and political empowerment

The essay examines the role of The Ontario Society for Services to the Indo-Caribbean Community [OSSICC], a historic organization that sought to assert the dignity and re-discover the identity of Indo-Caribbean persons as a fragment of the Caribbean diaspora in Toronto, Canada. While it points to the achievement in representing the interests of its members for symbolic cultural recognition, it underscored the limitations in the political arena for empowerment, power sharing, and equality in employment opportunities and for an equitable share of the resources of the state. Further, it describes how the ethnic conflict in the homeland persisted in the new site of the diaspora, about lost opportunities for healing, and about inter-generational discontinuities in the reconstruction of the Caribbean self. On a larger scale, the article is about membership and citizenship in the new homeland of the diaspora, its seductions and betrayals in the new frontier of Canadian multiculturalism.     

‘After the break’: re-conceptualizing ethnicity,national identity and ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ identities

Focusing on ethnic Chinese as cultural citizens of the nation, this paper examines national identity in the context of generational change. In so doing, it connects to colonialist conceptions of identity the dominant framework of ethnicity that operates in Malaysia. It argues that this framework allows for the nationalist imagining of ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ as ‘outsiders’. In probing the complex conceptual relationship between ethnicity, national identity and cultural citizenship, this article asks: How does ‘ethnicity’ enter into negotiations over the ‘national’ in the cultural realm? What are the notions of cultural difference and national otherness that operate in the negative dualisms by which nation and ethnicity are defined? How are these dualisms tied to notions of authenticity and cultural citizenship? Using the novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian author Tash Aw to address these questions, this paper argues the need to rethink current policies and narratives of ethnic and national identity in Malaysia.