Background: In older couples, everyday occupations need to be adjusted when one of the partners experiences a health decline. Gender dynamics will play a role in this process, yet there is little... Show moreBackground: In older couples, everyday occupations need to be adjusted when one of the partners experiences a health decline. Gender dynamics will play a role in this process, yet there is little understanding about how gender can influence and shape changes in couples’ occupations. Aim: To understand the changing occupations of old, independent-living couples when becoming caregivers and care receivers, through a gender lens. Methods: A narrative-in-action methodology with a case-study design has been chosen to enable an in-depth analysis of one couple. Besides joint and individual interviews with both partners, observations were made of their everyday occupations. The analytic process was interpretative, using gender theory as a lens for understanding. Results: In the couple’s narrative there was a difference in the time spent on, and meaning given to, occupations performed by each partner to sustain everyday life. The wife was heavily enrolled in taking care of her husband, a gendered pattern that was rooted in their spousal history. While her efforts were taken-for-granted, his efforts were acknowledged as special. Conclusion: The adjustment of the everyday occupations of this older couple were gendered, and led to a disappearing of the woman’s occupations and the care she was giving. Show less
This thesis examines the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes. It offers a conceptualisation of the normative dimensions of these acts as processes of construction... Show moreThis thesis examines the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes. It offers a conceptualisation of the normative dimensions of these acts as processes of construction and meaning making. Using the crimes of attacks on cultural property, pillage, sexual violence and reproductive violence as case studies for analysis, the thesis develops an interdisciplinary methodological approach which centralises the narratives and discourses that emerge around particular crimes as central to how they are given normative content in practice. This analysis reveals a diverse, flexible and dynamic normative picture of these crimes, which demonstrates how their normative meanings are not natural or given, but are instead produced through an ongoing process of meaning making that takes place throughout the legal process in a continuum of cases. Understanding the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes in these terms not only exposes a diversity of interests that transcends their dominant characterisations as violations of basic security rights, but also uncovers the processes through which their normative foundations are constructed and transformed internally through practice. This thesis ultimately offers a dynamic, pluralist and socially constructed account of wrong in international criminal law, which recognises the relationship between criminal wrong and transformations in the wider social and political order, and contributes to developing a more granular understanding of the nature of the representational work that international criminal justice does in the world. Show less
In her dissertation Revealing Śiva’s Superiority by Retelling Viṣṇu’s Deeds – Viṣnu’s Manifestation Myths in the Skandapurāṇa, Sanne Dokter-Mersch examines three myths in the Skandapurāṇa, a... Show moreIn her dissertation Revealing Śiva’s Superiority by Retelling Viṣṇu’s Deeds – Viṣnu’s Manifestation Myths in the Skandapurāṇa, Sanne Dokter-Mersch examines three myths in the Skandapurāṇa, a Sanskrit Purāṇa composed in the sixth to seventh century. Although myths about god Śiva and devotion to him are central in the text, it also contains narratives about other gods. This dissertation focusses on those myths in which god Viṣṇu manifests himself as Man-Lion (Narasiṃha), Boar (Varāha) and Dwarf (Vāmana) in order to conquer the enemies of the gods. At the time of composition of the Skandapurāṇa, Śiva and Viṣṇu each had their own religious ideology and devotees, which raises the questions why the composers of this Śaiva Purāṇa dedicated so much attention to Viṣṇu and how these manifestation myths are retold. With the help of different (narratological) methods, Dokter-Mersch addresses these questions by looking at the manifestation myths as part of a literary genre, the Purāṇas. Show less
This study is an investigation of the relationship between Sri Lankan engineering and Sinhala nationalism, the nationalism of the Sinhalese, the majority community living in the island. It... Show moreThis study is an investigation of the relationship between Sri Lankan engineering and Sinhala nationalism, the nationalism of the Sinhalese, the majority community living in the island. It attempts to understand why the Sinhalese regard themselves as masters in engineering although the actual level of technological development of the island remains very low, and how this particular narrative of Sri Lankan engineering has been held to be legitimate over a long period of time. In order to achieve the above objective this study concentrates on three sites: the Aberdeen Laxapana Hydro Electric Scheme (1900-1936) and the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Project (1978-1985), two important engineering projects commissioned during the twentieth century, as the first two sites, and as the third site - a mythical engineering site, the recent surge of interest among the Sinhalese in Ravana, the ancient king and his technological dynasty (2000-2016). Show less
Counter-Discourse in Zimbabwean Literature is a study of specific aspects of counter-discursive Zimbabwean narratives in English. In discussing the selected texts, my thesis is based on Terdiman’s ... Show moreCounter-Discourse in Zimbabwean Literature is a study of specific aspects of counter-discursive Zimbabwean narratives in English. In discussing the selected texts, my thesis is based on Terdiman’s (1989) the postcolonial concept of counter-discourse. In Zimbabwean literature challenges to a dominant or established discourse are not just limited to those of the imperial culture, but go beyond to include challenges to the established/dominant discourse in the post independence state. Such other counter-discursive narratives include anti-nationalist, anti-‘patriotic’ and anti-patriarchal narratives. The study is arranged such that in chapter 1I trace the history of counter-discursive narratives in Zimbabwean literature in English, in chapter 2, I study Vera, Nyamubaya and Hove’s selected texts as feminist challenges to masculinist narratives of the liberation struggle. In chapter 3, the state-sponsored Gukurahundi is discussed as one of the crimes that, as Soyinka argues, “constantly provoke memories of the historic wrongs inflicted on the African continent by others” (1999: xxiv). In chapter 4, I focus on how Chinodya’s “Queues”, Chinyani’s “A Land of Starving Millionnaires”, Hoba’s “Specialization”, Chingono’s “Minister without Portfolio” and Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope re-imagine the Third Chimurenga in ways that clearly subvert the state discourse on the Third Chimurenga. Show less
Kurdish dengbêjs are singer-poets who are trained in singing and telling stories. For a long time, the dengbêjs and their art were suppressed and forgotten, and only recently did they return into... Show moreKurdish dengbêjs are singer-poets who are trained in singing and telling stories. For a long time, the dengbêjs and their art were suppressed and forgotten, and only recently did they return into public life. Today the dengbêjs are seen as guardians of Kurdish history and culture. This vision tells much about recent socio-political developments and should be understood in the context of the evolving story of Kurdish nationalism. The dengbêjs and their songs create a Kurdish home set within the landscape of Turkey and the surrounding (nation-)states. Since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the political landscape of the Kurdistan region was marked by conflict and turmoil that greatly affected the lives of millions of people. The art the dengbêjs, and the negotiation about what it means to be a dengbêj today, reflect this difficult history. From a theoretical perspective the dissertation gives an ethnographic account of narrative. The variety of narratives circulating in a society at a particular time and place are presented and analyzed. The narratives do not only tell us a story about Kurdish society in Turkey, but also about the larger global stories of modernity, nationalism, and Orientalism. This gives the study a wider relevance. Show less
Haaren, M.A.C. van; Lawrence, M.; Goossens, P.H.; Bossche, B. van den; Wermer, M.J.H.; Kaptein, A.A. 2012
This dissertation addresses the question of what it means to remake everyday life in the shadow of disaster. Focusing on the city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in the years after the devastating Indian... Show moreThis dissertation addresses the question of what it means to remake everyday life in the shadow of disaster. Focusing on the city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in the years after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, it explores how tsunami survivors have been remaking the everyday ever since that moment. Based on ethnographic research in the post-disaster years, the five chapters of this dissertation discuss various dimensions of the remaking of everyday life that were important to the tsunami survivors, including the reconstruction of houses, interactions between survivors, international organizations and the state, the narrative experiences of the tsunami, the process of grieving and its entanglement with Islam, the creation of collective memory and forgetfulness in urban space, and ideas about the future that build on notions of moral and socio-economic improvement. In these chapters the concept of subjectivity is used to show how individuals creatively shape their lives in the context of tremendous social, economic, and political changes. The dissertation concludes that the anthropology of disaster, that has up to now predominantly focused on post-disaster social change and continuity and on structural historical patterns of vulnerability and resilience, can be enriched by ethnographic studies of subjectivity. Show less
This book is about what happens when two people meet. Its main aim is to present an account of intersubjectivity. Most contemporary explanations of intersubjectivity fall into two main categories... Show moreThis book is about what happens when two people meet. Its main aim is to present an account of intersubjectivity. Most contemporary explanations of intersubjectivity fall into two main categories: theory theory and simulation theory. This book seeks to undermine the picture of intersubjectivity taken for granted by these accounts, and instead shows what social sense-making looks like from a pragmatic point of view. It proposes that intersubjectivity is enabled through a large range of second-person practices: (i) embodied practices allow us to employ various innate or early developing capacities that constitute a base-line for social understanding, (ii) embedded practices enable us to understand others within a broader social and pragmatic context, and (iii) narrative practices provide us with stories about self and other in order to further fine-tune and sophisticate our intersubjective interactions. Show less
