![]() | JOURNAL
of |
HOUSEHOLD LABOR AND CHILD CARE NEEDS AMONG PHILIPPINE HIGHLAND FARMERS
Jean Treloggen Peterson
This paper explores implications of Chayanovian analysis, the New Home Economics, and anthropological household studies for understanding relationships among reproductive and productive activities in farming households. Data on labor recall, household membership, and farming practice are analyzed from households in a community in Benguet Province, Philippines. These households include some which practice traditional rice and root farming and others which plant commercial vegetable crops as well. Variation among these households demonstrates a correspondence of three-generation extended families with traditional farming practices and of active recruitment of adult labor with households practicing commercial farming. These households appear to vary in the degrees to which they commit to productive or reproductive activity, and most may actively coordinate these two endeavors through management of household membership and choices of productive strategies. I suggest that attention to the relationships among management of both childcare needs and farm production is necessary in order to develop appropriate cultural technologies, policies, and programs for Third World countries.
THE COMMON MEMORY OF LOSS: POLITICAL MOBILIZATION AMONG PALESTINIAN CITIZENS OF ISRAEL
Dan Rabinowitz Palestinians tend to imagine themselves primarily as a community of loss and deprivation. The role of this key idiom in political mobilization is examined through a study of the performance of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the 1988-89 municipal election campaign in Natzerat Illit, a predominantly Israeli new town in Galilee. While not of the honor and shame variety, the political agenda adopted by the Palestinian actors tended to emphasize pride rather than resources. Their use of the rhetoric of redemption and collective honor was linked to styles of leadership which stress assertive willingness to challenge dominant Israeli personalities representing power structures which marginalize and racially stereotype the Palestinians. Palestinians displayed consistent disregard of the extent to which the lofty rhetoric used by aspiring Palestinian politicians failed to match their tangible achievements once in office. The claims of evenhanded rationalism made by Western democratic statism are thus made questionable. The uneasy participation of Palestinians in Israeli politics suggests that full and genuine participation of minorities in party politics hinges on a structural transformation of the state, its power structure, and the ways hegemonic majorities conceptualize themselves and "their" minorities.
CONTEXTUALIZING MISSIONARY DISCOURSE: THE BENAVIDES MEMORIALS OF 1630 AND 1634
Daniel T. Reff
Researchers have tended to view Spanish missionary texts from the colonial period in the New World as a collection of observations whose meaning is for the most part apparent; the challenge has been to "cull" the texts for relevant and reliable data, discarding whatever is suspect or problematic ("excessively" connotative). It is suggested that missionary texts, like modern ethnographies, may be fruitfully analyzed by pursuing the cultural-historical, rhetorical, and institutional contingencies that governed missionary perceptions and representations of the New World. The utility of contextualizing missionary discourse is exemplified by an analysis of Fray Alonso de Benavides's Memorials of 1630 and 1634.
THE EMOTIONAL ACCULTURATION OF HUTTERITE DEFECTORS
Caroline M. Hartse
The rapid growth of conservative Protestantism in North America since the 1970s has affected all strata of contemporary society. Social scientists have tended to focus their investigations on how this religious movement has impacted mainstream churches. However, this religious revival also challenges the Hutterites, one of the oldest communal groups in the Western world. The Hutterites have long been known for their communal lifestyle, uniformity in religious belief and success in maintaining strong commitment to their colonies. A crisis has arisen as numerous members reject the basic Hutterite tenet that communal living is essential for salvation. Many have embraced a contemporary, conservative Protestant interpretation of Christianity in which a "personal relationship with Christ" is emphasized. This conversion is manifested in the way most Hutterite converts change from being emotionally reserved to being outspoken. The article explores the religious change among Hutterites in terms of the cultural construction of emotion and self.
Forging New Paths. Feminist Social Methodology and Rural Women in Java. Jutta Berninghausen and Birgit Kerstan. London: Zed Books, 1992, 289 pp. $19.95 (paper), $55.50 (cloth). Reviewed by Janet Rodenbury, University of Amsterdam. Ineffability: The Failure of Words in Philosophy and Religion. Ben-Ami Scharfstein. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993, 291 pp., bibliography, indices, $59.50 (cloth). Reviewed by Stephen A. Tyler, Rice University.
|