article
Claiming spaces, changing places: political violence and women's protests in KwaZulu-Natal
Journal of southern African studies • 26 (2) • Published In 2000 • Pages: 301-316
By: Bonnin, Debby.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This paper examines the connections betweeen the public and the private sphere through a case study of political protests by women in Mpumalanga Township, KwaZula/Natal province, South Africa. The paper begins by reflecting on the public/private dichotomy and argues that the concepts of public and private seem to suggest a rigid set of socio-spatial practices, as if particular places have fixed social relationships and boundaries. It proposes a conceptual framework which focuses on the sites where women challenge the dominant power relations, rather than a simple public/private dichotomy; this conceptualization illuminates the reformulation of gender power relations across a variety of spaces. A key theoretical argument which is explored empirically is that challenges to power relation in one space reformulate subjectivites and so impact on power relations in another site. The paper then goes on to examine how space was constructed in Mpumalanga township prior to the violence and then the way in which political violence reconstructed this space (in particular, it focuses on the schools, the streets and domestic space). The paper then moves on to examine how women, through protests of different kinds, challenged the way in which these spaces and their accompanying gendered power relations had been reconstructed by the violence. The final section of the paper examines whether and how gender relations in the household have changed as a result of these processes (p. 301).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Family relationships
- Towns
- Pressure politics
- Political parties
- Political movements
- Miscellaneous sex behavior
- Adolescent activities
- Gender roles and issues
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Zulu
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2005
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Sociology
- Industrial
- Organization
- Labor Studies
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2004
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca. 1950s-1990s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Mpumalanga Township, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa
- NotesAdditional notes
- Debby Bonnin
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 75642679
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zulu (African people)