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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | 'My Daughter...Belongs to the Government Now': Marriage, Maasai and the Tanzanian State |
Author: | Hodgson, Dorothy L. |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
Volume: | 30 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 106-123 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | gender relations Maasai Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Politics and Government Cultural Roles Marital Relations and Nuptiality Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/486043 |
Abstract: | In 1992, a young Maasai woman in Tanzania took her father to court rather than marry according to his will. By directly challenging her father's authority and, by implication, the authority of local elders, lineages, and clans, her suit disrupted local gendered relations of power. Her father and elder Maasai men were therefore compelled to scramble, both inside and outside the courtroom, to defend their 'legitimate' authority, an authority premised on a certain configuration of 'naturalized' and 'proper' gender roles and relations. And ultimately, by challenging the dominant meanings of 'daughter' and 'father', this one 'wicked' woman reconfigured, however slightly, local gendered relations of power. The case provides a window onto the strategies required for patriarchies to maintain their dominance by silencing and ostracizing 'wicked' women. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French. |