Science, Property, And Kinship In Repatriation Debates

A striking feature of debates concerning the disposition of N ative A merican human remains is their invocation of the conventional domains of science, property, and kinship. Strong political claims about repatriation tend to assert the primacy of one domain over the others. Yet in contemporary North A merican social contexts, these domains have heterarchical relations in which no single perspective dominates, rather than hierarchical relations organized by a fixed ranking system. Resolving disputes in heterarchical systems requires negotiation across domains rather than privileging one domain. This comment examines how the relationships between these domains influence debates on repatriation. It also sheds light on how A mericans make political claims.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98136/1/muan1110.pd

Expropriated from the hereafter: the fate of the landless in the Southern Highlands of Madagascar

During the period following the abolition of slavery by the French colonial government in 1896, the Southern Highlands of Madagascar was settled by ex-slaves. These early settlers constructed a foundation myth of themselves as tompon-tany, or 'masters of the land', a discourse not only equating land with tombs, kinship and ancestors, but also coupled with a skilful deployment of 'Malagasy customs'. In order to exclude later migrants who also wanted to settle, the 'masters of the land' attempted to establish control over holdings in the area. To this end, and to reinforce their own legitimacy as landholders, the tompon-tany labelled subsequent migrants andevo ('lave' or of 'slave descent') who - as a tombless people - have no rights to land. Because they have neither tombs nor ancestors, the landless andevo are socially ostracised and economically marginalised. As an 'impure people', they are not entitled to a place in the hereafter

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

'The Vezo are not a kind of people': identity, difference and 'ethnicity' among a fishing people of western Madagascar

This paper presents a model of identity and difference alternative to ethnicity. It describes how the Vezo of western Madagascar construe their identity by transcending descent or descent-based features of the person. To be a Vezo is to have learnt Vezo-ness, and to perform it: identity is an activity rather than a state of being. Difference is construed by an analogous process of identification: others are different because they have acquired and perform another identity. Both identity and difference are not inherent in people, but are performative