The panel wants to focus on the neglected theme of sibling relations. This includes the so-called biological siblings or different forms of 'made' or 'constructed' sibling ties, like blood-brotherhood or brother- and sisterhood in secret societies.
Long Abstract:
Even though there has been a remarkable conjuncture of kinship issues in the anthropological debates, the complex relations between brothers and sisters are still underestimated, whether so-called biological siblings, "half"-brothers and sisters, classificatory brothers and sisters or different forms of "made" or "constructed" sibling ties, like for example blood-brotherhood between friends, or brother- and sisterhood in secret societies.
The aim of our panel is to focus on a persistently neglected theme in anthropological research by encouraging scholars to present papers on topics like becoming (and losing) brothers and sisters, emotions between siblings, economic competition and/or collaboration, care and so on. How are relations between brother and sisters perceived, how do people speak about brothers and sisters, and how do concrete relations between them work in everyday practice? In which concrete situations do people mobilize sibling relations? What about the elder brother, the elder sister? Can brother- or sisterhood be an alternative to alliances between spouses? What does brother- and sisterhood mean in changing patterns of reproduction, for example in circumstances of reduced fertility or instable marriage patterns as in Euro-American societies?
We encourage scholars to send empirical case-studies as well as theoretical reflections on the conceptualisation of brother- and sisterhood in a changing world. We welcome papers on Euro-American societies as well as papers from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Comparative studies are welcome as well as historical perspectives.
This panel provides a forum for researchers to present and discuss work in progress. Panel participants are therefore advised to read the papers before the meeting (ask the panel conveners for a copy). Paper presentations will be brief and most of the panel meeting will be devoted to discussion and not to presentation of papers.
The paper discusses the ways in which people interact with each other in a life crisis situation (e.g. deportation), and what cultural and social things flow among them that bind them and transform their relationships to the closeness classified as sibling tie.
Paper long abstract:
The expression 'wagon brothers, wagon sisters' is taken from a popular song of Lithuanian deportees to Siberia during the Soviet era, and denotes a kind of solidarity maintained among the deportees.
The paper discusses the ways in which people understand and experience siblingship in its symbolic and in its actual sense. Drawing on ethnographic examples it analyses how family members and strangers interact with each other during and after a life crisis situation, what cultural and social issues bind them and transform their relationships into the closeness classified as sibling tie and how this closeness is practised after return from deportation. The paper suggests that the experience of life crisis, people's being together and sharing of physical and mental strategies of survival creates connections comparable to familial relationships. It also assumes that deportation, external to all deportees, is a kind of symbolic 'co-filiation', which reinforces equality, equivalence and horizontal order among them - features that are characteristic of sibling relationship.
My paper deals with siblings among the matrilineal Akan in Kumasi and Endwa in the 21st century. In an actor centred approach modes of relatedness are explored. The paper will show how care, obligations and struggle for personal freedom are negotiated in everyday praxis
Paper long abstract:
In the "classic" ethnographic accounts of the matrilineal Akan in Ghana Rattray (1927) and Meyer Fortes (1963, 1975) state that siblings play a crucial role in kin relation in these societies. Especially mother brothers who are responsible for care, upbringing and housing of their sisters and their children and from whom people are supposed to inherit are said to be of utter importance for a person's life. Are Rattray's and Fortes' accounts in Ghanaian society of the 21st century still valid? Which role do sisters and brothers play in these societies today? Even though since the implementation of the new Intestate Succession Law in 1985 fathers are de jure supposed to support their biological children (rather then their nephews and nieces) bothers and sisters still play an important role in housing, feeding and financing school fees of their (younger) brothers and sisters.
Approaching kinship by exploring modes of relatedness (Carsten 2000) I want to describe sibling's relations between obligation and rivalry, care and struggle for personal freedom in the intimate sphere of household affairs and advice giving in "love affairs". The data derive from an ethnological fieldwork in Endwa and Kumasi in 2004, 2005 and 2006 in the framework of my phD thesis about "intimacy and sexuality before marriage in Kumasi and Endwa".
I want to talk about how sisters influence in marriage became incorporated in the construction of the patrilineage in colonial Shona society.
Paper long abstract:
The authority of sisters in marriage negotiations, marital conflict and general family matters was never recognised in customary law nor has it found the detailed recognition in anthropological discourse it deserves. Research shows that sisters still today take in active interest in their brothers marriage. In many cases they even have the final say when it comes to distributing an inheritance within the semi-autonomous field of the family. Acting as advocates of their natal families they often display rather suppressive attitudes vis-à-vis their brothers wives. Only few hints in anthropological writing indicate, that the wife's sister had a similar position of authority when it came to settle marital conflicts in early colonial Shona society. In interviews I conducted with old women they even maintain, that the wife's sister held a higher bargaining position vis-à-vis a husband's sister. But her influence seems to have vanished almost completely.
My paper will look into the process of disappearance of matrilateral influence in marriage and the incorporation of sisters bargaining positions into a lineal structure.
This paper investigates the brother-sister relationship in aLebanese town. It addresses tensions between prescribed moralities in kinship and the idealised bond between brother and sister and the realities of a conflict of interest at a time of social and economic change.
Paper long abstract:
This paper investigates the brother-sister relationship, neglected in mainstream literature on the Arab World, in the context of a transforming border Lebanese town. The paper discusses the factors which have made room for contesting the once taken for granted power of the brother: shifting livelihoods and economic transformations, changes in sociality and especially in household models and ideologies surrounding 'the family' and exposure to new values through a variety of means, including rising levels of education and satellite television.
The paper specifically addresses a fear that haunts unmarried women in making decisions about marriage, which is the predicament of falling under the power and control of a brother and his wife. The paper, hence, brings out tensions in sibling relationships in the context of a fixed ideology of kinship which postulates a specific morality and obligations and the reality of a conflict of interest and a perceived gender bias.
The terms of brother (aka, dodar, barodar) enclose a large part of the complexity of social interaction in Tajik society. First, I would like to explore the term brother as a kinship term and second, as a social term (used to define members of a group sharing the same set of ideas).
Paper long abstract:
The terms of brother (aka, dodar, barodar) enclose a large part of the complexity of social interaction in Tajik society. The majority of myths teach us that brothers constantly fight each other (Kluckhohn 1969), but in Central Asia this is not the only picture that circulates. In Tajikistan siblings are imagined 'as different as the five fingers of the hand' and at the same time as the most important social unit. Families invest into sons in a way to maximize future security and economic success by placing them into different sectors (state, religion, work migration). The competition for 'niches' (Sulloway 1996) within the family is a strategy, less to gain parental affection, than to oppose social roles that are predefined by birth order.
Sulloway accords the laterborn siblings the potential of revolutionary discovery - if he is right, it means that a population with high fertility in consequence must have a higher risk of (violent or non-violent) conflicts and thus the proportional size of youths within a society would stand in any kind of relation to social change. This leads me to take a look at the social relation standing behind the term brother in its second meaning, namely as an ideological term as it was used within the Islamic opposition group in the Tajik civil war. Within a brotherhood the sibling terms became synonym of equality and unity within the frame of a (revolutionary) agenda.
This paper will investigate on this to seemingly opposing notions of brother and also take a look at cross-references, which means sets of brothers within an Islamic fighting group and siblings' relationship after the civil war.
My paper tells the story of a Baatonu-girl who worked as a maid in an urban household of relatives. The story tells us how she struggled in a complex situation of negotiated kinship. The example shows how brother- and sisterhood can play a crucial role in a family conflict.
Paper long abstract:
My paper tells the story of a Baatonu-girl in the Republic of Bénin who worked as a maid in an urban household of relatives without being paid. She escaped from that situation through the intervention of a half-brother whom she convinced to take his role as brother. The story tells us how she struggled in a complex situation of negotiated kinship, including not only the sibling relation, but also that of in-laws, parents and foster parents in urban as well as rural settings. The example shows how brother- and sisterhood can play a crucial role in a family conflict that touches on fundamental values about child labour and belonging of girls.
has 2 downloads
2