AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 50, no. 1 (Winter 2011)

VANUATU MIGRANT LIVES IN VILLAGE AND TOWN

Lamont Lindstrom
University of Tulsa

Significant rural-urban migration has characterized the postcolonial Melanesian states, including Vanuatu. Over the past 30 years, most people who once lived in Samaria village (Tanna Island) have moved to squatter settlements that ring Port Vila, Vanuatu's capital. Life histories narrated by migrants who live in Port Vila’s Blacksands and Ohlen neighborhoods, and by men and women who remained home on Tanna, reveal migrant agency and pride in their ability to navigate urban challenges including wage-labor, mobile telephony, religious organization, town conflict, gender transformations, and village nostalgia. Tanna migrants celebrate their powers to model their urban settlements after island homes as they also remake the island village with new urban experience and resources. Islander power to remake urban spaces draws on the "partibility" of place —one "distributed" site comprises elements of others so that places travel alongside their people. (Urban migration, personhood, place, partibility, Vanuatu).

SMALL TOWN POPULISM AND THE RISE OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT POLITICS

Claudine Pied
University of Massachusetts Lowell

The 2008 economic recession spurred U.S. conservative populist movements characterized by claims that an expansive government was threatening American "ordinary hardworking folks." Before the recession, in a predominantly white former manufacturing town in central Maine, allegations of wasteful spending, dishonest government officials, and elevated taxes infiltrated battles over revitalization projects and town budgets. While community development efforts failed to address the interests of the economically insecure, business owners and others calling for decreased spending and lower taxes acknowledged the struggles of working- and middle-class residents. Decades of national politics linking market-centered political ideologies to the racialized (i.e., white) concept of the "ordinary American" helped small-government advocates connect with voters. (Conservative populism, neoliberalism, community development, Maine).

INDIFFERENCE WITH SRI LANKAN MIGRANTS

Bernardo Brown
Cornell University

Sri Lankan Catholic migrant workers who return home from Italy with money re-migrate after a short time. They do not find Sri Lanka a welcoming country for investment or work. The dearth of opportunities for returnees is frustrating and leads them to act with indifference towards the place they cherish. Instead of using their savings to invest locally, people spend their money building large houses and buying expensive consumer goods; and when their money runs out, they return to Italy. Unable to be upwardly mobile, their only alternative is to become indifferent to the opinions of those who mock them for "becoming Italian." However, their indifference can be interpreted as their understanding of the country and of the rigidity of cultural norms that do not afford them recognition for their efforts. (Circular migration, indifference, transnationals, Sri Lankan Catholics).

DOG MEAT POLITICS IN A VIETNAMESE TOWN

Nir Avieli
Ben Gurion University

In 1999 there were only two semi-clandestine dog-meat restaurants in Hoi An, a town in Central Vietnam. In 2004 there were dozens, serving mostly men of the new middle class. This article explores the sudden popularity of dog meat in Hoi An and discusses its meanings. Based on traditional forms, eating dog meat expresses masculinity. While class distinctions, religious propensities, and processes of modernization shape local attitudes regarding this culinary trend, the overarching theme that explains the sudden proliferation of dog-meat restaurants in Hoi An is political and has to do with the diners' attitude towards the regime: eating dog meat expresses political allegiance, while avoiding it indicates disdain. (Dog meat, politics, masculinity, Confucianism, Vietnam).

RITUAL EFFIGIES AND CORPOREALITY IN KAQCHIKEL MAYA SOUL HEALING

Servando Z. Hinojosa
University of Texas–Pan American

To treat some cases of soul-loss, Kaqchikel Mayas use ritual effigies of the sufferer. These effigies, called k’al k’u’x, are made by wrapping the sufferer’s clothing around a wooden armature. For the effigy to be a viable ritual surrogate, the ritualist must douse it with water, heat it, and strike it during a soul-calling ceremony. This handling instantiates corporeality in the effigy by kindling normative body states in it, states that must be stimulated in the sufferer’s own body for it to spiritually reintegrate. Such Maya ritual substitution practices are how Kaqchikels deploy ritual surrogation processes that hinge on both an understanding of the body and knowledge of the sacred landscape. This article explores the settings and applications of ritual surrogation, which is a recurrent feature of Maya healing. (Kaqchikel Mayas, ritual effigies, corporeality, surrogation).