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"Matrilineal kinship"
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Saltwater sociality
The inhabitants of Pororan Island, a small group of 'saltwater people' in Papua New Guinea, are intensely interested in the movements of persons across the island and across the sea, both in their everyday lives as fishing people and on ritual occasions. From their observations of human movements, they take their cues about the current state of social relations. Based on detailed ethnography, this study engages current Melanesian anthropological theory and argues that movements are the Pororans' predominant mode of objectifying relations. Movements on Pororan Island are to its inhabitants what roads are to 'mainlanders' on the nearby larger island, and what material objects and images are to others elsewhere in Melanesia.
eBook
Quest for Harmony
In this long-awaited ethnography, Chuan-kang Shih details the traditional social and cultural conditions of the Moso, a matrilineal group living on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in southwest China. Among the Moso, a majority of the adult population practice a visiting system calledtisese instead of marriage as the normal sexual and reproductive institution. Until recently,tisese was noncontractual, nonobligatory, and nonexclusive. Partners lived and worked in separate households. The only prerequisite for atisese relationship was a mutual agreement between the man and the woman to allow sexual access to each other. In a comprehensive account,Quest for Harmony explores this unique practice specifically, and offers thorough documentation, fine-grained analysis, and an engaging discussion of the people, history, and structure of Moso society. Drawing on the author's extensive fieldwork, conducted from 1987 to 2006, this is the first ethnography of the Moso written in English.
eBook
In the Land of the Eastern Queendom
The story underlying this ethnography began with the recent discovery and commercialization of the remnant of an ancient queendom on the Sichuan-Tibet border. Recorded in classical Chinese texts, this legendary matriarchal domain has attracted not only tourists but the vigilance of the Chinese state. Tenzin Jinba s research examines the consequences of development of the queendom label for local ethnic, gender, and political identities and for state-society relations.
eBook
The Making of an African King
The Making of An African King is a study examining the causes of the kingship internecine struggle among the Effutu by exploring the two traditional systems of succession, the patrilineal and the matrilineal, among the Effutu (Awutu-abe), and how best to end political violence.Kingship or chieftaincy disputes in Ghana may begin as rivalry among.
eBook
The mermaid & the lobster diver : gender, sexuality, and money on the Miskito coast
Approximately 90 percent of Miskitu boys and men in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve along the north coast of Honduras have worked as deepwater divers in the lobster industry and their participation has left an indelible imprint on their society. While lobster diving is lucrative, it is also a life-threatening occupation and many divers have been injured or killed from decompression sickness-locally referred to as liwa mairin siknis (Mermaid sickness). According to Miskitu folklore, the Mermaid is the main water spirit, owner of all fresh and saltwater resources and capable of punishing male divers for extracting too many of her lobsters. Wary of the wrath of the supernatural liwa mairin, these men face another threat on shore: Miskitu women who use sexual magic-praidi saihka-as a tool to control men's wages and ensure that they continue to provide them with money.
Interspersed with short stories, songs, and incantations, The Mermaid and the Lobster Diver demonstrates the archetypes of femininity and masculinity within Miskitu society, highlighting the power associated with women's sexuality-as manifested in both goddess and human form-and the vulnerable position of men.
eBook
In the Land of the Eastern Queendom
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804842 The story underlying this ethnography began with the recent discovery and commercialization of the remnant of an ancient “queendom” on the Sichuan-Tibet border. Recorded in classical Chinese texts, this legendary matriarchal domain has attracted not only tourists but the vigilance of the Chinese state. Tenzin Jinba’s research examines the consequences of development of the queendom label for local ethnic, gender, and political identities and for state-society relations.
eBook
State and Ethnicity in China's Southwest
An exhaustive narrative of political integration from the early years of the PRC to the present era of economic reform that foregrounds ethnic politics while problematizing the contradiction between a highly centralized state and persistence of local variations.
eBook
The evolution of matrilineal kinship organization
Matrilineal kinship organization is a human social system that emphasizes interactions between matrilineal kin, i.e. individuals related only through females. The ‘matrilineal puzzle’ refers to the potential for tension characteristic of this social system, owing to the conflict between the interests and responsibilities of men in their roles as brother/uncle versus husband/father. From an evolutionary perspective, matrilineal kinship organization is puzzling when it diverts investment of resources from the individuals who provide the potentially highest reproductive returns. I use a game-theoretic framework to investigate a particular form of matrilineal inheritance—the transfer of property from a maternal uncle to a sororal nephew. The analysis reveals two mechanisms that may make this strategy a stable evolutionary outcome. First, a polygynous male has multiple wives, and hence multiple brothers-in-law; with matrilineal inheritance, each additional brother-in-law may transfer resources to the male's wife's offspring, thus potentially contributing to the male's inclusive fitness. Second, the husband of a polyandrous female is effectively ‘sharing’ paternity with other men; depending on the number of husbands, he may be better off investing in his sister's offspring. I conclude by discussing how these results address the challenges posed by the occurrence of matrilineal kinship organization.
Journal Article