Vanderbilt University Press Mainstream Mexican views of indigenous women define them as problematic mothers. Development programs have included the goal of helping these women become “good mothers.” Economic incentives and conditional cash transfers are the vehicles for achieving this goal.
This book examines the dynamics among the various players – indigenous mothers, clinicians, and representatives of development programs. The women’s voices lead the reader to understand the structures of dependency that paradoxically bind indigenous women within a program that calls for their empowerment. The cash transfer program is Oportunidades, which enrolls more than a fifth of Mexico’s population. It expects mothers to become involved in their children’s lives at three nodes–health, nutrition, and education. If women do not comply with the standards of modern motherhood, they are dropped from the program and lose the bi-monthly cash payments.
Smith-Oka explores the everyday implementation of the program and its unintended consequences. The mothers are often berated by clinicians for having too many children (Smith-Oka provides background on the history of eugenics and population control in Mexico) and for other examples of their “backward” ways. One chapter focuses on the humor indigenous women use to cope with disrespectful comments. Ironically, this form of resistance allows the women to accept the situation that controls their behavior.
As a graduate student in cultural anthropology whose research focuses on how international, national, and Islamic law have been applied to issues of gender and sexuality in the Indonesian province of Aceh, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to partake in the recent conference, Sexuality and Political Change: A New Training Program hosted by Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW).
The meeting took place in Rio de Janeiro from March 18-22 and brought together 17 individuals from around the world who do research on sexuality in the global south and look to link their work to movements of political and social change. Sexuality Policy Watch, a Rio and New York-based organization, serves as a global forum for researchers and activists who engage with policy debates and initiatives on sexuality, gender, sexual and reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, and LGBT activism. This pilot program aimed to provide a forum for participants to share our research and experiences while reflecting on the intersection of theory, research, and change in the realm of genders and sexualities.
One factor that made this conference so important for me—but also challenging—was the diversity of the participants both in interests and backgrounds. Attendees came from Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Brazil, India, Egypt, the Philippines, Cameroon, China, and Mexico, among others. I was one of two Americans. We ranged from current graduate students to established professors to queer activists to UN lawyers and had expertise in areas including sexual health, LGBT rights, migration, and sex work.
In forums such as this, it is always helpful as a space for knowledge sharing, but it is undoubtedly difficult to negotiate how we translate all of our local identities and nationally-bound political structures into terms and strategies that have currency at the transnational and international level. Continue reading “Reflections on the Sexuality Policy Watch conference”→
An editorial in the Economic and Political Weekly asks: Is the opposition to a proposed new BSc degree in community health course in the interest of the rural population?
“A Parliamentary Committee on Health recently asked that the government abandon its proposal to introduce a new educational course that will train healthcare providers for rural areas. The committee’s suggestion appears in tune with the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA ) shrill cries that this new course, the BSc in community health, will create “half-baked doctors” and with the general response of the MBBS doctors’ lobby that the government would be playing with the lives of the rural population.”
Below please find links to an audio interview with Parisa Kakaee, Iranian women and children’s rights activist, about the impact of sanctions on the women’s movement and civil society in Iran.
Thanks to Sanam Naraghi Anderlini for providing this information. Anderlini is Co-Founder, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and Senior Fellow, MIT Center for International Studies.
The London-based Africa Report recently provided a brief but excellent analysis of Mauritius’s three main political dynasties –- those of Ramgoolam, Jugnauth and Duval, whose family members are associated with the Parti Travailliste, Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM), and the Parti Mauricien Social-Démocrate (PMSD) respectively.
Paul Berenger. Source/Wikipedia But the big news revealed at a press conference last Wednesday, is that Paul Bérenger, the veteran leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), the largest opposition party, is suffering from early stage cancer in his left tonsil. He was widely praised by other politicians, the press and members of the public for his openness and candour. On Monday, he flew to Paris for what is expected to be three months of medical treatment.
Bérenger, a Franco-Mauritian from a middle-class family, graduated from the University in Wales, Bangor in the mid-1960s. He then spent a period in Paris soaking up the student and union-inspired radicalism of the time. On his return to Mauritius, Bérenger became a trade union organizer before forming the MMM in 1969. In alliance with the now-defunct Parti Socialiste Mauricien (PSM) led by Harish Boodhoo, the coalition won all 60 seats in the general election 1982. Subsequently Bérenger served as finance minister. Continue reading “Shaking the political kaleidoscope in Mauritius”→
If you wanted to watch the inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday, some of the best places to be were near the swearing-in area, along Pennsylvania Avenue where the president and Michelle Obama might have decided to step out of their limousine and walk for a while, at home on your couch (with preferred snacks and beverages), or at the Embassy of Canada at 501 Penn.
A pair of mittens handed out at the Canadian Embassy during the 2013 U.S. Presidential Inauguration. Photo by Barbara Miller I have never trekked downtown to watch the inauguration and parade in person before — in my 20 years of residence in the nation’s capital. But this year, a friend and colleague at GW received an invitation to attend the “tailgate party” at the Embassy of Canada, and he was allowed to bring a friend. Bob Maguire, a professor in the Elliott School, is the friend.
I got a double shot of culture: Canadian and American, all in one day.
Getting there was a short story in itself. Bob and I each live north of downtown, in different directions. Our original plan was to take the Metro, meet at Judiciary Square, and then walk to the embassy from there. Wisely, Bob suggested a change of plans: We would meet in my neighborhood in northwest D.C. and take public transportation to the Judiciary Square Metro stop. It turns out, that was a great idea; otherwise, we might never have met up.
The bus trip went well as did the subway segment. Who knew: friendly people on the red line! Conversations! The usual daily commute felt more like being part of a competitive sport.
During the commute, I asked Bob, who got his Ph.D. at McGill University and therefore has some direct Canadian experience, what we might expect at the tailgate party in terms of typical Canadian food and snacks. “Maybe bison,” he said, although he explained that bison might be reserved for a fancier occasion. He went on to explain that we could likely encounter Beaver Tails, poutine, and Mae Wests.
Beaver Tails are akin to what Americans might encounter at a state fair as fried dough, but it turns out that Beaver Tails are several gourmet steps up from most fried dough I have had. And there is a variety called the Obama Beaver Tail.
Poutine is french fries with a kind of clotted cheese (like feta only blander) and hot brown gravy. It was served in Dixie cups, and people snacked on it throughout the day. The main course on offer was either a hamburger (likely not a bison burger) or a hot dog on bun. There were no Mae Wests — apparently kind of like a double Twinkie consumed with a Pepsi on the side.
Back to the arrival: In getting into the secured area, we made a couple of strategic errors, standing in a line or two that we didn’t need to be in (see slideshow below). But eventually we found our way to the security line leading to the embassy, and we whizzed through with no problem to find that we were being gifted with a pair of really warm mittens. What a welcome!
Around 11 a.m., when — with warm hands and a happy feeling to be at such a nice party — we lined up for the competition to win a new Blackberry device. But you had to successfully complete a quiz about Canada. Lucky for us, the kind Canadians provided a tutorial in advance. Do you know how many checkpoints there are between Canada and the U.S.?
Public Anthropology Conference: Does Government Matter?
October 6-7, 2012, American University, Main Campus
Please join us the first weekend in October for American University’s 9th Annual Public Anthropology Conference! With the US Presidential election nearing, our theme this year is “Does Government Matter?” Featured panels will take on undercover journalism; social media and national identity; documentary activism; alternative education models; public archaeology and the politics of landscape, among other concerns. We will also host a selection of workshops and open-forum events and welcome two acclaimed keynote speakers, feminist political scientist (and adopted anthropologist) Cynthia Enloe and Marxist archeologist Randall McGuire.
The schedule of sessions is attached. Registration is free and open to all regardless of educational background. Register online here.
anthropologyworks 