Focus on Matrilineality

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Focus on Matrilineality

• Anth 130, Kin, Kith, Community

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3 Examples

• Suriname Maroons
• Hopi of Arizona
• The Naxi of China

Naxi
Hopi
Maroons
3
Connections to Land

• Linked to intensive horticulture and corporate
  land use

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Horticulture
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New matrilineality

• Maroons, descendents of West African (mostly
  patrilineal) slaves that established freedom
• Aid of Arawak (matrilineal) in ecological
  adaptation
• Emic explanation, tenuousness of mens lives
  during war

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Matrilocality, Matrifocality

• Men economically linked to sisters, wives
• Men are kapitans, two of four basia
• Women are caretakers of hidden gardens

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Conflict with Patrilineal Dutch influenced
Government

• Census given with false bakra names
• Sensitivity around real names and kunu spirits

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Flexible clans

• Three Hopi mesas in Arizona
• Strongly matrilineal
• 28 Clans and 9 phratries, matrilocal and
  endogamous by mesa
• Low, middle and high rank (on basis of rituals
  and land, now possessions)

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Dry land horticulture/agriculture

• Clan controlled land
• Non-irrigated

• Villages contain several lineages (senior woman,
  her brother or mothers brother has ritual power)
  Key dyad brother-sister not husband-wife

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Flexibility

• Clans grow and shrink, duties change
• Reflected in relative power of clans
• Ritual
• Access to land
• Political machinations of brothers

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Oraibis fate

• Old Oraibi split 1906
• Prophecy
• Progressive vs. Traditionals (aka Friendlies and
  Hostiles)
• Fissioning
• Differential access
• Clans that split gained land and prestige

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21st century

• Dual systems (at the least) with Feds and
  intermarriage
• New expressions of obligation (quilting)

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Naxi

• Mountainous Yunnan, agriculture and medicinal
  herbs
• Hard-working and business-minded women
• Weaving and agricultural products
• Men dominant in domestic rights

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Religion

• Dongba shamanism
• Bonist, Tibetan Buddhism and Daoist elements
• Focus on agriculture and human relations
• Tension between tourist interest and Han
  conformity dual performances

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Themed Naxi

• Kunmings folk villages theme park
• Singers and musicians
• Dongba
• architecture

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Mens stereotype

• Sensitive, religious, caretakers and artists

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Raw or Cooked?

• Cultural politics of Han dominance

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Within a National and Global Context
World Heritage Site
Govt. construction of ethnicity