Showing papers in "Ethnology in 2003"

Seeking Numinous Experiences in the Unremembered Past

Abstract: While increasing numbers of people are visiting historical sites and museums, the reasons for those visits are not well understood. An exploratory survey concerning what Americans want from their visits to such sites discovered that many tourists are motivated by more than information- or pleasure-seeking. Some indicated a quest for a deeper experience at heritage sites and a desire to make a personal connection with the people and spirit of earlier times. This impulse, termed "numen-seeking," is a strong motivation for many who visit historical sites. (Heritage tourism, numen, visitor motivation, visitor experience) ********** Historical sites and museums in both North America and Europe have become increasingly popular visitor destinations over the past decades, a fact prompting the observation that history has become a booming industry (Jakle 1985; Kammen 1991; Lowenthal 1985; and Mooney-Melville 1991). The return to the past is also evidenced by heritage movements and collecting. Samuel (1994) describes the rise of the heritage movement in the United Kingdom, based on varieties of collecting, historical re-enactment, and retro-fashion house design and furnishing. Horwitz (1998) documents the growing numbers of Civil War enthusiasts in the United States who dedicate time and resources to battle re-enactments. Gatewood (1990) notes the proliferation of collectors of memorabilia who stockpile old records, comic books, and baseball cards. Gillis (1994:15-18) characterizes Americans and Europeans as "compulsive consumers of the past" who save everything because they are not sure what to save. Ironically, the interest in, or possibly mania for, history does not parallel knowledge of it. Alderson and Low (1996:23) report that visitors are poorly educated about historical sites: "Visitors at today's sites no longer come with as much--or, sometimes, with any--historical knowledge." Falk and Dierking (1992) and Prentice (1993) cite studies that indicate that museum-goers have poor or uneven recall of what they have seen in exhibits. Jakle (1985), Kammen (1991), and Lowenthal (1985) provide further confirmation of this, citing research that demonstrates the sorry state of the public's knowledge of history. Given that so many visitors know so little of history, why they are such avid consumers of the past, especially when it comes to trips to museums and heritage sites, is puzzling. What is the draw of history? Generally speaking, museum professionals know relatively little about people's motivations for visiting historical sites and museums. While marketing surveys are routinely done by the big museum corporations, they are, with some exceptions, (2) demographic assessments that describe visitors in terms of their residence, age, sex, occupation, and income rather than motivational or psychographic profiles. Although probing interest in historical sites is clearly in the interest of many organizations, it is not routinely done, perhaps because of the expense for financially strapped institutions, or because many museologists are not trained to do social research. Nonetheless, historians and museum professionals have theories about visitors' interests and motivations. These appear to be based on subjective impressions rather than empirical research. Several theories are reiterated: nostalgia for a presumed simpler time, a search for cultural or ethnic roots, and anxiety about the future (Alderson and Low 1996; Dickinson 1996; Kammen 1991; Samuel 1994). A concern with cultural identity has been especially salient for Americans, according to Jakle (1985) and Mooney-Melvin (1991). Kammen (1991) dates the emergence of nostalgia to the decades following World War II, suggesting it was fueled by fears about national security and freedom, and a profound sense of cultural discontinuity. By the 1970s, the nostalgia craze was booming, as marked by an increase in the number of museums and a mania for collecting objects of all sorts. …

Nationalism in Indonesia: Building imagined and intentional communities through transmigration

Abstract: Transmigration settlements are planned according to Indonesian government priorities, which intend them to help build an imagined community, a unified nation. They are also places where settlers struggle to build their own vision of community as a place where they feel they belong. This article introduces the history of the Indonesian program and the place of Sulawesi transmigration settlements in nation-building. (Indonesia, nationalism, development, transmigration, community) ********** Since its earliest days, the Indonesian transmigration program has established, literally from the ground up, thousands of settlements. Each of these is a unique confluence of people, places, and social and structural factors. Every settlement is faced with its own particular challenges and opportunities to become a community. At the same time, the settlements also exist within the government's bureaucratic and ideological framework of variously defined objectives that have been the program's agenda. They are planned communities in the sense that physical infrastructure is calculated as a whole and put into place in accordance with the program's objectives. Despite all the planning, the settlements ultimately succeed or fail on the intentions of those involved, which is a struggle between two quite different intents: the planners' and the settlers'. On the one hand, there are the deliberate objectives of the state to create and maintain an "imagined community," on a national scale, of unified Indonesians drawn together into a single model of citizenship. On the other hand, there are the more immediate, sometimes much less coherent, aspirations of the settlers as individuals, and to varying degrees as groups, to succeed and establish socially, economically, and ecologically viable communities in a particular time and place, according to their own designs. Only so much can be planned. Beyond that is only intent. Realistically, community cannot be planned; it can only be intended. It is evident from the many layers of emotional meaning that are attached to the word or idea of "community" that the concept has meaning that goes beyond mere geographic place or local activity. The concept implies an "expectation of a special quality of human relationship in community, and it is this experiential dimension that is crucial to its definition" (Bender 1982:6). Thus, community may be better defined experientially. A settlement location and its infrastructure are planned, but a community must be experienced. In the case of these settlements, the state's intent is only partially realized. Where these settlements fall short of national ideological objectives, one might see an assertion of local purpose and the realization of intentional community as a distinct social phenomenon. (1) This article is based on research conducted in transmigration settlements of Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 1998, and analyses of government documents on transmigration and popular narratives. (2) Beginning with the government of the Netherlands East Indies in the early twentieth century, millions of people have been relocated voluntarily and sometimes involuntarily from densely populated islands at the country's political center to sparsely populated outlying islands of the Indonesian Archipelago. These outer islands have historically lacked the direct control and influence of the central governing authority. Although liberalizing colonial and postcolonial governments explicitly declared transmigration to be in the interest of social welfare, its implicit agenda has been to build a coherent, centrally governed state. The existence of a nation-state has required a firm connection between a geographically limited space and a culture and history that are perceived as undivided and rooted. In a country as disparate geographically and ethnically as Indonesia, this process has often required containment of the history and traditions of local populations in favor of a greater heritage. …

The new silk road: Mediators and tourism development in Central Asia

Abstract: Within the past century, international tourists have increasingly sought exotic destinations in their pursuit of relaxation, escape, and adventure. Recognizing the opportunity to earn valuable foreign currency, developing countries have catered to these desires by encouraging tourism development. The interplay between "hosts" and "guests" and the impact of tourism on host communities have been recurring themes in the anthropological literature on tourism, but scholars recognize that these categories have several limitations. The terms gloss over the wide variation that exists in the tourist experience for both guests and hosts, and ignore the important actors known as mediators. This article examines the role of mediators in two post-Soviet Central Asia states: Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Mediators there are particularly important because neither country is well known in Western countries, and neither country inherited a well-developed tourist infrastructure from the Soviet state. These mediators are cultivating a positive image of Central Asia as a new tourist destination, developing tourist accommodations, and lobbying government institutions to support and regulate tourism. However, the industry is rife with conflict and competition. (Tourism, development, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan) ********** Within the past century, international tourists have increasingly sought distant, "exotic" destinations in their pursuit of relaxation, escape, and adventure. Recognizing the opportunity to earn valuable foreign currency, most developing countries have catered to these desires by encouraging international tourism development. Some countries, such as Nepal and Jamaica, have gone so far as to make international tourism a top priority in their national development strategy. The anthropology of tourism emerged in the 1970s as tourists started to appear in places "off the beaten path," such as Inuit communities in Alaska and Kuna communities in Costa Rica (Graburn 1976; Graburn 1983; Nash 1981; Smith 1989). The interplay between "hosts" (locals) and "guests" (tourists) and the impact of tourism on host communities have been recurring themes in this growing body of literature. While the twin concepts of hosts and guests are routinely cited, scholars recognize that these categories have several limitations. The use of these terms glosses over the variation that exists in the tourist experience for both guests and hosts, and unfortunately ignores an important group of actors, known as "mediators," who actively promote and develop tourist destinations. "Neither hosts nor guests in any tangible way," the category of mediators includes government officials, tourism planners, travel agents, tour guides, and travel writers (Chambers 2000:30). This article examines the role of mediators in the development of international tourism in two post-Soviet Central Asia states: Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. As the former Soviet republics make the awkward transition from socialism to capitalism, tourism development stands as one possible solution for their cash-flow problems. Tourism is definitely at the forefront of development in the Kyrgyz Republic, a country with exceptional natural beauty but limited trade resources. (1) Tourism is also important in the Republic of Kazakhstan, a country with vast oil and mineral wealth but a need for a more diverse economy. The role of tourism mediators in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan is particularly important because neither country is very well known in the Western tourist-generating countries, and unlike neighboring Uzbekistan, neither country inherited a well-developed tourist infrastructure from the Soviet state. This study of tour operators, an understudied yet important group of mediators, provides a new angle for understanding what Nash (1981) refers to as the "touristic process." In addition to cultivating a positive image of a new tourist destination, tour operators in Central Asia work hard to develop adequate tourist accommodations, create tourist itineraries, and influence government institutions that support and regulate tourism. …

Domesticating the Immigrant Other: Japanese Media Images of Nikkeijin Return Migrants

Abstract: The return migration of Latin American nikkeijin to Japan is unprecedented in the country's history. Never has Japan been faced with so many returning Japanese who are so culturally different. Their presence profoundly challenges the country's long-held beliefs about Japanese ethnicity, race, and culture. Although the media are reputed to be the principal agents of social change, their coverage of these nikkeijin immigrants does more to reinforce than challenge traditional Japanese ethnic and cultural assumptions. (Migration, ethnicity, media, Japan) In the early 1990s, a popular weekly Japanese television program called Naruhodo za Warudo (Let's Go! The World) introduced Japanese audiences to the different customs, foods, and peoples of foreign societies. However, in one particular show the exotic person introduced was not an African or Melanesian, but a Latin American nikkeijin (Japanese descendant born and raised outside Japan). A Japanese Peruvian who had been crowned the Miss Nikkei beauty pageant queen was paraded onstage in a traditional Japanese kimono. Although she looked completely Japanese, the audience was greatly amused when she stumbled over the simplest Japanese lines she had been fed and eventually resorted to Spanish. This is an example of how the Japanese media exoticize the nikkeijin as ethnic curiosities who do not fit the Japanese notion that those of Japanese descent should be culturally Japanese as well. The Latin American nikkeijin have become much more than ethnic anomalies in Japan. With a population of well over 300,000, they have become the second largest group of foreigners in Japan after the Korean Japanese, and their numbers continue to grow steadily despite the country's prolonged economic recession. The largest group of nikkeijin immigrants are the Japanese Brazilians, who began migrating to Japan in the late 1980s in response to a severe Brazilian economic crisis and a crippling shortage of unskilled labor in Japan (Tsuda 1999a). Although they are relatively well educated and middle class in Brazil, they earn five to ten times their Brazilian salaries as factory workers in Japan. Almost all of them initially went to Japan with intentions to work for a few years and then return to Brazil with their savings, so they have been called dekasegi (temporary migrant workers). However, many remained, brought their families to Japan, and became long-term settlers (Roth 1999:150-54; Tsuda 1999b; Yamanaka 2000). Most of the Japanese Brazilian return migrants are second and third generation (nisei and sansei and no longer culturally Japanese. Therefore, despite their Japanese descent, they are treated as foreigners in Japan because of the narrow definition of what constitutes being Japanese, and have become the country's newest ethnic minority. The Brazilian nikkeijin have attracted a disproportionate amount of Japanese media attention, which has thrust them prominently into public awareness (Tsuda 2003:xiii-xv). As a result, even though many Japanese have not personally encountered Japanese Brazilians, most know of them. In low-immigration countries like Japan, most information and impressions about immigrants are obtained from the media, since the public has little contact with them. In addition, the media in Japan are powerfully influential. The Japanese watch an average of three hours and 23 minutes of television a day (Pharr 1996a:5), (1) an hour more than the average for Americans. Just as notable as the attention Japanese television receives is the amount of respect it has in Japanese society. According to a Research Institute of Japan survey, 56 per cent of the public expressed strong confidence in the credibility of television programming, compared with less than 20 per cent in the United States, according to Gallup/Harris polls (Pharr 1996a:15). Another study found that executives in a variety of organizations (including business, labor, academics, politics, and government) rank the media as the most influential institution in Japan (cited in Pharr 1996b: 19 and Verba et al. …

Imagining modernity in rural Fiji

Abstract: Understanding ethnic identity in Fiji and elsewhere in the Pacific requires looking at the ways that individuals draw on ideologies to make sense of the particular circumstances of their lives. While national identity in Fiji is often defined in opposition to the West through reference to a romanticized premodern tradition, individual Fijians are more concerned with defining their identity vis-a-vis other villagers. When people justify their position within the indigenous Fijian community, they question and redefine both tradition and modernity. Modernity is experienced individually as contradictions between competing ideologies and local experience through idiosyncratic life circumstances. "Modern" and "traditional" are not opposites but creatively redefined as having much in common. (Fiji, modernity, postcolonialism, ethnic identity, Pacific) Much literature has examined the ways tradition in the Pacific is invented or imagined to define present identity and achieve contemporary goals (e.g. Keesing 1989; Lawson 1996; Linnekin 1990). This article follows Englund and Leach (2000), Riles (2001), and Robbins (2001) in suggesting that the ways Pacific people imagine modernity is just as crucial as the ways they invent tradition for constructing their sense of self. Modernity, in the form of increased flows of capital, commodities, ideologies, and images, is a state of the world; but, following Ferguson (1999) and Riles (2001), modernity, like the concept of tradition, is also a local construct, imagined in a variety of ways to make sense of particular life circumstances. Ferguson (1999) and Riles (2001) both argue that Third World peoples use constructs of modernity to define identities for themselves within local culture. Ferguson (1999) says that his Zambia informants in the 1980s sounded as if they had read 1950s sociology texts on modernization theory when they stressed the need for strong nuclear families, independent individuals, and the need to work hard and try new things in order to bring about economic development. While social scientists and Third World governments have largely rejected modernization theory, it lives on in the minds of those who grew up under the policies it shaped. Ferguson (1999) suggests that Zambians slip in and out of modernity as a distinctive "style" in order to position themselves in Zambian society; for instance, espousing nuclear families and avoiding the demands of rural relatives. Riles (2001) similarly argues that urban Fijian workers in NGOs define their identity within the Fijian community through an international "aesthetic" of modernity that constructs problems and approaches in terms of international concepts like the need for networks and for "grids" generating goals and plans for action. Both scholars suggest that modernity is constructed in imagination to create local identities (cf. Englund 2002). The life stories of several rural Fijians show that constructs of modernity are just as crucial to imagining identity as constructs of tradition. Examining how people use constructs of modernity to imagine their identities is important for understanding debates about the effects of colonization and globalization on Pacific identities. Some anthropologists (e.g., Barber 1997) argue that Third World postcolonials are trapped in a dynamic of trying to restore local control and pride by embracing romanticized, "essentialist," ethnic identities. In Fiji, for instance, prominent government figures have rejected democracy based on common roll elections as inappropriate to a Fijian culture based on ranked vanua (chieftainships tied to particular pieces of land). This was part of an effort to protect Fijian control of land and government when many feared that unchecked economic competition would quickly relegate indigenous Fijians to the bottom of a national and world order (Keesing 1989; Lawson 1996). These ideas were apparently illustrated by a 2000 coup in Fiji that brought with it renewed calls to return to a Fijian tradition of chiefly control and ties to the land. …

Gestational Surrogacy: Nature and Culture in Kinship

Abstract: Anthropological writing about the new reproductive technologies has focused on how they undermine presumed links between nature and culture in kinship. Surrogate motherhood in particular is said to show that "natural facts" serve as symbolic resources to facilitate choice, a key value of Western culture. This work has generated important insights into contemporary discourse about the social and cultural implications of reproductive technology. However, treating nature as a cultural domain exacerbates the tendency to divorce kinship from biology. An analysis of the stated motives of women who become gestational surrogates is presented here to support an argument that a focus on emotion, and its manipulation, can help anthropologists to better integrate human nature and culture in the study of kinship. (Surrogacy, kinship, nature, culture) ********** Peletz (1995) dates the end of "essentialist thinking" in the study of kinship to Needham's (1971) Rethinking Kinship and Marriage. That volume effectively decentered the field well before postmodernism, that indefatigable enemy of essence, reared its head in anthropology. The old view, held since Morgan, that kinship is something specific built from a combination of discrete elements (terminologies and rules of descent, marriage, and residence) gave way to an emphasis on context, where kinship is seen to be embedded in specific constellations of gender, power, difference, contradiction, paradox, and ambivalence. Contemporary analyses of gay families and surrogate motherhood in Western culture bring these points home, as they demonstrate how destabilized the building blocks of kinship in our own societies have become. Peletz (1995:366) approves dismantling the "building blocks" approach and kinship's anticipation of the postmodern critique, but criticizes an associated development, that anthropology has "turned its back" on biology. He sees this as especially unfortunate because new developments in reproductive technology make "'nature' and biology more relevant to our analytic thinking about kinship than they have been since Morgan." Surrogate motherhood provides particularly good opportunities for a reappraisal of the relationships between the "natural" and sociocultural aspects of reproduction and kinship. The opportunity to revisit some unresolved issues arises because the split between gestational and genetic motherhood has opened a range of new reproductive options. Conception and pregnancy can be separated and turned into commercial transactions and professionally managed procedures. A woman can give birth to her own grandchild, for example, by carrying a pregnancy from her daughter's egg. Embryos can be frozen and a child brought into the world long after its genetic parents are dead. The existence of such choices makes once apparently secure connections between biology, folk biology, conception ideology, and kinship categories less stable than they were. Does culture bend to accommodate these changes or, to paraphrase Ragone (1996:363), is surrogacy placed inside tradition? Overall, the anthropological literature about the new reproductive technologies takes a strongly culturalist view, one that illustrates Peletz's (1995) point about the antipathy toward biological models in recent kinship literature. Ragone (1998:2) links biological explanations with determinism, androcentrism, and ethnocentrism as factors behind the tunnel vision of previous anthropological accounts of reproduction. Ragone (1998:120) notes, "Reproduction is concerned with topics no less central than world view, cosmology and culture ... definitions of personhood; and the production of knowledge." Quoting Schneider, whose critique of the idea that kinship is anchored in procreation was as influential in undermining the building-blocks approach as Needham's, Ragone (1998:124) says, "It has become increasingly clear that 'biological' elements have primarily symbolic significance . …

Untangling conversion: Religious change and identity among the forest tobelo of Indonesia

Abstract: In the late 1980s, after decades of refusal, the Forest Tobelo foragers of northeastern Halmahera, Indonesia, converted to Christianity. The version of Christianity they accepted was not the one offered (or imposed) by coastal Tobelo- speaking communities with whom they share kinship and affinal ties, but was brought to the region by the American-based New Tribes Mission. This essay examines the factors and motivations behind this change, and offers an explanation that takes into account local histories, larger political and economic changes, such as deforestation and land encroachment, and the rarely examined topic of missionary methodologies. The Forest Tobelo decision to convert is best understood as an attempt to maintain their distinct identity from coastal communities with whom they have a long history of poor relations; the methods used by the New Tribes Mission made conversion an attractive option at that time. (Christianity, missionaries, Halmahera, conversion motivations) In March 1999, a Forest Tobelo man began preaching the Bible to the largest remaining group of unconverted Forest Tobelo living in the interior of central Halmahera. As the island erupted into communal violence later that year, he continued to teach despite requests from coastal communities that he stop. By October of that year a large number of the Forest Tobelo he was working with accepted the Christianity he was professing. At the same time, other Forest Tobelo missionaries were preaching to groups living in three other river valleys and were planning to go elsewhere on the island to proselytize. The seeds of this indigenous missionary movement were planted in 1982, when the New Tribes Mission arrived at Tanjung Lili in northeastern Halmahera and began laying the groundwork for their evangelism. This evangelistic activity eventually led the majority of the Forest Tobelo from the Lili, Waisango, and Afu Rivers to convert to Christianity in the late 1980s. Some of these converts now work as missionaries throughout central Halmahera. This article examines how and why a large number of Forest Tobelo decided to adopt Christianity after decades of refusal, and why they chose the New Tribes Mission version as opposed to that offered (or imposed) by the coastal Tobelo, with whom they share a language, kinship, and affinal ties. The explanation requires connecting the larger processes of social change that affected the Forest Tobelo with the moral and epistemological choices made at the individual level in decisions to accept or reject Christianity. Some models of conversion attribute such change to modernization or state incorporation, while others turn to Weberian notions of disenchantment and rationalization; i.e., an estrangement with an old way of life and the incorporation into a new social order led to the adoption of Christianity (Weber 1956; Horton 1975). However, as critics have noted, such explanations fail to take into account politics, economics, or hierarchies of power (Van der Veer 1996:10). In response, anthropologists and historians have switched their focus to the political economy of conversion and the power relationships involved, which are seen as an integral part of modernity. By adopting Christianity (or another world religion), people are in effect converting to modernity; e.g., joining the market economy, becoming citizens of a nation, etc. (Van der Veer 1996). At the same time, these theoretical approaches often view modernity as a force that overwhelms small-scale societies. They assume that these communities are victimized and have no agency in making the decision to convert (Meyer 1996:226 n. 35). However, conversion is not a simple choice between domination or appropriation, but rather a dialectic between the two (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991; Comaroff and Comaroff 1997:49). When the missionaries arrived in central Halmahera with their agendas for evangelism, the Forest Tobelo had their own agendas, which at times conflicted and at others times coincided with those of the New Tribes Mission. …

Negotiating Culture: Conflict and Consensus in U.S. Garage-Sale Bargaining

Abstract: Although bargaining is often used in the purchase of high-priced items, Americans are ambivalent about the practice of haggling. The U.S. garage sale is one of the few venues where numbers of Americans bargain for low- to moderately priced goods, but common understandings about garage-sale bargaining are unevenly shared among American participants, who are accustomed to fixed-price merchandise. Students and foreign-born participants from cultures with more robust bargaining styles afford a contrast with the preferred American pattern of socially engaged bargaining, allowing the underlying normative patterns and strategies for American garage-sale bargaining to emerge. The polarization that can ensue from bargaining negotiations also highlights the underdocumented cultural values of friendliness and pleasantness that ideally surround commercial transactions in the United States. (Bargaining, United States, garage sales) ********** This article addresses bargaining in the U.S. garage sale, one of the few places in America where shoppers and sellers haggle for low- to moderately priced goods. Although it is not representative of mainstream economic practices, garage-sale bargaining does shed light on American values surrounding economic exchange and on the American ambivalence toward the practice of bargaining itself. The blatant vying for material advantage in bargaining reveals a set of values that, although always present in commercial transactions, are usually muted by the convention of fixed prices and an aura of pleasantness attendant to store purchases. The garage sale provides a site in which to explore the tensions in U.S. exchange between the socially affirming and egalitarian on the one hand, and the individual maximizing and unequal on the other, and to come to appreciate how the relative balance in the exchange shifts. Bargaining practice both reflects the veneer of friendliness of daily commercial transactions and at times lays bare the struggle for advantage that often underlies exchange. This examination of small-scale bargaining, sometimes over nickels and dimes, complicates the essentialized depiction of the West as a thoroughly rationalized economic system (Carrier 1992), affording a more nuanced picture of American exchange, and provides a unique ethnographic statement about this practice. The focus here is on the cultural aspects of garage-sale bargaining, although factors such as gender and class can also be important in bargaining practice (Herrmann, In press). This essay demonstrates that particular American patterns of garage-sale bargaining exist, if unevenly accepted, and are practiced with considerable inter- and intracultural variation. Roughly stated, there is a circumscribed range of culturally tolerated bargaining behavior and those who transgress these boundaries may be viewed as aggressive, self-serving, and even greedy. This essay also contributes to the growing body of literature on cultural economics (e.g., Gudeman 1986; Wilk 1996), particularly in the West, where the overarching market paradigm obscures t l? social relations and cultural components of economic exchange (e.g., Carrier 1997, 1998; Dilley 1992; Plattner 1996), and to the literature on the sociocultural construction of price in Western exchange (Alexander 1992; Geismar 2001; Prus 1985). After introducing the social and cultural context of the garage sale, the essay presents factors that influence bargaining there: polarization; paradigms and patterns; and pride, performance, and play. Many recent anthropological treatments of bargaining utilize an information approach, in which buyers and sellers have differential access to information, to understanding the practice (e.g., Alexander and Alexander 1987; Fanselow 1990; Geertz 1979). According to the information model, one quite familiar to Western consumers, shoppers engage in an extensive search for standardized or homogeneous goods, seeking the best price for fungible goods from a number of venders. …

When is a divorce a divorce? Determining intention in Zanzibar's Islamic courts

Abstract: Establishing intention in legal acts is a crucial element of judicial reasoning in Zanzibar's Islamic courts. This article explores how Islamic judges determine the validity of divorce-related actions through assessing the intention of the actors involved. Examining two recent cases from a court in rural Zanzibar demonstrates how a judge determines the intention behind actions. The judge considers the range of possible meanings of divorce-related actions in the cultural context of Zanzibar. (Zanzibar, Islam, intention, divorce, judges) Establishing the presence or absence of intention in legal acts is a crucial element of judicial reasoning in Zanzibar's Islamic courts. This article examines the way in which Islamic judges, kadhis, determine the validity of divorce-related actions through assessing the intention of the actors involved. Intention, or nia in Kiswahili (from the Arabic niyya), is an important Islamic theological concept with great legal relevance. Also, it is a significant part of the discourse surrounding divorce among lay people in Zanzibar. In marital disputes, the kadhi understands and applies the principle of intention in light of changing cultural norms of gender roles in marriage and with respect to views of individual agency in marital practice and divorce. Examining two recent cases from a court in rural Zanzibar will demonstrate exactly how a judge determines the intention behind actions by considering the range of possible meanings of divorce-related actions in the cultural context of Zanzibar. In assessing the relationship between outward actions and intangible inner states, the judge considers the possible scenarios in which a divorce-related legal action can occur. He determines the most likely meaning of the action through considering the evidence presented in court by litigants and witnesses in light of such scenarios. The cases examined here are examples of disputed divorce, those in which husband and wife disagree whether a valid divorce has taken place outside of the court. A detailed look at the proceedings of two similar cases shows the ways in which the kadhi determines the validity of out-of-court divorce actions through assessing the intentions of the actors involved. The cases show that establishing validity is not simply a matter of determining whether the divorce has been issued, but hinges on whether the proper intention was there when the divorce action was performed. If the meaning of the action relies on the intention, how, in such circumstances, can the intention of the actor be established? Messick (2001:178) has written, "Given the assumed gap between forms of expression and intention, legal analyses amount to attempts to erect bridges from the accessible to the inaccessible. The interpretive work of evaluating spoken and written expression ... represents such a bridging effort." This article demonstrates one jurist's practice of bridging through his recognition of the multiple interpretations of actions and the motivations of the actors based on the presupposition of scenarios of male-female, husband-wife interactions at this particular point in Zanzibari social and cultural history. More broadly, the research contributes to the anthropology of law and Islam. It builds on the work of contemporary scholars who argue that Islamic law should not be considered immutable and extracultural, but rather should be acknowledged as flexible, culturally located, and open to interpretation (Haeri 1989; Messick 1993; Bowen 1999; Mir-Hosseini 1993). In much of the Muslim world, Islamic family law is part of the state legal system, and many states make provisions for primary-level Muslim courts. There is a growing, though still small, literature on how Islamic law is interpreted and applied by jurists at the local level, and how litigants apply legal knowledge and use Islamic courts (e.g., Rosen 1989; Dwyer 1990; Hirsch 1998; Mir-Hosseini 1999). Any study of courtroom practice and judicial reasoning must take into account the broader picture; for "a reading of the record alone--or for that matter, observation of the entire courtroom proceeding--would not reveal the complexities of the case" (Rosen 1995:197). …

Cocaine in Miskitu villages

Abstract: During the 1990s, Miskitu people in the coastal villages north of Puerto Cabezas began finding cocaine washed up on the beach and on the Miskitu Keys just off the coast. Drug runners carrying the cocaine north apparently dump it overboard when pursued by authorities. Cocaine wealth has been used differently in two local communities. In Sandy Bay, cocaine money has been used to build new houses, schools, and churches, in a project of self-directed development. As a result, Sandy Bay appears prosperous. In Awastara, on the other hand, there is tittle evidence of new wealth from cocaine. Unfortunately, in all the coastal communities, cocaine finds have also led to deaths from overdoses, cocaine addiction among young men, and increased theft and violence. (Cocaine, drug trade, Miskitu Indians, economic development, violence) ********** A Washington Times story from June 11, 2002 (Sullivan 2002), deals with the cocaine trade in Sandy Bay, 40 miles north of Puerto Cabezas, on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast (see Map). (2) Cocaine has also affected life in Awastara, fifteen miles south of Sandy Bay, where I conducted two separate periods of fieldwork (Dennis 1981, 1988). (3) However, the drug trade seems to have affected the two communities differently. The newspaper article describes the Sandy Bay council of elders commiserating over the social problems cocaine has caused in their community. Six young men have died, robberies plague the community, even the Moravian Church is said to be involved. One of the Sandy Bay elders tells the foreign journalists: "Yes, the tribe is involved in the drug trade. And now they need help. Several years ago, sacks of Columbian cocaine arrived accidentally, floating in on the tides, in what the locals called a 'gift of God.' It has since turned into the devil's own trap, killing young Miskito Indian men and damaging the Miskito culture perhaps beyond repair" (Sullivan 2002:A 13). At the same time, however, the rather sensationalistic article describes the freshly painted new houses in Sandy Bay, suggesting new levels of prosperity. Evidently there are internal contradictions involved in the current drug trade. On the one hand, cocaine creates serious social problems; on the other hand, it brings riches. In the absence of other economic opportunities, is the cocaine trade a form of economic development? After all, other kinds of economic development also have negative consequences. How does cocaine fit into the history of drug use on the Coast? And, how shall the social problems involved in cocaine use be evaluated without lapsing into pious moral judgments? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALCOHOL AND COCAINE Miskitu ethnohistory reports the use of mind-altering substances from the early contact period. A native beer called mishla was brewed from fermented cassava and other fruits and vegetables. These homemade beers were drunk in great quantities at sikru, feasts for the dead, and on other ceremonial occasions. Distilled liquor, when it became available through trade, was apparently treated in the same fashion. The attractions of alcohol were noted by Bell (1989:96), a perceptive ninteenth-century observer of Miskitu life: "The vice of drunkenness is inherent in all Indians, and when they can get intoxicating drink they have neither the power nor the desire to abstain. Fortunately for them, they seldom have the means to buy spirits, and the intoxicating drinks made by themselves consume too much of their provisions to be indulged in frequently." In Awastara, drinking is still a seemingly irresistible attraction for adult men, in some circumstances and at particular points in life. Drinking behavior is also strongly gendered: men drink, but women are roundly criticized if they imbibe at all. Drinking behavior is also related to the life cycle: young men often go through periods of binge drinking before they settle down as responsible heads of families later in life. …

Culture, practice, and the semantics of Xhosa beer-drinking

Abstract: Rural Xhosa beer-drinking is associated with a specialized lexicon related to producing, distributing, and ritually consuming maize beer in communal settings. Understanding this provides important insights into the status of beer as an indigenous commodity and the link between its consumption and sociopolitical and economic relations. It is in relation to the formal cultural framework of which the beer-drinking register is part that individual agency is exercised and a reflexive engagement with social practice occurs, and through which the meaning of specific ritual events is negotiated. (Xhosa, ritual lexicon, beer-drinking register, indigenous commodities) ********** The social nature of consuming alcoholic beverages has received considerable attention from anthropologists, many of whom have noted the importance of the conversation that accompanies drinking and which provides vital clues to its significance (Frake 1972). However, the language associated with the process of producing, distributing, and consuming the beverage itself is a neglected topic, as is evident, for example, from Douglas's (1987) collection of essays on drinking behavior and Heath's (1987a and 1987b) extensive reviews of work on the social use of alcohol. Much of the ethnography of drinking, concerned as it is with social messages or the relationship between drinking and other social phenomena, has ignored the indigenous terminology associated with the beverage consumed, failing to document it or explicitly recognize its role in the construction of the analysis. (1) A variety of Xhosa beer-drinking terms are discussed in this article with a view to demonstrating how they contribute to an understanding of public beer-drinking events (hereafter referred to as beer-drinks). It becomes clear from a study of this kind that beer is not a homogeneous thing, but a social commodity that gives symbolic substance to a variety of ideas about moral and social relationships. Beer's status as a social commodity, based on its exchangeability, emerges in the nomenclature given to it and in the meaning and value attached to it in particular contexts. Expressed slightly differently, beer's social potential is fulfilled through the various naming and associated distribution (exchange) strategies applied to it. Through differentiating beer in a variety of ways and by linking it to other forms of symbolization based on the spatial and temporal features of beer-drinking encounters, the exchange and consumption of this alcoholic beverage are used by people to imaginatively construct their world. In this sense Xhosa beer-drinking is generally similar to the ritualized consumption of food in many parts of the world. As with feasting or other forms of ceremonial drinking such as kava in the Pacific, it facilitates the construction of identity and the negotiation of sociopolitical relationships (LeCount 2001; Turner 1992; Brison 2001). The fieldwork for this study was conducted among conservative Xhosa-speakers in Shixini ward or administrative area of the Willowvale district of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, in what was formerly the Transkei. Like other rural Xhosa-speakers, people in Shixini spend a great deal time attending a wide variety of events associated with drinking home-brewed maize beer (utywala or umqombothi). It is no surprise, therefore, that beer-drinking is associated with a specialized lexicon, a set of words and terms that constitute a beer-drinking register. Many of these are found only in association with beer, but others are everyday words used creatively to produce specific contextual meanings at beer-drinks. This lexicon is divided below into semantic groups according to different phases of beer-drinking. In the process it becomes evident that the words themselves are part of an elaborate etiquette that is used to impart cultural significance to drinking and the relationships involved in it. (2) The formalization of a beer-drinking lexicon as an aspect of rural Xhosa culture imposes certain constraints on the range of meanings that may be associated with beer and restricts the uses to which it may be put. …

Older Women as Caregivers and Ancestral Protection in Rural Japan

Abstract: Ancestral appearance in the dreams of older women is closely related to Japanese tendencies to center responsibilities for taking care of family health and well-being on women Two points related to women and ancestor veneration are: 1) when confronted with the question of how people know they are protected by the ancestors, many informants turned to discussions of specific dream experiences in which ancestors appeared; and 2) although men report seeing ancestors in dreams and ancestral-dream experiences can happen at any age, the appearance of ancestors in dreams has gendered and age-dependent features Particularly as they enter into middle and old age, women often become caretakers of the collective well-being of the family and the appearance of ancestors in dreams becomes a signal that something is amiss in the world of the living Regular participation in ancestor-related rituals and reporting of ancestral dreams is one way in which elderly women, in particular, can exercise their caregiving role by mediating the worlds of the living and dead and conveying the concern of the ancestors to their descendants (Dreams, ancestors, Japan, gender, elderly women, ritual) ********** Ritual behavior associated with shrine visitation and ancestor veneration in Japan is often organized around what can be understood as a total life-care system that is used to enact worldly benefits and well-being for oneself and one's family (Reader and Tanabe 1998) This life-care system involves reciprocal relationships between spiritual entities and humans that are enacted through ritual to ensure and maintain personal and collective well-being Rituals associated with ancestor veneration are particularly important in this reciprocal and interdependent life-care system In terms of reciprocity, the dead and living are linked through social interactions enacted in the context of ritual practice Just as the living keep the ancestors socially involved in their world through ritual performance and provide for the ancestors through food offerings, often of rice and water, the ancestors are seen as watching over and protecting the people whom they have left behind As one Buddhist priest from Akita Prefecture put it, "There is a feeling of give and take between the living and the dead The ancestors protect the living in return for offerings of rice" However, this relationship is not simply one of exchange nor is it necessarily symmetrical Without ritual attention, there is a risk that the ancestors will become muenbotoke (lit, unattached or wandering spirits), not cared for properly by the living In much the same way as one's children and other family members need love and attention, ancestors, too, need emotional support, which is expressed largely through ritual practice Ancestor-veneration rituals serve to keep the dead attached to people in the world of the living through a combination of affectively and materially maintained bonds The ritual obligations associated with care are the basis for an interdependent and complementary relationship between living and dead Both roles, the living and the ancestors, are structured around ideas of supplication and nurturance that shape many interdependent Japanese relationships, such as the mother-child bond Ancestors and living not only reciprocate, but also depend upon each other for care (Lebra 1976:240) These characteristics of supplication and nurturance exist simultaneously in both roles The living and the ancestors depend upon each other for their continued well-being and for their existence: the living would not exist without the ancestors, and the ancestors depend upon the living to keep them involved, as memories, in the world of the living and to provide the love and attention that all humans require In short, living and dead are mutually involved in enacting and maintaining each other's well-being Well-being within this framework is often conceptualized as extending beyond the individual to include the prosperity and health of one's stem family (Smith 1974), although there is a rising tendency to celebrate the dead apart from the context of the stem family, emphasizing more the memory of specific deceased rather than the collective ancestors (Suzuki 1998:185) …

Weeping in a Taiwanese Buddhist charismatic movement

Abstract: Emotion can be a locus of interpretation and a motor for religious commitment. This is illustrated with the thick description of uncontrolled weeping that recurred with the followers of a Buddhist charismatic movement in modern Taiwan. Ethnography of the ubiquity of weeping in this group suggests that emotion in religion expressed in tears is not limited to rituals or uncanny phenomena; and the devotees' and the leader's interpretation of weeping reveals the multivocality and the individual agency of the symbolic emotion. This emotion, expressed in weeping, is not a dialogue of culture but a construct of identity evoked by religious charisma. (Weeping, emotion, religion, charisma, Taiwan) ********** This article attempts a symbolic analysis of uncontrolled crying and its implication in the broader cultural context of a Taiwanese religious charismatic group whose devotees sometimes describe themselves as people who love to cry (Minnan, aikhau; Mandarin, aikuae). Sometimes they weep together, and many members trace their conversion to an inexplicable flood of tears. Uncontrolled crying is especially common among the female followers, who often sob, yet never wail. They remember having cried, and never try to stop any tearful fellow participant from crying, even during the most tranquil ceremonies. Such expressiveness contrasts with the image of Chinese people as rarely showing emotion. At the same time, the pervasiveness of their tears transgressed the conventional domain of adult public crying in Chinese culture. Wailing is not unusual at rituals such as funerals and weddings (Ahern 1986 [1973]; Blake 1979). The common perception of crying tends to be limited to wailing during these two events, characterized by performative expressions of loss and departure. Whether Chinese people shed tears outside these special rites and to what extent their tears represent multiple meanings beyond the sentiments of loss are themes that have not received much attention. A more important problem with the characterization is that it hinges the interpretation of crying on the metaphorical representation and/or reversal of the social relation enjoined by public discourse of patrilineality and patrilocality; i.e., ancestor worship elaborated in the funeral, and the severing of ties between a daughter and her family upon marriage. Although family (being both patrilineal and patrilocal) has been a primary source of emotion and of the construction of self in Chinese culture (Wolf 1968), a conflation of interpretation of emotional expression and metaphor runs the risk of restricting the multivocality of symbolism pertaining to the expression (Turner 1995 [1969]:41-43; Weller 1994) to an assumed mind/body dichotomy (Strathern 1993). A prescribed meaning structure of crying in relation to cultural ideology limits grasping other discourses involved and the importance of individual agency in interpreting emotion. The pervasive crying described here calls for an approach that synthesizes the two anthropological fields of emotion and religion. Religion seems to have been sidelined in the sociocentric anthropology of emotion (Abu-Lughod 1985; Lutz 1988; Lutz and Abu-Lughod 1990; Rosaldo 1992 [1984]). At the same time, anthropologists of religion describe emotion as a part of the phenomenological experience in particular ritual settings such as healing and spirit possession (e.g., Boddy 1989; Csordas 1990:18-23; Lewis 1978 [1971]) and seem not to have attempted emotion as an analytical category. This essay looks at religion through weeping, a nonverbal expression of emotion that recurs in multiple contexts including but not confined to ritual or uncanny experience (Mitchell 1997). Through exploring the interpretations of crying in its multiple contexts, this article seeks to show that 1) emotion, as embodied in nonverbal uncontrolled crying, constitutes a commitment to religious charisma; and 2) that the charismatic religious discourse of crying does not subscribe to Taiwan cultural ideology, yet it still taps into the power of crying within the broader cultural context. …

Adolescent ambiguities and the negotiation of belonging in the Andes

Abstract: Although typically marginal to conceptions of citizenship, children also negotiate their belonging to the nation. This article explores the ways adolescent girls in a rural region of Bolivia use clothing to identify themselves with various collectivities: nation, region, and family. Their consumption and displays of fashion are shaped by national and local discourses of gender, race, and the civilized. Navigating multiple identifications simultaneously, their everyday and ritual practices disrupt assumed oppositions between "Indian" and "Bolivian." (Youth, gender, race, identity, Bolivia) Hegemonic notions of modern citizens and national identities are typically built on unmarked categories of masculinity, "whiteness," urban residence, and adulthood, yet women, nonwhites, and children also are citizens, both in the formal sense of having the "right to carry a specific passport" (Yuval-Davis 1997) and in a practical sense of actively negotiating their belonging to national collectivities. Although often relegated to the margins of political arenas, the ways in which women and ethnic minorities are materially and symbolically crucial to the construction and maintenance of borders between places and categorical distinctions between kinds of people have in recent years been explored by scholars from a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives (Albro 2000; Kaplan, Alarcon, and Moallem 1999; Collins 1998; de Grazia 1996; de la Cadena 2000; Layoun 2001; Luykx 1999; McClintock 1995; Nugent 1998; Parker, Sommer, and Yeager 1992; Radcliffe and Westwood 1996; Stephenson 1999; Stoler 1995; Weismantel 2001; Yuval-Davis 1997). Much of this work, drawing on a Foucaultian framework (Foucault 1972, 1978), demonstrates the ways in which colonial and national states engage and depend on establishing not only new political and economic organizations but also social actors able to function within them. From this perspective Stephens (1995a:6) asks, "In what respects are children--as foci of gender-specific roles in the family, as objects of regulation and development in the school, and as symbols of the future and of what is at stake in contests over cultural identity--pivotal in the structuring of modernity?" In the highland region of Pocoata (Province of Chayanta, Department of Potosi), Bolivia, children and young adults come into contact with urban hegemonic notions of national identity and become integrated into national arenas through education in rural public schools (Luykx 1999; Stephenson 1999), migration to urban areas for work (Gill 1994), consumption of commodities (Colloredo-Mansfield 1999; Parker, Sommer, and Yeager 1992), mass media, and mandatory military service (Gill 1997). But if people's subjective views are partially shaped through state and civil institutions, they are also inextricably intertwined with personal experiences and local conceptions of childhood and youth, and gender and family (Stephens 1995a: 16; Stoler 1995). Moreover, children and youth are not simply objects of regulation or symbols of future identities. Children imagine themselves and enact themselves as gendered, ethnic, national, and transnational entities. They are themselves social actors who in their ordinary lives do not simply take on the nation's politics as their everyday psychology (Coles 1986; Stephens 1995a:3; also see Amit-Talai and Wulff 1995; Bucholtz 2002; Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1995; Lomawaima 1995; Luykx 1999; Stephens 1995b). This article explains how the consumption of clothing is a site for understanding how Pocoata youths experience the possibilities and constraints of their own belonging in Bolivia at the turn of the twenty-first century. (2) The focus on Pocoata girls particularly is meant to challenge notions of citizenship and categories of identity not usually assumed to be significant to the nation, and to analyze practices not usually considered political. The ethnographic episodes presented here are drawn from 22 months of research primarily conducted in rural Quechua-speaking communities in 1995-1996 and more recently with Pocoata migrants in the cities of Sucre and Cochabamba in 2001 and 2003. …

Latino naming practices of small-town businesses in rural southern Florida

Abstract: This article examines naming practices of Latino grocery stores and restaurants in an eighteen-county area of southern Florida. Business names denote cultural affinity and personal whims, and, like other forms of Latino cultural expression, they are drawn from the cultural roots of owners and clientele to connote the flavor and pride of Latino identity. Unlike other art or literary forms, however, business names reflect a commercial accommodation to the techniques and strategies of marketing more than a defiance of mainstream culture or the statement of cultural resistance to Anglo society. Their choices are strongly influenced by places and experiences that reflect Latino culture outside the local area rather than locales of current residence within rural southern Florida. (Transmigrant business, farm workers, naming practices and sociocultural identity, population expansion and rural settlement, southern Florida) ********** Discussing the shifting ethnicities that accompany the process of globalization, Hall (1991:42) calls identity "the ground of action," suggesting that the way one identifies is what will most influence one's behavior. Rouse (1992) provides additional discussion on what this might mean for Latino immigrants, for whom, he argues, an alternative framework is needed. He suggests that Latino immigrants maintain interests and commitment to family and the town from which they came at the same time that they develop another way of viewing the world through their experience in a new environment. He calls views from these dual experiences "bifocality." This article extends the work of these two authors, first by considering expressions of identity in naming practices for grocery stores and restaurants, and then by expanding the community of interest beyond migrant laborers to the entrepreneurial class within the Latino population. To do this assumes that the individuals who engage in entrepreneurial activities (specifically establishment and management of a business) may include men and women with backgrounds similar to their clientele. By way of a statistical analysis, I examine the formulation of immigrants as members of "multiple communities" (Chavez 1994) by testing the influence of place and experience on naming practices for grocery stores and restaurants. The context for this inquiry is the process of Latinoization in rural areas of southern Florida, chosen for the rapid growth of the Latino population within the southeastern United States and that part of Florida. Increases in Latino and Latino-origin Caribbean people within the southeastern United States are similar to processes of Latinoization in other areas of the country, notably rural California, where persons of Mexican ancestry predominate in many towns and small cities (Allensworth and Rochin 1998). At one time, Chicago had the largest concentration of persons of Mexican ancestry living outside the southwest (de Lourdes Villar 1994), but this has changed. Latinos are increasingly found in metropolitan areas, such as Washington, D.C. (Pessar 1995), and New York City (Sontag 1998) in the northeast, or small towns and cities in the midwest, such as Garden City, Kansas (Stull, Broadway, and Erickson 1992). Another area of the country that draws large numbers of Latinos is rural southern Florida. The term "rural" is to be used with caution. Three counties of interest in this article (Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Hillsborough) have sparsely populated portions that are devoted to highly productive agriculture, but also have metropolitan urban areas (West Palm Beach, Miami, and Tampa, respectively) for which the counties are better known. Residents of Miami-Dade County, for example, distinguish South Dade as the southern, agricultural portion of the county from the northern (Miami) portion (Bryan, pers. comm.; also Greiner et al. 1992:69n). Unlike the phenomenon of past decades of concentrated numbers of a single national origin that settle in one region or area (Allensworth and Rochin 1998), several national origins comprise the Latino population in rural counties of southern Florida. …

Ritual, knowledge, and the politics of identity in Andean festivities

Abstract: As anthropologists criticize the essentialist descriptions of South American indigenous peoples as anachronistic guardians of ancient traditions, some indigenous peoples are promoting just such an image of themselves. In 1996, political authorities in Salasaca, Ecuador, changed the process for selecting festival sponsors from appointment by nuns to a competition in which festival sponsors were tested on their knowledge of local culture and history, particularly a knowledge of sacred geography. (Landscape, identity, tradition, festivals, Andes) ********** Recent changes in the festive-ritual cycle in the indigenous parish of Salasaca in the Ecuadorian Andes occurred in the process for selecting a lead festival sponsor, the alcalde mayor. Rather than allowing the priest and nuns to choose an alcalde mayor, indigenous leaders instituted a competition in which candidates were asked questions about Salasacan history and culture. People changed the sponsorship system by implementing competitions that combined cultural knowledge and identity politics. The competition transformed the role of the alcalde until a new set of political leaders took office. People have now gone back to the old practice of allowing the nuns to select the alcalde mayor. This article traces the rise and fall of the competitions and the changing role of the alcalde. The competition was a ritual display of culture, but one that emphasized "traditional" knowledge from local elders. Several of the questions for the competition were about sacred geography: places such as mountains and crossroads that have long been a part of collective and individual religious experiences. This knowledge of sacred places has now become a symbol of cultural heritage and local identity, and the landscape has become a part of the identity politics of the competition for sponsorship. Beginning with a discussion of identity politics, invented traditions, and the display of culture with indigenous peoples in modern Ecuador, this article then turns to the sponsorship system, including the history of the institution of the alcalde and his traditional and modern duties. It then describes the competition for the post and the installation of new alcaldes in 1998. The focus here is on sacred places and the significance of the landscape to Salasacans today. The political use of sacred places as a topic for the discourse of "cultural rescue" reveals the importance of geography in the modern spiritual life of the people. They use sacred places not only as a symbol of cultural heritage, but also as part of their lived experience. The recent transformations in the festival-sponsorship system show how political movements at the national level affect indigenous communities at the local level. In this case, the national political slogans led to an emphasis on unique, local aspects of culture. IDENTITY POLITICS AND THE DISPLAY OF CULTURE The anthropology of modern Ecuador reflects recent discourse in anthropology as much as recent transformations in Ecuador. One area of interest is the increasingly political nature of ethnic identity formation among Ecuador's diverse population. Through the performance of identities and the invention of tradition, indigenous peoples display an objectified image of their cultural heritage. Invented traditions are a means by which self-defined cultural groups and nations identify with reference to their constructed, collective pasts (Anderson 1991; Connerton 1989; Hobsbawm 1983; Trouillot 1995). In Ecuador, invented traditions often take the form of the performance of identities rooted in an indigenous past of "authentic" culture (Rogers 1998b; Tolen 1998). The construction of a cultural heritage serves to define the collective self as opposed to "others" who do not share that cultural heritage. In Ecuador, cultural heritage is crucial to the self-definition of indigenous ethnic groups and is a key element in the indigenous-rights movement within the nation state. …

Kinship and marriage among the Omaha, 1886-1902

Abstract: "Omaha" kinship is a major model for patrilineal kinship and marital exchanges. However, some authors have suggested that kinship rules and unilineal descent are merely theoretical constructs of anthropologists or cultural ideals usually not followed in practice. Given the importance of "Omaha" kinship for theory, this article tests the normative rules for marriage against empirical data on actual marriage behavior among the late-nineteenth-century Omaha tribe of Nebraska using Bureau of Indian Affairs census rolls. The results confirm that the majority of Omaha did indeed follow the normative rules upon which the "Omaha" model is based. The implications for kinship studies is that descent theory and alliance models can still be considered valid approaches to societies prior to historic changes. (Omaha, Crow-Omaha exchange, patrilocal, patrilineal) ********** A trend among some anthropologists is to claim that classificatory kinship models are theoretical constructs imposed upon cultures by Euro-American ethnographers or that the models are normative descriptions of cultural ideals rarely practiced. Schneider (1984) critiques several preconceived assumptions on kinship that influence ethnographers' interpretations. One of Schneider's main criticisms is the assumption that non-Western cultures conceptualize biological relations in the same way as Western cultures, which he claims is the basis for descent theory (Carsten 2000; Franklin and McKinnon 2001; Schneider 1984). The realization that biological affinity is not conceptualized, operationalized, or even important to social life from one culture to another has given way to studies on relatedness in an effort to reinvent understandings of kinship (e.g., Carsten 2000; Franklin and McKinnon 2001). These studies emphasize multiple ways that individuals relate to one another: through descent relations, affinal relations, friendship relations, political relations, and economic relations (e.g., Hutchinson 2000; Stafford 2000). Relations are thus seen as actively manipulated and reconceptualized within changing cultural contexts. Another manner in which anthropologists are beginning to understand relatedness is through "house" theory. Although Levi-Strauss (1982, 1987) originally thought of his proposed house societies as one category alongside descent categories, more recent proponents of house theory tend to argue that people's relations rarely conform to the descent models (e.g., Gillespie 2000a; Carsten and Hugh-Jones 1995). Gillespie (2000b: 1) summarizes this view in her opening paragraph: "Ethnographic descriptions have dispelled the notion that prescriptive and proscriptive kinship `rules' govern social life." Schneider (1984) also claimed that an illogical separation of biological relations from political and economic relations characterized much of kinship theory prior to the 1970s. However, there is a tradition in anthropology for viewing a relationship between these inseparable parts. Social organization, and hence descent, are interrelated with political and economic relations, while marriage preferences and postmarital residence reproduce those social relations (e.g., Gjessing 1975; Godelier 1984; Morgan 1870; Moore 1991; Peletz 1995; Schweizer and White 1998; Wolf 1982:88-96). If we accept this premise, which seems to be the direction the "reinvented" (e.g., Carsten 2000) understanding of kinship is going, then in a modern era of intensified incorporation in global capitalism we should expect changes in the ways people understand their relatedness. However, we should not conclude that modern changing cultures reflect social relations in their nineteenth-century and earlier ascendant cultures, which much of descent theory was based upon. With the exception of Levi-Strauss's (1982, 1987) house societies that were based on ethnohistorical documentation, many ethnographies purported to contradict descent theory are in fact post-World War II. …

The mixed economy of the South Indian Kurumbas

Abstract: This article reports on the Kurumbas, forager-horticulturists of Attappady, India. The concern here is with the relationship between the subsistence economy and social organization in an attempt to explain the persistence of both immediate- and delayed-return systems. The explanation I propose lies in the nature of adaptation to the physical environment and Kurumba relations with tribal and peasant neighbors that affect their subsistence pattern and put them in a state of partial transformation; i.e., suspended between, while participating in, different economic and social arenas. (Social organization, hunter-gatherers, Kurumbas, Attappady) That present-day foragers are hardly representative of a paleolithic way of life is well known. For several hundreds of years they have been heavily dependent upon both part-time cultivation or herding and trade with food-producing populations (Lee and De Vore 1968; Myers 1988; Lee 1992; Bird-David 1988, 1992; Headland and Reid 1989; Headland 1991; Guddemi 1992). In brief, hunter-gatherers cannot be understood as independent from and unaffected by other sectors of a wider network (Denbow 1984). Although the Kurumbas of Attappady, India, are described as engaged in hunting and gathering, these modern foragers(1) combine and flexibly shift between hunting and gathering, swidden cultivation, small-scale herding, trade, and occasional wage labor. There are different mixes of these components in any hunting-gathering society, depending on historical factors and such conditions as available resources, ecological parameters, technology, relations with neighbors, type of trade networks, etc. Important features that characterize relations of production among foragers include collective ownership of the means of production, an emphasis on the importance of co-operation, egalitarian patterns of sharing, flexibility in the local group membership, and little emphasis on accumulation. Some of these features are shared by horticultural people who are at the egalitarian end of the spectrum, but what differentiates egalitarian farmers from foragers is the latter's loose structure and the greater informality of their arrangements. Similarly, certain formal and structured aspects of horticultural societies are present in some hunter-gatherer societies. Although a certain mode of subsistence procurement is characteristic of foragers, other aspects of their culture vary. Failure to recognize this masks the flexible nature of these societies. Woodburn (1982) suggests that there are two kinds of food-gathering societies based on their economy and social organization: an immediate-return system and a delayed-return system, the first based on the immediate use of food resources and the second based on the yield of labor over time. An immediate-return economy is flexible and relies on multiple alternative strategies. A delayed- return system is found among more sedentary foragers whose economic cycle includes massive harvests and storage of a seasonal resource, such as occurs with economies based on crop cultivation. There are contradictions between the organization and ideology of immediate-return societies and the organization and ideology of delayed-return societies. The most important of these is the contradiction between sharing (or generalized reciprocity) which is central to a hunting and gathering way of life, and the husbanding of resources, which is central to a farming and herding way of life (Lee 1979:412-13). Societies with immediate-return economic systems have immediate-return social organization, and societies with delayed-return economic systems have delayed-return social organization. Among the different approaches to understanding the social systems of foraging societies, some prefer a neat correlation between the subsistence mode and social organization, and assume that the subsistence mode is a primary factor in determining social organization (e.g., Lee and De Vote 1968). …

Irish farming households in Eastern Canada: Domestic production and family size

Abstract: Irish farming households in Eastern Canada during the postfamine period (1861-1871) are used as the basis for a theoretical discussion of domestic production and family size The purpose here is to extend discussion of the Chayanov (1966) model of peasant economies, and offer modifications of this model based on empirical variations in Irish Canadian household composition, dependency ratios, and overall farm size This article suggests that the topic of choice and the assumption of risk be made a more explicit part of the Chayanov analysis, since farmers' decisions regarding productive capacity are apt to be made on a more holistic view of a farm's assets, and not just on the basis of cultivated acreage per worker (Irish Canadian households, domestic production, family composition, Chayanov model) ********** On the subject of farm performance, or what Sahlins (1971) referred to as the intensity of domestic production, previous studies by Kane (1968) and Symes (1972) have raised several important substantive issues concerning Irish households that have not yet been adequately resolved (2) Kane (1968), for example, draws comparisons between rural households in southwestern Donegal and those of an Irish-American community in Ohio Such studies of transcontinental relationships in Irish families are a valuable addition to the literature because they illuminate structural similarities and differences in Irish farming as adaptations to new ecological and social settings Thus, farm performance can be understood in a transitional sense, as an adaptive process Differences between Irish American and Donegal households affecting performance include kinship structures that "serve as a central distributing point for services, minor economic aid, and the exchange of goods" (Kane 1968:254) Based on ethnographic research in Ballyferriter, southwest Ireland, Symes (1972:25) concluded that "the most important variable is the structure of the family unit itself [and these] variations occur both through time and through space" Examples of these variations include decreases in household size due to depopulation, transitional or structural factors such as those resulting in a change from "stem" to nuclear families, and a growing scarcity of farm labor All in all, "with a fairly rapid decline of household size during dispersal [resulting from emigration and moves to urban centers] and the increasing age and diminishing aspirations of the farmer, the level of farm production may be expected to decline" (Symes 1972:35) This article on Irish farming households of Renfrew County (Admaston Township) in eastern Canada differs from those just mentioned in some significant ways First, based on Canadian census data from the postfamine period of 1861-71 (Canada 1861, 1871), farm performance is explored in the context of population expansion, rather than depopulation, as is the case with most previous Irish studies Theoretically, it is beneficial to study farming communities undergoing growth and expansion as a balance to a focus on those communities in decline Second, the longitudinal approach taken here, extending over a decade in the same geographical area, illuminates the extent to which variations in household size and composition affect farm performance IRISH EMIGRATION TO CANADA Prior to the cataclysmic Great Famine (1846-49) in Ireland, emigration to Canada varied considerably from one decade to another (Elliot 1988; Houston and Smyth 1990; MacKay 1990; Mannion 1974; and Moran 1994) Migration from Irish ports to British North America (Canada) between 1825 and 1845 reached a high of 40,977 individuals in 1831 and a low of 2,284 in 1838 Curiously, corresponding figures for Irish emigration to the United States for this period are much lower, reaching a high, for example, of only 6,199 in 1842, and a low of 1,169 in 1838 Of course, sailing from an Irish port does not necessarily mean that the individual migrant was actually Irish …

Is Buddha a Couple? Gender-Unitary Perspectives from the Lahu of Southwest China

Abstract: This article explores the dynamic processes by which the Lahu people negotiate Buddhist gender ideologies according to their cosmology of gender unity. It focuses on the contesting gender symbolism embedded in the local images of Buddha as a pair of indigenous supreme gods, a non-Lahu missionary who founded Lahu Buddhism, and three charismatic Lahu monks in history. This study contributes to scholarly inquiries into the complexities and diversity of women's religious status across cultures. (Buddhism, gender, ethnicity, religion, China) ********** In recent years, feminism has created a virtual paradigm shift in religious studies (Christ 1987; King 1995:2; Sharma 2000). Yet the issue of women's religious statuses and roles remains more ambiguous and controversial in Buddhism than it is for other world religions (e.g., Joy 1995; Mann and Cheng 2001; Saliba, Allen, and Howard 2002). While some suggest that the core of Buddhist tenets contains egalitarian (Tsomo 1999:35; Ueki 2001) and feminist (Gross 1993) tendencies, others point out the perpetuation of male dominance and patriarchy in Buddhist thought (Cabezon 1985) or even criticize the religion for playing a critical role in women's oppression (Hantrakul 1988; Thitsa 1980). Meanwhile, many scholars recognize the ambiguous and conflicting representations of women and femininity in Buddhist canons and monastic institutions alike, a phenomenon described by a variety of terms, including "androgyny," "institutional androcentrism," "ascetic misogyny," and "soteriological inclusiveness" (Sponberg 1985; van Esterik 2000). Beyond general assessments of Buddhist gender ideologies, research also demonstrates the great diversity of women's positions in different traditions within the religion. Elaborating on the association of women with immorality, defilement, seduction, falsehood, and desire in early Buddhist texts (Paul 1985 [1979]:308; Ueki 2001:4), Theravada tradition reserves the right to pursue enlightenment in monastic institutions exclusively for males (Keyes 1984; van Esterik 2000:75). In contrast, the Mahayana tradition (especially the Chan tradition) highlights the general Buddhist wisdom of nondiscrimination through the concept of emptiness, which perceives the state of perfection as transcending any distinctions, including the distinction between the sexes (Paul 1985 [1979]; Ueki 2001:112). Despite the relatively egalitarian gender ideology of Mahayana Buddhism and its institutional manifestation in female ordination, femaleness is still commonly considered an undesirable state, and transformation into men is often believed necessary for women to achieve ultimate enlightenment (Crane 2001; Paul 1985 [1979]:171; Sunim 1999). Departing from mainstream Buddhism, the marginal Tantric tradition is characterized by both positive feminine symbolism in texts (Simmer-Brown 2001) and balanced gender roles in practice, manifested dramatically by the emphasis on the blissful and contemplative yoga of sexual union in achieving enlightenment (Shaw 1994:142). Situating particular Buddhist traditions in specific sociocultural contexts, scholars have also explored the dynamics and complexity of gender ideologies and institutions resulting from the interactions between Buddhism and society, particularly in state-based societies marked by gender hierarchy (Kirsch 1985; Ueki 2001; Tsomo 1999:7). Mainstream Mahayana Buddhism as practiced in the dominant societies of East Asia serves as an example. On the one hand, while the male-dominant ideologies and institutions of these societies are noted for distorting the gender-egalitarian core of Gautama Buddha's teachings (Harris 1999:62; Ueki 2001), Buddhist practice is also considered to perpetuate local patriarchal traditions in different forms to varying degrees (Cabezon 1985; Lancaster 1984). For instance, reconciling the Confucian focus on the patrilineal family and the monastic requirement for celibacy, Han Chinese monks declared the superiority of their supernatural contributions to ancestors over the social responsibility of producing sons, while the Japanese drastically transformed Buddhist monasteries into patrilineal family enterprises run by married male priests (Lancaster 1984). …