Women's Words, Stolen Words: Markets in the Maghreb

In Moroccan markets, vendors use their oratory skills to attract potential customers. They incorporate verses from the Koran, poems or proverbs about the deviousness of women in the composition of these performances. This article offers an analysis of the changing public role of women in Morocco from the perspective of how market women cite of traditionally male forms of oral expression. The ironic, ambivalent and sometimes liberating use of these genres of expression demonstrates the transformative nature of mimesis.Sur les marchés maghrébins, les marchands séduisent la clientèle par leurs talents oratoires. Ils citent des vers du Coran, des poèmes ou des proverbes. L'article analyse le nouveau rôle des femmes dans l'espace public au Maroc où les femmes s'accaparent la tradition orale habituellement réservée aux hommes. Cette appropriation, ironique, souvent à double sens, est un terrain d'étude du concept de mimesis

Diasporic Sincerity: Tales from a 'returnee' researcher

This paper explores how my diasporic 'returnee’ status positions me with the participants in my research endeavors within education reform NGOs in and around Bangalore, India. I argue that in addition to forcing me to reassess the scripts of ‘belonging' I hold as an Indian American, the very stories that make me part of the diaspora reshape the research context by offering my interlocutors new narrative tropes by which to (re)imagine India. These re-imaginings precipitate a destabilization of context specific categories that limit social interaction, such as caste, class, gender and regional belonging, allowing me the possibility of ethnographically sincere encounters across a diverse set of participants (Jackson, 2010). However, as I persistently transgress boundaries I find myself in vulnerable positions, as the politics of difference within the organization threaten to undermine my research endeavor