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- Convenor:
-
Etsuko Matsuoka
(Nara Women's University)
- Location:
- 301 A
- Start time:
- 16 May, 2014 at
Time zone: Asia/Tokyo
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Culture constructs gender in different ways by utilizing many aspects of human life. Feminity and masculinity are constructed by different elements including history, ethnicity etc. Changing gender allocation is seen due to the influence of globalizing economy.
Long Abstract:
A classification based on gender is a key part in most human cultures. Women and men or feminity and masculinity are the classification we often encounter but some cultures recognize more than two genders. Culture constructs gender in different ways by utilizing many aspects of human life; division of work between men and women, difference in body management by gender, asymmetrical delivery of information to men and women etc. For instance in Bondei Society in Tanzania, men can cultivate coconut palm tree, sell sap or fruits to the town market, while women use coconut products for more domestic purposes. In many cultures masculinity is actively constructed through conflicts and cultural influences, and it is of interest to illustrate, through historical and ethnographical data, the articulation between masculinity, ethnicity and colonialism in one particular culture. In another instance, dissemination of information, especially one related to sexuality and reproduction is unevenly distributed between women and men, and even between married and unmarried women in Indonesia. Given that culture constructs gender in different ways in line with cultures, the way it does comes under constant influence from outside world. For example, the kind of network West African women merchants currently have and commodities they deal with show changes in their traditional gender roles under globalized economy.
In this session fieldwork data from different areas is presented with particular focus on gender.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This presentation aims to analyze the trade activities of West African women merchants. They construct their own business network and play an active role in the markets. Seeing their activities may make us reconsider the subjectivity of African women and their roles in their societies.
Paper long abstract:
There is a rich tradition of woman merchants in West Africa. This presentation aims to show and analyze several forms of commerce run mainly by West African women after the Africa's independence to present-day.
In 1970-80's Togolese women merchants called Nana Benz played an important role in the market of the wax print textile of the country. It is said that they nearly monopolized purchase and sales of the product and advanced into neighboring countries and Europe. These days quite a few Malian women in the capital Bamako frequent Dubai-Bamako to import woman's luxurious commodities like jewels, accessories, clothes and shoes. It is women merchants' "specialized field" unlike that the import of home electronics, electronic devices and furniture are managed by men merchants.
There are also Malian / Malian French women living in France who do business between their home and France. They purchase the beauty products in France and consign them to their business partners in Mali. Some import the commodities from other countries such as China, Belgium, and Spain using their familial networks.
Those economic activities indicate the tradition and transition of West African women's roles in the domestic / transnational market. Seeing their business makes us reconsider the subjectivity of African women in their societies.
Paper short abstract:
This study examines the uses of the coconut palm tree as the cultural and social aspect among the Bondei people in Tanzania. It analyses that under the many aspects of the use of the coconut palm tree, how people use tree according to the each part of it.
Paper long abstract:
This study discusses the uses of the coconut palm tree among the Bondei, living at little inner land from the Indian Ocean coast(Swahili coast) in Tanzania. The coconut palm tree is one of the most useful tree in the tropical area. The most cultivating area of it is the Southeast Asia, but it has been cultivated in the Swahili coast area for many years.
Bondei people use the parts of coconut palm tree as material of traditional house and food, for traditional faith and for getting cash. They make thatching roof, coconut taste food, oil and wine etc. from coconut palm tree. The coconut wine can be interact between people and ancestors. And coconut palm tree bring cash income to the people regardless gender and age.
According to the way of the deal in the use of coconut palm tree, there is deference between men and women. For example, men can cultivate coconut palm tree and selling sap to the local bar and coconut fruits to the town market, women can get income from selling coconut wine at the local bar and coconut fruit at the local market and coconut leaf thatches and use them at the house. It shows that men deal with it for more commercial and women deal with it for the domestic use and for small commercial.
In this presentation I focus on the use of coconut palm tree according to the each parts, and how people deal with each parts according to the gender.
Paper short abstract:
The research reveals that family planning in Indonesia constructs wives’ body so that their fertility comes under government control. Despite the initial government enforcement, couples now voluntarily accept family planning as they have developed their agency to choose a smaller family.
Paper long abstract:
This study is based on group interviews to total of 48 men and women at Pontianak, Indonesia in 2009. Of those 48, there are 42 married women, 2 husbands, 2 bidan (licensed midwife), 2 nurses and 2 dukun (TBA). Family planning, KB for short in Indonesian language, has been promoted extensively since 1970 under the slogan of community participation and targeted almost solely married women, exclusive of men and unmarried women. Interviewed women expressed various side effects including weight gain, irregular bleeding, lack of menstruation etc, which were interpreted as natural process to reshape women's body into that of proper wives'. This shows that KB, rather than neutral contraceptive information for both genders, is asymmetrically focused on female and aims to construct wives' body so that their fertility comes under government continuous monitoring and control. The fact that condom, which is a major method of contraception in Japan, does not count as KB in Indonesia illus
trates that KB is for married couples, comes in the context of medicine and should be continuous. In contrast, condom is associated with out of marriage relationships, with market rather than medicine and temporariness.
Although KB was originally implemented with strong government initiatives, couples now voluntarily accept it, not because they have learned the benefit of smaller family but because they are compelled to choose it in order to survive in a global economy. This shows that active desire to control fertility has been generated within couples in order to meet the needs of global economy surrounding Indonesia.
Paper short abstract:
The study of masculinity in the Ryûkyû islands (present-day Okinawa), owing to their geographical position and their relations to neighboring cultures (China, Japan) and colonial powers (Satsuma, America), allows light to be shed on the articulation between masculinity, ethnicity and colonialism.
Paper long abstract:
Dozens of studies have been devoted to the women of Okinawa (mainly concerning their role in religious phenomena). Strangely enough, though, no serious research has yet examined the community (?) of Ryûkyûan men, from a historical, cultural or psychological standpoint. All the European travellers who visited the islands from the 16th century onward found the Ryûkyûan men "special", that is, different from their Chinese or Japanese counterparts. They invariably described these men as soft, feminine, very accommodating, or as lazy, cowardly, stupid and dominated by women. More recently, they have even been described as "all nuts and a bunch of wimps" by a US military official in a famous e-mail to Washington as exposed by a journalist. Masculinity, actively constructed through conflicts and cultural influences, therefore seems to be of particular interest in the Ryûkyû islands, owing to their geographical position and their complex historical relations to neighbouring cultures (mainly China and Japan) and/or colonial-like powers (Satsuma, America). This paper intends to illustrate, through historical and ethnographical data, the articulation between masculinity, ethnicity and colonialism in the Ryūkyūs and present- day Okinawa, a de facto multicultural community.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explains why the presenter made the film and wrote "Ethnography of Revolutionary Cuba." Presenting Cuban Revolutionaries' history as "foundational fiction" and detailed personal life stories of Cuban youth, it shows the double bind situation that eventually led them to leave abroad.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is to explain why the presenter made the film "Cuba Sentimental," and wrote "Ethnography of Revolutionary Cuba."
Cuba is known for its Revolution, creating "New Man" who embodies the ideal of Che Guevara. However, the presenter found that those who seems to realize this ideal having meager space to express themselves. They were in "double bind" situation since the fall of the Soviet Union and following "Special Period in Time of Peace." Naming this period as such, the government enabled themselves to introduce depenalization of dollar, limited market economy, and welcoming of tourists from capitalist countries. All those were inconsistent with realization of "New Man" and with socialist principles. And yet there is no official and public media where people can question and express their frustration and anger - many compromised with telling jokes about the inconsistency while others decided to leave, as has Bateson proposed as the way to escape the double bind.
The presenter made the film and wrote ethnography to give opportunity for others to listen to what those who left Cuba as "New Man" think -——Since 1959, expatriate Cubans in Cuba has almost always been portrayed as "contrary" to revolution - greedy, selfish capitalist. However, the film and ethnography by the presenter shows that those who left are hardworking, living a plain life and caring about their family and friends, which questions these stereotypes.