2008 Annual Student Conference Abstracts
Panel 1: Tradition/Representation
Discussant: Professor Cathy Stanton (Tufts University)
William Bernard Reid-Varley (Brandeis University) "Contradictory Perceptions of Gullah and Non-Gullah African-American Language and Culture and Their Ethno-linguistic Basis"
Abstract: The Gullah (also termed Geechee), an African-American group living primarily on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, are popularly and scholarly perceived as retaining the most “Africanisms” in their language and culture. Until recently, the Gullah have lived in relative isolation from “mainstream” American society. In the past few decades, however, tourism real estate developers have begun buying up large chunks of historically Gullah-owned property. As a result a significant number of Gullah have been forced off the Sea Islands and into large cities, giving rise to fears that their distinctive language and culture will be lost. In response to this popularly perceived threat the U.S. Senate in 2006 passed “The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act.” Upon its passage, the bill’s sponsor declared “My heart today is with those who belong to the Gullah-Geechee community. I hope their prayer houses rock with hymns of jubilation upon hearing the news that the U.S. Congress believes their culture and communities have value and are worth saving.” No correspondingly impassioned act has been proposed in Congress to preserve non-Gullah African-American Vernacular English and urban African-American culture. An intriguing question, then, is why the language and culture of the Gullah is perceived as valuable and worthy of protection (even at the national level), while at the same time and by the many of the same people, AAVE and urban African-American culture are perceived as (at best) without merit and at worst degenerate. I argue that these apparently contradictory stances co-exist due to processes of language authentication, geographic essentialism, and localization on a perceived language type—token gradient (as a measure of linguistic degeneracy) in conjunction with language essentialism. Furthermore, these ideologies are strongly informed by popular American fears of transgression, contamination, and dilution/destruction of oppositionally-constructed boundaries of group identity.
Ashley Smith (Wheaton College) "'How Indian are you, anyway?:' The Abenaki of the Northeast and the “Indian Problem” of the 21st Century"
Abstract: My research explores the (re)creation of identity and community among Native Americans in the Northeast. The background explores how historical and political differences in different geographical areas shaped Abenaki identity and community. Through a series of site visits, participant observation, and interviews, I am examining how different experiences of oppression and discrimination affects how Abenaki people of different levels of “blood quantum” and federal recognition voice their contemporary understanding of their identities and identify one another. My central research questions are: how do people go about establishing a connection with a multi-stranded ethnic, cultural, racial heritage when this legacy has been severed by both choice and erasure in the historical record? How do they begin to validate a past that has been despised and negated by both the dominant mainstream culture, and by Abenaki themselves? How have communities been influenced by different historical, social, and political situations, and how do these differences affect the relationships between Abenaki communities? I am also exploring contemporary lateral oppression, which is how non-recognized Abenaki peoples are viewed by recognized Abenaki peoples and how this affects them socially and politically. The issue of identity is thus paramount. Abenaki identity, like any identity, is a concept that is shaped by many factors that are constantly changing because of inside and outside political and social forces, and many inter-Abenaki tensions stem from the internalization of imposed Euro-American concepts of identity. In order to unite Abenaki people it will be necessary to shed these once-foreign concepts of identity and create a new collective way of recognizing Abenaki identity that consists of collective understanding of personal perception of the self, perceptions about history and culture, connections to family stories and land, and connection to a community of Abenaki people.
Kara Schamell (Wheaton College) "When Sounds and Spirits Go Global: Mbira Musicianship Abroad"
Abstract: When Paul Berliner’s famous book “The Soul of Mbira” was published in 1978, Zimbabwean mbira music was brought to the forefront of scholarly attention. Described as a sacred Shona instrument used to summon ancestral spirits in mapira religious rituals, the mbira enthralled readers as a resilient cultural icon that survived the legacy of colonialism in Africa. In addition to Berliner’s work, this instrument gained increasing worldwide fame through the music career of Thomas Mapfumo, a Zimbabwean musician who brought the mbira into the secular realm of Chimurenga music, a form of protest song popularized during the Zimbabwean struggle for independence. Almost 30 years later, countless World Music recordings recall Berliner’s and Mapfumo’s legacies by further spreading the sounds of “traditional” Zimbabwean mbira music to consumers worldwide. Zimbabwean musicians abroad, many having been inspired by Berliner’s work, have made lucrative careers by teaching outsiders about Shona culture and demonstrating how to play this sacred instrument. Many more have actually instructed people worldwide how to play the instrument themselves. As an mbira player, I occupy the dual position of both researcher and research subject in my work, which explores the effects of various processes of globalization that have transformed how Shona mbira music is played, taught, and distributed toand received by audiences on a worldwide scale. A major focus of my research has been to examine how Zimbabwean musicians abroad have negotiated the sacred/secular divide that is so closely tied to the commodification of mbira music, and what their varying notions of what constitutes “traditional” mbira music reveal about the effects of globalization on once local cultural practices.
Allison Bland (Wellesley College) "Digging Up A History: The Emergence of Archaeology of the Black Diaspora"
Abstract: In this paper, I will examine the emerging field of slave archaeology, from its pioneering inception by Merrick Posnansky to its contemporary status, led by the prolific Theresa Singleton. But first, in association with Schomburg’s interest in creating an African American past, I will also explore other efforts of blacks in America to establish a past, particular documentation of “liberation historiographies” as studied by John Ernest, and whether these missives were successful or not. It’s also important to establish accuracy and responsibility in a project such as this, so I will delve into some faces of contentions, including Mary Lefkowitz critique of Martin Bernal’s Black Athena in her book Not Out Of Africa, and the resulting Just Out Africa conference organized by Selwyn Cudjoe at Wellesley College. National dialogues such as these, emerging from academia and coming into the public eye, has informed the national consciousness in recent years, and captured interest of nonarchaeologists and nonhistorians and has sparked interest in the formations of national galleries of African American past like New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The United States Slavery Museum opening in 2008 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and finally, the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture set to open in “the Mall” in Washington DC in 2015. As the issue comes to Washington DC, legislation is being brought from Senators to Congress, most notably from Chris Dodd of Connecticut, the work of slave archaeologists becomes more urgent and the uncovering and release of a complete national identity is imperative.
Panel 2: Bodies/Circulation
Discussant: Professor Julie Chu (Wellsley College)
Carmelle Tsai (Olin College) "Cancer in the Family: Coping with Childhood Leukemia"
Abstract: This paper analyzes the illness narratives of a family's experience with childhood cancer. The family interviewed has two children. One of the two children was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of five. This paper explores how the narratives of the mother, father, younger sister, and patient himself reveal aspects of the childhood cancer experience beyond the bodily treatment. From the onset of the disease and diagnosis, each family member's role in the family affected how she or he reacted. The paper explores the shifts in family dynamics that resulted from accommodating the rigorous treatment schedule and psychosocial implications of a life-threatening illness. This paper also examines the specific issues that each family member dealt with in their personal, social, and professional lives as a result of the stigma associated with having or being a child with cancer. Now in remission, the patient's own retrospective anecdotes provide insight on how he made sense of the cancer as a child, and sought closure to the experience as he grew older. These narratives ultimately reveal how one family tackled the many social, familial, and emotional struggles specific to the childhood cancer experience.
Mrinalini Tankha (Brandeis University) "Touring Money: Uses and Meanings of Currencies in 21st Century Cuba"
Abstract: The emergence of the tourist industry in Cuba has foregrounded tensions, between the state’s socialist ideology and its insertion into a global capitalist economy. The circulation of multiple currencies (Cuban Peso, Cuban Convertible Peso and US Dollar) has become an important and contested arena where anxieties over these shifting semantic and cultural matrices are negotiated. This paper traces the continuities and discontinuities between official discourses, popular folklores and social practices of money in Cuba. It draws on economic anthropological theory and preliminary ethnographic fieldwork conducted in July-August 2007 among actors in the tourist industry in Havana.
Money does not exist in abstraction of its specific circumstances and the myriad ways in which people encounter and engage with money has to be historically, culturally and morally contextualized. Furthermore, the symbolic and material valences and efficacies of particular currencies are dialogically determined in conversation with other currencies. This paper argues that the conceptualizations and uses of different currencies in Cuba, embody, evoke and articulate liminal notions of morality, trust and autonomy, which are rooted in experiences of spacio-temporal contractions and extensions. The various currencies as media of exchange and stores of value, express locally situated ambivalences toward the present Cuban social order, as well as speculations about possible increased future translocal exchanges in a post-Fidel era. Ideas of the fecundity or impotence of certain currencies seem to be inscribed within juxtaposed perceptions of the unsteady ephemerality of the Cuban State on the one hand, and the enduring stability of the global order on the other. However, Cubans in the tourist industry in Havana, simultaneously, display ambivalence toward intensified global initiatives in the future, epitomized by the prospect of US capitalist intrusion in Cuba, which could potentially severely compromise individual and national sovereignty.
Alana Nelson (Wellesley College) "Migration from Vera Cruz"
Abstract: Over the last decade, northern Veracruz (Mexico), a non-traditional sending region, has experienced accelerated emigration to the U.S.. Migration scholars, influenced by the emergence of children's geographies, are increasingly recognizing the importance of including the perspectives of children and youth in their research. It is children who often experience the greatest impacts of migration and who are increasingly making the decision themselves, to migrate. The purpose of this research is to: (1) analyze individual and familial migration experiences as articulated by children and youths; (2) explore the normative attitudes of rural children and youths towards migration and life in the U.S.; (3) analyze children and youths' perceptions of the impacts of migration on the social, economic, political and cultural fabric of their community; and (4) understand the role migration plays in reshaping the values, aspirations and identities of children and youths. Working with a research partner, I employed age group appropriate child centered methodologies such as "photo voice," artwork and creative writing, group discussions, participatory workshops and student presentations. Research findings revealed significant differences across age groups in the attitudes of children and youths towards migration and its impacts; perceptions of el "otro lado"; and individual migration aspirations. As this paper will show, documenting the voice of children and youths provides insight into the transformation in attitudes and perceptions involved in making the decision of whether or not to face the migratory frontier.
Dan Koosed (Brandeis University) "Imaana, Ethnicity and Flow: The Rwandan Genocide"
Abstract: While virtually all contemporary anthropological studies of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda identify the mutual internalization of the colonial racial ideology of “Hamitism” as a critical element of “genocide priming,” few have fully explored the significance of this ideology in terms of pre-colonial conceptions of the body and rituals of human sacrifice in Rwanda. I will primarily draw upon anthropologist Charles Taylor’s work conducted before and after the genocide in order to analyze the ways in which pre-colonial conceptions of body, “flow,” and sacrifice became implicitly co-opted and distorted by the infusion of European race theory into the schools and churches of colonial and post-colonial Rwanda. The “Hamitic hypothesis” was a colonial ideological construction intended to “rationalize” the existence of “civilization” in Africa before European contact. A theory equally informed by current European theological and anthropological discourse, the narrative of the Hamitic hypothesis essentialized the Rwandan Tutsi as quasi-Semitic “Hamites” who descended from northern Africa to “civilize” and rule over the “native” Bantu population now identified as Hutu. In this paper I will provide an original analysis of the ways in which two events leading directly to the genocide – the RPF’s invasion of Rwanda in 1990 and the assassination of President Habyarimana – acquired the symbolic significance necessary to catalyze mass slaughter through the amalgamation of pre-colonial concepts of bodily sacrifice and the mutual internalization of the Hamitic hypothesis for both Hutu and Tutsi.
Panel 3: Sites of Contention
Discussant: Professor Mark Auslander (Brandeis University)
Nancy Henry (Tufts University) "Anthropologizing the Military, or Militarizing Anthropology? The Human Terrain System and the Debate over Ethics"
Abstract: In this paper, I examine the current debate within anthropology over the involvement of anthropologists in the Human Terrain System (HTS). I argue that the HTS debate is part of a larger metadiscourse about ethical standards, specifically the AAA Code of Ethics. I begin the paper by briefly outlining the history of anthropologists’ participation in government war efforts, and then analyze the contemporary discourse on HTS. To understand the debate, I did “fieldwork” on the Internet, following the discourse through blogs, discussion forums, and online publications. Though I reference other sources, in the paper I focus on three blogs that represent the major viewpoints—“Savage Minds,” the AAA blog on HTS, and “From an Anthropological Perspective.” After presenting and analyzing the debate itself, I conclude the paper by offering my own verdict on HTS and the AAA Code of Ethics in general. In giving my verdict, I ask whether the AAA Code is a Hippocratic-type pledge to be applied in an obligatory fashion at all times and in all circumstances, or a tool, at times more applicable than others, but ultimately non-binding and non-universal. I argue the latter, concluding that while anthropologists participating in HTS cannot act in accordance with the AAA Code of Ethics, they can act ethically. I have a personal as well as academic interest in this topic, since I am an anthropology major, am learning Arabic and have studied in the Middle East, and—as an Air Force ROTC cadet—am also joining the military. Because this issue lies at the convergence of all these elements, the questions I ask about ethics and government service are highly personal and relevant to me.
Michelle Wong (Wellesley College) "When Assumptions Do Not Hold: Volunteering Experience in Guizhou, China"
Abstract: In his article “Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO practices,” William Fisher noted that because many NGOs are "inspired by a particular vision of the society they wish to develop", “[their] primary motivations are beliefs about what is right and wrong”. (Fisher, 1997) In this presentation I will explore the implications of an attempt by an NGO, Dream Corps for Harmonious Development International, to empower volunteers to “do good” in Guizhou, an “underdeveloped” province located in southwestern China. Based on my own experiences as a volunteer working for this NGO last summer, I will highlight the tensions between the volunteers’ assigned, idealistic mission and local realities. Specifically, through the process of vigorous self-reflection, I will critically analyze how the notion of volunteerism and volunteer identities are destabilized and re-honed in practice. Ultimately, this paper asks, can we make a difference? Who gives us the authority to define progress for a community to which we do not belong?
Whitney Wiegand (Tufts Univerity) "'Art in Prisons: Public or Private?"
Abstract: While public art, with its impossible challenge of pleasing all audiences, is controversial to begin with, one site that is especially contested as a host of public art is in state prisons and other penitentiary facilities. My interest in this controversy drew me to look at whether commissioned art in prisons is public or private, and whether or not this distinction is important in deciding if prisons should continue to have large-scale art works. There are various opinions to take into consideration in answering these questions including those of the public, prison administrators, those working with the Percent for Art programs, participating artists, and the inmates themselves. I began my research of this debate by reading publicized discourse (via newspaper articles and online forums) regarding art in prisons as well as anthropological texts concerning public art and its role in society. I delved further into the issue by conducting interviews with several artists who have created works for penitentiary facilities. The majority of the articles and discussions that I read were critical of public art in prisons, yet the opinions and experience of the artists with whom I spoke revealed various benefits of art in prisons, for all of the involved parties. By looking at my specific research in the broader context of the social implications and responsibilities of public art, I have concluded that, whether public or not, art in penitentiary facilities serves an important and positive function for the inmates and other parties involved and should continue exist and be created within prisons.
Kira Munk-Wells (Wheaton College) "Cartooning Islam: Danish perceptions of the “other” in the Mohammed Cartoons"
Abstract: The burning of embassies and protests resulting in deaths that arose from the publication of the Mohammed Cartoons developed within a particular cultural context. This paper is a study of the Mohammed Cartoon crisis, and the way that the cartoons represent a perception of “the Muslim other” within Danish media and society. This paper is fundamentally a study of multiculturalism in Denmark, and the media’s role and place within that socio-cultural sphere. According to anthropologist Mihai Coman, the media can be examined as a cultural construct. Cultural values and perceptions of others are inherent in the media. This paper is based on an ethnography of production and reception that looks at the socio-political climate that existed at the time of the cartoons’ creation. What were the motives and conditions leading to their publication? How did the cartoons become symbols of Western domination of Islam for those who were provoked, and an example of free speech for other readers. I draw on Said-influenced literature that pertains to ???? , as well as literature concerned with how stereotyping influences the images we consume and our resulting opinions. I seek to show in this study that the focus of the media and the public discourse are related, and in using Denmark and the cartoons as a point of focus, show how the drawings contribute and preserve the particular “us vs. them” mentality held by Danes.
Poster Session
Brianna Mills (Brandeis University) "AIDing South Africa: Nationalist Ideology in HIV Discourse"
Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa, including the nation of South Africa, has been called the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. South Africa's Health Minister has been criticized for her approach to treating HIV and AIDS, which emphasizes nutrition and prevention over accessibility of antiretroviral medications. Why has Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang chosen her particular position on HIV and AIDS and how has she been able to maintain her post within the South African government? The choice of many critics to demonize the health minister offers no new insight into the historical, cultural, political or linguistic context of HIV discourse in South Africa. What is missing from the current debate is the acknowledgment that this discourse has deep roots in a history of apartheid and colonialism, as well as modern geopolitical maneuvering.
Using theoretical ideas espoused by Ernest Renan, Benedict Anderson and several linguistic or South African political theorists, I explore the records of the public speeches made by the South African Health Minister. A close reading of the speeches given by Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang demonstrate how HIV and AIDS are used as a symbol of nationalist ideology in post-Apartheid South Africa. Specifically, the characteristics and strategies privileged by Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang are in part an effort to create a new and explicitly anti-apartheid identity for South Africa.
Sarah Moshontz de la Rocha (Brandeis University) "Interpreting 'Old Ironsides': The Tufts cannon on the quad as art in the public sphere"
Using an ethnographic framework based upon subject-interview and photo documentation, this paper will excavate the narrative surrounding "Old Ironsides," a monumental cannon on Tufts Academic quad, exploring it as a form of art within the public sphere. Within a discourse on public art, the "cannon in the park" is considered a kind of "plop art" in Lucy Lippard's words, "any thing plunked down in a relatively visible site," that lacks site-specificity (Lippard 1997: 265). What keeps the Tufts cannon from becoming what Lippard calls a "turd in the plaza" is that it has served as a site for socio-political solidarity and tension since 1977, when it was first painted by students. In using the cannon as a means to express themselves in the public sphere, students act as both "community" and "artist" to create a kind of site-specificity that has made the cannon intrinsic to the character and heritage of Tufts' campus.
The integration of the student body into the cannon makes it inherently political (as well as symbolic and social). Ironically, the current trend in student messages has moved away from political (and potentially controversial), and towards socially benign. This trend reflects not only the increasing regulation on Tufts campus over what are seen as subversive acts, but also the growing depoliticization and surveillance of political expression in American public and private spaces. We live in a youth culture of do-it-yourself aesthetics, where innovative technologies allow for a greater expression of individual interests. In this encroaching cultural wave of individual expression, public forums for robust political dialogue, like the cannon, are being swept away in a tide of "identity" politics.
Benjamin Sacks (Tufts University) "'A Newspaper of Record': Rural Journalism as a Global Project in the Belle Époque"
Abstract: Traditional imagery suggests that rural New England at the turn of Twentieth Century was in many respects isolated and regional in its outlook. However, from 1886 through 1916 The Hollis Times defied this perspective, exemplifying an age of globalization by acting as a conduit for growth and diversification in the diminutive New Hampshire towns of Hollis and Brookline. The considerable degree to which global information and philosophy was disseminated to the rural community in a period when the majority of the American population was shifting to urban centers radically alters traditional perspectives, distinguishing rural New England as an intellectual ground of contention and a site of participation in various “global projects” during La Belle Époque. The newspaper reveals an intellectual refuge, supported by wealthy, seasonal visitors. In particular, the existence of the Lyceum and the proliferation of an active summer community of intellectuals manifested itself in a rural newspaper of record that was astoundingly cosmopolitan and international in its scope, and provided for an effective forum of debate and social development. Indeed, lack of significant focus on the Hollis Times draws attention to the failure of Twentieth Century organizations in Southern New Hampshire to properly document and explicate the subsequent societal growth of Brookline, citing a presumed lack of intellectual curiosity. Continued research will be to determine if members of the local community actively participated in the transfer of ideas of global projects reported in The Hollis Times which may have enlarged their view of the world.
Alexandru Lefter (Clark University) "Migration, Ethnicity, and Romanian Identity"
Abstract: Romania’s out-migration to Europe increased considerably after the fall of the communist regime in 1989 and even more dramatically when Romania joined the European Union in 2007. Nevertheless, the growing presence of Romanian migrants in countries such as Spain and Italy has been accompanied by the emergence of anti-immigrant and anti-Romanian feelings. This paper examines the ways in which migration reshapes the identity of Romanians with an emphasis on how the receiving countries’ response to Romanians influences this re-creation of identity. Some of the questions that the paper addresses are: how assimilated are Romanians in Italy and Spain, and what are the reasons for their assimilation? Are they simple guest workers or can we already talk of a ‘Romanian-Italian’ or ‘Romanian-Spanish’ identity? The paper will also explore perceptions the Roma, also known as gypsies, and how ethnicity of the Romanian migrants complicates the identity question. In Romania, ethnic Roma and Romanians are reputedly (though informally) segregated, and this paper will look at the ways in which out-migration underscores the gap between ethnically diverse Romanians.
Laura Ligouri (Brandeis University) "Pathways to the Heart: Middle Eastern Dance as a Pathway to Culture in Post-9/11 United States"
Abstract: "When you see a nation dance, you know the character of the people.” – Confucius
Dance has long been associated as the physicalized embodiment of the collective effervescence of a people. Joining notions of history, cultural inheritance and traditional norms with that of transforming and expanding spheres of political, social and religious realms of influence, dance acts as both bridge and cultural historian within society. It is through the lens of dance that I begin my exploration of the trauma and subsequent anti-Arab racism that follows 9/11 effecting thousands of Arab, Muslim, female Diaspora living within the United States. Specifically, in this case, I will be analyzing a response by members of this population to reach beyond previously established or traditional avenues of assistance to approach culturally marginalized and commonly held as taboo populations, “belly dancers.”
I begin my discussion by an examination of the historical significance of the events of 9/11 to that of the Arab Diaspora in the United States as seen through the lens of dance. Traditions of Orientalism and Islamophobia take on new and aggravated roles within the Western world as “anti-Arab racism.” This transformation thus further complicates an already existent labyrinth of nationalities, motivation for expatriation, and solidification within a new homeland. Dance follows the thread, having been part and privy to the same processes. Dance fully embodies the change and transformations taking place within the Middle East during the onset of Colonialism as well as within the Diaspora communities of recent history as the West grapples with the “other” within their midst. Finally, the paper moves from historical analysis to contemporary criticism as interviews are utilized to understand possible issues of double consciousness and cultural re-appropriation. Dance provides the vehicle by which to understand the complexity of the cultural transformations taking place within Arab Diaspora while simultaneously bearing witness to the paths taken and experiences remembered by the women who dance.Emily Canning (Brandeis University) "The Right to a Writing System: Essentialisms in Uyghur and Han Identity Formation"
Abstract: Considering that a single writing system has dominated Western Europe for a millennium, native speakers of English rarely consider how the physical form of each phoneme is fraught with semantic undertones. The Tarim Basin in Central Asia (currently the Chinese province of Xinjiang) has played host to a couple dozen writing systems in the past two thousand years, a complication which the region’s politics continue to affect today. The Uyghur, who still form the region’s largest ethnic group, occupy the center stage of the Xinjiang’s dicey political climate, where Beijing has instilled increasingly repressive language policies. At this year’s GBAC, I wish to visually portray how Han-dominated government policies correspond with changes the in the Uyghur language’s writing system, and how this relationship fosters the formation of a dual way process of essentialization between the Uyghur and the Han Chinese. First I intend to display how these essentialisms materialize as a result of historical erasure in China and East Turkestan (Xinjiang) in constructing a monolithic Han and Uyghur ethnic identity. I signal the importance of Chinese character knowledge in the development of Han identity, and how imposing Chinese writing upon ethnic minorities such as the Uyghur is seen as crucial in the “civilizing” mission of China’s “Wild West.” On the flipside, the recent adoption of the Arabic script by the Uyghur indexes their Muslim and Turkic heritage and is thus essentialized as a key component of their identity. The Han government also essentializes the script, and in viewing Arabic’s potential for subversion in connecting the Uyghur to powers beyond (pan-Muslim identity) and higher (Allah) than the Chinese state, perceive it as a threat to national unity. Since writing is our visual gateway to knowledge, a visual representation of these complicated relationships would convey my ideas most effectively.
Lauren E. Forcucci (Brandeis University) "Battle for Births: The Fascist Pronatalist Campaign in Italy 1925-1938"
Abstract: The “battle for births” took place during the inter-war years of 1925-1938 in fascist Italy. The demographic campaign promoted “fecunditá,” especially within the working class, by increasing welfare benefits, legislating tax breaks, making available better health care, and awarding highly public medals and recognition to those women who produced more than the state’s target of five children per family. The regime associated motherhood, children, family, and virility with maintaining national greatness. In spite of the mass propaganda, mobilization, and state incentives to increase the birthrate, the battle for births failed by 1938. This paper will seek to compare and contrasts key economic, regional, political, cultural, and religious explanations for the failure of Italian pronatalism.
In spite of all the mass propaganda, mobilization, and state incentives to increase the birthrate, the battle for births had failed by 1938. The birthrate actually went down between the years 1927 and 1934, along with the marriage rate. Questions to be examined are, why did the campaign succeed much more in southern Italy than in northern Italy? What were the ideological foundations and motivations behind the fascist regime’s pronatalist policies? Were there social differences in how Italian women themselves perceived the “battle for births”? What was the role of the Catholic Church during this period? Did the fertility campaign actually make a difference in how Italian children were raised? These and other questions will be addressed in this paper.Fascist pronatalism needs to be examined on many levels. I argue that although the “battle for births” failed to produce an overall increase in the Italian birth rates, it did succeed in other ways. The successful creation of the welfare system, L’Opera Nazionale per la Maternitá ed Infanzia or ONMI, the acknowledgement of demographic problems, and the promotion of Italian traditional values stand as achievements of fascist pronatalism. Nevertheless, as will be demonstrated, the intended goal of reaching higher birth rates failed because of inefficient organization and inadequate resources to create a functioning demographic movement.
William McDonald (Brandeis University). "Exchange, (re)Production, and Lactation: The Negotiation of Agency through Breastfeeding"
Abstract: This paper will deconstruct the ideas posed by Claude Levi-Strauss in regards to the exchange of women, “…it is exchange, always exchange, that emerges as the fundamental and common basis of all modalities of the institution of marriage”, (Levi-Strauss, 1969; 479). The practice of marriage links cross-community potentialities and relations are made viable through the “appropriation of the female.” In furthering the argument it is not merely female fertility which is desired, it is rather the post-birth production capabilities of women, i.e. lactation. Female fecundity is the most highly desired of fertilities because it extends beyond conception. It is not just the womb which is in demand but rather also the female’s ability to produce milk; otherwise the “appropriation of the breast.” If marriage and child-bearing is a practice which fortifies a peaceful relationship between potential enemies, then breastfeeding continues to renew the peacefulness. Jane Khatib-Chahidi, in her article Milk Kinship in Shi’ite Islamic Iran, discusses the practice of milk exchange in order to create associations, “the milk relationship comes into existence through a woman suckling another’s child at the breast. No amount of rearing a child, for whatever period, can create the relationship” (Maher, 1992; 109).
Movies
Amanda Hecker, Joshua Reuss, Elyssa Kanet (Brandeis University). “The Dual Construct of the Southern Sudanese Dinka Home.”
Abstract: The Dual Construct of the Southern Sudanese Dinka Home explores the family, culture, and life of the traditional Dinka society and how the home has changed since the civil wars through interviews with scholars and Dinka community members in the Boston area. The documentary begins by looking at the Dinka dwelling from architectural and aesthetic perspectives, with comments on the intricacies of design and form. However, the structure signifies more than a physical entity – the interactions and activities that occur in and around the dwelling provide it with deep meaning. The house serves as a comfort zone and ancestral territory that enriches children with values and tradition. To portray the concept of home, we interview five southern Sudanese Dinkas about childhood memories and visualize the strong sense of community so integral to the Dinkas. Understandably, when northern Sudanese wanted to attack the Dinkas, they burned the psychological representation of life, the dwelling. We explore the effects of the civil war on the Dinka concept of home and then the emotional transition to refugee camps and eventually to the United States. Through interviews, we illustrate the hardships and cultural differences between southern Sudan and America so that while many Dinka have established a life as well as found physical shelter here, they still call southern Sudan “home.” Home, however, crosses cultural boundaries. We juxtapose Brandeis community members discussing the meaning of home to the Dinka commentaries to show that home impacts all people. The conflict in Sudan destroyed the security of home for many Dinka, but they continue to search for the community of traditional life. Twenty-five minutes in length, the video demonstrates the beauty of human nature through the Dinka connection to their past and hope for the future.
Katherine Niemczyk (Wheaton College). “Bearing Arms, Bearing Witness: Veterans Against the Iraq War.”
Abstract: I am studying veterans opposed to the Iraq War. Specifically, I am interested in the strategies and uses of expression in the veteran movement, and in how the veterans’ experience with war influences their participation in the anti-war movement. I propose that the main audience for this social movement is other soldiers and veterans (although they do branch out by speaking to students and actively counter-recruiting). This research is based on interviews with young Iraq veterans, primarily men, who originally joined the military for a variety of reasons, including having “nothing else to do,” wanting “to pay for college,” or they agreeing with the cause of the military and believing that it was an honorable achievement to be a part of something so historically influential. After serving in the Middle East, these soldiers felt morally opposed to the war for a number of reasons, including bearing witness to a great amount of unjustifiable violence in combat, a lack of understanding as to why they were there, and/or some aspect of the military that changed their minds about how honorable serving in Iraq really was. For most, joining this peace movement and leaving the military came out of feeling deceived by the government for which they risked their lives. My research will conclude in a documentary film, which details the process the veterans go through to change from supporters of the war to anti-war activists.