AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 50, no. 3 (Summer 2011)

NEW LIVES FROM USED GOODS: GARAGE SALES AS RITES OF PASSAGE

Gretchen M. Hermann
SUNY Cortland

The U. S. garage or yard sale often serves as a secular rite of passage for Americans. Given the importance of the amount and types of consumer goods owned by people, the public disposal (or acquisition) of such possessions can signal a major shift in life orientation. Moving to another location, downsizing, selling baby items, or grandmother’s effects after her death all constitute publicly engaged rituals of transition to another status or identity. After selling possessions to the public, sellers are left with more space, both physical and psychological, and money which can be used to fashion a new life identity by generating the resources to develop emerging "potential selves." (Garage sales, rites of passage, United States).

NEW ZEALAND'S BAN ON KOSHER SLAUGHTERING

Hal Levine
Victoria University of Wellington

In May 2010 New Zealand’s government, in the interest of animal welfare, required that all animals slaughtered for commercial purposes be stunned before being killed. This rule effectively banned the Jewish practice of slaughtering, which requires that a kosher animal (e.g., cloven hooves, chews the cud, is in good health, etc.), be killed by a trained butcher who slits its throat with one stroke of an extremely sharp knife. A stunned animal (i.e., one shocked electrically), if not already dead, is considered injured and unhealthy, and, therefore, not kosher for slaughter. The government’s position was due to recommendations by New Zealand’s National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and studies by veterinary scientists. Members of the small Jewish community went to New Zealand’s High Court alleging that the ban infringed on their constitutional rights. The issue of humane animal treatment versus civil liberties proved to be much more involved and also instructive as a local example of cultural politics. (Cultural politics, animal welfare, multiculturalism, New Zealand Jews).

GENDER AND POWER IN TONGAN TOURIST PERFORMANCES

Aurélie Condevaux
The Laboratory of Excellence Creation, Arts and Heritage

Based on ethnographic research in Tonga in 2008 and 2009, this essay examines how gender relations and categories are defined during tourist performances. This definition is anchored within and constrained by social inequalities, which are in turn negotiated through constructing gender distinctions. Body practices, as much as discourses, are involved in this negotiation. The results yield new insights into the power relationships generally at stake in tourism and help lend to understanding of how the transformation of gender norms is linked to body practices. (Tonga, tourism, gender, body, performance).

THE AYMARA YEAR COUNT: CALENDRICAL TRANSLATIONS IN TIWANAKU, BOLIVIA

Clare A. Sammells
Bucknell University

This article considers the Aymara year count that appeared in Bolivian newspapers in 1988 in connection with June solstice celebrations at the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Tiwanaku. The Aymara year communicates politico-temporal meanings; its numbers are evocative, which is why it has gained traction as an accepted part of solstice celebrations in the media and with the Bolivian public. The Aymara year count is a numeric expression of three implicit interrelated political statements. First, it shows that the Aymara have a history that reaches far deeper than their involvement with European conquerors.Second, it links Aymara history to broader pan-indigenous histories.Finally, it demonstrates to non-indigenous audiences that Aymara history,astronomy, and mathematics are rational and sophisticated. This final claim is achieved by using timekeeping to translate very real Tiwanakota accomplishments into an idiom understandable to national and international audiences.The Aymara year count is not used as a method of quantitative timekeeping.Instead, it forms part of the politics that invoke the past.(Bolivia, Tiwanaku, Aymara, indigenous politics, calendars, time, numbers).

MICROFINANCE AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN THE PERUVIAN HIGHLANDS

Nicole Coffey Kellett
University of Maine Farmington

Microfinance programs have increased across the globe to help reduce poverty through access to small-scale capital. The spread has often dovetailed with structural adjustment policies in an attempt to address the financial needs of those in the informal economy. While microfinance institutions grow wealthier, their ability to enhance the financial stability of borrowers is tenuous. Research on microfinance programs in the rural highlands of Peru illustrates how they can undermine the financial security of borrowers, increase economic inequality, and decrease food security. Research findings also suggest that microfinance programs are unable to address the needs of women in the informal sector and that it is necessary to evaluate the effects of microfinance programs beyond that of the individual borrower. (Microfinance, Peru, economic development, women, empowerment).