Ask and Tell: Gay Veterans, Identity, and Oral History on a Civil Rights Frontier

In 1993 the "don't ask, don't tell" policy legislated the silenceof gay and lesbian soldiers on active duty and in the reserves.This silence about gays in the military has led to a collectiveamnesia about the patriotic service and courageous sacrificesof homosexual troops. If we forget that gay and lesbian Americanshave served their country, then we as a nation are much lesslikely to view them as full citizens, deserving of civil rightsand equal protection of the law. Oral history provides one wayto break this silence, to "ask and tell" about the militarycareers of gay and lesbian soldiers and to allow these veteransto speak for themselves about the current military policy. Basedon more than fifty interviews with gay and lesbian veterans,this article chronicles the evolution of military policy regardinghomosexuality since World War II, and it explores the intersectionof veterans' identities based on race, sexuality, and militaryservice. As these interviews illustrate, gays and lesbians haveserved honorably in the military during times of war and peace.Far from undermining unit cohesion or morale, these troops havestrengthened America's armed forces. Interviews with gay andlesbian veterans provide an opportunity to explore several themesunderlying the debate about homosexuality and military service:1) the relationship between racism and homophobia in the military;2) varying attitudes about military service within gay communities;3) contrasting experiences of gay men and lesbians in the military;and 4) the evolving nature of gay veterans' identities.     

Historical Archaeology,Contact, and Colonialism in Oceania

The archaeology of colonialism can destabilize orthodox historical narratives because of its critical engagement with multiple lines of evidence, revealing ways that different perspectives can complement or contradict what was assumed to be known about the past. In Oceania, archaeology that blends evidence from landscapes, sites, and artifacts with written documents as well as oral traditions reveals the role of indigenous people in shaping colonial encounters across the region over the last five centuries. The challenge lies with how to interpret this material in terms of ongoing struggles over land, resources, and identity in the region today, encapsulated by the tension between global and local.     

All Things Depending: Renewing Interdependence in Oceania

ABSTRACT Despite the enormous efforts made to civilize the Hawaiian, the Maori, the Samoan, and Fijian, Islanders have not forgotten all of their stories and in fact many Pacific peoples are in a position to recover much of the knowledge that sustained communities for thousands of years. There is hope in what we have done to reclaim our heritages—finding our voices in our languages, stories, and songs, our perspectives in our arts and literatures, our muscle and will in our own political advocacy and pursuit of our rights in courts and international arenas. There is need, however, for a new vision that reunites human beings with all of their relations in the world, a vision necessary to sustain a very difficult struggle.     

Alisa LaGamma (Ed.): Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara

African Archaeological Review -     

Crossing the Factory Frontier: Gender, Place and Power in the Mexican Maquiladora

A pressing question raised by contemporary feminist theorists is how to conceptualize the intricate relationship between women as social agents and "Women"— an ideological representation of a female subject. Scholars have shown how women must often disavow this Woman in trying to establish their own careers. This article explores one facet of this issue by tracing one woman's journey through a Mexican maquiladora in the hope of demonstrating how this ideology produces the capitalist division of labor through the reproduction of sex-difference, nationality, and ethnic categories within one firm. The account raises some interesting questions about resistance, which may not be resolvable in the context of the workplace alone.     

The Politics of the Evicted: Redevelopment,Subjectivity, and Difference in Mumbai's Slum Frontier

In recent years cities around the world have undergone mass slum clearances for redevelopment. This study of Mumbai offers an alternative interpretation of urban capital accumulation by investigating the differentiated political subjectivities of displaced slum residents. I argue that Mumbai's redevelopment entails not uniform class‐based dispossessions but a process of accumulation by differentiated displacement whereby uneven displacement politics are central to the social production of land markets. Two ethnographic cases reveal that groups negotiate redevelopment in contradictory ways, supporting or contesting projects in varying moments. Redevelopmental subjectivities are influenced at key conjunctures by market‐oriented resettlement, ideologies of belonging, desires for improved housing, and participation in non‐governmental groups. This articulated assemblage of power‐laden practices reflects and reworks class, gender, and ethno‐religious relations, profoundly shaping evictees' experience and political engagement. The paper concludes that focusing on differentiated subjectivities may usefully guide both analysis and social justice practice aimed at countering dispossession.     

Identity,war, and peace: public attitudes in the Ukraine-controlled Donbas

ABSTRACT

Contrary to Russia’s expectations, military intervention into Ukraine only strengthened the Ukrainian civic nation. As a number of polls demonstrate, since 2014 there is a growing trend that the vast majority of Ukrainians, also in the government-controlled areas of the Donbas, identify themselves, first and foremost, as Ukrainian citizens. Regional and local identity is not their primary choice anymore and there are clear indicators of a strong civic identity that favors a unitary Ukraine. The lack of progress for a solution of the conflict in the Donbas impacts upon Ukrainian public opinion which, in turn, puts pressure on the Ukrainian authorities: there is a wide acceptance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict and readiness for some compromises but the reintegration of the occupied territories should take place according to pre-war conditions, without any federalization of Ukraine. Also, without establishing a stable security regime in the Donbas there is little support for an implementation of the political part of the Minsk-2 agreement. However, closer to the frontline, the more Ukrainians are ready for compromises. The promise of peace by new President Volodymyr Zelenskyy puts a question on what compromises his team may accept and justify in the eyes of Ukrainians.